The Malachite Box nuggets. The story of the brothers is continued in "The Snake Trail" (alternative translation: "The Serpent's Trail"), published in 1939. In this "skaz", a young the factory worker Stepan meets the legendary Mistress of the Copper Mountain. He passes her tests and is rewarded by a malachite casket filled with jewellery for his betrothed, Nastyona. Stepan dies, leaving the Malachite Casket to his widow Nastyona. Their daughter Tanyushka likes to play with it. With black hair and green eyes, Tanyushka does not look like her mother at all, as if she was born to different parents. When she grows up,
The Malachite Box some information about the life, industry and culture of the Urals and which the author tried to include into every edition of the collection. Later versions contained more than 40 stories. Not all stories are equally popular nowadays. The most popular tales were written between 1936 and 1939: "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" and its continuation "The Malachite Casket", "The Stone Flower" and its continuation "The Master Craftsman", "Silver Hoof", "Cat's Ears", "Sinyushka's Well", "The Manager's Boot-Soles". Among the later stories, "A Fragile Twig" (1940), "The Fire-Fairy" (1940), "Tayutka's Mirror" (1941), "Ivanko Krylatko" (1943), "That Spark of Life" (1943)