Прыгоды з жыцця прыроды
Adventures from the life of nature
Вячаслаў Грамыка
Для сярэдняга школьнага ўзросту
Выдавец: Беларусь
Памер: 263с.
Мінск 2003
Stepan touched the reins. They started and Father stayed home.
He wasn't going to sleep in Kuzmich's house. The fact that he had to stay behind was quite unexpected. He couldn't fall asleep that night. Fully dressed he lay in bed until dawn not even closing his eyes, but there was no sledge in the morning nor did it come back in the afternoon.
As it turned out, the events that night were the following. The hunters passed the forest without adventures and approached the fields coming close to the forest just at the place where the Lame had been plundering most ruthlessly lately. The old man's assumption was true.
When father and Stepan were going to Kuzmich last morning the wolf saw them and followed them along the road though they didn't see him because of thick trees. In the quiet of the morning when the air was not filled with any strange sounds, the old wolf could hear the two men's voices well. They smelled of sweat and tobacco and tempting smell of sheepskin coats and onion. He couldn't feel any smell of arms or iron. He could hardly feel a slight smell of leather harness and worn-out bit, but it was easy to distinguish it from other more dangerous smells.
The wolf understood that if the people had no guns and they happened to come back late at night he could try and attack them. When it grew very dark, the Lame got out of the
forest and moved to the farthest farmsteads, which he hadn't visited for a week, the night was quiet and frosty. Only high in the sky there was the slice moon, and it wasn't very dark in the neighborhood, one could even see the shades of the houses and straw roofs of small pigsties in the distance.
The sledge slipped out of the forest almost noiselessly. At the brink of the forest where the vast field spread, the old man stopped the horse for a moment. Stepan was moved forward and Kuzmich took a seat in the middle of the sledge. To break the night silence and to attract the wolfs attention (he supposed that the beast was somewhere not far away), he cried three times as a hare that was trapped.
He did it in the following way. Putting the nail of his big finger to his closed mouth he breathed in the air quickly, and it made the sound, which one couldn't distinguish from the one made by the hare when in danger. You could never feel any falseness. Usually wolves responded to this appeal. The men stood waiting for some ten minutes and then started faster driving at high speed in the lonely winter field.
The night was very quiet, you could see only fields around. You could hear the sound of the restrained run of the sledge in the tense frosty air. It was impossible not to hear or notice it.
Suddenly, the hunters saw a distinctive shadow in the distance. It didn't come closer or fall behind at a greater distance, it moved in the same direction with the sledge.
The old man found the pig in the darkness and began to stir it, but the pig liked it and comfortably grunted in the sack. Then Kuzmich pulled it by the ear with great force and it started squeaking fearfully.
It didn't take the shadow much time to react to the appeal. The distance between the sledge and the shadow melted quickly. The old man stirred the pig once more and threw out the sack with hay. The sack was dragged at about 25 meters behind the sledge and the pig went on lamenting.
Now they could clearly see the figure of the old wolf. He wasn't a shadow any more, he appeared in his full frightening strength and might. The horse ramped several times and then galloped at once. She was frightened and tried to do her best to
ran away. So frightening and dangerous was the furious beast of prey.
“Keep, keep the horse, Stepan,” whispered Kuzmich in despair. “We must not spoil everything now.” The wolf was closer and closer. They could now see how he limped on the right foreleg a little. The wolf tried to seize the sack with his teeth. He must have believed that the pig was in there. But it was not yet the time to shoot him. It was necessary to beckon the Lame as close as possible for better aiming. Kuzmich took the rope and pulled it closer to the cart with great caution. Fully absorbed by the chase the wolf didn't notice it and only picked up speed. The old man shortened the rope again and only about five steps separated the sledge and the wolf now.
At that moment, Kuzmich leaving the rope alone, seized his gun quickly, took sight and, without delay, pressed the trigger.
The silence exploded as if after a rolling burst of thunder. The frightened horse pranced for a moment, then started with a jerk and Stepan couldn't hold the reins. The horse galloped straight without choosing the road and going astray. The sledge jumped on a big rut, made a steep turn, and, as a result, the gun flew out of Kuzmich's hands. He himself fell out of the sledge.
Until Stepan found his bearings the cart was two miles away from that place. In despair he didn't know which way to go. It was no use running to help Kuzmich now. It was also impossible to control the frightened horse. He held the horse by the bridle but she wouldn't turn back. She only pressed down her ears in dismay and strained at getting straight to the village.
