The Scarlet Flower

He got up from the high bed, his dress was all prepared for him, and a fountain of water beats into a crystal bowl; he dresses, washes, and does not marvel at a new miracle: tea and coffee are on the table, and with them a sugar snack. Having prayed to God, he ate, and he began to walk around the wards again, so that he could admire them again in the light of the red sun. Everything seemed to him better than yesterday. Now he sees through the open windows that the palace is surrounded by outlandish, prolific gardens and flowers blooming with beauty indescribable. He wanted to stroll through those gardens.

He descends another staircase made of green marble, copper malachite, with gilded railings, and descends directly into the green gardens. He walks and admires: ripe, ruddy fruits hang on the trees, they themselves beg in their mouths, and sometimes, looking at them, drooling; flowers bloom beautifully, Terry, fragrant, painted with all sorts of paints; unprecedented birds fly: as if on green and crimson velvet, laid out in gold and silver, they sing heavenly songs; fountains of water beat high, inda look at their height - the head is thrown back; and the spring keys run and rustle over the crystal decks.

An honest merchant walks, marvels; at all such curiosities his eyes fled, and he does not know what to look at and whom to listen to. Whether he walked so much, how little time - no one knows: soon the fairy tale tells itself, not soon the work is done. And suddenly he sees, on a hillock of green, a flower blooms in the color of scarlet, beauty unprecedented and unheard of, whatever one says in a fairy tale, or writes with a pen. The spirit of an honest merchant is engaged; he fits that flower; the smell from the flower runs smoothly throughout the garden; both hands and feet of the merchant shook, and he said in a joyful voice:

"Here is a scarlet flower, which is no more beautiful than the white world, which my younger daughter, beloved, asked me."