Once upon a time there lived a boy, the poorest of the poor. His father died, and his mother, with great difficulty, barely earned her bread by the sweat of her brow. In the summer she wandered through the mountains with a basket, picking blueberries. He will pick up a full basket, go down to the city and sell the berries there. The boy went to school. In his bag he carried only a broken slate board; he didn’t even have an ABC book. When the boy was born, his aunt, a wealthy woman, gave him a heifer. Seven years passed, the heifer grew up and became a cow, but did not bear calves.
One day a boy walks home from school, and he bursts into tears. His mother asks:
- Why are you crying, mother’s child?
“I’m offended,” says the boy. - All my comrades have primers, do they already? They learned to read, but I don’t. Give me money for an ABC book!
“I don’t have money, son,” the mother answers. “All my hope was in the cow.” I thought, she will grow up, calve, I will milk her, give her milk in the milk in the morning and evening. What happened? The cow turned out to be barren. Now late autumn has arrived, there are no berries, even the blueberries are overripe. I have nowhere to get money from. Not today, tomorrow deep snow will fall. I can’t imagine where we should go then! What should you feed the cow? There is no hay or straw. Take her into the forest, child, find a thicker tree and tie her to it. At least we'll get rid of the cow,
The boy drove the cow, led it into the forest, tied it to a tree and went home. Is he already? I was near the village when an old woman approached the cow. She was a healer and always lived in the forest - she looked after the birds that winter in our area. The old healer untied the cow and took it to her yard.
Here is a boy walking on the way home to the village, and suddenly he sees: a sparrow with a broken leg and a plucked wing has fallen into the road rut. The sparrow wants to get out of the rut, but cannot fly.
“Poor little bird, what will happen to him if a cart passes by? - thought the boy. “He’ll crush him under the wheel.”
The boy bent down, carefully picked up the chick and put it in his bosom. He came home, told his mother where he left the cow, and the sparrow showed him.
“Throw it to the cat,” says the mother.
- No, mom, I will feed him crumbs until his leg gets better and the feathers grow on his wing. And then I will release you into the wild.
The boy took an old basket, lined it with tow and dry grass, and put the sparrow in it. Every day the boy fed the chick with crumbs and water from a thimble. When there was no bread in the house, the sparrow also went hungry.
Winter has passed. The sparrow recovered and one warm spring day flew out the open window. He flew straight into the forest to the old healer's hut. He flew in and sat on the old lady’s shoulder. At that time, the old woman was scratching two small calves with a comb.
— Where did you spend the winter, grandson? - she asks the sparrow.
Sparrow told how one poor boy took him out of his rut, fed him and nurtured him until his leg got better and the feathers on his wing grew back. He told and asked:
- Whose calves are these?
- That cow that lies in front of the hut.
-Where did she come from?
— I found her in the forest, she was tied to a tree. I was afraid that the wolf might eat her, and I brought her to myself. Let her, I think, stay with me until her owner comes for her. Nobody comes for her. In winter, I fed her with hay from the wilds of Tililey. She ate this hay and calved two calves.
The sparrow fluttered up and began to fly over the calves. It flies, tickles them with its wings, and the calves jump and play. The cow looks at them and couldn’t be happier.
That day the boy said to his mother:
“Mom, I want to go into the forest and find out what happened to our cow.” I missed her.
“Go if you miss me,” says the mother.
The boy went into the forest. I looked for the cow all day, but couldn’t find it anywhere. It got dark. The boy began to cry; he felt scared in the dark forest. And suddenly he sees: a light has lit up between the trees. The boy went to the light - and what did he see? There is a hut in the forest, in front of the hut there is a yard, and in the yard lies a cow and with her two calves. A sparrow saw the boy and chirped:
- Grandma, come out quickly, my savior has come!
- Which savior? - asks the old lady.
- Yes, that boy, the owner of the cow. The old woman received the boy kindly, treated him to a milk prison, put him to bed in the hut, and woke him up early the next morning.
“Go to the market,” he says. — Take the cow and her calves there. Sell the cow, but don't sell the calves. With the proceeds, buy yourself an iron cart and an iron plow. Harness the calves to the cart. Although they are small, they are strong - they will carry a cart.
The boy listened to the healer and did everything as she ordered. He returned home with an iron cart, and on the cart was an iron plow. The calves pulled the cart playfully, as if there was not an iron plow lying on it, but a fly sitting on it. Before the boy had time to drive into the yard and harness the calves, he heard the village herald beating a drum.
- Listen, villagers! - shouts the herald. -Our king has a field, and in that field millet will be born. This is not simple millet; it is filled with golden grain. Whoever plows the king's field one day before sunset, the king will give him everything he desires. And whoever undertakes to plow by sunset and does not finish the plowing, the royal executioner will remove his head from his shoulders.
The next morning the boy harnessed the calves to the cart and drove out of the yard.
-Where are you going? - asks his mother.
“I’m going to plow the royal arable land.”
- Don't go, son! The calves are young, where can they plow the arable land? You see, their horns barely made it through - small, like nuts. On the royal field the ground is hard as iron. And our king is fierce: he deliberately lures people to his field in order to destroy them.
“Don’t be afraid, mom,” says the boy, “I have an iron plow.”
- He'll cut off your head!
- He won’t cut it off!
A boy arrived in the field, took the iron plow off the cart and harnessed the calves to it. And just then the evil king comes to the arable land. Shouts to the boy from afar:
- What are you doing here, boy?
— I’m plowing a field for millet. I'll finish it by evening.
- Get out of here! This task is beyond your strength, and neither are your calves.
“We’ll see,” says the boy. He touched the calves, took hold of the handles and began plowing the hard ground. The calves walk easily, chewing cud as they go, and the boy walks behind the plow and whistles. He plows and plows, plows furrow after furrow. Now the sun has passed midday, and the boy has only one furrow left to make. The king looked and looked and thought, and saw that by evening the boy would plow the entire field. And then he sent an old woman, a witch, to fool the plowman. The witch came to the arable land and called out to the boy:
- Wait, grandson, rest a little! Look, the sun is so high, and you only have one furrow left, enough time to finish plowing the arable land. Sit down and I'll tell you a story.
The boy stopped the calves and sat down in the furrow - he loved to listen to fairy tales. And the witch began to tell. She says it herself, she pours it in the boy’s eyes? sleeping powder. The boy fell asleep. The witch saw that the boy was sleeping and left.
And the sun goes lower and lower, and is about to set. Here one calf says to the other:
“The sun is setting, but we haven’t finished plowing the arable land.” Our master will die. What to do?
“That’s it,” answers the other calf.
“I’ll climb that mountain over there and hit the sun with my horn, and it will return at noon.” And you wake up the boy.
And so the calves threw off the yoke, and one began to climb the mountain, and the other began to lick the hand of the sleeping boy. The boy woke up, looked at the sky, and saw the sun setting. He trembled with fear. But the calf already? climbed the mountain. He butted the sun with his small horn, and the sun returned to noon. Then the bogatyr calf descended onto the field.
The boy jumped up, harnessed his calves to the plow, made the last furrow and went to the royal palace. He called the evil king and said:
-Well, king, keep your promise! The king became angry and trembled with rage, but
- I gave my word, keep it.
“Ask,” he says, “what you want.”
“I want,” the boy answers, “for you to abdicate the throne, and when the millet ripens in the field, let it go to all the people.” After all, the land is not yours, but the people’s.
The king turned yellow with anger, but apparently there was nothing to do. He took off his royal crown, abdicated the throne and fled into the wild wilds of Tililean. And the boy went to the most skilled blacksmith and asked him to forge a steel sickle, so that with that sickle he could reap the people’s golden field.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru