Сказки / Fairy Tales - стр. 2

And one of them said to the other:

‘This is the end to our hope. This child is completely useless for us. Let us leave it here[6], and go away. We are poor men, and have children of our own.’

But his companion answered him:

‘No, but it is an evil thing to leave the child to perish here in the snow. I am as poor as you are, and have many mouths to feed. But I want to bring this child home with me. My wife will have care of it[7].’

He took up the child tenderly, and wrapped the cloak around it. Then he went down the hill to the village.

‘What a fool!’ thought his comrade.

When they came to the village, his comrade said to him,

‘You have the child, therefore give me the cloak.’

But he answered him:

‘No, for the cloak is neither mine nor yours, but the child’s only.’

And he went to his own house and knocked.

When his wife opened the door and saw her husband, she put her arms round his neck and kissed him. Then she took from his back the bundle of faggots, and brushed the snow off his boots.

But he said to her,

‘I found something in the forest. Look! It is here, take care of it.’

‘What is it?’ his wife cried. ‘Show it to me, we are poor, we need many things.’

And he drew the cloak back, and showed her the child.

‘Oh God!’ she murmured, ‘have we not children of our own? Why do you bring changelings[8] here? And who knows if it will not bring us bad fortune? And how shall we take care of it?’

She was wroth against him.

‘It is a Star-Child,’ he answered; and he told her the strange story.

But she mocked at him, and spoke angrily, and cried:

‘Our children are hungry. Why shall we feed someone’s child? Who will care for us? And who will give us food?’

‘God cares for the sparrows even, and feeds them,’ he answered.

‘Do not the sparrows die of hunger in the winter?’ she asked. ‘And is it not winter now?’

The man answered nothing, but did not come in.

A bitter wind from the forest came in through the open door. The woman trembled, and shivered, and said to him:

‘Will you close the door? A bitter wind comes into the house, and I am cold.’

‘It is always cold in a house where a heart is hard,’ he said.

And the woman answered him nothing, but crept closer to the fire.

Soon she turned round and looked at him, and her eyes were full of tears. And he came in swiftly, and placed the child in her arms. She kissed it, and laid it in a little bed  –  with the youngest of their own children.

In the morning, the Woodcutter took the curious cloak of gold and placed it in a great chest. His wife took a chain of amber