“Look!” whispered Cheese-eater. “They belonged to our cows. Where does he keep them?”
“This we are going to find out,” said Vovka decidedly and went to the house. He lifted his hand to knock, but then thought that one shouldn’t knock at the enemy’s door, so that the enemy could not get ready. Vovka pushed a small door, stooped and came inside.
The first thing Vovka and Cheese-eater saw when they entered a small, poorly-lit and mouldy room was a wolf. Speaking more precisely, it was a wolf’s skin. It was hanging on a stand near the door, and on a hook for hats there was a well-made mask of a wolf’s head. It was made so carefully that one couldn’t see the difference between this mask and a real wolf.
Near the stove, with his back to the door there stood a man. He was small and skinny, with uncut, uncombed, dirty and entangled hair. His clothes were untidy, too. He was busy with counting something, mumbling aloud figures and making notes in a tattered notebook. Everything in this shabby house was cluttered up; there were heaps of dirt, old things and clothes everywhere. Two skinny sheep were lying on the floor. They were either sleeping or very hungry, probably too weak to raise their heads. Vovka looked around carefully, trying to see where the rest of the stolen animals were, but there was no one else in the house. Cheese-eater forgot about their agreement and couldn’t help asking angrily, “So, that’s it! The Wolf is blamed, but the robber is Mister Unknown named! The Wolf is called a thief, but a neighbour is doing all the mischief! Before that the Wolf was the only one to play tricks, but you deprived him of that.”
The stranger jumped up, because he didn’t expect to see them, and Cheese-eater burst out laughing.
“He is looking behind like a wolf that is trying to see its tail. Brave before a lamb, but a lamb before the brave!” And then she said to Vovka in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid, little sparrow, fight the crow!”
The robber of the sheep finally turned around and sighed with relief, when he saw only a boy with a mouse on his shoulder.
“You’ve got a loud voice, ah? I was almost scared. Did they teach you at school that you shouldn’t walk alone in the forest?” he asked Vovka. Evidently, the robber calmed down and wasn’t taking his opponents seriously. Vovka was carefully examining him and couldn’t understand how such an untidy, but quite an ordinary man was able to get to a fairy-tale land. Why did he steal the fairy-tale sheep, goats and cows? And where had he hidden them? Also, where was the Cheese Fairy? There were many questions, but no answers. Vovka decided to ask them, no matter what might happen afterwards.
