Once upon a time there lived a grandfather and a woman. Grandfather says to grandma:
“You, woman, bake the pies, and I’ll harness the sleigh and go after the fish.”
He caught fish and is taking a whole load home. So he drives and sees: a fox curled up and lying on the road. Grandfather got off the cart, went up to the fox, but she didn’t stir, she lay there as if dead.
- This will be a gift for my wife! - said the grandfather, took the fox and put it on the cart, and he walked ahead.
And the little fox took advantage of the time and began to lightly throw out of the cart, one fish at a time, one fish at a time, one fish at a time. She threw away all the fish and left.
“Well, old woman,” says the grandfather, “what kind of collar did I bring for your fur coat?” “Where?” “There’s a fish and a collar on the cart.”
A woman approached the cart: no collar, no fish, and began to scold her husband:
- Oh, you, so and so! You still decided to deceive!
Then the grandfather realized that the fox was not dead. I grieved and grieved, but there was nothing to do.
And the fox collected all the scattered fish into a pile, sat down on the road and eats for itself. A gray wolf comes to her:
- Hello, sister! - Hello, brother! - Give me some fish! - Catch it yourself and eat it. - I don’t know how. - Hey, I caught it! You, brother, go to the river, put your tail in the hole, sit and say: “Catch, little fish, both small and large! Catch, little fish, both small and large! Catch, little fish, both small and large!” The fish will attach itself to your tail. Just make sure you sit there longer, otherwise you won’t catch anything.
The wolf went to the river, lowered his tail into the hole and began to say: “Catch, fish, both small and large!” Catch, fish, both small and large!
Following him the fox appeared; walks around the wolf and laments: “Be clear, make the stars in the sky clear, Freeze, freeze, wolf’s tail!”
- What are you saying, little fox-sister? - Then I’m helping you.
And she herself, the cheat, constantly repeats: “Freeze, freeze, wolf’s tail!”
The wolf sat for a long, long time at the ice hole, did not move from his spot the whole night, and his tail froze; I tried to get up, but it didn’t work!
“Wow, so many fish have fallen in and you can’t get them out!” - he thinks.
He looks, and the women go for water and shout, seeing the gray one:
- Wolf, wolf! Hit him, hit him!
They came running and started beating the wolf - some with a yoke, some with a bucket, some with anything. The wolf jumped and jumped, tore off his tail and started running without looking back.
“Okay,” he thinks, “I’ll repay you, sister!”
Meanwhile, while the wolf was puffing away on his sides, the little fox-sister wanted to try to see if she could pull off something else. She climbed into one of the huts where women were baking pancakes, but her head fell into a tub of dough, she got dirty and ran. And the wolf meets her:
- Is that how you teach? They beat me all over! - Eh, brother wolf! - says the little fox-sister. “At least you’re bleeding, but I’m brainwashed, they killed me more painfully than you: I’m dragging myself.” “And it’s true,” says the wolf, “where can you go, sister, sit on me, I’ll take you.”
The little fox sat on his back, and he took her away.
Here the little fox-sister sits and quietly sings: “The beaten one carries the unbeaten, the beaten one carries the unbeaten!” - What are you saying, sister? - I, brother, say: “The beaten one carries the beaten one.”
Yes, sister, yes!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru