Page 117 - Blue Feather Book 1

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me to her sister, and you know that is Baba Yaga. I cannot go back home, but I am afraid that Baba Yaga will eat me with her iron teeth.”
“Courage,” the mouse said, “It is a hard situation you are in, but not impossible. As you travel, take all the things you find on the road and keep them to do with what you like. Follow the wisdom of your kind heart, and I believe that you will escape from Baba Yaga. Before you go, let us eat. What do you have in your bundle?”
The girl unfastened the towel, but there was nothing in it but stones. That was what the stepmother had given the girl to eat along the way. “I am so sorry,” the little girl said. “There is nothing for us to eat.”
“Are you sure?” the little mouse asked, and the little girl saw the stones turn to bread and jam. She sat down on the fallen tree, and the mouse sat beside her. Together, they ate bread and jam until they were not hungry anymore.
“Keep the towel,” the mouse said when they were done. “I think it will be useful. Remember what I said about the things you find along the way.”
They said their goodbyes, and the girl began to run along the road through the forest. She found a bottle of oil, which she picked up. As she ran further, she found a loaf of bread. “Someone will probably like it,” she said, and took that with her also. She ran on and on, and then she found some scraps of dried meat. “I’d better take these scraps too, just in case,” the girl said.
And then, the girl came to a hut that stood on hen’s legs and walked around the yard. There was a high fence around it with a big gate. The girl tried to open the gates, but the hinges squeaked miserably as if it hurt them to move. “How lucky that I picked up this bottle of oil!” the girl said as she poured it into the hinges of the gate.
As she walked into the yard, she saw a huge dog, very thin, gnawing a dry bread crust. “How lucky that I picked up this loaf!” the little girl said. She gave the loaf of bread to the dog, who gobbled it down.
The little girl summoned her courage, walked up to the hut, and knocked on the door.
The Blue Feather Literature First Course