One Easter a peasant went to see whether the frost
was out of the ground.
He went to his vegetable garden and poked into the
ground with a stake. The soil was soft.
The peasant went into the forest. In the woods the
catkins on a young willow were already beginning to
swell. And the peasant said to himself :
" Let me plant young willows around my garden ; they
will grow and make a hedge."
He took his ax, cut down a dozen young sprouts,
trimmed down the butts into points, and planted them
in the ground.
All the willow sticks put forth sprouts and green
foliage above ; and below, underground, they sent out
similar sprouts in place of roots, and some of them took
hold of the earth and strengthened themselves ; but ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
A gray hare lived during the winter near a village.
When night came, he would prick up one ear and listen,
then he would prick up the other, jerk his whiskers,
snuff, and sit up on his hind legs.
Then he would give one leap, two leaps, through the
deep snow, and sit up again, on his hind legs and look all
around.
On all sides nothing was to be seen except snow. The
snow lay in billows and glittered white as sugar. Above
the hare was frosty vapor, and through this vapor glis-
tened the big bright stars.
The hare was obliged to make a long circuit across
the highway to reach his favorite granary. On the
highway he could hear the creaking of sledges, the
whinnying of horses, the groaning of the seats in
the sledge... (From: Wikisource.org.)
A poor woman had a daughter, Masha. Masha one
morning, in going after water, saw something lying on
the door-step, wrapped up in rags.
Masha set down her pail and undid the rags. When
she had opened the bundle, there came forth a cry from
out the rags, ua! ua! ua !
Masha bent over and saw that it was a pretty little
baby. He was crying lustily, ua! ua! ua! Masha
took him up in her arms and carried him into the house,
and tried to give him some milk with a spoon.
The mother said :
" What have you brought in ? "
Masha said :
" A baby ; I found it at our door."
The mother said :
" We are so poor, how can we get food for another
child ? I am going to the police and tell them to take
it away."
Masha wept, and ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Once upon a time a peasant went to steal some cu-
cumbers of a gardener. He crept down among the
cucumbers, and said to himself :
" Let me just get away with a bag of cucumbers ; then
I will sell them. With the money I will buy me a hen.
The hen will lay some eggs, and will hatch them out,
and I shall have a lot of chickens. I will feed up the
chickens, and sell them, and buy a shoat a nice little
pig. In time she will farrow, and I shall have a litter
of pigs. I will sell the little pigs and buy a mare ; the
mare will foal, and I shall have a colt. I will raise the colt and sell it ; then I will buy a house and start a
garden ; I will have a garden and raise cucumbers ; but
[ won't let them be stolen, I will keep a ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
It was harvest-time, and the men and women 1 had
gone out to work.
Only the very old and the very young stayed in the
village.
A grandmother and three of her grandchildren were
left in one cottage. 2 The grandmother kindled a fire in
the oven, and lay down for a nap. The flies lighted on
her and annoyed her with their biting. She covered up
her head with a towel and went to sleep.
One of the grandchildren, Masha, she was three
years old, opened the oven, shoveled out some of the
coals into a dish, and ran out into the entry. Now in
the entry lay some sheaves. 3 The women had been
preparing these sheaves for bands.
Masha brought the coals, emptied them under the
sheaves, and began to blow. When the straw took fi... (From: Wikisource.org.)
An old woman and her granddaughter lived in a village.
They were very poor and had nothing to eat. Easter
Sunday came. The people were full of rejoicing. All
made their purchases for the great feast, but the old
woman and her granddaughter had nothing to make
merry with. They shed tears, and began to pray God
to help them.
Then the old woman remembered that long ago, in
the time of the Frenchman^ the peasants used to hide
their money in the ground. And the old woman said to
her granddaughter :
" Granddaughter, take your shovel and go over to the
site of the old village, ask God's help, and dig into the
ground ; perhaps God will send us something."
And the granddaughter said to herself: "It is impos-
sible that ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
It was Serozha's birthday, and he received many
different gifts, peg-tops and hobby-horses and pictures.
But Serozha's uncle gave him a gift which he prized
above all the rest : it was a trap for snaring birds. The
trap was constructed in such a way that a board was
fitted on the frame and shut down upon the top. If
seed were scattered on the board, and it was put out in
the yard, the little bird would fly down, hop upon the
board, the board would give way, and the trap would shut
with a clap.
Serozha was delighted and he ran to his mother to
show her the trap.
His mother said :
" It is not a good plaything. What do you want to
do with birds ? Why do you want to torture them ? "
" I am going to put them in a ca... (From: Wikisource.org.)
One time in winter I had gone into the woods after
timber. I had cut down three trees, and lopped off the
limbs, and was hewing them, when I looked up and saw
that it was getting late ; that it was time to go home.
But the weather was bad ; it was snowing and blowing.
I said to myself :
" The night is coming on, and you don't know the
way."
I whipped up the horse and drove on ; still there was
no sign of outlet. Forest all around.
I thought how thin my shuba was ; I was in danger
of freezing to death.
I still pushed on ; it grew dark, and I was entirely off
the road.
I was just going to unyoke the sled and protect myself
under it, when I heard not far away the jingle of bells.
I went in the direction of the b... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The widow Mary a lived with her mother and six
children. Their means of life were small. But they
used their last money in the purchase of a red cow, so
as to have milk for the children. The eldest children pastured Brownie 1 in the field, and gave her slops at
home.
One-time while the mother was away from home, the
oldest son, Misha, in climbing on the shelf after bread,
knocked over a tumbler and broke it.
Misha was afraid that his mother would chide him.
So he gathered up the large pieces of broken glass,
carried them into the yard, and buried them in the
dung-heap, but the little pieces he threw into the
basin. The mother missed the glass, and made in-
quiries ; but Misha said nothing, and so the matter
reste... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Once there was a little boy whose name was Filipp.
All the children were going to school. Filipp took his
hat and wanted to go too.
But his mother said to him :
" Where are you going, Filipok ? "
" To school."
" You are too small ; you can't go," and his mother
kept him at home.
The children went off to school. Their father had
gone early in the morning to the woods ; the mother
was engaged in her daily work.
Filipok and his grandmother were left in the cottage,
on the oven. Filipok began to feel lonely ; his grand-
mother was asleep, and he began to search for his hat.
When he could not find his own, he took an old one,
made of sheepskin, and started for school.
School was kept at the village church. When Fi... (From: Wikisource.org.)