Rattle-rattle-rattle And Chink-chink-chink
:
Czechoslovak Fairy Tales
THE STORY OF LONG BEARD, THE DWARF, AND THE TWO SISTERS
There was once a poor man whose wife died leaving him a daughter. The
little girl's name was Lenka. She was a good little girl, cheerful and
obedient and very industrious, and she did all she could to make her
father comfortable.
After some time the man married again. His second wife also had a
little girl just Lenka's age
Her name was Dorla. Dorla was a lazy,
ill-natured child, always quarreling and bickering. Yet her mother
thought Dorla was perfect and she was always praising her to her
husband.
"See what a good child my Dorla is," she would say to him. "She works
and spins and never says a cross word. Very different from your
good-for-nothing Lenka who always breaks everything she touches and
does nothing in return for all the good food she eats!"
She never stopped nagging and scolding her poor stepchild and
complaining about her to her husband. Lenka was patient and went on
quietly doing what was right, and she was always polite to her
stepmother, and kind to her ill-natured stepsister.
She and Dorla used to go to spinning bees together. Dorla would play
and waste her time and hardly fill one spindle. Lenka always worked
industriously and usually filled two or three spools. Yet, when the
two girls got home, the mother always took Dorla's half-filled spindle
and said to the father: "See what beautiful yarn my Dorla spins!" She
would hide Lenka's spools and say: "Your Lenka did nothing but play
and waste her time!"
And before other people she talked the same way, pretending Dorla did
everything that she didn't do and saying that good industrious Lenka
was lazy and good-for-nothing.
One night when the two girls were walking home together from a
spinning bee, they came to a ditch in the road. Dorla jumped quickly
across and then reached back her hand and said:
"My dear sister, let me hold your spindle. You may fall and hurt
yourself."
Poor Lenka, suspecting nothing unkind, handed Dorla her full spindle.
Dorla took it and ran home and then boasted to her mother and her
stepfather how much she had spun.
"Lenka," she said, "has no yarn at all. She did nothing but play and
waste her time."
"You see," said the woman to her husband. "This is what I'm always
telling you but you never believe me. That Lenka of yours is a lazy,
good-for-nothing girl who expects me and my poor daughter to do all
the work. I'm not going to stand her in the house any longer. Tomorrow
morning out she goes to make her own way in the world. Then perhaps
she'll understand what a good home she's had with me!"
The poor man tried to defend Lenka but his wife would hear nothing.
Lenka must go and that was all there was to it.
Early the next morning while it was still dark the woman started Lenka
off. She gave her a sack that she said was full of good meal and
smoked meat and bread. But instead of meal she put in ashes, instead
of smoked meat straw, and instead of bread stones.
"Here is meal and smoked meat and bread for your journey," she said.
"You will be a long time finding any one who will be as good to you as
I have been! Now be off with you and never let me see you again! Let
your father put you out in service if he can!"
The poor man put his ax on his shoulder and started off with Lenka. He
had no place to take her and he hardly knew what to do. He led her off
into the mountains, where he built her a little two-room hut. He was
ashamed to tell her that he was going to leave her alone, so he said
to her:
"You stay here, my dear child, while I go farther into the forest and
cut you some firewood."
But instead of cutting her firewood, he hung his mallet on a beech
tree and whenever the wind blew, the mallet made a knocking sound. All
afternoon poor little Lenka hearing the knock-knock of the mallet
thought to herself: "There is my dear father chopping wood for me!"
When evening came and he hadn't returned, Lenka went out to find him,
but all she could find was the mallet going knock-knock on the tree.
Then the poor girl realized that her father had deceived her but she
forgave him, for she knew that it was her stepmother's fault.
She went back to the little hut to get her supper, but when she opened
the sack her stepmother had given her, instead of meal and smoked meat
and bread, she found only ashes and straw and stones. Then indeed did
Lenka feel deserted and sitting down she cried with loneliness and
hunger.
While she was crying an old beggar with a long beard came into the
hut.
"God grant you happiness, my child," he said.
"May He grant you the same, old father," Lenka said, standing up and
bowing politely.
"Thank you, my child, thank you. And now will you be so kind as to
wash my face and give me a bite of supper?"
"Indeed, old father, I'd gladly wash your face and give you food, but
there's no water here and nothing to carry it in. And as for food, my
stepmother filled the sack with ashes, straw, and stones."
"That's nothing, my child. Just go behind the hut and you will find a
spring."
Lenka went and there, sure enough, was a clear bubbling spring and on
the ground beside it a bucket. She filled the bucket and carried it
back to the hut.
As she entered the door she could hardly believe her eyes, for on the
wall she saw a row of shining plates, big plates and little plates,
and cups, and everything else that ought to be in a kitchen. The old
beggar had started a fire, so Lenka at once put on water to boil.
"Look in the sack," the beggar said.
