The Wolf and the Seven Little Mountain Goats

Once upon a time, on a faraway mountaintop, there was an old mother mountain goat with seven children. One day, the mother mountain goat wanted to go to the forest to get some food. She called the seven little mountain goats over and said to them, "My children, you all must be very careful. The big gray wolf of the mountain is very tricky. He often disguises himself as other animals." The little goats said, "Okay, Mother. We promise we will be careful." Only then was the mother mountain goat satisfied, and she left to get some food.

After a while, someone came knocking at the door and a voice said, "Please open the door, my children. The seven little mountain goats all knew the big grey wolf had come and did not open the door for him. Instead they answered loudly, "Mother's eavoice is sweet and gentle!" The wolf quickly escaped into the forest and ate some dirt to make his enp softer. Then he thought to himself, "Now the seven little mountain goats won't be able to escape me!"

The big grey wolf then returned to knock on the door and said, "Open the door, my children! Your mother is home!" But the little mountain goats saw the wolf's black paws from the doorway and said together, "Mother does not have black paws. You are the wolf!"

The wolf rolled his eyes and thought, "I have another idea." He ran to the bread shop and used some dough to cover his black paws, then sprinkled flour on top. Before long, his black paws had become white. The wolf chuckled to himself, "This time they won't get away!"

The third time the wolf came to the mountain goats' house, he said, "Open the door. Your mother is back!" The little mountain goats told the wolf he had to show them his paws before they would let him in. The wolf stuck his paws into the window. The seven little mountain goats saw that the paws were white and thought that the wolf was telling the truth. They went to open the door.

As soon as they had opened the door, the wolf leapt in. The seven little mountain goats were all very frightened. Some of them ran and some of them jumped. They all tried to find places to hide, but they had no hope of escaping the tricky wolf. The wolf found each one of them and swallowed them down. Only the very littlest mountain goat was still left, because he had not yet been found.

After the mother mountain goat returned, she saw that her house was a mess. She kept calling and calling her children by their names but only the very littlest mountain goat came out. The littlest mountain goat told his mother about everything that had happened.

The mother mountain goat then went outside and saw the wolf sleeping underneath a tree. She also saw that there was something moving in his stomach. The mother mountain goat took a pair of scissors to cut open the wolf's stomach, and let all the little mountain goats out one by one. Then they all threw the wolf down the well.

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See the original, written in Chinese by Shen Hua Yu (Junior grade 1, class 2)

Translated into English by Liu Hai Bo (Junior grade 3, class 1), Ni Li (Junior grade 3, class 1), and Amy Chen

See this page in Tibetan