You enjoyed the issue about the Snow Bear, so I thought I could bring you a couple more tales from the Story Teller magazine project. As it happens for the previous one, I don’t know where this one is taken from: it’s called Yushkin the Watchmaker and the illustrations are by Francis Phillips. In Italian it was narrated by Silvano Piccardi, but the original was narrated by Martin Shaw.
I was lucky enough to find it.
It’s the story of a humble watchmaker who receives the visit of proud Prince Igor, who demands that he repair a beautiful watch in less than 24 hours.
Unfortunately, the task is beyond their possibility: the watch cannot be repaired, the watchmaker and his son are lacking the necessary part. Therefore, they decide to go to the palace and return the watch.
The snow stops falling while they go to the Prince’s house, but on the road, they are passed by different sleighs with colourful passengers: the Prince is holding a masked party, and the two watchmakers are introduced by mistake into the main hall, instead of being allowed through the servants’ entrance.
Of course, they’re wearing their working clothes and their costume is so well done that they win first place.
The Princess awards them with a big golden box, before returning to the celebrations.
The watchmaker tries to go and talk to the Prince, but his son stops him: the box is filled with mechanical butterflies and their parts are just what they need in order to create a new spring for the Princess’ watch.
The next day arrives and the Prince, in a strangely cheerful mood, is able to retrieve his repaired watch. Prince Igor is super happy, thanks to the watchmakers and gives them a handsome price for both their work and the prize they won. The watchmaker tries to object that they were not invited to the party and they were not wearing costumes, but the Prince is amused because the two working men were able to make fun of all their guests, who spent a lot of money to arrange costumes, but still fell short.
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