One day the fox caught a quail and wanted to eat it.
“I’m very thin now, skinny, don’t eat me,” said the quail.
- No, I’ll eat it!
“Don’t eat me, and in return I’ll feed you your fill.”
- How will you do this? - asked the fox.
“You see, there’s a woman coming, bringing lunch to her husband in the field,” said the quail. “Let me out, watch and wait.”
In fact, at the end of the street a woman appeared with a cup on her head. The quail flew out onto the road and began jumping in front of the woman. “Let me catch this bird,” the woman thought. She put the cup on the ground and began to catch the quail. Alice, meanwhile, got to the cup, ate everything that was there, covered the cup and ran away.
Then the quail flew away from the woman, caught up with the fox and asked:
—Have you eaten?
“I ate,” answered the fox.
The woman returned empty-handed to her cup, took it, put it on her head and went to her husband in the field. The husband took the cup from his wife, removed the lid and saw that the cup was empty.
- What is this? - he asked his wife. The wife didn't know what to say.
The husband began to scold his wife. She ran home crying. The husband followed her.
“Let’s go too,” said the quail.
The fox and the quail reached the village, climbed onto the roof of the house and looked inside. A man and a woman were sitting by the fireplace and quarreling.
“Wait here,” the quail said to the fox and fluttered into the house. Seeing the quail, the woman said to her husband:
- This bird deceived me. Shut the door: now we will catch her. The husband closed the door and the quail fluttered into the corner onto the blankets.
“Wait,” said the husband, “I’ll hit her.”
“No, I,” answered the wife.
The husband grabbed the kaush and threw it at the quail, but missed it.
The bird flew from the bed to the edge of the cauldron in which there was food.
The woman grabbed a spoon, and the husband grabbed a stick, and both began to chase the quail. The quail suddenly flew away through the chimney. The husband and wife rushed after her into the yard, leaving the door open. The fox ran into the house and ate everything that was in the cauldron. Running out into the yard where the quail was waiting for her, the fox said:
- Well, now I'm full, let's move on.
And the quail thought, how can she get rid of the fox?
Suddenly the quail saw two sleeping dogs and flew towards them. The fox ran after her, but when she saw the dogs, she got scared and ran away.
The dogs jumped up to grab the quail. And she flew to the fox. Then the dogs saw the fox and chased after it.
The fox hid from the dogs in a hole, and the dogs returned to their place empty-handed. Then the quail rolled up to the hole where the fox was hiding, a dry pumpkin.
The wind rolled the pumpkin along the ground, and the grains in it rattled loudly.
The fox was frightened by this knock, began to dig a way out of the hole in another place and was completely exhausted. When she finally came out of the hole, she was angry when she saw a pumpkin at the entrance.
“Wait,” the fox said to the pumpkin, “you scared me, so I’ll drown you!”
The fox stuck his head into the pumpkin, ran to the river and lowered the pumpkin into the water.
The pumpkin quickly filled with water and pulled the fox with it to the bottom of the river.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru