The grandfather and woman lived for themselves, but they had no children. They all grieve, and then the grandfather says to the woman:
- Let's go, old woman, into the forest to pick mushrooms! Went. A woman is picking mushrooms, and lo and behold, there is a nest in a bush, and a duck is sitting in the nest. So grandma says to grandpa:
- Look, grandfather, what a beautiful duck!
Grandfather says:
- Let's take her home, let her live with us. They began to take her and saw that her leg was broken. They took her carefully, brought her home, made her a nest, lined it with feathers, put a duck in it, and then went off to pick mushrooms again.
They come back and see that everything has already been tidied up, the bread is baked, the borscht is cooked. They ask their neighbors:
-Who is this? Who is this?
Nobody knows anything
The next day, the grandfather and woman went to pick mushrooms again. They come home, lo and behold, they have cooked dumplings and have a spindle with yarn on the window. They again ask the neighbors:
-Have you seen anyone?
“They saw,” they say, “some girl carrying water from the well.” She’s so beautiful, they say, but a little lame.
So the grandfather and woman thought and thought: “Who could it be?” - they won’t come up with anything. And then the woman says to the grandfather:
- You know what, grandfather? Let's do this: let's say that we're going to pick mushrooms, and we'll hide and see who's bringing us water.
So they did.
They are standing behind the barn and suddenly they see a girl with a yoke coming out of their hut: such a beauty, such a beauty! Just a little lame. She went to the spring, and the grandfather and woman went to the hut; Lo and behold, there is no duck in the nest, only full of feathers. They then took the nest and threw it into the oven, where it burned.
And then the girl comes with water. I entered the hut, saw my grandfather and grandmother and immediately went to the nest, but there was no nest. How she will cry then! Grandfather and grandmother come to her and console her:
- Don't cry, checkbox! You will be our daughter instead. We will love and cherish you as if we were our own. And the girl says:
“I would have lived with you forever if you hadn’t burned my nest and spied on me.” “And now,” he says, “I don’t want to!” Grandfather, make me a spinning wheel and a spindle, and I will leave you.
Grandfather and woman cry, ask her to stay, but she doesn’t agree.
So then her grandfather made her a spinning wheel and a spindle. She sat down in the yard and spins. Suddenly a flock of ducklings was flying, they saw her and sang:
There is our maiden, There is our Eve, in the swept yard and on the hewn pillar. The spinning wheel is noisy, the spindle is ringing. Let's throw a feather at her, let her fly with us!
And the girl refuses them:
I don't want to be with you:
How I walked through the meadow, Broke my leg, You left me, Moved on!
They threw a feather at her and flew on. Here comes the second flock. These also sang:
There is our maiden, There is our Eve, in the swept yard and on the hewn pillar. The spinning wheel is noisy, the spindle is ringing. Let's throw a feather at her, let her fly with us!
The girl refused them too, and they flew away, throwing her a feather each. And then the third flock was flying, they saw the girl and immediately sang:
There is our maiden, There is our Eve, in the swept yard and on the hewn pillar. The spinning wheel is noisy, the spindle is ringing. Let's throw a feather at her, let her fly with us!
They threw her a feather; The girl covered herself with feathers, became a duck and flew away with the flock. And the grandfather and woman were left alone again.
Here's a fairy tale and a string of bagels.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru