“Where?” Vovka thought for a while and then laughed. “You won’t believe it, but the point is in the hat! She made them very small and put on her hat; she couldn’t place them anywhere else.”
“Good gracious!” whistled the Wolf.
Cheese-eater wasn’t too modest, “Our Cheese Fairy can anything do, and will help everybody, too.” She became silent for a second and then added, “And you are not that simple as well. Will you give us a ride, the grey one?”
“Why not?” exclaimed the Wolf lively. “You are talking sense. Have a seat on my back. The more, the merrier! I’ll give you a great ride.”
“What kind of a ride?” the repented Villain didn’t understand.
“Don’t worry, a good one. Only take off your snout and antlers or we’ll be laughed at.”
“Oh,” remembered Vovka, taking other fruits out of his pocket. “Please, take them!”
“No way!” The quasi-scientist jumped aside.
“Eat them up and you’ll be better,” advised Cheese-eater.
“Do you think so?” The Villain was hesitating. Then he touched the antlers one more time, sighed and took an orange. Vovka felt sorry for him; the hands of the former Villain were shaking when he was peeling the orange.
“I’ll try,” he said and had some segments.
Nothing happened and he ate the whole orange up. And then an unpredictable thing happened; in addition to his queer appearance he had also got long grey donkey’s ears! At first he didn’t understand what was going on. He touched his nose, then his head and let out a loud yell.
“It’s because of you! You did it on purpose!”
“No, it’s an accident, and I am sorry for it. I gave you the wrong fruit. Here you are.” And Vovka took the rest of the fruits out of his pockets.
The unhappy Villain looked at them suspiciously. Then sighed deeply and took everything.
“The worst has already happened,” said he and started eating the fruits without choosing. When he had them all, his nose and head became his own again, and he touched them happily.
Finally, all of them were seated on the Wolf’s back and he let out a sound of satisfaction; he was really glad to give them a ride again.
“Are we too heavy for you?” asked the Villain, holding both sheep in his arms.
“One can’t back out once he’s begun. Yoo-hoo! Let’s get a move on!”
How great it was to ride on the Wolf’s back among the forests and fields! It was much more pleasant than before. Now the task was fulfilled, and though Vovka was a little troubled with the thoughts about returning home, he felt at ease and was much happier. It was so funny to look at the dumb-founded apology quasi-scientist, who had difficulty with finding appropriate words for all that and was riding with his mouth wide open. Had he really wanted to sell someone all this beauty, friendship and joy? Now the Villain was almost ashamed of his blindness. How could it happen that he hadn’t seen the most important things, though he had been living long and read fairy-tales when he was a child? As for Vovka, he was looking into Cheese-eater’s bright eyes that were filled with delight and thought that she would ride the Wolf more often now. And though this adventure had been great and wonderful, Vovka was glad that it was coming to an end. When he saw Curdfritter sitting on the porch, he felt sad, thinking that maybe he wouldn’t see him again, but still realized that most of all he wanted to go home.
