Once upon a time there lived a girl. She was so small that she could easily hide behind a hummock, behind a dwarf birch tree. That’s why they called her Lynzerma.
Once Lynzerma was sitting alone in her tent and sewing. Suddenly the plague became dark.
“Who is it that sat down near the smoke hole and is preventing the light from penetrating into the tent?” - thought Lynzermya.
She raised her head and saw a squirrel.
“Go away, squirrel, you’re blocking my light, it’s dark to sew,” said Lynzermya.
But the squirrel, instead of obeying, began throwing cones at the girl.
Linzermya got angry and said:
“Squirrel, if you don’t stop throwing pine cones, I’ll hit you with a pole.”
The squirrel does not listen and continues to throw cones. Linzer took a pole and hit the squirrel with it. The squirrel fell to the ground. Lynzerma began to remove the skin from the squirrel and said:
- From this part of the skin. I'll sew some mittens. From this part of the skin I will sew a club. From this part of the skin I will sew myself a hat.
She laid out the squirrel meat on the sleds.
After some time, two strangers came to the tent. Lynzerma got up from her seat, went outside and brought a large piece of squirrel meat. She cooked some of the meat, and prepared some to eat raw.
“Apparently, you are a good housewife,” the men say. “Be the wife of one of us.”
Lynzermya was scared. She doesn't know these men. How to marry a stranger and move to strange places?
- How will you carry me? What will you put it in?
“We’ll put you in a mitten,” the men say.
“Crush me there with your fingers.”
- We'll put you in our bosom.
“The wool from my fur coat will stick to me there.”
- We'll put you in prison.
- Trample me in the pymas.
- We'll put you in a hat.
- I'll suffocate in my hat.
“Where should I put you?” the men ask.
- Put me in this iron box.
The men put Lynzerma in an iron box and carried him somewhere. They walked for a long time. On the way, Lynzermya quietly slipped out of the box through the hole in the lock. While falling, she caught on a twig and hid under the leaves. Sits on a branch and cries. He doesn’t know how to get back home.
The men came to their home and opened the box. They look, Lynzermya is not there. They looked for her and looked for her, but they could not find her anywhere.
And Lynzermya cried so much on the branch that she turned all blue, very small, and became round. The girl turned into a berry, and into a blueberry.
You won’t find a blueberry right away. She hides behind the leaves. She is afraid that strangers will find her.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru