More Russian Picture Tales | Page 5

her, and he said: "Hullo, little girl, are you warm?" And she answered:
"Yes, King Frost." Then he blew a cold breath on to her and again
asked: "Are you warm, little girl?" And she answered: "Yes, King
Frost!" Then he began to make it still colder; he made the branches
crack, and covered them with hoar-frost, and let loose such cold, that
you could hear the air creaking.
[Illustration]
Then he asked her again: "Well, little girl, are you warm now?" And
she answered: "Yes, King Frost!" And when he saw that she was a
good girl, he felt sorry for her. So he put on her a fur coat, with
trimmings of beaver, and made her warm, and said to her: "You're a
good girl, and so I'll stop. Here's a little present for you from King
Frost."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
And he brought her a trunk full of all sorts of things, silver and gold,
and bright-coloured stones.
[Illustration]

Meanwhile her step-mother was saying to the old man at home: "I
expect your daughter's frozen by now. Go into the forest and bring her
back." So he harnessed his horse to the sledge, and set out to fetch his
daughter.
[Illustration]
Then his wife began to watch at the window, and at last she saw her
husband driving towards home, and she said to herself: "That's all right,
there come the old man's daughter's bones back in the sledge."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
But the doggie outside said: "Bow, wow, bow-wow-wow! The old
man's bringing his daughter home. She's blooming like the
poppy-bloom, and she's got a fine present, and a new coat with a beaver
collar!" And lo and behold! it was true; the old man drove up with his
daughter alive and well, in her fine clothes and with her presents.
"Well," thought her step-mother, "if King Frost has given all those
things to the old man's daughter, he'll give my pretty girl ever so much
more." And she said to her husband: "Take my daughter to the same
place as quick as you can, and let King Frost give her a share too!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
So the old man took her daughter, left her in the forest, and then drove
off home. And there the girl sat, with her teeth chattering with the cold,
when lo and behold! there was King Frost coming along, and he said:
"Hullo, little girl, are you warm?" And she answered: "What's that got
to do with you? Go away to where you came from!" And King Frost
grew angry and blew a cold breath on to the girl, and then asked her:
"Are you warm, little girl?" And she answered: "Fancy asking! You can
see I'm frozen! Be quick and give me the presents, and then get away to
your home." Then King Frost began to make the girl still colder. And

he kept making it colder and colder till he had frozen her through and
through.
[Illustration]
Meanwhile her mother was saying to the old man at home: "Go into the
forest now, and bring back my daughter. And mind, don't forget to take
the trunk and the fine clothes as well." So the old man started off, and
his wife began to watch at the window.
She waited and waited, and at last she saw her husband driving towards
home, and said to herself: "That's all right, there comes the old man
bringing back my daughter all in silver and in gold."
[Illustration]
But the doggie outside said: "Bow, wow, bow-wow-wow, the old man's
bringing back bones in his sledge!" The old man drove up, and it was
too true, instead of the bad old woman's daughter there was only an
icicle!
[Illustration]

THE BEAR'S PAW.
[Illustration]
One day a peasant saw a bear asleep in the forest, so he crept up to him
and cut off one of his hind paws with an axe. And he brought the paw
home, and said to his wife: "Boil some soup from the flesh, and knit
some warm gloves out of the wool." So she took off the skin, threw the
flesh into the pot to boil, and sat down to spin the wool.
And when Bruin woke up, he found his paw gone. There was no help
for it, so he cut a bit of wood off a tree, hewed it, tied it on instead of
his leg, and set out for the village. As he went along he sang:

[Illustration]
"Hobble, hobble, hobble, On my lime-tree leg, On my birchen crutch!
The water's asleep, And the earth's asleep, The whole village is asleep,
Only one woman's awake, And she's boiling my flesh, Sitting on my
skin, And spinning my wool!"
[Illustration]
And the peasant's wife got very frightened, and hid as