Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/279

Rh The peasant did so, and it felt as if a wolf were lying by his side. He was greatly alarmed.

"Don't be afraid of me," said the soldier; "feel yourself, and you will find that you are very much the same sort of animal!"

The peasant obeyed, and felt the thick fur of a bear all round him.

"Now listen, master," said the soldier; "we have no business to lie in the loft now; besides, when the people see us they will take us for real animals, and that would never do, we should be in great danger and that is just what we must avoid. Let us be off now so that no one may see us."

So they got up and ran out of the hut into the fields and far away. Suddenly they came across an old horse which belonged to the peasant.

"Come, let us eat up that horse, for I am hungry!" said the wolf.

"No, please don't, it is my horse!"

"Well, and what of that? Better let us eat it than starve."

So they ate it and ran on farther. It was quite daylight when they came into another field, where they saw an old woman, the peasant's wife, coming along.

"Come, my friend!" said the wolf, "let us eat up this old woman!"

"But she is my wife!" replied the bear.

"Your wife, indeed! What next?"

And they finished off the old woman also.

In this way the wolf and bear passed the whole summer, eating people or animals, whichever came