by Cvetik-Semicvetik
TWO with
caraway-seeds for her father, two with poppy-seeds for her mother, two with
sugar coating for herself, and a little pink one for her brother Pavlik. The
bread-rings were on a string,
just like
beads. Zhenya started back for home with the string of
bread-rings.
She walked along, looking up and down, reading the signs on the way, just passing
the time of day. Meanwhile, a strange dog came up to her from behind and began
eating the bread-rings. First it ate the ones for her father with
caraway-seeds, then the ones for her mother with poppy-seeds, then her own two
that had sugar coating on them.
Zhenya suddenly
felt that the string of bread-rings was very light. She turned around, but it
was too late. There was nothing but the string left in her hand, and the dog
was just swallowing the last piece of Pavlik's little pink bread-ring and licking
its chops.
"Oh, you
horrid dog!" Zhenya cried and ran after it. She ran and
ran, but
couldn't catch it.
Finally, she
got lost. When she stopped, she saw that she was in a
strange place.
There were no big houses there, just very little ones.
Zhenya began to
cry. Suddenly, an old woman appeared.
"Why are you crying, little girl?"
she asked. And so Zhenya told the old woman what had happened.
The old woman
was sorry for Zhenya. She led her to her little garden and said:
"Don't
cry. I will help you. I don't have any bread-rings, and I don't have any money
either, but there is a very special flower growing in my garden. It is a
rainbow-flower and it can do anything you ask it to. I can see that you are a
good girl, even though you are absent-minded. I will give you the
rainbow-flower and it will help you."
With these
words the old woman picked a very pretty flower from one of the flower-beds. It
looked like a daisy. It had seven thin petals and each one was of a different
colour. One was yellow, one red, one blue, one green, one orange, one violet,
and one light-blue.
"This is
not an ordinary flower," the old woman said. "It can make
any wish come
true. All you have to do is tear off a petal, throw it up in the air and say:
Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
She wanted to
turn around and ask the old woman to take her to the nearest militiaman, but
both the little garden and the old woman had disappeared. What should she do?
Zhenya was just about to start crying as usual, she
even crinkled
up her nose, and then, suddenly, she remembered about the magic flower. She
would soon see if it was really such a wonderful flower! Zhenya tore off the
yellow petal, threw it up and said:
Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE ME BACK HOME AGAIN WITH THE
BREAD-RINGS!
No sooner were
the words out of her mouth than she was back in her own house, holding a string
of bread-rings! Zhenya gave them to her mother and thought:
"This is
really a wonderful flower. I'll put it in the prettiest vase we have!"
stretched her
hand towards her mother's favourite vase that stood on the top shelf. Just then
some crows flew by the window. And of course Zhenya had to know exactly how
many of them there were - seven or eight? She opened her mouth and began to
count on her fingers when - bang! - the vase toppled off the shelf and crashed
into a million pieces.
"My
goodness, what a child!" her mother called angrily from the
kitchen.
"What have you broken this time? I hope it's not my favourite vase!"
"Oh, no,
Mummie! I didn't break anything!" Zhenya shouted. She
quickly tore
off the red petal, threw it up and whispered:
Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE MUMMIE'S BEST VASE WHOLE AGAIN!
No sooner were
the words out of her mouth than the tiny pieces began moving towards each other
and fitting themselves together.
Her mother came
in from the kitchen - and there was her favourite
vase sitting
prettily on the top shelf as always! Zhenya's mother shook her finger at her,
just in case, you know, and sent her out to play in the yard.
When Zhenya
went outside she saw the boys in the yard were playing they were Arctic
explorers. They were sitting on a pile of old boards and had a stick stuck into
the sand nearby.
"Ha! Of
course not. Can't you see, this is the North Pole! We don't take girls along to
the North Pole."
"It's not
boards, it's ice floes. Go away and don't bother us! Can't you see the ice is
beginning to crack?"
"Then you
won't let me play?"
"No. Go
away!"
"Think I
care? I can get to the North Pole without any of you. Only
it won't be
this awful pile of boards, it'll be the real North Pole. So
there!"
Zhenya went off into a corner of the yard, took the rainbow-flower from her
pocket, tore off the blue petal, threw it up and said:
Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE ME BE AT THE NORTH POLE THIS
MINUTE !
No sooner were the words out of her mouth
than suddenly a terrible blizzard was howling all around, the sun disappeared,
everything became black, and the earth spun around under her feet like a top.
Zhenya found
herself all alone at the North Pole, in her little
summer dress
and nothing on her bare feet but sandals: And the frost was just terrible!
"Oh,
Mummie, I'm freezing!" she wailed, but her tears turned into
icicles and
hung from the tip of her nose. Meanwhile, seven polar bears had suddenly
appeared from behind an ice hill and started towards her. One was more horrible
than the next: the first was jumpy, the second was mean,
the third was
grumpy, the fourth was lean, the fifth had a cap, the sixth
liked to scrap,
and the seventh was the biggest of all.
Zhenya was
scared to death. With frozen fingers she tore off the
green petal,
threw it up and shouted at the top of her voice:
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE ME BE BACK
IN OUR YARD RIGHT NOW !
No sooner were
the words out of her mouth than she was back in the yard. And the boys were
making fun of her.
"Where's
your North Pole, smarty?"
"Well, we
didn't see you there. Prove it!"
"See, I
still have an icicle here."
"That's no
icicle, it's a piece of fuzz, silly!"
Zhenya decided
that the boys were horrid and she'd never play with them again. So she went
into the next yard to play with the girls.
There she saw
that the girls had a lot of toys. One had a doll
carriage, one
had a ball, one had a skipping-rope, one had a tricycle, and one had a big
talking doll with a doll's hat on and a pair of doll's galoshes. Zhenya was
terribly unhappy. Her eyes even turned as green as a cat's from envy.
"Hm! I'll
show you who has the best toys!" she thought.
She pulled the
rainbow-flower from her pocket and tore off the orange petal. She threw it up
and said:
Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE ALL THE TOYS IN THE WORLD MINE !
No sooner were
the words out of her mouth than toys began rushing towards her from all sides.
The first to
come, of course, were the dolls. They blinked their
eyes and said
"Ma-ma. Ma-ma" over and over again.
At first Zhenya
was very pleased. But in a few minutes there were so many dolls that they
filled up the yard, their little street, two big avenues and half the square.
No one could move without stepping on a doll. No one could hear anything
'except the dolls' chattering "Ma-ma, ma-ma!"
Can you imagine
the noise five million talking dolls can make? And there were at least that
many. And these were only dolls from Moscow. The dolls from Leningrad, Kharkov,
Kiev, Lvov and other cities had not yet arrived. They were squawking like
parrots on every road of the Soviet Union.
Zhenya was
getting worried. But this was only the beginning. After the dolls came rubber
balls which were rolling along by themselves. Then came the marbles and
scooters, tricycles, toy tractors and cars. Skipping-ropes were crawling along
the ground like snakes, they got tangled underfoot and made the nervous dolls
squeak louder still.
Millions of toy
airplanes, blimps, and gliders were flying through
the air. Paper
parachutes were coming down from the sky like snow and got caught in the
telephone wires and the trees. All traffic in the city stopped. The militiamen
at the crossings climbed the nearest lamp-posts and didn't know what to do.
"Stop,
stop!" Zhenya screamed. "That's enough! I don't want any
more! I don't
need so many toys! I was only fooling. I'm scared...."
Ah, but who
would listen to her? The toys kept pouring in. The whole city was filled with
toys. Zhenya ran upstairs - the toys followed her. Zhenya rushed out on her
balcony - the toys followed her. Zhenya ran up to the attic - the toys followed
her there, too. Zhenya climbed up on the roof and hurriedly tore off the violet
petal. She threw it up and quickly said:
Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE ALL THE TOYS GO BACK TO THE TOY SHOPS !
No sooner were
the words out of her mouth than all the toys
disappeared.
Then Zhenya looked at the rainbow-flower and saw that there was only one petal
left.
no fun from any
of them. Well, I'll be smarter next time."
Zhenya walked
along the street, thinking.
"What else
should I wish for? I know, I'll wish for a pound of chocolate candy. No, I
think I'd rather have a pound of peppermints. No,I'll have half a pound of
chocolates, half a pound of peppermints, a package of halvah, a bag of nuts,
and I might as well get a pink bread-ring for Pavlik. But what's the use? What
if I get all that candy?
I'll eat it up
and have nothing left. No, I better wish for a tricycle.
No, that's no
good. I'll have a couple of rides on it and then the boys
will probably
take it away. And they'll hit me if I don't give them rides!
I think I'll
buy myself a ticket to the movies or to the circus. That's a lot of fun. But
maybe I'd better ask for a new pair of sandals? That's also nice. But then,
what's the use of a new pair of sandals? I can ask for something much better
than that. The main thing is not to be in a hurry." This was what Zhenya
was thinking about as she walked along.
Suddenly she
saw a very nice boy sitting quietly on a bench. He had big blue eyes that
looked merry. The boy was really nice, you could see he wasn't a bully. Zhenya
decided to make friends with him. She came up
close, so close
that she could see her own face mirrored in his eyes:
There were her
braids touching her shoulders.
"Hello. What's your name?" she
asked.
"Vitya. What's your name?"
"Zhenya. Let's play tag."
"I can't. I'm lame."
And then Zhenya saw that he had on a big
ugly shoe with a very thick sole.
"Oh,
that's too bad!" she said. "I like you and it would have been a
lot of fun to
play tag."
"I like
you too, and I know it would have been a lot of fun to play
tag with you.
But I can't. I'll never be able to. I'm crippled for life."
"Don't be
silly, Vitya!" Zhenya said and took the precious
rainbow-flower
from her pocket. "Look!
it up to her
eyes for a second. Then she opened her fingers, let it fly off, and sang in a
high, happy voice:
Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE VITYA WELL AGAIN !
THE END
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