: A wolf who grew up on a chain loved only his master’s son. The boy died, the wolf escaped, but remained in the city, at the grave of a child. The wolf kept the city in fear, took revenge on a long-time offender and died in a raid.

The storyteller first met the Winnipeg Wolf in 1882 when he traveled by train to Winnipeg, a city in western Canada. There was a strong snowstorm, the train moved with difficulty, and passengers had to rake snow drifts on the rails.

At Winnipeg, the train went faster thanks to poplar groves that protected the tracks from snow. On a small clearing, the narrator saw a huge, gloomy wolf, defending itself from a whole flock of dogs of different colors.

Wolf? He seemed to me a lion. He stood alone - decisive, calm, with a bristled scruff and stiff legs apart - and looked here and there, ready to attack ...

While the train was passing by, the wolf managed to kill several dogs with one movement of powerful jaws. A few days later, the narrator heard the story of this strange beast called the Winnipeg Wolf.

In June 1880, Paul Derosch found a wolf den with eight wolf cubs in the forest.

For the dead wolf, you could get a reward, so Paul killed the she-wolf and seven wolf cubs. He left the last animal alive because of the belief that the murder of the last wolf cub in the brood brings misfortune.

The cub was bought by a greedy and cruel innkeeper. When the cub grew up, the innkeeper began to poison him with dogs for the fun of visitors. The life of a young wolf was hard. His only love was Jim, the little son of the innkeeper, who was affectionate with the wolf for having bitten a dog that bit the boy.

The wolf became the only defender for Jim - the boy was hiding in a wolf kennel from the beating of his father.

The clerk in the tavern was a timid, harmless Chinese. One day, Paul found a Chinese man in a tavern and demanded that he drink on loan. The Chinese refused, Paul rushed at him, but Jim put the violinist on the bandwagon and hid from retribution in the den of his faithful wolf.

Paul grabbed a long stick and began to beat the beast, but then he noticed that Jim was going to lower him from the chain, and left the inn. Getting older, the wolf increasingly hated smelling of alcohol and more and more loved children.

In the fall of 1881, there were especially many wolves in the vicinity of Winnipeg. To combat predators, the neighboring cattle breeders decided to buy a pack of huge Danish dogs from a visiting German. Dogs had to be tested, but the farmers could not find a single wolf for three days and bought a predator from the innkeeper for a lot of money.

Jim was sent to his grandmother, and the wolf was taken out of town, released and set two dogs on him. The wolf killed both dogs in a couple of minutes. The farmers prepared four more dogs, but at that moment a tearful Jim appeared, put on a thin lace around the wolf’s neck and took him home.

He called him "cute top", "dear top"; the wolf licked his face and waved his tail.

At the beginning of winter, Jim fell ill and died. During the illness, the wolf, with the permission of the innkeeper, was on duty at the boy’s bed, and when he died, he followed the funeral procession, plaintively howling to the ringing of bells. Soon, the innkeeper tried to put the wolf back on the chain.

The wolf escaped, but did not go into the forest, but remained in the city. Each time, hearing the ringing of bells, he began to howl sadly, mourning his only friend. Hearing this howl, all city dogs trembled with horror, but the wolf never offended children. It was then that the narrator saw the Winnipeg Wolf.

That same winter, a Renault trap settled with a daughter, Ninette, half Indian, in a log cabin by the river.

A few years later, Ninetta turned sixteen, she became a beauty.

The girl fell in love with violinist Paul. Reno drove off the swindler when he appeared to get married, but Ninetta was not going to give up her love and agreed to meet with Paul secretly in the forest.

Making her way through the snow to the meeting place, Ninetta noticed that a large gray dog ​​was following her.Seeing Paul, the “dog” that turned out to be the Winnipeg wolf rushed at him. Instead of saving the girl, Paul climbed a tree, and Ninetta had to run for help.

Meanwhile, Paul tied a knife to a long branch and managed to injure the wolf in the head, but he ran away only when he saw the approach of rescuers.

Despite cowardice, Ninetta continued to love Paul. They decided to run away and get married secretly. Paul was considered a good dog drover, as he was mercilessly cruel to them, and before the escape he undertook to take the goods to a nearby fort.

Paul did not return from this trip. In the wake of the scouts, among whom was Renault, they found out that a huge wolf attacked the violinist, killed him, and the dogs ate the corpse of his tormentor. Apparently, the Winnipeg wolf by the smell recognized the person who injured him. Renault was grateful to the wolf for saving his daughter from the villain.

After the death of Fields on the Winnipeg Wolf, a large round-up was organized, which gathered dogs from all over the city. After a long chase, the dogs surrounded the wolf. Three times he repelled their attacks until the hunters managed to shoot him.

They made a scarecrow from the body of the wolf for the Chicago exhibition. After the exhibition, it was returned to Winnipeg, where it burned down during a fire.

Who knows why the wolf stayed in the city when there were forests full of game around.

It is unlikely that he was obsessed with revenge: no animal will spend his whole life on revenge - this evil feeling is peculiar only to man. Animals crave peace.

Apparently, only love for Jim kept him in the city.Many years have passed, but the watchman of the church, where the boy was buried, still hears a wolf howl, accompanying the ringing of bells.

The retelling is based on the translation of N. Chukovsky.