Translated from the Ukrainian by Oles Kovalenko and Vasil Baryshev It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that it is the story-writers who actually introduce kids to the world they live in... Using words, they paint a bizarre yet convincing pattern of the essential human values Love, Beauty, Honesty, Courage as opposed to Hatred, Uglyness, Meanness, Cowardice... This is a massive, wide-ranging collection of tales full of action, ferocious energy and imagination offered by leading Ukrainian authors of several generations. .j Rocking with laughter and dissolving in tears, praising the good and grappling with the evil — these entertaining and brilliantly plotted mysteries have it all!
Once upon a time there was a glorious city. The people there were simple, kind-hearted and hospitable. They were protected by Merrymind, a famous magician. But don't get the wrong idea. He didn't stand by the main gates every day warding off aliens and other unwanted visitors. No. Merrymind never stood by the gates. In fact there were no gates and no walls around the city. Anyone could freely enter the city and enjoy the sincere hospitality of its residents. In fact, Merrymind's protected the citizens from jealousy and meanness simply by means of merry laughter. This was his most powerful weapon. That's how it was... The residents of the city were all avid readers and each day they bought themselves piles of books to read. They particularly liked fairy tales, songbooks and adventure stories. There was one famous occasion when a middle-aged man with a thick moustache stopped reading books and started buying himself new shoes instead. "Now, no one has more shoes than I do!" he boasted. The moustached man had already bought twelve pairs of shoes and was buying the thirteenth pair when Merrymind happened to pass by. He understood what was going on immediately and decided it was high time he used his powers. The moment the man laced up his new shoes and took a step he - - leapt into the air. He seemed to have no control over his legs at all. The poor fellow waited a bit unable to understand what was going on. Then he went out into the street believing the trouble was over. But no! He leapt up again, he simply couldn't walk without leaping every few steps. Merrymind and the people who watched this shoe-happy jumper laughed and laughed till they nearly split their sides. The moustached man had no alternative but to take all his extra shoes back to the store; but as soon as he had, he found he could walk normally again. On another occasion, a young fisherman started to envy one of the older fishermen because he always caught a lot of fish. When darkness fell, he stole all the fish from the old man's keep-net. In the morning, people could see the cheeky devil walking back from the river along the widest street and bragging: "Hey, good people, see how lucky I am! Nice catch, isn't it? So far our famous fisherman has caught nothing!" Merrymind took one look at the young braggart and his catch and roared with laughter. The people around also laughed at the chap: "You must have been to the bog instead of the river, you wretch. Look, your sack is full of toads!" That's the way Merrymind kept everyone on the straight and narrow. Meanwhile, evil came to the city with the appearance of Wickedwink, a lean, tall and surly man who used to advertise himself saying: "Ugh! I am an angry man! Ana I'm clever with it." ...The spring had just set in. Eager to do away with the winter as quickly as possible, Merrymind broke off the last icicle that hung down from the eave of his house and swallowed it. That same day he went down with a sore throat. Merrymind wasn't able to smile, let alone laugh. A doctor, who had come to examine him, ordered the magician to stay in bed. It was time for the city dwellers to celebrate the return of the birds from the warm countries. Each year, they gave their wooden bird houses a fresh coat of paint in a different colour and perched them on trees. This spring, the people decided to paint the bird houses brilliant green and sky blue. So they did and the newlyrpainted bird houses looked very nice, indeed. But when the people woke up next morning, they were shocked with what they saw! Some evil man had done something really nasty while all the good people were sleeping, for every bird house was now smeared with dabs of grey! They would never have guessed that Wickedwink had done this just to satisfy his evil instincts. The citizens repainted all the bird houses bright green and blue because they couldn't bear anything grey or dull. That was the first smileless day in the history of their city. The next day an even worser thing happened. When members of the City Council gathered in the City Hall they found out that .their chairman was missing. He didn't turn up for a very long time. And when he did arrive he said he had slept till noon and in his dreams he had seen the rest of the City Council having incredible adventures. Again, no one knew it was Wickedwink who had cast a spell on the chairman's wristwatch making its hands move ever so slowly! The third day was no brighter. This time a poor young chimney sweep, who had never been seen with a miserable expression on his face, almost cried when Wickedwink put a handful of salt into his soup... The whole city was thrown into a fit of depression. People didn't read fairy tales or adventure stories any more. Even the sun hid behind grey clouds... Meanwhile, Merrymind recovered. The doctor had given him some lemons brought as a present by an Oriental merchant, and the very next day Merrymind was quite himself again. He went into the street and the first person he met was Wickedwink. "Hey, where has your magic power gone, man?" the wicked wizard asked spitefully. "At last I've got the better of you!" "Have you?" Merrymind replied calmly. "I'm afraid you're wrong there. You don't know me yet." With that, Merrymind turned and walked away. When he reached the city square he found all the city dwellers gathered together. They were standing in a circle and singing a heartrending song about misfortunes that never come singly... Tears rolled down their cheeks and dropped on to the ground so that soon there were veritable streams of human tears winding their way over the cobblestones. Merrymind listened to their sad singing for some time, then he said: "Can't you sing something joyful! Look around, the spring has come!" "Maybe we can..." answered one of the crowd with a deep sigh. "And maybe we can't..*." said another and also heaved a sigh. Then Merrymind began singing a merry spring song. But the crowd remained silent... Suddenly, the young chimney sweep, black with soot, joined in timidly. Then a boy who had been well known for his constant laughter, started to sing as well. Then someone in the crowd smiled. And his smile encouraged his neighbour to smile too and they both joined in the singing. And then the rest... Soon everyone in the square was carried away with Merrymind's tune, stamping their feet, clapping their hands and harmonizing with pipes... Even the sun peered out from behind the clouds, surprised that the people who had so recently been so gloomy and distressed were suddenly so joyful. Merrymind left the people in the square and went to see Wick-edwink. He stopped in front of his house and raised his voice: "Hey, you, you wicked old man! Don't you know that where there is a song there is joy? Come out and see for yourself!" But there was no response; and that wasn't very surprising, because Wickedwink had already fled the city of the merry people...
Two Rivals
Once there was a town that had nolname. And those who wanted to send letters there just wrote on the envelope, "TO THE NAMELESS TOWN." Craftsmen who lived in this nameless town were known in kingdoms near and far for their skills. People flocked there from all over the world to see and admire the things those craftsmen made. Really, each one was a master of his trade! The only sad thing about them was that each craftsman worked by himself. Only two of them were friends, though even they worked in separate workshops. Their names were Larr and Kross. Larr was a cheerful man. The mechanisms he invented were most intricate. And only Kross, himself a famous master, could bring his friend Larr's ideas to life. Every autumn, a traditional fair was held for the townfolks to show their works. They brought to the fair a lot of interesting things: clocks of all shapes and sizes, secret locks, musical instruments, you name it. At the end of the fair the Town Councillors decided which was the best exhibit. Once in early summer, the Town Herald climbed the platform and addressed the citizens, his loud voice reaching everyone's ears: "The Glorious Town Councillors announce that it is high time we gave a name to our town! It will be named after the craftsman who can make a clock-work doll that can talk. This autumn, all our masters will show their works in this square!" Larr and Kross were among those who listened to the herald. Larr's mind immediately went into action, pondering his future mechanical wonder, he didn't notice the gleeful expression on the face of his friend Kross. "At last, my time has come!" Kross muttered under his breath. He had been jealous of Larr for a long time. He was tired of sharing his popularity with Larr and wanted to be the sole winner. Now Kross had a good chance of becoming famous all by himself! Kross was sure he would win the contest, and then his name, the name of the creator of a talking doll, would live through the ages in the name of their town! On the following day, Kross sent his apprentice to tell Mr Larr that from now on Mr Kross would work alone. Stunned by the news, Larr at once rushed to Kross to ask him to explain his strange behaviour. But Kross wouldn't as much as let Larr in. The former friends, now rivals, got down to work, each one on his own. Kross shut himself in his shop so that no one could see what he was doing. He racked his brains for one day, two, three, five, ten, thirty days, and then three times thirty... However, no bright ideas came to him. Finally, Kross and his apprentices did manage to make a mechanical doll that could open her eyes and produce a high-pitched squeak, "Mummy!" But that was all she could say. Larr found himself in difficulties, too. He had grown accustomed to working with Kross. But now... It had never taken long to think of some new and marvellous design, but he needed Kross to bring his idea to life. He just couldn't manage on his own! Larr spent all his time turning and shaping various details which he then tried to put together but with no success. The time for the exhibition of the dolls was drawing near... One day Larr was sitting at a table in his shop, utterly depressed. Suddenly, he heard young ringing voices outside. The door was pushed open and in came two strong lads. Larr looked up in surprise at the unexpected visitors who stood framed in the entrance. The next moment he rushed towards them with outstretched arms and a happy cry of welcome. They were his sons whom he had sent off to study in another city three years ago. When Larr had shown his sons what he had done, the oldest son said: "We can help you, Father! We have learned a good deal. Now we know a thing or two. Don't worry, we're ready to do what we can." So work was started anew. Larr could see that his sons hadn't wasted time away from home. They did everything he wanted and they did it quickly and expertly. At last, the Wonder Doll was ready! Larr and his sons were very tired. They needed a good rest. So, they locked the door and went to see a show staged by some wandering acrobats. When they came back late into the night, they discovered that something was missing... Their mechanical wonder was gone! The sons searched the room and the attic while Larr himself examined the windows as he thought a thief might have penetrated into his house through a window. But they found no trace of a thief. Larr and his sons were in despair. They had spent the whole summer making their doll. To make a new one overnight was out of the question. Next morning, they dragged themselves, heavy hearted, along to the square. People had been pouring into the city centre in hundreds since dawn. The crowd was impatiently waiting for the contest to begin. The Town Councillors were provided with the detailed descriptions of various dolls that craftsmen had sent them long before. Presently, the contestants were called out one by one onto the platform. They mounted the platform and demonstrated their creations before the public which had gathered in the city square. All the dolls looked very nice in their bright dresses, colourful shoes and stockings. Only they couldn't really talk. Some of the dolls could say "Mamma," others could also say "Daddy." One doll managed to say "Milk." But none of them could speak! All these clock-work beauties actually did was parrot-like repeat of a couple of words their creators had fed into them, just like parrots. At last, the Town Herald stepped out and announced in his booming voice: "Attention, respected citizens! Now comes Master Larr with his doll!" His words were met with stormy applause, shouts and whistles. The people jostled to get closer to the platform. Master Larr and his works were very popular, indeed. Larr climbed onto the platform surprisingly slowly, his head hung low. His hands were empty... Larr said sadly: "My dear friends, I... I made a rather unusual doll, true. But I can't show it to you because..." His voice trailed off. Silently, Larr descended the platform and the surprised crowd parted to let him through. "Attention, good people!" the Town Herald called out again. "Now Master Kross is going to show us his doll!" Kross jumped easily onto the platform, holding a strikingly beautiful doll in his hand. The doll opened her eyes and said: "Hello everybody! At last I can tell you how I was born." The crowd responded to her words with great excitement. People tossed up their hats and shouted: "Hail the great Master Kross and his wonderful Doll!" "Let's name our town after him!" "Krosstown! Krosstown!" But the doll wanted to say something more. She seemed annoyed, but she waited for the commotion to subside and when the crowd finally grew quiet she repeated: "At last I can tell you how I was born!" The doll paused and, raising her voice to a high-pitched tone, pronounced: "I was invented by Master Larr and made by his sons!" Dead silence fell all over the place. People gazed at the doll with open-mouthed wonder. Kross, the impostor, tried to run from the platform but was caught and brought back. Meanwhile, the doll went on: "Last night Master Larr and his sons went to see the wander ing acrobats. I was left on his working desk... Suddenly i heard a cracking'sound. One of the boards of the floor went up and -- I saw a shaggy head sticking out. It was Mr Kross! He grabbed me and carried me away through an underground passage. He took me to his place and threatened to break me into pieces if I didn't keep my mouth shut. Mr Kross told me he had been digging the underground passage for the past six months, after he had realized he would never be able to make a doll of his own... The doll broke off. Then the people demanded that Kross should leave their town for good. When Kross had gone, all those present in the square con gratulated Larr on his great creation. "You're the best of craftsmen!" the people shouted. "You're Number One! Let us name our town after Master Larr!" "Hush, hush," others said. "Master Larr wants to say something." And again Larr stepped onto the platform. "I'm very pleased to hear all your kind words," he said. "Still, I must admit that I wouldn't have been able to make my doll if I had worked alone. My sons helped me a lot. What I mean to say, good people, is that united we stand, divided we fall! And I don't want our town to bear my name!..." ...As the day came to an end, the town's people had a celebration the likes of which they had never had before. The night sky was aglow now with the bonfires and fire works. The people danced and really enjoyed themselves. Everybody praised Master Larr, his sons and their beautiful speaking doll, and the new name they had found for their town. Yes, their town did receive a name! It was carved in bold letters right above the main gate in the town wall: THE TOWN OF FRIENDLY CRAFTSMEN
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