illustrated Everyday Expressions with Stories 1 » Lesson 10 - lvanko the Bear's Son
| 1. in vain | a. to desire |
| 2. keep on | b. to guard and care for |
| 3. little by little | c. without success |
| 4. long for | d. without quitting |
| 5. look after | e. gradually |
A long time ago in Russia, a farmer's wife got lost one day in the woods. A bear found her and married her. The bear would not let her keep in touch with her husband. The woman and the bear had a son, Ivanko. He was half bear and half boy! Ivanko grew up little by little and soon the woman longed for the farm again. One day, the boy and his mother ran away.
The farmer was happy to see his wife but he laughed at Ivanko. (Keep in mind that the boy was half boy; half bear.) Instead of sending Ivanko away, the farmer told him to kill a sheep so that they could have a big dinner.
Ivanko asked, "Which sheep should I kill?"
The farmer said, "Kill the first one that looks at you."
Ivanko went into the yard. All of the sheep looked at him at the same time. Ivanko began to kill all the sheep. The farmer stopped him just in time. He cried out, "Why?"
Ivanko said, "They all looked at me at the same time."
The farmer knew that it would be in vain to scold the boy, so he said, "Put all of this meat into the barn. Keep your eye on the barn door. There are wolves around here!"
Ivanko watched the door very carefully, but in the middle of the night, it began to rain. Ivanko took the door off and looked around for a dry place. He took the door to his room and kept on watching it.
The next day, all of the meat was gone. The farmer yelled at Ivanko, "I told you to look after the meat! You didn't keep out the wolves."
Ivanko said, "No, sir. You told me to keep an eye on the barn door."
The farmer knew that Ivanko would lead to the ruin of his farm! Soon they would have nothing left to live on. The farmer thought of a way to keep Ivanko away from the farm.
The farmer said, "Listen to me, Ivanko. I need some rope. Can you go to the lake and make some rope out of the sand there?"
Ivanko went to the lake, sat down, and began to try to make rope out of sand. While he was working, a goblin came up out of the lake. The goblin said, "I will help you if you can carry my horse around the lake more times than I can." The goblin pulled his horse out of the lake, picked it up, and carried it around the lake 3 times. Then Ivanko jumped on the horse and rode it around the lake 20 times.
The goblin said, "You are a clever boy. You carried the horse between your legs!" He used his magic to help Ivanko. Let's not leave out the best part of the story, though: The Goblin's magic turned the rope into gold! Ivanko's family became rich.
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