"See how it pours!" said she. "Radonic will have to wait till the rain is over."
Milena shuddered and crossed herself; she was more than ever convinced that the old woman was a mighty sorceress who had command over the wind and the rain.
"Well," began the _stari-mati_, "once a beautiful white dove had built her nest in a large tree; she laid several eggs, hatched them, and had as many lovely dovelets. One day, a sly old fox, passing underneath, began leering at the dove from the corner of his eye, as old men ogle pretty girls at windows. The dove got uneasy. Thereupon, the fox ordered the bird to throw down one of her young ones. 'If you don't, I swear by my whiskers to climb up the tree and gobble you down, you ----, and all your young ones.'
"The poor dove was in sore trouble, and, quaking with fear, seeing the fox lay its front paws on the trunk of the tree, she, flurried as she was, caught one of her little ones by its neck and threw it down. The fox made but a mouthful of it, grumbling withal that it was such a meagre morsel.
"'Mind and fatten those that are left, for I'll call again to-morrow, and if the others are only skin and bones, as the little scarecrow you've thrown me down is, you'll have, at least, to give me two.'
"The fox went off. The poor dove remained in her nest, mourning over her lost little one, and shuddering as she thought of the morrow. Just then another bird happened to perch above the branch where the dove had her nest.
"'I say, dove,' said the other bird, 'what's up, that you are cooing in such a dreary, disconsolate way?'
"The dove thereupon related all that had happened.
"'Oh, you simpleton! oh, you fool!' quoth the other bird, 'how could you have been so silly as to believe the sly old fox? You ought to have known that foxes cannot climb trees; therefore, when he comes to-morrow, ordering you to throw him down a couple of your little ones, just you tell him to come up himself and get them.'
"The day after, when the fox came for his meal, the dove simply answered:
"And the dove laughed in her sleeve to see the fox look so sheepish.
"'Who told you that?' said Reynard; 'you never thought of it yourself, you are too stupid.'
"'No,' quoth the dove, 'I did not. The bird that has built her nest by the sedges near the river told it me.'