CHILDREN, NATURAL SCIENCE STORIES, POPULAR EDUCATION, DECEMBRISTS, MORAL
TALES***


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The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy
Volume XII.


[Illustration: "The clerk beat Sidor's face until the blood came"

_Photogravure from Painting by A. Kivshenko_]


FABLES FOR CHILDREN
STORIES FOR CHILDREN
NATURAL SCIENCE STORIES
POPULAR EDUCATION
DECEMBRISTS
MORAL TALES

by

COUNT LEV N. TOLSTOY

Translated from the Original Russian and Edited by

LEO WIENER

Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages at Harvard University







[Illustration]

Boston
Dana Estes & Company
Publishers

Edition De Luxe
Limited to One Thousand Copies,
of which this is
No. 411

_Copyright, 1904_
By Dana Estes & Company

_Entered at Stationers' Hall_

Colonial Press: Electrotyped and Printed by
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, Mass., U. S. A.




CONTENTS


                                                PAGE
  FABLES FOR CHILDREN
  Aesop's Fables                                   3
  Adaptations and Imitations of Hindoo Fables     19

  STORIES FOR CHILDREN
  The Foundling                                   39
  The Peasant and the Cucumbers                   40
  The Fire                                        41
  The Old Horse                                   43
  How I Learned to Ride                           46
  The Willow                                      49
  Bulka                                           51
  Bulka and the Wild Boar                         53
  Pheasants                                       56
  Milton and Bulka                                58
  The Turtle                                      60
  Bulka and the Wolf                              62
  What Happened to Bulka in Pyatigorsk            65
  Bulka's and Milton's End                        68
  The Gray Hare                                   70
  God Sees the Truth, but Does Not Tell at Once   72
  Hunting Worse than Slavery                      82
  A Prisoner of the Caucasus                      92
  Ermak                                          124

  NATURAL SCIENCE STORIES
  Stories From Physics:
    The Magnet                                   137
    Moisture                                     140
    The Different Connection of Particles        142
    Crystals                                     143
    Injurious Air                                146
    How Balloons Are Made                        150
    Galvanism                                    152
    The Sun's Heat                               156
  Stories From Zoology:
    The Owl and the Hare                         159
    How the Wolves Teach Their Whelps            160
    Hares and Wolves                             161
    The Scent                                    162
    Touch and Sight                              164
    The Silkworm                                 165
  Stories From Botany:
    The Apple-Tree                               170
    The Old Poplar                               172
    The Bird-Cherry                              174
    How Trees Walk                               176

  The Decembrists                                181
  On Popular Education                           251
  What Men Live By                               327
  The Three Hermits                              363
  Neglect the Fire                               375
  The Candle                                     395
  The Two Old Men                                409
  Where Love Is, There God Is Also               445

  TEXTS FOR CHAPBOOK ILLUSTRATIONS
  The Fiend Persists, but God Resists            463
  Little Girls Wiser than Old People             466
  The Two Brothers and the Gold                  469
  Ilyas                                          472

  A Fairy-Tale about Ivan the Fool               481




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                PAGE
  "The clerk beat Sidor's face until the blood
  came" (_The Candle, see page 397_)           _Frontispiece_
  "'Whose knife is this?'"                        73
  "'God will forgive you'"                        81
  "They rode off to the mountains"                96
  "'Whither are you bound?'"                     332
  "But the candle was still burning"             403




FABLES FOR CHILDREN

1869-1872




FABLES FOR CHILDREN




I. AESOP'S FABLES


THE ANT AND THE DOVE

An Ant came down to the brook: he wanted to drink. A wave washed him
down and almost drowned him. A Dove was carrying a branch; she saw the
Ant was drowning, so she cast the branch down to him in the brook. The
Ant got up on the branch and was saved. Then a hunter placed a snare for
the Dove, and was on the point of drawing it in. The Ant crawled up to
the hunter and bit him on the leg; the hunter groaned and dropped the
snare. The Dove fluttered upwards and flew away.


THE TURTLE AND THE EAGLE

A Turtle asked an Eagle to teach her how to fly. The Eagle advised her
not to try, as she was not fit for it; but she insisted. The Eagle took
her in his claws, raised her up, and dropped her: she fell on stones and
broke to pieces.


THE POLECAT

A Polecat entered a smithy and began to lick the filings. Blood began to
flow from the Polecat's mouth, but he was glad and continued to lick; he
thought that the blood was coming from the iron, and lost his whole
tongue.


THE LION AND THE MOUSE

A Lion was sleeping. A Mouse ran over his body. He awoke and caught her.
The Mouse besought him; she said:

"Let me go, and I will do you a favour!"

The Lion laughed at the Mouse for promising him a favour, and let her
go.

Then the hunters caught the Lion and tied him with a rope to a tree. The
Mouse heard the Lion's roar, ran up, gnawed the rope through, and said:

"Do you remember? You laughed, not thinking that I could repay, but now
you see that a favour may come also from a Mouse."


THE LIAR

A Boy was watching the sheep and, pretending that he saw a wolf, he
began to cry:

"Help! A wolf! A wolf!"

The peasants came running up and saw that it was not so. After doing
this for a second and a third time, it happened that a wolf came indeed.
The Boy began to cry:

"Come, come, quickly, a wolf!"

The peasants thought that he was deceiving them as usual, and paid no
attention to him. The wolf saw there was no reason to be afraid: he
leisurely killed the whole flock.


THE ASS AND THE HORSE

A man had an Ass and a Horse. They were walking on the road; the Ass
said to the Horse:

"It is heavy for me.--I shall not be able to carry it all; take at least
a part of my load."

The Horse paid no attention to him. The Ass fell down from overstraining
himself, and died. When the master transferred the Ass's load on the
Horse, and added the Ass's hide, the Horse began to complain:

"Oh, woe to me, poor one, woe to me, unfortunate Horse! I did not want
to help him even a little, and now I have to carry everything, and his
hide, too."


THE JACKDAW AND THE DOVES

A Jackdaw saw that the Doves were well fed,--so she painted herself
white and flew into the dove-cot. The Doves thought at first that she
was a dove like them, and let her in. But the Jackdaw forgot herself and
croaked in jackdaw fashion. Then the Doves began to pick at her and
drove her away. The Jackdaw flew back to her friends, but the jackdaws
were frightened at her, seeing her white, and themselves drove her away.


THE WOMAN AND THE HEN

A Hen laid an egg each day. The Mistress thought that if she gave her
more to eat, she would lay twice as much. So she did. The Hen grew fat
and stopped laying.


THE LION, THE BEAR, AND THE FOX

A Lion and a Bear procured some meat and began to fight for it. The Bear
did not want to give in, nor did the Lion yield. They fought for so long
a time that they both grew feeble and lay down. A Fox saw the meat
between them; she grabbed it and ran away with it.


THE DOG, THE COCK, AND THE FOX

A Dog and a Cock went to travel together. At night the Cock fell asleep
in a tree, and the Dog fixed a place for himself between the roots of
that tree. When the time came, the Cock began to crow. A Fox heard the
Cock, ran up to the tree, and began to beg the Cock to come down, as she
wanted to give him her respects for such a fine voice.

The Cock said:

"You must first wake up the janitor,--he is sleeping between the roots.
Let him open up, and I will come down."

The Fox began to look for the janitor, and started yelping. The Dog
sprang out at once and killed the Fox.


THE HORSE AND THE GROOM

A Groom stole the Horse's oats, and sold them, but he cleaned the Horse
each day. Said the Horse:

"If you really wish me to be in good condition, do not sell my oats."


THE FROG AND THE LION

A Lion heard a Frog croaking, and thought it was a large beast that was
calling so loud. He walked up, and saw a Frog coming out of the swamp.
The Lion crushed her with his paw and said:

"There is nothing to look at, and yet I was frightened."


THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANTS

In the fall the wheat of the Ants got wet; they were drying it. A hungry
Grasshopper asked them for something to eat. The Ants said:

"Why did you not gather food during the summer?"

She said:

"I had no time: I sang songs."

They laughed, and said:

"If you sang in the summer, dance in the winter!"


THE HEN AND THE GOLDEN EGGS

A master had a Hen which laid golden eggs. He wanted more gold at once,
and so killed the Hen (he thought that inside of her there was a large
lump of gold), but she was just like any other hen.


THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN

An Ass put on a lion's skin, and all thought it was a lion. Men and
animals ran away from him. A wind sprang up, and the skin was blown
aside, and the Ass could be seen. People ran up and beat the Ass.


THE HEN AND THE SWALLOW

A Hen found some snake's eggs and began to sit on them. A Swallow saw it
and said:

"Stupid one! You will hatch them out, and, when they grow up, you will
be the first one to suffer from them."


THE STAG AND THE FAWN

A Fawn once said to a Stag:

"Father, you are larger and fleeter than the dogs, and, besides, you
have huge antlers for defence; why, then, are you so afraid of the
dogs?"

The Stag laughed, and said:

"You speak the truth, my child. The trouble is,--the moment I hear the
dogs bark, I run before I have time to think."


THE FOX AND THE GRAPES

A Fox saw some ripe bunches of grapes hanging high, and tried to get at
them, in order to eat them.

She tried hard, but could not get them. To drown her annoyance she said:

"They are still sour."


THE MAIDS AND THE COCK

A mistress used to wake the Maids at night and, as soon as the cocks
crowed, put them to work. The Maids found that hard, and decided to kill
the Cock, so that the mistress should not be wakened. They killed him,
but now they suffered more than ever: the mistress was afraid that she
would sleep past the time and so began to wake the Maids earlier.


THE FISHERMAN AND THE FISH

A Fisherman caught a Fish. Said the Fish:

"Fisherman, let me go into the water; you see I am small: you will have
little profit of me. If you let me go, I shall grow up, and then you
will catch me when it will be worth while."

But the Fisherman said:

"A fool would be he who should wait for greater profit, and let the
lesser slip out of his hands."


THE FOX AND THE GOAT

A Goat wanted to drink. He went down the incline to the well, drank his
fill, and gained in weight. He started to get out, but could not do so.
He began to bleat. A Fox saw him and said:

"That's it, stupid one! If you had as much sense in your head as there
are hairs in your beard, you would have thought of how to get out before
you climbed down."


THE DOG AND HER SHADOW

A Dog was crossing the river over a plank, carrying a piece of meat in
her teeth. She saw herself in the water and thought that another dog
was carrying a piece of meat. She dropped her piece and dashed forward
to take away what the other dog had: the other meat was gone, and her
own was carried away by the stream.

And thus the Dog was left without anything.


THE CRANE AND THE STORK

A peasant put out his nets to catch the Cranes for tramping down his
field. In the nets were caught the Cranes, and with them one Stork.

The Stork said to the peasant:

"Let me go! I am not a Crane, but a Stork; we are most honoured birds; I
live on your father's house. You can see by my feathers that I am not a
Crane."

The peasant said:

"With the Cranes I have caught you, and with them will I kill you."


THE GARDENER AND HIS SONS

A Gardener wanted his Sons to get used to gardening. As he was dying, he
called them up and said to them:

"Children, when I am dead, look for what is hidden in the vineyard."

The Sons thought that it was a treasure, and when their father died,
they began to dig there, and dug up the whole ground. They did not find
the treasure, but they ploughed the vineyard up so well that it brought
forth more fruit than ever.


THE WOLF AND THE CRANE

A Wolf had a bone stuck in his throat, and could not cough it up. He
called the Crane, and said to him:

"Crane, you have a long neck. Thrust your head into my throat and draw
out the bone! I will reward you."

The Crane stuck his head in, pulled out the bone, and said:

"Give me my reward!"

The Wolf gnashed his teeth and said:

"Is it not enough reward for you that I did not bite off your head when
it was between my teeth?"


THE HARES AND THE FROGS

The Hares once got together, and began to complain about their life:

"We perish from men, and from dogs, and from eagles, and from all the
other beasts. It would be better to die at once than to live in fright
and suffer. Come, let us drown ourselves!"

And the Hares raced away to drown themselves in a lake. The Frogs heard
the Hares and plumped into the water. So one of the Hares said:

"Wait, boys! Let us put off the drowning! Evidently the Frogs are having
a harder life than we: they are afraid even of us."


THE FATHER AND HIS SONS

A Father told his Sons to live in peace: they paid no attention to him.
So he told them to bring the bath broom, and said:

"Break it!"

No matter how much they tried, they could not break it. Then the Father
unclosed the broom, and told them to break the rods singly. They broke
it.

The Father said:

"So it is with you: if you live in peace, no one will overcome you; but
if you quarrel, and are divided, any one will easily ruin you."


THE FOX

A Fox got caught in a trap. She tore off her tail, and got away. She
began to contrive how to cover up her shame. She called together the
Foxes, and begged them to cut off their tails.

"A tail," she said, "is a useless thing. In vain do we drag along a dead
weight."

One of the Foxes said:

"You would not be speaking thus, if you were not tailless!"

The tailless Fox grew silent and went away.


THE WILD ASS AND THE TAME ASS

A Wild Ass saw a Tame Ass. The Wild Ass went up to him and began to
praise his life, saying how smooth his body was, and what sweet feed he
received. Later, when the Tame Ass was loaded down, and a driver began
to goad him with a stick, the Wild Ass said:

"No, brother, I do not envy you: I see that your life is going hard with
you."


THE STAG

A Stag went to the brook to quench his thirst. He saw himself in the
water, and began to admire his horns, seeing how large and branching
they were; and he looked at his feet, and said: "But my feet are
unseemly and thin."

Suddenly a Lion sprang out and made for the Stag. The Stag started to
run over the open plain. He was getting away, but there came a forest,
and his horns caught in the branches, and the lion caught him. As the
Stag was dying, he said:

"How foolish I am! That which I thought to be unseemly and thin was
saving me, and what I gloried in has been my ruin."


THE DOG AND THE WOLF

A Dog fell asleep back of the yard. A Wolf ran up and wanted to eat him.

Said the Dog:

"Wolf, don't eat me yet: now I am lean and bony. Wait a little,--my
master is going to celebrate a wedding;