Even in the forest, things happen once upon a time, and that's when this story takes place. In that time there was a Wolf prowling through the forest, sniffing under bushes and around trees, looking for his supper. He reached a long, ragged paw under a bush to look for a fat and lazy rabbit, and *!ka-chang!* - a hunter's trap snapped shut on his leg.

He howled, he moaned, he growled, he bit and clawed and pawed at the trap. But a trap designed by humans needs human hands to open. Wolf was trapped.

Angry and depressed, Wolf lay down in the leaves to stare at the trap on his paw. That night and a day and another night he lay in the brush. He lay so still and quiet that a Priest, out for a walk in the woods, did not notice the creature until he nearly stepped on him.

Now, the time of this story is a time when animals could sometimes talk, and that's what Wolf did. "Father, Father!" cried Wolf. "Help me. I am trapped. I'm in pain. Surely you cannot leave me to the mercy of the Hunter."

The Priest's first reaction was the same as yours - he started to run away. But Wolf was right. Father could not leave one of God's creatures to suffer.

"This is dreadful," the Priest said softly, both to himself and to Wolf. "I can't leave you, but if I set you free you will attack me."

"Oh, no!" cried Wolf. "I will not! I would never attack a man of God, not even a God I do not understand. I will be your pet, your slave. I will guard your house. You may ride on my back. Whatever you wish, I will give it my humble best!"

The Priest said nothing for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know. I never heard of a pet wolf. You're a huge and ancient creature. You're surely powerful and hungry."

Wolf howled in pain and fear. "I give you my solemn promise. Never will I harm you. And surely you have heard of the strength of a Wolf's promise? I am no common Wolf. I am a tender and gentle creature." Wolf nipped at the trapped foot and wept in pain.

No one had ever mentioned Wolf promises to the young Priest, and never had he heard of one being tender or gentle. But the animal's cries touched his heart, and he decided it was better to be kind than safe. Carefully gripping the sides of the steel trap, he pried it open.

"Free!" cried Wolf, snatching his sore paw from the jaws of the trap. "Free! And hungry!" With a single powerful move, he leapt onto the Priest, knocking him to the forest floor. Wolf planted his large gray paws in the Priest's chest.

"Fool," Wolf said to the frightened cleric. "I was looking for my supper when I stepped in that thing. And now it looks like I have found it!" The monster licked his lips.

"But," stammered the Priest, "you promised. You gave me the promise of a Wolf not to harm me."

Wolf poked his long gray muzzle in the Priest's face. "A Wolf's promise means much," said the creature, "when there is some one to force him to keep it. Who is here to force me?"

The Priest realized there was no arguing with the animal, and no pleading. Maybe, thought the Father, maybe he's open to a bargain. That's all that's left.

"I saved you. It's only fair that you give me at least a last request, a last wish."

Wolf narrowed his blue-gray eyes and stared into the Priest's face. "One wish," said Wolf without moving, "one wish only. And don't bother wishing that I get myself a salad for supper!"

"No, no. I wouldn't try to trick you. I only ask that you let me go - "

"Hah!"

"For a little while!" the Priest hastened to add. "Just for a little while. Let me walk through the forest and talk to the first three things I meet. If they all agree that what you want is fair, well, you win. I won't fight you."

Wolf knew that if they fought, he would probably win. But supper without a fight was better than with a fight. Besides, he knew the way of animals. "You must have heard of the tenderness of a wolf's mercy," Wolf said at last. "A failing, perhaps, but there it is. I will agree." Hairy paws lifted from the Priest's chest, and the man climbed to his feet.

"I thank you, brother Wolf," said the Priest, brushing leaves from his clothes.

Wolf lay down in the leaves. "You can thank me best by hurrying back." The shaggy creature yawned. "I wish to have my supper and then a long nap. Be quick with your questions."

The Priest nodded and walked off into the woods.

"I can talk," said a stunted, gnarled apple tree. "Not that anyone cares what I say."

"I care," answered the Priest. "I need to talk to you. Can you listen to my story?"

"What choice do I have?" answered the gloomy apple tree. "I can't leave."

Quickly, with as sad a face as he could muster, the Priest told the tree his tale. "And now, brother apple tree, I ask you - is the Wolf being fair? Is it fair that he should make a supper of me, who saved him?"

"Fair?" moaned the tree. "Nothing in this world is fair. Is it fair that my seed was dropped here in the dark part of the forest where these oaks and maples block the sun? Is it fair that I work so hard to produce what apples I can, and then birds and bugs come to eat them? I don't expect things to be fair. Why is it wrong for Wolf to have his supper? No, you must go back to him. Now go away."

With the breeze sighing slowly and mournfully through the leaves of the apple tree, the Priest walked further into the woods.

"You needn't shout." The dreary voice came from a cow, an old and gray cow. The beast stood next to a stone well, a pole strapped to her back. If she walked, the movement of the pole would draw water from the well into a wooden trough next to it. "I can hear you," she told the Priest.

"Sister cow," said the Priest quietly. "I would like to speak to you, if you have a moment to hear my story."

"I have the time," said the cow. "I have nowhere to go and nothing to do."

Again the Priest ran through his story, of how he had found and saved the Wolf and how Wolf had betrayed him. "So," he finished, "I ask you, beautiful cow, is it fair that the Wolf treats me like this?"

"Fair? Is it fair that I have to stay strapped to this pole, eating only the dry straw that children bring me instead of the good sweet grass? Is it fair that I have to draw water for the people who keep me trapped here? Fair that the children beat me with sticks because I don't walk fast enough? Fair that they might turn me into hamburger if I do not draw water to suit them?" The cow moped and chewed her cud for a moment. "If what has happened to me is fair, then certainly it is fair that the Wolf should have you for supper."

Though it was difficult for him to do it, the Priest thanked the tired old cow for her advice, and then walked away.

"Hullo?" mumbled a deep voice near his feet. "Hullo?"

The Priest opened his eyes and looked down. "Hello? Who's there?"

Out of the leaves by the creek hopped a Frog. "Hullo," croaked Frog. "And how are you, friend Human?"

"Not well at all, Frog."

Frog leaped up onto the log to sit beside the good Father. "Why, do tell me about it. I may be old and slow, but maybe a Frog's help is needed."

With no real hope, the Priest laid out his story for Frog. "And now," he said at the end, "I must ask you if you think Wolf is being fair by demanding to eat me for his supper."

Frog shifted his back legs nervously and flicked his tongue at nothing. "I don't think I understand," he croaked. "I am old and slow in the head. Could you explain it again?"

Slowly and carefully, the Father went through his story again, explaining that he needed Frog to decide how fair Wolf was being in his demand. Frog made a little hop and used his forelegs to wipe off his eyes. "Humph!" he croaked. "I still can't follow this. Your story makes no sense to me. Maybe you need to take me to Wolf. I will ask him about it myself."

The Priest realized that this was the third and final creature that he could ask about the fairness of Wolf's demand. Either way, he had to return to the Wolf. Might as well carry along an addle-minded Frog, he thought. Can't make things any worse. Standing, he picked up Frog. "Come on, friend," he said. "We'll go see Wolf."

"I still don't understand," mumbled Frog. And off they went.

"Not quite," answered the Priest. "The third, er, person I asked did not understand the question."

"What?"

"It's true." The Priest pulled Frog from a shirt pocket where he had been riding. He held the warty little animal out to Wolf. "Frog here does not understand the question."

"Brother Wolf," croaked Frog, "this human has told some tale about you and a trap and a thorn in your paw or something."

"A thorn? There was no thorn in my paw. Priest, tell Frog your story. Let me see what nonsense you have been spreading in the forest."

So the Priest recited his tale again. He told the truth, told it just as it happened, just as I have told it to you.

Frog snapped his tongue at a fly. "So, the Priest had his paw stuck in the trap, and I walked by -"

"No!" roared the Wolf. "I was in the trap, the Priest walked by and he found you later."

"So," said Frog calmly, "I was stuck in your paw, and you brought the Priest here with a magic trap. Is that it? I don't remember being in your paw."

"I thought I had eaten every type of idiot creature in this forest. But you, Frog, are the stupidest thing I have ever even heard of. The other Frogs will thank me if I make a dessert of you."

The Frog slowly shifted his back legs. He asked, "There was a dessert stuck in a trap the Priest set?"

Wolf howled and leaped about, snapping his great teeth in anger. "No, no, no! Look, look, look, you idiot. I will show you." Wolf ran a few feet away from them. "I was walking through the brush, looking through the bushes for my supper. I put my foot through here - " *!ka-chang!* The trap snapped shut on his paw again.

Frog snapped at a cricket and missed. "I think now I see. Yes, I think now I understand what happened. The Priest was kind, you were ungrateful. You were crafty, the Priest was honest. I was simple, you are trapped. I understand." Ignoring Wolf growls and howls and demands to be set free, Frog calmly shifted in the roadway to look at the Priest. "And now that I understand, do you think you could take me back to the creek."

The Priest bowed low to the little creature, and then picked him up from the road. "Of course, friend Frog. To do less would be ungrateful."

"As long as you understand," said Frog, and he settled into the Priest's pocket for the ride home.

Fin

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