Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/135

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lived once a very rich Russian peasant with his wife, and a very pretty daughter, named Alyonushka.

One day the peasant and his wife were asked to a wedding in the village. They were just about to start when Alyonushka—who was to be left alone to look after the hut—said to her mother,—

"Oh, mamma! I am so much afraid of being left all by myself."

"Well, my dear," replied her mother, "go and ask your girl friends to come and spend the day with you."

When her parents had gone, Alyonushka ran to invite her friends; each girl brought with her some work to do; one sewed, another spun, a third wove, in fact they had each something to occupy their time while they talked and laughed.

But one of the girls who was sewing dropped her thimble on the ground, and it rolled away and fell into the cellar below; so she ran down the wooden stairs to find it. She at last, after some difficulty, found it, and was about to return when, to her horror and surprise, she saw—a man!—a robber emerge from a dark corner. She was about to cry for help, but the man shook his finger at her, saying,—