Raven always thought that he was the smartest in the world. But Fox thought that he was pretty smart, too. Neither of the two liked the other mery much, but they held each other in some respect and always acted like friends, even if they weren't.

As with his friend Owl, Raven was always trying to better Fox. One winter day he went to Fox and said, "Friend Fox, won't you come and play with me?"

Fox looked at Raven and asked him what he wanted to do.

"Let's play slide-down-the-hill," was the black bird's reply.

Now Fox was proud and didn't want Raven to know that he didn't want to play with him. You see, if Raven knew that Fox didn't want to play, then Raven might think that he was afraid of him or that he was unable to beat him in a game.

"Friend Raven," replied Fox, "I would like to play with you."

Raven laughed to himself because he was going to trick his friend, He laughed because at the very bottom of the hill was a wide mud puddle which hadn't quite frozen yet.

But Fox wasn't stupid. He knew all about the mud pond at the bottom of the hill, but he wasn't going to say anything about it.

Instead, he followed Raven to the tip of the hill and when they were at the very tip, Fox looked over the side and invited Raven to go first.

"You thought of the game," he said. "You should be the first to slide down the hill."

Raven thought carefully. He didn't want to let Fox know about the mud pond, but he knew that he had to accept the invitation or Fox would become suspicious.

"Very well, Friend Fox," he said. "I will go first and have fun sliding down the hill."

With that, Raven slid down the long hill going faster and faster until he was almost to the bottom where the mud was. He was going so fast that he could not stop, but he didn't want to. He just spread his wings a little and gently flew over the mud puddle without getting any dirt on himself whatsoever. From the great height of the hilltop, Fox could not easily see that Raven had flown over the mud pond.

Raven stopped on the other side of the puddle and turned facing up the hill at Fox.

"It is your turn now, friend Fox," yelled Raven. "Let me see you slide down the hill as I just did."

"Oh, no," replied Fox. "I know that there is a wide mud puddle at the bottom and that I will fall into it."

"But you can jump over it at the last moment and then you will not be muddy," responded the mischievous black bird.

Fox stood alone for a minute with the wind blowing through his soft white fur staring at the bottom of the hill. He knew that he must slide down or else Raven would think that he was smarter and better than he was. He thought that if Raven had jumped over it, then he could too.

So Fox started sliding down the hill. Faster and faster he went until he was sliding even faster than Raven had. When he came to the bottom of the hill, he saw the wide, unfrozen mud pond wider than it looked and he landed right in the middle!

Raven laughed and laughed and said that he had never seen anything so funny.

Fox crawled out of the mud and stood on the puddle's edge.

Raven laughed even louder than before saying how he had tricked him and how much smarter than the fox he was.

Fox ran away to his home to clean himself. Since that time when Raven tricked Fox, they have never been friends again.