"Children's Books - Wise Little Girl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Children's Books)

THE WISE LlTTLE GIRL

Once upon a time . . . in the immense Russian steppe, lay a little village
where nearly all the inhabitants bred horses. It was the month of October,
when a big livestock market was held yearly in the main town. Two brothers,
one rich and the other one poor, set off for market. The rich man rode a
stallion, and the poor brother a young mare.
At dusk, they stopped beside an empty hut and tethered their horses
outside, before going to sleep themselves on two heaps of straw. Great was
their surprise, when, next morning they saw three horses outside, instead of
two. Well, to be exact the newcomer was not really a horse. It was a foal, to
which the mare had given birth during the night. Soon it had the strength to
struggle to its feet, and after a drink of its mother's milk, the foal
staggered its first few steps. The stallion greeted it with a cheerful whinny,
and when the two brothers set eyes on it for the first time, the foal was
standing beside the stallion.
"It belongs to me!" exclaimed Dimitri, the rich brother, the minute he saw
it. "It's my stallion's foal." Ivan, the poor brother, began to laugh.
"Whoever heard of a stallion having a foal? It was born to my mare!"
"No, that's not true! It was standing close to the stallion, so it's the
stallion's foal. And therefore it's mine!" The brothers started to quarrel,
then they decided to go to town and bring the matter before the judges. Still
arguing, they headed for the big square where the courtroom stood. But what
they didn't know was that it was a special day, the day when, once a year, the
Emperor himself administered the law. He himself received all who came seeking
justice. The brothers were ushered into his presence, and they told him all
about the dispute.
Of course, the Emperor knew perfectly well who was the owner of the foal.
He was on the point of proclaiming in favour of the poor brother, when
suddenly Ivan developed an unfortunate twitch in his eye. The Emperor was
greatly annoyed by this familiarity by a humble peasant, and decided to punish
Ivan for his disrespect. After listening to both sides of the story, he
declared it was difficult, indeed impossible, to say exactly who was the
foal's rightful owner. And being in the mood for a spot of fun, and since he
loved posing riddles and solving them as well, to the amusement of his
counsellors, he exclaimed:
"I can't judge which of you should have the foal, so it will be awarded to
whichever of you solves the following four riddles: what is the fastest thing
in the world? What is the fattest? What's the softest and what is the most
precious? I command you to return to the palace in a week's time with your
answers!" Dimitri started to puzzle over the answers as soon as he left the
courtroom. When he reached home, however, he realised he had nobody to help
him.
"Well, I'll just have to seek help, for if I can't solve these riddles,
I'll lose the foal!" Then he remembered a woman, one of his neighbours, to
whom he had once lent a silver ducat. That had been some time ago, and with
the interest, the neighbour now owed him three ducats. And since she had a
reputation for being quick-witted, but also very astute, he decided to ask her
advice, in exchange for cancelling part of her debt. But the woman was not
slow to show how astute she really was, and promptly demanded that the whole