Once upon a time there lived a woman. She once baked five pates, and when she took them out of the oven, the crust turned out to be so overbaked, so hard that you couldn’t bite it. So she says to her daughter:
“Daughter, put the pates on that shelf over there!” Let them lie there for a little while, maybe they’ll come around again.
She wanted to say that the pate crust would become softer.
And the girl thought: “Well, if they come again, I’ll eat these now,” and she began to gobble up the pies on both cheeks. She ate everything clean and didn't leave a single one.
Now it’s time for dinner, the mother says to her daughter:
- Go get one pate! I think they've already arrived.
The girl went to the kitchen, but did not see any pates there, but only empty dishes. She came back and said:
- They haven’t arrived yet.
- None? - asks the mother.
“None,” the daughter answers.
“Well, whether they’ve come or not,” says the mother, “we’ll eat one anyway for dinner.”
- How can we eat like that? — the girl was surprised. - But they haven’t arrived yet!
“Whatever there is, we’ll eat it anyway,” says the woman. - Go get the best one.
“There are no better or worse,” says the girl. - I ate them all. This means that there is nowhere to take them from, until they come up.
Well, the mother sees that there is nothing to do. She moved the spinning wheel to the door and began to spin. She spins herself, she sings along:
Our daughter ate five, as many as five pates in a day.
Our daughter ate five, as many as five pates in a day.
And at this time the king was walking down the street. He heard her singing, but couldn’t make out who she was talking about. He stopped and asked:
- Who are you singing about?
The mother was ashamed to admit what her daughter had done, and she began to sing like this:
Our daughter spun five skeins, five in just one day.
Our daughter spun five skeins, five in just one day.
- My God! - exclaimed the king. “I’ve never heard of anyone spinning so fast in my life!” “Then he said to the woman: “Listen, I’ve been looking for a bride for a long time, and now I’ve decided to marry your daughter.” But remember: for eleven months a year, your daughter will eat all the food she wants, wear all the dresses she chooses, and have fun with whomever she wants. But for the last month of the year she will have to spin five skeins a day, otherwise I will execute her.
“Okay,” the mother agreed; She really wanted to marry her daughter to the king himself.
“Well, as for spinning five skeins a day,” she decided, “the time will come, somehow we’ll manage; and most likely he will completely forget about them.”
They played a wedding. For eleven months the young queen ate all the food she wanted, wore all the dresses she chose, and had fun with whomever she wanted.
When the eleventh month came to an end, she began to think that she would soon have to spin five skeins a day. “Does the king remember or not remember this?” - she wondered.
But the king did not say a word about this, and she decided that he had forgotten about his threat.
However, on the very last day of the eleventh month, the king took his wife to some room that she had not yet seen. The room was completely empty; There was only a spinning wheel and a bench.
“Well, honey,” said the king, “tomorrow I will lock you in this room.” They will leave you food and a tow of flax, and if by evening you have not spun five skeins, your head will fly off your shoulders!
And he went about his business.
The poor thing was scared - after all, she had been lazy all her life, and didn’t even know how to spin. “What will happen to me tomorrow? - she thought. “There’s nowhere to wait for help!” She sat down on a bench and, oh, how bitterly she cried!
Suddenly he hears someone knocking quietly. She stood up and quickly opened the door. And what did she see? A tiny black imp with a long tail. He looked at her curiously and asked:
-What are you crying about?
- What do you want?
- Yes, it’s that simple. But tell me, what are you crying about?
“If I tell you, it won’t make me feel any better.”
- Who knows! - said the imp and wagged his tail.
“Well,” the queen sighed, “even though it won’t get better for me, it probably won’t get any worse.”
She took it and told him about the pates and the skeins - in a word, about everything.
“That’s what I’ll do for you,” said the black imp. - Every morning I will come to your window and pick up the whole tow, and in the evening I will bring skeins of yarn.
- How much will you charge for this? - asked the queen.
The imp looked sideways at her and answered:
- Every evening I will ask you up to three times what my name is. If you don't guess by the end of the month, you'll be mine!
The queen thought that in a whole month she would certainly guess his name, and answered:
- Okay, I agree.
- That's okay! — the imp was delighted and quickly twirled his tail.
The next morning the king took his wife to the room, where they had already brought a flax tow and food for one day, and said:
“Here’s a tow for you, my dear, and if you haven’t spun it by evening, I won’t blow your head off!”
He left the room and locked the door.
As soon as he left, a knock was heard on the window.
The Queen jumped up and threw it open. He sees a little black imp sitting on the ledge!
- Where is the tow? he asked.
“Here,” the queen answered and handed him the tow. In the evening the knock was heard again. The Queen jumped up and opened the window. This time the black imp was holding five skeins of linen yarn in his hands.
- Take it! - said the imp and handed her the skeins. - Well, now tell me, what is my name?
- Probably Bill? - said the queen.
“No, I didn’t guess,” the black imp answered and wagged his tail.
- So Ned?
“I didn’t guess right again,” said the imp and twirled his tail.
- Maybe Mark?
“No, no, I didn’t guess,” said the imp, twirled his tail even faster and suddenly disappeared.
In the evening the king came into the room. He sees five skeins of linen yarn lying there.
“Well, that means I don’t need to execute you today, my dear!” - he said. “And tomorrow morning they will bring you food and a tow again.” - And he left.
So day after day they brought her flax and food, and in the morning and evening a black imp appeared. And all day the queen thought and wondered what name she should give in the evening? But I never guessed right. And the closer the month came to an end, the more maliciously the black imp looked at her, the faster he twirled his tail after each of her incorrect answers.
And now the penultimate day has come. The imp, as always, came with five skeins and asked:
- Well, did you finally guess my name?
- Nicodemus? - said the queen.
- No.
- Samuel?
- No.
- Well, then, maybe Methuselah?
- No, no and no! - the imp shouted, and his eyes lit up like coals in a fireplace. - So listen! One more day left! You won’t guess - tomorrow evening you’ll be mine!
And disappeared.
The queen became afraid. But then she heard the king coming. He entered the room, saw five skeins and said:
“Well, dear, I think you’ll spin five skeins again by tomorrow evening, so I won’t have to execute you.” So let's have dinner together.
Dinner was brought and a second bench for the king, and the husband and wife began to eat. But before the king had time to swallow even two pieces, he suddenly stopped eating and burst out laughing.
- What's wrong with you? - asked the wife.
- Just listen! - he answered. “Today I went hunting in the forest and stopped at some unfamiliar place. There was an abandoned chalk pit there. And then it seemed to me that something was buzzing in her. I jumped off my horse, walked up to the hole and looked down. And who did I see there? A tiny black imp, so funny! What do you think he was doing? I spun very quickly on a tiny spinning wheel! He spins, twirls his tail and sings:
Nimmi-Nimmi-Not,
And I am Tom-Tit-Tot!
When the queen heard this, she almost jumped for joy! However, she didn’t say a word.
The next morning, when the black imp came again for the tow, he looked at her even more maliciously.
In the evening, the queen, as always, heard him knocking on the window. So she opened the window and saw: an imp sitting on the ledge and grinning - mouth to ear. And the tail, the tail just keeps spinning and spinning, very, very quickly!
- Well, what is my name? - asked the imp and gave the queen the last skeins.
- Solomon? - she said, pretending to be scared.
- No, I didn’t guess! - he answered and stepped towards her.
- Well, then Zebedee?
- I didn’t guess! - he said, laughing, and twirled his tail so quickly that it seemed as if something black was flashing, but it was impossible to make out what.
- Think carefully! Make a mistake - and you're mine! And he stretched out his black paws to her. The Queen, looking into his face, stepped back one step, then another, laughingly pointed her finger at him and finally said:
Nimmi-Nimmi-Not.
And you are Tom-Tit-Tot!
When the imp heard this, he squealed and disappeared into the darkness outside the window. Since then there has been no trace of him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru