Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife. They were very unhappy, since in the whole wide world they did not have a single friend.
“I’m going to church, but they turn me back,” the wife cried. “I go to the neighbors, but they show me the door,” the husband complained to her. “Let’s better leave here and live in the mountains, away from these heartless people.”
They collected their meager belongings and went to live in a mountain cave.
“And all this is because of the quarrelsome neighbors,” said the husband. “Thank God, now we don’t have any neighbors,” the wife answered. “That’s true, but we need to live on something.” I’ll go to the nearest town and get a job. “May God help you,” said the wife. – Just remember: in order to survive among people, they need to say what they want to hear about themselves. People say that a cunning lamb sucks seven sheep...
My husband was absent for a whole month. Finally he returned to his wife with a large bag of groceries on his shoulders. He looks and cannot believe his eyes: a giant lies in front of the entrance to the cave. The husband became intimidated. Frozen in place, not knowing what to do. And the giant rose from the ground, muttered something under his breath and disappeared.
The wife came out to meet her husband:
- Don't be afraid of him, he's kind. The Lord sent him to our family to protect our shelter while you are at work.
The husband was very happy that he had returned to his home, to his beloved wife. He opened the bag and said:
“Look, wife, there’s food here for a whole month.” I was lucky, I worked for a kind owner. He paid me generously and said that he would give me a vacation once a month so that I could visit my family.
They had a great dinner and went to bed. So a day or two passed and the husband got ready for work again, saying that in a month he would return again with groceries. And his wife was pregnant. When the time came for the child to be born, the wife, in agony and despair, exclaimed:
“I’m all alone here, what am I going to do without a midwife?”
Then, out of nowhere, a midwife appeared in the cave. She helped give birth to a girl. The midwife washed the child, wiped him dry and put him in bed next to his mother. A week has passed. The girl's mother says:
- My God! How can I baptize a girl? After all, there is no priest or godfather here.
Suddenly, after these words, the priest and the godfather entered the cave. The midwife prepared the water, and the godfather held the child in his arms. Then the priest, waving a censer over the baptismal font, read a prayer, put incense into the water, which gave off a pleasant aroma, and dipped the girl into the font. He gave her the name Rose. Rosette. After the baptism ceremony, the priest returned the girl to her mother.
“And now that we have baptized the child, let each of us make a wish,” said the midwife. “Come on, you will be the first to make a wish,” the priest answered her. “May the Lord wrap the water with which Rosette will wash herself in gold and silver,” the midwife wished. “If Rosette happens to cry, then may the Lord wrap her tears in pearls,” the priest wished. “May the Lord make sure that wherever “her foot stepped, flowers of unprecedented beauty bloomed,” the godfather wished.
Having made these three wishes, they all disappeared. Two days later, when the mother was bathing the girl, it seemed to her that the water in the font seemed to begin to freeze. She took it and poured it in the far corner of the cave. When the child cried, not tears flowed from his eyes, but real pearls, but the mother, deciding that they were hailstones, swept them away and poured them out in the same corner.
Meanwhile, the husband returned with his salary for the past month. He carried a huge bag of groceries over his shoulders. The husband looks: the same magical giant is standing in front of the entrance to the cave. He was not afraid of him this time and the giant let his husband into the cave.
Seeing that their daughter was born, the husband was in seventh heaven.
- Listen, wife, did anyone help you when this ray of sunshine was born?
The wife replied:
- Thank God, I was not alone. There was a midwife with me when I gave birth. And then the priest and godfather came. They baptized the girl and named her Rose.
On this day they had a festive dinner. Then, after playing with the child, they went to bed. When sunlight burst into the cave in the morning, the husband looks: something glitters in the far corner.
-Where did the ice come from here? - he said and began to put what he thought was ice into a bag. - I'll take it to the owner. On such hot days, he likes to sip his wine with pieces of ice. Moreover, he asked me to bring ice if I came across it in the mountains. “Do you know where the ice comes from here?” - said the wife. “When I was bathing my daughter, the water in the font began to freeze, and I poured it into that corner. And when she cried, the floor was covered with hailstones. I threw them there too.
The husband tied the bag, slung it over his shoulder and went to work. The owner was not at home. The husband decided to hide the bag in a cold cellar so that the ice would not melt. When the owner arrived, the husband opened the bag and took from it a handful of what he thought was ice.
-Where did you get this from? Do you still have a lot of this stuff? - the surprised owner began to question him. - Full bag. - Show me.
They went to the cellar and opened the bag.
- Oh, Lord! Buddy, is that what you call ice? But this is gold, silver and pearls. Son, I have no rights to this wealth. It is, of course, yours. Let's go to the market and sell it all for cash.
Returning from the market, the worker was already a wealthy man.
“You no longer need to work for me,” the owner told him. - Go home and live for your own pleasure.
The husband took his money and wandered into the cave.
— Wife, it wasn’t ice. “This is gold, silver and pearls,” he exclaimed. - Look, I brought you a whole bag of money. Now we no longer need to live here in the cave. We can return to the city and live in a mansion, and in such a way that not only enemies, but also friends will envy. “But we can build a house here, near the cave,” his wife objected to him. “The Lord saved us from our neighbors.” It's so peaceful here without them.
The husband hired a foreman and workers. After a short time, a whole palace was built near the cave. It was in this palace that Rose grew up by leaps and bounds. Already at the age of fifteen she was a marvelous beauty, with a flexible figure and a beautiful face. Where her foot stepped, violets and roses of unprecedented beauty blossomed. Her tight golden braids reached her toes, and the words flowed from her scarlet lips like nectar from rose petals. And she herself was like a flower of paradise, as if saying to the sun itself: “Rest, sunshine, let me shine in your place.”
Once it happened that the prince was hunting in those places together with the royal adviser. They spent the whole day searching for prey, but to no avail. Suddenly they noticed a doe. Having spurred their horses, the hunters rushed in pursuit. The doe, deftly evading pursuit, jumped over the wall enclosing the palace garden and disappeared from sight.
Having arrived at the gate, the hunters dismounted and approached the man sitting next to him on a bench. They asked to be let inside to look for the doe.
“Well, look,” agreed Rosochka’s father; it was he who was sitting at the gate.
The hunters searched all the surrounding areas, but the fallow deer was never found. But they saw Rosette. The girl walked through the garden and where her foot stepped, violets and roses bloomed. The prince could not take his eyes off such beauty.
- Here she is, my doe! – he said smiling.
And the adviser’s blood froze in his veins. If he cut himself now, not a drop of blood would come out. The adviser dreamed of marrying the king's son to his daughter! Without wasting time, the prince immediately asked Rosochka’s hand in marriage from her father.
“You talk about it with her yourself,” he answered. “I agree,” said Rosochka.
The Tsarevich was a very willful young man; he wanted to immediately take Rosochka to his palace so that he could have a wedding without delay. But the adviser dissuaded him from such a step:
- Why is there such a hurry, Tsarevich? First get your father's blessing to marry this girl.
The Tsarevich said goodbye to Rosochka, jumped on his horse and, saying that he would return soon, rode away with his adviser.
“I met the girl I want to marry,” the prince said to his father. “There is no other beauty like her in the whole world.” Now she is the only one that exists for me.
The king decided to ask the adviser, as someone who had seen the girl with his own eyes, what he thought about her.
“Yes, you’ll see her yourself soon,” he answered angrily. – Wild girl from the mountains. Born in a cave.
The prince received his father's blessing for the marriage. Together with an adviser, surrounded by an escort of armed horsemen, he went for his bride. The councilor’s daughter also joined the vigilantes, dressed in men’s clothing. Rosette's father arranged a big feast for the matchmakers.
- Live long. May old age find you under the same roof,” Rosochka’s parents wished the young people.
And in the morning, after the feast, having received her parents' blessing, Rosochka and the guests went to the royal palace. On the way they were overtaken by night.
- Let's not rush into the night. “We’d better set up camp and spend the night, and in the morning, in the light of the sun, we’ll enter the palace,” the adviser suggested.
They agreed with him. Taking advantage of the joyful mood of the people anticipating the wedding feast, the adviser got them all drunk to the point of insensibility. And then he took Rosochka by the hand and led her to a stream that flowed near the camp.
“Sit here, my dear, I’ll be right back,” he told her. – I will return here with a reliable person who will protect you. Because our guys drank too much today.
The advisor returned with his own daughter. The two of them began to threaten Rosochka. The adviser grabbed her and shouted to his daughter:
- Take off her clothes and put them on yourself.
The adviser's daughter took off her men's clothes and put on Rosochka's wedding attire. Then she unsheathed her dagger, gouged out Rose's eyes and hid them in her pocket. Having abandoned the naked, bleeding Rosette by the stream, they returned to camp. The adviser's daughter crept into the tent and went to bed next to the prince.
