The years went by and the boy grew up, strong and healthy. True to their promise to the fairies, the wild animals were friendly toward mother and son. Panjilaras learnt their language; he played with them and talked to them. He jumped around from branch to branch with the chattering monkeys, while gathering sweet fruit for his mother. He rode on the tiger’s back, and enjoyed himself on hot days swimming in the cool river with his mother and their animal friends. And Dewi Murti thought Continue reading
Antipka was too confused to think properly, and wandered back home in silence. As he stood by the stove, cooking a saucepan full of beetroot and cream soup, he tried to sort out his problems.
“Things seem to have gone wrong,” he murmured to himself. “First of all, my wife obviously hasn’t lost her bad temper during the night, and now I’ve let a hobgoblin escape into town. Who knows what harm he might do?” And he sighed and stirred his Continue reading
Early one morning Antipka was sitting sadly on the steps of his little wooden house, sunk in thought. He had plenty to be happy about: a cosy home which he had built himself, a nice plot of ground and a good crop of cabbages and sunflowers. And yet one thing made him miserable; he had married a bad-tempered woman. When he first knew her she seemed such a sweet young girl and then, immediately after the wedding, she became spiteful and irritable, and now Antipka’s life was absolute Continue reading
