Fairy Tales of Grandpa Vanya*

These fairy tales were narrated 

by Igor Vysotin, Sarkar, and Yeremey

Written down by Anna Zubkova
Editor of the Russian version Vladimir Antonov
Illustrations by Anna Zubkova

Translated from Russian Khrystyna Dikova
Correctors of an English translation: 
Anton Teplyy, Keenan Murphy

Anechka**  and Grandpa Vanya

(Introduction)

       
        Once upon a time, not long ago, a little girl lived in a big city. Her name was Anechka.
        She had a wonderful mother, father, and two grandmothers: her mother’s mother and her father’s mother. This big and amicable family lived in a really large apartment, which was called a communal apartment at that time. It meant that other families lived in other rooms of the same apartment, and one really really lengthy corridor was common for all rooms.
        Anechka was the only child in this communal apartment. Even though all the people in this apartment quarreled with each other from time to time, they all loved Anechka very much.
        Anechka loved everyone too. She loved her mother, father, and both grandmothers. She loved the neighbors too, and she was always the first person to politely greet the other person.
        In one room of this big apartment, there lived a wife and a husband. Their names were Ivan Petrovich and Akulina Andreyevna. They lived in love and harmony and were elderly. Their children had already grown up long ago and lived separately from their parents in other places.
        Anechka had two grandmothers but did not have any grandfathers.
        But she wanted to have at least one, so she chose Ivan Petrovich to be one for her.
        One day she came to visit him and simply asked him to become her grandfather. He agreed without even a momentary hesitation!
        After that, a miraculous friendship began between the youngest dweller of that apartment and the oldest one.
        Even though Anechka was a child, she understood that grandpa Vanya was not her real grandfather. However, this fact made him even more wonderful, for real grandfathers, just like grandmothers, had to not only praise their grandchildren but bring them up strictly as well. Grandpa Vanya was a little “magical”: he was never angry with Anechka, he played and talked to her as to a best friend.
        He also would tell her fairy tales and true stories and allowed her to do whatever she asked for.
        However, it should be noted that Anechka never wanted anything bad because she was a kind and intelligent little girl.
        Usually Anechka asked permission of her grandmothers or parents to visit grandpa Vanya, and if they allowed, she visited him.
        She would gently knock on the door and ask:
        “May I come in?”
        “Who is there?” grandpa Vanya would ask.
        “It’s me!”
        “Then come in!” grandpa Vanya would say greeting Anechka in this way, and Anechka would come in gladly.
        Then she usually gave a “performance”, for example, she danced or read a poem that she learned, and every time Akulina Andreyevna and grandpa Vanya would applaud and praise her.
        Afterwards, Akulina Andreyevna would invite her to taste some delicious refreshments, such as mushroom patties, which she cooked with great mastery, or tea with jam. Then Akulina Andreyevna would quietly sit down on a chair to do her needlework or would begin to cook in the kitchen. She never interfered in the conversation between Anechka and grandpa Vanya except for those occasions when she was asked for.
        Grandpa Vanya would also drink tea with Anechka, and she would ask him to tell her something interesting.
        Usually grandpa Vanya asked before beginning his story:
        “Well, what would you like me to tell you a fairytale story or a true one?”
        “Please tell me a story that has a little bit of fairy tale and a little bit of truth!” Anechka would answer.
        So, grandpa Vanya began to tell her his story.
        This amazing friendship started when Anechka was a very little girl, and the fairy tales would change as she grew up.

*  A unisex diminutive of the Russian given name Ivan (translator’s note). 

**  A unisex diminutive of the Russian given name Anna (translator’s note).
       

A Fairy Tale about a Fisherman, 

a Little Fish, and the Underwater Kingdom

        Grandpa Vanya asked:

        “Anechka, would you like me to tell you a fairy tale about a fisherman and a little fish?”
        “No,” answered Anechka, “I know this fairy tale very well. It was written by Pushkin!”
        “I’m going to tell you a completely new story, which happened to me when I went on my last fishing trip.”
        “Then yes please, tell it to me!” Anechka said and sat comfortably.
        “So, every summer,” grandpa Vanya started, “I spend time with Akulina Andreyevna not on the shore of the blue sea but on the shore of a huge lake. We have a little house there.
        “And it needs to be said that we have lived together for thirty three years and never quarreled. Everything that we do we do by love and by mutual consent.
        “One day I woke up early before the sunrise, took my fishing tackles, and went fishing.
        “I went out of the house and saw how beautiful everything around was! The mist was rising above the lake! The path went down off the hill to the lake, and my legs moved as if by themselves! I was so joyous!
        “Soon the sun began to rise! It lighted everything around with its light, warming and beautifying nature!
        “Every dewdrop started shining in the sunlight like a diamond or even better!
        “The mist made everything around me magical!
        “I reached the shore. My boat was hitched by a chain and was waiting for me. I opened a lock, put oars in the rowlocks, and cast off.
        “The lake was very very big! When you come to visit me there, you will see it with your own eyes.
        “There was not even a breeze. The light mist was rising from the water like steam is rising above my cup of tea now.
        “The smooth surface of the lake looked like an enormous mirror!
        “The clouds, illuminated by the rising sun, were reflecting in the water.
        “I could clearly see the bottom of the lake through the transparent water.
        “I rowed softly and admired the surrounding beauty!
        “I could see sand and stones under my boat. I could see how aquatic plants grew. Shoals of little fish were swimming by and shining with their silvery scales.
        “Birds started waking up. Swallows began to fly very close to the surface catching midges for their children. Gulls were also soaring close to the water and sat from time to time near my boat.
        “I cast the line waiting for the fish that would be first on my hook. However, no fish bit.
        “I was not upset though, because everything was so peaceful and pleasing all around!
        “I was sitting so and then fell asleep.
        “Suddenly I saw how the bobber budged and submerged, and the fishing line became taut. It seemed that a big fish was on the hook and even dragged the boat towards itself! I grasped my fishing rod with my both hands.
        “Thus I was pulling the fish out of the water, and it was pulling me into water!
        “Soon it happened that the fish pulled me abruptly, and I lost my balance, fell into the water, and began to sink, for my clothes — a tarpaulin raincoat and high rubber boots — were heavy.
        “I thought the end of my life was approaching: I would drown! Before I had been stronger than any fish and pulled all of them out of the underwater kingdom to the surface where they couldn’t breathe and began to die. Now it was my turn to die underwater where I couldn’t breathe.
        “At that point miraculous things started happening!
        “The fish that swallowed my hook appeared before my face. But this time everything was the other way round: I was caught by it and it pulled me to the bottom! It was a sheatfish of gigantic size! I had never seen such a gigantic fish before.

        “We looked at each other. My eyes were opened wide out of amazement and the fish’s eyes were opened wide as well! I had a moustache and it had a moustache! But my hook was in its lips, and it did not have hands to remove it. The blood was flowing and it was in great pain!

        “Then the sheatfish said to me:
        “‘Pull out the hook, it hurts me!’”
        “I didn’t hear how it said this but I miraculously understood what it said.
        “I carefully pulled the hook out.
        “And I was waiting for what would happen next.
        “The sheatfish said:
        “‘I wanted to destroy you for the evil that you caused to my fish kingdom! But now I see that you still have kindness!
        “‘That’s why you are still alive.
        “‘I will let you go if you promise me to never kill any fish, neither large nor small!’”
        “I promised this because I felt very deeply how painful it was for fish to be on a hook and how they did not want to die before their term that was prescribed by nature.
        “You know, Anechka, that I always do what I promised! I’m faithful to my word and I will not break it at any price!
        “It seemed that the sheatfish also found out about my faithfulness, because we were hearing the thoughts of each other and answering each other with thoughts.
        The sheatfish said to me:
        “‘According to our fish law, you are granted three wishes for your kind act. You just need to think about what you want to wish for, and it will come true!
        “‘Your first wish is obvious. If you don’t want to stay in the underwater kingdom forever, you should wish to appear in your boat or on the shore.
        “‘Two other wishes will remain with you! Don’t waste them on something useless!’
        “I thanked the sheatfish and imagined myself in my boat as if none of this had happened. I imagined it fervently! And it did become real: I found myself in my boat as if nothing had happened.”

* * *

        “You must have fallen asleep, and it was a dream!” Anechka said.
        Grandfather Vanya answered:
        “I thought the same exact thing: I most likely fell asleep and saw this marvelous dream. But I couldn’t find my fishing rod anywhere!”
        “So, you dropped it when you were sleeping!”
        “I thought about this as well and I began to look for it, thinking that maybe it got stuck in the reed thicket. But I didn’t find it.”
        “Were your clothes wet or dry?” Anechka asked.
        “My clothes were dry, but I had imagined myself in dry clothes. It’s inconvenient and cold to be in wet ones.
        “Well, I myself didn’t believe in this miracle completely, that I was deeply underwater and talked to the sheatfish.
        “I took the oars and rowed to the shore.
        “After docking, I thought about how would I come empty handed to my Akulina Andreyevna? From which ingredients would she cook soup?
        “So I decided to collect ceps*, but not just any ceps. I wished that they were beautiful, robust, big, and tasty and that there should be no less than 10 of them!
        “As soon as I wished it, I saw something in a coastal bush that looked like a cep.
        “I came closer and indeed it was a cep, a big, robust, and very beautiful one! I made two more steps and saw another one!
        “They grew in a line, all ten ceps, each one bigger than the next! I searched again and didn’t find any more of them.
        “Wasn’t it a miracle? I had never found such big and beautiful mushrooms before and after this.
        “I went home very pleased, thinking that the soup would be outstanding, and that there would be many mushrooms leftover to be fried. My Akulina Andreyevna would be glad!
        “I was walking and thinking whether it could be a coincidence or a miracle.
        “If  it really was a miracle, what could I ask as a third wish?
        “I came home and told everything to my Akulina.
        “We ate the mushroom soup and began to discuss what wish should we make.
        “It seemed that we had everything: a house near the lake and vegetable beds not far away. The house, though, was small, just one room where only our bed, table, two chairs, and a little stove were, but, on the other hand, because of this we didn’t have many troubles with it!
        “We couldn’t think of what to wish for. Everything we had was good, everything we didn’t have was not necessary!
        “Out of the blue, our neighbor’s boy, Petya, came to us.
        “Akulina gave him the mushroom soup! She felt sorry for Petya and always tried to feed him. This boy grew up as an orphan, even though he had parents. He was seriously ill, and I went with him to the doctors in the city on more than one occasion. They all said that he needed an expensive surgery, but his parents did not have enough money even for food because they wasted all of it on vodka. Akulina and I had our little pensions only. Even if we saved them for the rest of our lives, we couldn’t collect even a fraction of the money that the doctors asked for the surgery.
        “As soon as Petya left, Akulina and I decided to give the third wish to this little boy so that he could recover! We desired it very much!”
        “And what? Did it come true?” Anechka asked.
        “It did come true! I went with him to the doctor, and he said that his tests were better and that he did not have do the surgery anymore! He just needed to continue tempering and strengthening his body, and then the disease would pass!”
        “At that time I had been already teaching Petya to temper his body by pouring cold water from a bucket on it every morning.
        “So, the sheatfish didn’t lie to me! And I didn’t lie to it as well, for from that moment on I did not fish anymore and did not eat fish! I stopped buying fish that were caught by other people, because if I buy them, it would mean that they were caught and killed for me!
        “And, from that moment on, I also started finding mushrooms everywhere miraculously. Even when people come from the forest with empty baskets, my basket is full!”
        “Grandpa, your story is great!
        “I know the fairy tale about the seven colored flower. But in that story, only the last wish of the girl was good. In your case, however, all three of your wishes were good!”
        “And what about you, Anechka? What would you wish?”
        “I should think about this and I will tell you next time.”
*  An edible mushroom Boletus edulis (translator’s note).

       

Fairytale about the Cap of Invisibility

        Anechka liked to play hide-and-seek with Grandpa Vanya, but their play was peculiar, not like the one Anechka played with other children.

        The room of grandpa Vanya was small, so there was no place to hide.
        There was a big bed, a cupboard, two chairs, and a sofa in that room.
        It was on that sofa that she would hide. She simply would close her eyes with her palms, lie down on her belly, and stay very quiet!
        At that moment, grandpa Vanya would start counting to five and then begin to look for Anechka.
        He would touch Anechka’s dress and say:
        “What is this? Probably, my Akulina left her clothes here.”
        After that, he would go around the room for a very long time as if he were looking for where Anechka could hide there.
        He did that in such an interesting way! He would say aloud that he did not find Anechka neither in the cupboard nor under the table. And Anechka would try, with all her strength, not to laugh ahead of time, and she would even breathe very quietly.
        Then grandpa Vanya would say:
        “I give up!”
        After these words, Anechka, shining with happiness, would jump up on the sofa and say:
        “I am here!”
        Anechka indeed felt invisible, so all this game was very funny and magical for her! It was as if she acquired the ability to disappear from the usual world, which is visible for all people, and to become transparent like the air, and then to appear in this world again.
        One day, when Anechka grew up a little bit, she said after that game:
        “It would be wonderful to be able to disappear and to appear when you want to!”
        “Why would you need to be able to do this, Anechka?” asked grandpa Vanya.
        And they began to discuss the reasons for which the ability to be invisible might be useful for people.
        Well, it definitely can be useful for more than just playing hide-and-seek with other children so that you can always win! To always win would be boring! So, what else can it be used for then?
        It turned out from this discussion that the ability to be invisible is not very useful in modern society.
        Anechka even became upset.
        Then Grandpa Vanya asked:
        “Do you want me to tell you the fairytale about the cap of invisibility?”
        “Sure! Very much!” Anechka exclaimed in excitement and made herself comfortable on the sofa.
        “Well, then listen!” said grandpa Vanya, smiling under his grey mustache.
        He began his story:
        “Once upon a time there lived the cap of invisibility. It lived for a very long time and helped a great number of heroes to win their battles with dragons, to free princesses from the captivity of evil sorcerers, and to accomplish other heroic feats.
        But the time changed, and heroes and bogatyrs* disappeared.
        So, one day, the cap of invisibility found itself in a showcase in a museum about the ancient way of life. It was lying inside the glass case, and people called it an “exhibit” and were amazed by its beautiful embroidery consisting of a gold thread and intricate patterns! However, no one knew that it was magical!
        It was boring for the cap to live in this way! What kind of life does it have if the only thing it does is lie on its side?!
        So, the cap started thinking about how it could change such a monotonous life.
        It should be said that since the cap of invisibility was magical, it could think like a human. Oh yes! It lived on so many different wise heads for so many years that it became wise!
        It happened that some burglars came to that museum. They stole different ancient gold exhibits and took the cap of invisibility as well. They thought that they could sell it for a very good price, for it was ancient and had patterns embroidered with a gold thread!
        The quantity of the things that one burglar was trying to hold in his hands was so much that he decided to put the cap on his head.
        He looked at himself in the mirror and could not see himself.
        He immediately understood how lucky he was, for it is so convenient to steal when no one can see you!
        So, he began to commit sly burglaries one after another.
        All of this was disgusting for the cap!
        “In the past I helped heroes and bogatyrs, and now look where I am! Serving a burglar! It would have been better to stay in the showcase, which was like a glass coffin, than suffering such a disgrace!” the cap of invisibility thought.
        It felt sick of the thoughts of the burglar on whose head it had to spend every night! So, one day, when the burglar was stealing in a big shop, it did its best and got caught on a shelf and fell to the floor.
        The burglar did not notice this and continued doing his sinful work as if he were invisible. However, now everyone around could see his actions!
        So the burglar was caught straightway!
        The cap of invisibility was arrested with him, but no one knew about its magical properties…
        Now it lay in the detective’s office on his table as a piece of evidence…
        Fall came, and it got cold in that cabinet. There was a draft coming from a window…
        So the detective put the cap on his head and instantly disappeared.
        He was not stupid. He understood how this invisibility could help him with his job.
        He began to catch the criminals very skillfully.
        At first, the cap of invisibility was happy about this change in its life, thinking “Although my new owner isn’t a bogatyr, he does useful work, and I help him in this!”
        Nevertheless, later on it became so bored with spying on criminals that it decided to change its work somehow.
        One day they were in a hospital where the detective came to examine a witness. He was given a white robe and was told to leave the cap and other outerwear in a checkroom.
        This was when the cap of invisibility found its way to fall down from the coat rack! And it did this so luckily that it got into one of the bags that were brought to sick children by their parents. The hospital was under quarantine so that even parents were not allowed to visit their children at that moment.
        Thus, it found itself among things, including food, that a sick boy’s parents had brought for him.
        That boy, however, did not want to eat anything because of his illness. He did not even look into the bag.
        He was lying and thinking about how to hide from the doctor who would come soon and give him a painful injection.
        And the cap of invisibility could easily understand different thoughts. For thoughts exist in the world that is invisible to ordinary eyes, and the cap of invisibility knew this invisible world very well!
        So the cap easily understood what the sick boy was thinking about and really wanted to jump out of the bag and say: “Here I am! Put me on your head now!”
        At that moment the boy noticed something extraordinary among the oranges and apples in the bag. He pulled out the cap of invisibility, wondered, and put it on.
        The doctor came into the ward but did not find the sick boy. The panic spread all over the hospital! Nurses and orderlies began to run and look for him.
        He, on the other hand, rejoiced that the doctor had not found him, got up, and started walking along hospital corridors. He wanted to come back home very much, for he missed his mother and father!
        However, soon he felt bad because of his illness and fell from exhaustion. The cap of invisibility did its best to fall from the boy’s head so that he could be found as soon as possible.
        It thought: “I caused such a disaster! What should I do to bring benefit to people? I still don’t know!”
        From that moment on, the boy stopped putting the cap on and instead started talking with it affectionately, like with a friend. He told it about his sorrows and resentment against his very unhappy hospital life, about his fears. But the cap just kept silence and listened to him. It was thinking about how it could help the boy in his misfortune.
        The boy asked the cap once:
        “You are magical, right? Can you do something so that my illness stops seeing me forever?”
        The cap of invisibility started thinking about that.
        It began to observe how a dark shadow approached the boy’s body in the world that was invisible to the eyes of ordinary people, attacked him, and got into his body! It was when he felt bad.
        Nevertheless, the cap did not know how to drive this shadow out.
        The boy began to put the cap under his pillow to feel less lonely and scared at nights.
        So, the cap decided to show him magical fairytale dreams to console its new friend!
        In these dreams, the boy was strong, brave, and healthy and had different interesting adventures. He fought evil and defeated it in every one of his dreams. He took correct and kind decisions and always followed them. He was never frightened and never cried but was similar to the bogatyrs whom the cap of invisibility helped earlier.
        After each one of such dreams, the boy would wake up stronger and full of energy!
        And he wanted to become the person who he was while in his dreams! So he started to try his best! He even began to endure painful injections without fear to recover sooner!
        Little by little, all dark energies completely disappeared from his body.
        And when the evil shadow came once again to strengthen the illness, it could not see the boy.
        The cap of invisibility could overcome the boy’s illness, which was considered as incurable by everyone!
        All the doctors were so surprised! And the boy was discharged from the hospital soon.
        Before being discharged, he gave the cap of invisibility to a sick girl, who was in the next ward, and told her how this magical cap helped him to recover.
        The cap of invisibility began to think up magical fairy tales for that girl too so that she felt healthy, strong, beautiful, kind, and tender.
        The illness also weakened and then completely passed, because the girl changed inside and did her best to recover.
        From that moment on, magical recoveries started in that hospital.
        Doctors were wondering what was going on! And children passed the cap to each other.
        One thing now still upset the cap: she did not have enough time to help everyone! For there were so many sick children in that hospital!
        It happened that one little boy, who had the cap of invisibility under his pillow and to whom the cap showed magical dreams, told a doctor about it.
        This doctor was a serious man, and even though he did not believe in an invisible and magical world, the facts of recoveries were real!
        So he took the cap, and they began to study it with the help of different devices. They cut its fabric for diverse analyses, pulled out its threads…
        But surprisingly that doctor did not put it on even once! If he had put it on, the cap would have been able, probably, to whisper to him about what it had learned during its long life, namely, that besides healing the body, it is necessary to help the soul overcome illness! The cap and the doctor would have been able to do this better together! But no…
        The cap of invisibility did not like all these procedures that much! It was no longer young and, on top of that, they ripped off its lining and soaked the cap with different substances!
        It almost disappointed with conventional medicine, although it understood that it would not be able to overcome by itself the illnesses of children without medication and different treatments.
        However, the cap was lucky again! The doctor gave it to a writer who was treated in that hospital.
        He also told him about the stories of recovery that happened to children and added:
        “Here is a plot for a fairy tale! You can write about it in your spare time!”
        The cap of invisibility made a strong friendship with the writer!
        It would tell him a fairy tale, and he would write it down and read it to all the children in the morning.
        So they began to live in this way!
        Although many children were healed in that hospital, more sick ones arrived every time.
        One day a clown, a young volunteer, came to the hospital to make children happy. He showed them funny performances and tried to cheer them up.
        The cap of invisibility said to the writer:
        “Give me to the clown, please!”
        “But how will I write my fairy tales then?”
        “You can already write healing fairy tales without me, for you have understood the most important thing: diseases do not live where light and love shine in souls! Such souls become invisible and invulnerable to any disease very quickly!
        “This young man and I will do real magic! After all, it is necessary to help healthy children as well, so that neither their bodies nor they as souls can get sick! We need to help them turn into real bogatyrs, and not into villains! We need to do something, so that true magic returns to people’s life instead of fairy magic! This will be the real work for me!
        “And this young man is a very appropriate person! For even the most amazing magical cap can do nothing without a wise person! Only such a person can transform his or her life and help other people to do so!
        The writer went out into a corridor and saw the young clown smoking and almost crying! A smile was drawn on his face with grease paint from ear to ear, but his eyes were very sad!
        The writer asked him:
        “You want to help children but you don’t know how, do you?”
        “Yes, I would love to help! I feel so sorry for them that I can’t help but cry!
        “Do you know how to help them?”
        “I know something, but you need to quit smoking, friend! Thus there will be less filth for children’s breath! After all, some of them are sick because other people smoke near them!”
        The young clown put out his cigarette and threw it to a trashcan.
        “I quit!”
        “Forever?”
        “Forever! Tell me now how I can help children!”
        “I have a present for you! It is the cap of invisibility!”
        “Are you kidding?”
        “No, I’m not!”
        The young man took off his pompom cap, put the cap of invisibility on, and suddenly disappeared!
        Now only the body of the writer was reflecting in a mirror nearby.
        “Hi!” the cap of invisibility said to its new friend.
        The writer confirmed:
        “Yes, it can speak with people! And it can read your thoughts as well! It will give you smart advice! And the most important thing is that it wants to learn to better help people together with you!
        “It taught me to write magical fairy tales and it promised to teach you many things! I think it will be useful for you to show magical performances to people and to open magical abilities in them!

* * *

        Grandpa Vanya looked at his little listener and finished:
        “Well, Anechka, this is the end. I don’t know what happened next.”
        This time Anechka listened to the story spellbound. She even did not interrupt Grandpa Vanya with her questions as usual. Only when the story was finished, did she ask:
        “Grandpa, is this a real story or just a fairytale?”
        “Some of it is a fairy tale and some of it is a true story. That writer told it to me. We met in that hospital. He promised to write a book with fairy tales from the cap of invisibility.
        “But the authors of fairy tales are greater inventors than I! So you are the one who needs to decide where the truth is and where the fantasy is in this story!
        “The real magic is not about being invisible with the help of the cap of invisibility or flying on a magic carpet, it is about marvelous acts that bring joy and benefit to other people!
*  A bogatyr is the main character in medieval Eastern Slavic legends (byliny), similar to a Western European knight-errant (translator’s note).

       

Fairy Tale about the Last Hunt

        Anechka came into the room of grandpa Vanya to listen to a new fairy tale as usual.

        There was a big photo of him on the wall. On this photo, young grandpa Vanya posed on a horse and in a military uniform.
        Anechka liked this portrait very much. Grandpa Vanya was so handsome on it! And the horse matched him very well!
        Grandpa Vanya was still handsome in his old age. His body was tall, with broad shoulders, strong hands, and a fluffy grey moustache.
        Anechka loved to brush this moustache with a small comb and turn up the ends of it on her fingers when grandpa Vanya permitted that.
        They both dreamed about buying horses to ride together, but their dreams did not come true yet. That is why Anechka often imagined, when she rode her bike, that it was her faithful horse! And when she was going to ride a bike with her dad, they would even exclaim: “Saddle up!” Anechka even learned to sit on her bicycle like on a horse, “in a masculine way”, so that she could learn to jump on a horse quickly later on!
        However, this time Anechka, having looked at that photo, asked grandpa Vanya about something different:
        “Tell me, grandpa, were you in a war?”
        “I was, Anechka, but I will not tell you about this now.
        “War brings a lot of sorrow to people! It’s not fairy tales when soldiers gallop on horses against tanks, because their commanders ordered them to do so.
        “It’s terrible when there is war! Then people, horses, and other animals are maimed and killed. There is so much terrible pain during wars!
        “Even if war is for justice, it’s not joyful either!
        “I wish that you never see what happens at war!”
        Anechka started profoundly thinking about this and said:
        “My friends and I played war this summer. They are boys. They like to play war. And I played with them. For fun, we shot a toy pistol and a toy shotgun at an imaginary adversary and, of course, we won. It was interesting to hide and to lie in ambush without moving.
        “So, that means it’s bad to shoot, to play war?”
        “Anechka, you should think about this yourself and decide what is bad and what is good, and why!”
        “Do you remember how I promised to tell you what magic wish I would like to make?” asked Anechka.
        “I do remember. Did you think it up?”
        “At that time I couldn’t, but now I know! I wish that war never happens! Will my wish come true?”
        “Your wish is good, Anechka! But it seems it’s not enough that only you wish so! A lot of people must wish the same thing for it to come true!
        “It’s important for everyone to understand both what is good, and therefore needs to be done, as well as what causes harm to others and, consequently, is bad!
        “If there is no harm for others, the action may be done. If, additionally, your action is useful for others, it is even better!
        “It’s always good to think about this!
        “Let me tell you how I understood this about hunting when I went to hunt for the last time.”
        “Were you a hunter?”
        “I was, Anechka!
        “Hunting is similar to war to a certain degree. But hunters do not think about this at all, and I myself didn’t think this either. It never occurred to me that it is a sin to shoot at birds and other animals!
        “Many people hunt, and it’s a custom that comes from ancient times. That’s why I didn’t think about that…
        “I liked to hunt, for it is so nice to spend a night near a fire in the forest in the open air, to listen to the silence of the night, and to see the sunrise!
        “Hunters often hide and lie in ambush for a long time while waiting and observing birds and other animals. They even adapt special places to have a possibility to shoot a bird or other animal from a better position.
        “Such a place is called ‘a hunting blind’, and from it, a hunter can see all the surroundings without being seen by animals.
        “It’s interesting to be in it, listening to the songs of birds and watching how the sun rises! It’s possible to see so much beauty in the morning forest from it!
        “What birds do you know, Anechka?”
        Anechka thought over it and started enumerating:
        “I know sparrows, pigeons, crows, starlings, bullfinches, ducks, swans…”
        “Maybe, you know geese too?”
        “I only read about them and saw them on TV. But I didn’t see real geese.”
        “There are birds that live near humans. But when I was a hunter, I saw so many different forest birds and listened to theirs beautiful songs. Such birds are wood grouses, woodcocks, snipes, and black grouses.
        “Well, we digressed.
        “At that time, I hunted for ducks and had a hunting blind made of reeds. I was sitting in it and observing.
        “Soon I saw a nice drake swimming. A drake is a male duck. It has dark green feathers on its head and a little white strip on its neck, while female ducks are fully covered with brown feathers. They need to disguise themselves because they hatch eggs and then look after their nestlings.
        “So, this beautiful drake was swimming without seeing me.
        “I admired it! I even began to think that, maybe, I should not shoot it and take pity on such a beautiful bird.”
        “What would you do, Anechka, in my place? Would you take pity?”
        “Sure, I would take pity!” said Anechka confidently.
        “I, on the contrary, thought over this for some time and then decided that it was my weakness that appeared from the contemplation of this beauty!
        “I was an experienced hunter, and this had never happened to me before. I thought: ‘Beauty is beauty, but the thing should be done! How much game I shot during my entire life! Black grouses, partridges, hares! I even hunted for wild boars and elks! Why did I become so sentimental all of the sudden? I don’t understand! Other hunters are shooting nearby. If I do not shoot this drake, another hunter will do so! The hunting season is open now!’
        “So I took aim again and it seemed to me that I even squeezed the trigger, but then something extraordinary happened! Believe me or not, but I flew like a bullet instead of pellets and found myself in the body of that drake! I was moving with my paws and swimming, but I still was thinking like a human…
        “Or, maybe, ducks can think too? I don’t know.
        “Although I had turned into the drake, I remembered that I was a hunter and that I took aim.
        “I began swimming to reeds far away from that place.
        “However, out of the blue, a boat appeared, and another hunter aimed his gun at me. I began to move my webbed feet faster, flapped my wings, and then took off!
        “I’m saved!” I thought.
        “When I was a human, I could not fly. But now I could! And this took my breath away! From this height, I could see the whole lake, the forest, and a big river that took its rise from the lake. Such beauty!

        “I decided to fly to the river, but it did not work out that way!

        “I heard: ‘Pow, pow!’ They were shooting at me.
        “I got scared! But there was nowhere to hide: they were shooting at me from all sides!
        “Then they hit me.
        “I felt terrible pain in my entire body! I understood that the end of my life came. I started falling and passed out from that pain.
        “However, it wasn’t the end!
        “Suddenly, I found myself in the body of a black grouse. I had black feathers, red eyebrows, and some white feathers on my wings and tail. If I spread my tail like a fan, these white feathers would be quite visible. In short, I felt very very handsome!

        “I was sitting on the top of a birch, and the branch under my heavy body was sagging and swinging.

        “I looked around. It was so beautiful! Dawn had just begun. The sky was pink, but the sun did not show up yet from behind the forest.
        “I wanted to sing very much! Well, it was not spring, but fall, not a very appropriate time for singing!
        “But the weather was so beautiful that I was dying to sing!
        “So I decided to fly to a mating site and to sing there a little bit while no one was seeing me!
        “Black grouses, Anechka, dance on a mating site and sing their songs in spring.
        “A mating site of black grouses is a special place where male black grouses gather every morning in spring. Female black grouses also come flying there to admire the singing of males from behind the bushes and to choose a husband for themselves.

        “In the course of my entire life as a hunter, I saw many times how black grouses perform their courtship rituals. I used to make a special shelter of branches on their mating place near some bush so that black grouses did not notice me. I got there at night and sat very quietly.
        “The silence was all around!
        “Black grouses would come flying to their mating place in the dark, while the sun did rise yet.
        “Usually it happens like this: you are sitting in a blind, and suddenly a great number of birds come flying noisily and, after looking around, begin running over a mating place and jump up from inspiration! Then they start singing so amazingly that it is difficult to describe this with words! They grandly walk before each other, fluff out their tails, and sometimes even fight against one another to show females who is the boldest among them!
        “I saw it many times, but I myself never sang so. And now, in the body of a black grouse, I wanted badly to do this!
        “And I sang! And I ran over a mating place, but not for a long time! It was fall, after all.
        “And then I wanted to eat very much.
        “So I flew back to the birches and sat on a branch where there were a lot of birch catkins swinging. I pecked one of such catkins and really liked it!
        I pecked another one! It was so tasty! It was slightly similar to nuts.
        “You, Anechka, can taste these birch catkins when you go for a walk or go skiing to a forest. Humans can also eat them!
        “Nevertheless, I did not have enough time to satiate myself with birch catkins and completely relish the life of a black grouse! Another hunter aimed at me and fired. I got scared and flew away. But no way! Another shot of this hunter reached me.
        “At this point, I died as a black grouse and quite unexpectedly found myself in an elk’s body.
        “It was strange, because I did not have arms but just four legs and huge antlers!
        “Near me, I saw my girlfriend, an elk cow, on a glade! She was so beautiful! She had slender, long legs and hair that was gleamed with gold!
        “We went for a walk side by side in the forest.
        “We walked so and ate grass and young branches with small leaves. From time to time, we stopped and snuggled up to each other to show how we love one another!
        “Unexpectedly, hunters with dogs appeared!
        “We began running. We ran and ran! But they wounded my girlfriend and then killed her...
        “I stopped running and thought: ‘Let them kill me or let dogs bite me to death! For there is no happiness for me without my beloved!’
        “I felt so sorry for her that I began to cry!
        “Then suddenly I recalled my human life and my wife Akulina. What if someone would kill her in the same way, for nothing?!
        “That was when I found myself again in a human body. I was sitting in my blind and the drake was swimming right before me without suspecting anything dangerous.
        “It turned out that I had not pulled the trigger after all. Now I was so happy about this! I quickly unloaded my gun and went home!
        “I picked up a lot of mushrooms on my way back as usual. My Akulina was so surprised, saying:
        “Why did you come back with mushrooms from hunting but without game?”
        “I smiled behind my mustache. How can I tell her that I love her, my Akulina, as the elk loved his elk cow! And maybe even more!
        “That’s why I decided not go to a forest with my gun anymore and never ever shoot birds and other animals!
        “Later on, I told Akulina about my adventures!
        “She cooked mushroom soup, boiled potatoes, made pancakes, and then said: ‘There is no tastier food than this one! We will live from our vegetable garden and from what the forest will give us!’
        “These are the adventures that happened to me, Anechka!
        “Since then, I do not shoot anyone!”
        “So, it means that it is always bad to shoot and kill?” asked Anechka.
        “Yes, it’s always bad! It’s better to avoid this! However, it happens sometimes that we need to protect other good people from villains! In those cases, it is impossible to find another way.”
        “But it is possible to always avoid shooting birds and other animals and admire them instead!
        “Do you want me to ask my dad to give you a photo camera? He has two of them!”
        “Thank you, Anechka, for your consideration! But it will be difficult for me to learn to take photos. But you can learn! You will take pictures of birds, of other animals, and of different kinds of natural beauty!
        “It is great that you have started thinking about how to live without causing harm to anyone!
        “And always try to act kindly!
        “If we think about this from our childhood and if we start implementing our good intentions in our lives, then, maybe, when you grow up, there will be no wars anywhere! People will not kill animals in vain! And all will live together in peace and happiness!”