"Valentin Katayev. Rainbow-Flower (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

each one was of a different colour. One was yellow, one red, one blue, one
green, one orange, one violet, and one light-blue.


"This is not an ordinary flower," the old woman said. "It can make
any wish come true. All you have to do is tear off a petal, throw it up in
the air and say:

Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.


Then you say what your wish is. And it will come true."

Zhenya thanked the old woman. She went out of the garden gate and suddenly
remembered that she was lost and didn't know how to get home.

She wanted to turn around and ask the old woman to take her to the nearest
militiaman, but both the little garden and the old woman had disappeared.
What should she do? Zhenya was just about to start crying as usual, she
even crinkled up her nose, and then, suddenly, she remembered about the
magic flower. She would soon see if it was really such a wonderful flower!
Zhenya tore off the yellow petal, threw it up and said:

Fly, petal, oh-
East to West you go.
Then North to South
And turn about.
Touch the ground, do,
Make my wish come true.
MAKE ME BACK HOME AGAIN WITH THE BREAD-RINGS!


No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she was back in her
own house, holding a string of bread-rings!

Zhenya gave them to her mother and thought: "This is really a
wonderful flower. I'll put it in the prettiest vase we have!"
Zhenya was only a little girl, so she climbed up on a chair and
stretched her hand towards her mother's favourite vase that stood on the
top shelf. Just then some crows flew by the window. And of course Zhenya
had to know exactly how many of them there were - seven or eight? She
opened her mouth and began to count on her fingers when - bang! - the vase
toppled off the shelf and crashed into a million pieces.
"My goodness, what a child!" her mother called angrily from the
kitchen. "What have you broken this time? I hope it's not my favourite