One day in the summer a cowardly hare was sitting by a tall spruce tree. Suddenly a cone fell from the fir tree. The hare got scared and started running. "War is coming!" - he shouts.
After some time he meets a small squirrel.
- Hare, friend, tell me quickly, where are you running like that? - asks the squirrel.
- Run quickly too; Don’t you see, there’s a war going on, a war! - the hare tells her.
Frightened by the war, the squirrel also runs after the hare, bouncing on its short legs. He thinks to himself: “It’s good that the hare warned me, otherwise he wouldn’t have blown my head off!”
They run and run, and at the ravine they meet a red fox, who was looking for food for herself. Googling his eyes in surprise, the fox asked:
- Hey, friends, where are you in such a hurry?
- There is a war, a war! - they answer her.
The fox was afraid of the war and also ran. Everyone is very scared.
They ran for a long time, and in the thicket of the forest they met a huge wolf.
- The war is on! - they shouted to the wolf.
And the wolf ran after them. They are about to run out of the forest. Then a bear meets them. The bear said in a menacing voice:
- Hey, friends, stop, otherwise I’ll tear you apart!
- Bear, friend, the war is on! - said all four.
The bear was also scared. I ran as hard as I could. You can see him waddle as he runs and glance back. They were very tired from running so fast and decided to stop in some hut they came across.
And they lived well there. But one day trouble came: food became scarce. We decided to send the fox in search of meat. And the hare was in charge of the house.
A fox walks by the river in search of meat and sees a strange animal: its mustache sticks out, its eyes glow with a blue-green light.
The fox came running home and said, breathless:
“I went to the river in search of meat and saw an animal: its mustache was sticking out, its eyes glowed with a blue-green light. I'll invite him to lunch today. But make sure there is fatty meat on the table.
Everyone listened to the fox and agreed to invite the unprecedented beast to visit. The fox ran after the guest. The hare fried the fatty meat; By this time the fox had returned.
- The guest will arrive soon. “We’ll all hide, and let the hare meet the guest,” says the fox.
The bear crawled under the bench. The wolf is behind the stove. The squirrel climbed onto the crossbar, the fox climbed onto the floor, and the hare remained at the window to greet the guest. Soon the invited guest arrived and, sensing the smell of fried meat, began to gobble up the fatty meat.
But at that time he saw a fox moving its tail in fear. The guest jumped to his feet, arched his back, raised his tail like a pipe and snorted: “Mr, mr.” The owners' spirits sank into their heels. Everyone jumped out of the hut.
- The fox ruined the whole thing! - They say. - Insatiable! I couldn’t stand it: I know he’s wagging his tail!
The cat ate meat and went home. Three days later we ate the remaining meat from the cat. Again they had nothing to eat. Then they decided: to start eating all those who are smaller and weaker. First they killed the squirrel, then the hare. It was the fox’s turn, but she, the cheat, found a way out.
“Let’s kill the one who wakes up in the morning with fat lips,” says the fox.
We had dinner and went to bed. And at night the fox got up, took out the remaining fat from the cauldron with its paw and smeared the wolf’s lips. In the morning they wake up and look - the wolf has fat on his lips. What is there to talk about? The bear grabbed the wolf and stunned it with his paw. Together with the fox they ate the wolf. After they finished eating the wolf meat, they had no fire. But the sly fox found a way out here too.
“There’s a big fire burning up there,” she says to the bear, pointing to the moon. “You can hit it with a torch.”
“I can’t, I can’t reach it, it’s too high,” the bear answers.
“Climb up a tall spruce, take a splinter with you and light it,” the fox tells him.
The bear climbed to the top of the spruce tree, puffed, and stretched his splinter toward the moon as far as he could.
“No, friend,” he says, “don’t light it!”
“You’re doing it wrong,” the fox teaches. “You jump a little, and you’ll get it.” The bear jumped, fell down with a roar and was killed. To this day, they say, the fox lives and eats bear meat.
Fairy tale - away! I'm here! There is a poker on the head of a fairy tale, on my head there is a barrel of oil.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru