The poor child said to the Wolf: ‘I am going to see my grandmother, and carry her a custard and a little pot of butter from my mamma.’
There came a very bad year, and the famine was so great that these poor people resolved to rid themselves of their children.
The big, big Tiger came out of the jungle and said, ‘Well, little boy, shall I eat you or all of your sheep?’
The soldier drew his great bow and let an arrow fly at the monster’s head. He never missed his aim, and the arrow struck the ugly head of the centipede, but bounced away.
Koschei the Deathless seized Marya Morevna and carried her off, and Prince Ivan sat down on a stone and wept. He wept and wept and started off in search of Marya Morevna.
‘You must take great pains to make my bed well, and shake it up thoroughly, so that the feathers fly about, and then in the world it snows, for I am Mother Hulda.’
Mr. Fox saw a diamond ring glittering on the finger of the young lady he was dragging, and he drew his sword, raised it, and brought it down upon the hand of the poor lady.
‘Madam,’ said the good King, ‘since you are a fairy, you know all that I wish. I have only one son, whom I love with all my heart, so that people generally name him Prince Darling. If you wish to do me a kindness, promise me to be a good friend to my boy.’
The witch said, ‘You may have as much rampion as you like, on one condition—the child that will come into the world must be given to me.’
He was born with a little tuft of hair upon his head, which made them call him Riquet with the Tuft, for Riquet was the family name.
‘What will you give me if I spin all this straw into gold for you?’ ‘My necklace,’ said the girl.
So it was with the Tsar Archidei; he was rich and clever, besides being a handsome fellow; but he could not find a bride to his taste, a bride with wit and beauty equal to his own. And this was the cause of the Tsar Archidei's sorrow and distress.
The King took another wife, a beautiful woman, but proud and overbearing, and she could not bear to be surpassed in beauty by any one.
The bear came every evening at the same time, laid himself down by the hearth, and let the children amuse themselves with him as much as they liked.
‘Now I’m going on a journey!’ said the Darning Needle. ‘I do hope that I’ll not get lost!’ But she really was lost already.
‘Child,’ says the mother, ‘do you know you are as pretty as a princess?’ ‘Am I that?’ says the maid, and goes on with her crying.
‘I will tell you what,’ said the ass, ‘I am going to Bremen to become town musician. You may as well go with me, and take up music too. I can play the lute, and you can beat the drum.’
It started when Peter began to listen to the other farmers boast of the money each was making and the triumphs they were winning over one another.
Cinder-Maid shook the tree and the first nut that fell she took up and opened, and what do you think she saw?—a beautiful silk dress blue as the heavens, all embroidered with stars.
One of the tin soldiers was a little different; he had one leg because he had been cast last of all, and there had not been enough tin to finish him.