When the matchmakers came for Galinka, her mother began to punish them:
- Take care of her. She is the only one I have, not accustomed to hard work. Don’t give her a broom, don’t force the yard to take revenge, otherwise the dust will dust her eyes? Don’t send for water, her shoulders are weak and she can’t handle full buckets. Place a down pillow under her head; she is used to sleeping on a soft one.
The old matchmakers looked at each other, but said nothing.
- Promise that you will never say a bad word to her. She was not used to hearing swear words.
“Be calm - it’s not customary to swear in our house,” answered the old matchmaker and got into the cart. His mother-in-law sat next to him, the bride and groom sat behind him, and they went to their village. This village was far away, so we had to travel all the way
day. They arrived only in the evening, and before they even had time to enter the house, the mother-in-law rolled up her sleeves, kneaded the dough for the pie, killed a rooster, boiled it, went to the cellar and strained wine from a barrel. And Galinka sat on the bench, arms crossed, and thought:
“Oh, what an efficient mother-in-law I have, just like my mother. We'll have a great time living here."
They had dinner and went to bed. The night flew by. In the morning, the old father-in-law got up before dawn and woke everyone up.
- Get up! - he shouted. -Get ready for the field.
- What are we going to do there? — rubbed your sleepy eyes? Galinka yawned sweetly.
— Hill up the corn.
- A hoe? - asked the mother’s daughter.
“Of course, with a hoe,” answered the father-in-law.
- I won't go.
- Why? - asked the young husband.
“Because the hoe is heavy, and I can’t lift heavy things.”
“Okay,” said the father. “Let her stay, clean the house and cook dinner.” And here we need a person.
Everyone went to the field, but the young woman stayed home. She basked in bed until noon until she became hungry. My mother’s daughter got up and started looking into the pots, but she didn’t find anything.
“They didn’t leave me anything, they forgot about me,” Galinka thought, stretched and went into the garden to admire the flowers. - Oh, how beautiful! - she exclaimed, and began to pick and smell the flowers.
Small bees quickly flew from flower to flower with a cheerful buzz.
- Why are they in such a hurry! - Galinka thought and leisurely went to the nearest cherry tree.
She lay down under a tree, then, without getting up, she picked a few cherries to satisfy her hunger at least a little, and began to yawn and stretch sweetly. The whole day went by like this.
In the evening, three workers returned from the field tired and hungry. They looked around and what they saw: the house was untidy, the buckets were empty, the fireplace had gone out, the chickens had sat down to roost hungry.
The mother-in-law put the hoe in place and the first thing she did was bring full buckets of water from the well? Then she lit a fire, put the potatoes in the cast iron, kneaded the bread and
I quickly prepared dinner. Galinka looked at her, sitting on a bench and dangling her legs.
When dinner was ready, the mother-in-law called everyone to the table.
Galinka sat down first. The father-in-law took the bread and broke it into three parts. He gave one part to his wife, the other to his son, and kept the third for himself.
- And the daughter-in-law? - the mother-in-law marveled.
- She's not hungry. He who doesn't work doesn't want to eat.
Galinka bit her lip, frowned, got up from the table, went to her room and burst into tears. She couldn't sleep all night - she was so hungry.
The next day the same thing happened again. Three workers went to the garden, but Galinka again did not want to go with them.
“The sun is very hot,” she said, “my face will turn black.”
And again they left her at home. And this time, momma’s daughter didn’t touch anything. I found a stale hump under the bowl, left for the dog, ate it and again lay there until evening in the kindergarten. And the beautiful flowers withered because she was too lazy to go get water and water them.
Late in the evening, tired workers returned home. The mother-in-law frowned, but kneaded the bread, and when they sat down at the table, the father-in-law again divided the bread into three parts. Galinka got nothing.
- Why don’t you give your daughter-in-law bread? - asked the mother-in-law.
- Because he who doesn’t work doesn’t eat! - answered the father-in-law.
All night, hungry Galinka tossed and turned from side to side and kept thinking. She dozed off at dawn. As soon as the third rooster crowed, she jumped up, looked for her mother-in-law and her husband, but already? there was no one there, because everyone had gone into the field while it was still dark. Then Galinka rolled up her sleeves, ran in, fetched water from the well, lit a fire, cooked dinner, kneaded the dough in a kneading bowl, and baked bread. Having finished her homework, she took the spinning wheel and sat down to spin on the porch. In the evening, the tired workers saw how hard the young woman had worked for them, and they were very happy. Galinka set the table, served bread to her old father-in-law and anxiously waited to see what he would do. And the father-in-law took the bread and broke it into four parts. He gave the largest piece to Galinka and said:
“Eat, child, you deserve this bread, because you worked hard today.” Galinka took the bread and began to eat. She had never eaten such delicious bread before.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru