Once upon a time there lived an old man and an
old woman who had a granddaughter named
Masha.
One day some friends of Masha’s decided to go
to the forest to gather mushrooms and berries and
they came to Masha’s house to ask her to go with
them.
“Please, Grandma and Grandpa,” said Masha,
“do let me go to the forest”
“You may go, but see that you keep close to
the others and don’t lose sight of them or you might
get lost,” the two old people replied.
Masha and her friends came to the forest and
began to hunt for mushrooms and berries. From
bush to bush, from tree to tree went Masha, and
before she knew it she had strayed far aw"ay from
her friends. When at last she saw that she was all
alone she began to halloo and call to them, but her
friends did not hear her and made no answer.
Masha went here and she went there, she
walked all over the forest, but she could not find
her way and was quite lost.
By and by she came to the wildest and thickest
part of the forest, and there before her she saw a
little hut Masha knocked on the door, but there
was no reply. So she gave the door a push, and
lo! the door opened.
Masha came into the hut and sat down on a
bench by the window. She sat there and she
thought:
“I wonder who lives in this hut? Why is no one
here?”
Now in that hut there lived a great, big Bear.
Only he was out walking in the forest just then.
It was evening by the time he came home, and
when he saw Masha he was very pleased.
“Aha,” said he, “now I’ll never let you go! You
will live in my house as meek as a mouse, and
you’ll cook my breakfast and my dinner too, and be
my servant faithful and true.”
Masha sorrowed and grieved for a time, but it
could not be helped, and so she stayed with the Bear
and kept house for him.
Every morning the Bear would go to the
forest for the day and, before leaving, he would
tell Masha to stay in the hut and wait for him.
“You must never go out when I am away,”
he would say. “If you do, I’ll catch you and eat
you up!”
So Masha set to thinking how to run away from
the Bear. All around was the forest, and there was
no one to ask which way to go.
Masha thought and thought till at last she knew
what to do.
That day, when the Bear came back from the
forest, Masha said to him:
“Bear, Bear, do let me go to my village for a
day. I want to take something good to eat to
Grandma and Grandpa.”
“No, that won’t do at all,” said the Bear.
“You’ll get lost in the forest. Give me whatever it
is you want them to have, and I’ll take it to them
myself. ”
Now that was all Masha wanted!
She baked some pies, put them on a plate,
and, getting out a hamper, said to the Bear:
“I’ll put the pies in the hamper, and you can
take it to Grandma and Grandpa. But mind, you’re
not to open the hamper on the way and you’re
not to eat the pies. I’m going to climb an oak-tree
and I’ll be sitting there and watching you!”
“Very well, give me the hamper,” the Bear
replied.
“Go out on the porch, first, and see if it isn’t
raining,” Masha said.
The Bear went out on the porch, and Masha at
once crawled into the hamper and put the plate of
pies on her head.
The Bear came in, and there was the hamper all
ready for him. So he put it on his back and set off
for the village.
Tramp-tramp went the Bear amid the spruce-
trees, clumpety-clump went he amid the birch-
trees; up hill and down dale ran his long, winding
trail, on and on he walked without a stop till at
last he was tired and fit to drop.
“If I don’t rest my bones
I think I will die,
So, I’ll sit on a stump
And eat a pie!”
said the Bear.
But Masha called out from the hamper:
“I see you! I see you!
Don’t sit on the stump
And don’t eat my pie,
But take it to Grandma
And Grandpa, say I!”
“Dear me, what sharp eyes Masha has,” said
the Bear. “She sees everything!”
He picked up the hamper and went on.
He walked and he walked till he could not
walk any more. So he stopped and said:
“If I don’t rest my bones
I think I will die,
So* I’ll sit on a stump
And eat a pie!”
But Masha called out again from the hamper.
“I see you! I see you!
Don’t sit on the stump
And don’t eat my pie,
But take it to Grandma
And Grandpa, say I!”
The Bear was astonished.
“What a clever girl Masha is!” said he. “She
is sitting high up in a tree and she is far away, but
she sees all I do and she hears all I say!”
He got to his feet and he walked on even faster
than before.
He came to the village and, finding the house
where Masha’s grandma and grandpa lived, began
to bang away at the gate with all his might.
KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!
“ Open the gate! I have brought you something
nice from Masha!” he cried.
But the village dogs scented the Bear and
rushed out at him from every yard, yelping and
barking.
. The Bear was frightened, he set down the
hamper by the gate and away he ran to the forest
without once looking back!
The old man and the old woman came up
to the gate and they saw the hamper.
“What is in that hamper?” the old woman
asked.
The old man lifted the top, he looked and he
could not believe his eyes. For there in the hamper
sat Masha, alive and well.
The old man and the old woman were over-
joyed. They kissed and embraced Masha and they
said she was clever as clever can be, as indeed all
our readers wilt surely agree.
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