A mouse was running somewhere. After running for a long time or for a short time, she met a little deer. The mouse asked:
- Friend little deer, where are you going and where are you going from?
At these words the little deer raised his head and said:
- Don't you see? I'm chasing after my four legs.
Then the mouse said:
“You, too, it turns out, don’t know where you’re going.” Let's go together!
- Well, let's go together.
We went together together. While walking, Oleshek tilts his head to the side, grinds his teeth, and his eyes are narrowed. A mouse runs nearby. He can barely keep up with the deer.
How long or short did they walk like this, many times the little deer lost sight of the mouse, only finding it by squeaking:
- Oh, my friend, good friend, it turns out you’re here! After a while the mouse was the first to speak:
- Oleshek, let's play hide and seek! Oleshek, as if he had been waiting for these words, said:
- Come on, let's play hide and seek. The mouse asked:
- Which of us will be the first to hide? Oleshek immediately replied:
-You are short. Close your eyes, I'll hide. At these words, the mouse darted into the mouse hole. Oleshek ran. He lay down in the hollow of a dry stream. So the mouse began to look for the deer. No matter how long or short she looked for the deer, she could not find it. I was completely exhausted. Then I thought: “I’ll take this giant by cunning.” The mouse screamed at the top of her voice:
- Oleshek! You hid, but your horns are visible! Hearing this, the deer thought: “Eh, how did I forget to hide my horns? That’s bad!”
The deer came out of the hollow. I walked towards the mouse.
Seeing him, the mouse said:
- Now it's my turn. Now I'll hide.
Can a mouse go far? She immediately hid under her feet.
The little deer began to look for the mouse. I looked for her for a long time. Can you really find a mouse? While the little deer was looking for a mouse, he got tired and wanted to eat. The deer began to eat moss near the place where the mouse hid. Along with the reindeer moss, he swallowed the hidden mouse.
He ate the deer and lay down to rest. The mouse gnawed a hole between the deer's ribs, came out and said:
- Eh, little deer, although you are tall, you are stupid. Here I am small, but I turned out to be stronger than you. This meat will now be enough for my children’s children.
The mouse wanted to skin the deer, but wherever it poked its nose, there was fur everywhere.
The mouse called the seagull:
- Seagull, seagull! I got a deer. Skin him. The seagull began to skin the deer, but could not. The mouse called the crow:
- Raven, raven! I got a deer. Go skin him.
A raven has arrived. I wanted to skin the deer, but I couldn’t, I just pecked out the eyes.
The mouse thought: “Who will skin the deer?” He looks like a fox and a wolf are coming.
The fox immediately spoke:
- Well done, mouse! What a good deer I got. You must be very tired. Go and get some sleep. The wolf and I will take off the skin together. When it's ready, we'll wake you up.
Hearing the sweet words of the fox, the mouse put its front paw under its head and fell asleep.
After a while the fox screamed:
- Mouse, get up! The meat is ready! Eat! The mouse jumped up and ran to the place where the deer was lying. So what? All that was left of the deer were antlers and hooves, and there was no trace of the fox or wolf. The mouse got angry. She began to grow weaker and weaker and soon died.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru