More Russian Picture Tales

“Hobble, hobble, hobble,
On my lime-tree leg,
On my birchen crutch!
The water's asleep,
And the earth's asleep,
The whole village is asleep,
Only one woman's awake,
And she's boiling my flesh,
Sitting on my skin,
And spinning my wool!”

And Bruin went into the house, and saw there was no one there. So he took his bit of skin, got his flesh out of the pot and made off.

And the peasant's wife got very frightened, and hid as quick as she could in the cellar under the floor.

ne day a peasant saw a bear asleep in the forest, so he crept up to him and cut off one of his hind paws with an axe. And he brought the paw home, and said to his wife: “Boil some soup from the flesh, and knit some warm gloves out of the wool.” So she took off the skin, threw the flesh into the pot to boil, and sat down to spin the wool.
And when Bruin woke up, he found his paw gone. There was no help for it, so he cut a bit of wood off a tree, hewed it, tied it on instead of his leg, and set out for the village. As he went along he sang:

And Bruin said to the peasant: “Well, good-bye! I'm not going to work with you any more, you're too crafty!” And with that he went off into the forest.

And he got huffy, lay down in his den, and started sucking his paws

The next spring the peasant again came to see him, and said: “Look here, Bruin, let's work together again, shall we?” And Bruin answered: “Right-ho! only this time mind! you can have the tops, but I'm going to have the roots!” “Very well,” said the peasant. And they sowed some wheat, and when the ears grew up and ripened, you never saw such a sight. Then they began to divide it, and the peasant took all the tops with the grain, and gave Bruin the straw and the roots. So he didn't get anything that time either.

nd he got huffy, lay down in his den, and started sucking his paws.

Once upon a time a certain peasant lost his wife, then he lost his other relations, and then he was left alone with no one to help him in his home or his fields. So he went to Bruin and said: “Look here, Bruin, let's keep house and plant our garden and sow our corn together.” And Bruin asked: “But how shall we divide it afterwards?” “How shall we divide it?” said the peasant, “Well, you take all the tops and let me have all the roots.” “All right,” answered Bruin. So they sowed some turnips, and they grew beautifully. And Bruin worked hard, and gathered in all the turnips, and then they began to divide them. And the peasant said: “The tops are yours, aren't they, Bruin?” “Yes,” he answered. So the peasant cut off all the turnip tops and gave them to Bruin, and then sat down to count the roots. And Bruin saw that the peasant had done him down.