Part 10 (1/2)

STORIES FOR CHILDREN

THE FOUNDLING

A poor woman had a daughter by the name of Masha. Masha went in the morning to fetch water, and saw at the door something wrapped in rags.

When she touched the rags, there came from it the sound of ”Ooah, ooah, ooah!” Masha bent down and saw that it was a tiny, red-skinned baby. It was crying aloud: ”Ooah, ooah!”

Masha took it into her arms and carried it into the house, and gave it milk with a spoon. Her mother said:

”What have you brought?”

”A baby. I found it at our door.”

The mother said:

”We are poor as it is; we have nothing to feed the baby with; I will go to the chief and tell him to take the baby.”

Masha began to cry, and said:

”Mother, the child will not eat much; leave it here! See what red, wrinkled little hands and fingers it has!”

Her mother looked at them, and she felt pity for the child. She did not take the baby away. Masha fed and swathed the child, and sang songs to it, when it went to sleep.

THE PEASANT AND THE CUc.u.mBERS

A peasant once went to the gardener's, to steal cuc.u.mbers. He crept up to the cuc.u.mbers, and thought:

”I will carry off a bag of cuc.u.mbers, which I will sell; with the money I will buy a hen. The hen will lay eggs, hatch them, and raise a lot of chicks. I will feed the chicks and sell them; then I will buy me a young sow, and she will bear a lot of pigs. I will sell the pigs, and buy me a mare; the mare will foal me some colts. I will raise the colts, and sell them. I will buy me a house, and start a garden. In the garden I will sow cuc.u.mbers, and will not let them be stolen, but will keep a sharp watch on them. I will hire watchmen, and put them in the cuc.u.mber patch, while I myself will come on them, unawares, and shout: 'Oh, there, keep a sharp lookout!'”

And this he shouted as loud as he could. The watchmen heard it, and they rushed out and beat the peasant.

THE FIRE

During harvest-time the men and women went out to work. In the village were left only the old and the very young. In one hut there remained a grandmother with her three grandchildren.

The grandmother made a fire in the oven, and lay down to rest herself.

Flies kept alighting on her and biting her. She covered her head with a towel and fell asleep. One of the grandchildren, Masha (she was three years old), opened the oven, sc.r.a.ped some coals into a potsherd, and went into the vestibule. In the vestibule lay sheaves: the women were getting them bound.

Masha brought the coals, put them under the sheaves, and began to blow.

When the straw caught fire, she was glad; she went into the hut and took her brother Kiryusha by the arm (he was a year and a half old, and had just learned to walk), and brought him out, and said to him:

”See, Kiryusha, what a fire I have kindled.”

The sheaves were already burning and crackling. When the vestibule was filled with smoke, Masha became frightened and ran back into the house.