The old wolverine and her old man decided to look for new places to live.
The rumor spread that there were many animals beyond the river and more food.
So they decided to transport their tent and all their goods across the river and settle there.
The wolverine's husband went into the forest to tear up birch bark to make a boat. And the old woman put her goods in bags and sat down on the shore to wait for him.
She looks - a boat is floating on the river, and there is a fox in it.
The fox swam to the wolverine, found out what was the matter, and offered to transport the bags with the goods in her boat. The wolverine was delighted, grabbed the bags and dragged them into the boat. There was loads of luggage to the brim. The wolverine wants to sit on the bags herself.
“Wait,” says the fox, “you can drown.” First I will move the things, and then you.
The fox pushed off from the shore with an oar and swam with the flow.
The fox swims further and further. Then Wolverine realized that the sly fox had deceived her.
She sat down on a stone by the water and cried.
A woodpecker was flying past and heard the wolverine crying. He learned about the wolverine's grief and flew after the fox.
He flew straight through the forest. He went around a large cape, sat down on a twig and waited for the fox to swim to him.
He sees a boat with a fox appear in the distance. The boat came alongside a bush - the woodpecker pretended to be sick and asked:
- Fox, little fox, take me to your boat!
The fox took him into the boat. The woodpecker hid behind bags of goods, and he was not visible.
They sail on. The fox is sitting on the stern. And the woodpecker has his nose buried in the boat and is hammering away at it unnoticed. The thin birch bark broke through. Water began to fill the boat.
- What is this? No, the boat is leaking? - asks the fox in fright.
“That’s right, it’s leaking,” the woodpecker answers, “the seam must have come apart somewhere on the birch bark.”
We took a boat to the shore. The fox jumped out and said to the woodpecker:
- You pull the luggage out of the boat, and then drag the boat ashore. In the meantime, I’ll go into the forest and look for spruce resin. Let's plug the hole and continue swimming.
As soon as the fox disappeared into the forest, the woodpecker folded the twigs and plugged the hole with them. Then he got into the boat and swam back to the wolverine.
A fox is running from the forest, carrying resin. And the boat had already sailed far down the river.
- Woodpecker! Robber! Come back now!
“No, fox, I won’t come back,” the woodpecker answers. A woodpecker sailed with the goods to the place where the wolverine plague stood.
The old people were happy.
“Well,” says the old man, “what will we give this good woodpecker as a reward?”
And the old woman sewed a suede jacket for the woodpecker, painted it with colored clay, and put a colorful hat on his head!
The woodpecker became smart and beautiful.
And the old man was a good blacksmith. He forged a strong steel nose for the woodpecker and sharpened its claws.
Since then, the woodpecker has been walking around in a motley outfit. And with a steel nose it can gouge the strongest tree.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru