The Magic Cheese | страница 18

   “Well, if so, she may go. Only she is so small that won’t be of any help if you have to fight. And she will get tir-red soon; her paws are as small as a thimble.”

   “My paws may be slow, but my mind is not so! I won’t let him fight alone with some villains in a foreign land. Put me into your pocket, Vova, and take with you. I have small weight, but can be a great help.”

   “Splendid!” Vovka put Cheese-eater on his shoulder, so that she might look around. “The more, the merrier.”

   Curdfritter grumbled a little, but mostly because he didn’t want them to see how he was worried. He gave them a tiny magic table-cloth, and when Cheese-eater took it, it became smaller and smaller, until it was the size of a cedar nut. She put it into the pocket of her pinafore, and off they were to their journey.

   At first Cheese-eater took Vovka to the cattle-shed. The boy expected to see an untidy barn, but to his surprise it was a big wooden house.

   “In this mansion our cows live.” Cheese-eater was beaming with pride. “The sheep live there, the goats here, and there is a barn on the left. Well, well, give us the way!” she raised her voice at the young sheep, playing in front of the shed. “The Cheese Fairy told us to keep them in the barn, so that no one could to the forest run. And the babies are in a manger. You may have a look at them.”

   Cheese-eater easily climbed the pole, pushed the door-bolt and opened the door, inviting the boy to come in. It was light and tidy inside and one could smell a sweet scent of hay and fresh milk. In a far corner there was a fence with a door in it, where the babies were happily playing, jumping, butting each other and also sleeping. Some of the lambs, calves and kids were sucking bottles, and Vovka realized that their mothers had disappeared. On both sides of a wide passage there were stalls for grown-up animals, and many of them seemed deserted. In spite of all the cleanness and order, Vovka had a strange feeling of uneasiness. Too quiet, too tidy, too lonely it was for an inhabited house. There was a portrait in each stall, so one could guess who lived here – a cow, a bull, a sheep or a ram. Vovka thought that the animals on some portraits were looking at him pleadingly, as if asking, “Find us! Bring us back!” He turned around, saw the manger again and walked to the door decidedly. The babies needed their mothers and he would try to find them.