Crimson Fairy Book

Chapter 26 Six Hungry Beasts

Once upon a time there was a man who lived with his wife in a small lonely hut without any neighbors around.But neither of them felt lonely at all, and they would have had a good time if a marten hadn't made them restless.Every night, the marten would come to the yard where the poultry were kept and drag one of the birds away.The male owner tried every means and made all kinds of mousetrap, trying to catch the mink, but the mink failed to catch him, but he tripped over the mousetrap, hit his head on a stone, and died. .

It was not long before the Marten came out looking for his supper, and seeing the dead man lying on the ground, thought, "This is a prize, and I've done a good job this time." With all his might, he dragged the body onto the waiting sledge, He drove away on the sled.Before he had gone far, he met a squirrel, who stooped and said, "Good morning, marten! What's that thing behind you?"

The mink smiled and replied: "You haven't heard of such a strange thing, have you? The old man you often see here put a mousetrap next to his chicken coop to catch me. Unexpectedly, he fell into it by himself. Dead. This thing is too heavy, I want you to help me push the sled.” The squirrel hurried down to help, pushing the sled forward slowly.

A hare was walking across a field, and she stopped to see what they were dragging. "What is that?" she asked, and the Marten repeated the story, and begged the Hare to help.

The hare pushed with all his might.They were soon joined by a fox, a wolf, and finally a bear, who was more useful than the other five animals put together.When the six of them ate the carcass together, they no longer found it difficult to push the sled.

Unfortunately, soon they were hungry again, the wolf being the hungriest of them all, and he said to the others:
"Now that there are no bodies, what shall we eat, my friends?"

"I think we should eat the smallest member," said the bear, and the marten turned to catch the squirrel, because he was much smaller than the other animals.However, the squirrel climbed up a tree like lightning, and at this moment the marten remembered that he was the next target, and he immediately went into a cave.

"What should we eat now?" The wolf recovered from his surprise and asked again.

"We shall eat the smallest member," repeated the bear, stretching out his paw to the hare.This hare was no idler, and before the bear's paw touched her, she had already rushed into the forest like a bolt of lightning.

As the squirrels, martens, and hares had all escaped, the fox became the youngest member.The wolf and the bear said to the fox that although they were sorry, they had to eat him.This fox named Michelle did not run away like the previous animals. On the contrary, he smiled at everyone very friendly and said: "Eating in the lowlands is tasteless, and eating on the top of the mountain will have a good appetite." It made sense to both the wolf and the bear, and they went out of the valley to find a way to the top of the mountain.The fox happily followed the two partners, trotting all the way.However, as he walked, he whispered in the wolf's ear: "Peter, have you ever thought, if I am eaten, what will you two have for your next meal?"

This simple question seems to have given the wolf a lot of inspiration.yes!What should they eat next, the key is, who will eat next?They have made a rule that the smallest member is eaten at a time, and if the fox dies, he himself is much smaller than the bear.

These thoughts flashed through the wolf's mind quickly, so he said hastily:

"Dear brothers, wouldn't it be better for us to live together like comrades? Let's hunt separately and eat together. How about my proposal?"

"That's the best way," replied the fox.In this two-to-one situation, Xiong had no choice but to agree. In fact, he would rather have a good meal than any friendship.

For the first few days, everything went well.There is a lot of game in the forest, and the wolf can eat as much as he wants.One morning, the fox went foraging as usual.He found a tall and slender tree with a magpie's nest in the top of the tree.The fox loved the little magpies very much, and he thought about how he could get this delicious meal, so he sat down by the tree and stared at the magpie's nest.

"What are you looking at, Michelle?" asked the magpie, standing on a branch, looking at the fox.

"I was looking at this tree. I thought it would be a good tree for ski boots." Hearing this, the magpie immediately screamed, "Oh, don't cut down this tree, my dear boy." , I beg you! I built my nest on it, and my children are not yet grown up and cannot fly yet."

"However, it's not easy to find another tree that is so suitable for making ski boots," the fox said, raising his head and looking at the tree thoughtfully. "I don't want to be a villain either. How about it? I'm a little magpie, and I'll look elsewhere for a tree for ski boots."

The magpie had no choice but to agree to the fox. He flew into the nest and pulled out a young bird with a heavy heart.The fox left happily with the little magpie in its mouth.Although the magpie who lost its cub was very sad, on second thought, only a bird with extraordinary intelligence would sacrifice a cub like himself in exchange for a peaceful family.But, you know what happened next?A few days later, the fox Michelle came under the tree again. When the magpie saw the fox from the gap in the bird's nest, his heart almost broke.

"What are you looking at?" he asked in a trembling voice.

"I was looking at this tree. I was thinking that it would be a good tree for ski boots," replied the fox casually, as if he didn't know what he was talking about.

"Oh, dear boy, please don't," said the magpie, jumping up and down in pain. "You promised me a few days ago that you would look elsewhere for trees for ski boots."

"I promised, but I searched all over the forest, and there is no tree like this one. I'm sorry to drive you away again, but it's really not my fault. The only concession I can make is to give up my skishoes, but you must promise to give me a pup in exchange."

No matter how clever the poor magpie was, he had no choice but to throw a baby bird from the nest.This time, he no longer felt that he was superior to others.

He sat by the bird's nest, his head drooped, his feathers messed up, and he looked pitiful.Indeed, he was a very different person from the happy magpie everyone in the forest knew.At this time, a crow happened to fly by. He stopped and asked the magpie what happened: "Your other two young birds are not in the nest, where are they?"

"I gave them to the fox," said the magpie in a trembling voice, "he came twice last week and wanted to cut down my tree for ski boots, and I had to promise him two young birds, and that stopped him." .”

"Oh, you are so stupid," cried the crow, "the fox is trying to scare you. He has no ax and knife, and it is impossible to cut down trees. My goodness, to think that you have sacrificed two young birds for nothing! My goodness!" ! Why are you so stupid!"

After the crow finished speaking, he flew away.The magpie was full of remorse and sadness.

The next morning, the fox went to the tree again and came to the old place, because he was hungry and wanted to have a delicious meal of the little magpie.But this time, the timid magpie was no longer coming to negotiate terms, but a bird with its head held high said firmly:

"Good fox," Magpie tilted his head and said with a learned look, "if you will listen to my advice, please go home quickly. Since you don't have an ax or a knife, don't brag about it to me." You're going to chop down trees to make ski boots!"

"Who taught you to be so clever?" The magpie's sudden change surprised the fox, and he forgot his demeanor and asked directly.

"It's the crow, who came to see me yesterday," replied the magpie.

"It's the crow?" said the fox. "Well, the crow had better not see me again, or he will have a better time."

The cunning fox Michel was in no mood to continue talking to the magpie, so he walked out of the forest and onto the road.His whole body was relaxed, lying on the ground straight, his limbs stretched out, as if dead.Not long after, he saw a crow flying over from the corner of his eye.He held his breath, stiffened, and stuck his tongue out of his mouth.The crow was worrying about not having dinner, seeing this, he rushed over immediately.He was about to lean over to peck the fox's tongue when the fox grabbed his wing.The crow knew that struggling was futile, so he said:
"Oh, brother, if you really want to eat me, then eat me. However, I suggest that you eat with a little grace. Throw me under the cliff first, so that my feathers will fly everywhere. See my feathers. Everyone will know that you are more cunning than me." After hearing this idea, the fox was very happy, and he hadn't forgotten that the crow ruined his magpie feast.So he dragged the crow to the edge of the cliff and threw it down. He planned to take a detour and go down to the bottom of the cliff to eat the crow.Unexpectedly, as soon as the fox let go, the crow flew into the sky and escaped from the clutches of the enemy. He smiled and shouted: "Oh, fox! You can only hunt, but you can't enjoy it."

The fox ran back to the forest with its tail between its legs.He knew that the crow must have returned first, and he would definitely remind everyone to be vigilant. If so, his dinner would be lost.Going to bed without dinner is not a good idea.Just as he was racking his brains to think of a way, his old friend—the bear, came over.

The poor fellow had just lost his wife, and he wanted to find an animal to bury her, as her death was a great loss to him.He had just come out of his cave when he met a wolf, who asked him where he was going. "I'll go to a mourner," replied the Bear, and he told what had happened.

"Oh, it turned out to be like this. I'm here to help you with the funeral." The wolf barked.

"Do you know how to mourn?" asked Bear.

"Of course I do, Godfather," replied the wolf.But the bear was still worried, so he asked the wolf to howl first to prove that he would howl.So the wolf opened his throat and sang an elegy: "Woo, woo, woo, huh, huh, huh..."

He yelled, and the noise made the bear cover his ears, begging him to stop.

"You don't know how to mourn at all. Get out!" Xiong said angrily.

Not far from the road, the hare was squatting in a ditch to rest. She saw the bear and hurried out to talk to him. The hare asked why the bear was so sad.Xiong then told her that he had lost his wife and wanted to find a funeral for her.After hearing this, the hare immediately volunteered to undertake the work.Xiong then asked her to prove her talent. "Baby, baby, baby..." The hare blew out a series of sounds, but her voice was so small that the bear couldn't hear it at all.So, he said: "This does not meet my requirements, goodbye."

Afterwards, the bear met the fox. The fox was startled when he saw how haggard he was, so he stopped and asked:
"What's the matter with you, godfather? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find an undertaker for my wife," replied the Bear.

"Oh, why didn't you choose me," cried the Fox, and the Bear looked at him thoughtfully.

"Can you mourn?" he asked.

"Of course it will, listen to it," the fox raised his voice, crying and singing: "Lu, lu, lu!

She is a well-known weaving master, the pancakes she bakes are delicious, she manages the house diligently, and she leaves her husband to go to hell!Luh, luh, luh!she went!she went! "

"I have finally found someone who understands the spell of death," Xiong said happily.He hurriedly took the fox into the cave and asked him to sing a funeral song for his dead wife.His wife lay sprawled on a bed of gray moss.Fox wasn't too happy about it.

"It's not suitable to mourn in a cave," he said, "it's too humid here. You'd better put the body in the warehouse, and it will sound better when you come out." So the bear carried his wife's body into the warehouse, and he Then go back to the cave to prepare food for the mourners.He stopped now and then to hear the trumpets' mourning, but he heard nothing.Finally, he couldn't help but walked to the door of the warehouse, and shouted at the fox:

"Why don't you call, Fox? What are you doing?"

Not only did the fox not mourn the dead bear, on the contrary, he ate the corpse quietly, and he said to the bear:

"All she has left are legs and feet. Give me another 5 minutes and she won't even have legs!"

When the bear heard this, he turned and went back to the kitchen to get a big spoon, and he wanted to beat the traitor hard.But when he opened the warehouse door, the fox, which had been on guard for a long time, jumped out from between his legs, and ran towards the forest like flying.

Seeing that he could not catch up with the traitor, the bear threw a spoon at the fox, and the spoon landed on the fox's tail.All foxes now have a white spot on their tails that has fallen from that time.

(End of this chapter)