The tale of a beautiful princess and seven heroes. The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights

Slavic fairy tale processed by S. Marshak

Do you know how many months there are in a year?

Twelve.

What are their names?

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

As soon as one month ends, another begins immediately. And it has never happened before that February came before January left, and May overtook April.

The months go one after another and never meet.

But people say that in the mountainous country of Bohemia there was a girl who saw all twelve months at once.

How did this happen? That's how.

The daughter lay on the feather bed all day long and ate gingerbread, but the stepdaughter had no time to sit down from morning to night: fetch water, bring brushwood from the forest, rinse the linen on the river, weed the beds in the garden.

She knew the winter cold, and the summer heat, and the spring wind, and autumn rain. That’s why, perhaps, she once had the chance to see all twelve months at once.

People sat in their houses and lit their stoves.

At such and such a time, in the evening, evil stepmother She opened the door a crack, watched the blizzard blow, and then returned to the warm stove and said to her stepdaughter:

You should go to the forest and pick snowdrops there. Tomorrow is your sister's birthday.

The girl looked at her stepmother: was she joking or was she really sending her into the forest? It's scary in the forest now! And what snowdrops in the middle of winter! They will not be born before March, no matter how much you look for them. You'll just end up lost in the forest and get stuck in the snowdrifts. And her sister tells her:

Even if you disappear, no one will cry for you! Go and don't come back without flowers. Here's your basket.

The girl began to cry, wrapped herself in a torn scarf and walked out the door.

The wind dusts her eyes with snow and tears her scarf off. She walks, barely pulling her legs out of the snowdrifts.

It's getting darker all around. The sky is black, not a single star looks at the ground, and the ground is a little lighter. It's from the snow.

Here is the forest. It's completely dark here - you can't see your hands. The girl sat down on a fallen tree and sat. All the same, he thinks about where to freeze.

And suddenly a light flashed far between the trees - as if a star was entangled among the branches.

The girl got up and went towards this light. He drowns in snowdrifts and climbs over a windbreak. “If only,” he thinks, “the light doesn’t go out!” But it doesn’t go out, it burns brighter and brighter. There was already a smell of warm smoke, and you could hear brushwood crackling in the fire. The girl quickened her pace and entered the clearing. Yes, she froze.

The girl looks at them and thinks: who are they? They don’t seem to look like hunters, even less like woodcutters: look how smart they are - some in silver, some in gold, some in green velvet.

And suddenly one old man turned around - the tallest, bearded, with eyebrows - and looked in the direction where the girl stood.

She was scared and wanted to run away, but it was too late. The old man asks her loudly:

Where did you come from, what do you want here? The girl showed him her empty basket and said:

I need to collect snowdrops in this basket. The old man laughed:

Is it snowdrops in January? What did you come up with!

“I didn’t make it up,” the girl replies, “but my stepmother sent me here for snowdrops and didn’t tell me to return home with an empty basket.”

Then all twelve looked at her and began to talk among themselves.

The girl stands there, listening, but doesn’t understand the words - as if it’s not people talking, but trees making noise.

They talked and talked and fell silent.

And the tall old man turned around again and asked:

What will you do if you don’t find snowdrops? After all, they won’t even appear before March.

“I’ll stay in the forest,” says the girl. - I’ll wait for the month of March. It’s better for me to freeze in the forest than to return home without snowdrops.

She said this and cried.

And suddenly one of the twelve, the youngest, cheerful, with a fur coat on one shoulder, stood up and approached the old man:

Brother January, give me your place for an hour! I stroked my long beard the old man says:

I would have given in, but March would not be there before February.

“Okay,” grumbled another old man, all shaggy, with a disheveled beard. - Give in, I won’t argue! We all know her well: sometimes you’ll meet her at an ice hole with buckets, sometimes in the forest with a bundle of firewood. All months have their own. We need to help her.

Well, have it your way,” said January. He struck the ground with his ice staff and spoke:

Don't crack, it's frosty,

In a protected forest,

At the pine, at the birch

Don't chew the bark!

You're full of crows

Freeze,

Human habitation

Cool down!

The old man fell silent, and the forest became quiet. The trees stopped crackling from the frost, and the snow began to fall thickly, in large, soft flakes.

Well, now it’s your turn, brother,” said January and gave the staff little brother, shaggy February. He tapped his staff, shook his beard and boomed:

Winds, storms, hurricanes,

Blow as hard as you can!

Whirlwinds, blizzards and blizzards,

Get ready for the night!

Trumpet loudly in the clouds,

Hover above the ground.

Let the drifting snow run in the fields

White snake!

As soon as he said this, a stormy, wet wind rustled in the branches. Snow flakes began to swirl and white whirlwinds rushed across the ground. And February gave his ice staff to his younger brother and said:

Now it's your turn, brother Mart. Took it younger brother staff and hit the ground. The girl looks, and this is no longer a staff. This is a large branch, all covered with buds.

Mart grinned and sang loudly, in all his boyish voice:

Run away, streams,

Spread, puddles,

Get out, ants,

After the winter cold!

A bear sneaks through

Through the dead wood.

The birds began to sing songs,

And the snowdrop blossomed.

The girl even clasped her hands. Where did the high snowdrifts go? Where are the ice icicles that hung on every branch?

Under her feet is soft spring soil. It's dripping, flowing, babbling all around. The buds on the branches have puffed up, and the first green leaves are already peeking out from under the dark skin.

The girl looks and can’t see enough.

Why are you standing? - Mart tells her. “Hurry up, my brothers gave you and me only one hour.”

And there is no longer a fire, no brothers: It’s light in the clearing, but not as before. The light did not come from the fire, but from the full moon that rose over the forest.

The girl regretted that she had no one to thank and ran home. And a month swam after her.

Not feeling her feet under her, she ran to her door - and had just entered the house when the buzz began again outside the windows. winter blizzard, and the month hid in the clouds.

Well, - asked her stepmother and sister, - have you returned home yet? Where are the snowdrops?

The girl didn’t answer, she just poured snowdrops out of her apron onto the bench and put the basket next to it.

The stepmother and sister gasped:

Where did you get them?

The girl told them everything that happened. They both listen and shake their heads - they believe and don’t believe. It’s hard to believe, but there’s a whole heap of fresh, blue snowdrops on the bench. They just smell like March!

The stepmother and daughter looked at each other and asked:

Have months given you anything else?

Yes, I didn’t ask for anything else.

What a fool! - says the sister. “For once, I met all twelve months, but I didn’t ask for anything except snowdrops!” Well, if I were you, I'd know what to ask for. One has apples and sweet pears, another has ripe strawberries, a third has white mushrooms, a fourth has fresh cucumbers!

Smart girl, daughter! - says the stepmother. - In winter, strawberries and pears have no price. We would sell it and how much money we would make. And this fool brought snowdrops! Dress up, daughter, get warm and go to the clearing. They won’t deceive you, even if there are twelve of them and you are alone.

Where are they! - the daughter answers, and she herself puts her hands in her sleeves and puts a scarf on her head.

Her mother shouts after her:

Put on your mittens and button up your fur coat!

And my daughter is already at the door. She ran into the forest!

She follows her sister's footsteps and is in a hurry. “Hurry up,” he thinks, “to get to the clearing!”

The forest is getting thicker and darker. The snowdrifts are getting higher and the windfall is like a wall.

“Oh,” the stepmother’s daughter thinks, “why did I go into the forest! I would be lying at home in a warm bed now, but now go and freeze! You’ll be lost here!”

And as soon as she thought this, she saw a light in the distance - as if a star had become entangled in the branches.

She went to the light. She walked and walked and came out into a clearing. In the middle of the clearing, a large fire is burning, and twelve brothers, twelve months old, are sitting around the fire. They sit and talk quietly.

The stepmother's daughter approached the fire itself, did not bow, did not say a friendly word, but chose a place where it was hotter and began to warm herself.

