: An old lynx steals food in a forest hut, whose inhabitants are seriously ill. One of them, a fifteen-year-old boy, decides to repulse the lynx, wounds it with a jail, and the predator dies.

Fifteen-year-old Thorburn Alder (Thor) recently recovered from a serious illness, and his relatives sent him to visit a friend, Roots, who lived in a forest hut, hoping that a primitive life would enhance the boy’s health. Roots was the eldest son in a large family. To start his own farm, he rented a plot in the forest and built a house of uncut logs with an earthen floor and a small basement for storing potatoes.

Every day, Roots worked on arable land, his two adult sisters ran a farm, and Thor wandered through the woods with a gun. He didn’t shoot well, so Roots rarely ate in the house.

In the depths of the forest, in the trunk of a large willow that fell and decayed from within, an old lynx with small lynxes lived. Last fall, pestilence exterminated all the rabbits, many partridges died in the cold and snowy winter, and rivers spilled during the long and rainy spring, so that frogs and fish became inaccessible. Lynx was starving, she did not have milk for weak lynxes.

Once a lynx came across Roots on the house, which she mistook for a huge beaver hut. Near this strange hut, she saw birds that looked like big partridges - chickens.Lynx caught a chicken and ate for the first time in many days and fed the lynx.

That summer, Thor several times saw an old lynx not far from home. Once he saw a doe, who was looking for her cub, and then found a clearing with a fallen willow, where he came across a lynx and an old lynx, dragging the children of a killed doe cub. The gun of Thor was loaded with shot, and he did not dare to shoot at a lynx.

The old lynx knew and hated people. She watched them at night, tracked them, ran away from them, and one day they wounded her.

Six weeks later, Roots fell ill with a fever. Ten days later, he decided to return to his parents' house so that his mother would put him on his feet. Thor stayed with the sisters Roots. Soon, all three also fell ill with a fever and fell ill.

After a week, only Thor could get out of bed briefly. He hardly brought water and once a day fed the girls. Roots, confident that they were doing well, did not return. Thor soon discovered that someone had stolen their products. From the food there were only hens. A weakened boy could not catch a chicken, had to shoot it with a gun.

Chicken broth lasted for three days. Then Thor again took up his gun, in which only three charges remained. To the surprise of the boy, out of the twelve hens that used to roam around the barn, only four remained - someone stole birds. Three days later, Thor used all the charges to kill the last remaining chicken.

When leaving, Corney advised, if there was not enough food, to go by boat to a neighbor, but Thor did not have the strength to row. For days the sick lay shaking with fever, and starvation loomed ahead.

One night, the Torah was awakened by a strange sound, like a splash of water. Turning his head, he saw a large animal lapping water from a bucket. It made its way into the hut through the basement.

In the afternoon, Thor, as he could, blocked the entrance to the basement with logs, but at night the beast appeared again and devoured the remains of the chicken. This time the boy realized that an old lynx had come to walk with them, gathered up courage and managed to drive her away.

He knew that the beast would return, and return hungry. He will not find food - why is it easier then to tackle living prey, helplessly lying in front of him?

The cartridges were long gone, and in the evening Thor laid a torch and an old prison near his bed.

One night the old lynx returned. This time, Thor failed to scare her away - the beast decided to attack. The boy quickly lit a splinter, the lynx was frightened of the fire and hid under the bed. Then Thor hit the lynx with a jail and with all his might laid down his arms. The lynx rushed and jumped out the window, and the boy lost consciousness.

In the morning, Roots recovered. Soon, care and good nutrition put Thor and the girls on their feet.

Two months later, Roots needed a new barrel, and Thor took him to a clearing with a fallen willow. Having sawed off a necessary piece of wood, friends saw a dead lynx in the depths of the hollow with a fragment of a harpoon in its side, and next to it were the dried bodies of two lynxes.

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