Once upon a time there lived a widow. She was poor - the poorest of all in the village. Her only joy is that she has her only son. His mother doted on him, she worked day and night to keep the boy fed, shod and clothed, but poverty did not leave her at home. And the young man decided to become a worker. He hired himself as a shepherd to a rich man. It was agreed that he would work for five years and during this time he should never leave the herd.
The young man became a shepherd. Three years passed, and he missed his mother. His fellow shepherds saw this and said: “Go home, check on your mother - we won’t tell the owner that you were away.”
The young man went home and saw his mother. His mother prepared a gomyle for him on the way, and early in the morning he set off back.
He walks and suddenly sees baby snakes on the road. He was surprised why they were crawling so slowly, and decided that they were hungry. I fed them and moved on.
At this time, the snake, the mother of those baby snakes, returned with prey. She was surprised when she saw her children well-fed and cheerful. The little snakes said that some kind person fed them.
The snake caught up with the young man:
- Why did you feed my children, you know that people and snakes are old enemies. I want to know what you gave them - let me try too.
The snake tasted what her children ate and was pleased. And I decided to thank the young man.
- From this day on, you will begin to understand the language of birds and animals. Open your mouth!
The young man was frightened - he had heard a lot about the cunning of snakes. But what was to be done? He opened his mouth and the snake spat under his tongue.
I listened, what a miracle! How many secrets of animals and birds he learned! He thanked the snake and went on his way. He walked and walked, and now his flock was visible in the distance; suddenly he hears one crow say to another:
“Tonight robber wolves will attack this flock and slaughter the entire herd; Tomorrow we'll eat our fill!
And the other crow answers:
“We also get a lot of food from shepherds, so it would be better if this flock remained intact.” The shepherds would have guessed to go into that hollow.
The young man went further and heard two wolves talking about the same thing. He came to the shepherds, but how to tell them that he understood the conversation between crows and wolves, how to warn about trouble? I thought and thought and decided to say that I had a bad dream, and therefore it would be better for them to move to that ravine. The shepherds laughed at him and did not move the flock. And the young man drove his sheep and hid himself in a ravine. He had just managed to make a pen for the sheep when he heard the howl of a wolf, warning other wolves that they should attack the flock.
The conversation of the wolves was heard by the shepherd dogs guarding the flock; the largest of them - a beautiful black dog - said:
– A huge pack of wolves is about to attack the flock; If our shepherd slaughtered the fattest sheep and fed us properly, we could defeat the wolves.
The guy quickly chose the fattest sheep, slaughtered it and fed it to the dogs.
When wolves attacked the flock at night, the dogs easily tore them to pieces. And from the flock that grazed in the same place, not a single sheep remained - the gray robbers stole them all.
In the morning the young man drove his flock out of the ravine and headed to the village. People came rushing towards him - people heard about the attack of robber wolves and hurried to help the shepherds. Among them was the owner of the flock that the young man was tending. He was delighted when he saw that all his sheep were safe, generously rewarded the young man and sent him home.
And the young man and his mother lived richly and happily.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru