“I don’t like it. I am a mature wolf, and though you are bright, you’re too young to fight. I’ll attack the robber and you may sit on a tree stump and have rest.”
“Oh, how true the saying is that strength without sense is of a great expense! You will lose anything that you have found.” Cheese-eater shook her head. “What am I to do with you, the grey one? If it hadn’t been this little boy, we would never have guessed that it was a man dressed up as a wolf. And we wouldn’t have known where to look for him. The robber is not as strong as you are, but he is clever. He will cheat you! Remember, how often you were deceived by a fox. Let Vova go, he’ll see through this man’s cheating. And you’ll come for help and defend him.”
“All right, let’s do it this way,” agreed the Wolf. He was aware of his lack of quick wits. “We’ll do as you say.”
They separated, and Vovka with Cheese-eater on his shoulder bravely walked down the path, straight to the deserted Baba Yaga’s house. As for the Wolf, he plunged into the bushes and began quietly creeping along the road.
The forest became darker, the air smelled of dampness and rot.
“Baba Yaga wasn’t used to taking away the garbage; she always lived among the rubbish,” whispered Cheese-eater.
“I got it,” nodded Vovka. “This place needs to be cleaned up. You’ve got to organize a Volunteers’ Day or something.”
“But what is it and how can we do this?”
“It’s cleaning up a certain territory – near a house where you live or near a school you go to, in a park where you walk or in a forest where you go skiing in winter. They arrange about cleaning up together and come at the time agreed with shovels, brooms and carts for garbage. Some people bring watering-cans and flower seeds, others dig in swings and benches. They work fast and all together. But the main thing is that everybody gets cheerful, because only those come, who want to make their courtyard or forest lovelier and cleaner.”
“Oh, you are telling such good things!” Cheese-eater became sad. “It’s so dirty here, and we thought that Baba Yaga should do the cleaning. But, as you say, we can do this, because we live here, in this fairy-tale land.”
And then their talk came to an end, because they saw a ramshackle, lop-sided house. The smoke was coming out of the chimney on a rotten roof that sank to one side. There were scattered things near the house, and among old rusty iron pots Vovka saw several bells.
