2. The ass with a sack of salt (a fable)

An ass, who was carrying a large sack of salt which his master had placed on his back, came to a stream over which there was a bridge. As he was crossing the bridge he

slipped and fell into the stream. The salt melted in the water and the ass was glad that his sack had become so light. The next day the ass was crossing the bridge with another bag of salt. He remembered what had hap pened the day before, fell into the stream on piupose and stayed there until the salt melted (or: had melted). After he had done the same thing a third time, his master decided to cure the lazy animal of his tricks. He filled the bag with sponges and tied it on the ass’s back. When the ass came to the stream, be plunged into the water at once, expecting that the bag would become still lighter. He was, however, greatly disappointed when a few minutes later he found that the bag was ten times heavier than it had been before.

Г. Whang the miller (After goldsmith)

Whang the miller was very avaricious. Nobody loved money more than he, and he respected only those who were rich. When people talked of a rich man, Whang always said, «I know him very well; he and I have been friends since childhood», but when people mentioned a poor man, he always said that he did not know him and had never heard his name before, as he was not fond of many acquaintances. One day as he was thinking how to increase his wealth, he learned that one of his neighbours, Hunks by name, had found a large pot of gold under­ground after he had dreamed of it three nights

running. The greedy miller greatly envied his neighbour’s luck and complained every day to his customers that he was unlucky, saying, «I’ve been working from morning till night for so many years, but I’ve never found any gold. I wish I could dream like my neigh­bour!» At last he dreamed one night that under a certain part of the wall of the mill there was a huge pot of gold.

He dreamed of the same pot of money the two succeding nights and was therefore sure that he would find the treasure in the place where he had seen it in his dreams. So he got up early the third morning, went to the mill alone with a spade in his hand, and began to dig under the comer of the wall. He had been digging for three hours when at last his spade struck a broad, flat stone, so large that he could not remove it. He decided that he would go home, (would) tell his wife every­thing and (would) ask her to help him. So he ran home and told his wife of his dream and of the treasure that was waiting for them under the stone. They both ran back to the place where Whang had been digging and found that their mill, which Whang had undermined by digging, had fallen and was lying in ruins.

504. Д. The death of a hero (Adapted from k. Simonov’s novel «days and nights»)

Captain Saburov had been sleeping about an hour when the telephone operator awoke him. It was still quite dark and he did not

know what time it was. Jumping down from his bed he ran to the telephone.

«Captain Saburov speaking».

«This is General Protsenko. Go out, listen, wake up your men, and tell them to listen too».

When Saburov ran out of the dug-out, it was snowing. For a minute or two he did not hear anything, then his ears caught the sound of a distant roar of guns. The guns were about 25 miles from where he was, but the ground was trembling as if an earthquake was shaking it.

Saburov turned to a solder who was stand­ing nearly.

«Can you hear anything?»

«Of course, I can, Comrade Captain. Our guns are firing».

«Have they been firing long?»

«I’ve been listening to them for about an hour», said the soldier.

An hour later everybody knew that the Soviet troops had by-passed Stalingrad to the north and south and (had) encircled the Germans.

Everybody wanted to do something to help the Soviet troops in their great offensive. Captain Saburov asked the divisional com­mander to allow him to make a night attack on a building which the Germans had occu­pied just in front of his lines.

The Germans thought that they had com­pletely cut off the area occupied by Saburov and did not expect an attack.

The night attack began at a quarter past one. The Russians captured the building and then prepared to defend it against German counter-attacks. Saburov and his friend, Lieu­tenant Maslennikov, were lying side by side in the window of a cellar just on a level with the ground. They saw some German soldiers enter the cellar through a hole they had found in the wall. As the Germans were passing, Saburov opened fire with his tommy-gun. After he had used up all the ammunition, he threw his tommy-gun at a German who was passing with such force that he fell forward on his face. At that moment another German soldier lifted a gun over Saburov. Maslennik­ov jumped at the German and both of them fell to the ground and rolled over and over. Saburov had just got up on his feet when he heard some revolver shots and saw that the German had risen over Maslennikov’s body. He seized the tommy-gun which was lying on the ground and hit the German several times on the head with all his strength. Just then some Soviet soldiers rushed into the cellar and told him that the Germans were retreat­ing. Saburov dropped down beside Maslen­nikov and saw that his friend was dead. He sent for the sappers and ordered them to dig a grave for Maslennikov.

As soon as it was light and he could see the face of his friend who had died to save him, he bent over Maslennikov and took his documents and medals.

A salute of three volleys was fired over the grave of the hero.

Sounds of gun-fire were coming from the west where Soviet troops were closing the ring around 300,000 Germans.