A PLEASANT SURPRISE
A very delightful surprise awaited the little boy. A few days after
the meeting in his house his mother told him that the mir had elected
his father deputy to the zemstvo. In a few days he must go to the
capital of the district, and he had decided to take the little boy
and his mother with him. That was news indeed! The little boy ran to
tell his grandmother. Or, rather, he hopped on one foot all the way,
for he was so glad that he had to do something unusual.
The grandmother was delighted with the news. "You will go on the
railroad," she said. "That is a great thing. There were no railroads
when I was young, and I should not like to travel on one. A good sledge
with three horses is far safer, I think. But the railroad is faster,
your father tells me, and that is something in cold weather."
The little boy ran back to find out how soon they were to go. "Shall
we go to-day?" he asked his mother.
"Oh, no, not to-day!" she answered.
"To-morrow, then?"
"Not to-morrow, but perhaps the day after to-morrow."
"That is a long time!" sighed the little boy.
"You must have patience," said the mother. "There is no virtue so
necessary in this world as patience."
The little boy wandered back to his grandmother's room.
"Grandmamma," he said, "mother says I must have patience; but I don't
know how. We are not going to start on the journey for two whole days."
"Perhaps I can help you," said the grandmother. "If I were to tell
you a story now?"
"Oh, yes, that would help, little grandma!" cried the little boy. "I
can be very patient when you tell me stories."
"This one," said the grandmother, "is about
"THE FOX AND THE BADGER"
A Fox and a Badger met in the mountains and made an alliance, agreeing
that whichever of them found anything good to eat should share it
with the other, like a brother.
Now the Master knew where there was a trap set and baited with a
great piece of meat. He therefore led the Badger there and showed
him the meat.
"See, dear nephew," said he, "how your clever uncle has led you
to a place where we can both have a grand feast. But you are more
limber than I, so just slip gently in and pull out the meat, while
I keep watch that the moujik who put it here does not suddenly catch
us napping."
The Badger agreed without further words. He slipped into the trap, and
was about to pull the meat from the hook, when--snap!--his forefoot
was fast in the trap. The Badger broke out into a howl of distress,
"Help, uncle, help! I am lost!"
Reinecke ran quickly to the trap, but instead of freeing the Badger
he at once began to gnaw the meat.
"Just have a little patience," he said, "till I have eaten this morsel
before some one comes from the village. Then I will pull your leg
out of the trap."
Now Graybeard saw plainly that the Master had played a trick upon
him, and he quickly seized him by the nape of the neck. At this
moment the moujik came running up, crying from afar, "Hold on, my
falcon-badger! By my faith, I will not rumple a hair of your head!"
So the moujik killed the Fox and stripped off his skin, saying to the
Badger, "You may go free; his skin is worth five kopeks, but yours
only two. Go, in God's name!"
"It wasn't fair of Reinecke," observed the little boy.
"No, it wasn't fair, and so he got punished," said the grandmother.
The little boy was silent for a few minutes. Then he said:
"Little grandma, I am not patient yet."
"Oho!" said the grandmother, "if my stories don't help you to be
patient, there is no use in my telling them."
"But they do help, grandmamma," said the little boy. "I am a little
patient now, just a very little. If you told me another story I should
be more patient still."
The grandmother laughed. Then she told the story of
THE STAG AND THE HEDGEHOG
A Stag and a Hedgehog were once standing upon a steep hill, and the
Hedgehog invited the Stag to roll down with him into the ditch.
"Do you roll down first," replied the Stag.
Without further words the Hedgehog rolled himself into a round ball
and rolled down the slope. The Stag followed and broke his neck.
Then thought the Hedgehog, "What shall I do with you now?" At last
the thought occurred to him to call a butcher, and he immediately
set out to seek one. On the way he met a Fox.
"Whither away?" asked Reinecke; and the Hedgehog answered, "To seek
a butcher."
"Gossip," said the Fox, "I am a butcher."
"Then show me your teeth, Master," said the Hedgehog.
Reinecke showed his teeth, but the Hedgehog told him they were not
sharp enough, and went on his way.
After a while he met a Wolf, who asked him, "Whither away, Gossip?"
"To seek a butcher," said the Hedgehog.
"I am a butcher, sure enough," said the Wolf.
"Then show me your tools."
Isegrim showed his teeth, and the Hedgehog, well pleased, said to him,
"Follow me, then."
The Wolf followed him, and they came to the dead Stag. In a trice the
Wolf had torn him in pieces, and inviting all his kindred to the feast,
he gave each of them a fine morsel, and kept a whole leg for himself,
without the least consideration for the Hedgehog.
"Well, and what am I to get?" asked the Hedgehog, quite vexed; and
the Wolf replied, "The entrails."
This seemed to the Hedgehog very unfair, and he began to reason with
Isegrim. But the Wolf only answered, "If you aren't satisfied, go to
the judge and make a complaint."
So the Hedgehog went to seek a judge, and the Wolf followed after. Now
the Hedgehog knew where there was a trap, and he led Isegrim in that
direction. The Hedgehog tapped lightly upon the knocker, but this
quite disgusted Isegrim.
"Wait, let me knock!" said he, and he thumped with all the strength
of his paw. So he was caught, and the Hedgehog ran away laughing.
The story is done.
"It is done too quick, little grandmother," observed the little boy
after a moment's thought. "I am not patient yet."
"Then my medicine is not the right kind," said the grandmother. "Run
away home and hold some yarn for your sister. I heard her say that
she was going to knit some warm mittens for you to wear on the
journey. Holding yarn is an excellent school for patience."