The king and queen lived in the palace. Once the king went to war, and the queen remained with her housekeeper, as angry as a snake under the well.
Months passed, and the queen gave birth to two sons and a daughter. And the housekeeper wrote to the king that wooden children were born to him. The king in a letter ordered the children to be thrown out and the queen to be killed. In order to torment the queen angrier, the housekeeper walled her up in the basement, put the children in a basket and carried them to the river bank nearby.
A gardener was walking past to sell vegetables when he heard someone crying. He came up and saw the basket. He took her and took her to his house, where he and his wife lived together. They didn’t have their own children, so they couldn’t get enough of strangers.
The years passed, the children grew up healthy and cheerful, and the gardener and his wife were considered their father and mother. The gardener was poor and couldn’t buy them toys, so he made horses from reeds.
The king returned from the war and once passed through those places. He sees children playing with horses, shouting: “Ride, eat, drink!” He came up and said:
- Where have you seen reed horses galloping, eating and drinking?
And the girl answered him:
“Where has it been seen that a woman gives birth to wooden children?”
The king was surprised and returned to the palace, thoughtful. A few days later the children met him again. He asked where they lived. The children showed, and the king stopped to talk with the gardener. Word for word, the gardener said that his children were adopted, he found them by the river and raised them as his own.
Then the king said that he was giving a holiday in the palace and inviting him with his wife and children.
On the appointed day they went to the palace, and on the way the girl said to her brothers:
- Don't eat anything until I try.
We arrived, and the tables were already set in the palace. The brothers cannot take their eyes off the food. They sat down at the table, the king invites:
- Help yourself, children!
And the girl answered him:
“We won’t eat until there’s someone missing at the table.”
The king was surprised who it was - the girl was silent. Then the king ordered to convene all the courtiers. Time passes, the brothers are still reaching for food. The girl says:
“We won’t eat until our mother is at the table.”
The king exclaimed:
- Your mother?
- Yes, our mother, she is walled up in the basement, and all these delicacies are poisoned.
She threw a piece under the table to the cat, which swallowed it and died immediately.
The king froze in surprise, and then ordered the guards to inspect all the nooks and crannies in the palace. The girl says no need, she supposedly knows where to look.
The king hurried after the children. They went down to that basement, destroyed the wall, and found the poor queen there, barely alive. The king recognized her, hugged her, and everyone kissed. And they executed the evil housekeeper and began to live and live, feasting at the table.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru