One man was widowed and married a second time. From his first wife he left a daughter, whom her stepmother disliked very much. One day she told her husband:
“I don’t want this girl to live in my house.”
-Where am I going to put it? Can't you see that she's still completely immature? - says the father.
And the stepmother responded:
- Take her wherever you want - even to the ends of the world, just out of sight.
Today there is strife, tomorrow there is strife - finally the father agreed to take the girl away from home.
“Just bake her a cake for the road,” he told his wife.
The stepmother baked a round millet cake. The father put her in a knapsack, took the girl by the hand and led her into the dense forest. When they climbed one hill, the father took a flatbread from his knapsack, lowered it down the slope and shouted:
- Run, daughter, catch the cake!
The girl ran down the hill for the flatbread and grabbed it already? down among the bushes. Meanwhile, the father ducked behind the trees and disappeared into the thicket.
- Dad, I caught a flatbread! - the girl turned around. - Dad, where are you?
The poor thing climbed up the hill again, looked in one direction, in the other - there wasn’t a single living soul around. She shed tears and went to look for a path, but found nothing. I was lost all day. And when the sun sank behind the forest and it began to get dark, the girl got scared and cried at the top of her voice.
In the thickest part of the forest, in a wooden house lived a grandmother-healer. Hearing a human voice, she left the house and shouted into the darkness:
-Who's crying there? Boy or girl? If you are a girl, come to me, and if you are a boy, get out of here!
“I’m a girl, grandma,” answered the orphan.
- Well, come here quickly!
The girl came up and asked:
- Why, grandma, don’t you want to take the boy with you?
“Because I need a worker in the house, and the boys don’t know how to manage things.”
The girl entered the house. Grandma fed her and put her to bed. In the morning, the girl got up early and, while her grandmother was sleeping, she cleaned everything in the house, swept the floor, and applied water? The grandmother woke up, saw what the guest had done, smiled, but said nothing. I got dressed and got ready to go mushroom hunting. Before leaving, she punished the nimble girl:
— Snakes and lizards live in my cellar. Brew bran and feed them. Don't be afraid to approach them - they don't bite me.
The girl brewed the bran, cooled it, fed the old lady’s pets and, since she no longer had work, began stringing beads on a thread, made necklaces and put them on all the snakes and lizards. By noon, grandma returned home, and snakes and lizards crawled out to greet her and let them boast:
- Look how the girl dressed us up! And how sweetly the girl fed us!
“And grandma will dress up the girl for it!” - said the healer and smiled again.
A magical river flowed near my grandmother's house. Every hour it changed its color. After lunch, the grandmother brought the girl to the river bank, sat down on the grass and said:
“I’ll take a nap, and you sing to me so that I can fall asleep quickly.”
The girl sat down at the head of her grandmother and began to sing. Her song was quiet, like the buzzing of a bee. Before falling asleep, the grandmother said in a sleepy voice:
- Look at the river. First blue water will flow in it, then red, then black. And after the black water, yellow water will flow. That's when you need to wake me up. - And she dozed off.
The girl began to look at the river. The river changed its color every hour: first blue water flowed, then red, then black. Finally, yellow water flowed, and the girl woke up her grandmother. The grandmother jumped up, grabbed the girl by the hair, dipped her into the river and shouted:
- Grab what you can get your hands on!
The girl grabbed something under the water, and when the old woman pulled her out, she saw that she was holding some kind of casket in her hands.
- What is in it? - asked the girl.
“When you come home, you’ll unlock it with this key and you’ll see,” the grandmother answered and handed the key to the girl. Then I took her out of the forest, showed her the way home and said goodbye to her.
When the girl entered the house, everything around began to shine, because the yellow water was golden and the girl became golden after bathing in it.
Her stepmother saw her and bit her lips with envy.
- What kind of box do you have? - asked the father.
The girl unlocked the chest and lifted the lid. everyone gasped: it was filled to the brim with chervonets.
- Tell me quickly where you have been! - the stepmother could not stand it.
The golden girl told about everything that happened to her.
- Take my daughter to the same forest! - the stepmother shouted to her husband - she had her own daughter.
“First, bake a cake,” the husband answered.
The stepmother baked a large wheat cake. The father took his stepdaughter into the forest, climbed a hill with her and threw a cake down from it, and when the girl ran after her, he turned home. The girl wandered through the forest all day, and when it got dark, she cried loudly.
-Who's crying there? — the same grandmother asked from the darkness. - If you are a boy, leave here, and if you are a girl, come to me!
- I'm a girl! - the stepmother’s daughter answered and entered the house.
Grandmother fed her and put her to bed. In the morning, when the sun warmed up, the grandmother got up and saw that the guest was still sleeping. She frowned, but didn't say anything. She woke up the girl and instructed her:
“I’ll go mushroom picking, you clean up the house, and then brew the bran, take it to the cellar and feed it to my snakes and lizards.” Don't be afraid, they don't bite.
The girl stood up, picked up a broom and began sweeping, but did not splash water on the floor. Dust rose throughout the house. Then she brewed the bran without cooling it, took it to the snakes and lizards, and they burned their tongues. When the grandmother returned from the forest at noon, they began to complain to her:
- The girl burned us with hot bran! It hurts us, grandma!
“And the grandmother will repay the girl in kind!” - the healer said and entered the house.
After lunch, she took the girl to the magic river and said:
“I’ll take a nap, and you look at the river: if blue water flows, there’s no need to disturb me, red water flows, don’t wake me up, yellow water will flow, and then don’t call, but you’ll wake me up when black water flows!” Well, now sing me a song so I can fall asleep faster!
But the girl sang so badly and so loudly that her grandmother said to her:
- Stop it! You keep me from sleeping with your singing.
The girl fell silent. Grandmother dozed off, and the river began to rustle and begin to change its color. When black water began to flow, the girl woke up her grandmother. The old woman jumped up, grabbed her stepmother’s daughter by the hair, plunged her into the water and shouted:
- Grab what you can get your hands on!
The girl felt the casket under the water and pressed it tightly to herself. The grandmother pulled the girl ashore and gave her a key so that she could unlock the chest when she returned home. Then the old woman took her stepmother’s daughter out of the forest and showed her the way home. It was late in the evening, and her mother was waiting for her at the edge of the village? Seeing that her daughter had become black and ugly, the stepmother turned green with anger, but said to herself:
“Maybe she even brought a casket filled with gold!”
They came home, opened the chest and what did they see: there were only snakes, lizards and crayfish in it. Everyone screamed and rushed in different directions, and the golden girl ran out into the street.
- Run quickly, take off her golden dress, let’s dress my daughter in it! - the stepmother shouted to her husband.
The father rushed after his daughter. She ran from him, and he followed her, she ran from him, and he followed her. When the golden girl saw that her father was catching up with her, she spread her arms and flew up like a bird. It flew over houses, over gardens, over mountain peaks and rose high into the sky. It turned into a golden moon and illuminated the earth.
The father remained in place with his mouth open. He had never seen such a miracle before.
Since then, the golden girl appears in the sky at night, illuminates the entire earth and looks for her native land with her eyes.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru