Another Piece of Real Life Humour This happened in my father's home village in the country. It is a great story, so I share it with you because, alas, my father is with God and cannot tell this story anymore. He heard it directly from the hero of the following events. It was winter and, being after Christmas and before new Year's Eve, there were a lot of weddings in all the villages. And Ionica was famous in the area for his fiddle playing. He made a lot of money playing at weddings. After one wedding, in a farther village, Ionica accepted a ride back in a horse-pulled sledge. The man with the sledge didn't go exactly in Ionica's village. So, when the roads parted, Ionica got off with his fiddle and decided to take a shortcut through the forest. And you know the stories they tell about wolves in the winter... Well, our Ionica was no brave fellow. It was night, he was alone in the forest... And suddenly, he saw something moving. It seemes to spring towards him and then jump back. "Wolf!" poor Ionica thought and he felt his knees turn to cotton. But he remembered that one can frighten away a wolf with noises. He had his fiddle. So, Ionica started playing on his fiddle. The wolf seemed to move back, but as soon as Ionica stopped playing, the wolf moved forward to him. What could Ionica do, but keep on playing? So, he gave his longest and probably best performance for the sake of his dear life! Dawn came and with it the first rays of the winter sun. Ionica looked ahead of him and started laughing. He sat down and laughed and laughed. For, right in front of him, moving to and fro, was a bush! A bush with its roots half pulled from the earth! Ionica had spent all the night playing his fiddle to a bush! -------------------- I dedicate this funny story to the memory of my father, and also to the memory of Ionica who is probably playing his fiddle in Heaven, too. I believe God forgave him a few sins for the sake of this very funny night.