The Russian Grandmother's Wonder TalesHoughton, Louise Seymour
General
The Russian Grandmother's Wonder Tales
Houghton, Louise Seymour
Slavs -- Folklore
"Why, you see, I have one sense above, one below, and the third
everywhere," replied the Hedgehog; and added, "And how manifold is
your understanding?"
"Oh, mine is seventy-sevenfold," answered the Fox.
"Well, well!" said the Hedgehog.
Thereupon they walked along through the fields, and so eagerly were
they talking that they gave no heed to the way, and presently stumbled
into a Wolf's den. Then was good counsel precious! How should they
ever get out of this scrape?
Said Reinecke to the Hedgehog, "Come now, search around in your
head-piece for a means of getting out of this pickle."
"I should have done that before," answered the Hedgehog, "but I
was afraid that by and by you would curse me. How shall I, a little
Hedgehog, with only a threefold understanding, devise anything better
than you, who have a seventy-sevenfold understanding?"
However, after talking back and forth a long time, the Hedgehog made
this suggestion, "Say, Reinecke, just seize me by the ear and throw
me up out of the den, because I am the smaller."
"Yes, but how shall I get out?"
"Oh, just stick up your tail and I will pull you out!"
So Reinecke seized the Hedgehog by the ear and tossed him up out
of the den. Then he called upon him to keep his word. "Hello there,
Gossip, now pull me out!"
"Do you know what," answered the Hedgehog, "I'll tell you something. I
have only a threefold understanding, and yet I found a way of
helping myself. Now do you help yourself with your seventy-sevenfold
understanding."
By this time a moujik came along, and finding the Fox in the den he
made short work with him. But the Hedgehog crept away through the
thicket with his threefold understanding, while Reinecke, with all
his seventy-sevenfold understanding, was carried off by the moujik.
"Reinecke was too proud of himself," said the little boy.
"It is a great sin to be proud," observed the grandmother. "The pop
said so on Sunday in church."
There was a pause. Then the little boy said coaxingly:
"You are tired yet, little grandmother!"
"It was a short story," replied the grandmother, patting the little
boy on the shoulder, "and grandmother is a little tired still. She
will tell you the story of
"MASTER REINECKE AND GOCKELING, THE COCK"
Once upon a time, Reinecke, the Fox, met Gockeling, the Cock, and
said to him, "Come, show me how your hens cackle!"
The Cock, quite willing, stretched out his neck and began to crow,
when in a trice Reinecke pounced upon him and seized him by the throat.
"O Reinecke!" cried the Cock, "first give thanks to God, who has sent
you so good a meal!"
And Reinecke fell into the Cock's trap, for he stood upon his hind
legs and began to give thanks. Quick as thought the Cock flew up into
the nearest tree, and cried to Reinecke:
"Well, cousin, how does my fresh meat taste?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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