And no one in the camp noticed what had happened - everyone was dead drunk. Waking up in the morning, the whole procession set off on its further journey. They entered the capital to the sounds of cheerful music. By order of the king, the wedding was celebrated for seven days and seven nights. A day or two after the wedding, the prince says to his wife:
- Why don’t flowers grow where your foot steps?
The wife began to come up with a thousand excuses to explain why she could not show her talent now. The prince suspected something was wrong. His wife disappointed and angered him so much that he began to beat her. Hearing the groans of his daughter, the adviser said to the king:
“Didn’t I warn you that she was a savage?” There was no need for us to bring her to the palace. But she is now your son's wife. It's a shame to beat your wife. People are already talking about it. We need to put an end to this.
Let the prince beat the adviser’s daughter at least a thousand times a day, we don’t care about that. Let's better see what happened next with Rosochka.
And it so happened that a merchant was walking that road. He and his men camped on the banks of a stream to rest and have lunch. The merchant threw a piece of bread to his dog. She took it and disappeared into the bushes. When the dog returned, the merchant gave it another piece. Grabbing it with its teeth, the dog again disappeared into the bushes. Returning, she received another piece of bread and once again ran into the bushes.
“Go and see where she’s taking the bread,” the merchant said to one of his people.
The man returned shouting:
- Master, the dog is carrying bread to a blind girl, who, all wounded and almost without clothes, is hiding in the bushes.
The merchant was a kind man:
“Baby, tell me where are you from?” “I’m from the capital,” she answered. “And I’m just going there.” I'll be glad to bring you home.
So, together with the caravan they arrived in the city.
“Now I’ll find the way to the house myself,” said the girl.
She knocked on the door of the small house. Seeing this, the merchant left with a clear conscience. The door was opened by an old woman:
- Who are you? What do you need? - Mother, let me stay with you. - My child, I am a poor old woman, I live alone. How can I shelter you in my home?
Rosette put her hand in her pocket. When the old woman saw a whole handful of gold coins in front of her, she said:
- Come in, dear, come in... - Mother, don’t be afraid of me. I won't bother you. I'll even help you get rich. Now let me wash myself.
The old woman took a bucket and filled a tub full of water. She herself stood on the sidelines to see how the blind girl would manage.
- Mother, leave me alone. I am able to swim myself.
When the old woman returned to empty the tub, she was amazed to find that it was full of gold and silver.
- How did this happen? “- she exclaimed. “Mother, to get rich, all you need to do is have a pair of strong hands to carry me bathing water.” “And I can turn it into gold and silver,” Rosette told her.
From then on, the old lady could hardly wait for Rosette’s next bath. Every day early in the morning she went to the fountain for water. Gold and silver accumulated in her house. One day Rosochka says to the old lady:
- Mother, tell me, is there an architect in your city? - Of course there is, this is the capital. - Then let's hire him. Let him design a palace with an elegant façade. We already have so much gold that it’s time for us to live in a palace.
The architect developed a plan and within two months the palace was built. He turned out so handsome that everyone in the city was talking about it. The palace was furnished with the best furniture and decorated with magnificent tapestries and carpets.
“Well, dear mother, I think that now you’re happy,” Rosochka said to the old woman. “No, my child.” How can I say that I'm happy? After all, the most important thing is missing here. I think about this all day and night. “And what is this?” Tell me. - This is, my child, that you do not see the light of God. How can I bear it? How can I be happy when there is a person next to me who is suffering? - Mother, dear, last night I had a dream about this, can you imagine? I saw you and me on the bank of the stream. The dove and the dove talked to each other about how to restore my sight. It seems to me that this stream must be somewhere in the area. - I will take you to a beautiful stream. We will sit on its bank in the shade of the plane trees and breathe in the fresh air.
The next day, in the morning, they went to the stream. Having settled down on its bank, to the melodious murmur of water, Rosochka and the old woman soon dozed off. Rosette again dreamed of pigeons, talking about how to restore her sight:
- Do you see that girl? This is Rose. - said the dove to the dove. – She was born in a cave. The daughter of the king's adviser blinded her and deceived her into marrying the prince. She still has Rosette's eyes. Leave your feather here. The old lady will take it for Rosette. When she lowers her eyes into her sockets and runs this feather over them, she will immediately be healed.
The pigeons flew away. Waking up, Rosochka woke up the old lady:
- Wake up, mother. Look, is there a pigeon feather somewhere under the trees? Pick it up, I need it.
The old woman began to search. Having found the feather, she gave it to Rose and they returned home.
- Now look: I will walk and where my foot will step, violets and roses will immediately grow. Collect them in bouquets and then go and sell them for a couple of eyes. This is the price for these flowers, don’t take another one,” said Rosochka to the old woman.
