The Scarlet Flower

The further it goes, the brighter it becomes, and it has become, read, like a white day, and you cannot hear the noise and crackling of a fireman. At the end, he goes out into a wide clearing and in the middle of that wide clearing there is a house not a house, not a palace, but a royal or royal palace all on fire, in silver and gold and in semi-precious stones, all burns and shines, but no fire can be seen; exactly the sun is red, indus [6] hard to look at it. All the windows in the palace are open, and a consonant music is playing in it, such as he has never heard.

He enters into a wide courtyard, wide open gates; the road has gone from white marble, and on the sides there are fountains of water, high, large and small. He enters the palace by a staircase covered with crimson cloth [7] with gilded railings; entered the upper room - there is no one; in another, in the third - there is no one; in the fifth, tenth - there is no one; and the decoration is everywhere royal, unheard of and unprecedented: gold, silver, oriental crystal, ivory and mammoth bones.

The honest merchant marvels at such unspeakable wealth, and twice that the owner is not; not only the owner, and no servants; and the music plays incessantly; and at that time he thought to himself: "Everything is fine, but there is nothing to eat" - and a table rose before him, tidied up: in a bowl of gold and silver food [8] there were sugar, and overseas wines and honey drinks. He sat down at the table without hesitation, [9] got drunk, ate his fill, because he had not eaten the whole day; the food is such that it is impossible to say - just look that you swallow your tongue, and he, walking through the forests and sands, is very hungry; he got up from the table, and there was no one to bow to and to say thanks for the bread for the salt. Before he had time to get up and look around, the table with the food was gone, and the music was playing incessantly.

An honest merchant marvels at such a wonderful miracle and such a wondrous marvel, and he walks through the adorned chambers and admires, and he himself thinks: “It would be nice now to sleep and snore,” and he sees in front of him a carved bed, made of pure gold, on crystal legs, with a canopy of silver, with a fringe and pearl tassels; the down jacket on her like a mountain lies, down soft, swan.

The merchant marvels at such a new, new and wonderful miracle; he lies down on a high bed, pulls back the silver curtain and sees that it is thin and soft, like silk. It became dark in the ward, exactly at dusk, and the music seemed to play from afar, and he thought: "Oh, if only I could see my daughters in a dream!" - and fell asleep at the same moment.