The month brothers fell silent. It became quiet in the forest. And suddenly the month of January hit the ground with his staff.

Who are you? - asks. -Where did it come from?

From home,” the stepmother’s daughter answers. - Today you gave my sister a whole basket of snowdrops. So I came in her footsteps.

We know your sister,” says January-month, “but we haven’t even seen you.” Why did you come to us?

For gifts. Let the month of June pour strawberries into my basket, and bigger ones. And July is the month of fresh cucumbers and white mushrooms, and the month of August is of apples and sweet pears. And September is the month of ripe nuts. A October:

Wait,” says the month of January. - There will be no summer before spring, and no spring before winter. The month of June is still a long way off. I am now the owner of the forest, I will reign here for thirty-one days.

Look, he's so angry! - says the stepmother's daughter. - Yes, I didn’t come to you - you won’t expect anything from you except snow and frost. I need the summer months.

The month of January frowned.

Look for summer in winter! - speaks.

He waved wide sleeves, and a blizzard rose in the forest from ground to sky - it covered both the trees and the clearing on which the moon brothers had been sitting. The fire was no longer visible behind the snow, but you could only hear a fire whistling somewhere, crackling, blazing.

The stepmother's daughter was scared.

Stop doing that! - shouts. - Enough!

Where is it?

The blizzard swirls around her, blinds her eyes, takes her breath away. She fell into a snowdrift and was covered with snow.

And the stepmother waited and waited for her daughter, looked out the window, ran out the door - she was gone, and that’s all. She wrapped herself up warmly and went into the forest. How can you really find anyone in the thicket in such a snowstorm and darkness!

She walked, walked, searched and searched, until she herself froze.

So they both remained in the forest to wait for summer.

But the stepdaughter lived in the world for a long time, grew up big, got married and raised children.

And they say she had a garden near her house - and such a wonderful one, the likes of which the world has never seen. Earlier than everyone else, flowers bloomed in this garden, berries ripened, apples and pears were filled. In the heat it was cool there, in the snowstorm it was quiet.

This hostess has been staying with this hostess for twelve months at once! - people said.

Who knows - maybe it was so. That's

Marshak. 12 months. Fairy tale

Do you know how many months there are in a year?

Twelve.

What are their names?

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

As soon as one month ends, another begins immediately. And it has never happened before that February came before January left, and May overtook April. The months go one after another and never meet.

But people say that in the mountainous country of Bohemia there was a girl who saw all twelve months at once. How did this happen? That's how.

In one small village there lived an evil and stingy woman with her daughter and stepdaughter. She loved her daughter, but her stepdaughter could not please her in any way. No matter what the stepdaughter does, everything is wrong, no matter how she turns, everything is in the wrong direction. The daughter spent whole days lying on the feather bed and eating gingerbread, but her stepdaughter had no time to sit down from morning to night: either fetch water, or bring brushwood from the forest, or wash out the laundry on the river, or weed the beds in the garden. She knew winter cold, summer heat, spring wind, and autumn rain. That’s why, perhaps, she once had the chance to see all twelve months at once.

It was winter. It was January. There was so much snow that they had to shovel it away from the doors, and in the forest on the mountain the trees stood waist-deep in snowdrifts and could not even sway when the wind blew on them. People sat in their houses and lit their stoves. At such and such a time, in the evening, the evil stepmother opened the door, looked at how the blizzard was sweeping, and then returned to the warm stove and said to her stepdaughter:

You should go to the forest and pick snowdrops there. Tomorrow is your sister's birthday.

And her sister tells her:

Even if you disappear, no one will cry for you. Go and don't come back without flowers. Here's your basket.

The girl began to cry, wrapped herself in a torn scarf and walked out the door. The wind dusts her eyes with snow and tears her scarf off. She walks, barely pulling her legs out of the snowdrifts. It's getting darker all around. The sky is black, not a single star looks at the ground, and the ground is a little lighter. It's from the snow. Here is the forest. It's completely dark here - you can't see your hands. The girl sat down on a fallen tree and sat. All the same, he thinks about where to freeze.

