“Talk business and not about our miseries,” reproached the cat Cheese-eater. “I will explain it all and you, Vova, eat some more. Many men, many minds, one head is not the same as many ones.”
And Vovka began to listen.
“We lived happily, worked not lazily. The cheese-maker was the Fairy and we helped her at the dairy. A fairy-tale is fast to flow; the story itself is rather slow. We had to work hard to provide all the fairy-tales with milk, cottage cheese, sour-cream, cheese and butter, warm clothes and felt boots made of our sheep’s wool. The sun rises early, and so did we in the morning. When you’ve got cows, goats and rams, there is no time for idle hands. Our herds are magic, of course. Still, we’ve got a lot to do. All the cows, goats and sheep need to be fed and watered. If you spare the food, you’ll have no milk. In summer you need to lead the animals to the pasture. Our sheep are so clever that they go all by themselves early in the morning and are in stalls by night. In winter it’s quite different, though. Summer gets, winter spends. Hay-makers prepare hay and then cart-drivers from all the fairy-tales bring it to this place. And then, when summer comes again, everything goes in its usual way. All the animals go to the pasture and graze there.
Something strange happened, though, not long ago. A cow hadn’t come back home, we thought it might have lost its way. But then there was another one, then the third one. At first we thought about a wolf or a bear. But no bear can a cow steal, if it’s not alone in the field. If you stole a cow, get a pail, for you must of it take care. So, we were the worst fearing, and the cows and sheep kept disappearing. Oh, how much we pitied them! They may be only animals for you, but for us they were like human beings, so sweet and kind. The Cheese Fairy was by these losses distressed, but where they’d come from couldn’t guess. There was some talk that a wolf was the one to blame. But all the wolves belong in their own fairy-tales; they would never do a thing like that. So, this can be only a stranger. The cows become less in number; soon our fairy-tales will suffer from hunger. Everything in the stories will go wrong, so little children will read them no more.
The Cheese Fairy went away to find out who could be responsible for these outrageous things, but then she was gone, too. Without her the food we make is not that tasty and the clothes are not so warm. She had a special magic talent, but Curdfritter and I this work cannot handle. We had been waiting for her, but you appeared – maybe, to send you was her idea?”
