The Old Man in the Sky

Once there lived an old man and an old woman, and they had a cottage. Under the table, the old man planted a bean, and the old woman planted a pea. A hen pecked…

Once there lived an old man and an old woman, and they had a cottage. Under the table, the old man planted a bean, and the old woman planted a pea. A hen pecked up the pea, but the bean grew until it touched the table. They took the table away, and the bean grew higher still. They removed the ceiling and the roof, but it kept growing until it reached the very sky. The old man climbed up to the sky. He climbed and climbed, and there stood a little cottage: its walls were made of pancakes, its benches of ring-shaped loaves, and its stove of cottage cheese spread with butter. He began to eat, ate his fill, and lay down on the stove to rest.

Then twelve goat sisters arrived. One had one eye, another had two, a third had three, and so on; the last had twelve. They saw that someone had tasted their cottage, repaired it, and when they left, they set the one-eyed sister to keep watch. The next day the old man climbed up there again. He saw the one-eyed goat and chanted:

— Sleep, little eye, sleep!

The goat fell asleep. He ate his fill and went away. The following day, the two-eyed goat kept watch, then the three-eyed goat, and so on. Each time the old man chanted:

— Sleep, little eye, sleep! Sleep, second eye! Sleep, third eye!—and so on.

But when the twelve-eyed goat was keeping watch, he lost count and put only eleven of her eyes to sleep. The goat saw him with her twelfth eye and caught him.