The infuriated wolf, which was slightly wounded, got into rage. He attacked Kuzmich. But at first the old man managed to escape and jumped aside. Then the wolf rose to his back feet excelling the forester in height and mass. Now the latter looked small and helpless; there were only some moments left to do away with the old man.
But then unexpectedly the wolf jumped back a bit as if it was not convenient for him and then got ready for another rash aiming at the man’s throat now. The old forester had nothing to do but to sacrifice his left arm. Bending it in the elbow he calmly put it in front at the level of his head. The beast closed his jaws
on it with rage and force and leaned all his weight on the man bringing him down.
At the very last moment the old man managed to snatch out his sharpened hunting knife with the free hand. Its handle lay comfortably in his weak hand and then the sharp blade entered and drowned under the beast's left shoulder-blade. Kuzmich could only whisper “So that's over for you, villain, yokhamakha!” and absolutely exhausted he fell on the snow under the wolfs weight.
The old man regained consciousness about half an hour later when Stepan shook him by the shoulder. The latter had to leave the stubborn horse in the field and ran on the snow. Who could accuse him? He tried to do his best.
Kuzmich touched his left arm and couldn't believe it. It was his turn to be surprised now. The arm was not hurt. That was absolutely unbelievable: after being in the wolfs jaws it remained safe and sound!
The old man drew out his knife from under the dead body and opened the wolfs mouth with it. Once more he had to be surprised — the wolf had no teeth. In the dimness of the early morning they could clearly see practically bare red gums and only here and there worn out flat fangs were seen.
So it was clear now why the wolf had only strangled but not killed his victims with his teeth. The age told on him, too. But he fought for his life till the very last moment trying to feed on small poultry or food debris, which he took away from other animals swallowing them without chewing. And to the very last moment he never changed his villainous character. For need or not, he strangled pigs and sheep and attacked people until he got what he deserved.
THE MASTER OF THE DEEP POOLS
That mysterious cat-fish...
So many legends have been told about cat-fish! Many say they were all but witnesses when a cat-fish grabbed a duck or goose from the surface of the water whilst others claim they've seen cat-fish seize linen from women washing clothes or even that a large ram has been seized from the shore and dragged into a whirlpool.
Of course, these are all cock and bull stories, but you can't say that there isn't a grain of truth in it at all.
Even the appearance of a cat-fish isn't the same as other fish. Its body is large, rounded and fat at the bottom. The body tapers into a flat tail with two long fins.
The color if its body is almost black with a brown shade on its spine and on the flanks, it’s a bit lighter, with greenish tones and spots. But in the belly region, which constantly rubs against the bottom, the skin is yellowish or even white, covered with pale blue and pink spots.
The head is incredibly large (almost one third of the whole body), with a wide mouth that has long outgrowing whiskers on the upper jaw and two pairs of short ones on the lower jaw as well as small eyes — such is the colorful "‘portrait” of the ruler of the secretive lower depths. All this gives the cat-fish an image of some mysterious monster.
The size of cat-fish is indeed impressive. The biggest of them was caught in the last century in the river Oder. It weighed almost 25 poods (about 840 pounds).
They say that these days giant cat-fish can be found in a lake near the Serbian town of Bela-Tserkva. This lake is one of a system of seven reservoirs (lakes) for fish-farming. The lakes are ordinary lakes but, no matter how many small young fish they put in this one, it always remained empty. The local residents claimed that a monster that ate up all the fish lived here.
Ichthyologists carried out thorough investigations and confirmed: a big fish weighing 250 to 440 pounds lived in the lake. They decided to catch it. A special crew of fishermen was called in from the Danube. The local tourist company phoned every one they could to say that an interesting event was about to happen and more than 10,00 curious spectators arrived to the place of the expected catch.
When a sweep-net was cast, all further events looked more like a rope-pulling contest rather than catching a fish. Suddenly, in one place the water seethed and a huge cat-fish appeared on the surface. For several seconds it seemed to freeze there, then it made a sharp jump, and only shreds of the fishermen's nets remained on the surface of the water. The cat-fish came out victor. The local tourist company hadn't miscalculated: the tourists ate a large quantity of grilled chops, drank 30,000 bottles of drinks and the annual financial plan of the company was fulfilled in one day! The confusion of the failed fishermen wasn't shared by the tourists: their sympathies were with the cat-fish.
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