There lived a grandfather and a woman. And they had a cat. Grandfather weaved purses, woman spun yarn, and the cat went to hunt mice.
Once a cat went out into the forest to hunt and got lost. I searched and searched for the way home, but I couldn’t find it. He sat down under a fir tree and cried.
The fox is running. I saw a cat and stared: I had never seen such an animal in my forest!
- Who are you? - asks.
- I am Cat Murlykovich. .
- Why? Cat Murlykovich, are you crying? The cat told her about his misfortune.
“Heh,” says the fox, “what a problem this is!” Come live with me. You will be my master.
“Okay,” says the cat.
So he comes to the fox. And she has both fried and boiled chickens. The cat ate enough and went to sleep.
Meanwhile, a wolf is running through the forest: thump, thump, thump, thump!
The fox heard it, jumped out of the hut and screamed:
- Who is that knocking and stomping in my forest? Who doesn't let my master sleep?
- Who is your boss? - asks the wolf.
“I don’t have a master, but a master, a tail from the estate: as soon as he swings, he’ll kill him right away!”
The wolf became curious. He says:
“Isn’t it possible, gossip, to take a look at your master at least with one eye?”
“Well, you can have a look,” the fox answers, “but it’s better not to come without a gift.” My master loves gifts
“Okay, there will be a gift,” said the wolf and ran on.
The fox returned to the hut.
Meanwhile, a bear is walking through the forest; crack-crowbar, crack-crowbar, crack-crowbar!
The fox heard this, jumped out of the hut and screamed again:
- Who is that chattering in my forest? Who doesn't let my master sleep?
- Who is your boss? - asks the bear.
“I don’t have a master, but a master, a tail from the estate: as soon as he swings, he’ll kill him right away.”
The bear also became interested: what kind of owner is the fox who beats everyone with his tail? Here he says:
- Isn’t it possible, little fox-sister, to at least take a look at your master?
“You can take a look,” says the fox. - Just don’t come without a gift. My master loves gifts.
“Okay, there will be a gift,” said the bear and moved on.
A wild boar and a gray hare also ran by. The fox scared them with its owner. The animals gathered and thought deeply: what gift should they bring to the fox owner? We thought and wondered, and finally the bear said:
- That's it, brothers, we need to prepare a delicious dinner and invite him and his hostess to visit. Then we will see everything at once.
“Okay, so be it,” the animals agreed. And then again they thought hard: what kind of dinner should they prepare?
We thought and wondered, and finally the bear said:
- I'll bring a block of honey.
“And I am a ram,” says the wolf.
“And I am acorns,” says the boar.
“And I — fresh cabbage,” says the hare. They prepared dinner and began to consult about who to invite. Bear says:
“I’m fat, it’s difficult for me to walk.” Wolf says:
“And I’ve been running so hard, my legs hurt.” Kaban says:
- But I don’t really know how to speak. But the hare said nothing. So they decided to send him as the lightest one.
The hare ran to the fox's hut, knocked on the window with his paw, closed his eyes in fear and squeaked in a frightened voice:
— Good afternoon, respectable hosts! The bear, the wolf and the boar asked: please come and visit them.
He said this in one breath and ran back.
The animals were ready to greet the guests. They sit at a rich table, wait, and talk about the fox owner.
So the hare says:
- No, brothers, it’s scary to sit like that. Who knows what kind of owner the fox is. What if he doesn’t like our dinner, and he kills us all with his tail... Let’s better hide and first look at him from afar.
The animals agreed with the hare's wise advice and began to hide.
A bear climbed an oak tree, a boar buried itself in the moss, a wolf climbed under a bush, and a hare hid in the grass.
Meanwhile, the fox took his master's hand, and they went to visit.
They come to the clearing. The cat hears - it smells of meat. He sees a whole ram lying down.
He raised his wool, puffed up his mustache and immediately attacked the ram.
He eats and keeps purring: “Meow-oo, meow-oo!” The animals became scared. It seemed to them that he was shouting: “Not enough, not enough!”
- What a beast! - says the wolf. “I can’t handle such a stag in a day, and he’s still not enough...
The boar lay there, lying in the moss, and began to wag its tail out of fear. The cat thought it was a mouse coming out of the hole. He jumped there and grabbed the boar's tail with his claws.
How the boar jumps up and starts running! Only the branches crack.
The cat got scared and jumped towards the oak tree!
"Well," the bear thinks, "he noticed me. We must save ourselves before it's too late."
The bear fell from the oak tree straight into the bush where the wolf was sitting. And it seemed to him that it was the fox owner himself who attacked him. The wolf got up and ran away from trouble. And the bear followed him: crack-crowbar, crack-crowbar!
And they ran so that the hare barely caught up with them an hour later.
He caught up and said:
“If you hadn’t listened to me and hidden, he would have eaten us all!” What a terrible beast!
And the cat and the sly fox had a meal and returned home.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru