There lived one merchant. He was so rich that it was impossible to be richer. He traveled from place to place and traded. One day a merchant thought: I bought everything that was nearby, I’ll go somewhere to distant countries to trade. He loaded his mule with a load of nothing but gold and silver, grabbed some food for the road, and set off.
Here he is driving through the forest. And the forest is dense, dense, spruce trees reach up to the sky. It's getting dark. What should a merchant do? He can still climb the tree on his own, but there’s no way he can drag a mule. It’s completely dark, you can’t see anything, if you put your finger in your own eye, you won’t notice. The merchant thought and thought: should he stay overnight in the forest, climb a tree, or move on? I thought about it and decided to get out of the forest. He pulled out his mule with a whip and trudged off. We wandered, we wandered for a long time, and finally got out of the forest...
The merchant looks - there is a narrow street, with fences on the sides. I went along the fence. He looks - at the end of the street there is a wooden shack made of nothing but branches and twigs, and all around is forest.
The merchant approached the shack and shouted:
- Hey, master!
An old man came out, all in rags.
- What do you need?
- Do a good deed, give me a place to stay for the night.
“I barely have enough space for two, where can I put a third,” says the old man, “and my wife is sick, we can’t disturb her.”
What should a merchant do? There is nowhere to go, no village around, no house. He asks the old man, he asks, but he won’t beg. Then I gave him five gold pieces - I barely prevailed on him.
“There’s no room in the house,” says the owner, “unless you can spend the night on the balcony?”
“Just let me in, I’ll spend the night there too.” Just don't stay outside at night.
The merchant took the luggage off the mule, poured straw on it and entered the house. And in the house, this old man’s wife is pregnant, about to give birth. They had dinner, celebrated the New Year and all went to bed. The merchant came out, took his cloak off the mule and settled down to sleep on the balcony.
It had not yet dawned when an old man ran out and shouted to the merchant:
- Give me the gun, my wife gave birth.
The merchant pulled out a gun from under the head of the head and fired, so much so that it almost blew everything around.
- Girl or boy? - asked the merchant.
“Boy,” says the owner, he took the gun and fired it himself to celebrate.
The old man left, and the merchant had a lot of walking the next day, so he went to sleep a little more. I had just taken a nap when two pigeons flew in and began arguing about how they could write the fate of the newborn in the book of destinies. One dove says:
“His fate will be this: as soon as he turns twelve years old, he will either fall from a tree and break, or drown.
Another dove says:
- No, his fate will be this: all the wealth of this merchant that lies here will go to him.
They argued and argued, but only the second one gained the upper hand and wrote that the fate of this boy would be like this: no matter how much wealth this merchant has, all his property and all the gold and silver - everything will pass into the hands of the newborn.
The pigeons finished their conversation and disappeared. And the merchant heard everything. The next morning the merchant got up, entered the house, and was greeted by the owner, as it is duty and honor to greet a guest on New Year's Day. But the merchant just got bored, so bored, and he didn’t give a voice. He was about to leave and said to the owner:
- I’ll ask you for something. If you do it, I’ll give you half of all the gold and silver that I’m carrying with me, so it’ll be enough for your whole life.
“What are you asking for so much that you won’t give it up for so much gold?” - says the old man.
One way or another, they talked, argued, the merchant gave half of his gold, took the child, wrapped him in a cloak and took him away. The wife and her husband quarreled for a long time, she scolded him for a long time for selling the child, but it was too late.
The merchant rode and rode, and the forest grew thicker - the trees grew taller, so tall that their tops reached into the sky. The merchant took out a bag, put the child in it, tied it down, lifted it to the top of the tallest spruce tree and tied it there tightly. Here, the merchant thinks, if nothing else happens, at least the eagles will peck him. He went down, looked up again and went his way.
A day passed, then another. So the king goes out hunting with all his army. They came to that forest. One hunter fell behind the others, went deep into the forest, looked up and saw a bag with something hanging at the very top of the spruce tree. He wanted to shoot, but it was as if something grabbed him by the arm and held him back. The hunter ran to the king and reported to him:
- Great sovereign! In such and such a place in the forest, on one tree, at the very top, there is a bag hanging and someone seems to be crying.
