Atondido Stories
Kubik thought to himself: “I won’t go the way I went yester-
day or I may meet that old frog again and then, when I get
home, the only prize I’ll get will be another beating.”
So he took a different path but he hadn’t gone far before the old
frog hopped up in front of him.
“What’s the matter, Kubik?” she asked.
At first Kubik didn’t want to tell her but she questioned him
and finally, not to seem rude, he told her about the beating his
father had given him on account of Kachenka’s ring and about
the new quest for embroidered kerchiefs upon which his father
was now sending him and his brothers.
“Now don’t think any more about that whipping,” the old
frog advised him. “And as for an embroidered kerchief, why, Ka-
chenka is the very girl for that! She will give you one that will
make your brothers open their eyes!”
Kubik wasn’t sure that he wanted to accept another of Ka-
chenka’s gifts, but the old frog urged him and at last he agreed.
So again they took the path to the rocky cliff. The old frog called
her daughter out as before and presently Kachenka appeared
dragging a chest that was filled with the most wonderful of ker-
chiefs, all of fine silk and all richly embroidered and so large that
they were more like shawls than kerchiefs.
Kubik reached in and took the first that came to hand.
“Tut, tut!” the old frog said. “That’s no way to select a ker-
chief.”
Then she herself picked out the biggest and the most richly
embroidered of them all and wrapped it up in paper. She gave it
to Kubik and said:
“Now hurry home, for your brothers are already there and
your father is waiting for you.”
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