Flintbox

Once he thought to himself, "It is a strange thing that people cannot go to see the princess. Everyone says she is very beautiful; but what is the point of her living alone in that copper palace with many towers? Can't I see her at all? --Where is my lighter?" He rubbed out a spark, and immediately "hush", the dog with the eyes of a teacup jumped out.

"It's the middle of the night, not bad at all," said the soldier. "But I'd like to see the princess, if only for a moment."

The dog immediately ran to the door. To the soldier's surprise, he returned a moment later with the princess. She was lying on the dog's back and had fallen asleep. Anyone could see that she was a real princess, for she was very good-looking. The soldier couldn't resist kissing her, because he was an uncompromising chowder.

The dog took the princess back again. But after dawn, when the king and queen were drinking tea, the princess said she had a very strange dream during the night, dreaming of a dog and a soldier, she rode on the dog, and the soldier kissed her. "That is a very funny story!" said the queen.

So the next night an old court lady had to keep watch over the princess's bedside to see if it was a dream or something else.

The soldier was very eager to see the lovely princess again. So the dog came again at night, picked her up on his back, and ran away as quickly as possible. The old court lady immediately put on her galoshes and chased after her with the same speed. When she saw them running into a big house, she thought, "I can know this place now." She then drew a big cross with white chalk on this door. Then she went back to bed, and soon the dog returned the princess. But when he saw a cross drawn on the door of the house where the soldier lived, he also took a piece of chalk and drew a cross on all the doors in the city. This was a very clever thing to do, because all the doors had a cross on them, and the old court lady could not find the right place.

In the morning, the king, the queen, the old courtesan, and all the officials came early to see where the princess had been.

When the king saw the first door with the cross painted on it, he said, "Here it is!"

But the queen found another door with a cross on it, so she said, "Dear husband, it's not here?"

At this point, everyone said in unison, "There is one there! There is one there!" For wherever they looked, they found a cross painted on the door. So they thought that if they searched further, they would not get any results.

But the queen was a very wise woman. Not only did she know how to ride in a four-wheeled carriage, but she could also do something else. She took out a pair of golden scissors, cut a piece of silk into pieces, and sewed a very delicate pouch, the pouch filled with very fine buckwheat flour. She tied the sachet to the princess's back. After this arrangement, she cut a small opening in the bag, so that the princess walked through the road, and sprinkled it with fine powder.

The dog came again in the evening. He put the princess on his back and ran to the soldier with her. This soldier is now very much in love with her; he would like to become a prince and marry her.

The dog did not notice that the flour had been sprinkled from the palace to the window of the soldier's room - here he climbed in along the wall with the princess on his back. In the morning, the king and queen had seen clearly and knew where their daughter had been. They took the soldier and put him in jail.

He was now sitting in the cell. Hey, it's so dark and stuffy in there! They said to him, "Tomorrow you're going to the gallows." That was not a very funny thing to hear, and he had forgotten the lighter in the hotel. The next morning, he looked through the bars of the small window and saw many people pouring out of the city to see him on the gallows. He heard the drums and saw the soldiers marching away. All the people were running outside. Among these people was a shoemaker's apprentice. He was still wearing a torn apron and a pair of slippers. He ran so fast that even his pair of slippers flew away and hit a wall. The soldier was sitting there, looking out from behind the bars.

"Hey, you little cobbler's ghost! Don't be in such a hurry!" The soldier said to him. "There's nothing to see until I get there. However, if you run to the place where I live and fetch my lighter, I can give you four dollars. But you'll have to run hard to do it." The cobbler's apprentice wanted the four dollars so much that he lifted his feet and ran, fetching the casket and handing it to the soldier, while - well, we'll see how things have changed. Outside the city, a tall gallows had been erected. Around it stood many soldiers and tens of thousands of people. The king and the queen, facing the judges and all the jurors, sat on a magnificent throne.

The soldier had stepped up to the ladder. However, when the people were about to put the noose around his neck, he said that a sinner could have one innocent request before receiving his judgment, and people should let him be satisfied: he wanted very much to smoke a cigarette, and this could be his last cigarette in this world.

The king was not willing to say "no" to this request. So the soldier took out his flint box and rubbed the fire a few times. One, two, three! Suddenly all three dogs jumped out: one with eyes as big as a teacup, one with eyes as big as a water wheel - and one with eyes as big as a "round tower".

"Please help me, don't let me be hanged!" said the soldier.

At that moment the dogs came at the judge and all the judges, dragged the man by the legs, but the man by the nose, and threw them several feet into the air, where they fell to pieces.

"Do not do this to me!" The king said. But the biggest dog dragged him and his queen and threw them with the rest of the people, and all the soldiers became afraid, and all the people shouted: "Little soldier, be our king! You marry that beautiful princess!"

And so, everyone crowded the soldier into the king's four-wheeled carriage. The three dogs jumped around in front of him and shouted: "Hurrah!" The children whistled with their fingers; the soldiers saluted. The princess came out of her bronze palace and became queen, feeling very satisfied. The marriage ceremony took place for eight days. The three dogs also went up to the table and sat there, opening their eyes wider than ever.