Once upon a time there were three billy goats,
who were to go up to the hillside to make themselves fat, and the
name of all three was “Gruff.” On the way was a bridge
over a river they had to cross; and under the bridge lived a great
ugly troll. Perhaps you remember the tale of how the smallest goat
crossed the bridge by tricking the hungry troll into waiting for
the next larger goat, and likewise the middle-sized goat, until
finally the largest goat tramped onto the bridge and put an end to
the troll. Goats of the Gruff family were stubborn and would never
retreat, not even if a nasty troll was in the way. But they were
also clever enough to think their way around such an
obstacle.
With the bridge made safe, the goats crossed
back and forth as they pleased. They made themselves very fat and
had many kids. Seasons passed and then one day the river rose in a
great flood. The bridge was washed away. Afterwards nothing was
left but a few stones lying in the river; and the number of stones
was seven.
The goats soon discovered that they could cross
the river easily enough by hopping on the stones. For example, a
goat could hop from the west shore to the first stone, then from
the first stone to the second stone, from the second stone to the
third stone, and so on through each of the stones, until finally
hopping from the seventh stone to the east shore. A goat could
cross the river in the other direction by hopping through the
stones in the reverse order.
In fact, the stones were not separated from each
other by any great distance, so from stone to stone even the
smallest goat could leap completely over one intermediate stone;
and this was true even if another goat happened to be standing on
the intermediate stone. Sometimes several goats would cross the
river at the same time, hopping from shore to stone, from stone to
stone, or in a great leap from one stone over a goat to the stone
after. Although the goats were very sure-footed, the stones were
too small to permit more than one goat to stand on the same stone
at the same time. And no goat was strong enough to leap over more
than one stone.
One day a group of three small goats approached
the river from the west at the same time as another group of three
large goats approached from the east. The three goats from the west
hopped out onto the three stones nearest to the west shore. The
three goats from the east hopped out onto the three stones nearest
to the east shore. And the name of all six was
“Gruff.”
A pause ensued. Then, one goat hopping at a
time, the groups passed through each other until the small goats
occupied the three stones nearest to the east shore and the large
goats occupied the three stones nearest to the west
shore.
And the goats continued to thrive. The cache is
at offset 016130354559415.
