Once upon a time there lived a master; he had a kind wife and a beautiful daughter - her name was Masha.
His wife died, and he married someone else - a widow; She had two daughters of her own, and they were so evil and unkind! They forced poor Masha to work for themselves, and when there was no work, they ordered her to sit by the stove and rake out the ashes; That’s why Masha was always dirty and black, and they called her Chernushka.
Somehow people started talking that their prince wanted to get married, that he would have a big holiday and that at that holiday he would choose a bride for himself.
And so it happened. The prince called everyone to visit. The stepmother and daughters began to gather, but they didn’t want to take Masha; no matter how much she asked - no, no!
So the stepmother and her daughters left for the prince’s holiday, and left her stepdaughter a whole measure of barley, flour and soot - everything mixed together - and ordered that before their arrival, everything should be taken apart, grain by grain, grain by grain. Masha went out onto the porch and cried bitterly; two doves flew in, sorted out her barley, and flour, and soot, then sat on her shoulders - and suddenly the girl found herself wearing a beautiful new dress.
“Go,” say the doves?, “to the holiday, just don’t stay there longer than midnight.”
As soon as Masha entered the palace, everyone started staring at her; The prince himself liked her the most, but her stepmother and sisters did not recognize her at all.
Masha went for a walk and had fun with other girls; She sees that it’s almost midnight, did she remember that she wants doves? punished, and ran home as quickly as possible. The prince followed her, he wanted to find out who she was, but there was no trace of her!
The next day the prince again had a holiday; Stepmothers’ daughters are fussing about outfits and constantly shouting and swearing at Masha:
-? Hey, girl Chernushka! Change our clothes, clean our clothes, prepare dinner!
Masha did everything, and in the evening she again had fun at the holiday and went home before midnight; The prince rushed after her - no, he didn’t catch up.
On the third day the prince again had a feast in the mountains; in the evening doves? put on shoes and dressed Masha better than before. She went to the palace, walked around, had fun and forgot about time. Suddenly midnight struck; Masha rushed to run home as quickly as possible, and the prince ordered the entire staircase to be filled with tar and tar. One of her shoes stuck to the resin and remained on the stairs; the prince took it and the next day ordered to find someone who would fit the shoe.
They walked around the whole city - no one missed a shoe; finally they came to their stepmother. She took the shoe and began to try it on for her eldest daughter - no, it doesn’t fit, her foot is too big!
“No,” say the prince’s messengers, “it won’t do!”
The stepmother began to try on the shoe of her middle daughter, and the same thing happened with this one.
The messengers saw Masha and ordered her to try it on; she put on the shoe - and at that very moment she was wearing a beautiful shiny dress. The daughter's stepmothers just gasped!
So they brought Masha to the prince’s palace, and the next day there was a wedding. The wedding was fun, and I was there, drinking honey and beer, it was running down my mustache, but it didn’t get into my mouth.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru