The Fox And The Cat

: Cossack Fairy Tales And Folk Tales

In a certain forest there once lived a fox, and near to the fox lived

a man who had a cat that had been a good mouser in its youth, but was

now old and half blind. The man didn't want puss any longer, but not

liking to kill it, took it out into the forest and lost it there. Then

the fox came up and said, "Why, Mr Shaggy Matthew! How d'ye do! What

brings you here?"--"Alas!" said Pussy, "my master loved me as long as

I c uld bite, but now that I can bite no longer and have left off

catching mice--and I used to catch them finely once--he doesn't like

to kill me, but he has left me in the wood where I must perish

miserably."--"No, dear Pussy!" said the fox; "you leave it to me, and

I'll help you to get your daily bread."--"You are very good, dear

little sister foxey!" said the cat, and the fox built him a little

shed with a garden round it to walk about in.



Now one day the hare came to steal the man's cabbage.

"Kreem-kreem-kreem!" he squeaked. But the cat popped his head out of

the window, and when he saw the hare, he put up his back and stuck up

his tail and said, "Ft-t-t-t-t-Frrrrrrr!" The hare was frightened and

ran away and told the bear, the wolf, and the wild boar all about it.

"Never mind," said the bear, "I tell you what, we'll all four give a

banquet, and invite the fox and the cat, and do for the pair of them.

Now, look here! I'll steal the man's mead; and you, Mr Wolf, steal his

fat-pot; and you, Mr Wildboar, root up his fruit-trees; and you, Mr

Bunny, go and invite the fox and the cat to dinner."



So they made everything ready as the bear had said, and the hare ran

off to invite the guests. He came beneath the window and said, "We

invite your little ladyship Foxey-Woxey, together with Mr Shaggy

Matthew, to dinner"--and back he ran again.--"But you should have told

them to bring their spoons with them," said the bear.--"Oh, what a

head I've got! if I didn't quite forget!" cried the hare, and back he

went again, ran beneath the window and cried, "Mind you bring your

spoons!"--"Very well," said the fox.



So the cat and the fox went to the banquet, and when the cat saw the

bacon, he put up his back and stuck out his tail, and cried, "Mee-oo,

mee-oo!" with all his might. But they thought he said, "Ma-lo,

ma-lo[15]!"--"What!" said the bear, who was hiding behind the beeches

with the other beasts, "here have we four been getting together all we

could, and this pig-faced cat calls it too little! What a monstrous

cat he must be to have such an appetite!" So they were all four very

frightened, and the bear ran up a tree, and the others hid where they

could. But when the cat saw the boar's bristles sticking out from

behind the bushes he thought it was a mouse, and put up his back again

and cried, "Ft! ft! ft! Frrrrrrr!" Then they were more frightened than

ever. And the boar went into a bush still farther off, and the wolf

went behind an oak, and the bear got down from the tree, and climbed

up into a bigger one, and the hare ran right away.



[15] What a little! What a little!



But the cat remained in the midst of all the good things and ate away

at the bacon, and the little fox gobbled up the honey, and they ate

and ate till they couldn't eat any more, and then they both went home

licking their paws.