Two friends, a bear and a wolf, were walking together in the woods.
”Listen, friend Wolf!” said the bear. ”What bird is that singing?”
”That is the King of the Birds,” said the wolf. ”We must treat him with great respect.”
The wolf laughed, for it was only a little brown wren, no bigger than a mushroom. The wren is also called the hedge king.

“That is the king of birds?” asked the bear. “I do so want to see the home of a king. Come, Wolf, and show me his house.”
“We should wait until the queen comes home,” said the wolf.

Soon, Queen Wren came into sight, bringing food for her nestlings.
“The king did not choose a very beautiful queen,” said the bear, a bit rudely. “Let us follow them so I can see their royal residence.”
But the wolf held him back.
“Hold on. We should wait until the king and queen leave together,” he said.

When the wrens flew away, the bear and the wolf went to the tree. The bear climbed up to peep into the nest. There he saw five young birds.
“This is the house of a king?” he laughed down to the wolf. “Why, it is only a tiny clod of mud and grass. The royal children are five ugly little things with big mouths and no feathers.”
The young wrens, who did not yet have feathers but did have ears, heard the unkind words of the bear and were very offended.

“We are not ugly little things,” they cried, having been told by their loving parents how adorable they were many times. “And our cosy, safe home is all that the heart could wish for. You should apologise for your unkind words.”
The bear, still laughing, went on his way with his friend.
The little wrens, upset and sad, cried until their father and mother came back.

“We are too upset to eat,” they told their surprised parents. ”A bear told us we were ugly and called our lovely home a clod of mud and grass!” The nestlings added, “the bear laughed as he left, even when the wolf reminded him that we were the children of royalty.
“Do not fret about that,” said the father wren, kindly. “We will talk to the bear and ask for an apology.”
Then the King of the Birds, a swift brown form no bigger than the tuft of a thistle, flew to the bear’s den and said:
”Bear, friend to Wolf and all the creatures who walk upon the land, why have you insulted my home, my Queen, and my children? Our nestlings are too upset to eat. Be kind, and apologise to the young birds.”
King Wren, surprised by the bear's arrogance, warned, ”Friend Bear, I would like to stay on good terms with you, but I will ask my allies of the air to help you apologise if I must.”

The bear, unimpressed by this little brown bird, no bigger than a river rock, asked all the four-footed creatures of the wood and field - the wolf, the deer, the fox, and many others, to stand against the tiny wren.
King and Queen Wren gathered together all the creatures that fly. Not only the birds, great and small, came to their aid, but bees and gnats, and all other winged things.

The smallest of the mosquitoes was sent as a spy to find out the bear’s plans.
Tinier than a single dandelion seed, she hid under a leaf where she could see and hear all, unseen by the bear and his land-bound allies.
“Fox, you are the most cunning of us all,” the tiny mosquito, no bigger than the petal of a forget-me-not, heard the bear say. “So you shall lead our fight.”
“Good!” said the fox. “But we have no flag to help us communicate with our friends. What shall we use instead?”

No one spoke.
“Well,” said the fox, “I have a beautiful long, bushy tail, as red as a wild rose. I will hold it up for all to see, which will let everyone know our side is winning and we must keep going forward. But if I lower my tail, then all is lost and we all should run away as fast as we can.”
The mosquito, having heard all of the clever fox’s plans, flew back and repeated them to the King and Queen of the Wrens.
“Ah, ha!” said King Wren. “This gives me an idea. Friend Wasp, when the fight begins, fly to the fox. Whenever he raises his tail, red as a maple leaf, sting the fox.”

Early the next morning, the battle began. So many animals walked the earth that the ground trembled under their tread. The winged throng, led by two tiny brown wrens, as small as two pinecones, trilled and croaked and buzzed and squawked, and darkened the air like a thundercloud.
The fox gave the signal for the beasts of the land to move forward, raising his bushy tail, red as a young dogwood. At once the wasp stung him so that he jumped high in the air. Still, he kept his tail up.

A second time the wasp stung him. It hurt so much that the poor fox was forced to lower his tail, but knowing how important his task was to his friends, he raised it again.
When the wasp stung him a third time, he could bear it no longer. He dropped his tail between his legs, crying out in pain and surprise, and quickly ran away from the tiny warrior, as yellow as a daffodil.

When the bear, the wolf, the deer, and all the other creatures who walk upon the land could no longer see the fox's tail, red as a sunset, they were sure that the day was lost. They ran this way and that to hide. And so the tiny brown wrens, and all of the other small creatures of the air, won the fight.

The wrens flew back to their royal residence, a cosy, warm nest filled with all that their hearts could wish for - their children. In the way of children, the nestlings had long since forgotten the rude bear, who was not nearly as interesting as the song of the wind or the whisper of the trees.
Soon, the bear, accompanied by his friend Wolf, appeared at the base of their tree, humbled and remorseful. He spoke quietly,
“I have come to apologise to your children, King and Queen of the Birds. I did not understand until today how such tiny creatures, no bigger than an oak leaf, could be so strong.“
The king and queen, as kind as they were clever, as great as they were small, accepted Bear’s apology and his friendship.