LIST OF COLOUR PLATES

They sailed away once more over the blue sea.
          
                          Frontispiece

There she was, a good fur cloak about her shoulders and costly blankets round her feet.

There she was, beating with the pestle and sweeping with the besom.

Misery seated himself firmly on his shoulders and pulled out handfuls of his hair.

“Head in air and tail in sea,
   Fish, fish, listen to me.”

He stepped on one of its fiery wings and pressed it to the ground.

It caught up the three lovely princesses and carried them up into the air.

OLD PETER’S RUSSIAN TALES.

THE HUT IN THE FOREST.

Outside in the forest there was deep snow.  The white snow had crusted the branches of the pine trees, and piled itself up them till they bent under its weight.  Now and then a snow-laden branch would bend too far, and huge lumps of snow fell crashing to the ground under the trees.  Then the branch would swing up, and the snow covered it again with a cold white burden.  Sitting in the hut you could hear the crashing again and again out in the forest, as the tired branches flung down their loads of snow.  Yes, and now and then there was the howling of wolves far away.

Little Maroosia heard them, and thought of them out there in the dark as they galloped over the snow.  She sat closer to Vanya, her brother, and they were both as near as they could get to the door of the stove, where they could see the red fire burning busily, keeping the whole hut warm.  The stove filled a quarter of the hut, but that was because it was a bed as well.  There were blankets on it, and in those blankets Vanya and Maroosia rolled up and went to sleep at night, as warm as little baking cakes.

The hut was made of pine logs cut from the forest.  You could see the marks of the axe.  Old Peter was the grandfather of Maroosia and Vanya.  He lived alone with them in the hut in the forest, because their father and mother were both dead.  Maroosia and Vanya could hardly remember them, and they were very happy with old Peter, who was very kind to them and did all he could to keep them warm and well fed.  He let them help him in everything, even in stuffing the windows with moss to keep the cold out when winter began.  The moss kept the light out too, but that did not matter.  It would be all the jollier in the spring when the sun came pouring in.

Besides old Peter and Maroosia and Vanya there were Vladimir and Bayan.  Vladimir was a cat, a big black cat, as stately as an emperor, and just now he was lying in Vanya’s arms fast asleep.  Bayan was a dog, a tall gray wolf-dog.  He could jump over the table with a single bound.  When he was in the hut he usually lay underneath the table, because that was the only place where he could lie without being in the way.  And, of course at meal times he was in the way even there.  Just now he was out with old Peter.