Ukrainian Folktales: 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. She then lit the oven, baked the bun and
put it on the windowsill to cool...
by Volodimir Boyko, Translated by Irina Zheleznova
Illustrations by Yuliy Kryha
The Little Round Bun
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. She then
lit the oven, baked the bun and put it on the windowsill to cool. 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.
"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.
By and by it met a Wolf coming toward it.
"I'm going to eat you up, Little Round Bun!" called the Wolf.
"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!"
