A trickster gets his well-deserved, cleverly devised comeuppance: When Bear gives Fox honey in exchange for Fox's tail, it's the last of several unfair deals. Egged on by Fox's previous victims, Bear assiduously tends his fine new tailespecially while the still-attached Fox is trying to sleepuntil Fox makes full restitution, and more. Abolafia's humorously ingenuous animal characters and pastoral backgrounds, more than a little reminiscent of Steig's, are the perfect complement to his comically eventful story. (Picture book. 4-8)