There lived a stork on the edge of the swamp, and on the other side of the swamp lived a heron. The stork thought that it was boring to live alone, and he decided to woo the heron. Then one fine day a stork - splash, splash, splash! - wandered through the swamp to the heron. He walked about seven miles, approached the nest and asked:
- Is the hostess at home?
“The mistress of the house,” the heron answers, “but why are you here?”
- I want to get married. Will you marry me? And the heron answered him:
“Your legs are painfully long and your pants are short, and you don’t run well.” I won’t marry you; perhaps you won’t be able to feed me.
The stork sighed and trudged off. As soon as he left, the heron thought that it was really boring to live alone, there was no need to refuse the stork.
The next day, a heron dragged itself through the swamp to the stork. She comes and says:
- Stork, my dear, marry me. I'll go for you if you don't mind.
“No,” the stork answers, “I’ve changed my mind about getting married.”
The heron persuaded him to marry, persuaded him, the stork stood his ground. Sad, the heron trudged home. As soon as the heron left, the stork regretted that he had refused her, and decided to go to her again and ask her to marry him.
So he comes to the heron and says:
- Tsaplyushka, I’ll marry you, just come for me. And the heron answers:
- No, stork, God bless her, with marriage, you disgraced me, I won’t marry you.
The stork became sad and went home.
The stork left, but the heron changed her mind again and went to the stork again.
“I’ll marry you,” he says, “just get married.”
But the stork changed his mind about getting married. So they go through the swamp to each other to this day, and they keep wooing each other, but they just can’t get married.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru