Once upon a time there lived a married couple. They lived well. They brought up their son and daughter together. Their daughter was a real beauty, she was so beautiful that when she smiled, the whole neighborhood began to drown in magic light, and when she combed her hair, golden dust would fall from there.
Then this girl’s mother died, her father did not grieve long and took another woman as his wife. The new wife came to their house with her children and hated her husband’s son and daughter. When the man’s son grew older he hired himself out to a rich gentleman as a coachman. He worried about his sister all the time and thought day and night about how she was without him. He longed for his sister so much that he even drew a portrait of her and hung it on the door of the stables.
Every time he looked at the portrait of his sister, he would involuntarily smile. When he got down to work, the sadness would come over him again with redoubled force. Such mood swings of the lad were not unnoticed by his master, and he asked his employee:
– Boy, I can’t understand why you’re always cheerful in the stable, but when you come out of it, you get gloomier than a cloud.
– I’ve got my sister at home. I have painted her portrait and hung it in the stable, and so when I go in there I look at it and my heart is glad, and when I come out I am sad again.
– If I may, I should like to see a portrait of your sister, is she as beautiful as you say she is? – said the gentleman.
The boy brought the portrait of his sister and showed it to his master:
– Is your little sister really as pretty as in your drawing?
– She’s even prettier in real life,” replied the lad.
– Well, then you bring her to me, and I will marry her.
The young man came home and relayed the whole conversation to his stepmother and father. The stepmother and her daughter also decided to go to that lord. They all got into a carriage together and set off. On the way, the brother said to his sister:
– Don’t put your face out the window, or it will get chilly.
The sister did not hear her brother’s words, so she asked her stepmother:
– Didn’t you hear what my brother said?
– He said to look out the window,” the woman answered her.
The girl looked out the window and at that very moment the stepmother took her and pushed her out of the carriage. The girl hit the ground and turned into a duck, and then she went up into the sky and flew away.
When they arrived at that lord’s house, the stepmother’s daughter got out of the carriage and smiled at him with her yellow teeth, and then she shook her head and her dirty hair scattered over her shoulders. The master looked at her and was frightened.
– Why did you deceive me,” said the lord to his coachman and locked him in the dungeon.
After nightfall, a duck flew in to the lad and began to sing to him in a maiden’s voice. The guard heard her singing, and in the morning he told his master all about it.
The next night the lord himself came to the dungeon to hear the duck singing. Then he caught her and asked:
– Is there no way to save you?
– I have a chain on my leg,” replied the duck; “if you can break it with one blow, I will be a girl again.
Then the lord took his sword and touched the chain with it, and then it fell down. Then the duck became a beautiful girl again. The lord was very happy about what had happened and freed the boy from his imprisonment. Then he married that girl and their wedding was the most lavish in that county.
At first the lord wanted to punish the wicked stepmother and her daughter, but the good bride asked him to let them go in peace.
