Once two lovers were sitting on the shore of a lake. Suddenly two birds sang loudly above them. The young man and girl listened.
– What a wonderful voice these birds have! - said the girl.
“Your voice is even softer,” the young man answered. “No blackbirds can compare with you.”
“You wanted to say starlings, didn’t you?”
“Of course, starlings, if you like it that way,” said the young man.
Would anyone in his place have answered differently?
“No, no,” the girl said quickly. - Since you say that these are blackbirds, let them be blackbirds.
Then they looked at each other and forgot about the thrushes, and the starlings, and everything in the world.
Soon the lovers got married and lived in perfect harmony.
Exactly a year has passed since their wedding day. For the sake of such a holiday, my wife decided to bake a pie. While the pie was baking, the husband went to drink a glass or two of grape wine. But as soon as he reached the wine shop, he came across an old man, all hung with cages in which colorful birds were jumping on thin perches.
“By the way,” thought the husband. “I’ll make my wife happy and buy her a gift.”
And he shouted:
- Hey, bird owner, what are you asking for a couple of birds in a green cage?
The birds cost four soldi. But the seller replied:
- Six soldi, sir. That's why he was a salesman.
“Two soldi,” said the husband.
That's why he was a buyer. Of course, we agreed on four.
“Take it, sir, these birds will bring happiness to your home,” said the seller, handing the cage to his husband.
The husband took the cage, drank a glass of wine and went home.
Meanwhile, the wife cleaned the house and dressed in her best dress. Here the pie is ripe. As soon as she put it on the table, her husband opened the door and shouted from the threshold:
- Look, little wife, what a gift I brought you. Aren't they wonderful blackbirds?
“Wonderful,” answered the delighted wife. - Only these are not blackbirds, but starlings.
- No, blackbirds! – the husband argued.
- No, starlings! – the wife argued.
- Blackbirds! – the husband stood his ground.
- Starlings! Starlings! Starlings!!! – the wife stamped her feet.
- Oh, if there are starlings, then I’ll go and sell my blackbirds at the market! - shouted the husband, driven out of patience.
Then the wife grabbed the cage.
- The starlings are not yours, but mine! You gave them to me.
“But I gave you blackbirds,” the husband answered and pulled the cage towards him.
The cage crackled and fell apart. The birds fluttered out the window and flew away. The wife cried loudly with grief.
- Why did you miss my starlings! - she screamed.
“If it weren’t for you, the blackbirds wouldn’t have flown away!” - the husband shouted.
They made peace only in the evening, when the holiday ended - their wedding anniversary.
For three hundred and sixty-four days they could not get enough of each other.
A year has flown by and the second wedding anniversary has arrived.
This time the husband gave his wife a bouquet of flowers. The wife put the flowers in the water, kissed her husband, and then they sat down at the festive table.
“Do you remember,” said the wife, smiling, “how a year ago we quarreled over a mere trifle - over a pair of starlings?”
“A terribly stupid quarrel,” answered the husband. “But still, dear wife, they were not starlings, but blackbirds.”
- Starlings! - said the wife.
- Blackbirds! - said the husband.
- No, starlings! - the wife argued, - No, blackbirds! – the husband argued. And it all started all over again.
This is how it happened with them: they live in complete harmony all year long, but when their wedding anniversary comes, they will certainly quarrel.
Time passes quickly in a fairy tale. The wife developed wrinkles around her eyes, and her husband’s temples turned silver.
On their twentieth wedding anniversary, the wife said to her husband:
– Today I won’t bake a cake. It's such a nice day, let's go for a walk.
They left the house and walked wherever they looked. They walked and walked and came to that very lake, to the very place where they sat twenty years ago.
- Shall we rest? - asked the husband.
“Let’s rest,” the wife answered.
And they sat down under that same tree. Suddenly two birds began to sing above their heads. Maybe not the same ones, but exactly the same.
“Do you remember,” said the wife, “how before our wedding we listened to the starling birds here?”
– How can I forget such wonderful blackbird birds! - answered the husband.
They looked at each other and laughed. It turned out that it is not so difficult for a wife to give in to her husband, and for a husband to give in to his wife.
Since then they have never quarreled, even on their wedding anniversary.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru