The story about the dwarf nose full version. Encyclopedia of fairy-tale heroes: "Dwarf nose"

Wilhelm Hauff

Little Longnose

Artist Eleonora Levandovskaya

Mister! How wrong are those who think that only during the time of Harun al-Rashid, the ruler of Baghdad, were there fairies and wizards, and even claim that there is no truth in those stories about the tricks of spirits and their rulers that can be heard in the bazaar. Fairies are still found today, and not so long ago I myself witnessed an incident in which spirits clearly took part, which I will tell you about.

In one large city of my dear fatherland, Germany, once lived a shoemaker Friedrich with his wife Hannah. All day he sat by the window and put patches on his shoes. He would also undertake to sew new shoes if someone ordered them, but then he had to buy leather first. He could not stock up on goods in advance - there was no money.

And Hannah sold fruits and vegetables from her small garden at the market. She was a neat woman, knew how to arrange goods beautifully, and she always had a lot of customers.

Hannah and Friedrich had a son, Jacob - a slender, handsome boy, quite tall for his twelve years. He usually sat next to his mother at the market. When a cook or cook bought a lot of vegetables from Hannah at once, Jacob helped them carry the purchase home and rarely returned empty-handed.

Hannah's customers loved the pretty boy and almost always gave him something: a flower, a cake, or a coin.

One day Hannah, as always, was trading at the market. In front of her stood several baskets with cabbage, potatoes, roots and all sorts of greens. There were also early pears, apples, and apricots in a small basket.

Jacob sat next to his mother and shouted loudly:

Here, here, cooks, cooks!... Here is good cabbage, greens, pears, apples! Who needs? Mother will give it away cheaply!

And suddenly a poorly dressed old woman with small red eyes, a sharp face wrinkled with age and a long, very long nose that went down to her chin approached them. The old woman leaned on a crutch, and it was surprising that she could walk at all: she limped, slid and waddled, as if she had wheels on her legs. It seemed that she was about to fall and poke her sharp nose into the ground.

Hannah looked at the old woman with curiosity. She has been trading at the market for almost sixteen years now, and she has never seen such a wonderful old woman. She even felt a little creepy when the old woman stopped near her baskets.

Are you Hannah, the greengrocer? - asked the old woman in a creaky voice, shaking her head all the time.

Yes,” answered the shoemaker’s wife. - Do you want to buy something?

We’ll see, we’ll see,” the old woman muttered to herself.

Let's look at the greens, look at the roots. Do you still have what I need...

She bent down and began to rummage with her long brown fingers in the basket of bunches of greenery that Hannah had arranged so beautifully and neatly. He will take a bunch, bring it to his nose and sniff it from all sides, followed by another, a third.

Hannah's heart was breaking - it was so hard for her to watch the old woman handle the greens. But she could not say a word to her - the buyer has the right to inspect the goods. Moreover, she became more and more afraid of this old woman.

Having turned over all the greens, the old woman straightened up and grumbled:

Bad product!... Bad greens!... There is nothing that I need. Fifty years ago it was much better!... Bad product! Bad product!

These words angered little Jacob.

Hey you, shameless old woman! - he shouted. “I sniffed all the greens with my long nose, crushed the roots with my clumsy fingers, so now no one will buy them, and you still swear that it’s a bad product!” The Duke's chef himself buys from us!

The old woman looked sideways at the boy and said in a hoarse voice:

Don't you like my nose, my nose, my beautiful long nose? And you will have the same one, right up to your chin.

She rolled up to another basket - with cabbage, took out several wonderful, white heads of cabbage and squeezed them so hard that they crackled pitifully. Then she somehow threw the heads of cabbage back into the basket and said again:

Bad product! Bad cabbage!

Don't shake your head so disgustingly! - Jacob shouted. “Your neck is no thicker than a stump, and the next thing you know, it will break off and your head will fall into our basket.” Who will buy what from us then?

So, do you think my neck is too thin? - said the old woman, still grinning. - Well, you will be completely without a neck. Your head will stick straight out of your shoulders - at least it won’t fall off your body.

Don't say such nonsense to the boy! - Hannah finally said, seriously angry. - If you want to buy something, buy it quickly. You will drive away all my customers.

The old woman looked at Hannah angrily.

Okay, okay,” she grumbled. - Let it be your way. I'll take these six heads of cabbage from you. But I only have a crutch in my hands, and I can’t carry anything myself. Let your son bring my purchase home to me. I will reward him well for this.

Jacob really didn’t want to go, and he even cried - he was afraid of this terrible old woman. But his mother strictly ordered him to obey - it seemed sinful to her to force the old, weak woman bear such a heavy burden. Wiping his tears, Jacob put the cabbage in the basket and followed the old woman.

She did not wander very quickly, and almost an hour passed until they reached some distant street on the outskirts of the city and stopped in front of a small dilapidated house.

The old woman took some kind of rusty hook out of her pocket, deftly stuck it into a hole in the door, and suddenly the door swung open with a noise. Jacob entered and froze in place in surprise: the ceilings and walls of the house were marble, armchairs, chairs and tables were made of ebony, decorated with gold and precious stones, and the floor was glass and so smooth that Jacob slipped and fell several times.

The old woman put a small silver whistle to her lips and somehow in a special way, loudly, whistled - so that the whistle crackled throughout the whole house. And now guinea pigs quickly ran down the stairs - completely unusual guinea pigs that walked on two legs. Instead of shoes, they had nutshells, and these pigs were dressed just like people - they even remembered to take hats.

Where did you put my shoes, you scoundrels! - the old woman shouted and hit the pigs with a stick so hard that they jumped up screaming. - How much longer will I stand here?...

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Wilhelm Hauff
Little Longnose

G LORD! People who think that fairies and wizards existed only in the time of Harun al-Rashid, the ruler of Baghdad, or even who claim that those stories about spirits and their lords that you hear from storytellers in city markets are not true, are completely wrong. Fairies still exist today, and not long ago I myself witnessed an incident in which spirits clearly participated.

Many years ago, in one significant city of my dear fatherland, Germany, a shoemaker and his wife lived modestly and honestly. During the day he sat on the street corner and mended shoes. He might have made new ones, if anyone trusted him; but in this case he had to buy leather first, since he was poor and had no supplies. His wife sold vegetables and fruits, which she grew in a small garden outside the city, and many willingly bought from her because she was clean and neatly dressed and knew how to beautifully lay out and display her goods.

They had a handsome boy, pleasant in face, well built and already quite large for his age of eight. He usually sat next to his mother at the vegetable market, also taking some of the fruit home to those women or cooks who bought a lot from the shoemaker’s wife, and rarely returned from such a walk without a beautiful flower, coin or pie, because the gentlemen of these cooks were pleased to see when They brought a beautiful boy into the house, and they always gave him generous gifts.

One day the shoemaker’s wife, as usual, was again sitting in the market; in front of her were several baskets with cabbage and other vegetables, various herbs and seeds, and also, in a smaller basket, early pears, apples and apricots. Little Jacob - that was the boy's name - sat next to his mother and called out for goods in a ringing voice: “Look, gentlemen, here, what a beautiful cabbage, how fragrant these herbs are! Early pears, ladies, early apples and apricots, who will buy? My mother will give it away very cheaply!”

That's what the boy shouted.

At this time, an old woman came to the market. She had a slightly ragged appearance, a small, sharp face, completely wrinkled with age, red eyes and a sharp, crooked nose that touched her chin.

She walked, leaning on a long stick, and yet it was impossible to say how she walked, because she limped, slid and staggered, as if she had wheels on her legs, and every minute she could tip over and fall with her sharp nose on pavement.

The shoemaker's wife began to carefully examine this woman. After all, it had been sixteen years since she sat in the market every day and had never noticed this strange figure. She was involuntarily frightened when the old woman hobbled towards her and stopped at her baskets.

– Are you Hannah, the vegetable seller? - asked the old woman in an unpleasant, hoarse voice, constantly shaking her head.

“Yes, it’s me,” answered the shoemaker’s wife. - Do you want anything?

- We'll see! Let's see the grass, let's look at the grass! Do you have what I need? - said the old woman.

She bent down and climbed into the basket with both dark brown disgusting hands, grabbed the beautifully and gracefully arranged herbs with her long spider-like fingers, and then began to bring them one after another to her long nose and sniff. The shoemaker's wife almost sank her heart when she saw that the old woman was treating her rare herbs this way, but she did not dare say anything, because the buyer had the right to examine the goods, and, moreover, she felt an incomprehensible fear of this woman.

After looking through the entire basket, the old woman muttered:

- Rubbish, crappy greens, there is nothing of what I want. Fifty years ago it was much better. Rubbish, rubbish!

Such words angered little Jacob.

- Listen, you shameless old woman! – he shouted angrily. “You first climb with your ugly brown fingers into the beautiful herbs and crush them, then you hold them under your long nose, so that no one will buy them anymore, who has seen this, and now you also scold our goods with rubbish; But even the Duke’s cook buys everything from us!

The old woman glanced sideways at the brave boy, laughed disgustingly and said in a hoarse voice:

- Son, son! So do you like my nose, my beautiful, long nose? You will have the same one on your face right up to your chin!

As she spoke, she slid towards another basket in which cabbage was laid out. She took the most magnificent white hummocks in her hand, squeezed them so that they cracked, then again threw them into the basket in disarray and said:

- Crappy product, crappy cabbage!

- Just don’t shake your head so disgustingly! – the little one exclaimed in fear. - After all, your neck is thin, like a stalk, it can easily break, and your head will fall into the basket. Who will want to buy then?

“You don’t like thin necks,” the old woman muttered with a laugh. – You won’t have a neck at all! The head will stick out in the shoulders so as not to fall off the little body!

“Don’t chat with the little one about such unnecessary things,” the shoemaker’s wife finally said, angry at the long rummaging, looking and sniffing. - If you want to buy something, then hurry up: after all, you are driving away all other buyers from me.

- Okay, let it be your way! - exclaimed the old woman with an angry look. - I will buy these six heads of cabbage from you. But look, I have to lean on a stick and can’t carry anything. Let your son take the goods to my house, I will give him a good reward for this.

The little one did not want to go with her and began to cry, afraid of the ugly woman, but his mother strictly ordered him to go, considering, of course, a sin to put this burden only on an old, weak woman. Almost crying, he did as his mother ordered him: he put the heads of cabbage in a scarf and followed the old woman through the market.

She did not walk very quickly, and it took almost three quarters of an hour until they came to the most remote part of the city and stopped in front of a small, dilapidated house. There she took an old rusty hook out of her pocket, deftly stuck it into a small hole in the door, and suddenly the door clicked and immediately opened. But how amazed little Jacob was when he entered! The interior of the house was magnificently decorated, the ceiling and walls were of marble, the furniture was of the finest ebony and lined with gold and polished stones, and the floor was of glass and so smooth that the little one slipped and fell several times. The old woman took a silver whistle from her pocket and whistled a melody on it, which resounded loudly throughout the house. Several guinea pigs immediately came down the stairs. It seemed very strange to Jacob that they walked on two legs and had nutshells on their paws instead of shoes. They were dressed in human clothes, and even had hats on their heads in the latest fashion.

-Where are my shoes, you worthless creatures? - the old woman shouted and hit them with a stick, so that they jumped up with a howl. - How long can I stand like this!

They quickly jumped up the stairs and again appeared with a pair of coconut shells lined with leather, which they deftly placed on the old woman's feet.

Now the old woman's lameness and sideways swaying have gone. She threw away the stick and began to slide very quickly along the glass floor, taking little Jacob with her by the hand. Finally she stopped in a room filled with various furniture and similar to a kitchen, although the mahogany tables and sofas covered with rich carpets were more suitable for a formal room.

“Sit down, son,” the old woman said very kindly, pressing Jacob into the corner of the sofa and placing a table in front of him so that he could no longer get out of there, “sit down, it was very difficult for you to carry.” Human heads are not so light, not so light!

- Madam, what kind of strange things are you talking about? - the little one exclaimed. “I’m really tired, but those were the heads of cabbage that I was carrying.” You bought them from my mother.

“Eh, you know that’s not true,” the old woman laughed, opened the lid of the basket and took out a human head, grabbing it by the hair.

The little one was beside himself with horror, he could not understand how it all happened, and thought about his mother. If anyone finds out anything about these human heads, he thought to himself, then my mother will probably be blamed for it.

“Now we need to give you something as a reward for being so obedient,” the old woman muttered, “just be patient for a minute, I’ll crumble you some soup that you will remember all your life.”

So she said and whistled again. First, many guinea pigs appeared in human clothes; they had kitchen aprons tied around them, and behind their belts were ladles and large knives. Many squirrels galloped after them; they walked on their hind legs, they wore wide Turkish trousers, and the squirrels had green velvet caps on their heads. These were apparently cooks, because they very quickly climbed the walls, took out frying pans and dishes, eggs and butter, herbs and flour from above and carried it all to the stove. And the old woman was constantly scurrying around the stove in her shoes made of coconut shells, and the little one saw that she was trying very hard to cook something good for him. The fire began to crackle louder, the frying pan began to smoke and boil, and a pleasant smell spread through the room. The old woman ran back and forth, and the squirrels and guinea pigs followed her. Every time she passed by the stove, she stuck her long nose into the pot. Finally, the food began to boil and hiss, steam rose from the pot, and foam poured onto the fire. Then she removed the pot, poured it into a silver cup and placed it in front of little Jacob.

“Here, son, here,” she said, “just eat this soup and you will have everything that you liked so much from me.” You will also be a skilled cook, so that you can be at least something, but weed... no, you will never find weed. Why wasn't it in your mother's basket?

The little one did not quite understand what she said, and the more attentively he occupied himself with the soup, which he really liked. His mother prepared him many delicious dishes, but he had never tried anything like this before. The soup gave off the aroma of fine herbs and roots; at the same time, the soup was at the same time sweet, slightly sour and very strong. While Jacob was still eating the last drops of the wonderful dish, the guinea pigs lit Arabian incense, which flew across the room in bluish clouds. These clouds became thicker and thicker and descended. The smell of incense had a soporific effect on the baby: he could scream as much as he wanted that he needed to return to his mother, waking up, he again fell into a doze and, finally, actually fell asleep on the old woman’s sofa.

He had strange dreams. He imagined that the old woman was taking off his clothes and wrapping him in squirrel skin instead. Now he could jump and climb like a squirrel; he lived with the rest of the squirrels and guinea pigs, who were very polite, well-mannered individuals, and together with them he served with the old woman. At first it was used only for cleaning shoes, that is, it had to smear oil on the coconuts that the housewife wore instead of shoes, rub them and make them shiny. Since in his father’s house he was often accustomed to such activities, this matter went well for him. After about a year, he dreamed further, they began to use him for more delicate work: he, along with several other squirrels, had to catch dust particles and, when there were enough of them, sift them through the finest hair sieve. The fact is that the hostess considered dust particles to be the most delicate substance, and since, no longer having a single tooth, she could not chew food well, she ordered her to prepare bread from dust particles.

A year later he was transferred to a servant who collected water for the old woman to drink. Don’t think that she ordered a pool to be dug for her or that she placed a tub in the yard to collect rainwater - this was done much more cunningly: the squirrels and Jacob had to scoop up the dew from the roses with nutshells, and this was the old woman’s drinking water. . Since she drank a lot, the water carriers had a hard job. A year later he was appointed to internal service in the house. He had the duty of cleaning the floors, and since they were made of glass, on which every breath could be seen, it was not a trifling job. The servants had to clean them with a brush, tie an old cloth to their feet and skillfully ride it around the room. In his fourth year he was finally transferred to the kitchen. It was an honorable position that could only be achieved after a long trial. Jacob served in it, from the cook to the first pie-maker, and achieved such extraordinary dexterity in everything related to the kitchen that he often surprised himself. He learned the most difficult things, pates from two hundred varieties of essences, green soups made from all the herbs on earth, he knew how to do everything quickly and tasty.

So about seven years passed in the old woman's service, when one day, taking off her coconut shoes and taking a basket and a crutch in her hand to leave, she ordered him to pluck a chicken, stuff it with herbs and, upon her return, fry it thoroughly until brownish and yellow color. He began to do this according to all the rules of art. He twisted the chicken's neck, scalded it in hot water, deftly plucked the feathers, then scraped off the skin so that it became smooth and tender, and took out the insides. Then he began to collect the herbs with which he was supposed to stuff the chicken. In the herb storeroom, this time he noticed a cabinet in the wall, the doors of which were half open and which he had never noticed before. He came closer with curiosity to see what it contained - and well, there were many baskets in it, from which a strong, pleasant aroma emanated! He opened one of these baskets and found in it grass of a special type and color. The stem and leaves were blue-green and had a small fiery red flower at the top with a yellow border. Jacob began to look at this flower thoughtfully and even smelled it. The flower gave off the same strong smell that the old woman's soup had once smelled like. But the smell was so strong that Jacob began to sneeze and, sneezing, finally woke up.

He lay on the old woman's sofa and looked around in surprise. “No, but how vividly one can see in a dream! - he said to himself. “After all, now I would be ready to swear that I was a despised squirrel, a companion of guinea pigs and other nasty things, but at the same time I became a great cook.” How my mother will laugh when I tell her everything! However, won’t she also scold me for falling asleep in someone else’s house instead of helping her in the market?” With these thoughts, he jumped up to leave. His body was still completely numb from sleep, especially the back of his head, and therefore he could not turn his head. He even had to laugh at himself for being so sleepy, because every minute his nose would bump into a closet or a wall, or hit the door frame with it if he turned around quickly. Squirrels and guinea pigs ran around him squealing, as if they wanted to see him off; he actually invited them with him when he was on the threshold, because they were pretty animals, but they, in their nutshells, quickly returned to the house, and he only heard their howling in the distance.

The part of the city where the old woman took him was quite remote, and he could barely get out of the narrow alleys. At the same time, there was a big crowd there, because, as it seemed to him, the dwarf must have been shown nearby. He heard exclamations everywhere: “Hey, look at the ugly dwarf! Where did this dwarf come from? Hey, what a long nose he has, how his head sticks out from his shoulders! And the hands, brown, ugly hands!” At another time, perhaps, he would have run too, because he really loved looking at giants, dwarfs, or rare foreign clothes, but now he had to hurry to come to his mother.

When he came to the market, he felt completely terrified. The mother was still sitting there and had quite a lot of fruit in her basket; therefore, he could not sleep for long. But already from a distance it seemed to him that she was very sad, because she did not invite passers-by to buy from her, but propped her head on her hand, and when he came closer, it also seemed to him that she was paler than usual. He was undecided what to do; Finally, he gathered his courage, crept up behind her, tenderly placed his palm on her hand and said:

- Mommy, what’s wrong with you? Are you mad at me?

The woman turned to him, but retreated with a cry of horror.

“What do you want from me, you vile dwarf?” - she exclaimed. - Get away, get away! I can't stand jokes like this!

- Mother, what is wrong with you? – asked a completely frightened Jacob. - You probably can’t feel well; Why are you driving your son away from you?

- I already told you, get away! – Hannah objected angrily. “You won’t get a penny from me for your mischief, you disgusting freak!”

“Really, God took away the light of reason from her! - the distressed little one said to himself, “What can I do to bring her to her senses?”

- Dear mother, be reasonable. Just take a good look at me - after all, I am your son, your Jacob!

- No, now this joke is becoming too blatant! – Hannah shouted to her neighbor. – Look at this ugly dwarf! Here he stands, probably driving away all my customers and daring to mock my misfortune. He tells me: “after all, I am your son, your Jacob,” impudent!

Then the neighbors got up and began to swear as much as they could, and these are traders, you know well, they can do that.

They scolded him for mocking the misfortune of poor Hannah, who had her beautiful boy stolen seven years ago, and they threatened to all together attack him and scratch him if he did not leave immediately.

Poor Jacob didn't know what to think about all this. After all, this morning, as it seemed to him, he, as usual, went with his mother to the market, helped her arrange the fruits, then came with the old woman to her house, ate soup, slept a little and now here again. But, however, mother and neighbors talked about seven years! And they called him an ugly dwarf! What happened to him now?

When he saw that his mother did not want to hear about him at all, tears came to his eyes, and he sadly walked down the street to the shop where his father had been mending shoes all day. “I’ll see,” he thought to himself, “if he still doesn’t recognize me; I’ll stand at the door and talk to him.” Approaching the shoemaker's shop, he stood at the door and looked into the shop. The master was so diligently busy with his work that he did not see him at all, but accidentally casting one glance at the door, he dropped his shoes, wood and an awl to the ground and exclaimed in horror:

- My God, what is this, what is this!

- Good evening, master! - said the little one, completely entering the shop. - How are you doing?

- Bad, bad, little master! - answered the father, to Jacob’s great amazement; after all, apparently, he didn’t recognize him either. “Things aren’t going well for me.” Although I am alone and now getting old, an apprentice is still too expensive for me.

- Don’t you have a son who could little by little help you in your work? – the little one continued to ask.

“I had a son, his name was Jacob, and now he should be a slender, agile twenty-year-old young man who would help me nicely.” Ah, that would be life! Already when he was twelve years old, he showed himself to be so capable and dexterous and already understood a lot about the craft, he was also handsome and sweet; he would attract customers to me, so that I would soon no longer do repairs, but would only supply new things! But this always happens in the world!

“Only God knows that,” he answered. - Seven years ago, yes, now it’s already so long ago, it was stolen from us from the market.

- Seven years ago? – Jacob exclaimed in horror.

- Yes, little master, seven years ago! I still remember today how my wife came home screaming and howling that the child had not returned all day, that she asked everywhere, looked for him and did not find him. I always thought and said that this would happen. Jacob, I must say, was a beautiful child. So my wife was proud of him, loved to see people praise him, and often sent him to rich houses with vegetables and the like. It was, let’s say, good: he was given generous gifts every time, but, I said, look - the city is great, many bad people live in it, look after Jacob! And it happened as I said. One day, an old, ugly woman comes to the market, buys fruits and vegetables, and finally buys so much that she herself cannot carry it. My wife, like a compassionate soul, gives her a boy with her and - until now she has not seen him.

– And this one is now seven years old, you say?

- It will be seven years in the spring. We announced it, we went from house to house and asked. Many knew a beautiful boy, loved him and searched with us - all in vain. No one even knew the name of the woman who bought the vegetables, and one old woman, who had lived for ninety years, said that it was probably the evil fairy Herbalist, who comes to the city once every fifty years to buy all sorts of herbs for herself.

This is what Jacob's father said, and at the same time he tapped his shoes hard and pulled the blade far out with both fists. And little by little it became clear to the little one what had happened to him: he had not seen a dream, but served for seven years as a squirrel for the evil fairy. His heart was so filled with anger and sorrow that it almost burst. The old woman stole seven years of his youth from him, and what did he have in return? Unless he knew how to clean shoes made of coconuts well, knew how to clean a room with glass floors? Did you learn all the secrets of the kitchen from guinea pigs?

He stood there for some time, pondering his fate, when finally his father asked him:

“Perhaps you would like something from my work, young master?” For example, a pair of new shoes or,” he added, smiling, “maybe a case for your nose?”

- What do you care about my nose? – Jacob said. - Why do I need a case for it?

“Well,” the shoemaker objected, “everyone has their own taste, but I must tell you that if I had this terrible nose, I would order myself a case made of pink patent leather for it.” Look, here I have a wonderful piece on hand; of course, this would require at least an elbow. But how well it would protect you, little master! I'm quite sure that this is how you come across every jamb, every cart that you want to stay away from.

The little one stood dumb with horror. He began to feel his nose: the nose was thick and probably two palms long! Thus, the old woman changed his appearance - that’s why his mother didn’t recognize him, that’s why they called him an ugly dwarf!

- Master! - he said to the shoemaker almost crying. “Do you have a mirror at hand that I could look at myself in?”

“Young master,” the father answered seriously, “you have not acquired the kind of appearance that could make you vain, and you have no reason to look in the mirror every minute.” Get out of the habit of it, it’s a funny habit, especially for you.

“Oh, so let me look in the mirror,” the little one exclaimed, “I assure you, it’s not out of vanity!”

– Leave me alone, I don’t have a mirror! My wife has a mirror, but I don't know where she hid it. And if you absolutely need to look in the mirror, the barber Urban lives across the street, he has a mirror twice the size of your head. Look at it there, but for now, goodbye!

With these words, his father quietly escorted him out of the shop, locked the door behind him and sat down to work again.

And the little one, very upset, went across the street to the barber Urban, whom he knew well from the old days.

- Hello, Urban! - he told him. “I came to ask you for a favor.” Be so kind as to let me take a little look in your mirror.

- With pleasure, there it is! - the barber exclaimed with a laugh, and his visitors, whose beards he had to shave, also laughed loudly. “You are a handsome fellow, slender and thin, you have a neck like a swan, and arms like a queen, and an upturned nose, the most beautiful of which cannot be seen.” True, that’s why you’re a little vain, but still look at yourself; Let them not say about me that out of envy I did not let you look in my mirror.

So said the barber, and the barber was filled with laughter, like neighing. Meanwhile, the little one stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself. Tears appeared in his eyes.

“Yes, of course you couldn’t recognize your Jacob like that, dear mother,” he said to himself. “He didn’t look like this in those happy days when you loved to be proud of him in front of people!”

His eyes became small, like those of a pig, his nose became huge and hung below his mouth and chin, his neck seemed to be completely taken away, because his head sat deep in his shoulders, and only with very severe pain could he turn it to the right and left. His body was still the same as seven years ago, when he was twelve years old, but while others grow in height from the twelfth to the twentieth year, he grew in width, his back and chest were strongly arched and looked small, but very tight. full bag. This thick body sat on small, weak legs, which seemed not to have grown for this weight. But the arms hanging on his body were even larger. They were the size of a fully grown person, the hands were rough and brownish-yellow in color, the fingers were long and spider-like, and when he completely stretched them out, he could reach the ground with them without bending down.

This is what little Jacob looked like - he turned into an ugly dwarf!

Now he remembered that morning when the old woman approached his mother’s baskets. Everything that he then scolded about her, her long nose, ugly fingers, she bewitched everything to him, except only her long, trembling neck.

- Well, prince, have you seen enough now? - said the barber, approaching him and examining him with a laugh. “Really, if you wanted to see something like that in a dream, no one could imagine something so funny.” However, I want to make one offer to you, little man. Although my barber shop is well visited, but recently it has not been as popular as I wish. This happens because my neighbor, the barber Shaum, somewhere found a giant who lures visitors to his house. Well, being a giant is not a thing at all, but being a little man like you - yes, that’s a different matter! Come into my service, little man. You will have an apartment, food, drink, clothes, you will have everything. For this, you will stand at my door in the morning and invite the public to come in, you will whip up the soap foam, hand the visitors a towel, and be sure that at the same time we will both feel good! I will have more visitors than that barber with the giant, and everyone will willingly give you another tip.

The little one was inwardly outraged by the proposal to serve as bait for the barber. But shouldn't he have endured this insult patiently? Therefore, he quite calmly told the barber that he did not have time for such a service, and moved on.

Although the evil old woman disfigured his appearance, she could not do anything with his mind.

He was well aware of this, because he thought and felt differently than seven years ago. No, it seemed to him that during this period of time he became smarter and more reasonable. He grieved not for his lost beauty, not for this ugly appearance, but only for the fact that he was being driven away from his father’s door like a dog. So he decided to make one last try.

He went to his mother at the market and asked her to listen to him calmly. He reminded her of the day when he went with the old woman, reminded her of all the individual incidents of his childhood, then told her how he served for seven years as a squirrel for the fairy and how she turned him because he scolded her then. The shoemaker's wife didn't know what to think. Everything he told her about his childhood was true, but when he began to talk about being a squirrel for seven years, she said:

- This is impossible and witches do not exist!

When she looked at him, she felt disgust for the ugly dwarf and did not believe that it could be her son. Finally she thought it best to talk to her husband about it. So she packed her baskets and told him to go with her. So they came to the shoemaker's shop.

“Look,” she told him, “this man claims that he is our missing Jacob.” He told me everything: how he was stolen from us seven years ago, and how a fairy bewitched him.

- How? – the shoemaker interrupted her angrily. - Did he tell you this? Wait, scoundrel! Only an hour ago I told him everything, and now he’s coming to fool you with it! Are you bewitched, son? Wait, I'll break your spell again!

At the same time, he took a bunch of straps that he had just cut, jumped up to the little one and hit him on the hunchbacked back and on the long arms, so that the little one screamed in pain and ran away crying.

In that city, as everywhere else, there were few compassionate souls who would help the unfortunate man, who, moreover, had something funny in his appearance. Therefore, it so happened that the unfortunate dwarf remained all day without food or drink and in the evening had to choose the church porch for the night, no matter how cold and hard it was.

When the first rays of the sun woke him up the next morning, he began to seriously think about how to drag out his life, because his father and mother had driven him away. He felt too proud to serve as a barber's sign; he did not want to hire himself to a magician and show himself for money. What was he supposed to do? Then it suddenly occurred to him that, being a squirrel, he had made great strides in the art of cooking. It seemed to him, not without reason, that he could hope to compete with many cooks, and he decided to use his art.

Therefore, as soon as the streets became busier and morning had fully arrived, he first entered the church and prayed, and then set off on his way. The Duke, the sovereign of that country, was a famous reveler and gourmet, who loved a good table and looked for his cooks in all parts of the world. The little one went to his palace. When he approached the outer gate, the gatekeepers asked what he wanted and began to mock him. He asked the head kitchen supervisor. They laughed and led him through the front yards; Everywhere he went, the servants stopped, looked after him, laughed loudly and joined in, so that little by little a huge tail of all kinds of servants was moving up the stairs of the palace. The grooms abandoned their combs, the messengers ran as fast as they could, the floor polishers forgot to beat out the carpets; Everyone was crowding and rushing, there was such a crush, as if there was an enemy at the gate, and a cry: “Dwarf, dwarf! Have you seen the dwarf? filled the air.

The caretaker of the house appeared at the door with an angry face and a huge whip in his hand.

- For Heaven's sake, dogs, that you are making such a noise! Don’t you know that the Emperor is still sleeping?

At the same time, he swung his whip and rather roughly brought it down on the backs of some grooms and gatekeepers.

- Ah, sir! - they exclaimed. - Don't you see! Here we are leading a dwarf, a dwarf like you have never seen before!

The fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for the good fellow.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

Coat of arms

Daily fulfillment ensures good luck, wealth, prosperity, fame, constant success in the family, at work, in exams and other benefits.
Singing while cooking adds amazing flavor to food.

Little Longnose
Tale of the German storyteller Wilhelm Hauff

And Hannah sold fruits and vegetables from her small garden at the market. She was a neat woman, knew how to arrange goods beautifully, and she always had a lot of customers.

Hannah's customers loved the pretty boy and almost always gave him something: a flower, a cake, or a coin.

Jacob sat next to his mother and shouted loudly:

Here, here, cooks, cooks!.. Here is good cabbage, greens, pears, apples! Who needs? Mother will give it away cheaply!

- Are you Hannah, the vegetable seller? - asked the old woman in a creaky voice, shaking her head all the time.

Yes,” answered the shoemaker’s wife. - Do you want to buy something?

We’ll see, we’ll see,” the old woman muttered to herself. - Let's look at the greens, look at the roots. Do you still have what I need?

Having turned over all the greens, the old woman straightened up and grumbled:
- Bad product!.. Bad greens!.. There is nothing that I need. Fifty years ago it was much better!.. Bad product! Bad product!

These words angered little Jacob.

The old woman looked sideways at the boy and said in a hoarse voice:

Don't you like my nose, my nose, my beautiful long nose? And you will have the same one, right up to your chin.

Bad product! Bad cabbage!

Don't say such nonsense to the boy! - Hannah finally said, seriously angry. - If you want to buy something, buy it quickly. You will drive away all my customers.

The old woman looked at Hannah angrily.

Jacob really didn’t want to go, and he even cried - he was afraid of this terrible old woman. But his mother strictly ordered him to obey - it seemed sinful to her to force an old, weak woman to bear such a burden. Wiping his tears, Jacob put the cabbage in the basket and followed the old woman.

She did not wander very quickly, and almost an hour passed until they reached some distant street on the outskirts of the city and stopped in front of a small dilapidated house.

The old woman put a small silver whistle to her lips and whistled in a special way, loudly, so that the whistle crackled throughout the whole house. And now guinea pigs quickly ran down the stairs - completely unusual guinea pigs that walked on two legs. Instead of shoes, they had nutshells, and these pigs were dressed just like people - they even remembered to take hats.

Where did you put my shoes, you scoundrels! - the old woman shouted and hit the pigs with a stick so hard that they jumped up screaming. - How much longer will I stand here?..

The pigs ran up the stairs, brought two coconut shells on a leather lining and deftly put them on the old woman’s feet.

The old woman immediately stopped limping. She tossed her stick aside and quickly slid across the glass floor, dragging little Jacob behind her. It was even difficult for him to keep up with her, she moved so quickly in her coconut shells.

Finally, the old woman stopped in a room where there was a lot of all kinds of dishes. It was apparently a kitchen, although the floors were covered with carpets, and the sofas were covered with embroidered pillows, as if in some palace.

“Sit down, son,” the old woman said affectionately and sat Jacob down on the sofa, moving the table to the sofa so that Jacob could not leave his place. - Take a good rest - you're probably tired. After all, human heads are not an easy note.

What are you talking about! - Jacob shouted. “I was really tired, but I was not carrying heads, but heads of cabbage.” You bought them from my mother.

“It’s wrong for you to say that,” the old woman said and laughed.

And, opening the basket, she pulled out a human head by the hair.

Jacob almost fell, he was so scared. He immediately thought about his mother. After all, if anyone finds out about these heads, they will immediately report her, and she will have a bad time.

We also need to reward you for being so obedient,” the old woman continued. - Be patient a little: I’ll cook you such a soup that you’ll remember it until you die.

And the old woman herself was bustling around the stove, rolling back and forth on her coconut shells - she, apparently, really wanted to cook something good for Jacob. The fire under the stove was growing hotter, something was hissing and smoking in the frying pans, and a pleasant, tasty smell was wafting throughout the room.

The old woman rushed here and there and kept poking her long nose into the pot of soup to see if the food was ready.

Finally, something began to bubble and gurgle in the pot, steam poured out of it, and thick foam poured onto the fire.

Then the old woman took the pot off the stove, poured soup from it into a silver bowl and placed the bowl in front of Jacob.

Eat, son,” she said. - Eat this soup and you will be as beautiful as me. And you will become a good cook - you need to know some kind of craft.

Jacob didn’t quite understand that it was the old woman muttering under her breath, and he didn’t listen to her - he was more busy with the soup. His mother often cooked all sorts of delicious things for him, but he had never tasted anything better than this soup. It smelled so good of greens and roots, it was both sweet and sour, and also very strong.

In vain did he tell himself that it was time for him to return to his mother; in vain did he try to get to his feet. As soon as he got up, he fell back onto the sofa - he suddenly wanted to sleep so much. Not even five minutes had passed before he actually fell asleep on the sofa, in the kitchen of the ugly old woman.

And Jacob saw an amazing dream. He dreamed that the old woman took off his clothes and wrapped him in a squirrel skin. He learned to jump and hop like a squirrel and made friends with other squirrels and pigs. They were all very good.

And Jacob, like them, began to serve the old woman. At first he had to be a shoe shiner. He had to oil the coconut shells that the old woman wore on her feet and rub them with a cloth so that they would shine. At home, Jacob often had to clean his shoes and shoes, so things quickly improved for him.

About a year later he was transferred to another, more difficult position. Together with several other squirrels, he caught dust particles from sunbeam and sifted them through the finest sieve, and then they baked bread for the old woman. She didn’t have a single tooth left in her mouth, which is why she had to eat buns made from specks of sunshine, softer than which, as everyone knows, there is nothing in the world.

A year later, Jacob was tasked with getting the old woman water to drink. Do you think she had a well dug in her yard or a bucket placed to collect rainwater? No, the old woman didn’t even take plain water into her mouth. Jacob and the squirrels collected dew from flowers in nutshells, and the old woman only drank it. And she drank a lot, so the water-carriers had their hands full.

Another year passed, and Jacob went to work in the rooms - cleaning the floors. This also turned out to be not a very easy task: the floors were glass - you can breathe on them, and you can see it. Jacob cleaned them with brushes and rubbed them with cloth, which he wrapped around his feet.

Why hasn't he learned to cook? The most intricate dishes - two hundred varieties of cake, soups from all the herbs and roots that there are in the world - he knew how to cook everything quickly and tasty.

Jacob immediately got to work. He twisted the bird's head, scalded it all with boiling water, deftly plucked its feathers, scraped out the skin so that it became soft and shiny, and took out the insides. Then he needed herbs to stuff the chicken with.

He went to the pantry, where the old woman kept all sorts of greens, and began to select what he needed. And suddenly he saw a small cabinet in the wall of the pantry, which he had never noticed before. The locker door was ajar. Jacob looked into it with curiosity and saw that there were some small baskets there. He opened one of them and saw strange herbs that he had never come across before.

Their stems were greenish, and on each stem there was a bright red flower with a yellow rim.

Jacob brought one flower to his nose and suddenly felt a familiar smell - the same as the soup that the old woman fed him when he came to her. The smell was so strong that Jacob sneezed loudly several times and woke up.

He looked around in surprise and saw that he was lying on the same sofa in the old woman’s kitchen.

“Well, what a dream it was! It's like it's real! - Jacob thought. - Mother will laugh when I tell her all this! And I’ll get hit by her for falling asleep in someone else’s house, instead of returning to her at the market!”

Squirrels and pigs ran around Jacob and squeaked - apparently, they did not want to let him go. Leaving the old woman's house, Jacob beckoned them to follow him - he, too, was sorry to part with them, but they quickly rolled back to the rooms on their shells, and the boy heard their plaintive squeak from afar for a long time.

The old woman’s house, as we already know, was far from the market, and Jacob made his way for a long time through narrow, winding alleys until he reached the market. There were a lot of people crowding the streets. There must have been a dwarf being shown somewhere nearby, because everyone around Jacob was shouting:

Look, there's an ugly dwarf! And where did he even come from? Well, he has a long nose! And the head sticks out right on the shoulders, without a neck! And the hands, the hands!.. Look - right down to the heels!

At another time, Jacob would have gladly run out to look at the dwarf, but today he had no time for that - he had to rush to his mother.

Finally Jacob reached the market. He was quite afraid that he would get it from his mother.

Hannah was still sitting in her seat, and she had a fair amount of vegetables in her basket, which meant Jacob hadn't slept very long. Already from a distance he noticed that his mother was saddened by something. She sat silently, resting her cheek on her hand, pale and sad.

Jacob stood for a long time, not daring to approach his mother. Finally he gathered his courage and, creeping up behind her, put his hand on her shoulder and said:

Mom, what's wrong with you? Are you mad at me?

Hannah turned around and, seeing Jacob, screamed in horror.

What do you want from me, scary dwarf? - she screamed. - Go away, go away! I can't stand jokes like that!

- What are you doing, mother? - Jacob said fearfully. - You are probably unwell. Why are you chasing me?

I'm telling you, go your way! - Hannah shouted angrily. - You won't get anything from me for your jokes, you disgusting freak!

"She went crazy! - thought poor Jacob. “How can I take her home now?”

Mommy, take a good look at me,” he said, almost crying. - I’m your son Jacob!

No, this is too much! - Hannah shouted, turning to her neighbors. - Look at this terrible dwarf! He scares away all the buyers and even laughs at my grief! He says - I am your son, your Jacob, such a scoundrel!

Hannah's neighbors jumped to their feet and began to scold Jacob:

How dare you joke about her grief! Her son was kidnapped seven years ago. And what a boy he was - just a picture! Get out now, or we'll claw your eyes out!

Poor Jacob didn't know what to think. After all, this morning he came with his mother to the market and helped her lay out the vegetables, then he took cabbage to the old woman’s house, went to see her, ate soup at her place, slept a little and now returned. And the traders talk about some seven years. And he, Jacob, is called a nasty dwarf. What happened to them?

Jacob wandered out of the market with tears in his eyes. Since his mother does not want to acknowledge him, he will go to his father.

“We’ll see,” Jacob thought. - Will my father also drive me away? I’ll stand at the door and talk to him.”

He went up to the shoemaker's shop, who, as always, was sitting there and working, stood near the door and looked into the shop. Friedrich was so busy with work that he did not notice Jacob at first. But suddenly he accidentally raised his head, dropped the awl and dredge from his hands and screamed:

What it is? What's happened?

“Good evening, master,” said Jacob and entered the shop. - How are you doing?

Bad, my sir, bad! - answered the shoemaker, who also apparently did not recognize Jacob.

Work is not going well at all. I am already many years old, and I am alone - there is not enough money to hire an apprentice.

Don't you have a son who could help you? - Jacob asked.

“I had one son, his name was Jacob,” answered the shoemaker. - Now he would be twenty years old. He would have been great at supporting me. After all, he was only twelve years old, and he was so smart! And he already knew something about the craft, and he was a handsome man. He would have been able to attract customers, I wouldn’t have to put on patches now - I’d only sew new shoes. Yes, apparently, this is my destiny!

Where is your son now? - Jacob asked timidly.

Only God knows about that,” the shoemaker answered with a heavy sigh. “Seven years have passed since he was taken away from us at the market.”

Seven years! - Jacob repeated with horror.

Yes, sir, seven years. As I remember now, my wife came running from the market, howling. shouts: it’s already evening, but the child has not returned. She looked for him all day, asked everyone if they had seen him, but she didn’t find him. I always said this would end. Our Jacob - that's true, it's true - was a handsome child, his wife was proud of him and often sent him to carry him good people vegetables or something else. It’s a shame to say that he was always well rewarded, but I often told my wife:
“Look, Hannah! The city is big, there are a lot of evil people in it. No matter what happens to our Jacob!”
And so it happened! That day, some old, ugly woman came to the market, chose and selected goods, and in the end bought so many that she could not carry them herself. Hannah, good soul, and send the boy with her. So we never saw him again.

And that means seven years have passed since then?

There will be seven in the spring. We already announced about him, and went around among people, asking about the boy - after all, many knew him, everyone loved him, a handsome man, - but no matter how much we looked, we never found him. And no one has seen the woman who bought vegetables from Hannah since then. One ancient old woman, who had been in the world for ninety years, told Hannah that it might be the evil witch Kreiterweiss, who came to the city once every fifty years to buy provisions.

So Jacob's father told the story, tapping his boot with a hammer and pulling out a long waxed sheet. Now Jacob finally understood what had happened to him. This means that he didn’t see this in a dream, but really was a squirrel for seven years and served with an evil witch.

His heart was literally breaking with frustration. An old woman stole seven years of his life, and what did he get for it? I learned how to clean coconut shells and polish glass floors, and learned how to cook all sorts of delicious foods!

For a long time he stood on the threshold of the shop without saying a word. Finally the shoemaker asked him:

Perhaps you liked something about me, sir? Would you take a pair of shoes or at least,” here he suddenly burst out laughing, “a nose case?”

What's wrong with my nose? - said Jacob. - Why do I need a case for it?

“It’s your choice,” answered the shoemaker, “but if I had such a terrible nose, I would, dare I say, hide it in a case - a good case made of pink husky.” Look, I have just the right piece. True, your nose will need a lot of skin. But as you wish, my sir. After all, you probably often touch doors with your nose.

Jacob could not say a word from surprise. He felt his nose - the nose was thick and long, about two quarters long, no less. Apparently, the evil old woman turned him into a freak. That's why his mother didn't recognize him.

“Master,” he said, almost crying, “do you have a mirror here?” I need to look in the mirror, I definitely need to.

“To tell the truth, sir,” replied the shoemaker, “you don’t have the kind of appearance to be proud of.” There is no need for you to look in the mirror every minute. Give up this habit - it really doesn’t suit you at all.

Give me, give me a mirror quickly! - Jacob begged. - I assure you, I really need it. I'm really not out of pride

Come on, absolutely! I don't have a mirror! - the shoemaker got angry. - My wife had one tiny one, but I don’t know where she touched it. If you really can’t wait to look at yourself, over there is Urban’s barber’s shop. He has a mirror, twice the size of you. Look at it as much as you like. And then - I wish you good health.

And the shoemaker gently pushed Jacob out of the shop and slammed the door behind him.

Jacob quickly crossed the street and entered the barber, whom he had previously known well.

“Good morning, Urban,” he said. - I have a big request to you: please, let me look in your mirror.

Do me a favor. There it stands in the left wall! - Urban shouted and laughed loudly. - Admire, admire yourself, you are a real handsome man - thin, slender, swan-like neck, hands like a queen’s, and a snub nose - there is nothing better in the world! Of course, you flaunt it a little, but whatever, look at yourself. Let them not say that out of envy I did not allow you to look at my mirror.

The visitors who came to Urban for a shave and haircut laughed deafeningly as they listened to his jokes.

Jacob walked up to the mirror and involuntarily recoiled. Tears welled up in his eyes. Is it really him, this ugly dwarf! His eyes became small, like those of a pig, his huge nose hung below his chin, and it was as if there was no neck at all. His head sunk deep into his shoulders, and he could hardly turn it at all.

And he was the same height as seven years ago - very small. Other boys grew taller over the years, but Jacob grew wider. His back and chest were very wide, and he looked like a large, tightly stuffed sack. His thin, short legs could barely carry his heavy body. On the contrary, the arms with hooked fingers were long, like those of an adult man, and hung almost to the ground.

Such was poor Jacob now.

“Yes,” he thought, taking a deep breath, “no wonder you didn’t recognize your son, mother! He wasn’t like this before, when you loved to show him off to your neighbors!”

He remembered how the old woman approached his mother that morning. Everything he laughed at then - his long nose and ugly fingers - he received from the old woman for his ridicule. And she took his neck away, as she promised

Well, have you seen enough of yourself, my handsome man? - Urban asked with a laugh, going to the mirror and looking Jacob from head to toe. - Honestly, you won’t see such a funny dwarf in your dreams.
You know, baby, I want to offer you one thing. There are quite a few people in my barbershop, but not as many as before. And all because my neighbor, the barber Shaum, got himself a giant somewhere who lures visitors to him. Well, becoming a giant, generally speaking, is not so tricky, but becoming a little one like you is a different matter.
Come into my service, baby. You will receive housing, food, and clothing - everything from me, but all you have to do is stand at the door of the barber shop and invite people. Yes, perhaps, still whip up the soap foam and hand over the towel. And I’ll tell you for sure, we’ll both benefit: I’ll have more visitors than Shaum and his giant, and everyone will give you more tea.

Jacob was very offended in his heart - how could he be offered to be bait in a barber shop! - but what can you do, I had to endure this insult. He calmly replied that he was too busy and could not take on such work, and left.

Although Jacob's body was disfigured, his head worked as well as before. He felt that during these seven years he had become quite an adult.

“It’s not a problem that I became a freak,” he thought, walking down the street. “It’s a shame that both my father and mother drove me away like a dog.” I'll try to talk to my mother again. Maybe she will recognize me after all.”

He went to the market again and, approaching Hannah, asked her to calmly listen to what he had to tell her. He reminded her how the old woman took him away, listed everything that happened to him in childhood, and told her that he had lived for seven years with a witch, who turned him first into a squirrel, and then into a dwarf because he laughed at her.

Hannah didn't know what to think. Everything that the dwarf said about his childhood was correct, but she could not believe that he had been a squirrel for seven years.

This is impossible! - she exclaimed.

Finally, Hannah decided to consult her husband. She collected her baskets and invited Jacob to go with her to the shoemaker's shop.

When they arrived, Hannah said to her husband:

This dwarf says that he is our son Jacob. He told me that seven years ago he was stolen from us and bewitched by a sorceress

Ah, that's how it is! - the shoemaker interrupted her angrily. - So he told you all this? Wait, stupid! I myself was just telling him about our Jacob, and he, you see, comes straight to you and lets fool you. So you say you were bewitched? Come on, I’ll break the spell on you now.

The shoemaker grabbed the belt and, jumping up to Jacob, whipped him so hard that he ran out of the shop crying loudly.

The poor dwarf wandered around the city all day without eating or drinking. Nobody pitied him, and everyone just laughed at him. He had to spend the night on the church stairs, right on the hard, cold steps.

As soon as the sun rose, Jacob got up and again went to wander the streets.

And then Jacob remembered that while he was a squirrel and lived with an old woman, he managed to learn how to cook well. And he decided to become a cook for the Duke.

And the Duke, the ruler of that country, was a famous eater and gourmand. He loved to eat well most of all and hired chefs from all over the world.

Jacob waited a little until it was completely dawn and headed towards the ducal palace. His heart was beating loudly as he approached the palace gates. The gatekeepers asked him what he needed and began to make fun of him, but Jacob was not taken aback and said that he wanted to see the main head of the kitchen. He was led through some courtyards, and everyone who saw him from the duke's servants ran after him and laughed loudly.

Soon Jacob had a huge retinue. The grooms abandoned their combs, the boys raced to keep up with him, the floor polishers stopped beating the carpets.

Everyone crowded around Jacob, and there was such a noise and hubbub in the courtyard, as if enemies were approaching the city. Screams were heard everywhere:

Dwarf! Dwarf! Have you seen the dwarf?

Finally, the palace caretaker came into the courtyard - a sleepy fat man with a huge whip in his hand.

Hey you dogs! What is this noise? - he shouted in a thunderous voice, mercilessly beating his whip on the shoulders and backs of the grooms and servants. “Don’t you know that the Duke is still sleeping?”

“Sir,” answered the gatekeepers, “look who we have brought to you!” A real dwarf! You've probably never seen anything like this before.

Seeing Jacob, the caretaker made a terrible grimace and pressed his lips together as tightly as possible so as not to laugh - his importance did not allow him to laugh in front of the grooms. He dispersed the crowd with his whip and, taking Jacob by the hand, led him into the palace and asked what he needed.

Hearing that Jacob wanted to see the head of the kitchen, the caretaker exclaimed:

It's not true, son! It's me you need, palace caretaker. You want to join the Duke as a dwarf, don't you?

No, sir,” Jacob answered. - I am a good cook and can cook all sorts of rare dishes. Please take me to the kitchen manager. Maybe he will agree to try my art.

“It’s up to you, kid,” the caretaker answered, “you’re still a stupid guy, apparently.” If you were a court dwarf, you could do nothing, eat, drink, have fun and walk around in beautiful clothes, but you want to go to the kitchen! But we'll see. You are hardly a skilled enough cook to prepare food for the Duke himself, and you are too good for a cook.

Having said this, the caretaker took Jacob to the head of the kitchen. The dwarf bowed low to him and said:

Dear Sir, do you need a skilled cook?

The kitchen manager looked Jacob up and down and laughed loudly.

Do you want to be a chef? - he exclaimed. - Why do you think the stoves in our kitchen are so low? After all, you won’t see anything on them, even if you stand on tiptoe. No, my little friend, the one who advised you to become a cook for me played a bad joke on you.

And the head of the kitchen burst out laughing again, followed by the palace caretaker and all those who were in the room. Jacob, however, was not embarrassed.

Mister Kitchen Chief! - he said. “You probably wouldn’t mind giving me one or two eggs, a little flour, wine and seasonings.” Instruct me to prepare some dish and order me to serve everything that is needed for it. I will cook a meal in front of everyone, and you will say: “This is a real cook!”

He spent a long time persuading the head of the kitchen, glistening with his small eyes and convincingly shaking his head. Finally the boss agreed.

OK! - he said. - Let's try it for fun! Let's all go to the kitchen, and you too, Mr. Warden of the Palace.

In the middle of the kitchen there was a pool of water in which live fish were kept, and along the walls there were marble and wooden cabinets full of precious utensils. Next to the kitchen, in ten huge pantries, all kinds of supplies and delicacies were stored.

Cooks, cooks, and scullery maids rushed back and forth around the kitchen, rattling pots, pans, spoons and knives. When the head of the kitchen appeared, everyone froze in place, and the kitchen became completely quiet; only the fire continued to crackle under the stove and the water continued to gurgle in the pool.

What did Mister Duke order for his first breakfast today? - the head of the kitchen asked the head breakfast manager - an old fat cook in a high cap.

“His Lordship was pleased to order Danish soup with red Hamburg dumplings,” the cook answered respectfully.

“Okay,” continued the kitchen manager. - Did you hear, dwarf, what does Mr. Duke want to eat? Can you be trusted with such difficult dishes? There's no way you can make Hamburg dumplings. This is the secret of our chefs.

“There is nothing easier,” answered the dwarf (when he was a squirrel, he often had to cook these dishes for the old woman). - For soup, give me such and such herbs and spices, wild boar lard, eggs and roots. And for the dumplings,” he spoke more quietly so that no one could hear him except the head of the kitchen and the breakfast manager, “and for the dumplings I need four types of meat, a little beer, goose fat, ginger and an herb called “stomach comfort.”

I swear on my honor, that's right! - shouted the surprised cook. - Which sorcerer taught you to cook? You have listed everything down to the finest detail. And this is the first time I’ve heard about weed “comforting the stomach.” The dumplings will probably turn out even better with it. You are truly a miracle, not a cook!

I would never have thought that! - said the head of the kitchen. - However, we'll do a test. Give him supplies, dishes and everything he needs, and let him prepare breakfast for the Duke.

The cooks carried out his orders, but when they put everything that was needed on the stove, and the dwarf wanted to start cooking, it turned out that he could barely reach the top of the stove with the tip of his long nose. I had to move a chair to the stove, the dwarf climbed onto it and began to cook. The cooks, cooks, and scullery maids surrounded the dwarf in a tight ring and, with their eyes wide open in surprise, watched how quickly and deftly he handled everything.

Having prepared the food for cooking, the dwarf ordered to put both pans on the fire and not remove them until he ordered. Then he began to count: “One, two, three, four” - and, having counted exactly to five hundred, he shouted: “That’s enough!”

The cooks moved the pots from the fire, and the dwarf invited the head of the kitchen to try his cooking.

The head cook ordered a golden spoon, rinsed it in the pool and handed it to the head of the kitchen. He solemnly approached the stove, removed the lids from the steaming pots and tried the soup and dumplings. Having swallowed a spoonful of soup, he closed his eyes with pleasure, clicked his tongue several times and said:

Wonderful, wonderful, I swear on my honor! Would you like to be convinced, Mr. Palace Warden?

The palace caretaker took the spoon with a bow, tasted it and almost jumped with pleasure.

“I don’t want to offend you, dear breakfast manager,” he said, “you are a wonderful, experienced cook, but you have never managed to cook such soup and such dumplings.”

The cook also tried both dishes, respectfully shook the dwarf’s hand and said:

Baby, you - Great master! Your “stomach comfort” herb gives the soup and dumplings a special flavor.

At this time, the Duke's servant appeared in the kitchen and demanded breakfast for his master. The food was immediately poured into silver plates and sent upstairs.

The head of the kitchen, very pleased, took the dwarf into his room and wanted to ask him who he was and where he came from. But as soon as they sat down and began to talk, a messenger from the Duke came for the boss and said that the Duke was calling him. The head of the kitchen quickly put on his best dress and followed the messenger to the dining room.

The Duke sat there, lolling in his deep armchair. He ate everything on the plates clean and wiped his lips with a silk handkerchief. His face was shining and he was squinting sweetly with pleasure.

Listen,” he said, seeing the head of the kitchen, “I’ve always been very pleased with your cooking, but today breakfast was especially delicious.” Tell me the name of the cook who prepared it: I will send him a few ducats as a reward.

Sir, it happened today amazing story, - said the head of the kitchen.

Poor Jacob didn’t want to say that he had been a squirrel for seven years and served with an old woman, but he didn’t like to lie either. Therefore, he only told the duke that he now had neither father nor mother and that he was taught to cook by an old woman.

The Duke made fun of the strange appearance of the dwarf for a long time and finally said to him:

So be it, stay with me. I will give you fifty ducats a year, one festive dress and, in addition, two pairs of trousers. For this, you will cook my breakfast every day, watch how lunch is prepared, and generally manage my table. And besides, I give nicknames to everyone who serves me. You will be called Dwarf Nose and will receive the title of assistant kitchen manager.

Dwarf Nose bowed to the Duke and thanked him for his mercy. When the Duke released him, Jacob joyfully returned to the kitchen. Now, finally, he could not worry about his fate and not think about what would happen to him tomorrow.

Before, he often happened to throw plates and glasses at the cooks if he didn’t like their cooking, and once he got so angry that he threw a poorly fried calf’s leg at the head of the kitchen himself. The foot hit the poor guy in the forehead, and after that he lay in bed for three days. All the cooks trembled with fear as they prepared the food.

But with the advent of Dwarf Nose, everything changed. The Duke now ate not three times a day, as before, but five times, and only praised the dwarf’s skill. Everything seemed delicious to him, and he became fatter day by day. He often invited the dwarf to his table along with the head of the kitchen and forced them to taste the food they had prepared.

Residents of the city could not marvel at this wonderful dwarf.

Every day, a crowd of people crowded at the door of the palace kitchen - everyone asked and begged the chief cook to let him have at least one glimpse of how the dwarf prepared the food.

And the city's rich tried to get permission from the duke to send their cooks to the kitchen so that they could learn to cook from the dwarf. This gave the dwarf a considerable income - for each student he was paid half a ducat a day - but he gave all the money to other cooks so that they would not envy him.

So Jacob lived in the palace for two years. He would, perhaps, even be satisfied with his fate if he had not so often remembered his father and mother, who did not recognize him and drove him away. That was the only thing that upset him.

And then one day such an incident happened to him.

Now no one laughed at the dwarf. Everyone bowed low to him and respectfully made way. Every trader would be happy if he bought a goose from her.

Jacob approached the woman and examined her geese. They were just the way he wanted them. Jacob bought three birds along with the cage - two ganders and one goose - put the cage on his shoulder and went back to the palace. And suddenly he noticed that two birds were cackling and flapping their wings, as good ganders should be, and the third - the goose - was sitting quietly and even seemed to sigh.

“This goose is sick,” thought Jacob. “As soon as I arrive at the palace, I will immediately order her to be slaughtered before she dies.”

And suddenly the bird, as if guessing his thoughts, said:

Don't cut me -
I'll lock you up.
If you break my neck,
You will die before your time.

Jacob almost dropped the cage.

What miracles! - he shouted. - It turns out you can speak, Mrs. Goose! Don't be afraid, I won't kill such an amazing bird. I bet you didn't always wear goose feathers. After all, I was once a little squirrel.

“Your truth,” answered the goose. - I was not born a bird. No one thought that Mimi, the daughter of the great Wetterbock, would end her life under a chef’s knife on the kitchen table.

Don't worry, dear Mimi! - Jacob exclaimed. - If I were an honest man and his lordship’s chief cook, if someone touched you with a knife! You will live in a beautiful cage in my room, and I will feed you and talk to you. And I’ll tell the other cooks that I feed the goose with special herbs for the Duke himself. And not even a month will pass before I figure out a way to release you into freedom.

Mimi thanked the dwarf with tears in her eyes, and Jacob fulfilled everything he promised. He said in the kitchen that he would fatten the goose in a special way that no one knew, and he placed her cage in his room. Mimi did not receive goose food, but cookies, sweets and all sorts of delicacies, and as soon as Jacob had a free minute, he immediately ran to chat with her.

Mimi told Jacob that she had been turned into a goose and brought to this city by an old witch, with whom her father, the famous wizard Wetterbock, had once quarreled.

The dwarf also told Mimi his story, and Mimi said:

I understand something about witchcraft - my father taught me a little of his wisdom. I guess that the old woman bewitched you with a magic herb that she put in the soup when you brought cabbage home to her. If you find this weed and smell it, you might become like other people again.

This, of course, did not particularly console the dwarf: how could he find this grass? But he still had a little hope.

A few days after this, a prince, his neighbor and friend, came to stay with the duke. The Duke immediately called the dwarf to him and said to him:

Now the time has come to show whether you serve me faithfully and whether you know your art well. This prince, who came to visit me, loves to eat well and understands cooking. Look, prepare for us such dishes that the prince will be surprised every day. And don’t even think about serving the same dish twice while the prince is visiting me. Then you will have no mercy. Take from my treasurer everything you need, even give us baked gold, just so as not to disgrace yourself before the prince.

Don’t worry, Your Grace,” Jacob replied, bowing low. - I will be able to please your dainty prince.

And Dwarf Nose eagerly set to work. All day long he stood at the flaming stove and ceaselessly gave orders in his thin voice. A crowd of cooks and cooks rushed around the kitchen, hanging on his every word. Jacob spared neither himself nor others in order to please his master.

The prince had been visiting the duke for two weeks already. They ate at least five times a day, and the Duke was delighted. He saw that his guest liked the dwarf's cooking. On the fifteenth day, the Duke called Jacob into the dining room, showed him to the Prince and asked if the Prince was satisfied with the skill of his cook.

“You cook well,” the prince said to the dwarf, “and you understand what it means to eat well.” During the entire time I’ve been here, you haven’t served a single dish on the table twice, and everything was very tasty. But tell me, why haven’t you treated us to the Queen’s Pie yet? This is the most delicious pie in the world.

The dwarf's heart sank: he had never heard of such a pie. But he didn’t show any sign that he was embarrassed, and answered:

Oh sir, I hoped that you would stay with us for a long time, and I wanted to treat you to the “queen’s pie” as a farewell. After all, this is the king of all pies, as you yourself well know.

Ah, that's how it is! - said the Duke and laughed. - You’ve never treated me to “queen’s pie.” You will probably bake it on the day of my death to pamper me one last time. But come up with another dish for this occasion! Let the “queen’s pie” be on the table tomorrow! Do you hear?

“Yes, Mr. Duke,” Jacob answered and left, preoccupied and upset.

That's when his day of shame came! How does he know how this pie is baked?

He went to his room and began to cry bitterly. Mimi the goose saw this from her cage and felt sorry for him.

What are you crying about, Jacob? - she asked, and when Jacob told her about the “queen’s pie,” she said: “Wipe your tears and don’t be upset.” This pie was often served in our home, and I seem to remember how to bake it. Take so much flour and add such and such seasoning - and the pie is ready. And if it lacks something, it’s not a big deal. The Duke and Prince won't notice anyway. They don't have such a picky taste.

Dwarf Nose jumped for joy and immediately began baking a pie. First he made a small pie and gave it to the head of the kitchen to try. He found it to be very tasty. Then Jacob baked a large pie and sent it straight from the oven to the table. And he put on his festive dress and went to the dining room to see how the Duke and Prince liked this new pie.

When he entered, the butler was just cutting off a large piece of pie, serving it to the prince on a silver spatula, and then another similar piece to the duke. The Duke took half a bite at once, chewed the pie, swallowed it and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied look.

Oh, how delicious! - he exclaimed. - No wonder this pie is called the king of all pies. But my dwarf is the king of all cooks. Isn't it true, prince?

The prince carefully bit off a tiny piece, chewed it thoroughly, rubbed it with his tongue and said, smiling indulgently and pushing the plate away:

Not a bad meal! But he is far from being the “queen’s pie.” I thought so!

The Duke blushed with annoyance and frowned angrily:

Nasty dwarf! - he shouted. - How dare you disgrace your master like that? You should have your head cut off for cooking like that!

Mister! - Jacob shouted, falling to his knees. - I baked this pie properly. Everything you need is included in it.

You're lying, scoundrel! - the Duke shouted and pushed the dwarf away with his foot. “My guest would not be in vain to say that there is something missing in the pie.” I’ll order you to be ground up and baked into a pie, you such a freak!

Have mercy on me! - the dwarf cried pitifully, grabbing the prince by the hem of his dress. - Don't let me die because of a handful of flour and meat! Tell me, what’s missing in this pie, why didn’t you like it so much?

“It won’t help you much, my dear Nose,” the prince answered with a laugh. “I already thought yesterday that you wouldn’t be able to bake this pie the way my cook bakes it.” It's missing one herb that no one knows about. It's called "sneeze for health." Without this herb, the Queen's Pie will not taste the same, and your master will never have to taste it the way I make it.

No, I'll try it, and very soon! - the Duke shouted. “I swear on my ducal honor, either you will see such a pie on the table tomorrow, or the head of this scoundrel will stick out on the gates of my palace.” Get out, dog! I give you twenty-four hours to save your life.

The poor dwarf, weeping bitterly, went to his room and complained to the goose about his grief. Now he can no longer escape death! After all, he had never heard of the herb called “sneeze for health.”

“If that’s the problem,” Mimi said, “then I can help you.” My father taught me to recognize all the herbs. If it had been two weeks ago, you might really have been in danger of death, but, fortunately, now there is a new moon, and at this time that grass is blooming. Are there any old chestnuts somewhere near the palace?

Yes! Yes! - the dwarf shouted joyfully. - There are several chestnuts growing in the garden, very close to here. But why do you need them?

This grass, Mimi answered, only grows under old chestnut trees. Let's not waste time and let's go look for her now. Take me in your arms and carry me out of the palace.

The dwarf took Mimi in his arms, walked with her to the palace gates and wanted to go out. But the gatekeeper blocked his way.

No, my dear Nose,” he said, “I have strict orders not to let you out of the palace.”

Can't I even take a walk in the garden? - asked the dwarf. - Be kind, send someone to the caretaker and ask if I can walk around the garden and collect grass.

The gatekeeper sent to ask the caretaker, and the caretaker allowed it: the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and it was impossible to escape from it.

Going out into the garden, the dwarf carefully put Mimi on the ground, and she, hobbling, ran to the chestnut trees that grew on the shore of the lake. Jacob, saddened, followed her.

“If Mimi doesn’t find that grass,” he thought, “I’ll drown in the lake. It’s still better than letting your head be cut off.”

Meanwhile, Mimi visited every chestnut tree, turned over every blade of grass with her beak, but in vain - the “sneeze to health” grass was nowhere to be seen. The goose even cried out of grief.

Evening was approaching, it was getting dark, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the stems of the grass. By chance the dwarf looked at the other side of the lake and shouted joyfully:

Look, Mimi, see - there's another big old chestnut on the other side! Let's go there and look, maybe my happiness is growing under it.

The goose flapped her wings heavily and flew away, and the dwarf ran after her at full speed on his little legs. Crossing the bridge, he approached the chestnut tree.

The chestnut was thick and spreading, almost nothing was visible under it in the semi-darkness. And suddenly Mimi flapped her wings and even jumped for joy. She quickly stuck her beak in the grass, picked a flower and said, carefully handing it to Jacob:

Here is the herb “sneeze for health.” There's a lot of it growing here, so you'll have enough for a long time.

The dwarf took the flower in his hand and looked at it thoughtfully. There was a strong pleasant smell coming from it, and for some reason Jacob remembered how he stood in the old woman’s pantry, picking up herbs to stuff the chicken with, and found the same flower - with a greenish stem and a bright red head, decorated with a yellow border.

And suddenly Jacob trembled all over with excitement.

You know, Mimi,” he shouted, “this seems to be the same flower that turned me from a squirrel into a dwarf!” I'll try to smell it.

“Wait a little,” said Mimi. - Take a bunch of this grass with you, and we’ll go back to your room. Collect your money and everything you earned while serving with the Duke, and then we will try the power of this wonderful herb.

And suddenly his joints began to crack, his neck stretched, his head immediately rose from his shoulders, his nose began to become smaller and smaller, and his legs became longer and longer, his back and chest straightened out, and he became the same as all people.

Mimi looked at Jacob with great surprise.

How beautiful you are! - she screamed. - Now you don’t look like an ugly dwarf at all!

Jacob was very happy. He wanted to immediately run to his parents and show himself to them, but he remembered his savior.

If it weren’t for you, dear Mimi, I would have remained a dwarf for the rest of my life and, perhaps, would have died under the executioner’s ax,” he said, gently stroking the goose’s back and wings. - I have to thank you. I will take you to your father and he will break your spell. He's smarter than all the wizards.

Mimi burst into tears of joy, and Jacob took her in his arms and pressed her to his chest. He quietly left the palace - not a single person recognized him - and went with Mimi to the sea, to the island of Gotland, where her father, the wizard Wetterbock, lived.

They traveled for a long time and finally reached this island. Wetterbock immediately broke the spell on Mimi and gave Jacob a lot of money and gifts.

Jacob immediately returned to his hometown. His father and mother greeted him with joy - he had become so handsome and brought so much money!

We also need to tell you about the Duke.

The next morning, the Duke decided to fulfill his threat and cut off the dwarf's head if he did not find the herb that the prince spoke about. But Jacob could not be found anywhere.

Then the prince said that the duke had hidden the dwarf on purpose so as not to lose his best cook, and called him a deceiver. The Duke became terribly angry and declared war on the Prince.

After many battles and battles, they finally made peace, and the prince, to celebrate the peace, ordered his cook to bake a real “queen pie.”

This world between them was called “Cake World”.

And Jacob and Mimi lived happily ever after.

That's the whole story about Dwarf Nose.

Fairy tale dictionaries with pictures. Russian history for children.

A new fun has begun academic year 2013-14
Alphabet for kids

Pictures “TALES OF THE SEA”
Pictures 86th - 90th
Write fairy tales or stories based on these pictures.
and tell them to your friends and parents.

MOVIES TO WATCH AT YOUR LEISURE
If the films are not visible here, .

Wonderful fairytale film "Sampo"
(Alexander Ptushko, 1959)

Goldilocks
(Czechoslovakia)

Finist - Clear Falcon
(1975)

Ilya Muromets
(1956)

Zodiac constellations
Horoscopes for fun

Information for parents
Russian encyclopedia

An excellent guide for expectant and novice mothers, answering in detail all important questions without exception.
For the first time in Russian practice, everything parents need is combined in a single encyclopedic section.
The encyclopedia is divided into user-friendly thematic sections that allow you to quickly find the information you need.

The Encyclopedia carefully takes into account the recommendations of the World Health Organization.
The encyclopedia helps to successfully cope with all problems without exception that arise during the most crucial period of a child’s life - from birth to three years.
How does pregnancy proceed, how to prepare for childbirth, what complications occur during breastfeeding, how to become beautiful and slim again after pregnancy, how long to walk with the baby, what to cook for him, why does the baby cry?
Thousands of tips and recommendations will help you raise your child healthy and happy, and will answer any question you may have.
Much attention is paid to the development of the child, which will help you avoid many mistakes.

Let's cook and eat

See page ""
and pages of the "" section

Salad Artist's Palette of Delicious Colors
By mixing different “paints” you can get many different colors and shades.
Of course, the range of possible culinary “colors” is much wider than those indicated here - include all the amazing richness of your unbridled creative imagination.

red- sweet peppers, tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, cranberries;
burgundy- boiled beets;
pink- beet or cranberry juice;
orange- carrots, carrot juice, tomato paste;
yellow- egg yolk, sweet pepper, corn kernels, saffron-colored rice;
green- greens, sweet peppers, olives, green peas, cucumbers, boiled spinach pureed through a sieve, coloring white products with the squeezed juice of boiled spinach;
blue- grated egg white or rice, colored with the juice of raw red cabbage;
lilac- grated egg white, colored with raw beet juice;
violet- red cabbage;
white- egg white, radish, radish, potatoes, rice, sour cream, cottage cheese;
black- olives, prunes.

For more details, see the page ""
and on the page "".
Also " ".

Dishes for children's delight

HOME FOOD ART

Preparing this spectacular cake is very simple, but it requires efficiency, so before starting cooking, we will prepare all the necessary products and cool them thoroughly in the refrigerator.

1st step - preparing the watermelon base

Using a long, thin, sharp knife, carefully separate the watermelon pulp in one monolithic block.
The highlighted cylinder is very juicy. Therefore, we put it on a serving plate and put it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to wait for the excess juice to drain.

Step 2 - preparing whipped cream with the addition of gelatin solution

It is strongly recommended to additionally add a cooled gelatin solution to the whipped cream, then the creamy layer will be much more stable.
Pre-soak the gelatin for 30-40 minutes in cold water or watermelon juice, then drain the excess water and dissolve the gelatin over low heat with constant stirring. Then let the solution cool, but not harden.
Classic whipped cream recipe
We will need:
large bowl
electric mixer
1 cup heavy cream (33% strength)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Before whipping, thoroughly cool the cream, bowl and whisk.
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and beat on high speed until the cream begins to thicken (about 2 minutes).
Continue beating until stiff peaks begin to form on the cream. The whipping of cream is finished.
It is at this moment that we will introduce the cooled (but not frozen!) gelatin solution.
Place the whipped cream in the refrigerator so that the mixture cools further and thickens a little due to the hardening of the gelatin.

Step 3 - preparing decorations from fruits and berries

While the buttercream hardens in the refrigerator and the watermelon base drips, let's prepare decorations from pre-well-chilled ingredients.
To decorate the cake, you can use whatever you think suits your taste:
sliced kiwi
sliced grapes
raspberries, halved
blueberries
chopped pear
sliced almonds
etc.
The decorations must be cut very thin, otherwise they will not stay on the vertical surface of the whipped buttercream.

4th step - assembling the cake

Quickly coat the watermelon base with the slightly frozen whipped cream.

Place fruits and other decorations on top of the buttercream.
We do it all quickly! Otherwise, from the heat and its own weight, our decor will begin to shamefully slide down...
Decorations can be completed with a scoop of your favorite ice cream placed on top.

Information for parents: Wilhelm Hauff's cautionary tale "Dwarf Nose" tells the story of a boy who is bewitched by an evil witch for mocking her. So the handsome boy became an ugly dwarf, whom his parents did not recognize. Fairy tale“Dwarf Nose” is suitable for reading to children from 7 to 10 years old.

Read the fairy tale Dwarf Nose

Many years ago, in one large city of my dear fatherland, Germany, the shoemaker Friedrich once lived with his wife Hannah. All day he sat by the window and put patches on his shoes. He would also undertake to sew new shoes if someone ordered them, but then he had to buy leather first. He could not stock up on goods in advance - there was no money. And Hannah sold fruits and vegetables from her small garden at the market. She was a neat woman, knew how to arrange goods beautifully, and she always had a lot of customers.

Hannah's customers loved the pretty boy and almost always gave him something: a flower, a cake, or a coin.

Jacob sat next to his mother and shouted loudly:

- Here, here, cooks, cooks!.. Here is good cabbage, greens, pears, apples! Who needs? Mother will give it away cheaply!

— Are you Hannah, the vegetable seller? - asked the old woman in a creaky voice, shaking her head all the time.

“Yes,” answered the shoemaker’s wife. - Do you want to buy something?

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” the old woman muttered under her breath. “We’ll look at the greens, we’ll look at the roots.” Do you still have what I need...

Having turned over all the greens, the old woman straightened up and grumbled:

- Bad product!.. Bad greens!.. There is nothing that I need. Fifty years ago it was much better!.. Bad product! Bad product!

These words angered little Jacob.

- Hey you, shameless old woman! - he shouted. “I sniffed all the greens with my long nose, crushed the roots with my clumsy fingers, so now no one will buy them, and you still swear that it’s a bad product!” The Duke's chef himself buys from us!

The old woman looked sideways at the boy and said in a hoarse voice:

“Don’t you like my nose, my nose, my beautiful long nose?” And you will have the same one, right up to your chin.

- Bad product! Bad cabbage!

- Don’t shake your head so disgustingly! - Jacob shouted. “Your neck is no thicker than a stump, and the next thing you know, it will break off and your head will fall into our basket.” Who will buy what from us then?

- So, in your opinion, my neck is too thin? - said the old woman, still grinning. - Well, you will be completely without a neck. Your head will stick straight out of your shoulders - at least it won’t fall off your body.

- Don't say such nonsense to the boy! - Hannah finally said, seriously angry. - If you want to buy something, buy it quickly. You will drive away all my customers.

The old woman looked at Hannah angrily.

“Okay, okay,” she grumbled. - Let it be your way. I'll take these six heads of cabbage from you. But I only have a crutch in my hands, and I can’t carry anything myself. Let your son bring my purchase home to me. I will reward him well for this.

She did not wander very quickly, and almost an hour passed until they reached some distant street on the outskirts of the city and stopped in front of a small dilapidated house.

“Where did you put my shoes, you scoundrels!” - the old woman shouted and hit the pigs with a stick so hard that they jumped up screaming. - How much longer will I stand here?..

The pigs ran up the stairs, brought two coconut shells on a leather lining and deftly put them on the old woman’s feet.

Finally, the old woman stopped in a room where there was a lot of all kinds of dishes. This, apparently, was a kitchen, although the floors were covered with carpets, and embroidered pillows lay on the sofas, as in some palace.

- What are you talking about! - Jacob shouted. “I was really tired, but I was not carrying heads, but heads of cabbage.” You bought them from my mother.

“It’s wrong to say that,” the old woman said and laughed.

And, opening the basket, she pulled out a human head by the hair.

Jacob almost fell, he was so scared. He immediately thought about his mother. After all, if anyone finds out about these heads, they will immediately report her, and she will have a bad time.

“We also need to reward you for being so obedient,” the old woman continued. “Be patient a little: I’ll cook you such soup that you’ll remember it until you die.”

She blew her whistle again, and the guinea pigs came rushing into the kitchen, dressed like people: in aprons, with ladle and kitchen knives in their belts. Squirrels came running after them - a lot of squirrels, also on two legs; they were wearing wide trousers and green velvet caps. Apparently these were cooks. They quickly, quickly climbed the walls and brought bowls and pans, eggs, butter, roots and flour to the stove. And the old woman herself was bustling around the stove, rolling back and forth on her coconut shells - she, apparently, really wanted to cook something good for Jacob. The fire under the stove was growing hotter, something was hissing and smoking in the frying pans, and a pleasant, tasty smell was wafting throughout the room. The old woman rushed here and there and kept poking her long nose into the pot of soup to see if the food was ready.

Finally, something began to bubble and gurgle in the pot, steam poured out of it, and thick foam poured onto the fire.

Then the old woman took the pot off the stove, poured soup from it into a silver bowl and placed the bowl in front of Jacob.

“Eat, son,” she said. - Eat this soup and you will be as beautiful as me. And you will become a good cook - you need to know some kind of craft.

When Jacob had almost finished the soup, the pigs lit some kind of smoking with a pleasant smell on a small brazier, and clouds of bluish smoke floated throughout the room. It became thicker and thicker, enveloping the boy more and more tightly, so that Jacob finally became dizzy. In vain did he tell himself that it was time for him to return to his mother; in vain did he try to get to his feet. As soon as he got up, he fell back onto the sofa - he suddenly wanted to sleep so much. Not even five minutes had passed before he actually fell asleep on the sofa, in the kitchen of the ugly old woman.

About a year later he was transferred to another, more difficult position. Together with several other squirrels, he caught dust particles from a ray of sunlight and sifted them through the finest sieve, and then they baked bread for the old woman. She didn’t have a single tooth left in her mouth, which is why she had to eat buns made from specks of sunshine, softer than which, as everyone knows, there is nothing in the world.

A year later, Jacob was tasked with getting the old woman water to drink. Do you think she had a well dug in her yard or a bucket placed to collect rainwater? No, the old woman didn’t even take plain water into her mouth. Jacob and the squirrels collected dew from flowers in nut shells, and the old woman only drank it. And she drank a lot, so the water-carriers had their hands full.

Another year passed, and Jacob began working in the rooms - cleaning the floors. This also turned out to be not a very easy task: the floors were glass - you can breathe on them, and you can see it. Jacob cleaned them with brushes and rubbed them with cloth, which he rolled on his feet.

In the fifth year, Jacob began working in the kitchen. This was an honorable job, to which one was admitted with scrutiny, after a long trial. Jacob went through all the positions, from cook to senior cake maker, and became such an experienced and skillful cook that he even surprised himself. Why hasn't he learned to cook? The most intricate dishes - two hundred varieties of cake, soups from all the herbs and roots that there are in the world - he knew how to cook everything quickly and tasty.

So Jacob lived with the old woman for seven years. And then one day she put her nut shells on her feet, took a crutch and a basket to go to the city, and ordered Jacob to pluck a chicken, stuff it with herbs and brown it thoroughly. Jacob immediately got to work. He twisted the bird's head, scalded it all with boiling water, deftly plucked its feathers, scraped out the skin so that it became soft and shiny, and took out the insides. Then he needed herbs to stuff the chicken with. He went to the pantry, where the old woman kept all sorts of greens, and began to select what he needed. And suddenly he saw a small cabinet in the wall of the pantry, which he had never noticed before. The locker door was ajar. Jacob looked into it with curiosity and saw that there were some small baskets there. He opened one of them and saw strange herbs that he had never come across before. Their stems were greenish, and on each stem there was a bright red flower with a yellow rim.

He looked around in surprise and saw that he was lying on the same sofa in the old woman’s kitchen.

“Well, what a dream it was! It's like it's real! - Jacob thought. “Mother will laugh when I tell her all this!” And I’ll get hit by her for falling asleep in someone else’s house, instead of returning to her at the market!”

He quickly jumped up from the sofa and wanted to run to his mother, but he felt that his whole body was like wood, and his neck was completely numb - he could barely move his head. Every now and then he would touch his nose against a wall or a closet, and once, when he quickly turned around, he even hit the door painfully. Squirrels and pigs ran around Jacob and squeaked - apparently, they did not want to let him go. Leaving the old woman's house, Jacob beckoned them to follow him - he, too, was sorry to part with them, but they quickly rolled back to the rooms on their shells, and the boy heard their plaintive squeak from afar for a long time.

- Look, there’s an ugly dwarf! And where did he even come from? Well, he has a long nose! And the head sticks out right on the shoulders, without a neck! And the hands, the hands!.. Look - right down to the heels!

At another time, Jacob would have gladly run out to look at the dwarf, but today he had no time for that - he had to rush to his mother.

Finally Jacob reached the market. He was quite afraid that his mother would get him. Hannah was still sitting in her place, and she had a fair amount of vegetables in her basket, which meant Jacob hadn’t slept very long. Already from a distance he noticed that his mother was saddened by something. She sat silently, resting her cheek on her hand, pale and sad.

Jacob stood for a long time, not daring to approach his mother. Finally he gathered his courage and, creeping up behind her, put his hand on her shoulder and said:

- Mom, what’s wrong with you? Are you mad at me? Hannah turned around and, seeing Jacob, screamed in horror.

- What do you want from me, scary dwarf? - she screamed. - Go away, go away! I can't stand jokes like that!

- What are you doing, mother? - Jacob said fearfully. - You are probably unwell. Why are you chasing me?

“I’m telling you, go your way!” - Hannah shouted angrily. “You won’t get anything from me for your jokes, you disgusting freak!”

"She went crazy! - thought poor Jacob. “How can I take her home now?”

“Mommy, take a good look at me,” he said, almost crying. - I’m your son Jacob!

- No, this is too much! - Hannah shouted, turning to her neighbors. - Look at this terrible dwarf! He scares away all the buyers and even laughs at my grief! He says - I am your son, your Jacob, such a scoundrel!

Hannah's neighbors jumped to their feet and began to scold Jacob:

- How dare you joke about her grief! Her son was kidnapped seven years ago. And what a boy he was - just a picture! Get out now, or we'll claw your eyes out!

Poor Jacob didn’t know what to think. After all, this morning he came with his mother to the market and helped her lay out the vegetables, then he took cabbage to the old woman’s house, went to her, ate soup from her, slept a little and now returned. And the traders talk about some seven years. And he, Jacob, is called a nasty dwarf. What happened to them?

With tears in his eyes, Jacob wandered out of the market. Since his mother does not want to acknowledge him, he will go to his father.

“We’ll see,” Jacob thought. “Will my father also drive me away?” I’ll stand at the door and talk to him.”

He went up to the shoemaker’s shop, who, as always, was sitting there and working, stood near the door and looked into the shop. Friedrich was so busy with work that he did not notice Jacob at first. But suddenly he accidentally raised his head, dropped the awl and dredge from his hands and screamed:

- What it is? What's happened?

“Good evening, master,” said Jacob and entered the shop. - How are you doing?

- It’s bad, my sir, it’s bad! - answered the shoemaker, who also apparently did not recognize Jacob. - Work is not going well at all. I am already many years old, and I am alone - there is not enough money to hire an apprentice.

- Don’t you have a son who could help you? - Jacob asked.

-Where is your son now? - Jacob asked timidly.

“Only God knows about that,” the shoemaker answered with a heavy sigh. “Seven years have passed since he was taken away from us at the market.”

- Seven years! - Jacob repeated with horror.

- Yes, sir, seven years. As I remember now, my wife came running from the market, howling and screaming: it was already evening, but the child had not returned. She looked for him all day, asked everyone if they had seen him, but she didn’t find him. I always said this would end. Our Jacob - which is true, it is true - was a handsome child, his wife was proud of him and often sent him to take vegetables or something else to kind people. It’s a shame to say that he was always well rewarded, but I often said:

“Look, Hannah! The city is big, there are a lot of evil people in it. No matter what happens to our Jacob!” And so it happened! That day, some woman, old, ugly, came to the market, chose and selected goods, and finally bought so many that she could not carry them herself. Hannah, a kind soul, and sent the boy with her... So we never saw him again.

- And that means seven years have passed since then?

- It will be seven in the spring. We already announced about him, and went around to people, asking about the boy - after all, many knew him, everyone loved him, a handsome man, - but no matter how much we looked, we never found him. And no one has seen the woman who bought vegetables from Hannah since then. One ancient old woman - she had been living in the world for ninety years - told Hannah that it might be the evil witch Kreiterweiss, who came to the city once every fifty years to buy provisions.

This is what Jacob's father said, tapping his boot with a hammer and pulling out a long waxed slab. Now, finally, Jacob understood what had happened to him. This means that he didn’t see this in a dream, but really was a squirrel for seven years and served with an evil witch. His heart was literally breaking with frustration. An old woman stole seven years of his life, and what did he get for it? I learned how to clean coconut shells and polish glass floors, and learned how to cook all sorts of delicious foods!

For a long time he stood on the threshold of the shop without saying a word. Finally the shoemaker asked him:

“Perhaps you liked something about me, sir?” Would you take a pair of shoes or at least,” here he suddenly burst out laughing, “a nose case?”

- What's wrong with my nose? - said Jacob. - Why do I need a case for it?

“Master,” he said, almost crying, “do you have a mirror here?” I need to look in the mirror, I definitely need to.

“To tell you the truth, sir,” answered the shoemaker, “you don’t have the kind of appearance to be proud of.” There is no need for you to look in the mirror every minute. Give up this habit - it really doesn’t suit you at all.

- Give me, give me a mirror quickly! - Jacob begged. - I assure you, I really need it. True, I’m not out of pride...

- Oh, come on! I don't have a mirror! - the shoemaker got angry. “My wife had one tiny one, but I don’t know where she touched it.” If you really can’t wait to look at yourself, over there is Urban’s barber’s shop. He has a mirror, twice the size of you. Look at it as much as you like. And then - I wish you good health.

And the shoemaker gently pushed Jacob out of the shop and slammed the door behind him. Jacob quickly crossed the street and entered the barber, whom he had known well before.

“Good morning, Urban,” he said. “I have a big request to ask: please, let me look in your mirror.”

- Do me a favor. There it stands in the left wall! - Urban shouted and laughed loudly. - Admire, admire yourself, you are a real handsome man - thin, slender, swan-like neck, hands like a queen’s, and a snub nose - there is nothing better in the world! Of course, you flaunt it a little, but whatever, look at yourself. Let them not say that out of envy I did not allow you to look in my mirror.

The visitors who came to Urban for a shave and haircut laughed deafeningly as they listened to his jokes. Jacob walked up to the mirror and involuntarily recoiled. Tears welled up in his eyes. Is it really him, this ugly dwarf! His eyes became small, like those of a pig, his huge nose hung below his chin, and it was as if there was no neck at all. His head sunk deep into his shoulders, and he could hardly turn it at all. And he was the same height as seven years ago - very small. Other boys grew taller over the years, but Jacob grew wider. His back and chest were very wide, and he looked like a large, tightly stuffed sack. Thin short legs could barely carry his heavy body. On the contrary, the arms with hooked fingers were long, like those of an adult man, and hung almost to the ground. Such was poor Jacob now.

“Yes,” he thought, taking a deep breath, “no wonder you didn’t recognize your son, mother! He wasn’t like this before, when you loved to show him off to your neighbors!”

- Well, have you seen enough of yourself, my handsome man? - Urban asked with a laugh, going to the mirror and looking Jacob from head to toe. “Honestly, you wouldn’t see such a funny dwarf in your dreams.” You know, baby, I want to offer you one thing. There are quite a few people in my barbershop, but not as many as before. And all because my neighbor, the barber Shaum, got himself a giant somewhere who lures visitors to him. Well, becoming a giant, generally speaking, is not so tricky, but becoming a little one like you is a different matter. Come into my service, baby. You will receive housing, food, and clothing - everything from me, but all you have to do is stand at the door of the barber shop and invite people. Yes, perhaps, still whip up the soap foam and hand over the towel. And I’ll tell you for sure, we will both benefit: I will have more visitors than Shaum and his giant, and everyone will give you an extra tip.

Although Jacob's body was disfigured, his head worked as well as before. He felt that during these seven years he had become quite an adult.

He went to the market again and, approaching Hannah, asked her to calmly listen to what he wanted to tell her. He reminded her how the old woman took him away, listed everything that happened to him in childhood, and told her that he had lived for seven years with a witch, who turned him first into a squirrel, and then into a dwarf because he laughed at her.

Hannah didn't know what to think. Everything that the dwarf said about his childhood was correct, but she could not believe that he had been a squirrel for seven years.

- This is impossible! - she exclaimed. Finally, Hannah decided to consult her husband.

She collected her baskets and invited Jacob to go with her to the shoemaker's shop. When they arrived, Hannah said to her husband:

- This dwarf says that he is our son Jacob. He told me that seven years ago he was stolen from us and bewitched by a sorceress...

- Oh, that's how it is! - the shoemaker interrupted her angrily. - So he told you all this? Wait, stupid! I myself was just telling him about our Jacob, and he, you see, comes straight to you and lets fool you... So, you say, they have bewitched you? Come on, I’ll break the spell on you now.

The shoemaker grabbed the belt and, jumping up to Jacob, whipped him so hard that he ran out of the shop crying loudly.

As soon as the sun rose, Jacob got up and again went to wander the streets.

And then Jacob remembered that while he was a squirrel and lived with an old woman, he managed to learn how to cook well. And he decided to become a cook for the Duke.

And the Duke, the ruler of that country, was a famous eater and gourmand. He loved to eat well most of all and hired chefs from all over the world.

Jacob waited a little until it was completely dawn and headed towards the ducal palace.

His heart was beating loudly when he approached the palace gates. The gatekeepers asked him what he needed and began to make fun of him, but Jacob was not taken aback and said that he wanted to see the main head of the kitchen. He was led through some courtyards, and everyone who saw him from the duke's servants ran after him and laughed loudly.

Soon Jacob had a huge retinue. The grooms abandoned their combs, the boys raced to keep up with him, the floor polishers stopped beating the carpets. Everyone crowded around Jacob, and there was such a noise and hubbub in the courtyard, as if enemies were approaching the city. Screams were heard everywhere:

- Dwarf! Dwarf! Have you seen the dwarf? Finally, the palace caretaker came into the courtyard - a sleepy fat man with a huge whip in his hand.

- Hey you dogs! What is this noise? - he shouted in a thunderous voice, mercilessly beating his whip on the shoulders and backs of the grooms and servants. “Don’t you know that the Duke is still sleeping?”

“Sir,” answered the gatekeepers, “look who we brought to you!” A real dwarf! You've probably never seen anything like this before.

- It's not true, son! It's me you need, palace caretaker. You want to join the Duke as a dwarf, don't you?

“No, sir,” Jacob answered. “I’m a good cook and I can cook all sorts of rare dishes.” Please take me to the kitchen manager. Maybe he will agree to try my art.

“Your will, baby,” answered the caretaker, “you’re still a stupid guy.” If you were a court dwarf, you could do nothing, eat, drink, have fun and walk around in beautiful clothes, but you want to go to the kitchen! But we'll see. You are hardly a skilled enough cook to prepare food for the Duke himself, and you are too good for a cook.

Having said this, the caretaker took Jacob to the head of the kitchen. The dwarf bowed low to him and said:

- Dear Sir, do you need a skilled cook?

The kitchen manager looked Jacob up and down and laughed loudly.

- Do you want to be a cook? - he exclaimed. - Why do you think the stoves in our kitchen are so low? After all, you won’t see anything on them, even if you stand on tiptoe. No, my little friend, the one who advised you to become a cook for me played a bad joke on you.

And the head of the kitchen burst out laughing again, followed by the palace caretaker and all those who were in the room. Jacob, however, was not embarrassed.

- Mr. Kitchen Manager! - he said. “You probably wouldn’t mind giving me one or two eggs, a little flour, wine and seasonings.” Instruct me to prepare some dish and order me to serve everything that is needed for it. I will cook a meal in front of everyone, and you will say: “This is a real cook!”

He spent a long time persuading the head of the kitchen, glistening with his small eyes and convincingly shaking his head. Finally the boss agreed.

- OK! - he said. - Let's try it for fun! Let's all go to the kitchen, and you too, Mr. Warden of the Palace.

He took the palace keeper's arm and ordered Jacob to follow him. They walked for a long time through some large luxurious rooms and long corridors and finally came to the kitchen. It was a tall, spacious room with a huge stove with twenty burners, under which a fire burned day and night. In the middle of the kitchen there was a pool of water in which live fish were kept, and along the walls there were marble and wooden cabinets full of precious utensils. Next to the kitchen, in ten huge pantries, all kinds of supplies and delicacies were stored. Cooks, cooks, and dishwashers rushed back and forth around the kitchen, rattling pots, pans, spoons and knives. When the head of the kitchen appeared, everyone froze in place, and the kitchen became completely quiet; only the fire continued to crackle under the stove and the water continued to gurgle in the pool.

“What did Mister Duke order for his first breakfast today?” - the head of the kitchen asked the head breakfast manager - an old fat cook in a high cap.

“His Lordship deigned to order Danish soup with red Hamburg dumplings,” the cook answered respectfully.

“Okay,” continued the kitchen manager. “Have you heard, dwarf, what Mister Duke wants to eat?” Can you be trusted with such difficult dishes? There's no way you can make Hamburg dumplings. This is the secret of our chefs.

“Nothing is easier,” answered the dwarf (when he was a squirrel, he often had to cook these dishes for the old woman). - For soup, give me such and such herbs and spices, wild boar lard, eggs and roots. And for the dumplings,” he spoke more quietly so that no one could hear him except the head of the kitchen and the breakfast manager, “and for the dumplings I need four types of meat, a little beer, goose fat, ginger and an herb called “stomach comfort.”

- I swear on my honor, that’s right! - shouted the surprised cook. “Which sorcerer taught you how to cook?” You have listed everything down to the finest detail. And this is the first time I’ve heard about weed “comforting the stomach.” The dumplings will probably come out even better with it. You are truly a miracle, not a cook!

- I would never have thought that! - said the head of the kitchen. “However, we’ll do a test.” Give him supplies, dishes and everything he needs, and let him prepare breakfast for the Duke.

Having prepared the food for cooking, the dwarf ordered to put both pans on the fire and not remove them until he ordered. Then he began to count: “One, two, three, four...” - and, having counted exactly to five hundred, he shouted: “That’s enough!”

The cooks moved the pots from the fire, and the dwarf invited the head of the kitchen to try his cooking.

- Wonderful, wonderful, I swear on my honor! Would you like to be convinced, Mr. Palace Warden?

The palace caretaker took the spoon with a bow, tasted it and almost jumped with pleasure.

“I don’t want to offend you, dear breakfast manager,” he said, “you are a wonderful, experienced cook, but you have never managed to cook such soup and such dumplings.”

The cook also tried both dishes, respectfully shook the dwarf’s hand and said:

- Baby, you are a great master! Your “stomach comfort” herb gives the soup and dumplings a special taste.

At this time, the Duke's servant appeared in the kitchen and demanded breakfast for his master. The food was immediately poured into silver plates and sent upstairs. The head of the kitchen, very pleased, took the dwarf into his room and wanted to ask him who he was and where he came from. But as soon as they sat down and began to talk, a messenger from the Duke came for the boss and said that the Duke was calling him. The head of the kitchen quickly put on his best dress and followed the messenger to the dining room.

The Duke sat there, lounging in his deep armchair. He ate everything on the plates clean and wiped his lips with a silk handkerchief. His face was shining and he was squinting sweetly with pleasure.

“Listen,” he said, seeing the head of the kitchen, “I have always been very pleased with your cooking, but today breakfast was especially delicious.” Tell me the name of the cook who prepared it: I will send him a few ducats as a reward.

“Sir, an amazing thing happened today,” said the kitchen manager.

And he told the duke how a dwarf was brought to him in the morning, who certainly wants to become the palace cook. The Duke, after listening to his story, was very surprised. He ordered to call the dwarf and began to ask him who he was. Poor Jacob didn’t want to say that he had been a squirrel for seven years and served with an old woman, but he didn’t like to lie either. Therefore, he only told the duke that he now had neither father nor mother and that he was taught to cook by an old woman. The Duke made fun of the strange appearance of the dwarf for a long time and finally said to him:

- So be it, stay with me. I will give you fifty ducats a year, one festive dress and, in addition, two pairs of trousers. For this, you will cook my breakfast every day, watch how lunch is prepared, and generally manage my table. And besides, I give nicknames to everyone who serves me. You will be called Dwarf Nose and will receive the title of assistant kitchen manager.

He decided to thank his master thoroughly, and not only the ruler of the country himself, but also all his courtiers could not praise the little cook enough. Since Dwarf Nose moved into the palace, the Duke has become, one might say, a completely different person. Before, he often happened to throw plates and glasses at the cooks if he didn’t like their cooking, and once he got so angry that he threw a poorly fried calf’s leg at the head of the kitchen himself. The foot hit the poor guy in the forehead, and after that he lay in bed for three days. All the cooks trembled with fear as they prepared the food.

Residents of the city could not marvel at this wonderful dwarf.

Every day, a crowd of people crowded at the door of the palace kitchen - everyone asked and begged the chief cook to let him have at least one glimpse of how the dwarf prepared the food. And the city's rich tried to get permission from the duke to send their cooks to the kitchen so that they could learn to cook from the dwarf. This gave the dwarf a considerable income - for each student he was paid half a ducat a day - but he gave all the money to other cooks so that they would not envy him.

And then one day such an incident happened to him.

Dwarf Nose was very good at purchasing supplies. He always went to the market himself and chose geese, ducks, herbs and vegetables for the ducal table. One morning he went to the market to buy geese and for a long time could not find enough fat birds. He walked around the market several times, choosing a better goose. Now no one laughed at the dwarf. Everyone bowed low to him and respectfully made way. Every trader would be happy if he bought a goose from her.

Walking back and forth, Jacob suddenly noticed at the end of the market, away from the other traders, a woman whom he had not seen before. She also sold geese, but did not praise her goods like others, but sat silently, without saying a word. Jacob approached this woman and examined her geese. They were just the way he wanted them. Jacob bought three birds along with the cage - two ganders and one goose - put the cage on his shoulder and went back to the palace. And suddenly he noticed that two birds were cackling and flapping their wings, as good ganders should be, and the third - the goose - was sitting quietly and even seemed to sigh.

“This goose is sick,” thought Jacob. “As soon as I arrive at the palace, I will immediately order her to be slaughtered before she dies.”

And suddenly the bird, as if guessing his thoughts, said:

- Don't cut me -

I'll lock you up.

If you break my neck,

You will die before your time.

Jacob almost dropped the cage.

- These are miracles! - he shouted. “It turns out you can talk, Mrs. Goose!” Don't be afraid, I won't kill such an amazing bird. I bet you didn't always wear goose feathers. After all, I was once a little squirrel.

“Your truth,” answered the goose. - I was not born a bird. No one thought that Mimi, the daughter of the great Wetterbock, would end her life under a chef’s knife on the kitchen table.

- Don't worry, dear Mimi! - Jacob exclaimed. “If I weren’t an honest man and His Lordship’s chief cook, if someone touched you with a knife!” You will live in a beautiful cage in my room, and I will feed you and talk to you. And I’ll tell the other cooks that I feed the goose with special herbs for the Duke himself. And not even a month will pass before I figure out a way to release you into freedom.

Mimi told Jacob that she had been turned into a goose and brought to this city by an old witch, with whom her father, the famous wizard Wetterbock, had once quarreled. The dwarf also told Mimi his story, and Mimi said:

“I understand something about witchcraft - my father taught me a little of his wisdom.” I guess that the old woman bewitched you with a magic herb that she put in the soup when you brought cabbage home to her. If you find this grass and smell it, you might become like other people again.

This, of course, did not particularly console the dwarf: how could he find this grass? But he still had a little hope.

A few days after this, a prince, his neighbor and friend, came to stay with the duke. The Duke immediately called the dwarf to him and said to him:

“Now it’s time to show whether you serve me faithfully and whether you know your art well.” This prince, who came to visit me, loves to eat well and understands cooking. Look, prepare for us such dishes that the prince will be surprised every day. And don’t even think about serving the same dish twice while the prince is visiting me. Then you will have no mercy. Take from my treasurer everything you need, even give us baked gold, just so as not to disgrace yourself before the prince.

“Don’t worry, your grace,” Jacob replied, bowing low. “I’ll be able to please your dainty prince.”

The dwarf's heart sank: he had never heard of such a pie. But he didn’t even show that he was embarrassed, and answered:

“Oh, sir, I hoped that you would stay with us for a long time, and I wanted to treat you to the “queen’s pie” as a farewell. After all, this is the king of all pies, as you yourself well know.

- Oh, that's how it is! - said the Duke and laughed. “You’ve never treated me to the queen’s pie either.” You will probably bake it on the day of my death to pamper me one last time. But come up with another dish for this occasion! Let the “queen’s pie” be on the table tomorrow! Do you hear?

“Yes, Mr. Duke,” Jacob answered and left, preoccupied and upset.

That's when his day of shame came! How does he know how this pie is baked?

He went to his room and began to cry bitterly. Mimi the goose saw this from her cage and felt sorry for him.

-What are you crying about, Jacob? - she asked, and when Jacob told her about the “queen’s pie,” she said: “Wipe your tears and don’t be upset.” This pie was often served in our home, and I seem to remember how to bake it. Take so much flour and add such and such seasoning - and the pie is ready. And if it lacks something, it’s not a big deal. The Duke and Prince won't notice anyway. They don't have such a picky taste.

- Oh, how delicious! - he exclaimed. “It’s not for nothing that this pie is called the king of all pies.” But my dwarf is the king of all cooks. Isn't it true, prince?

The prince carefully bit off a tiny piece, chewed it thoroughly, rubbed it with his tongue and said, smiling indulgently and pushing the plate away:

- Not a bad dish! But he is far from being the “queen’s pie.” I thought so!

The Duke blushed with annoyance and frowned angrily:

- Nasty dwarf! - he shouted. “How dare you disgrace your master like that?” You should have your head cut off for cooking like that!

- Master! - Jacob shouted, falling to his knees. — I baked this pie properly. Everything you need is included in it.

- You're lying, scoundrel! - the Duke shouted and pushed the dwarf away with his foot. “My guest would not be in vain to say that there is something missing in the pie.” I’ll order you to be ground up and baked into a pie, you such a freak!

- Have mercy on me! - the dwarf cried pitifully, grabbing the prince by the hem of his dress. “Don’t let me die over a handful of flour and meat!” Tell me, what’s missing in this pie, why didn’t you like it so much?

“That won’t help you much, my dear Nose,” the prince answered with a laugh. “I already thought yesterday that you wouldn’t be able to bake this pie the way my cook bakes it.” It's missing one herb that no one knows about. It's called "sneeze for health." Without this herb, the “queen’s pie” will not taste the same, and your master will never have to taste it the way I make it.

- No, I’ll try it, and very soon! - the Duke shouted. “I swear on my ducal honor, either you will see such a pie on the table tomorrow, or the head of this scoundrel will stick out on the gates of my palace.” Get out, dog! I give you twenty-four hours to save your life.

The poor dwarf, crying bitterly, went to his room and complained to the goose about his grief. Now he can no longer escape death! After all, he had never heard of the herb called “sneeze for health.”

“If that’s the problem,” said Mimi, “then I can help you.” My father taught me to recognize all the herbs. If it had been two weeks ago, you might really have been in danger of death, but, fortunately, now there is a new moon, and at this time that grass is blooming. Are there any old chestnuts somewhere near the palace?

- Yes! Yes! - the dwarf shouted joyfully. — There are several chestnuts growing in the garden, very close to here. But why do you need them?

“This grass,” answered Mimi, “grows only under old chestnut trees.” Let's not waste time and go look for her now. Take me in your arms and carry me out of the palace.

The dwarf took Mimi in his arms, walked with her to the palace gates and wanted to go out. But the gatekeeper blocked his way.

“No, my dear Nose,” he said, “I have strict orders not to let you leave the palace.”

“Can’t I even take a walk in the garden?” - asked the dwarf. “Please, send someone to the caretaker and ask if I can walk around the garden and collect grass.”

The gatekeeper sent to ask the caretaker, and the caretaker allowed it: the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and it was impossible to escape from it.

Going out into the garden, the dwarf carefully put Mimi on the ground, and she, hobbling, ran to the chestnut trees that grew on the shore of the lake. Jacob, saddened, followed her.

“If Mimi doesn’t find that grass,” he thought, “I’ll drown in the lake. It’s still better than letting your head be cut off.”

Meanwhile, Mimi visited every chestnut tree, turned over every blade of grass with her beak, but in vain - the “sneeze to health” grass was nowhere to be seen. The goose even cried out of grief. Evening was approaching, it was getting dark, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the stems of the grass. By chance the dwarf looked at the other side of the lake and shouted joyfully:

- Look, Mimi, see - there’s another big old chestnut on the other side! Let's go there and look, maybe my happiness is growing under it.

The goose flapped her wings heavily and flew away, and the dwarf ran after her at full speed on his little legs. Crossing the bridge, he approached the chestnut tree. The chestnut was thick and spreading, almost nothing was visible under it in the semi-darkness. And suddenly Mimi flapped her wings and even jumped for joy. She quickly stuck her beak in the grass, picked a flower and said, carefully handing it to Jacob:

- Here is the herb “sneeze for health.” There is a lot of it growing here, so it will last you a long time.

And suddenly Jacob trembled all over with excitement.

“You know, Mimi,” he shouted, “this seems to be the same flower that turned me from a squirrel into a dwarf!” I'll try to smell it.

“Wait a little,” said Mimi. — Take a bunch of this grass with you, and we’ll go back to your room. Collect your money and everything you earned while serving with the Duke, and then we will try the power of this wonderful herb.

Jacob obeyed Mimi, although his heart was beating loudly with impatience. He ran to his room. Having tied a hundred ducats and several pairs of clothes into a bundle, he stuck his long nose into the flowers and smelled them. And suddenly his joints began to crack, his neck stretched, his head immediately rose from his shoulders, his nose began to become smaller and smaller, and his legs became longer and longer, his back and chest straightened out, and he became the same as all people. Mimi looked at Jacob with great surprise.

- How beautiful you are! - she screamed. - Now you don’t look like an ugly dwarf at all!

Jacob was very happy. He wanted to immediately run to his parents and show himself to them, but he remembered his savior.

“If it weren’t for you, dear Mimi, I would have remained a dwarf for the rest of my life and, perhaps, would have died under the executioner’s ax,” he said, gently stroking the goose’s back and wings. - I have to thank you. I will take you to your father and he will break your spell. He's smarter than all the wizards.

They traveled for a long time and finally reached this island. Wetterbock immediately broke the spell on Mimi and gave Jacob a lot of money and gifts. Jacob immediately returned to his hometown. His father and mother greeted him with joy - he had become so handsome and brought so much money!

We also need to tell you about the Duke.

The next morning, the Duke decided to fulfill his threat and cut off the dwarf's head if he did not find the herb that the prince spoke about. But Jacob could not be found anywhere.

Then the prince said that the duke had hidden the dwarf on purpose so as not to lose his best cook, and called him a deceiver. The Duke became terribly angry and declared war on the Prince. After many battles and fights, they finally made peace, and the prince, to celebrate the peace, ordered his cook to bake a real “queen pie.” This world between them was called “Cake World”.

That's the whole story about Dwarf Nose.

The story about the dwarf nose full version. Encyclopedia of fairy-tale heroes: "Dwarf nose"

Wilhelm Hauff Little Longnose

The fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for the good fellow. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

Coat of arms Daily fulfillment ensures good luck, wealth, prosperity, fame, constant success in the family, at work, in exams and other benefits. Singing while cooking adds amazing flavor to food.

Little Longnose Tale of the German storyteller Wilhelm Hauff

A new fun has begun academic year 2013-14Alphabet for kids

Pictures “TALES OF THE SEA” Pictures 86th - 90thWrite fairy tales or stories based on these pictures. and tell them to your friends and parents.

MOVIES TO WATCH AT YOUR LEISURE If the films are not visible here, .

Wonderful fairytale film "Sampo" (Alexander Ptushko, 1959)

Goldilocks (Czechoslovakia)

Finist - Clear Falcon (1975)

Ilya Muromets (1956)

See page "" and pages of the "" section

For more details, see the page "" and on the page "". Also " ".

Dishes for children's delight

Read the fairy tale Dwarf Nose

Wilhelm Hauff
Little Longnose

The fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for the good fellow.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

Coat of arms

Daily fulfillment ensures good luck, wealth, prosperity, fame, constant success in the family, at work, in exams and other benefits.
Singing while cooking adds amazing flavor to food.

Little Longnose
Tale of the German storyteller Wilhelm Hauff

A new fun has begun academic year 2013-14
Alphabet for kids

Pictures “TALES OF THE SEA”
Pictures 86th - 90th
Write fairy tales or stories based on these pictures.
and tell them to your friends and parents.

MOVIES TO WATCH AT YOUR LEISURE
If the films are not visible here, .

Wonderful fairytale film "Sampo"
(Alexander Ptushko, 1959)

Goldilocks
(Czechoslovakia)

Finist - Clear Falcon
(1975)

Ilya Muromets
(1956)

See page ""
and pages of the "" section

For more details, see the page ""
and on the page "".
Also " ".