Short Fiction by Leo Tolstoy (book reader for pc TXT) 📕

your odour, I am angry, and happy because I am about to catch you; I do not know why, but I cannot keep from barking.” The Oak and the Hazelbush

An old Oak dropped an acorn under a Hazelbush. The Hazelbush said to the Oak:

“Have you not enough space under your own branches? Drop your acorns in an open space. Here I am myself crowded by my shoots, and I do not drop my nuts to the ground, but give them to men.”

“I have lived for two hundred years,” said the Oak, “and the Oakling which will sprout from that acorn will live just as long.”

Then the Hazelbush flew into a rage, and said:

“If so, I will choke your Oakling, and he will not live for three days.”

The Oak made no reply, but told his son to sprout out of that acorn. The acorn got wet and burst, and clung to the ground with his crooked rootlet, and sent up a sprout.

The Hazelbush tried to choke him, and gave him no sun. But the Oakling spread upwards and grew stronger in the shade of the Hazelbush. A hundred years passed. The Hazelbush had long ago dried up, but the Oak from that acorn towered to the sky and spread his tent in all directions.

The Hen and the Chicks

A Hen hatched some Chicks, but did not know how to take care of them. So she said to them:

“Creep back into your shells! When you are inside your shells, I will sit on you as before, and will take care of you.”

The Chicks did as they were ordered and tried to creep into their shells, but were unable to do so, and only crushed their wings. Then one of the Chicks said to his mother:

“If we are to stay all the time in our shells, you ought never to have hatched us.”

The Corncrake and His Mate

A Corncrake had made a nest in the meadow late in the year, and at mowing time his Mate was still sitting on her eggs. Early in the morning the peasants came to the meadow, took off the coats, whetted their scythes, and started one after another to mow down the grass and to put it down in rows. The Corncrake flew up to see what the mowers were doing. When he saw a peasant swing his scythe and cut a snake in two, he rejoiced and flew back to his Mate and said:

“Don’t fear the peasants! They have come to cut the snakes to pieces; they have given us no rest for quite awhile.”

But his Mate said:

“The peasants are cutting the grass, and with the grass they are cutting everything which is in their way⁠—the snakes, and the Corncrake’s nest, and the Corncrake’s head. My heart forebodes nothing good: but I cannot carry away the eggs, nor fly from the nest, for fear of chilling them.”

When the mowers came to the nest of the Corncrake, one of the peasants swung his scythe and cut off the head of the Corncrake’s Mate, and put the eggs in his bosom and gave them to his children to play with.

The Cow and the Billy Goat

An old woman had a Cow and a Billy Goat. The two pastured together. At milking the Cow was restless. The old woman brought out some bread and salt, and gave it to the Cow, and said:

“Stand still, motherkin; take it, take it! I will bring you some more, only stand still.”

On the next evening the Goat came home from the field before the Cow, and spread his legs, and stood in front of the old woman. The old woman wanted to strike him with the towel, but he stood still, and did not stir. He remembered that the woman had promised the Cow some bread if she would stand still. When the woman saw that he would not budge, she picked up a stick, and beat him with it.

When the Goat went away, the woman began once more to feed the Cow with bread, and to talk to her.

“There is no honesty in men,” thought the Goat. “I stood still better than the Cow, and was beaten for it.”

He stepped aside, took a run, hit against the milk-pail, spilled the milk, and hurt the old woman.

The Fox’s Tail

A Man caught a Fox, and asked her:

“Who has taught you Foxes to cheat the dogs with your tails?”

The Fox asked: “How do you mean, to cheat? We do not cheat the dogs, but simply run from them as fast as we can.”

The Man said:

“Yes, you do cheat them with your tails. When the dogs catch up with you and are about to clutch you, you turn your tails to one side; the dogs turn sharply after the tail, and then you run in the opposite direction.”

The Fox laughed, and said:

“We do not do so in order to cheat the dogs, but in order to turn around; when a dog is after us, and we see that we cannot get away straight ahead, we turn to one side, and in order to do that suddenly, we have to swing the tail to the other side, just as you do with your arms, when you have to turn around. That is not our invention; God himself invented it when He created us, so that the dogs might not be able to catch all the Foxes.”

From the New Speller214 I The Wolf and the Kids

A Goat was going to the field after provender, and she shut up her Kids in the barn, with injunctions not to let anyone in. Said she:⁠—

“But when you hear my voice then open the door.”

A Wolf overheard, crept up to the barn, and sang after the manner of the Goat:⁠—

“Little children, open the door; your mother has come with some food for you.”

The Kids peered out of the window, and