Ukrainian folk tale

The Little Round Bun

Translated by Irina Zheleznova
freebooksforkids.net
Illustrated by A.Savchenko

Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman who were very poor and had nothing at all to their name. And they kept getting poorer and poorer till there was nothing left to eat in the house, not even bread.

Said the old man:

"Do bake us a bun, old woman! If you scrape out the flour-box and sweep out the bin, you'll have enough flour."

So the old woman scraped out the flour-box and swept out the bin, she made some dough and she shaped a little round bun out of it.

The Little Round Bun

She then lit the oven, baked the bun and put it on the window sill to cool.

The Little Round Bun

But the bun jumped out of the window and onto the bench outside, and from the bench onto the ground, and away it rolled along the road!

On and on it rolled, and it met a Rabbit coming toward it.

"I'm going to eat you up, Little Round Bun!" called the Rabbit.

The Little Round Bun

"Don't do that, Fleet-Feet, let me sing you a song instead," said Little Round Bun.

"All right, let's hear it!"

"Here it is!

"I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I 'll run away from you, this minute I will!"

And off it rolled and away.

The Little Round Bun

By and by it met a Wolf coming toward it.

"I'm going to eat you up, Little Round Bun!" called the Wolf.

The Little Round Bun

"Don't do that, Brother Wolf, let me sing you a song instead."

"All right, let's hear it!"

"I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin,
And baked in the oven,
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I'll run away from you, this minute I will!"

And away it rolled.

By and by it met a Bear coming toward it.

"I'm going to eat you up, Little Round Bun!" called the Bear.

The Little Round Bun

"Don't do that, Brother Bear, I'll sing you a song instead!"

"All right, let's hear it!"

And off it rolled and away!

The Little Round Bun

By and by it met a Fox coming toward it.

"I'm going to eat you up, Little Round Bun!" called the Fox.

The Little Round Bun

"Don't do that, Sister Fox, I'll sing you a song instead."

"All right, let's hear it!"

"I was scraped from the flour-box,
And swept from the bin,
And baked in the oven,
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I'll run away from you, this minute I will!"

"Sing some more, please, don't stop!" the Fox said. "Hop onto my tongue, so I can hear you better."

Little Round Bun jumped onto the Fox's tongue and began to sing:

"I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin — "

The Little Round Bun