Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. They had no children, and they were very sad about it. So one day the old woman says to the old man:
- When winter comes, let's fashion ourselves a girl out of snow. I can't live without children anymore.
“It’s not difficult to sculpt,” the old man agreed. “The only problem is: when spring comes, it will melt.”
“Then take an adze and make a girl out of wood.”
“We can do something,” the old man replies, “but if we sit her by the fire and a spark falls on her, she will immediately burn.”
The old woman began to spin when she heard these words, and tears flowed from her eyes.
“Don’t cry,” the old man began to console her, “I’m already burning lime, tomorrow I’ll put it out, so I’ll make you a daughter from lime.”
The old woman was very happy and went to bed satisfied. He’s sleeping, and in his sleep he hears someone’s voice:
“Your daughter will be white and beautiful, but if you want her to stay alive, then take her out the gate when she starts talking, and give her to the first person who passes by. Yes, tell her that when she gets married, she should not open her mouth in front of the groom until he guesses what she is made of, and if she says a word to him, she will immediately crumble into lime dust.”
The next day the old man got down to business. I slaked lime in a pit and sculpted a girl whiter than snow. As soon as the old man passed the stick under her nose and made a mouth, the girl said:
- Good morning, father! How are you, mother?
It was a pity for the old people to immediately part with their white-faced daughter, but there was nothing to do - they couldn’t disobey the one whom the old woman heard in her dream. They went out onto the road and began to see who would pass first to give him the News. And what did they see? A nag wanders along the road. They were surprised, but still opened the gate, brought the nag into their yard, combed its mane, bridled it, saddled it with a soft saddle, and put Izvestochka on the saddle.
Before saying goodbye to their daughter, the old people told her not to answer a word to her betrothed until he said: “You are made of lime.” And I must tell you, guys, that the old nag was from the stables of the local governor. While the horse was young and hot, they fed him rice and combed his mane with a golden comb, and when he grew old and his legs began to tangle, the governor’s servants took the poor fellow into the forest and left him there to be torn to pieces by wild animals. But the horse, accustomed to living among people, got out of the forest and wandered back to the city along the road that passed the old people’s house.
Feeling the rider on him, the horse perked up and ran at a trot straight to the governor’s house. The governor’s son was sitting at the window at that time and was very happy to see a white girl on the back of their old horse.
-Who are you and where are you coming from? - he asked Izvestochka.
She was silent.
- Why don’t you answer me? Or maybe you're mute?
Izvestochka didn’t answer anything this time either. The voevodich helped her get down to the ground, took her by the hand and led her into the mansion to her father and mother:
- Look what a pretty girl our old horse brought me.
The governor and his wife marveled at the girl’s beauty and began to ask her why she was so white. But Izvestochka never opened her mouth.
The next day the commander went hunting, but returned empty-handed, because a white girl was constantly standing before his eyes.
He went to his mother and said:
“Mother, I will return the ring to the king’s daughter.”
- How so? After all, she is your bride.
“I won’t marry her, but I’ll marry the girl the old horse brought yesterday.”
- What are you talking about! - exclaimed the mother. “Or don’t you see that this girl is mute?”
- So what of this? I'll marry her and that's the end of it.
“Do as you please,” said the mother.
The voevodich returned the ring to the royal daughter and became engaged to Izvestochka. It never occurred to him to tell her that she was made of lime, and so the girl remained silent. For three whole months the commander courted his bride, dressed her in gold and brocade, rode her in a gilded carriage and kept asking her to say at least a word to him, but Izvestochka did not open her lips.
“But she really is dumb,” the commander said to himself and decided to leave her.
He locked Izvestochka in a small closet in the attic and sent for the Tsar’s daughter. Having settled in the governor’s house, the tsar’s daughter first asked where the white girl was. The maids told her that the girl was locked in a closet in the attic.
“Go and look through the keyhole to see what she’s doing,” the Tsar’s daughter ordered.
The maids quietly crept up to the door, looked through the keyhole and saw that Izvestochka was sitting on a chair by the window, and on her knees was a yellow silk shirt.
“My fiancé, the voivode’s son, will wear this shirt,” the girl suddenly said. - Come on, thread the needle!
Then the needle that had been stuck into the needle case jumped onto the table, jumped up to the golden thread, held out its eye, and the thread was threaded. The girl took the needle and began to sew buttons on the sleeves, but suddenly she accidentally pricked her thumb and, throwing the needle on the floor, shouted angrily:
- Oh, why did you prick me, you nasty needle?
When the pain passed, the white girl calmed down and said:
- Forgive me, little needle, come to me, we’ll work.
But the needle, apparently, was very offended and did not want to return to the girl. Then the girl got angry, grabbed the scissors, cut off her nose and ordered him:
- Go bring me this brat!
The cut off nose jumped onto the table, from the table onto the floor, grabbed the needle and gave it to the white girl. She took the needle with her left hand and with her right put her nose back in its original place.
The maids of the king's daughter rushed headlong down the stairs, almost breaking their legs. They ran to their mistress and began vying with each other to tell her about what they had seen and heard.
“It’s not a big trick,” said the king’s daughter, “I can do that too.” Bring me fabric for a shirt, a needle, gold thread and scissors.
When all this was brought, she said to the needle:
“I order you, needle, to stretch the eye of the thread, let the thread thread through.” Come on!
But the needle did not move. The royal daughter stamped her foot:
- Do you know who I am? If you don’t listen right now, I’ll order you to call a blacksmith, and he’ll crush you with a hammer on an anvil!
But the needle still did not budge.
Then the royal daughter grabbed her, threw her on the floor and shouted:
“You ugly, rusty needle, come to me now!”
The needle did not listen to her this time either.
The tsar's daughter got angry, grabbed a pair of scissors, cut off her nose and screamed:
- Oh-oh-oh, how painful it is! Hey, nose, quickly bring me a needle, otherwise I will die from pain!
And the nose fell to the floor and remained there. Then the royal daughter herself picked it up, put it in place and pressed it hard, but as soon as she took her hand away, the nose fell to the floor again.
- Mothers, what should I do now? - the royal daughter moaned and climbed into bed under the covers.
The commander returned home, saw that his wife had no nose, and became angry:
- I can’t live with a noseless wife! Send her back, and bring me another princess. At least she has a nose, albeit a long one.
They brought him a long-nosed princess. They played a wedding, and the voivode began to live with his new wife. The next day, the long-nosed princess sent her maids to see what the girl locked in the attic was doing. The maids looked through the keyhole and saw a white girl standing near the stove.
- Light up, stove! - she suddenly ordered.
A fire immediately started burning in the oven. The girl turned to the kneading bowl full of white flour:
- Sift through, flour!
The flour itself was poured into a sieve and sifted.
- Knead, dough! - the girl ordered.
The dough kneaded and began to rise quickly. Here the girl unbraided her long braids and used them to sweep away the burning coals from the stove. The raw bread itself jumped into the oven, baked, came out of the oven and lay down on the shelf. Then the girl ordered the frying pan to stand on an iron tripod over the coals. The frying pan immediately obeyed and jumped onto the tripod.
- Pour some oil!
And the girl turned to the bottle of oil. The bottle jumped off the shelf and oil spilled onto the frying pan. As soon as the oil began to sizzle, the white girl lowered her hands into it, and when she raised them, two large fish appeared in the frying pan and began to fry.
The maids immediately ran downstairs to the long-nosed princess and told her everything they had seen.
- How important! - said the princess. - I can do that too.
So she ordered the maids to heat the stove thoroughly and stuck her head in there to sweep away the heat with her braids. The braids caught fire and burned, and the long-nosed princess looked like a scorched piglet.
- Pour oil into the frying pan! - she said.
When the oil boiled, the princess put her hands into it and screamed in pain:
- Oh, mothers, I burned my hands!
And there are no fish in the frying pan. Then the commander entered the room and asked:
- What's going on here?
He saw his wife, shook his head and said:
“I can’t live with a burned wife.” Take her to her father's palace.
Whether long or short, the time has come for the commander to go to war. All his warriors walked cheerfully. They knew that they would soon defeat their enemies and return home to their wives and children. Their spears gleam in the sun, their sabers clink, their horses neigh. Only the commander rode thoughtfully and sadly. In the evening the army settled down for the night in an open field. The soldiers pitched their tents, lit fires, had dinner and began to dance. Only the commander remained at the table. He sits, resting his head on his hand, and twists around. Suddenly two bags bumped into each other and quietly spoke to each other:
-Who filled you this morning?
- A girl made of lime. What about you?
- Me too. As soon as the commander takes a sip of my wine, his heart will immediately cheer up.
“But as soon as he takes a sip of mine, his heart will become like a lion,” added the second baggage.
The voevodich immediately called his assistant and asked what kind of girl this was made of lime.
- Don't you know? - the assistant was surprised. - The one that is locked in a closet in your attic.
- That's it! - said the commander and took a sip from the first bottle.
His heart immediately became lighter. He drank from the second - and his heart became a lion's. And you, of course, know that no one can defeat a man who has a lion’s heart beating in his chest. The commander defeated his enemies in the first battle and turned his army back. Returning home, he ran up the stairs to the attic, unlocked the door of the closet in which Izvestochka was sitting, and shouted:
“Thank you, my bride, for giving me the heart of a lion.” One thing I don’t understand is how you perform such miracles, since you’re made of lime?
Hearing these words, did Izvestochka lower her eyes? and said:
- Oh, how happy I am! Now I can finally speak!
The voivodich even opened his mouth in surprise.
- So, therefore, you are not dumb! - he exclaimed.
The girl told him where she came from and why she had to remain silent until now.
After listening to her, the commander rejoiced with all his heart, took Izvestochka by the hand, took her downstairs to his parents, and they played a merry wedding. For three days and three nights they feasted in the governor's house. They invited the old man and the old woman to the wedding, and after the wedding they left them to live in the governor’s house. But you ask, what happened to the old horse? The horse, guys, received a whole measure of rice a day for the rest of its life, and its mane was combed with a golden comb.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru