Once upon a time there lived a poor guy with his mother. One day his mother fell ill, and she felt very bad.
-What would you like to eat, nani? - he asks his mother.
“I would eat meat,” says the mother, “it would give me more strength, maybe I would get better.”
-Where can I get meat? - asks the son. “We only have two oxen, if one of them is slaughtered, then who will we use to plow in the spring?”
- Well, slaughter an ox, son, and then whatever God wills. There is nothing worse than death.
The guy killed an ox, cooked the meat, fed it to his mother, and she recovered.
Spring has come, it's time to plow. Mother says to son:
“You can’t plow a field with an ox alone, let me harness a pair of oxen, and you plow.”
They began to plow.
At this time, the king was hunting in their region. He shot the game and ordered his servant:
“Light a fire, fry this bird for me, and make sure the game doesn’t burn.”
The servant began to fry the game and suddenly saw how a village guy, together with an ox, harnessed an old woman and plowed with both of them.
He was so enraptured by this miracle that he burned the whole bird in the coals.
The king was angry with him.
“What have you done,” he says, “why did you burn my breakfast?”
“Long live to you for many years, king,” answers the frightened servant. “I was staring at such a miracle: a son harnessed his mother to an ox and plowed on it.
“Call him to me,” says the king.
The guy approached the king, and he shouted at him:
“Aren’t you ashamed to drive an old woman across the field like cattle?”
And the guy answers with a bow:
“Don’t be angry, king, we slaughtered the second ox to save my mother from illness.” What should we do, we are poor people; If we don’t sow the field, we’ll die of hunger.
“Unharness now,” says the king. “I’ll give you one bull, if you manage to get it into the yoke, I’ll give it to you, good luck.”
They brought a bull, and it was not a bull, but a whole bull, and so angry that no one could deal with it.
“It’s okay,” says the guy, “I’ll deal with him somehow.”
He threw a rope around the bull's horns, tied his legs together, and kept him in a stall for three days without food. On the fourth day the bull calmed down a little, then the guy gave him half a bucket of water and threw an armful of hay,
And on the fifth day he put a yoke on him and forced him to plow. And when the bull worked, then he fed it properly. The king was surprised that they managed to tame his fierce bull.
- How did you manage to tame the bull? - the king asks the guy.
“Yes, that’s how it is,” the guy answers, grinning.
“Then this is what,” says the king. - I have a daughter. She's so lazy that you can't move her from her place. If you make something useful out of it, I will reward you generously. Send your mother tomorrow to marry my daughter.
The guy came home and said:
“Tomorrow, nani, go to the palace and woo the king’s daughter for me.”
His mother waved her hands at him: “What are you saying, what are you saying, I don’t even have anything to go out in!”
The son went to the market, bought his mother a new dress with his last money, and the next morning sent her to the palace.
The mother went to the palace, but was too shy to go inside, but stood at the threshold and stood there.
They went and reported to the king:
- Some old woman is standing at our doorstep. The king orders:
- Bring her in.
“Long live to you for many years, king,” says the old woman, bowing. “I have a request to you, but I’m afraid to say it.”
- Don't be afraid, speak up.
- I came to marry your daughter. Give her to my son in marriage.
“Let him take it,” says the king.
They had a wedding, and the tsar's daughter settled in the house of a peasant guy. Just as she got up in the morning, she sat down with her hands folded, she didn’t want to do anything.
Mother says:
- Listen, my son, who did you bring into the house? We don't need something like that on our farm.
“Nothing,” says the son, “you’ll see, I’ll bring her to reason.”
The next day he did not give his wife any food, no drink, no bread, no water - well, nothing at all.
“My mother and I work from morning to night,” he tells her, “so we will eat.” And you sit with your hands folded, why should we feed you? Ours is not a royal palace.
The next day, the Tsar’s daughter rose from the bench, swept under her feet and sat back down. In the evening the son says to his mother:
- Give her water and a piece of bread.
The next day the Tsar's daughter got up, swept half the room and sat down to rest again.
In the evening her husband gave her two pieces of bread for this.
“Here,” she thinks, “I got into the house! My father already fed me, but here they force me to work.”
But nothing can be done: she learned to clean the house, sweep the yard, and learned to cook - she won’t die of hunger! And she and her husband and mother-in-law began to eat everything - as they did, so did she. And the king’s daughter became so hard-working and diligent that they simply could not praise her enough. One day the king says to his wife:
“I’ll go and visit our good-for-nothing: after all, she’s our daughter.”
He prepared good gifts and arrived at the house of the peasant guy. He sees his daughter running up to him, tying his horse herself, and leading her father into the house.
“Sit down,” he says, “help me, I’m cooking dinner, so you peel the garlic for me.”
The king chuckled to himself, but did not show it and began to peel the garlic.
The mother comes home and sees the king peeling garlic.
“What is it, daughter,” she says, “that you forced the Tsar himself to peel garlic?”
“Of course,” says the Tsar’s daughter, “you won’t give him anything else to eat!”
Then the king laughed, dined with them and joyfully returned to the palace.
“Well,” he says to the queen, “our daughter has completely changed.” Hey, he's a peasant guy!
The king invited his daughter and son-in-law to his palace and arranged a luxurious feast.
They rejoiced, and we all rejoice.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru