In a winter forest the nights were long and the sky was thick with cloud. One evening the fox saw the woodcutter's lantern hanging on a nail by his hut. He took it in his teeth and carried it to his den, very proud. Nobody else in the forest had a light of their own.
Meanwhile the other animals stumbled in the dark. The hedgehog rolled into a ditch, the owl bumped into a branch, and a family of rabbits called for one another and could not find the way home. The fox heard them from his den, but he would not share.
By the third night, alone in the den, the light felt small. It showed only his own big shadow on the wall. On the fourth night the oil ran out, and the den was darker than ever.
In the morning the ashamed fox carried the cold lantern back and laid it at the woodcutter's feet. The woodcutter said only, "It was thirsty." He filled it with oil, and he did not hang it on his nail again but at the crossroads in the forest, where all the paths meet and every animal can see it. That night the hedgehog, the owl, the rabbits and the fox sat under it together, and the hedgehog moved over to make room. All winter the fox sat under the light with the others.
