Whether it happened or not, a husband and wife lived in the world. They lived very poorly. They had one and only son. The son said: “My dear parents, we have nothing, we don’t even have anything to eat, I’ll go get a job, at least I’ll earn enough for food.” “Very good,” said the parents.
The son went; He walked and walked and came to a rich man and hired himself out as a shepherd to herd sheep. The shepherd served honestly, the owner's flock increased. A year later, the shepherd said to the owner: “Let me go home for a while, I’ll go and see my old people.”
The owner released the farm laborer, gave him sheep, butter, meat, cheese and sent him to his relatives. A shepherd is riding home on a horse, rides, and sees a snake stretched out across the road, and just like that, the horse is about to crush him. The shepherd got off his horse, took the snake, carefully laid it on the side of the road and said:
- Why are you lying in the way? Or someone will run you over, or kill you like that! He got on his horse again and rode off. He came home, stayed for a while and rode back to his owner. He drives and drives, and the snake again lies across the road. The shepherd jumped off his horse, took him carefully, moved him to the side of the road and said: “Don’t lie on the road, unfortunate thing, they will kill you, or don’t you understand?” He got on his horse and rode off. He hears the snake calling him: “Hey, wait!” The shepherd stopped, the snake crawled up to him and said: “If you’re not scared, I’ll blow it in your mouth?”
The shepherd was not afraid. The snake blew on him, and that shepherd became a sorcerer - everything became clear to him: the noise of the leaves, and the rumble of water, and the singing of birds, and the conversations of all the animals - oxen, and bulls, and cows, and sheep. - The shepherd returned to the owner, served for another year and said: - Let me go, owner, give back what I have earned from you, and let me go. It’s time for me to go home and look after my old people. “Go,” said the owner, “throw the shepherd’s staff into the flock, and everything that remains on this side is yours.” The shepherd threw the staff, went to drive away the flock and heard an old sheep calling a young lamb: “Come here, why are you stuck there?” And the lamb replies: “Oh, mother, if our shepherd knew what I was like, he wouldn’t have left me.” The shepherd heard this and remembered the lamb. They divided the flock, and the owner got that lamb. The shepherd said: “I had one tame lamb, my favorite.” You got it, give it back, take at least my whole flock. “Take your lamb, I don’t mind,” said the owner.
The shepherd took the lamb, said goodbye to the owner, thanked him, and drove his sheep. He is walking through one village with his flock and sees: they have poured grain for drying, birds are busy around, some immediately peck from the litter, others pick up what is scattered along the road. And a beautiful girl sits nearby, guarding the grain.
One bird raised its head, pecking grain from the bedding, and said to its friends: “Hey, you fools, what are you pecking from the ground?” Come here before they remove us and disperse us, and whatever is spilled there will not leave us.
The shepherd heard and laughed.
The girl looked at the shepherd, she liked him, and he liked her too. The shepherd went further, came home, built a new house for himself and decided to get married. I remembered the girl who guarded the grain, found her and took her as my wife.
They lived happily. Only their happiness was soon darkened. The wife pestered her husband: tell him, tell him, what made you laugh when you were driving the sheep around the village. The shepherd does not speak, he knows: if he lets it slip, he will die. Let the wife give no rest: say and say, even though she knows that she will kill her husband.
The shepherd slaughtered six sheep, baked bread, and prepared everything for his own funeral. He decided to tell everything - his wife tormented him. He finally went to drive the sheep into the barn and heard that lamb say: “Listen to what I’m going to tell you.” “What?” - say the sheep. - Our owner is preparing a wake for himself - his wife pestered him, asking him to tell her something that should not be said. If he says, he will die by morning. I would deal with such a wife like this: I would take a big, knotty stick and teach her a lesson so that she would forget her birthday...
The shepherd went, cut off a good gnarled stick, returned home and began to teach his wife. The wife lay in bed for a week, groaning: on the eighth day she took away both your and our grief.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru