There lived a poor man in a village. One day he’s working in the cold in his thin clothes, chopping wood, but he won’t warm up; his face flares up from the frost.
A gentleman enters the village and stops next to a peasant:
- What a cold you are cutting into!
- Eh, sir, need is striking!
The master was amazed and asked the coachman:
- Well, coachman, what need is this? Do you know her?
“I’m only hearing it now, sir.” The master asks the man:
- What kind of need is this, little man? Where do you have it?
The man says:
- What do you need, sir?
- Yes, I would like to look at it.
A man saw: in an open field on a hillock there stood a blade of grass covered in snow.
“But,” said the man, “there is a need on the hill, sir!” There she is, shaking in the wind, and no one will guess!
The master says:
- Is there a time to show it to us?
- Perhaps it is possible, sir.
We mounted three horses and rode out into an open field to look at the need. They came to a hillock, and there was another blade of grass further away. And the man points with his hand:
- And there, sir, she’s off to the side. We can't go: the snow is deep.
“Guard,” said the master, “three horses, I’ll go and have a look.”
The master got down and went, and the coachman said:
“Sir, take me too: I want to have a look too.”
And they both climbed through the snow. They will pass one blade of grass, find another, but still do not see the need. But the little man was no slouch, he unharnessed the horses, sat on one, whipped the others, and flew off. They were the only ones who saw him. Two fools were climbing in the snow, they came out onto the path, approached the cart, but there was no trace of the horses. They thought and thought about the master and the coachman... What should we do? There are no horses, but it’s a pity to abandon the cart. The master says to the coachman:
- Harness yourself, coachman, to the root, and I’ll at least fasten it.
Coachman says:
- No, you, master, are more correct, a little stronger - you are at the root, and I am in the fastener.
Well, there’s nothing to do, the master harnessed himself to the root. They drive and they drive, they drive and they get up. And the man hid his horses and went to meet them.
- Why are you, master, pulling a cart on yourself? The master says angrily:
- Go away! Need is lucky.
- What need is this?
- Go to the field, it’s standing there on the hill! And he himself is lucky and lucky. I arrived home barely alive. I saw the need: I lost three horses.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru