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The mouse had to turn to the root.

– “Yes, I am strong”, – replied the root. “And the plow cannot cut me another time. But a mouse, even the smallest one, can chew me up very easily. So the mice are stronger than me.”

– “Aha!” – exclaimed the mouse. “So, there's no one stronger than us, mice!”

So he married a simple mouse.

The goat and the hare

Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. They had a daughter. They had only one goat out of their livestock.

One day the old man left home and instructed his daughter to take the goat to the steppe and graze her to its fullest.

The girl drove the goat to the steppe, grazed her and then brought her home. In the evening the old man asked the goat how she had been grazing. The goat answered that it was bad. Then the old man sent his daughter away from home.

The next day the old man gave his wife the task of grazing the goat. She drove the goat, grazed her and brought her home in the evening. The old man asked the goat how she had been grazed. She said that the old woman had grazed her in a bad manner too. The old man chased his wife out of the house.

On the third day the old man changed his clothes and sent the goat to graze. He grazed her well, and the goat ate enough grass. In the evening he brought the goat home, dressed in his old clothes and asked the goat how the old man had grazed him. The goat said about the old man that he had grazed her in a bad manner too and she had not had enough grass.

So, the old man tied the goat with ropes and went out to sharpen his knife to slaughter her. While he was sharpening the knife, the goat broke the ropes and ran into the forest. In the forest the goat went into the hare's house and climbed on the stove. In the evening the hare came home, saw the goat and was afraid to enter the house. He sat down at the threshold and began to cry.

A bear passed by and asked him:

– “Why are you crying?”

The hare told him about his grief and the bear sat down beside him. A wolf appeared and asked the hare: