yellow-green fairy tale book

Chapter 14 The Adventures of Little Maya (1)
Long, long ago, in the middle of the forest lived a woman who had a beautiful house and garden.

She lived very happily all summer, tending the flowers in the garden, and listening to the birds singing in the woods.But in winter, when the snow fell and the wolves came and howled around the house, the woman felt very lonely and frightened.She used to say to herself, "How sweet and happy it would be if I had a child who could talk, even if he was very small!" The more the snow fell, the more often she said these words.Finally one day, when she could no longer bear this loneliness and isolation, she decided to set off to a nearby village and ask someone to sell her or rent her a child.

The snow was getting bigger and bigger, and it had buried her ankles. It took the old woman almost an hour to walk a few hundred meters.

At this time, the old woman murmured in her heart: "If you walk at this speed, you won't be able to reach the first house before dark." So she stopped and looked around, and suddenly she found a man wearing a A small woman in a tall hat came out from behind a tree ahead.

The little woman asked: "This is really not a good weather to go out! Where are you going?"

"Well, I'm going to the village, but I don't know if I can get there," replied the old woman.

"Then may I take the liberty to ask, is there any important business for you to go to the village?" asked the little woman again, who was actually a witch.

The old woman said: "The family is too dull, no one can talk to me, and it's too lonely to be alone, so I want to find a child, no matter how young, I just need someone to keep me company."

"Oh, if that's all you need, you don't have to go any further," said the witch, putting her hand into the basket. "Look, here's a big grain of barley, and you can give it to me for twelve shillings." .Just plant it in a pot, give it some water and in a few days you will see miracles."

The old woman was so refreshed by this promise that she happily paid.As soon as she got home, she couldn't wait to dig a hole in the flowerpot and put the seeds in it.

She waited for three days, barely taking her eyes off the flower pot in the warm corner.On the third morning, when she woke up, she found that when she fell asleep, a tulip tree had grown in the flower pot, and against the backdrop of green leaves, a red flower bud was just about to bloom.

"What a beautiful flower!" exclaimed the old woman, stooping down and kissing it.Just then, the red petals opened, and inside was a lovely little girl, only an inch high.The little girl sits on a violet cushion and is covered with rose-colored leaves.At this time, she opened her eyes and gave the old woman a sweet smile, as if she already knew her.

"Oh dear! I shall never be alone again!" exclaimed the old woman cheerfully.The little girl also nodded and seemed to say:
"Yes, you will never be alone again!"

The old woman immediately found a large walnut shell, covered it with several layers of white satin, and then put a cushion on it, and then put the little girl on it. This was Maya's bed.She named the little girl Maya.The old woman put little Maya's bed on a chair beside her own.In the morning, the old woman would put a leaf in a bowl full of water and hold her out on top, and give her two white horsehairs to paddle with.Maya was the happiest child in the world. She sang songs all day long, but no one understood what she was singing, and she used her own language.

For weeks they lived happily together, in each other's company, without ever feeling bored.But the good times didn't last long. One night, after a hard day's work, the adoptive mother was so tired that she fell asleep.A big, ugly toad, wet all over, jumped in through the window, and saw Maia lying there under the rose-leaf quilt, and stared in surprise.

"My God, what a pretty little girl!" said the toad to herself, "how wonderful it would be to be my son's wife!" So it took the walnut shell cradle to its mouth, jumped out of the window, and came to the river. By the creek in the garden.

"Come and see what I have brought you," cried Toad, as soon as he reached his home in the Mire.

"Cack! Cack! Cack!" The little toad stared at the sleeping girl and cried happily.

"Hush, be quiet, don't wake her!" whispered Mother Toad, "I want her to be your wife, and when we are planning the wedding, I will put her on the lily pad in the middle of the brook." Come on, so she can't escape."

At dawn, Maia woke up and found herself trapped in a floating green prison, with a look of confusion and fear.She stood up and looked around, hoping to find a way of escape, but there was none.So she sat down again and wept bitterly.At this time the old toad was busy decorating the house at home deep in the mud pond, weaving rushes into soft carpets, and twining reeds and vines around the door, so as to make the bride's room neat and beautiful, when suddenly it heard little Maya's voice. cries.

"Ah! The poor little girl feels sad, and doesn't know what to do," said the old Toad sympathetically, for after all she was not so wicked. "Okay, the work is done, my son and I will pick her up right now. If she sees my son so handsome, she will be very happy." Soon they came under the lotus leaves.

"This is your future husband. Have you ever seen someone so handsome?" asked Mother Toad proudly, pushing her son forward.But when she saw her son, Maya cried even more; all the little fishes that lived in the stream swam to see what had happened.

"It's so pitiful that such a beautiful little girl should be forced to marry someone she doesn't like." The little fishes whispered to each other, "And such an ugly husband! However, we must stop this matter. It's not difficult." They took turns to bite the stem of the water lily growing under the water, and the flower stem was finally bitten off by these little fishes, and they held it again, and took Maia to float far away, until they reached the small stream Where it joins the great river.

what!How much Maya enjoyed the trip when she was sure that Toad would never find her again!She passed many towns along the way, and people on the shore turned to look at her and exclaimed:
"What a sweet little girl! Where did she come from?"

"How cute is this little girl!" cried the birds in the bushes.A blue butterfly is in love with Maia and doesn't want to leave her for a moment.So she untied her belt, tied it on the butterfly, and riding on such a flying horse, she traveled much faster than before.

Unfortunately, a very large beetle, which was buzzing over the river, happened to see her and caught her in its claws.The poor butterfly saw that the scarab was very frightened, and it struggled desperately. Finally, one end of the belt came loose, and it ran away, toward the direction of the sun.Maya, however, was not so lucky, and although the scarab collected nectar for her lunch and praised her several times for her beauty, Maya felt uncomfortable with it.The scarab noticed this, and got its sisters to play with her, but they just looked at Maya roughly and said:
"Where did you find such a strange thing, she is so ugly and only has two legs."

"Yes, and no tentacles, either," added the other, "and so skinny! Well, our brothers have really strange tastes."

"Indeed!" the other echoed.They said it over and over again, and so loudly that they did not know how many times they said it, until at last even the Scarab thought so himself.So it took Maya down from the tree and dropped her on a daisy near the ground.

Maya stayed here for a whole summer, but she really didn't feel unhappy.She tried to weave a small bed for herself out of grass blades, and spread it under the big leaves of clover to protect her from the wind and rain.The red hat on the moss's head held enough dew for her to drink, and the beetle had taught her how to gather nectar.However, summer always has to pass.Slowly the flowers withered, and the dew was replaced by snow and ice.Maia didn't know what to do, her clothes were worn out, and although she managed to wrap herself in flower petals, the petals broke when her fingers touched them.Later, she understood that if she did not find a new hiding place, she would die of hunger and cold.

At last she mustered up the courage to decide to leave the forest, and cross the field of wheat that had been green in summer but now was nothing but a heap of hard stalks.She walked and walked with difficulty, walking alone in this desolate wheat field, with almost nothing but the blue sky above her head.Suddenly, she saw a door leading to the ground.

"Anyway, it will be warmer inside." Maya thought, "Maybe the people living inside will give me something to eat. After all, it can't be worse than my current situation!" She said bravely Courage walked down the passage, and soon saw a half-open door.Peering furtively into the room, she saw that it was full of grain.This made her full of confidence and quickened her pace.She went all the way to a kitchen and saw an old field mouse baking a cake.

"You poor little animal." The field mouse had never seen anyone so small as her. "You look very hungry. Come and sit down, warm yourself, and eat with me!"

What the old field mouse said made Maya almost cry with joy.There was no need to ask her a second time, and she began to eat more than she had ever eaten at once in her life, though not as much for breakfast as a little hummingbird.

When she had had enough, she put her hands down and smiled.The old field mouse said to her, "Can you tell stories? If you can, you will stay and live with me until the sun warms up, and you can help me tidy up the room. This place is very dull in winter, unless Have a clever partner for fun."

Maya had heard many stories from her adoptive mother before, as well as stories about her solo adventures and near-death experiences.She knows how to clean the house and gets up early every day to clean Mrs Field Mouse's room.

This winter was spent very happily, and Maya began to talk about spring, whether she would go back to the ground to find her happiness when spring came.

(End of this chapter)