ABSTRACT
In olden times there lived this rich landowner. And he had many workers and servants of all kinds. There was Ivan, who could do every sort of work but who most liked to go hunting. He hunted ducks and geese for the landowner’s table. Once he went out hunting and he walked and walked and got lost. He came out onto an open glade and there he saw before him a crystal lake on which were twelve swans. He had never seen anything so beautiful before. It was a pity to shoot them. He gazed and gazed at them, and then the swans flapped their wings and flew away over the horizon.