And suddenly a light flashed far between the trees - as if a star was entangled among the branches. The girl got up and went towards this light. He drowns in snowdrifts and climbs over a windbreak. “If only,” he thinks, “the light doesn’t go out!” But it doesn’t go out, it burns brighter and brighter. You could already smell warm smoke and hear the crackling of brushwood in the fire. The girl quickened her pace and entered the clearing. Yes, she froze.

It’s light in the clearing, as if from the sun. In the middle of the clearing a large fire is burning, almost reaching to the sky. And people are sitting around the fire - some closer to the fire, some further away. They sit and talk quietly. The girl looks at them and thinks: who are they? They don’t seem to look like hunters, even less like woodcutters: look how smart they are - some in silver, some in gold, some in green velvet. She began to count and counted twelve: three old, three elderly, three young, and the last three were still just boys.

The young people sit near the fire, and the old people sit at a distance.

And suddenly one old man turned around - the tallest, bearded, with eyebrows - and looked in the direction where the girl stood. She was scared and wanted to run away, but it was too late. The old man asks her loudly:

Where did you come from, what do you want here?

The girl showed him her empty basket and said:

Yes, I need to fill this basket with snowdrops.

The old man laughed:

Is it snowdrops in January? What did you come up with!

“I didn’t make it up,” the girl replies, “but my stepmother sent me here for snowdrops and didn’t tell me to return home with an empty basket.” Then all twelve looked at her and began to talk among themselves.

The girl stands there, listening, but doesn’t understand the words - as if it’s not people talking, but trees making noise.

They talked and talked and fell silent.

And the tall old man turned around again and asked:

What will you do if you don't find snowdrops? After all, they won’t even appear before March.

“I’ll stay in the forest,” says the girl. - I’ll wait for the month of March. It’s better for me to freeze in the forest than to return home without snowdrops.

She said this and cried. And suddenly one of the twelve, the youngest, cheerful, with a fur coat over one shoulder, stood up and approached the old man:

Brother January, give me your place for an hour!

The old man stroked his long beard and said:

I would have given in, but March would not be there before February.

Okay, then,” grumbled another old man, all shaggy, with a disheveled beard. - Give in, I won’t argue! We all know her well: sometimes you’ll meet her at an ice hole with buckets, sometimes in the forest with a bundle of firewood. All months have their own. We need to help her.

Well, have it your way,” said January.

He struck the ground with his ice staff and spoke:

Don't crack, it's frosty,

In a protected forest,

At the pine, at the birch

Don't chew the bark!

You're full of crows

Freeze,

Human habitation

Cool down!

The old man fell silent, and the forest became quiet. The trees stopped crackling from the frost, and the snow began to fall thickly, in large, soft flakes.

Well, now it’s your turn, brother,” said January and gave the staff to his younger brother, shaggy February.

He tapped his staff, shook his beard and boomed:

Winds, storms, hurricanes,

Blow as hard as you can!

Whirlwinds, blizzards and blizzards,

Get ready for the night!

Trumpet loudly in the clouds,

Hover above the ground.

Let the drifting snow run in the fields

White snake!

As soon as he said this, a stormy, wet wind rustled in the branches. Snow flakes began to swirl and white whirlwinds rushed across the ground.

And February gave his ice staff to his younger brother and said:

Now it's your turn, brother Mart.

The younger brother took the staff and hit it on the ground. The girl looks, and this is no longer a staff. This is a large branch, all covered with buds. Mart grinned and sang loudly, in all his boyish voice:

Run away, streams,

Spread, puddles,

Get out, ants,

After the winter cold!

A bear sneaks through

Through the dead wood.

The birds began to sing songs,

And the snowdrop blossomed.

The girl even clasped her hands. Where did the high snowdrifts go? Where are the ice icicles that hung on every branch! Under her feet is soft spring soil. It's dripping, flowing, babbling all around. The buds on the branches are inflated, and the first green leaves are already peeking out from under the dark skin. The girl looks and can’t see enough.

Why are you standing? - Mart tells her. - Hurry, my brothers gave you and me only one hour.

The girl woke up and ran into the thicket to look for snowdrops. And they are visible and invisible! Under bushes and under stones, on hummocks and under hummocks - everywhere you look. She collected a full basket, a full apron - and quickly went back to the clearing, where the fire was burning, where the twelve brothers were sitting. And there is no longer a fire, no brothers... It’s light in the clearing, but not as before. The light did not come from the fire, but from the full moon that rose over the forest.

The girl regretted that she had no one to thank and went home. And a month swam after her.

Not feeling her feet under her, she ran to her door - and had just entered the house when the winter blizzard began to hum again outside the windows, and the moon hid in the clouds.

“Well,” her stepmother and sister asked, “have you returned home yet?” Where are the snowdrops?

The girl didn’t answer, she just poured snowdrops out of her apron onto the bench and put the basket next to it.

The stepmother and sister gasped:

Where did you get them?

The stepmother and daughter looked at each other and asked:

Have months given you anything else? - Yes, I didn’t ask for anything else.

What a fool, what a fool! - says the sister. - For once, I met all twelve months, but didn’t ask for anything except snowdrops! Well, if I were you, I'd know what to ask for. One has apples and sweet pears, another has ripe strawberries, the third has white mushrooms, the fourth has fresh cucumbers!

Smart girl, daughter! - says the stepmother. - In winter, strawberries and pears have no price. We would sell this and make so much money! And this fool brought snowdrops! Dress up, daughter, warmly, and go to the clearing. They won’t deceive you, even if there are twelve of them and you are alone.

Where are they! - the daughter answers, and she herself puts her hands in her sleeves and puts a scarf on her head.

Her mother shouts after her:

Put on your mittens and button up your fur coat!

And my daughter is already at the door. She ran into the forest!

He follows his sister's footsteps and is in a hurry. I wish I could get to the clearing soon, he thinks!

The forest is getting thicker and darker. The snowdrifts are getting higher and the windfall is like a wall.

“Oh,” the stepmother’s daughter thinks, “why did I go into the forest!” I would be lying at home in a warm bed right now, but now go and freeze! You'll still be lost here!

And as soon as she thought this, she saw a light in the distance - as if a star had become entangled in the branches. She went to the light. She walked and walked and came out into a clearing. In the middle of the clearing, a large fire is burning, and twelve brothers, twelve months old, are sitting around the fire. They sit and talk quietly. The stepmother's daughter approached the fire itself, did not bow, did not say a friendly word, but chose a place where it was hotter and began to warm herself. The month brothers fell silent. It became quiet in the forest. And suddenly the month of January hit the ground with his staff.

Who are you? - asks. -Where did it come from?

From home,” the stepmother’s daughter answers. - Today you gave my sister a whole basket of snowdrops. So I came in her footsteps.

We know your sister,” says January-month, “but we haven’t even seen you.” Why did you come to us?

Look, he's so angry! - says the stepmother’s daughter. - Yes, I didn’t come to you - you won’t get anything from you except snow and frost. I need the summer months.

The month of January frowned.

Look for summer in winter! - speaks.

He waved his wide sleeve, and a blizzard rose in the forest from ground to sky, covering both the trees and the clearing on which the moon brothers had been sitting. The fire was no longer visible behind the snow, but you could only hear a fire whistling somewhere, crackling, blazing.

The stepmother's daughter was scared. - Stop doing that! - shouts. - Enough!

Where is it?

The blizzard swirls around her, blinds her eyes, takes her breath away. She fell into a snowdrift and was covered with snow.

She walked and walked and searched and searched until she herself froze. So they both remained in the forest to wait for summer. But the stepdaughter lived in the world for a long time, grew up big, got married and raised children.

This hostess has been staying with this hostess for twelve months at once! - people said.

Who knows - maybe it was so.

Page 1 of 3

Do you know how many months there are in a year? Twelve. What are their names? January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. As soon as one month ends, another begins immediately. And it has never happened before that February came before January left, and May overtook April.

The months go one after another and never meet. But people say that in the mountainous country of Bohemia there was a girl who saw all twelve months at once. How did this happen? That's how.

The daughter spent whole days lying on the feather bed and eating gingerbread, but the stepdaughter had no time to sit down from morning to night: either fetch water, or bring brushwood from the forest, or wash out the laundry on the river, or weed the beds in the garden.
She knew winter cold, summer heat, spring wind, and autumn rain. That’s why, perhaps, she once had the chance to see all twelve months at once.

It was winter. It was January. There was so much snow that they had to shovel it away from the doors, and in the forest on the mountain the trees stood waist-deep in snowdrifts and could not even sway when the wind blew on them. People sat in their houses and lit their stoves. At such a time, in the evening, the evil stepmother opened the door, looked at how the blizzard was sweeping, and then returned to the warm stove and said to her stepdaughter:
- You should go to the forest and pick snowdrops there. Tomorrow is your sister's birthday.

The girl looked at her stepmother: was she joking or was she really sending her into the forest? It's scary in the forest now! And what are snowdrops like in winter? They will not be born before March, no matter how much you look for them. You'll just get lost in the forest and get stuck in the snowdrifts.
And her sister tells her:
“Even if you disappear, no one will cry for you!” Go and don't come back without flowers. Here's your basket.

The girl began to cry, wrapped herself in a torn scarf and walked out the door. The wind dusts her eyes with snow and tears her scarf off. She walks, barely pulling her legs out of the snowdrifts.

Marshak Samuil

Twelve months

TWELVE MONTHS

Do you know how many months there are in a year?

Twelve.

What are their names?

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.

As soon as one month ends, another begins immediately. And it has never happened before that February came before January left, and May overtook April.

The months go one after another and never meet.

But people say that in the mountainous country of Bohemia there was a girl who saw all twelve months at once.

How did this happen? That's how.

She knew winter cold, summer heat, spring wind, and autumn rain. That’s why, perhaps, she once had the chance to see all twelve months at once.

People sat in their houses and lit their stoves.

At such and such a time, in the evening, the evil stepmother opened the door and looked at how the blizzard was sweeping, and then returned to the warm stove and said to her stepdaughter:

You should go to the forest and pick snowdrops there. Tomorrow is your sister's birthday.

And her sister tells her:

Even if you disappear, no one will cry for you. Go and don't come back without flowers. Here's your basket.

The girl began to cry, wrapped herself in a torn scarf and walked out the door.

The wind dusts her eyes with snow and tears her scarf off. She walks, barely pulling her legs out of the snowdrifts.

It's getting darker all around. The sky is black, not a single star looks at the ground, and the ground is a little lighter. It's from the snow.

Here is the forest. It's completely dark here - you can't see your hands. The girl sat down on a fallen tree and sat. All the same, he thinks about where to freeze.

And suddenly a light flashed far between the trees - as if a star was entangled among the branches.

The girl got up and went towards this light. He drowns in snowdrifts and climbs over a windbreak. “If only,” he thinks, “the light doesn’t go out!” But it doesn’t go out, it burns brighter and brighter. You could already smell warm smoke and hear the crackling of brushwood in the fire. The girl quickened her pace and entered the clearing. Yes, she froze.

It’s light in the clearing, as if from the sun. In the middle of the clearing a large fire is burning, almost reaching to the sky. And people sit around the fire, some closer to the fire, some further away. They sit and talk quietly.

The girl looks at them and thinks: who are they? They don’t seem to look like hunters, even less like woodcutters: look how smart they are - some in silver, some in gold, some in green velvet.

The young people sit near the fire, and the old people sit at a distance.

And suddenly one old man turned around - the tallest, bearded, with eyebrows and looked in the direction where the girl stood.

She was scared and wanted to run away, but it was too late. The old man asks her loudly:

Where did you come from, what do you want here?

