figure
The Forester's Daughter
the forester's little girl
also: лесникова девочка
A small girl about Anyutka's own age, the forester's daughter, who is asleep beside Anyutka on the stove; when Anyutka swaps their coverings and clothing to escape detection, the girl is mistaken for Anyutka in the dark and is killed with an axe by her own father.
Reading notes
- An Incident (A Coachman's Tale) §40 hacked open with the axe
The discovery scene confirms, without further detail, that the forester killed his own sleeping daughter by mistake in Anyutka's place, believing the disguised child in the dark to be Anyutka; the search party's reaction ("Lord have mercy on us!") is the only emotional register the text gives the moment, consistent with the coachman-narrator's plain, unsensationalized folk-tale style throughout. The story reports the killers' arrest and eventual trial and legal punishment in section 42 without further comment.