Prevod

A poor woodcutter lived with his wife and three daughters in a little cottage on the edge of a lonely forest. One morning, as he was setting off to work again, he said to his wife, "Have our eldest girl bring my dinner out to me in the forest, or I shall never get my work finished. And so that she does not lose her way," he added, "I shall take a bag of millet with me and scatter the grains along the path."

When the sun stood high above the forest, the girl set out with a pot of soup. But the sparrows of field and wood, the larks and finches, the blackbirds and siskins had long since pecked up the millet, and the girl could find no trace of it. So she went on at random until the sun sank and night fell. The trees rustled in the darkness, the owls screeched, and she began to feel afraid. Then she saw a light in the distance, gleaming between the trees. There must be people living there, she thought, who will let me stay the night, and she went towards the light. Before long she came to a house with lighted windows. She knocked, and a rough voice called from within, "Come in!" The girl stepped into the dark passage and knocked at the parlour door. "Come right in," called the voice, and when she opened the door, there sat an old, hoary-headed man at the table, his face resting in both hands and his white beard flowing down over the table almost to the floor. By the stove lay three animals: a little hen, a little cock, and a speckled cow. The girl told the old man what had happened to her and asked for a bed for the night. The man said:

"Pretty little hen, Pretty little cock, And you, pretty speckled cow, What do you say to that?" "Duks!" answered the animals, which must have meant, "We are content," for the old man went on, "There is plenty of everything here. Go out to the hearth and cook us some supper." The girl found an abundance of everything in the kitchen and cooked a fine meal, but she gave no thought to the animals. She carried the full dish to the table, sat down beside the grey-haired man, and ate until her hunger was satisfied. When she had had enough, she said, "But now I am tired. Where is a bed where I can lie down and sleep?" The animals answered:

"You have eaten with him, You have drunk with him, But never gave us a thought; Now find your own bed for the night." Then the old man said, "Just go upstairs, and you will find a room with two beds. Shake them out and make them up with white linen, and I shall come and lie down to sleep as well." The girl went upstairs, and when she had shaken out the beds and put fresh linen on them, she lay down in one without waiting any longer for the old man. After a while the grey-haired man came, held his light over the girl, and shook his head. And when he saw that she was fast asleep, he opened a trapdoor and let her sink into the cellar.

The woodcutter came home late that evening and reproached his wife for leaving him hungry all day. "It is not my fault," she replied. "The girl went out with your dinner. She must have lost her way; she will surely be back tomorrow." But before daybreak the woodcutter got up to go into the forest and asked that his second daughter bring his food this time. "I shall take a bag of lentils with me," he said. "They are larger than millet, so the girl will see them better and cannot miss the way." At midday this girl too carried the food out, but the lentils had vanished: the birds of the forest had pecked them up, just as they had the day before, and had not left a single one. The girl wandered about in the forest until nightfall, when she too came to the old man's house, was called inside, and asked for food and a bed for the night. The man with the white beard again asked the animals:

"Pretty little hen, Pretty little cock, And you, pretty speckled cow, What do you say to that?" Once again the animals answered, "Duks!" and everything happened just as it had the day before. The girl cooked a fine meal, ate and drank with the old man, and paid no heed to the animals. And when she asked about a bed for the night, they answered:

"You have eaten with him, You have drunk with him, But never gave us a thought; Now find your own bed for the night." When she had fallen asleep, the old man came, looked at her, shaking his head, and let her down into the cellar. On the third morning the woodcutter said to his wife, "Send our youngest child out with my food. She has always been good and obedient; she will keep to the right path and not go buzzing about like her sisters, those wild bumblebees." Her mother was unwilling and said, "Am I to lose my dearest child as well?" "Do not worry," he replied. "The girl will not lose her way; she is too clever and sensible. And to make quite sure, I shall take peas with me and scatter them. They are even larger than lentils and will show her the way." But when the girl went out with the basket on her arm, the wood pigeons already had the peas in their crops, and she did not know which way to turn. She was full of anxiety and kept thinking how her poor father would go hungry and her dear mother would weep if she did not return. At last, when it grew dark, she caught sight of the little light and came to the house in the forest. She asked very politely if they would shelter her for the night, and the man with the white beard once again asked his animals:

"Pretty little hen, Pretty little cock, And you, pretty speckled cow, What do you say to that?" "Duks!" they said. Then the girl went over to the stove where the animals lay and fondled the little hen and the little cock, stroking their smooth feathers with her hand, and scratched the speckled cow between her horns. And when, at the old man's bidding, she had made a good soup and set the dish on the table, she said, "Am I to eat my fill while these dear animals have nothing? There is plenty of everything outside; I shall see to them first." So she went and fetched barley and scattered it before the little hen and the little cock, and brought the cow a whole armful of sweet-smelling hay. "Enjoy your food, dear animals," she said, "and if you are thirsty, you shall have a fresh drink as well." Then she carried in a bucket of water, and the little hen and the little cock hopped onto the rim, dipped their beaks into it, and then raised their heads, as birds do when they drink; and the speckled cow took a hearty draught too. Once the animals had been fed, the girl sat down at the table beside the old man and ate what he had left for her. Before long the little hen and the little cock began tucking their heads beneath their wings, and the speckled cow's eyes grew heavy. Then the girl said, "Should we not go to bed?"

"Pretty little hen, Pretty little cock, And you, pretty speckled cow, What do you say to that?" The animals answered, "Duks! You have eaten with us, You have drunk with us, You have cared for us all, And we wish you a good night."

Then the girl went upstairs, shook out the feather pillows, and put on fresh linen. When she had finished, the old man came and lay down in one bed, his white beard reaching to his feet. The girl lay down in the other, said her prayers, and fell asleep. She slept peacefully until midnight, when such a commotion arose in the house that she woke. There was a crackling and rattling in the corners, and the door flew open and slammed against the wall; the beams groaned as though they were being wrenched from their joints, and it sounded as though the staircase were collapsing. At last there came a crash as if the whole roof were falling in. But when all was quiet again and no harm had come to her, the girl lay still and went back to sleep. When she woke in the morning in the bright sunshine, what should she see? She was lying in a great hall, and everything around her shone with royal splendour. Golden flowers climbed the walls against a background of green silk; the bed was made of ivory, its coverlet of red velvet, and on a chair beside it stood a pair of slippers embroidered with pearls. The girl thought she must be dreaming, but three richly dressed servants came in and asked for her commands. "Go along," the girl replied. "I shall get up in a moment and cook some soup for the old man, and then feed the pretty little hen, the pretty little cock, and the pretty speckled cow." She thought the old man must already be up and looked round at his bed, but he was not lying there; a stranger was in his place. And as she looked at him and saw that he was young and handsome, he awoke, sat up, and said, "I am a king's son, and a wicked witch had put me under a spell, so that I had to live in the forest as an old, hoary-headed man. No one was allowed to be with me except my three servants, in the shapes of a little hen, a little cock, and a speckled cow. Nor was the spell to end until a girl came to us whose heart was so good that she showed kindness not only to people but to animals as well. You were that girl, and at midnight you set us free, and the old forest house was changed back into my royal palace." When they had risen, the king's son told the three servants to drive out and bring the girl's father and mother to the wedding. "But where are my two sisters?" asked the girl. "I have locked them in the cellar, and tomorrow they are to be taken into the forest, where they must work as maids for the charcoal burner until they have mended their ways and no longer let the poor animals go hungry."