Vasilisa and her father mourned for a
very long time . But eventually her
father married again, this time to a widow with two daughters. Sure enough as soon
as the 3 women were alone with Vasilisa they started to order her about and
treat her like their servant. She had to
chop the wood, light the fire, do all the washing, ironing and cooking, in fact
all the work of the house. They hated
her because she was beautiful.
One day they decided they couldn’t stand her any longer so they conspired together to get rid of her.
‘Lets let the fire go out, and then we will send Vasilisa into the forest to Baba Yaga the witch, to beg for some fiery coals to relight it and she will kill her and eat her.’
They clapped their hands with glee at this plan and squeaked like creatures that live in the dark. So that evening when Vasilisa came home from gathering wood the entire house was dark and cold. When her stepmother saw her she said:
‘Look what’s happened, you careless child, you ‘ve let the fire go out. You must go to Baba Yaga’s house in the forest and get a fiery coal to start the fire again.’