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.