This was a fox. She was a smartly dressed auburn beauty who, gracefully swaying her hips and waving her fluffy tail, moved slowly along a narrow forest path. The beauty's character was the complete opposite of her outward appearance.
Her cunning and deceitfulness were so unbearable that all the forest dwellers tried to avoid meeting her. The fox walked along, clearly looking for someone. Yes, she intended to meet anyone at all, just to lift her spirits, which had been rather low since morning.
Mood... Suddenly the beauty noticed that for some time the male fox had not admired her charm, her new beautiful clothes, so carefully chosen to suit her slender figure, nor paid her compliments. On the contrary, he had begun to make rather silly and absurd remarks, such as "...a home is empty without little chubby fox cubs" and "...the house doesn't smell of a proper housewife...".
"Foxes grow foolish with age!" she decided, but her mood...
The fox had her best remedy for melancholy: to deceive someone, lead them astray, or simply gossip. Alas, the path was empty, the forest seemed deserted.
Suddenly the grass rustled, and a snake appeared on the path. Her appearance was so unexpected that the fox involuntarily flinched, but, quickly recovering, straightened up, displaying her slender figure, and immediately began to speak:
Greetings, wisest of the wise! How delighted I am to meet precisely you! Of course, I'm in quite a hurry, but to speak with you is an honour for every forest dweller. You know... They say that at the market there have appeared well-fed hens and turkeys, and I do fancy something tasty! Let's go together and have a grand time!
The fox was afraid of losing her interlocutor, spoke in a rush and this made her even more attractive. Without pausing for a moment, she somehow quickly shifted her monologue to personal matters, as if hurrying to express everything that had accumulated in her passionate soul.
At last, the flushed beauty blurted out almost everything that tormented her proud fox heart. She waited a moment and, hearing no reply, continued her monologue a bit more slowly:
But since you've crossed my path, tell me, why are all "husbands" such bores? My intended has long been trying to turn me into a dowdy housewife, grubby and wanted by no one. But no!
The fox lifted her nose.
I'm still young and beautiful to be sitting in a burrow...
Snakes, as we know, are indeed distinguished by wisdom and few words.
Such is life,
she said.
Any merriment will eventually end, and we shall be left alone with our conscience. And no one escapes this difficult conversation, no one.
These words, spoken into the void, were not preachy and did not provoke a storm of protest in the fox's wilful heart, but something stirred in the proud creature's soul, an unknown force made her sit down on the nearest tree stump.
The bedizened beauty no longer wanted to display her clothes, go anywhere, see anyone or chatter endlessly...
Nor did she wish to rejoice in others' misfortunes.
Slowly the fox made her way home, put on a simple modest coat and set about cleaning her long-neglected burrow...
