The Firebird and Other Russian Fairy Tales by Arthur Ransome

greater and greater towards noon.
    â€œOh,” said little Vanoushka, “my throat is so dry. I want a drink. I must have a drink—just a little drink of cool water.”
    â€œWe must go on,” said Alenoushka, “till we come to a well. Then we will drink.”
    They went on along the track, with their eyes burning and their throats as dry as sand on a stove.
    But presently Vanoushka cried out joyfully. He saw a horse’s hoofmark in the ground. And it was full of water, like a little well.
    â€œSister, sister,” says he, “the horse has made a little well for me with his great hoof, and now we can have a drink; and oh, but I am thirsty!”
    â€œNot yet, brother,” says Alenoushka. “If you drink from the hoofmark of a horse, you will turn into a little foal, and that would never do.”
    â€œI am so very thirsty,” says Vanoushka; but he did as his sister told him, and they walked on together under the burning sun.
    A little farther on Vanoushka saw the hoofmark of a cow, and there was water in it glittering in the sun.
    â€œSister, sister,” says Vanoushka, “the cow has made a little well for me, and now I can have a drink.”
    â€œNot yet, brother,” says Alenoushka. “If you drink from the hoofmark of a cow, you will turn into a little calf, and that would never do. We must go on till we come to a well. There we will drink and rest ourselves. There will be trees by the well, and shadows, and we will lie down there by the quiet water and cool our hands and feet, and perhaps our eyes will stop burning.”
    So they went on farther along the track that scorched the bare soles of their feet, and under the sun that burned their heads and their little bare necks. The sun was high in the sky above them, and it seemed to Vanoushka that they would never come to the well.
    But when they had walked on and on, and he was nearly crying with thirst, only that the sun had dried up all his tears and burnt them before they had time to come into his eyes, he saw another footprint. It was quite a tiny footprint, divided in the middle—the footprint of a sheep; and in it was a little drop of clear water, sparkling in the sun. He said nothing to his sister, nothing at all. But he went down on his hands and knees and drank that water, that little drop of clear water, to cool his burning throat. And he had no sooner drunk it than he had turned into a little lamb who ran round and round Alenoushka, frisking and leaping, with its little tail tossing in the air.
    Alenoushka looked round for her brother, but could not see him. But there was the little lamb, leaping round her, trying to lick her face, and there in the ground was the print left by the sheep’s foot.
    She guessed at once what had happened, and burst into tears. There was a hayrick close by, and under the hayrick Alenoushka sat down and wept. The little lamb, seeing her so sad, stood gravely in front of her; but not for long, for he was a little lamb, and he could not help himself. However sad he felt, he had to leap and frisk in the sun, and toss his little white tail.
    Presently a fine gentleman came riding by on his big black horse. He stopped when he came to the hayrick. He was very much surprised at seeing a beautiful little girl sitting there, crying her eyes out, while a white lamb frisked this way and that, and played before her, and now and then ran up to her and licked the tears from her face with its little pink tongue.
    â€œWhat is your name,” says the fine gentleman, “and why are you in trouble? Perhaps I may be able to help you.”
    â€œMy name is Alenoushka, and this is my little brother Vanoushka, whom I love.” And she told him the whole story.
    â€œWell, I can hardly believe all that,” says the fine gentleman. “But come with me, and I will dress you in fine clothes, and set silver ornaments in your hair, and bracelets of gold on your little brown