Atondido Stories
The Story of a Little Boy Who Opened the Door
Once upon a time there was a little boy named Smolicheck. He
lived in a little house in the woods with a deer whose name was
Golden Antlers.
Every day when Golden Antlers went out he told Smolicheck
to lock the door after him and on no account to open it no matter
who knocked.
"If you disobey me," Golden Antlers said, "something awful
may happen."
"I won't open the door," Smolicheck always promised. "I
won't open it until you come home."
Now one day there was a knock on the door.
"Oh!" Smolicheck thought to himself, "I wonder who that is!"
and he called out:
"Who's there?"
From the outside sweet voices answered:
"Smolicheck, Smolicheck, please open the door Just a wee little
crack of two fingers—no more! We'll reach in our cold little hands to
get warm Then leave without doing you the least bit of harm! So open,
Smolicheck, please open the door!"
But Smolicheck didn't think he ought to open the door be-
cause he remembered what Golden Antlers had told him. Gold-
en Antlers was very kind but he spanked Smolicheck when
Smolicheck was disobedient. And Smolicheck didn't want to get
a spanking. So he put his hands over his ears to shut out the
sound of the sweet voices and that time he didn't open the door.
"You're a good boy," Golden Antlers said in the evening
when he came home. "Those must have been the wicked little
wood maidens. If you had opened the door they would have
carried you off to their cave and then what would you have
done!"
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