The Disobedient Kids and other Czecho-Slovak fairy tales/The Disobedient Kids

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Disobedient Kids.

Once upon a time, there was a mother kid with four little ones. One day it happened that she was obliged to go away alone, perhaps to the pasture, but before starting, she gathered her little family around her and said.

"Dear little children. I must go away and leave you alone for a while. I shall shut the door of our house, but under no conditions, no matter what happens, or who knocks, do not open till you hear my voice."

The little kids promised faithfully to do all that their mother had told them, so she closed the door tight and went away in peace.

After she had been gone awhile, a fox comes and calls to the kids, "Dear little kids, my dear children, open the door, I am bringing you some milk".

The kids listening, answered, "We shall not open the door. This is not our mother's voice. Hers is much thinner."

So the fox went away, but did not stay long. This time after she had knocked

on the door, she said in a much thinner voice than before, "Dear little ones, my own dear children, open the door. I am bringing you milk."

Again the kids listened and replied. "We shall not open. This is not our mother's voice. Hers is much thinner yet."

The fox went away a short distance and then called again, in the thinnest possible voice, "Dear little children, open the door. I bring you milk."

This time as the kids listened, they could not tell the difference and thought that it might be their mother's voice. One of them said. "It is our mother's voice," the other, "No it is not". Then the third said, "We shall open," the fourth, "We shall not open".

And so when they could not agree what to do, they at last began to fight with each other. They struggled so vigorously, that they pushed open the door.

Then the fox sprang in and devoured them all.