The Pike and the Cat
A conceited Pike took it into its head to exercise the functions of a cat. I do not
know whether the Evil One had plagued it with envy, or whether, perhaps, it had
grown tired of fishy fare; but, at all events, it thought fit to ask the Cat to take it
out to the chase, with the intention of catching a few mice in the warehouse.
"But, my dear friend," Vaska says to the Pike, "do you understand that kind of
work? Take care, gossip, that you don't incur disgrace. It isn't without reason that
they say: 'The work ought to be in the master's power.'"
"Why really, gossip, what a tremendous affair it is! Mice, indeed!
Why, I have been in the habit of catching perches!"
"Oh, very well. Come along!"
They went; they lay each in ambush. The Cat thoroughly enjoyed itself; made a
hearty meal; then went to look after its comrade. Alas! the Pike, almost destitute
of life, lay there gasping, its tail nibbled away by the mice. So the Cat, seeing
that its comrade had undertaken a task quite beyond its strength, dragged it back,
half dead, to its pond.
Trishka's Caftan
Trishka's caftan was out at the elbows. But why should he ponder long over it?
He took to his needle, cut a quarter off each sleeve: so mended the elbows.
The caftan was all right again, only his arms were bare for a quarter of their
length. That is no great matter, but every one is always laughing at Trishka. So
Trishka says:
"I'm not a fool. I'll set this affair straight also. I'll make the sleeves longer than
they were before. They shall see Trishka is no mere commonplace fellow."
So he cut off the skirts of his caftan, and used them to lengthen his sleeves.
Then Trishka was happy, though he had a caftan which was as short as a
waistcoat.