There were only two of them left in this huge house at the other end: Mitya's grandfather, who was about ninety years old, and his great-grandson, Dzemka, who was about eight years old. The once large family was mercilessly scattered by the war. Some died of diseases, some did not return from the front, and some remained in foreign lands.
When the chairman of the collective farm asked the old man to hire a team of electricians who were hauling wires through the village to a new farm, the grandfather readily agreed to help. And so half of the house was empty.
And one day, the guests, returning from work in the evening, poured four tiny cubs out of the bag onto the floor. They were cutting a clearing and came across a wolf's lair. They brought the kids home in the hope that their grandfather would tell them what to do with them. And while the little gray lumps were blindly poking each other in the sides and whining plaintively, the grandfather told how it was. All the locals knew that in the forest, not far from the village, there was a wolf's lair. The gray one settled there before the war. They were still living side by side in harmony, but Grandfather doesn't know what will happen now that her cubs have been taken away.
At dawn, the team went back to work. Grandfather Mitya called his grandson and said:
– I didn't close my eyes all night, I kept thinking about how to deal with the brood. And in the morning I heard howling outside the village. The wolf noticed the loss. And, therefore, it is necessary, Zemka, to put the cubs back in the bag. Throw him on my back-such a burden is heavy for me-and let's go with you, having prayed to God, together to the lair. Anu won't touch us with a wolf.
His granddaughter was afraid, but he did not dare to object to jozu. Let's go now. At the den, Dzemka carefully shook out the cubs onto a spruce shylnik. The grandfather looks around, ready to defend himself and his granddaughter with a cane. And the she–wolf was right there, but she didn't rush at the people, just stared intently, sniffed the air, and then she came up to the cubs and fell on her side - the kids immediately got to their bellies, they were obviously hungry overnight.…
So the people and the animal peacefully dispersed.
It's been five or six years. Just before Pilipay, my grandfather died. And then one day it fell to Dzeme with a wagon train to go to the fair, to take a couple of dozen eggs and dried mushrooms to sell or exchange for warm clothes.
The guy slowed down, he started playing around the city, and the day was shorter at that time, it was dark, but as luck would have it, a blizzard swirled. There was no way to turn back: the guy was already halfway to the village. To get my feet stuck in snowdrifts, I fell several times. And suddenly Dzemka realized that he was lost in an impenetrable mess. He even burst into tears…
Then, sitting by the warm stove of a neighbor, a distant relative, he told me that wolves had driven him to the outskirts through a blizzard and bad weather. There were five of them: four huge wolves and an old she-wolf. At first, the guy heard a howl, then he noticed I was standing nearby, and he thought death had come.
– But the gray ones didn't touch me, they walked on my sides, as if they were guiding me. And the wolf in front kept looking around, as if calling for her. So they took me to the fence of the last house. And as the dogs began to tear the chains, the wolves disappeared, as if they had melted into the confusion, as if they had not been there. Probably, these are the four cubs that my grandfather and I are trying to take to their lair in the forest," the guy finished his story.
Plucking baked potatoes among the coals, Dzemka said softly:
–You're a fierce beast, and you've repaid your kindness with kindness." It's not what happens with people, it's different with people," and crossing himself, he added: Their soul inclines to evil more, forgive me, Lord.