Having filled a huge basket with roses and violets, the old woman went to sell them on the streets of the city. These were flowers, as if from the Garden of Eden. The time of year was not for roses and violets, and the old woman understood perfectly well that flowers were very expensive. But who has a pair of extra eyes? People sincerely thought she was crazy when the old woman talked about what she would take in payment for the flowers.
Suddenly a window in the royal palace opened. Having found out what was the matter, the royal daughter-in-law shouted:
- I will buy all the flowers from you!
The old lady replied:
“I’ll give them up just for a pair of eyes.”
The Tsar's daughter-in-law, taking Rosette's eyes out of her pocket, handed them to the old lady:
- Here, take it.
Leaving the prince's wife a basket of flowers, the old woman quickly returned to Rosochka. The girl, hearing approaching steps, rushed to the door.
“Baby, I sold them, that’s what you asked for.”
Rosette inserted her eyes into her sockets:
“Now bring me some fresh water from the stream.”
The old lady brought water. The girl dipped a dove feather into it and ran it over her eyes. A miracle happened! Rosette's eyes were healed and regained their sight. The old woman’s sympathetic heart was also healed.
Let us leave them in our palace at this joyful moment and see what was happening in the royal palace.
The prince was very happy when he saw beautiful flowers in his wife’s bedroom, which were hung on the walls and placed around the bed. His wife hoped that in this way she would gain her husband's favor.
- Here! These are the flowers I was talking about,” exclaimed the prince. - Forgive me for treating you rudely. And please walk so that I can see that flowers grow where your foot has stepped. This was the request the councilor’s daughter feared most:
“You’re being rude to me again,” she answered defiantly.
And they quarreled again. The prince left the bedroom and went to sleep in another room.
“It can only be Rose,” he decided. “Only thanks to her can such wonderful roses and violets appear in this world.” But if she is still alive, then where is she?
It was as if the prince had gained wings, as the hope of meeting his beloved again affected him. The flowers were a good omen. For several months the prince searched for Rosochka, but to no avail - there were no hints or suggestions of where she could be. And in that country there was such a custom: when the month of May arrived, horses were distributed from the royal stables to people so that they could take care of them until the cold weather set in.
The old woman told Rosochka about this custom. The girl replied that it would be a shame not to take part in this. After all, they could take at least one horse for themselves and, thereby, help their king.
When the old woman came to the royal stables, all the horses had already been dismantled. There was only one pathetic nag left, which no one wanted to take. The horse was weak, and people were afraid that he would die before he reached the pasture.
The king gave it to the old woman, and she took him away with her.
-Have you brought your horse? – asked Rosochka. “Yes, I brought it.” Only this is not a horse, but a real nag. How are we going to nurse him? We have no oats, no barley, no hay. It will not be so easy for us to maintain a horse. “Entrust this matter to me,” said Rosochka. - The Lord is merciful. He won't leave us.
Since then, the horse followed the girl everywhere when she walked in the garden. A few months later he turned into a blooming, handsome horse. When the time came to return the horse to the royal stables, the prince himself came for him.
“Mother, you must keep one of our horses,” he said to the old woman. “Yes, that’s right.” Look at that mighty horse, he is so fast that he can jump from star to star.
The prince went into the garden and what did he see there? Rosochka led the handsome horse by the bridle. And he followed and ate the violets and roses that bloomed under her feet. It was as if the prince was struck by lightning. His heart instantly filled with happiness. Rosette and the prince threw themselves into each other's arms.
The girl told him about what the royal adviser and his daughter had done to her. The prince returned to his palace and told the king about everything.
“You scolded me for marrying a mountain woman, a girl from a cave.” You kept repeating: “Don’t blame me for marrying of your own free will. I wanted you to marry my advisor’s daughter.” So, father, now you will see that girl from the mountains. She is my real wife. Now order, let them lay out carpets from your palace to the old woman’s palace.
By order of the king, the carpets were laid out. The advisor was neither alive nor dead from fear when he learned what was happening. The little rose was brought into the royal palace with all possible honors. Troops lined up along her route, the streets were packed with people, and music was playing. The children ran after the girl, collecting bouquets of violets and roses that bloomed where she passed. Everyone was fascinated by her beauty and grace.
The Tsar kissed Rosette and the Tsarevich and blessed them for marriage. Their dreams came true, so let yours come true too.
You ask: “What happened to the royal adviser and his daughter?” So, by order of the king, they tied unbroken mares to the tails and drove them away from the city.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru