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Children love to read in Russia.
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Part One:
Years ago, in a kingdom far away, there lived a tsar and his three sons. The old tsar called his sons to his side and told them that it was time for them to settle down, to each take a wife and provide him with grandchildren to bring joy to his final years.
“But father, how shall we do that?” asked the youngest son. “We have not ventured from home and know no beautiful maidens to marry.”
The father instructed his three sons to go into the nearby field and each shoot an arrow into the air. Where the arrows landed, they would each find their bride. Because they were good sons, they did what their father told them to do. The first son’s arrow landed in a boyar’s courtyard. The boyar’s daughter retrieve the arrow. The second son’s arrow fell into the courtyard of a rich merchant. The merchant’s daughter picked up the arrow and brought it to her father. The third and youngest son, Tsarevich Ivan could find his arrow nowhere. He walked and walked around his fathers estate and finally ended up in the swamp at the edge of a forest. There he found a frog holding the arrow in its mouth.
“Give me back my arrow,” said Ivan.
“Not unless you marry me,” replied the frog.
“I cannot marry a frog,” responded the youngest son.
“You must,” said the frog, “I am your destiny.”
Ivan had no choice but to honor the wishes of his father. He returned home with the frog in his pocket.
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Soon all three marriages took place. The first son married the boyar’s daughter. The second son married the merchant’s daughter and the youngest son, Ivan, married the frog. Ivan’s brothers laughed as his misfortune and did not miss a day reminding him that he was married to the Best Hopper in the Land. Not long after the weddings, the father called his sons to his side again.
“Sons, I must know which of your wives is the best seamstress. Have them each sew me a fine shirt,” he ordered.
The sons returned to their wives and told them of their father’s wish. The wives of the first two sons began to sew immediately. When Ivan told his wife, the frog, it took pity on him and told him not to worry, but to wait until morning to discover his fate.
After Ivan had gone to bed, the frog hopped out into the yard, threw off her frog skin and turned into Vasilisa the Wise and Clever, more beautiful than any maiden and more skillful than any artisan. She called to her friends to come and sew her the most beautiful shirt in the land.
Her friends worked all night and in the morning when she returned clad in her frog skin, she laid the shirt on the night side table.
All three brother assembled in the tsar’s great hall and one by one gave him the shirts. The shirts of the first two brother’s wives were passable as servants garb or to wear to the baths, said the father. Ivan’s shirt was beautifully done with gold and silver threads. The father was overjoyed and declared Ivan’s wife, the frog, the most clever of the three.
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The brothers and their wives decided that they were wrong to initially scorn Ivan’s bride. They came to believe that Ivan’s wife must really be a witch. If there were any other trials to be waged, they determined that they would spy on the frog and do as it did. They did not have long to wait. The father again called the sons to his side and gave the wives the task of baking the most delicate and delicious loaf of bread in the land.
The sons returned home and the wives of the first two brothers hired a cook to work in Ivan’s house and spy on the frog as it baked the bread. The frog was very clever and guessed what the sister-in-laws were up to. It formed the dough and placed it directly inside of the oven on the red hot coals. The cook rushed to the sisters-in-law and instructed the brides how to do what the frog bride had done.
Later that night after Ivan had gone to bed, Vasilisa again turned into a beautiful maiden and implored her friends to bake her the finest bread in the land. The next day all three brothers brought their loaves of bread to the tsar. The tsar threw out the lumpy, black loaves the brothers had brought and gazed in delight on the loaf that Ivan’s bride had baked.
“She wins again!” he declared. “We must celebrate your good fortunate in finding the best bride in the land. Come for a feast tomorrow in honor of Ivan’s wife.”
Ivan returned home and told the frog of his father’s invitation. “But we cannot go. It is impossible to bring a frog to a feast,” he said sadly.
“Have no fear,” the frog told him. “You go and I will follow later. When great noise and thunder is heard in the hall say only that it must be your bride arriving in her carriage.”
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