Lenka untied the sack again and here it was full of fine meal and
bread and smoked meat!
So now Lenka lost no time in preparing a good supper. Then she washed
the old beggar's face and hands and together they ate. After supper
Lenka spread out her ragged clothes on the floor of the inner room and
put the beggar in there for the night. She herself stretched out on
the kitchen bench. It was a hard bed but Lenka made no complaint and
presently she fell asleep.
At midnight there was a knocking at the door and a voice called out:
"A man am I
Six inches high,
But a long, long beard
Hangs from my chin.
Open the door
And let me in!"
Lenka jumped down and opened the door and there before her stood a
tiny dwarf with a long beard. He was Long Beard who lived in the
mountains and of whom Lenka had often heard stories.
He came in dragging after him a heavy bag of golden ducats.
"I was that old beggar," he said, "whose face you washed and with whom
you shared your supper. These ducats are to reward you for your
kindness. Now go into your bedroom and lie down comfortably."
As he said this he vanished.
Lenka went into her bedroom and there, instead of her few rags on the
floor, was a fine feather bed and coverlets and a painted chest full
of clothes. Lenka lay down on the feather bed and instantly fell
asleep.
On the third day her father came, supposing by that time Lenka had
either died of hunger or been devoured by wild beasts. At least, he
thought, he would gather together her bones.
But when he reached the hut he rubbed his eyes in surprise. Instead of
the rough hut, there was a pretty little cottage and instead of a
handful of bones there was a happy girl singing away at her spinning.
"My daughter, my daughter!" he cried. "How are you?"
"Very well, dear father. You couldn't have found a better place for
me."
She told him how happy she was and how pleasantly she passed the
time, spinning and singing and working. Then she took a table-cloth
and filled it with golden ducats and gave it to him.
So he went away very happy, thanking God for the good fortune that had
come to Lenka.
As he neared home, the old dog that lay at the door said to the
stepmother:
"Bow-wow, mistress, here comes the master. It's chink-chink the money
before him and chink-chink the money behind him!"
"Not so, old dog!" the stepmother cried. "It's rattle-rattle bones
before him and rattle-rattle bones behind him!"
Now when the man came into the cottage, he said: "Wife, give me a
basket and let me empty this table-cloth."
"What!" she cried. "Do you expect me to give you a basket for your
daughter's bones?"
But he began to chink the golden ducats and then she got a basket fast
enough.
When she had all the ducats safely put away she said:
"Isn't it just like you to find a place like that for your Lenka! But
what have you ever done for my poor Dorla? Tomorrow you will take her
out into the world and find a good place for her!"
So she got ready for Dorla a fine new bed and stylish clothes and as
much good food as she could carry. The next day the man took Dorla out
into the mountains and built her a little hut of two rooms.
Dorla sat in the hut and thought about the good supper she was going
to cook for herself.
In the evening the same old beggar came and said to her:
"May God grant you happiness, my child. Won't you please wash my
face?"
"Wash your face, indeed!" cried Dorla in a rage. "This is what I'll do
to you!" And she took a stick and drove the old beggar away.
"Very well!" he muttered. "Very well! Very well!"
Then Dorla cooked herself a fine supper. After she had eaten every
bite of it herself, she lay down on the bed and went soundly to sleep.
At midnight Long Beard knocked at the door and called out:
"A man am I
Six inches high,
But a long, long beard
Hangs from my chin.
Open the door
And let me in!"
Then Dorla was very frightened and she hid in the corner. Long Beard
broke open the door and he caught Dorla and he shook her out of her
skin. It served her right, too, for she was a wicked, spiteful girl
and she had never been kind to anybody in her life.
Long Beard left her bones in a heap on the floor, and he hung her skin
on the nail at the back of the door. Then he put her grinning skull in
the window.
On the third day Dorla's mother gave her husband a brand new
table-cloth and said:
"Go now and see how my Dorla is getting on. Here is a table-cloth for
the ducats."
So the man took the table-cloth and went to the mountains. As he came
near the hut, he saw something in the window that looked like grinning
teeth. He said to himself:
"Dorla must be very happy to be smiling at me from this distance."
But when he reached the hut all he found of Dorla was a heap of bones
on the floor, the skin hanging on the nail behind the door, and the
skull grinning in the window.
Without a word he gathered the bones into the table-cloth and started
back.
As he neared home the old dog said:
"Bow-wow, mistress, here comes the master and it's rattle-rattle
before him and rattle-rattle behind him."
"Not so, old dog!" cried the woman. "It's chink-chink before him, and
chink-chink behind him!"
But the old dog kept on barking and saying:
"No, no, bow-wow, it's rattle-rattle before him and rattle-rattle
behind him!"
In a rage the woman took a stick and beat the dog.
Then the man stepped into the cottage and at once his wife brought out
a basket for the ducats. But when he shook out the table-cloth there
was only the rattle-rattle of bones.