The husband's name was Fedul, and his wife's name was Malanya. Fedul managed all the men's work, and Malanya managed the house.
One day Fedul returned home angry and tired and began to scold and reproach his wife:
“You’ve been stomping around the stove for half a day, but there’s no point!” I turned over so much earth with just one team—another couldn’t plow so much in a day, my horse completely vanished, and I can’t feel my arms or legs!
Malanya Baba is nimble: she scurries around the hut just like that. Either he jumps up to the unsteady surface, then he scoops up coals from the stove, then he drags heavy cast iron out of the stove with a grabber, and gives his answer to his husband:
- Well, why, Fedul, did you pout? Even though your situation is difficult, it’s one thing, but here I’m spinning like a squirrel in a wheel, I can’t sit down for a minute. If you don’t believe me, stay at home tomorrow, do some housekeeping, and I’ll go plow.
“That’s it, go and find out, you’ll find out whose work is harder: yours or mine.” And I’ll rest near the stove for at least a day, somehow I’ll manage, I’ll prepare everything on time.
In the morning Malanya goes to plow, Fedulu punishes:
- Look, don’t let the dough escape from the kneading bowl; The children's shirts are soaked in the trough - they need to be washed;
a pot of sour cream in the pantry: if you churn it, take the butter to the cellar; dry diapers hang on the garden bed; When the child wakes up, don’t forget to feed him: milk and a horn in the closet on the shelf, and make sure that someone else’s dog doesn’t run into the canopy, there’s a hen sitting on the nest.
And with those words Malanya left. Fedul remained to do housekeeping.
The stove flooded... What is it? Smoke poured out of the stove and it was eating my eyes. The man rushes back and forth: “Oh! But I forgot to open the pipe!” He rushed to open the pipe. While he was able to see the view in the smoke and open it, he saw the dough leaving the kneading bowl. He began to pick up the dough and knead it: his hands were all covered in dough, and then the child began to cry, unsteadily, Fedul rushed to the child - he did not even have time to wipe his hands. He picked up the child, got it dirty in the dough, ran with the child to pick up a dry diaper from the garden bed, slipped, stepped on the dough that had come out of the kneading bowl, fell, hurt himself and almost killed the child. And at that time a noise was heard in the entryway: a mother hen was clucking, a dog was barking... Fedul did not change the diaper, he put the child in the mud, grabbed a poker and ran out into the entryway. There the hen, all disheveled, defended her nest from the dog. Fedul swung the poker at the dog, but it dodged. The iron tip of the poker hit the nest, breaking the hatched eggs. And the baby in the cradle was screaming. Fedul hurried to the child. Lo and behold, the oven has already heated up, only blue coals remain, the dough has come out of the kneading bowl again, and the child is screaming inconsolably. What to do? What to tackle first? So he rushed about: he would grab onto one thing, then another, until Malanya returned from the field. Fedul met his wife:
- Why did you come so early?
- How is it so early? - Malanya answered him. - I was plowing the team, the horse was tired, and I could barely drag my feet! Why is everything upside down here?
“It’s one thing to work on arable land, although it’s hard, but try to manage it, then you’ll understand what a pound of salt is worth!”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru