So summer has flown by,
Soon autumn and winter will come.
The snake began to ponder:
"I haven't got a fur coat!
All the animals have warm fur,
I've only got skin — what a laugh!"
And she sighed on the little hill.
Her thoughts were bitter.
Past came the beautiful fox,
Carrying her russet fur coat.
The snake hissed after her:
"Oh, how I wish it were mine!"
The wolf heard her cry of anguish
And said to her: "Don't be silly!
You can't swim in a fur coat —
You'd tear your body apart.
We animals need fur coats,
Because winter is hard for us.
Fur protects us in the frost,
It's like a shield against the cold!
But you sleep in your burrow all winter
Beneath this little hill here.
You don't need fur at all,
Any more than a hearty supper whilst hibernating".
This tale has a moral:
"Envy is bad, my friend".
