A long time ago, a peasant and his wife lived in a village. And they had one and only son.
When the time came for their son to get married, his parents advised him to choose a bride in his native village. The young man went through all the village girls in his mind, but did not find a suitable bride. There was nothing to do, his parents had to allow him to look for a bride wherever he wanted.
The son was glad that his parents did not force him to make a choice, and went to the city. There lived a tailor, an old friend of his father. A young man came to the tailor and said:
- I decided to get married. I don't like any girl in our village. So I decided to come to you. Maybe you, my father's good friend, can help me find the best girl in the world?
The tailor thought and said:
“I heard that a very good girl lives in one village. Yes, the trouble is that she is her father’s only daughter, there are no other children, and his wife recently died. Therefore, the father does not even want to hear about the suitors and does not allow matchmakers into the house.
The young man replied:
- It’s nothing that doesn’t allow matchmakers, I’ll settle the matter with my father, as long as the girl is good.
Then the tailor said:
“Tomorrow is market day, and her father will probably come to town.”
The young man returned home, and the next morning he got up in the dark and again went to the tailor straight to his workshop on the market square. The tailor was already sitting at work. He poured the guest a cup of coffee, and when a tall, gray-haired peasant appeared in the crowd, he showed it to the young man. He took a good look at the girl’s father and was pleased. The old man's clothes were clean, and the patches were sewn on neatly and, apparently, with great care.
After lunch, the peasants began to leave the market. The girl’s father went home with his fellow villagers. The young man said goodbye to the tailor and followed them. Halfway to the village, he caught up with them, greeted them, and wished them all a good journey. Then they walked together. The young man chatted cheerfully and joked with the young guys. The road went uphill. At the pass they had to climb up a steep rocky path. The girl’s father had difficulty walking, and the young man tried to help him. He walked ahead and extended his hand every time the old man needed to climb a steep ledge. So he had the opportunity to talk to the girl’s father. He said jokingly:
- Father, why don’t you spend the extra penny and buy a horse? It's easier to climb hills with a horse.
The old man was surprised and replied:
- What are you saying, son? Is it possible to buy a horse for a penny?
- Wow! — the young man answered calmly and moved on. “But I didn’t know.” It turns out that you can’t buy a horse for a penny.
When they approached the village, the young man, looking at the green fields of winter crops, asked:
- Father, has anyone in your village already mowed winter crops?
The old man was even more surprised and answered, a little irritated:
-What are you asking, son? Who mows winter crops when they have barely sprouted?
The young man answered just as calmly and calmly:
- That's it! And I didn’t even know. It turns out that you can’t mow winter crops when they’ve barely sprouted.
They moved on. The young man entertained the girl’s father with a conversation, and when the peasants came to the village and began to disperse along the streets and paths to their houses, the young man accompanied the old man to the very gate.
Dusk was falling, and it was getting dark quickly in the mountains. The young man managed to tell the old man that he was going to the neighboring village, and now, when he began to respectfully say goodbye, the old man said:
“It’s getting dark, there’s no point in going any further today, stay overnight with me, and in the morning you’ll get up early and hit the road.”
That's all the young man wanted. He came to the village to go to the old man’s house, and everything worked out as he wanted. Now all he had to do was fulfill his intention - to see the girl, to find out if she was a good worker and if she was smart.
The old peasant and his guest entered a clean room. The house was in complete order. “Perhaps the girl is a good worker,” the young man thought. Soon he noticed her in the window - the girl had just gone out into the yard to get firewood. She was slender and very beautiful, but apparently she had recently injured her leg, because one of her feet was bandaged and the girl was limping. The young man thought: “If she’s also smart, I’ll get married!” And he said to the old man:
“Father, a king could live in such a beautiful house as yours, but here’s the problem: the chimney by the fireplace is crooked!”
The girl was outside the door at that time. Without waiting for her father's answer, she said:
“It doesn’t matter that the pipe is crooked, the smoke would come out straight!”
The young man immediately realized that the girl was not stupid. But the old peasant did not understand the subtleties of the conversation and became angry with his daughter. He went out the door, ordered her to bake some bread and prepare dinner, and then began to reproach her: why did she enter into a conversation with a stranger, and with such a fool at that.
“He talked nonsense all the way,” said the peasant. “When we were walking through the pass, he asked why don’t I splurge and buy a horse for a penny.” When we approached the village, I began to ask if our peasants were mowing the winter crops, but the winter crops had just come up. Now he says that the chimney near the fireplace is askew. Where did she look askance? The pipe is straight!
“No,” answered the girl, “this is not nonsense.” He didn’t ask you about the horse, you can’t buy a horse for a penny, but about the stick. It’s hard for you to climb the mountain, but if you took a staff with you, it would be easier. And he asked about winter crops for a reason. You yourself know that in a hungry year, our peasants eat winter crops in the spring, as soon as the shoots sprout. A crooked chimney near the fireplace is also not stupid. He was just joking with me; I’m limping. The young man heard their conversation and decided to get married tomorrow morning.
The old man returned to the room, they had dinner and went to bed. Early in the morning the young man got up, thanked the owner for the overnight stay and got ready for the road. The old man walked him to the gate, but the young man, instead of saying goodbye, suddenly said:
“Only then did I come to your house to call you father-in-law and your daughter wife.”
The old man stood, thought for a while and went into the house to ask his daughter what to do.
“If you don’t marry me to him, I won’t get married at all,” the daughter answered.
The old man again went to the gate and informed the young man about his daughter’s consent. The satisfied young man returned home and told his parents about his choice.
After some time, the groom’s father says to his wife:
- It's time to prepare a gift for the bride. Let's send her a big, buttery pretzel and a wineskin of honey. And bake twelve gold coins into a pretzel.
The groom's mother baked a pretzel, poured a full wineskin of honey, and equipped the worker with these gifts for the journey. And the groom admonished him:
- Give my regards to the future father-in-law and tell him this: “The groom wishes you good health and says: full moon, twelve months, a little goat is jumping on legs.”
The worker went to the bride’s village. On the way, I sat down to have a snack, ate corn bread with feta cheese, but couldn’t resist, broke off a piece of a pretzel and drank honey from a wineskin. While chewing a pretzel, two gold coins caught his teeth. The worker hid them in his wallet, and in his thoughts he scolded the hostess for not knowing how to bake bread, throwing coins into the dough - he almost broke his teeth.
In the evening, the worker came to the bride's house and gave the old peasant a gift and greetings from the groom.
The old man did not understand what the groom wanted to tell him. He began to curse himself for promising a daughter to such a fool, and to complain about his daughter’s dashing fate, but the smart girl immediately understood everything. She fed and watered the worker, and the next morning she saw him off with the words:
- Give my regards to the groom and tell him, “The bride wishes you all good health and says: flawed moon, ten months, the kid fell to his knees, but don’t upset the partridge, don’t kill the snake.”
The worker returned home and conveyed to the owners the words of the bride, which he also did not understand. Hearing about the defective moon and ten months, the groom became angry and wanted to drive the worker away, but when he said: “Don’t upset the partridge, don’t kill the snake,” he forgave him.
Soon the bride and groom got married and then lived happily ever after.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru