Three Bears (with illustration), p. 1

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Three Bears

One girl left home for the forest. She got lost in the forest and began to look for her way home, but she did not find it, but came to the house in the forest.

The door was open; she looked at the door, saw that there was no one in the house, and entered.

Three bears lived in this house. One bear was a father, his name was Mikhail Ivanovich. He was big and shaggy. The other was a bear. She was smaller, and her name was Nastasya Petrovna. The third was a little bear cub, and his name was Mishutka. The bears were not at home - they went for a walk in the forest.

There were two rooms in the house: one was a dining room, the other was a bedroom. The girl entered the dining room and saw three cups of stew on the table. The first cup, very large, was Mikhaila Ivanovicheva. The second cup, smaller, was Nastasya Petrovnina. The third, little blue cup, was Mishutkin. Beside each cup lay a spoon: large, medium and small.

The girl took the biggest spoon and drank from the biggest cup; then she took the middle spoon and drank from the middle cup; then she took a small spoon and drank from a little blue cup, and Mishutka's stew seemed to her the best of all.

The girl wanted to sit down and sees three chairs at the table: one large - Mikhail Ivanovich, another smaller - Nastasya Petrovnin, and the third, small, with a blue cushion - Mishutkin.

She climbed onto a large chair and fell; then she sat down on the middle chair, it was awkward on it; then she sat down on a small chair and laughed—it was so good. She took the little blue cup on her knees and began to eat. She ate all the stew and began to swing on a chair.

The chair broke and she fell to the floor.

She got up, picked up a chair and went to another room. There were three beds: one large - Mikhail Ivanycheva, another medium - Nastasya Petrovnina, the third small - Mishenka's girl lay down in a large one - it was too spacious; lay down in the middle - it was too high; she lay down in a small one - the bed fit her just right, and she fell asleep.