The Wolf and the Man

Once upon a time, the fox was talking to the wolf about the strength of man. The fox was saying that no animal could withstand man, and that all animals had to be cunning in order to protect themselves from him. Then the wolf answered, "Well, if I ever saw a man, I would attack him at once! I am not afraid of anything that walks on two legs or four." "I can help you test your power against man," said the fox. "Come to see me early tomorrow morning, and I will show you a man."

The wolf came as he was told, and the fox took him out on the road where the hunters passed every day. First an old retired soldier walked by the place where the fox and the wolf were sitting. "Is that a man?" asked the wolf. "No," answered the fox, "that was once a man but is not one anymore." Then a little boy came walking along the road, on his way to school. "Is that a man?" asked the wolf. "No, that will one day be a man but it is not one yet," replied the fox.

Finally they saw a hunter appear. He was carrying a double-barreled gun on his back and was wearing a big knife in his belt. The fox said to the wolf, "Look, a man is coming, you must attack him at once, but I will be hiding in my hole." The fox ran away and the wolf rushed out to attack the man. When the hunter saw the wolf running at him, he said, "How unfortunate that I have not loaded my gun with a bullet!" (he had been hunting birds and his gun was only loaded with small pellets). But he aimed and fired his birdshot into the wolf¹s face. The wolf grimaced, but he did not let himself be frightened, and attacked again, so the hunter fired the second barrel of birdshot. The wolf swallowed his pain, and charged again. The hunter drew his knife, and slashed the wolf with it right and left, so that the wolf, bleeding everywhere, ran howling back to the fox¹s den.

"Well, brother wolf," said the fox, "how was your encounter with the man?" "Ah," replied the wolf, I never imagined how strong man could be. First, he took a stick from his shoulder and blew into it, and something flew into my face and tickled me terribly. Then he breathed once more into the stick and it flew into my nose like lightning and hail. While I was still feeling the pain from that, he pulled a shining rib out of his body, and he beat me with it so badly that I nearly died." "See what a braggart you were," said the fox. "You throw your hatchet so far that you cannot fetch it back again."