The girl showed him her empty basket and said:

I need to collect snowdrops in this basket.

The old man laughed:

Is it snowdrops in January? What did you come up with!

“I didn’t make it up,” the girl replies, “but my stepmother sent me here for snowdrops and didn’t tell me to return home with an empty basket.”

Then all twelve looked at her and began to talk among themselves.

The girl stands there, listening, but doesn’t understand the words - as if it’s not people talking, but trees making noise.

They talked and talked and fell silent.

And the tall old man turned around again and asked:

What will you do if you don't find snowdrops? After all, they won’t even appear before March.

“I’ll stay in the forest,” says the girl. - I’ll wait for the month of March. It’s better for me to freeze in the forest than to return home without snowdrops.

She said this and cried.

And suddenly one of the twelve, the youngest, cheerful, with a fur coat over one shoulder, stood up and approached the old man:

Brother January, give me your place for an hour!

The old man stroked his long beard and said:

I would have given in, but March would not be there before February.

Well, have it your way,” said January.

He struck the ground with his ice staff and spoke:

Don't crack, it's frosty,

In a protected forest,

At the pine, at the birch

Don't chew the bark!

You're full of crows

Freeze,

Human habitation

Cool down!

The old man fell silent, and the forest became quiet. The trees stopped crackling from the frost, and the snow began to fall thickly, in large, soft flakes.

Well, now it’s your turn, brother,” said January and gave the staff to his younger brother, shaggy February.

He tapped his staff, shook his beard and boomed:

Winds, storms, hurricanes,

Blow as hard as you can!

Whirlwinds, blizzards and blizzards,

Get ready for the night!

Trumpet loudly in the clouds,

Hover above the ground.

Let the drifting snow run in the fields

White snake!

As soon as he said this, a stormy, wet wind rustled in the branches. Snow flakes began to swirl and white whirlwinds rushed across the ground.

And February gave his ice staff to his younger brother and said:

Now it's your turn, brother Mart.

The younger brother took the staff and hit it on the ground.

The girl looks, and this is no longer a staff. This is a large branch, all covered with buds.

Mart grinned and sang loudly, in all his boyish voice:

Run away, streams,

Spread, puddles,

Get out, ants,

After the winter cold!

A bear sneaks through

Through the dead wood.

The birds began to sing songs,

And the snowdrop blossomed.

The girl even clasped her hands. Where did the high snowdrifts go? Where are the ice icicles that hung on every branch!

Under her feet is soft spring soil. It's dripping, flowing, babbling all around. The buds on the branches are inflated, and the first green leaves are already peeking out from under the dark skin.

The girl looks and can’t see enough.

Why are you standing? - Mart tells her. - Hurry, my brothers gave you and me only one hour.

And there is no longer a fire, no brothers... It’s light in the clearing, but not as before. The light did not come from the fire, but from the full moon that rose over the forest.

The girl regretted that she had no one to thank and went home. And a month swam after her.

Not feeling her feet under her, she ran to her door - and had just entered the house when the winter blizzard began to hum again outside the windows, and the moon hid in the clouds.

“Well,” her stepmother and sister asked, “have you returned home yet?” Where are the snowdrops?

The girl didn’t answer, she just poured snowdrops out of her apron onto the bench and put the basket next to it.

The stepmother and sister gasped:

Where did you get them?

The stepmother and daughter looked at each other and asked:

Have months given you anything else?

Yes, I didn’t ask for anything else.

What a fool! - says the sister. - For once, I met all twelve months, but didn’t ask for anything except snowdrops! Well, if I were you, I'd know what to ask for. One has apples and sweet pears, another has ripe strawberries, the third has white mushrooms, the fourth has fresh cucumbers!

Smart girl, daughter! - says the stepmother. - In winter, strawberries and pears have no price. We would sell this and make so much money! And this fool brought snowdrops! Dress up, daughter, get warm and go to the clearing. They won’t deceive you, even if there are twelve of them and you are alone.