For an account of the fairy tales see the chapter on Folklore. The following works, of which Ralston’s is still the best, give a large number of such stories: Russian Popular Tales, from the German version of Anton Dietrich, London, 1857; W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, London, 1873; J. T. Naake, Slavonic Fairy Tales, London, 1874; E. M. S. Hodgetts, Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar, London, 1890; Jeremiah Curtin, Myths and Folk Tales of the Russians, Western Slavs and Magyars, Boston, 1890; A. Gerber, Great Russian Animal Tales (vol. vi, No. 2 of the Publications of the Modern Language Association), Baltimore, 1891; R. Nisbet Bain, Russian Fairy Tales from the Skazki of Polevoi, Chicago, 1895. There are also some articles in periodicals: Household Tales of the Sclavonians and Hungarians, and The Household Fictions of Esthonia and Russia, in Dublin University Magazine, 1867 (vol. lxx); Russian Popular Legends (by Ralston), in Fortnightly Review, 1869; Russian Songs and Folktales, in Quarterly Review, 1874 (vol. cxxxvi).
FROST
There was once an old man who had a wife and three daughters. The wife had no love for the eldest of the three, who was a step-daughter, but was always scolding her. Moreover, she used to make her get up ever so early in the morning, and gave her all the work of the house to do. Before daybreak the girl would feed the cattle and give them to drink, fetch wood and water indoors, light the fire in the stove, give the room a wash, mend the dress and set everything in order. Even then her step-mother was never satisfied, but grumbled away at Márfa, exclaiming:
“What a lazybones! What a slut! Why, here is a brush not in its place, and there is something put wrong, and she has left the muck inside the house!”
The girl held her peace, and wept; she tried in every way to accommodate herself to her step-mother, and to be of service to her step-sisters. But they, taking pattern by their mother, were always insulting Márfa, quarrelling with her, and making her cry: that was even a pleasure to them! As for them, they lay in bed late, washed themselves in water got ready for them, dried themselves with a clean towel and did not sit down to work till after dinner.
Well, our girls grew and grew, until they grew up and were old enough to be married. The old man felt sorry for his eldest daughter, whom he loved because she was industrious and obedient, never was obstinate, always did as she was bid and never uttered a word of contradiction. But he did not know how to help her in her trouble. He was feeble, his wife was a scold and his daughters were as obstinate as they were indolent.
Well, the old folks set to work to consider—the husband how he could get his daughter settled, the wife how she could get rid of the eldest one. One day she says to him:
“I say, old man! Let’s get Márfa married.”
“Gladly,” says he, slinking off (to the sleeping-place) above the stove. But his wife called after him:
“Get up early to-morrow, old man, harness the mare to the sledge and drive away with Márfa. And, Márfa, get your things together in a basket, and put on a clean shift; you are going away to-morrow on a visit.”