Ice house of Frost Ivanovich. Odoevsky V

Nothing is given to us for free without effort,
- It’s not for nothing that there has been a proverb since ancient times.

Two girls lived in the same house - the Needlewoman and Lenivitsa, and with them a nanny.
The needlewoman was a smart girl: she got up early, dressed herself, without a nanny, and got out of bed and got to work: she lit the stove, kneaded bread, chalked the hut, fed the rooster, and then went to the well to get water.
Meanwhile, Sloth was lying in bed, stretching, waddling from side to side, and when she gets bored of lying, she’ll say, half asleep: “Nanny, put on my stockings, nanny, tie my shoes,” and then she’ll say, “Nanny, is there a bun?” . He gets up, jumps, and sits down at the window to count the flies: how many have flown in and how many have flown away. As Lenivitsa counts everyone, she doesn’t know what to take up or what to do; She would like to go to bed - but she doesn’t want to sleep; She would like to eat, but she doesn’t feel like eating; She should count flies at the window - and even then she’s tired. She sits, miserable, and cries and complains to everyone that she is bored, as if others are to blame.
Meanwhile, the Needlewoman returns, strains the water, pours it into jugs; and what a trick: if the water is unclean, he will roll up a sheet of paper, put coals and coarse sand in it, insert that paper into a jug and pour water into it, and the water, you know, passes through the sand and through the coals and drips into the jug clean , like crystal; and then the Needlewoman will start knitting stockings or cutting scarves, or even sewing and cutting shirts, and even start singing a handicraft song; and she was never bored, because she had no time to be bored: now doing this, now doing that, and then, you look, it’s evening - the day has passed.
One day, trouble happened to the Needlewoman: she went to the well to get water, lowered the bucket on a rope, and the rope broke; The bucket fell into the well. How can we be here?
The poor Needlewoman burst into tears and went to her nanny to tell about her misfortune and misfortune; and nanny Praskovya was so strict and angry, she said:
- You made the trouble yourself, fix it yourself; You drowned the bucket yourself, get it out yourself.
There was nothing to do: the poor Needlewoman went back to the well, grabbed the rope and descended along it to the very bottom. Only then a miracle happened to her. As soon as she came down, she looked: there was a stove in front of her, and in the stove sat a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:
- I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me from the stove will go with me! The needlewoman, without hesitating at all, grabbed a spatula, took out the pie and put it in her bosom.
She moves on. There is a garden in front of her, and in the garden there is a tree, and on the tree there are golden apples; The apples move their leaves and say to themselves:
- We, liquid apples, are ripe; they ate tree roots and washed themselves with cold dew; whoever shakes us off the tree will take us for himself.
The needlewoman approached the tree, shook it by the twig, and golden apples fell into her apron.
The needlewoman moves on. She looks: old man Moroz Ivanovich, gray-haired, sits in front of her; he sits on an ice bench and eats snowballs; shakes his head - frost falls from his hair, dies of spirit - thick steam rises.
- A! - he said. - Hello, Needlewoman! Thank you for bringing me the pie; I haven't eaten anything hot for a long time.
Then he sat the Needlewoman next to him, and they had breakfast together with a pie and snacked on golden apples.
“I know why you came,” says Moroz Ivanovich, “you dropped a bucket into my student; I’ll give you the bucket, only you serve me for three days; If you're smart, you'll be better off; If you're lazy, it's worse for you. And now, added Moroz Ivanovich, “it’s time for me, an old man, to rest; go and prepare my bed, and make sure to fluff up the feather bed well.
The needlewoman obeyed... They went into the house. Moroz Ivanovich’s house was made entirely of ice: the doors, the windows, and the floor were ice, and the walls were decorated with snow stars; the sun was shining on them, and everything in the house sparkled like diamonds. On Moroz Ivanovich’s bed, instead of a feather bed, there was fluffy snow; It was cold and there was nothing to do.
The needlewoman began to whip up the snow so that the old man could sleep more softly, and meanwhile her, poor thing, her hands were numb and her fingers turned white, like the poor people who rinse their linen in an ice hole in winter: it’s cold, and the wind is in the face, and the linen freezes, with a stake standing, but there is nothing to do - poor people are working.
“Nothing,” said Moroz Ivanovich, “just rub your fingers with snow, and they’ll come off without chilling.” I'm a good old man; look at my curiosities.
Then he lifted his snowy feather bed with a blanket, and the Needlewoman saw that green grass was breaking through under the feather bed. The needlewoman felt sorry for the poor grass.
“You say,” she said, “that you are a kind old man, but why do you keep green grass under a snowy feather bed and don’t let it out into the light of day?”
- I’m not letting him out because it’s not time yet, the grass hasn’t yet come into effect. In the fall, the peasants sowed it, it sprouted, and if it had already stretched out, then winter would have captured it, and by summer the grass would not have ripened. So I covered the young greenery with my snow feather bed, and I also lay down on it so that the snow wouldn’t be blown away by the wind, and then spring will come, the snow feather feather will melt, the grass will sprout, and then, look, grain will appear, and the peasant will collect the grain and will take the mill; the miller will sweep away the grain and there will be flour, and from the flour you, Handicraftswoman, will bake bread.
“Well, tell me, Moroz Ivanovich,” said the Needlewoman, “why are you sitting in the well?”
“Then I’m sitting in the well that spring is coming,” said Moroz Ivanovich. I'm getting hot; and you know that it can be cold in the well even in the summer, which is why the water in the well is cold, even in the middle of the hottest summer.
“Why do you, Moroz Ivanovich,” asked the Needlewoman, “in winter you walk the streets and knock on windows?”
“And then I knock on the window,” answered Moroz Ivanovich, “so that they don’t forget to light the stoves and close the pipes in time; Otherwise, I know that there are such slobs that they will heat up the stove, but they won’t close the pipe, or they will close it, but at the wrong time, when not all the coals have burned out yet, and that’s why there is carbon monoxide in the upper room, people get headaches , green in the eyes; You can even die completely from fumes. And then I also knock on the window so that no one forgets that there are people in the world who are cold in winter, who do not have a fur coat, and who have nothing to buy firewood with; So then I knock on the window so that they don’t forget to help them.
Here the kind Moroz Ivanovich stroked the Needlewoman on the head and lay down to rest on his snowy bed.
Meanwhile, the needlewoman cleaned up everything in the house, went to the kitchen, prepared food, mended the old man’s dress and darned the linen.
The old man woke up; I was very pleased with everything and thanked the Needlewoman. Then they sat down to dinner; the dinner was excellent, and especially good was the ice cream, which the old man made himself.
This is how the Needlewoman lived with Moroz Ivanovich for three whole days.
On the third day, Moroz Ivanovich said to the Needlewoman:
- Thank you, you are a smart girl, you comforted me, an old man, well, and I will not remain in your debt. You know: people get money for needlework, so here’s your bucket, and I poured a whole handful of silver coins into the bucket; Yes, besides, here’s a diamond as a souvenir for you to pin on your scarf.
The needlewoman thanked her, pinned on the diamond, took the bucket, went back to the well, grabbed the rope and came out into the light of day.
She had just begun to approach the house like a rooster that she always fed; I saw her, was delighted, flew up onto the fence and shouted:
Crow, crow!
The Needlewoman has nickels in her bucket!
When the Needlewoman came home and told everything that happened to her, the nanny was very amazed, and then said:
- You see, Sloth, what people get for handicrafts! Go to the old man and serve him, do some work; Clean his room, cook in the kitchen, mend his dress and darn his linen, and you’ll earn a handful of coins, and it will come in handy: we don’t have much money for the holiday.
Lenivitsa really did not like going to work with the old man. But she wanted to get the piglets and the diamond pin too.
So, following the example of the Needlewoman, Sloth went to the well, grabbed the rope, and crashed straight to the bottom. She looks at the stove in front of her, and in the stove sits a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:
- I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me will go with me. And Lenivitsa answered him:
- Yes, no matter how it is! I have to tire myself out - lifting my spatula and reaching into the stove; If you want, you can jump out yourself.
She walks further, in front of her is a garden, and in the garden there is a tree, and on the tree there are golden apples; The apples move their leaves and say to themselves:
- We are liquid, ripe apples; they ate tree roots and washed themselves with cold dew; whoever shakes us off the tree will take us for himself.
- Yes, no matter how it is! - answered Lenivitsa. - I have to tire myself out - raise my arms, pull on branches... I’ll have time to collect before they attack!
And Sloth walked past them. So she reached Moroz Ivanovich. The old man was still sitting on the ice bench and biting snowballs.
- What do you want, girl? - he asked.
“I came to you,” answered Lenivitsa, “to serve and get paid for the work.”
“You said it very well, girl,” the old man answered, “you should get money for work, just let’s see what else your work will be!” Go and fluff up my feather bed, and then prepare the food, mend my dress, and mend my linen.
Sloth went, and on her way she thought:
“I’ll tire myself and my fingers will shiver! Perhaps the old man won’t notice and will fall asleep on the unfluffed feather bed.”
The old man really didn’t notice, or pretended not to notice, went to bed and fell asleep, and Sloth went to the kitchen. She came to the kitchen and didn’t know what to do. She loved to eat, but it never even occurred to her to think about how the food was prepared; and she was too lazy to look. So she looked around: in front of her lay greens, meat, fish, vinegar, mustard, and kvass - everything in order. She thought and thought, somehow peeled the greens, cut the meat and fish, and, so as not to give herself too much work, she put everything in the pan as it was, washed or unwashed: greens, meat, fish, and mustard, and she added some vinegar and some kvass, but she thought:
- Why bother yourself, cook each thing specially? After all, everything will be together in the stomach.
The old man woke up and asked for dinner. The sloth brought him the pan as it was, without even laying out the tablecloths. Moroz Ivanovich tried it, winced, and the sand crunched on his teeth.
“You cook well,” he remarked, smiling. - Let's see what your other job will be.
The Sloth tasted it, and immediately spat it out, and the old man grunted, grunted, and began to prepare the food himself and made a great dinner, so that the Sloth licked his fingers while eating someone else’s cooking.
After lunch, the old man lay down to rest again and remembered to Lenivitsa that his dress had not been repaired and his linen had not been darned.
The sloth sulked, but there was nothing to do: she began to take apart her dress and underwear; and here’s the problem: Lenivitsa sewed the dress and underwear, but she didn’t ask how it was sewn; She was about to take a needle, but out of habit she pricked herself; So I left her. And the old man again seemed not to notice anything, he called Lenivitsa to dinner, and even put him to bed.
But Lenivitsa loves it; thinks to himself:
“Perhaps it will pass anyway. My sister was free to take on the work; he’s a good old man, he’ll give me a few coins for nothing.”
On the third day, Lenivitsa comes and asks Moroz Ivanovich to let her go home and reward her for her work.
- What was your job? - asked the old man. - If this is true, then you have to pay me, because you didn’t work for me, but I served you.
- Yes, of course! - answered Lenivitsa. - I lived with you for three whole days.
“You know, my dear,” answered the old man, “what I’ll tell you: living and serving are different, and work is different; note this: it will come in handy ahead. But, however, if your conscience does not bother you, I will reward you: and what is your work, such will be your reward.
With these words, Moroz Ivanovich gave Lenivitsa a large silver bar, and in the other hand - a large diamond.
The sloth was so happy about this that she grabbed both and, without even thanking the old man, ran home.
She came home and showed off.
Here, he says, is what I earned; not a match for my sister, not a handful of coins and not a small diamond, but a whole silver ingot, look how heavy it is, and the diamond is almost the size of a fist... You can buy a new one for the holiday with this...
Before she had time to finish speaking, the silver ingot melted and poured onto the floor; he was nothing more than mercury, which had frozen from extreme cold; At the same time, the diamond began to melt. And the rooster jumped up on the fence and cried loudly:
Crow-crow,
Sloth has an ice icicle in her hands!
And you, kids, think, guess what is true here, what is not true; what is said really, what is said sideways; some as a joke, some as an instruction...

We don’t get anything for free, without labor, -

It’s not for nothing that the proverb has been around since ancient times.

Two girls lived in the same house: the Needlewoman and Lenivitsa, and with them a nanny. The needlewoman was a smart girl, she got up early, dressed herself without a nanny, and when she got out of bed, she got to work: she lit the stove, kneaded bread, chalked the hut, fed the rooster, and then went to the well for water. Meanwhile, Sloth was lying in bed; They've been ringing for mass for a long time now, and she's still stretching: she's rolling from side to side; If he gets bored of lying down, he’ll say, half asleep: “Nanny, put on my stockings, nanny, tie my shoes”; and then he says: “Nanny, is there a bun?” He gets up, jumps, and sits down at the window to count the flies how many have flown in and how many have flown away. As Lenivitsa counts everyone, she doesn’t know what to take up or what to do; she would like to go to bed - but she doesn’t want to sleep; She would like to eat, but she doesn’t feel like eating; She would like to count flies at the window - and even then she’s tired; the miserable woman sits and cries and complains to everyone that she is bored, as if it were others’ fault.

Meanwhile, the Needlewoman returns, strains the water, pours it into jugs; and what a trick: if the water is unclean, he will roll up a sheet of paper, put coals and coarse sand in it, insert that paper into a jug and pour water into it, and the water, you know, passes through the sand and through the coals and drips into the jug clean , like crystal; and then the Needlewoman will start knitting stockings or cutting scarves, or even sewing and cutting shirts, and even start singing a handicraft song; and she was never bored, because she had no time to be bored: now doing this, now doing that, then, you see, it’s evening - the day has passed.

One day, trouble happened to the Needlewoman: she went to the well to get water, lowered the bucket on a rope, and the rope broke and the bucket fell into the well. How can we be here? The poor Needlewoman burst into tears and went to the nanny to tell about her misfortune and misfortune, and nanny Praskovya was so strict and angry, she said:

“You caused the problem yourself, fix it yourself.” You drowned the bucket yourself, get it out yourself.

There was nothing to do; The poor Needlewoman went again to the well, grabbed the rope and descended along it to the very bottom.

Only then a miracle happened to her. As soon as she came down, she looked: there was a stove in front of her, and in the stove sat a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:

“I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me from the stove will go with me.

Odoevsky’s fairy tale “Moroz Ivanovich” tells about two girls. One of them, the Needlewoman, dropped a bucket into the well. When the girl went down after him, she saw miracles and grandfather Moroz Ivanovich there. For her kindness, the Needlewoman received gifts from Frost. And what did Sloth get?

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Fairy tale Moroz Ivanovich read

Two girls lived in the same house - the Needlewoman and Lenivitsa, and with them a nanny. The needlewoman was a smart girl: she got up early, dressed herself, without a nanny, and got out of bed and got to work: she lit the stove, kneaded bread, chalked the hut, fed the rooster, and then went to the well to get water.

Meanwhile, Sloth was lying in bed, stretching, waddling from side to side, and when she gets bored of lying, she’ll say, half asleep: “Nanny, put on my stockings, nanny, tie my shoes,” and then she’ll say, “Nanny, is there a bun?”

He gets up, jumps and sits down at the window to count the flies: how many have flown in and how many have flown away. As Lenivitsa counts everyone, she doesn’t know what to take up or what to do; She would like to go to bed - but she doesn’t want to sleep; She would like to eat, but she doesn’t feel like eating; She should count flies at the window - and even then she’s tired. She sits, miserable, and cries and complains to everyone that she is bored, as if others are to blame. Meanwhile, the Needlewoman returns, strains the water, pours it into jugs; and what a trick: if the water is unclean, he will roll up a sheet of paper, put coals and coarse sand in it, insert that paper into a jug and pour water into it, and the water, you know, passes through the sand and through the coals and drips into the jug is clean, like crystal; and then the Needlewoman will start knitting stockings or cutting scarves, or even sewing and cutting shirts, and even start singing a handicraft song; and she was never bored, because she had no time to be bored: now doing this, now doing that, and then, you look, it’s evening - the day has passed.

One day, trouble happened to the Needlewoman: she went to the well to get water, lowered the bucket on a rope, and the rope broke; The bucket fell into the well. How can we be here?

The poor Needlewoman burst into tears and went to her nanny to tell about her misfortune and misfortune; and nanny Praskovya was so strict and angry, she said:

You made the trouble yourself, fix it yourself; You drowned the bucket yourself, get it out yourself.

There was nothing to do: the poor Needlewoman went back to the well, grabbed the rope and descended along it to the very bottom. Only then a miracle happened to her. As soon as she came down, she looked: there was a stove in front of her, and in the stove sat a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:

I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me from the stove will go with me!

The needlewoman, without hesitating at all, grabbed a spatula, took out the pie and put it in her bosom. She moves on.

There is a garden in front of her, and in the garden there is a tree, and on the tree there are golden apples; The apples move their leaves and say to themselves:

The needlewoman approached the tree, shook it by the twig, and golden apples fell into her apron.

A! - he said. - Great, Needlewoman! Thank you for bringing me the pie; I haven't eaten anything hot for a long time.

Then he sat the Needlewoman next to him, and they had breakfast together with a pie and snacked on golden apples.

“I know why you came,” says Moroz Ivanovich, “you dropped a bucket into my student; I’ll give you the bucket, only you serve me for three days; If you're smart, you'll be better off; If you're lazy, it's worse for you. And now,” added Moroz Ivanovich, “it’s time for me, an old man, to rest; go and prepare my bed, and make sure to fluff up the feather bed well.

The needlewoman obeyed. They went into the house. Moroz Ivanovich’s house was made entirely of ice: the doors, the windows, and the floor were ice, and the walls were decorated with snow stars; the sun was shining on them, and everything in the house sparkled like diamonds. On Moroz Ivanovich’s bed, instead of a feather bed, there was fluffy snow; It was cold and there was nothing to do.

The needlewoman began to whip up the snow so that the old man could sleep more softly, and meanwhile her, poor thing, her hands were numb and her fingers turned white, like the poor people who rinse their linen in an ice hole in winter: it’s cold, and the wind is in the face, and the linen freezes, with a stake standing, but there is nothing to do - poor people are working.

“Nothing,” said Moroz Ivanovich, “just rub your fingers with snow, and they’ll go away, you won’t get chills.” I'm a good old man; look at my curiosities. Then he lifted his snowy feather bed with a blanket, and the Needlewoman saw that green grass was breaking through under the feather bed. The needlewoman felt sorry for the poor grass.

“You say,” she said, “that you are a kind old man, but why do you keep green grass under a snowy feather bed and not let it out into the light of day?”

I’m not releasing it because it’s not time yet; The grass has not yet come into effect. In the fall, the peasants sowed it, it sprouted, and if it had already stretched out, then winter would have captured it, and by summer the grass would not have ripened. So I covered the young greenery with my snow feather bed, and also lay down on it myself so that the snow would not be blown away by the wind; But when spring comes, the snow feathers will melt, the grass will sprout, and then, lo and behold, grain will appear, and the peasant will collect the grain and take it to the mill; the miller will sweep away the grain and there will be flour, and from the flour you, Handicraftswoman, will bake bread.

Well, tell me, Moroz Ivanovich,” said the Needlewoman, “why are you sitting in the well?”

“Then I’m sitting in the well; spring is coming,” said Moroz Ivanovich, “I’m getting hot; and you know that it can be cold in the well even in the summer, which is why the water in the well is cold, even in the middle of the hottest summer.

“Why do you, Moroz Ivanovich,” asked the Needlewoman, “in winter you walk the streets and knock on windows?”

“And then I knock on the windows,” answered Moroz Ivanovich, “so that they don’t forget to light the stoves and close the pipes on time; Otherwise, I know, there are such slobs that if you heat the stove, they will heat it up, but they won’t close the pipe, or they will close it, but at the wrong time, when not all the coals have burned out yet, and that’s why there is carbon monoxide in the upper room, your head will people are in pain, their eyes are green; You can even die completely from fumes. And then I also knock on the window so that no one forgets that there are people in the world who are cold in winter, who have no fur coat, and who have nothing to buy firewood with; So then I knock on the window so that they don’t forget to help them. Here the kind Moroz Ivanovich stroked the Needlewoman on the head and lay down to rest on his snowy bed.

Meanwhile, the needlewoman cleaned up everything in the house, went to the kitchen, prepared food, mended the old man’s dress and darned the linen.

The old man woke up; I was very pleased with everything and thanked the Needlewoman. Then they sat down to dinner; the dinner was excellent, and especially good was the ice cream, which the old man made himself.

Moroz Ivanovich poured silver coins into a bucket for the needlewoman. This is how the Needlewoman lived with Moroz Ivanovich for three whole days.

On the third day, Moroz Ivanovich said to the Needlewoman: “Thank you, you are a smart girl, you comforted me, an old man, well, and I will not remain in your debt.” You know: people get money for handicrafts, so here’s your bucket, and I poured a whole handful of silver coins into the bucket; and besides, here’s a diamond as a souvenir for you to pin on your scarf. The needlewoman thanked her, pinned on the diamond, took the bucket, went back to the well, grabbed the rope and came out into the light of day.

As soon as she began to approach the house, the rooster, which she always fed, saw her, was delighted, flew up onto the fence and shouted:

Crow-crow!

The Needlewoman has nickels in her bucket!

When the Needlewoman came home and told everything that had happened to her, the nanny was very amazed, and then said: “You see, Sloth, what people get for needlework!”

Go to the old man and serve him, do some work; Clean his room, cook in the kitchen, mend his dress and darn his linen, and you’ll earn a handful of coins, and it will come in handy: we don’t have much money for the holiday.

Lenivitsa really didn’t like going to work with the old man. But she wanted to get the piglets and the diamond pin too.

So, following the example of the Needlewoman, Sloth went to the well, grabbed the rope and crashed straight to the bottom. The stove looks in front of her, and in the stove sits a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:

I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me will go with me.

And Lenivitsa answered him:

Yes, no matter how it is! I have to tire myself out - lifting my spatula and reaching into the stove; If you want, you can jump out yourself.

We are plump, ripe apples; they ate tree roots and washed themselves with cold dew; whoever shakes us off the tree will take us for himself.

Yes, no matter how it is! - answered Lenivitsa. “I have to tire myself out - lifting my arms, pulling on branches... I’ll have time to pick up before they attack!”

And Sloth walked past them. So she reached Moroz Ivanovich. The old man was still sitting on the ice bench and biting snowballs.

What do you want, girl? - he asked.

“I came to you,” answered Lenivitsa, “to serve and get paid for the work.”

“You said it right, girl,” the old man answered, “you should get money for your work, just let’s see what else your work will be.” Go and fluff up my feather bed, and then prepare the food, mend my dress, and mend my linen.

Sloth went, and on her way she thought:

“I’m going to tire myself and shiver my fingers! Perhaps the old man won’t notice and will fall asleep on the unfluffed feather bed.”

The old man really didn’t notice, or pretended not to notice, went to bed and fell asleep, and Sloth went to the kitchen. She came to the kitchen and didn’t know what to do. She loved to eat, but it never even occurred to her to think about how the food was prepared; and she was too lazy to look. So she looked around: in front of her lay greens, meat, fish, vinegar, mustard, and kvass - everything in order. She thought and thought, somehow she peeled the greens, cut the meat and fish, and, so as not to give herself too much work, as everything was washed or unwashed, she put it in the pan: the greens, and the meat, and the fish, and the mustard, and I added vinegar and some kvass, but she thought:

“Why bother yourself, cook each thing specially? After all, everything will be together in the stomach.”

The old man woke up and asked for dinner. The sloth brought him the pan as it was, without even laying out a tablecloth.

Moroz Ivanovich tried it, winced, and the sand crunched on his teeth. “You cook well,” he remarked, smiling. - Let's see what your other job will be.

The Sloth tasted it, and immediately spat it out, and the old man groaned, grunted, and began to prepare the food himself and made a great dinner, so that the Sloth licked her fingers while eating someone else’s cooking.

After lunch, the old man lay down to rest again, but remembered Lenivitsa that his dress had not been repaired and his linen had not been darned.

The sloth sulked, but there was nothing to do: she began to take apart her dress and underwear; and here’s the problem: Lenivitsa sewed the dress and underwear, but she didn’t ask how it was sewn; She was about to take a needle, but out of habit she pricked herself; So I left her. And the old man again seemed not to notice anything, he called Sloth to dinner and even put her to bed.

But Lenivitsa loves it; thinks to himself:

“Perhaps it will pass. The sister was free to take on the labor; “He’s a good old man, he’ll give me a few coins for nothing.”

On the third day, Lenivitsa comes and asks Moroz Ivanovich to let her go home and reward her for her work.

What was your job? - asked the old man. - If this is true, then you must pay me, because it was not you who worked for me, but I who served you.

Yes, of course! - answered Lenivitsa. “I lived with you for three whole days.” “You know, my dear,” answered the old man, “what I’ll tell you: living and serving are different, and work is different; note this: it will come in handy ahead. But, however, if your conscience does not bother you, I will reward you: and what is your work, such will be your reward.

With these words, Moroz Ivanovich gave Lenivitsa a large silver bar, and in the other hand - a large diamond. The sloth was so happy about this that she grabbed both and, without even thanking the old man, ran home.

She came home and showed off.

This, he says, is what I earned; not a match for my sister, not a handful of coins and not a small diamond, but a whole silver ingot, look how heavy it is, and the diamond is almost the size of a fist... You can buy a new one for the holiday with this...

Before she had time to finish speaking, the silver ingot melted and poured onto the floor; he was nothing more than mercury, which had frozen from extreme cold; At the same time, the diamond began to melt.

And the rooster jumped up on the fence and cried loudly:

Cuckoo-cucker,

Sloth has an ice icicle in her hands!

And you, kids, think, guess what is true here, what is not true; what is said really, what is said sideways; some as a joke, some as an instruction.

Two girls lived in the same house - the Needlewoman and Lenivitsa, and with them a nanny. The needlewoman was a smart girl: she got up early, dressed herself, without a nanny, and got out of bed and got to work: she lit the stove, kneaded bread, chalked the hut, fed the rooster, and then went to the well to get water.

Meanwhile, Sloth was lying in bed, stretching, waddling from side to side, and when she gets bored of lying, she’ll say, half asleep: “Nanny, put on my stockings, nanny, tie my shoes,” and then she’ll say, “Nanny, is there a bun?”

He gets up, jumps and sits down at the window to count the flies: how many have flown in and how many have flown away. As Lenivitsa counts everyone, she doesn’t know what to take up or what to do; She would like to go to bed - but she doesn’t want to sleep; She would like to eat, but she doesn’t feel like eating; She should count flies at the window - and even then she’s tired. She sits, miserable, and cries and complains to everyone that she is bored, as if others are to blame. Meanwhile, the Needlewoman returns, strains the water, pours it into jugs; and what a trick: if the water is unclean, he will roll up a sheet of paper, put coals and coarse sand in it, insert that paper into a jug and pour water into it, and the water, you know, passes through the sand and through the coals and drips into the jug is clean, like crystal; and then the Needlewoman will start knitting stockings or cutting scarves, or even sewing and cutting shirts, and even start singing a handicraft song; and she was never bored, because she had no time to be bored: now doing this, now doing that, and then, you look, it’s evening - the day has passed.

One day, trouble happened to the Needlewoman: she went to the well to get water, lowered the bucket on a rope, and the rope broke; The bucket fell into the well. How can we be here?

The poor Needlewoman burst into tears and went to her nanny to tell about her misfortune and misfortune; and nanny Praskovya was so strict and angry, she said:

You made the trouble yourself, fix it yourself; You drowned the bucket yourself, get it out yourself.

There was nothing to do: the poor Needlewoman went back to the well, grabbed the rope and descended along it to the very bottom. Only then a miracle happened to her. As soon as she came down, she looked: there was a stove in front of her, and in the stove sat a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:

I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me from the stove will go with me!

The needlewoman, without hesitating at all, grabbed a spatula, took out the pie and put it in her bosom. She moves on.

There is a garden in front of her, and in the garden there is a tree, and on the tree there are golden apples; The apples move their leaves and say to themselves:

The needlewoman approached the tree, shook it by the twig, and golden apples fell into her apron.

A! - he said. - Great, Needlewoman! Thank you for bringing me the pie; I haven't eaten anything hot for a long time.

Then he sat the Needlewoman next to him, and they had breakfast together with a pie and snacked on golden apples.

“I know why you came,” says Moroz Ivanovich, “you dropped a bucket into my student; I’ll give you the bucket, only you serve me for three days; If you're smart, you'll be better off; If you're lazy, it's worse for you. And now,” added Moroz Ivanovich, “it’s time for me, an old man, to rest; go and prepare my bed, and make sure to fluff up the feather bed well.

The needlewoman obeyed. They went into the house. Moroz Ivanovich’s house was made entirely of ice: the doors, the windows, and the floor were ice, and the walls were decorated with snow stars; the sun was shining on them, and everything in the house sparkled like diamonds. On Moroz Ivanovich’s bed, instead of a feather bed, there was fluffy snow; It was cold and there was nothing to do.

The needlewoman began to whip up the snow so that the old man could sleep more softly, and meanwhile her, poor thing, her hands were numb and her fingers turned white, like the poor people who rinse their linen in an ice hole in winter: it’s cold, and the wind is in the face, and the linen freezes, with a stake standing, but there is nothing to do - poor people are working.

“Nothing,” said Moroz Ivanovich, “just rub your fingers with snow, and they’ll go away, you won’t get chills.” I'm a good old man; look at my curiosities. Then he lifted his snowy feather bed with a blanket, and the Needlewoman saw that green grass was breaking through under the feather bed. The needlewoman felt sorry for the poor grass.

“You say,” she said, “that you are a kind old man, but why do you keep green grass under a snowy feather bed and not let it out into the light of day?”

I’m not releasing it because it’s not time yet; The grass has not yet come into effect. In the fall, the peasants sowed it, it sprouted, and if it had already stretched out, then winter would have captured it, and by summer the grass would not have ripened. So I covered the young greenery with my snow feather bed, and also lay down on it myself so that the snow would not be blown away by the wind; But when spring comes, the snow feathers will melt, the grass will sprout, and then, lo and behold, grain will appear, and the peasant will collect the grain and take it to the mill; the miller will sweep away the grain and there will be flour, and from the flour you, Handicraftswoman, will bake bread.

Well, tell me, Moroz Ivanovich,” said the Needlewoman, “why are you sitting in the well?”

“Then I’m sitting in the well; spring is coming,” said Moroz Ivanovich, “I’m getting hot; and you know that it can be cold in the well even in the summer, which is why the water in the well is cold, even in the middle of the hottest summer.

“Why do you, Moroz Ivanovich,” asked the Needlewoman, “in winter you walk the streets and knock on windows?”

“And then I knock on the windows,” answered Moroz Ivanovich, “so that they don’t forget to light the stoves and close the pipes on time; Otherwise, I know, there are such slobs that if you heat the stove, they will heat it up, but they won’t close the pipe, or they will close it, but at the wrong time, when not all the coals have burned out yet, and that’s why there is carbon monoxide in the upper room, your head will people are in pain, their eyes are green; You can even die completely from fumes. And then I also knock on the window so that no one forgets that there are people in the world who are cold in winter, who have no fur coat, and who have nothing to buy firewood with; So then I knock on the window so that they don’t forget to help them. Here the kind Moroz Ivanovich stroked the Needlewoman on the head and lay down to rest on his snowy bed.

Meanwhile, the needlewoman cleaned up everything in the house, went to the kitchen, prepared food, mended the old man’s dress and darned the linen.

The old man woke up; I was very pleased with everything and thanked the Needlewoman. Then they sat down to dinner; the dinner was excellent, and especially good was the ice cream, which the old man made himself.

Moroz Ivanovich poured silver coins into a bucket for the needlewoman. This is how the Needlewoman lived with Moroz Ivanovich for three whole days.

On the third day, Moroz Ivanovich said to the Needlewoman: “Thank you, you are a smart girl, you comforted me, an old man, well, and I will not remain in your debt.” You know: people get money for handicrafts, so here’s your bucket, and I poured a whole handful of silver coins into the bucket; and besides, here’s a diamond as a souvenir for you to pin on your scarf. The needlewoman thanked her, pinned on the diamond, took the bucket, went back to the well, grabbed the rope and came out into the light of day.

As soon as she began to approach the house, the rooster, which she always fed, saw her, was delighted, flew up onto the fence and shouted:

Crow-crow!

The Needlewoman has nickels in her bucket!

When the Needlewoman came home and told everything that had happened to her, the nanny was very amazed, and then said: “You see, Sloth, what people get for needlework!”

Go to the old man and serve him, do some work; Clean his room, cook in the kitchen, mend his dress and darn his linen, and you’ll earn a handful of coins, and it will come in handy: we don’t have much money for the holiday.

Lenivitsa really didn’t like going to work with the old man. But she wanted to get the piglets and the diamond pin too.

So, following the example of the Needlewoman, Sloth went to the well, grabbed the rope and crashed straight to the bottom. The stove looks in front of her, and in the stove sits a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:

I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me will go with me.

And Lenivitsa answered him:

Yes, no matter how it is! I have to tire myself out - lifting my spatula and reaching into the stove; If you want, you can jump out yourself.

We are plump, ripe apples; they ate tree roots and washed themselves with cold dew; whoever shakes us off the tree will take us for himself.

Yes, no matter how it is! - answered Lenivitsa. “I have to tire myself out - lifting my arms, pulling on branches... I’ll have time to pick up before they attack!”

And Sloth walked past them. So she reached Moroz Ivanovich. The old man was still sitting on the ice bench and biting snowballs.

What do you want, girl? - he asked.

“I came to you,” answered Lenivitsa, “to serve and get paid for the work.”

“You said it right, girl,” the old man answered, “you should get money for your work, just let’s see what else your work will be.” Go and fluff up my feather bed, and then prepare the food, mend my dress, and mend my linen.

Sloth went, and on her way she thought:

“I’m going to tire myself and shiver my fingers! Perhaps the old man won’t notice and will fall asleep on the unfluffed feather bed.”

The old man really didn’t notice, or pretended not to notice, went to bed and fell asleep, and Sloth went to the kitchen. She came to the kitchen and didn’t know what to do. She loved to eat, but it never even occurred to her to think about how the food was prepared; and she was too lazy to look. So she looked around: in front of her lay greens, meat, fish, vinegar, mustard, and kvass - everything in order. She thought and thought, somehow she peeled the greens, cut the meat and fish, and, so as not to give herself too much work, as everything was washed or unwashed, she put it in the pan: the greens, and the meat, and the fish, and the mustard, and I added vinegar and some kvass, but she thought:

“Why bother yourself, cook each thing specially? After all, everything will be together in the stomach.”

The old man woke up and asked for dinner. The sloth brought him the pan as it was, without even laying out a tablecloth.

Moroz Ivanovich tried it, winced, and the sand crunched on his teeth. “You cook well,” he remarked, smiling. - Let's see what your other job will be.

The Sloth tasted it, and immediately spat it out, and the old man groaned, grunted, and began to prepare the food himself and made a great dinner, so that the Sloth licked her fingers while eating someone else’s cooking.

After lunch, the old man lay down to rest again, but remembered Lenivitsa that his dress had not been repaired and his linen had not been darned.

The sloth sulked, but there was nothing to do: she began to take apart her dress and underwear; and here’s the problem: Lenivitsa sewed the dress and underwear, but she didn’t ask how it was sewn; She was about to take a needle, but out of habit she pricked herself; So I left her. And the old man again seemed not to notice anything, he called Sloth to dinner and even put her to bed.

But Lenivitsa loves it; thinks to himself:

“Perhaps it will pass. The sister was free to take on the labor; “He’s a good old man, he’ll give me a few coins for nothing.”

On the third day, Lenivitsa comes and asks Moroz Ivanovich to let her go home and reward her for her work.

What was your job? - asked the old man. - If this is true, then you must pay me, because it was not you who worked for me, but I who served you.

Yes, of course! - answered Lenivitsa. “I lived with you for three whole days.” “You know, my dear,” answered the old man, “what I’ll tell you: living and serving are different, and work is different; note this: it will come in handy ahead. But, however, if your conscience does not bother you, I will reward you: and what is your work, such will be your reward.

With these words, Moroz Ivanovich gave Lenivitsa a large silver bar, and in the other hand - a large diamond. The sloth was so happy about this that she grabbed both and, without even thanking the old man, ran home.

She came home and showed off.

This, he says, is what I earned; not a match for my sister, not a handful of coins and not a small diamond, but a whole silver ingot, look how heavy it is, and the diamond is almost the size of a fist... You can buy a new one for the holiday with this...

Before she had time to finish speaking, the silver ingot melted and poured onto the floor; he was nothing more than mercury, which had frozen from extreme cold; At the same time, the diamond began to melt. And the rooster jumped up on the fence and cried loudly:

Cuckoo-cucker,

Sloth has an ice icicle in her hands!

And you, kids, think, guess: what is true here, what is not true; what is said really, what is said sideways; some as a joke, some as an instruction, and some as a hint. And even then, realize that not all work and goodness comes with a reward; but the reward happens inadvertently, because labor and goodness in themselves are good and are suitable for any task; That's how God designed it. Just don’t leave other people’s goods and labor without reward, but in the meantime, the reward from you is learning and obedience.

Meanwhile, don’t forget old grandfather Irenaeus, and he has prepared many tales for you; Just let the old man gather his strength and health in the spring.

Read the plot of the fairy tale Moroz Ivanovich

The main characters of the work are girls, called by the writer the Needlewoman and Lenivitsa.

The girl named Needlewoman is described as a hard-working, hard-working girl who does any housework. In contrast, Lenivitsa, apart from lying on the bed and eating, does nothing in life, and out of boredom amuses herself by counting flies on the window.

One day, the Needlewoman, going for water, accidentally drops a bucket into the well and, at the insistence of the nanny, goes to get it. Having descended to the bottom of the well, the Needlewoman sees in front of her a stove in which there is a pie. The girl uses a spatula to take the fragrant pie out of the oven and moves on, looking for the lost bucket. On the way, the Needlewoman encounters an apple tree with fruits in the form of golden apples; the girl collects the harvest, scattering a whole hem of ripe apples.

Three days at Moroz Ivanovich's place fly by unnoticed by the Needlewoman, as she spends them in household chores, preparing a delicious dinner, cleaning the house, mending linen and fluffing Moroz Ivanovich's feather bed. For conscientious work, Moroz Ivanovich rewards the girl with expensive gifts in the form of silver coins and a diamond stone.

Seeing the Needlewoman returning home with gifts, Lenivitsa envies her and also decides to go to Moroz Ivanovich for rich gifts. Having descended into the well, Lenivitsa follows the same route as the Needlewoman, but due to unbridled laziness, she does not take the pie out of the oven, does not collect golden apples, and spends three days with Moroz Ivanovich in complete idleness. After the deadline, Moroz Ivanovich hands Lenivitsa a silver ingot and a large precious stone, which, upon the girl’s return home, melt from the warm air, turning into a puddle of mercury and an ordinary icicle.

Nothing is given to us freely, without labor, -
It’s not for nothing that the proverb has been around since ancient times.

Two girls lived in the same house - the Needlewoman and Lenivitsa, and with them a nanny.

The needlewoman was a smart girl, she got up early, dressed herself without a nanny, and when she got out of bed, she got down to work: she lit the stove, kneaded bread, chalked the hut, fed the rooster, and then went to the well for water.

Meanwhile, Sloth was lying in bed, stretching, waddling from side to side, and when she gets bored of lying, she’ll say, half asleep: “Nanny, put on my stockings, nanny, tie my shoes,” and then she’ll say, “Nanny, is there a bun?” He gets up, jumps and sits down at the window to count how many flies have arrived and how many have flown away. As Lenivitsa counts everyone, she doesn’t know what to take up or what to do; she would like to go to bed - but she doesn’t want to sleep; She would like to eat, but she doesn’t feel like eating; She would like to count flies at the window - and even then she’s tired. She sits, miserable, and cries and complains to everyone that she is bored, as if others are to blame.

Meanwhile, the Needlewoman returns, strains the water, pours it into jugs; and what a trick: if the water is unclean, he will roll up a sheet of paper, put coals and coarse sand in it, insert that paper into a jug and pour water into it, and you know the water passes through the sand and through the coals and drips into the jug clean , like crystal; and then the Needlewoman will start knitting stockings or cutting scarves, or even sewing and cutting shirts, and even start singing a handicraft song; and she was never bored, because she had no time to be bored: now doing this, now doing that, and then, you look, it’s evening - the day has passed.

Thematic tales

One day, trouble happened to the Needlewoman: she went to the well to get water, lowered the bucket on a rope, and the rope broke and the bucket fell into the well. How can we be here?

The poor Needlewoman burst into tears and went to the nanny to tell about her misfortune and misfortune, and nanny Praskovya was so strict and angry, she said:

“You caused the problem yourself, fix it yourself.” You drowned the bucket yourself, get it out yourself.

There was nothing to do; The poor Needlewoman went again to the well, grabbed the rope and descended along it to the very bottom. Only then a miracle happened to her. As soon as she came down, she looked: there was a stove in front of her, and in the stove sat a pie, so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:

“I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me from the stove will go with me.

The needlewoman, without hesitating at all, grabbed a spatula, took out the pie and put it in her bosom. She moves on. There is a garden in front of her, and in the garden there is a tree, and on the tree there are golden apples; The apples move their leaves and say to themselves:

“We, apples, full, ripe, ate the roots of the tree, washed ourselves with icy water; whoever shakes us off the tree will take us for himself.

The needlewoman approached the tree, shook it by the twig, and golden apples fell into her apron.

- A! - he said. - Hello, Needlewoman! Thank you for bringing me the pie: I haven’t eaten anything hot for a long time.

Then he sat the Needlewoman next to him, and they had breakfast together with a pie and snacked on golden apples.

“I know why you came,” said Moroz Ivanovich, “you dropped a bucket into my student; I’ll give you the bucket, only you serve me for three days; If you're smart, you'll be better off; If you're lazy, it's worse for you. And now,” added Moroz Ivanovich, “it’s time for me, an old man, to rest; go and prepare my bed, and make sure to fluff up the feather bed well.

The needlewoman obeyed. They went into the house. Moroz Ivanovich’s house was made of ice: the doors, windows, and floor were ice, and the walls were decorated with snow stars; the sun was shining on them, and everything in the house sparkled like diamonds. On Moroz Ivanovich’s bed, instead of a feather bed, there was fluffy snow; It was cold and there was nothing to do.

The needlewoman began to whip up the snow so that the old man could sleep more softly, and meanwhile her, poor, hands became numb and her fingers turned white, like those of poor people who rinse their linen in an ice hole in winter; and it’s cold, and the wind is in your face, and your laundry is freezing, there’s a stake, but there’s nothing to do—poor people are working.

“Nothing,” said Moroz Ivanovich, “just rub your fingers with snow, and they’ll come off without chilling.” I'm a good old man; look at my curiosities.

Then he lifted his snowy feather bed with a blanket, and the Needlewoman saw that green grass was breaking through under the feather bed. The needlewoman felt sorry for the poor grass.

“You say,” she said, “that you are a kind old man, but why do you keep green grass under a snowy feather bed and don’t let it out into the light of God?”

– I’m not letting you out because it’s not time yet; The grass has not yet come into effect. In the fall, the peasants sowed it, and it would come up and if it would stretch out, then winter would have captured it and the grass would not have ripened by summer. So I already covered the young greenery with my snow feather bed, and also lay down on it so that the snow wouldn’t be blown away by the wind, but spring will come, the snow feather feather will melt, the grass will sprout, and then, look, grain will appear, and a man will collect the grain and will take you to the mill; the miller will sweep away the grain and there will be flour, and from the flour you, Handicraftswoman, will bake bread.

“Well, tell me, Moroz Ivanovich,” said the Needlewoman, “why are you sitting in the well?”

“Then I’m sitting in the well that spring is coming,” said Moroz Ivanovich. – I’m getting hot; and you know that even in the summer it can be cold in the well, which is why the water in the well is cold, even in the middle of the hottest summer.

“Why do you, Moroz Ivanovich,” asked the Needlewoman, “walk the streets in winter and knock on windows?”

“And then I knock on the windows,” answered Moroz Ivanovich, “so that they don’t forget to light the stoves and close the pipes on time; Otherwise, I know, there are such slobs that they will heat the stove, but they won’t close the pipe, or they will close it, but at the wrong time, when not all the coals have burned out yet, and that’s why there is carbon monoxide in the upper room, people get headaches, green in the eyes; You can even die completely from fumes. And then I also knock on the window so that no one forgets that there are people in the world who are cold in winter, who do not have a fur coat, and have nothing to buy firewood with; So then I knock on the window so that they don’t forget to help them.

Here the kind Moroz Ivanovich stroked the Needlewoman on the head and lay down to rest on his snowy bed.

Meanwhile, the needlewoman cleaned up everything in the house, went to the kitchen, prepared food, mended the old man’s dress, and darned the linen.

The old man woke up; I was very pleased with everything and thanked the Needlewoman. Then they sat down to dinner; the dinner was excellent, and especially good was the ice cream, which the old man made himself.

This is how the Needlewoman lived with Moroz Ivanovich for three whole days.

On the third day, Moroz Ivanovich said to the Needlewoman:

- Thank you, you are a smart girl; Well, you consoled me, an old man, and I will not remain in your debt. You know: people get money for handicrafts, so here’s your bucket, and I poured a whole handful of silver coins into the bucket; and besides, here’s a diamond as a souvenir for you to pin on your scarf.

The needlewoman thanked her, pinned on the diamond, took the bucket, went back to the well, grabbed the rope and came out into the light of day.

She had just begun to approach the house when the rooster, whom she always fed, saw her, was delighted, flew up onto the fence and shouted:
Crow, crow!
The Needlewoman has nickels in her bucket!

When the Needlewoman came home and told everything that happened to her, the nanny was very amazed, and then said:

“You see, Lenivitsa, what people get for handicrafts.” Go to the old man and serve him, do some work: tidy up his room, cook in the kitchen, mend his dress and darn his linen, and you’ll earn a handful of coins, and it will come in handy: we don’t have much money for the holiday.

Lenivitsa really did not like going to work with the old man. But she wanted to get the piglets and the diamond pin too.

So, following the example of the Needlewoman, Sloth went to the well, grabbed the rope, and plummeted straight to the bottom. She looks and there is a stove in front of her, and in the stove sits a pie so ruddy and crispy; sits, looks and says:

“I’m completely ready, browned, fried with sugar and raisins; whoever takes me will go with me!

And Lenivitsa answered him:

- Yes, no matter how it is! I have to tire myself out - lifting a shovel and reaching into the stove; If you want, you can jump out yourself.

– We are liquid, ripe apples; they ate tree roots and washed themselves with cold dew; whoever shakes us off the tree will take us for himself.

- Yes, no matter how it is! - answered Lenivitsa. “I have to tire myself out—raise my arms, pull on branches.” I’ll have time to dial before they attack!

And Sloth walked past them. Now she reached Moroz Ivanovich. The old man was still sitting on the ice bench and biting snowballs.

-What do you want, girl? - he asked.

“I came to you,” answered Lenivitsa, “to serve and get paid for the work.”

“What you said was true, girl,” the old man answered, “for work, money follows; Let's just see what else your job will be. Go and fluff up my feather bed, and then prepare the food, mend my dress, and mend my linen.

Sloth went, and on her way she thought:

“I’m going to tire myself and shiver my fingers! Perhaps the old man won’t notice and will fall asleep on the unfluffed feather bed.”

The old man really didn’t notice, or pretended not to notice, went to bed and fell asleep, and Sloth went to the kitchen. She came to the kitchen and didn’t know what to do. She loved to eat, but it never even occurred to her to think about how the food was prepared; and she was too lazy to look. So she looked around: in front of her lay greens, meat, fish, vinegar, mustard, and kvass - everything in order. She thought and thought, somehow peeled the greens, cut up the meat and fish, and so as not to give herself too much work, she put everything as it was, washed or unwashed: the greens, and the meat, and the fish, and I added mustard, vinegar and kvass, and she thought:

“Why bother yourself, cook each thing specially? After all, everything will be together in the stomach.”

The old man woke up and asked for dinner. The sloth brought him the pan as it was, without even laying out a tablecloth.

Moroz Ivanovich tried it, winced, and the sand crunched on his teeth.

“You cook well,” he remarked, smiling. - Let's see what your other job will be.

The Sloth tasted it, and immediately spat it out, and the old man grunted, grunted, and began to prepare the food himself and made a great dinner, so that the Sloth licked his fingers while eating someone else’s cooking.

After lunch, the old man lay down to rest again and remembered to Lenivitsa that his dress had not been repaired and his linen had not been darned.

The sloth sulked, but there was nothing to do: she began to take apart her dress and underwear; and here’s the problem: Lenivitsa sewed the dress and linen, but she didn’t ask how it was sewn; She was about to take a needle, but out of habit she pricked herself; So I left her. And the old man again seemed not to notice anything, he called Lenivitsa to dinner and even put her to bed.

But Lenivitsa loves it; thinks to himself:

“Perhaps it will pass. My sister was free to take on the work: the old man is kind, he’ll give me pennies for free anyway.”

On the third day, Lenivitsa comes and asks Moroz Ivanovich to let her go home and reward her for her work.

- What was your job? - asked the old man. “If it’s true, then you have to pay me, because you didn’t work for me, but I served you.”

- Yes, of course! - answered Lenivitsa. “I lived with you for three whole days.”

“You know, my dear,” answered the old man, “what I’ll tell you: living and serving are different, and work is different; note this: it will come in handy ahead. But, however, if your conscience does not bother you, I will reward you: and what is your work, such will be your reward.

With these words, Moroz Ivanovich gave Lenivitsa a large silver bar, and in the other hand a large diamond.

The sloth was so happy about this that she grabbed both and, without even thanking the old man, ran home.

She came home and boasted:

“Here,” he says, “is what I earned: not a match for my sister, not a handful of coins and not a small diamond, but a whole silver ingot, see how heavy it is, and the diamond is almost the size of a fist... I can renew it for the holiday.” buy…

Before she had time to finish speaking, the silver ingot melted and poured onto the floor; he was nothing more than mercury, which had frozen from extreme cold; at the same time the diamond began to melt, and the rooster jumped up on the fence and cried loudly:
Crow-crow!
Sloth has an ice icicle in her hands.

And you, kids, think, guess what is true here, what is not true; what is said really, what is said sideways; Some as a joke, some as an instruction.