There lived in one yard an old, old dog. She had served her owner a lot in her life, but now she could do nothing more. One day the owner says:
- What's the point of keeping such an old dog? We'll have to drive him into the forest. And he kicked the dog out of the house.
The poor fellow had to leave: try to stay if a stick is walking down your back. She came to the edge of the forest, lay down in the sun and thought about how she could continue to live. She saw a bone nearby and began gnawing on it.
A wolf came running to the edge of the forest and asked the dog:
- What are you doing?
“Yes, I’m sewing boots,” the dog answers, “my legs don’t bend anymore, my claws are all broken off—you can’t take a step without boots.”
Then the wolf thought that his claws were no good either: when he stepped on the ice just now, he could barely stay on his feet.
-Can you sew boots for me? - the wolf asks the dog. “Why not,” the dog answers, “just bring me a larger lamb.” “The lamb won’t matter,” says the wolf, “you’ll get it tomorrow.” The next morning the wolf brought a whole ram. – When should I come for boots? - asks. “Come back in three days,” the dog answers.
OK. Three days later the wolf comes to the dog for boots. What about the dog? But the dog ate the ram, but doesn’t even think about the boots. She says to the wolf:
- Oh, buddy, you brought some nasty leather: I pulled it onto the block, and it fell apart. If you make boots out of it, what will you do with them?
The wolf just licked his lips: he wouldn’t refuse a fat lamb either, but what can you do - what fell from the cart was gone.
“I could sew you boots in three days,” says the dog, “only you bring a fatter calf, its skin seems to be stronger than that of a ram.”
I really wanted to walk like a wolf in boots. The next day he brought the dog a large fat calf. And the dog again:
- Come back in three days for boots. On the third day, the dog finished the calf, but didn’t even think about the boots. The wolf came for the boots, and the dog scolded the leather again:
“As soon as I pulled it onto the block, it all came apart again.” Can you make boots from such leather? For the kind of boots you want, calfskin is not suitable; they need colt leather.
“Okay,” says the wolf, “I’ll bring you a foal, but this time I’ll have boots.”
The dog swears, pressing his paws to his chest: there will be boots, boots made of foal skin will turn out great.
The wolf left, and the next day he brought in a large foal, already shod.
“Come back in three days for boots,” says the dog.
Three days later, the wolf came early to get the boots. But the dog ate the foal, only the hooves remained.
She saw the wolf so early and, poor fellow, she was completely scared. Then a foal's hooves caught her eye - why not boots? She handed them to the wolf:
- Put it on, buddy, you can skate on ice in these boots.
The wolf almost jumped for joy and immediately pulled on his boots. He jumped up and quickly ran to the ice to skate. Eh, stupid head! Do people skate in boots like these on ice? As soon as the wolf stepped on the ice, his paws parted, and he moved neither back nor forward.
“Hey,” he shouts to the dog, “help me get to the shore!”
A dog ran up, grabbed the wolf by the scruff of the neck and rushed across the entire pond - they say, let him have a good ride.
Just past people were driving into the forest to buy firewood. They see a dog dragging a wolf across the ice. They decided that the old dog had attacked the wolf and could not cope with him - he did not have enough strength. They rushed to help the dog and carefully counted the wolf's ribs.
After this, the owner took the dog in again, and she lived with him until his death.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru