I was tending a herd of goats and sheep in the mountains. That year the weather was bad: it rained all the time. Wild animals have become bolder. All night long in a short cloak, with an alabasha in my hands, I was forced to walk around my herd. As soon as I took even a little nap, a bear or wolf would immediately attack the herd. More than once it happened that the wolf grabbed the goat, but I forced him to give it up.
Every day we had to drive the cattle out to pasture, bring them back, milk the goats, and make cheese from the milk. One person could not do this, but there was nowhere to wait for help. I decided to cut down the tallest tree, hollow it out to make a large trench, and extend this trench from the cattle station to my house in the village.
Planned and done. After milking the goats, I poured all the milk into the gutter, and it, like a mountain stream, flowed noisily into the village, into my mother’s large cauldron. She put rennet in it and made cheese.
One day, when I was milking the goats, the wolf grabbed one of the goats and dragged it away. I began to scream, but the wolf, without abandoning the goat, ran with it towards the gutter. I thought, “Where will he go if he doesn’t jump over the chute?” He grabbed a large copper cauldron of milk and poured everything that was in it into the gutter. The milk flowed down noisily, and the wolf was just jumping over the chute. But then the wolf and goat disappeared.
Summer is over. I went home with my herd, but was very sad about the missing goat.
The mother cooked hominy, took a circle of cheese from a wicker basket hanging over the fireplace and began to cut it. Suddenly a wolf jumped out of the cheese along with a goat and jumped into the yard. I grabbed my flintlock and fired. The wolf fell, struck by my bullet, but the goat was safe and sound. Now it became clear to me that when the wolf wanted to jump over the chute, he fell into the milk along with the goat and the milk stream carried him to my mother’s cauldron.
The goat that I saved from the wolf gave birth to a large offspring, and I became rich.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru