The crooked duck - Uzyn, Ukraina

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    The crooked duck

       Once upon a time in a small but picturesque village lived an old hunter. He liked hunting for the wild hares and ducks. He lived with his wife but they didn’t have children.

       In late autumn, when snowed the old man went to the forest for hunting. When he went past the forest lake he saw the duck was swimming there.

    • How did it appear here? – he thought.
    • All wild ducks have already flown away to the South. May be it broke its wing.

    At first he wanted to hunt that duck, but than he changed his thought.

    • When the lake freezes, I’ll take it from the ice. In spring It lay eggs, so I with my wife will have own ducks in summer.

    At some days the lake was covered with the ice and the hunter saw the duck onto the ice. He began to catch it but the duck was wild so started to run away, shouted, scratched with its beak and its claws. The old hunter caught it and took the duck at home. When the granddad put it on the floor the wild duck hid under the oven and sat for three days there. At the fourth day the duck started to eat.

      The old hunter and his wife saw that the duck had healthy wings but its leg was broken – so the duck was crooked. So hunter’s wife took care of duck.

       Once an old woman began to notice that something strange happened at home. She went to bring water when she came back home she saw the fire was made, the meal was cooked; she began to sew than came out of the home when came back home her work was finished.

    Her neighbour asked:

    -What girl does go to the well? Oh, she is pretty but crooked.

    The old hunter and his wife are scared. Some old granny said: “Someone lives in your home but you can’t see it. You have to show that you are going to go somewhere but you have to lurk. If you see somebody you will put on with a big black headscarf and hold it strongly.

     When old hunter came back home with his wife he said: “Granny, bakes pies and loaves we’ll go to the fire tomorrow.

     At the next day they’ll sit on the cart and go to the fair but the granddad  came back home and lurked by the oven.

       At some time he saw his crooked duck ran out under the oven. When it touched to something, wonder happened there: the broom swept the floor, the axe hacked firewood, the fire made itself, the knife peeled potatoes. At first the  granddad surprised a lot but then when the crooked duck ran past him, he covered with the big black headscarf and caught it.

      When he hold the headscarf strongly, he heard some words:

    • Granddad, let me go, I will be your daughter!

    He took away the headscarf and saw a nice girl, she was so pretty as the sun but one her leg was crooked. The crooked duck has turned into a girl.

     So that girl began to live with the old hunter and his wife. The old man and a woman loved her, like their daughter. They lived happily during winter. When spring came the girl asked his father to make a spindle and a gold chair.

    - I would like to go out and spin.  He has made all things.

    One day when grass was green, the sun shone brightly, she took her chair, spindle and went out, sat on the chair and began to spin.

    Suddenly she saw wild ducks that came back from the South, those were her brothers and sisters. They saw the girl on the chair and sang:

    There is our Maiden

    There is our girl

    In the nice yard

    On the gold chair

    Let’s give her a feather

    She’ll put it on and fly with us

    The young girl replied:

    I will not fly with you!

    When I broke my leg,

    You left me alone

    And flew yourselves,

    I will not fly with you!

    Then she saw the second flock of the ducks, there were her aunts and uncles. They saw the girl on the chair and sang:

    There is our Maiden

    There is our girl

    In the nice yard

    On the gold chair

    Let’s give her a feather

    She’ll put it on and fly with us

     

     

    The young girl replied:

    I will not fly with you!

    When I broke my leg,

    You left me alone

    And flew yourselves,

    I will not fly with you!

    At some time two ducks flew low because they were tired. They were her parents. They saw their daughter and sang the same song:

    There is our Maiden

    There is our girl

    In the nice yard

    On the gold chair

    Let’s give her a feather

    She’ll put it on and fly with us

     

    The young girl replies:

    I will not fly with you!

    When I broke my leg,

    You left me alone

    And flew yourselves,

    I will not fly with you!

       But her parents didn’t fly. They flew and flew, sang and sang their song, asked her, cried and pinched their feathers which dropped on their daughter. The girl stood up of the chair, fell on the ground and all feathers revolved around her. So she turned into the duck, waved her wings and flew with her parents.

       When grandparents ran out the duck wasn’t there. Grandparents stayed alone with the chair, the spindle and their memory.