THE TALE OF THE SILVER SAUCER AND THE CRYSTAL APPLE
Once a peasant lived with his wife, and they had three daughters: two were finely dressed and clever, but the third was a simple girl; the sisters and the father and mother as well called her the Little Fool. They hustled the Little Fool, thrust her about this way and that and forced her to work. She never said a word and was always ready to weed the grass, break off lamp-splinters[1], feed the cows and ducks, and whatever anybody asked for the Little Fool would bring. They had only to say, "Fool, go and fetch this!" or "Fool, come and look here!"
One day the peasant went with his hay to the fair, and he asked his daughters, "What shall I bring you as your fairing?"
One daughter asked, "Buy me some red cloth for a sarafan. The other asked, "Buy me some scarlet nankin." But the Fool sat still and said nothing.
Well, after all, the Fool was his daughter, and her father felt sorry for her, so he asked her, "What would you like to have, Fool?"
So the Fool smiled and said, "Buy me, my own father, a silver saucer and a crystal apple."
"What do you mean?" asked the sisters.
"I should then roll the apple on the saucer, and should speak words which an old woman taught me in return for my giving her a loaf of white bread." So the peasant promised, and went away.
Whether he went far or near, whether he took long or
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- ↑ лучина: wood splinter(s) burnt as kindling or as illumination (Wikisource contributor note)