The king immediately sent people there. They came, climbed the tree, took off the bag and carefully lowered it down. They untied the bag and found a crying child. The king ordered the child to be taken to his palace.
The hunt ended, everyone gathered to the king’s palace. That there were animals in the forest - they dragged everyone home. And the king kept this child with him and named him Elovik.
Time passes. The boy turned twelve years old. He grew up smart and became the king's right hand.
One day a merchant came to that kingdom on business, found him at night near the palace, and asked the merchant for permission to stop for the night from the courtiers. They let him spend the night and received him well and with honor. The merchant sees: a boy is walking, and everyone is shouting to him:
- Elovik, come there, Elovik, come here! The merchant became thoughtful, thoughtful, and bored. Then he asked:
- Why do you call him Elovik? One of the king’s advisers laughed and said:
“One day our king went hunting in the forest. One of his hunters saw a bag with something at the very top of the tree. He immediately ran to us and reported. The king sent people, took the sack from the tree, found a child there, took him to the palace and raised him. They named him in memory of that spruce tree.
The merchant realized that this was the same child that he had bought from the old man in the shack and hung in a sack on the top of a spruce tree. The merchant thought and thought and came up with an idea: Let me send him home with a letter and tell him to kill him, and I’ll deal with him.
The merchant asked his advisor if it was possible to send the boy home on business. The adviser agreed.
The merchant wrote a letter: When this young man comes, immediately remove his head.
I gave the young man a letter and sent it.
Elovik went - he walks and meets an old man along the road.
- Hello, boy, where are you going? - asks the old man.
“I’m going to such and such a merchant’s house, bringing this letter.” The old man took the letter, tore it and read it: “Something is wrong,” the old man thought, felt sorry for the young man and decided to save him.
“We will do this,” he says, “I will write you another letter, and you will take it to the merchant’s wife.”
The old man took out a pencil and wrote: When this young man arrives, marry my daughter without delay.
Elovik took the letter and went to the merchant's house. As soon as he arrived, he was greeted by the merchant’s wife. He took out the letter and gave it to him.
The wife read the letter, ran, bought wedding clothes and married him to her daughter. The merchant's daughter and the young man fell in love with each other, they fell in love so much - they do not part at all, so they all walk together.
A lot of time has passed. The merchant thought: it’s true that Elovik’s head was cut off long ago, and he returned home. He just came up and saw: Elovik was walking along with his daughter in the garden. It hit him in the heart, as if thunder had burst, but he didn’t show it, he caressed both his daughter and Elovik. And his wife runs to him to please him: As you ordered, she married them immediately.
What to do? The merchant gets angry, gets angry, and grinds his teeth. Evening has come. The merchant went to the servants, who were burning lime for him in the oven, and said:
“Tonight I will send a man to you; when he comes, grab him and throw him into the oven without delay.”
He comes home and says to his wife:
- Today, no one goes to the lime kiln, otherwise they will throw you into the kiln and burn it. Only Elovik will go there.
Elovik’s wife heard this and said to her husband:
“Today your father will send you to the lime kiln, be careful not to go, otherwise they will burn you.” And you go out and walk around the yard, walk for two hours, then come back.
An hour passed, the merchant came and said to Elovik:
“Run to the lime kiln for a minute and tell them to burn twenty pounds of lime by tomorrow.”
Elovik got dressed and went out - only he didn’t go where the merchant had sent him, but went down, as his wife had taught him, into the courtyard and waited.
The merchant thought: right, they already burned Elovik in the oven and went to check if he was dead?
As soon as he approached the stoves, the servants thought: this is the man whom the owner ordered to burn - they grabbed the merchant and threw him straight into the stove. And Elovik walked for two hours and returned upstairs to his wife.
The merchant burned down, and all his wealth went to this poor man’s son, Belovik. He lived happily with his wife.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru