But the youngest, the good one, Little Stupid, said nothing at all.
"Now little one," says her father, "what is it you want? I must bring
something for you too."
Says the little one, "Could I have a silver saucer and a transparent
apple? But never mind if there are none."
The old merchant says, "Long hair, short sense," just as I say to
Maroosia; but he promised the little pretty one, who was so good that
her sisters called her stupid, that if he could get her a silver
saucer and a transparent apple she should have them.
Then they all kissed each other, and he cracked his whip, and off he
went, with the little bells jingling on the horses' harness.
The three sisters waited till he came back. The two elder ones looked
in the looking-glass, and thought how fine they would look in the new
necklace and the new dress; but the little pretty one took care of her
old mother, and scrubbed and dusted and swept and cooked, and every
day the other two said that the soup was burnt or the bread not
properly baked.
Then one day there were a jingling of bells and a clattering of
horses' hoofs, and the old merchant came driving back from the fair.
The sisters ran out.
"Where is the necklace?" asked the first.
"You haven't forgotten the dress?" asked the second.
But the little one, Little Stupid, helped her old father off with his
coat, and asked him if he was tired.
"Well, little one," says the old merchant, "and don't you want your
fairing too? I went from one end of the market to the other before I
could get what you wanted. I bought the silver saucer from an old Jew,
and the transparent apple from a Finnish hag."
"Oh, thank you, father," says the little one.
"And what will you do with them?" says he.
"I shall spin the apple in the saucer," says the little pretty one,
and at that the old merchant burst out laughing.
"They don't call you 'Little Stupid' for nothing," says he.
Well, they all had their fairings, and the two elder sisters, the bad
ones, they ran off and put on the new dress and the new necklace, and
came out and strutted about, preening themselves like herons, now on
one leg and now on the other, to see how they looked. But Little
Stupid, she just sat herself down beside the stove, and took the
transparent apple and set it in the silver saucer, and she laughed
softly to herself. And then she began spinning the apple in the
saucer.
Round and round the apple spun in the saucer, faster and faster, till
you couldn't see the apple at all, nothing but a mist like a little
whirlpool in the silver saucer. And the little good one looked at it,
and her eyes shone like yours.
Her sisters laughed at her.
"Spinning an apple in a saucer and staring at it, the little stupid,"
they said, as they strutted about the room, listening to the rustle of
the new dress and fingering the bright round stones of the necklace.
But the little pretty one did not mind them. She sat in the corner
watching the spinning apple. And as it spun she talked to it.
"Spin, spin, apple in the silver saucer." This is what she said. "Spin
so that I may see the world. Let me have a peep at the little father
Tzar on his high throne. Let me see the rivers and the ships and the
great towns far away."
And as she looked at the little glass whirlpool in the saucer, there
was the Tzar, the little father--God preserve him!--sitting on his
high throne. Ships sailed on the seas, their white sails swelling in
the wind. There was Moscow with its white stone walls and painted
churches. Why, there were the market at Nijni Novgorod, and the Arab
merchants with their camels, and the Chinese with their blue trousers
and bamboo staves. And then there was the great river Volga, with men
on the banks towing ships against the stream. Yes, and she saw a
sturgeon asleep in a deep pool.
"Oh! oh! oh!" says the little pretty one, as she saw all these things.
And the bad ones, they saw how her eyes shone, and they came and
looked over her shoulder, and saw how all the world was there, in the
spinning apple and the silver saucer. And the old father came and
looked over her shoulder too, and he saw the market at Nijni Novgorod.
"Why, there is the inn where I put up the horses," says he. "You
haven't done so badly after all, Little Stupid."
And the little pretty one, Little Stupid, went on staring into the
glass whirlpool in the saucer, spinning the apple, and seeing all the
world she had never seen before, floating there before her in the
saucer, brighter than leaves in sunlight.
The bad ones, the elder sisters, were sick with envy.
"Little Stupid," says the first, "if you will give me your silver
saucer and your transparent apple, I will give you my fine new
necklace."
"Little Stupid," says the second, "I will give you my new dress with
gold hems if you will give me your transparent apple and your silver
saucer."
"Oh, I couldn't do that," says the Little Stupid, and she goes on
spinning the apple in the saucer and seeing what was happening all
over the world.
So the bad ones put their wicked heads together and thought of a plan.
And they took their father's axe, and went into the deep forest and
hid it under a bush.
The next day they waited till afternoon, when work was done, and the
little pretty one was spinning her apple in the saucer. Then they
said,--
"Come along, Little Stupid; we are all going to gather berries in the
forest."
"Do you really want me to come too?" says the little one. She would
rather have played with her apple and saucer.
But they said, "Why, of course. You don't think we can carry all the
berries ourselves!"
So the little one jumped up, and found the baskets, and went with them
to the forest. But before she started she ran to her father, who was
counting his money, and was not too pleased to be interrupted, for
figures go quickly out of your head when you have a lot of them to
remember. She asked him to take care of the silver saucer and the
transparent apple for fear she would lose them in the forest.
"Very well, little bird," says the old man, and he put the things in a
box with a lock and key to it. He was a merchant, you know, and that
sort are always careful about things, and go clattering about with a
lot of keys at their belt. I've nothing to lock up, and never had, and
perhaps it is just as well, for I could never be bothered with keys.
So the little one picks up all three baskets and runs off after the
others, the bad ones, with black hearts under their necklaces and new
dresses.
They went deep into the forest, picking berries, and the little one
picked so fast that she soon had a basket full. She was picking and
picking, and did not see what the bad ones were doing. They were
fetching the axe.
The little one stood up to straighten her back, which ached after so
much stooping, and she saw her two sisters standing in front of her,
looking at her cruelly. Their baskets lay on the ground quite empty.
They had not picked a berry. The eldest had the axe in her hand.
The little one was frightened.
"What is it, sisters?" says she; "and why do you look at me with cruel
eyes? And what is the axe for? You are not going to cut berries with
an axe."
"No, Little Stupid," says the first, "we are not going to cut berries
with the axe."
"No, Little Stupid," says the second; "the axe is here for something
else."
The little one begged them not to frighten her.