The father had twelve sons, all tall and daring boys.
They lived in a large clearing, among a dense forest. They farmed and hunted wild animals and birds.
The old father, like a gray-haired dove, sat in a casing in the summer and only gave orders. And there was harmony and love in the family.
The sons got married and had children of their own. The family has grown large. Everyone obeyed the old father, and everyone did their job.
But after some time, my father died. And things went wrong in the family. The brothers' wives quarrel, one eats the other, there is no agreement. And there was such a quarrel between them that even the husbands could not do anything. The wives scream, they want to share.
“Well,” the brothers think, “we must share.” We started sharing. Yes, the matter is not as easy as they thought. Somehow, with shouting and shouting, they divided the goods and the cattle. And when it came to the ground, they almost killed each other: they just couldn’t divide their clearing without offending anyone. The brothers quarreled over the land and became enemies of one another.
Only the two younger brothers lived in great harmony among themselves: where one went, so did the other. They did not want to fight with their brothers for the land, they left their father’s hut and went around the world to look for another refuge.
The brothers made a large sleigh from two oak trees, harnessed six pairs of oxen to them, put the goods, put their wives and children on the road and set off on a sleigh along the sand. And the cows and small livestock followed them.
The oxen dragged the oak sleigh along the sand for a little while and stopped dead in its tracks. But the brothers didn’t have wheels, and they didn’t know anything about them. After all, we didn’t go anywhere from our forest not only in summer, but also in winter.
The brothers began sawing off round blocks and placing them under the runners. The blocks are rolling and the sleigh is crawling forward. The younger brother was tired of putting blocks under the runners, so he said to the elder:
- Let's make sure that the blocks rotate under the runners themselves.
And they made the first wheels in those parts. The oxen now walked more easily, so the brothers themselves sat on the cart. They drive and wonder how they have managed without wheels until now.
They drove and drove and reached a large river. We examined the river - it is deep everywhere, there is nowhere a convenient place to ford. And then such a storm arose that the forest, like a beast, roared. The storm breaks trees like straws and throws them into the river. They float down the river in whole heaps.
The younger brother looked at them, thought and guessed how to get across the river.
He and his brother caught trees, cleared them of branches, tied the logs to one another and made a strong raft. And when the storm subsided, they dragged their cart onto the raft. They themselves stand on the raft, control long poles - hooks, and the raft floats like a ship.
The cows saw that the oxen swam to the other side and rushed into the river after them. Only the pigs and sheep were afraid to jump into the water. They stand on the shore, grunting and bleating. The brothers returned with the raft and took them away.
So everyone crossed the wide and deep river.
They drove on and climbed into such a forest that there was no end to it.
The brothers began to cut clearings in the forest and pave the rows. Yes where there! The farther you go, the thicker and denser the forest becomes, and there are such gaps in it that it’s impossible to get out.
The older brother was tired and weak.
“I’ll stay,” he says to his younger brother, “I’m here, because the strength is not enough to get out of this forest.”
And he stayed to live with his family in the forest. From that time on, he and his entire family began to be called field pikes.
But the younger brother did not want to stay in the forest. He was strong as a tour, and relied on his strength. He alone made clearings, rowed and rode on.
And to this day, those clearings and roads that the younger brother made still remain in Polesie.
It took him a long time to get out of the dense forest, or not for long, but finally he began to come across clearings and sandy glades. The younger brother settled in these clearings and began to plow them and sow grain.
And from that time on they called him and his entire family field workers.
And then the field pikes and field workers settled, occupied other forests and fields, and became good neighbors.
This is how they live now.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru