Once upon a time, there lived

a grey-bellied wolf. What a hungry

gobbler that wolf was! He ate
everything he found in the forest,
and set out to the nearby village
to find some food.
The poor thing roams and rumbles
around the village, but all of the
gates are under lock and key.
There is no way to get inside the
homes whatsoever. In addition,
there are dogs, savage and vile,
waiting impatiently at guard.
What a predicament!
The Wolf is ready to howl with
disappointment and despair. He steps
closer to the farthest house, stands
by the window and pricks up his ears.
Meanwhile, in the house, a little
girl is whining and crying, bawling
and screaming, and there was no
way to calm her.
The Grandma runs around
her in circles, trying to
comfort her, to entertain
her, but all in vain. In
desperation, she resorts
to scaring the little whim:
“Hush, or I will give
you away to the wolf!”
“Dear Wolfie, dear grey Wolfie, come
take the little Ustya away!”
The Wolf becomes so happy when he
hears this that he gets ready to eat the
child. He thinks that the woman will
hand it over to him through the window.
 Little Ustya gets scared,
and calms down. The woman
starts to console her:
“Ustya, my smart little child,
if you don’t cry, I won’t
give you to the wolf”.
Then, she begins to chase the grey-haired
Wolf away: “Go away, you ill-willed wolf!
What a trickster you are! You wanted to
eat our little Ustya. Run, run away, or
I will take an iron poker and use it on
those ribs of yours!”
The Wolf gets scared and
flees far away from the house.
While he escapes, he keeps
thinking to himself:
“Why do they call people
smart? They say one thing, and
do completely the opposite.
Fool, this is what they are!”
A Wolf by the Window
A Ukrainian folk tale

Illustrations by Nataliia Kashchak

Translation by Oleksandra Yatsyna
Copy editor Oksana Lushchevska
Designer Mykola Kovalchuk
Adaptation by Lydia Kravchenko
Senior editor Kateryna Perkonos

Publishing House MAMINO

4/39A, Yuriy Popravka Str., Kyiv, 02094, Ukraine
mamino.com.ua
maminopublishing@gmail.com

© Publishing House MAMINO, 2019

© Nataliia Kashchak, illustrations, 2017