Once upon a time there was a woman, and she had her only son, whose name was Tom. He was no taller than his little finger, and that’s why they nicknamed him Tom Marigold. He grew up kind and obedient, to the delight of his mother. He reached adulthood, and his mother informed him that it was time to choose a bride. Tom climbed into his mother's pocket, they saddled the horses and, getting into the cart, drove to the royal palace. And this king had a beautiful daughter. But, to the great chagrin of her father, she was of gigantic stature. And an idiot at that. Therefore, no groom wanted to take her as his wife.
Already approaching the palace, Tom's mother suddenly discovered that her son had disappeared. She began to look for him everywhere and suddenly heard a thin voice calling: “Ku-ku, kuk-ku! I'm here!" She turned towards the voice and saw that her son was hiding in the horse's mane. She pulled him out and, after spanking him thoroughly, told him not to do that again. But you know how fragile childhood promises are! And so, before they had time to move on, Tom disappeared again. The poor mother searched everything around and suddenly heard a thin voice: “Ku-ku, kuku! I'm here!" And what do you think, where is the prankster hiding this time? In a horse's ear. His mother pulled him out of there, spanked him, and he again promised that he wouldn’t do that again. But after some time it happened again. The size of the volume hid in the horse's nostril and miraculously did not die. The horse sneezed, and Tom fell down next to its hoof; It’s good that his mother managed to catch him, otherwise he would have been crushed under a horse’s hoof.
Well, finally, they arrived at the palace and were escorted to the princess. Seeing him, she immediately fell madly in love, and they were married in the palace church. Then a magnificent feast was given in honor of the newlyweds. Tom sat next to his giantess wife. The poor groom was so hungry during the long journey that he was almost dying of hunger: he ate all the food on his plate. But now it comes to sweet banana pudding. Then Tom decided to start eating it from the middle, where there were delicious candied blackberries. Climbing onto the plate, he boldly stepped into the middle of the dish and suddenly felt that he was drowning, as if in a swamp. No matter how much he shouted, no one could hear his thin voice. And the poor thing drowned.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru