Russian Fairy Tales Children's Fairy Tales
THE PEASANT AND THE BEAR.
Once
upon a time a certain peasant lost his wife, then he lost his other
relations, and then he was left alone with no one to help him in his
home or his fields. So he went to Bruin and said: “Look here,
Bruin, let's
keep house and plant our garden and sow our corn together.” And
Bruin asked: “But how shall we divide it afterwards?”
“How shall we divide it?” said the peasant, “Well,
you take all the tops and let me have all the roots.” “All
right,” answered Bruin. So they sowed some turnips, and they grew
beautifully. And Bruin worked hard, and gathered in all the turnips,
and then they began to divide them. And the peasant said: “The
tops are yours, aren't they, Bruin?” “Yes,” he
answered. So the peasant cut off all the turnip tops and gave them to Bruin, and then sat down to count the roots. And Bruin saw that the peasant had done him down.
And he got huffy, lay down in his den, and started sucking his paws.
The
next spring the peasant again came to see him, and said: “Look
here, Bruin, let's work together again, shall we?” And Bruin
answered: “Right-ho! only this time mind! you can have the tops,
but I'm going to have
the roots!” “Very well,” said the peasant. And they
sowed some wheat, and when the ears grew up and ripened, you never saw
such a sight. Then they began to divide it, and the peasant took all
the tops with the grain, and gave Bruin the straw and the roots. So he
didn't get anything that time either.
And
Bruin said to the peasant: “Well, good-bye! I'm not going to work
with you any more, you're too crafty!” And with that he went off
into the forest.
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