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ENG0_093_Solntseva_Sestra.txt
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ENG0_093_Solntseva_Sestra.txt
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There was once a stepmother who had a stepdaughter and a daughter of her own.
At anything her own daughter did, the woman would pat her head and say:
"Clever girl!" But no matter how hard the stepdaughter tried, she was always found in the wrong.
Yet the truth of the matter was that the stepdaughter was as good as gold;
in the proper hands she would have been like cheese in butter, but in her stepmother's house
she bathed in tears every day. What could she do? Even an angry wind subsides at last;
but when the old woman got angry she never quieted down, she would hurl one insult after another,
and her mouth was so full of venom that her teeth itched.
One day the stepmother made up her mind to drive her stepdaughter out of the house.
She said to her husband:
"Take her, take her, old man, take her wherever you wish,
so that my eyes do not see her and my ears do not hear her.
And don't take her to the warm house of your kin,
but into the open field in the bitter frost."
The old man began to grieve and lament;
none the less he put his daughter on a sledge.
He wanted to cover her with a horse cloth but did not dare.
He took the homeless girl into the open field, set her down on a heap of snow,
made the sign of the cross over her, and hastened home as fast as possible,
that his eyes might not behold his daughter's death.
The poor little thing remained there shivering and softly repeating her prayers.
Jack Frost came leaping and jumping and casting glances at the lovely maiden.
"Maiden, maiden, I am Jack Frost the Ruby-nosed!" he said.
"Welcome, Jack Frost! God must have sent you to save my sinful soul."
Jack Frost was about to crack her body and freeze her to death,
but he was touched by her wise words, pitied her, and tossed her a fur coat.
She put it on, squatted on her heels, and sat thus.
Again Jack Frost the Ruby-nosed came leaping and jumping and casting glances at the lovely maiden.
"Maiden, maiden, I am Jack Frost the Ruby-nosed!" he said.
"Welcome, Jack Frost! God must have sent you to save my sinful soul."
But Jack Frost had not come to save her soul at all;
he brought her a coffer, deep and heavy,
full of bedding and petticoats and all sorts of things for her dowry.
And she sat on the coffer in her fur coat, so gay, so pretty!
Again Jack Frost came leaping and jumping and casting glances at the lovely maiden.
She welcomed him and he gave her a robe embroidered with silver and gold.
She put it on-and how beautiful and stately she looked!
She sat there happily singing songs.
Meanwhile her stepmother was preparing her funeral dinner and frying pancakes.
"Go, husband," she said, "bring home your daughter, that we may bury her."
The old man went. The little dog under the table said:
"Bow-wow, the old man's daughter is coming home all decked in gold and silver,
but no suitor wants the old woman's daughter!"
"Be quiet, you fool! Here is a pancake for you,
and now say that suitors will come for the old woman's daughter,
but of the old man's daughter only bones will be brought home."
The little dog ate the pancake and said again:
"Bow-wow! The old man's daughter is coming home all decked in gold and silver,
but the suitors don't want the old woman's daughter."
The old woman gave the dog more pancakes and beat him,
but he kept saying the same thing:
"The old man's daughter is coming home decked in gold and silver,
but the suitors don't want the old woman's daughter."
The gate creaked, the doors flew wide open,
a coffer deep and heavy was brought in,
and the stepdaughter followed, radiant, like a grand lady.
The stepmother looked at her and threw up her arms.
"Old man, old man," she ordered, "harness other horses, take my daughter at once,
put her in the same field, in the very same place!"
The old man took the girl to the same field and left her in the very same place.
And Jack Frost the Ruby-nosed came, looked at his guest, leapt and jumped,
but did not hear any kind words.
He grew angry, seized her, and killed her.
The old woman said to her husband:
"Old man, go bring my daughter.
Harness spirited horses-and don't overturn the sledge, don't drop the coffer!"
But the little dog under the table said:
"Bow-wow, the suitors will take the old man's daughter,
but the bones of the old woman's daughter will be brought home in a sack."
"Don't lie! here is a pancake for you, and say:
'The old woman's daughter is coming home decked in gold and silver.'
"The gate flew open and the old woman ran out to greet her daughter,
but instead she embraced a cold corpse. She began to wail and howl, but it was too late.