A fairy tale is a fairy tale, but not from fairy-tale times, but a little later, people put it together, in those days when our great-grandfathers scooped up water with a sieve and carried the sun into the house in fours.
They say that in those days there lived three brothers, three stalwart young men, all alike in appearance. Their father and mother were not lucky enough to rejoice at their sons; they folded their arms on their chests early. Having started managing things themselves, the brothers worked day and night, spinning like a squirrel in a wheel, but there was little use. They see that they are as lucky as a drowned man in everything, and they began to give advice on how to proceed.
“May, brothers,” says the eldest. “While father and mother lived, we were at home in the hallway.” And since we took them down to the churchyard, the house has become disgusting, like a bitter radish. Let’s better go around the world to look for happiness, maybe we’ll find a good job somewhere, we’ll help each other and become one of the people.
“Okay,” the younger brothers agreed.
And then one fine day they set off on a journey from their native threshold.
They walked and walked, walked around many towns and villages, but found no work anywhere. One day they came to some crossroads: one went left, the other went right, and the third went straight. The brothers sat down to rest, word by word, and this is what they agreed on:
“May,” said one. “We’ve been tramping along the roads for so long, but we still can’t find work.” Let's better split up, let's each go our own way, maybe it will be easier to find a job alone.
- That’s how it is, but how do we find out what happened to whom? —: asked the others.
“Wherever we go to work, we will be hired only for one year, and then we will gather again at this crossroads, and whoever earns what will share it with the rest of the brothers.”
No sooner said than done. The eldest brother went to the right, the middle brother to the left, and the youngest brother straight. The eldest soon found a job for himself, got hired as a farm laborer, but didn’t work too hard - as long as time flew by and his belly didn’t know hunger. The middle one also got hired as a farm laborer, but turned out to be incredibly lazy, worked carelessly, and relied more and more on his brothers, maybe they would earn more and share it with him. And the youngest kept walking forward from dawn to dark, and by nightfall he reached the dense forest. He was surrounded on all sides by thick and tall trees, the end of the road was not visible, and the darkness was getting thicker. And such fear gripped the guy that his hair stood on end. He was tired from the road, now it would be time to lie down to rest, but as soon as you lie down, what good, some beast will swoop in and tear him to shreds. So he suffered from fatigue and fear until a saving thought came to his mind: climb the tallest and thickest tree and wait there until sunrise. He somehow climbed to the top of the tree, perched himself on a thick branch and sat - neither alive nor dead from fear. Suddenly, at about midnight, he heard someone coming. How many of them were there: five, six - everyone was laughing, having fun, swearing loudly. They stopped right under the tree that the younger brother had climbed. Here one of them, apparently the main one, asks:
- Well, unclean ones, report where you have been, what you have seen, what evil you have done to people? Let everyone give an answer - has he earned his place in hell or not?
“Your darkest baseness,” says one, “I walked many roads around the world, but at least I did a worthwhile job.” Not far from here lies a large kingdom. I spun and spun along it, and in the end I managed to send a terrible pestilence to the cattle. Horses, cows, sheep are falling, and no one knows how to get rid of misfortune. People don’t even realize that the medicine is very simple to make: you need to boil an acacia seed in the milk of a first-calf cow and give the sick cattle three drops of the broth and three acacia seeds - the disease will go away.
- And you, Sarsaila, what did you do?
- Hey, your baseness, it seems to me that not a single devil has ever done such a thing. To the south of here lies a large kingdom. I worked a lot there, but in the end I managed to speak to all the rivers and wells - all the water had dried up all around. People are stunned with thirst, they are dying like flies, cattle are dying, and no one even thinks of sticking a spear three times into the rock that stands between the two Loboboyki mountains.
- And you, Nikoditsa, what can you brag about?
- I hit you with my forehead, your highest meanness. It was also not in vain that I wandered around the world. Three lands away from here lies the kingdom of the Green King. He was famous for his vast estates and rich treasury, but even more famous for his daughter, red as the clear sun. Good fellows from all over the world dry on it in winter and summer. But that week I managed to send her into serious illness. Everyone around is crying, they feel sorry for the princess, but no one knows how to help her. And who would think that finding a cure is very simple: you need to measure two steps from the royal threshold, dig a hole the size of a man, lift a red striped worm from the bottom, infuse it on a scale of vodka and, having kept the infusion in the sun from dawn to dark, give the princess three drops - she would instantly recover.
- Well done, horned ones, you have done some good deeds, go out and walk around the world again.
The unclean ones fled here in all directions, along roads only known to them.
While they were talking, the younger brother seemed rooted to a tree, held his breath, opened his ears, and did not miss a word. Now everything in the forest became quiet, the guy’s fear subsided, he began to think: “May, if everything they said is true, then I will tell them
I'll put the pig down, I'll destroy all plans. Let them then say that I am more Satanic than Satan himself!”
At dawn he came down from the tree and set off on his way. He walked, walked through the mountains, through the valleys, and one fine day he reached a small village. And there is a groan, people from grief have become blacker than the earth - cattle are falling, and no one can think of salvation.
“Good people,” our guy addressed several villagers. “Try such and such a medicine.”
- Hey, guy! We have tried so many different medicines, but the benefits are like milk from a goat.
- But try this too. How to know where happiness hides.
The unfortunates listened to the advice, found the first heifer, milked it, boiled the acacia seed in milk and gave the sick cattle three seeds and three drops of the broth. The cattle immediately cheered up and recovered, the illness disappeared as if by hand. The villagers didn’t know how to thank the guy for his good advice, but he said goodbye to them and moved on. So he went from village to village and taught everyone how to treat cattle, gave out good advice, collected people’s gratitude until he reached the edge of the kingdom. A different picture now opened before him - all around were burnt-out fields, abandoned wells, dry rivers. He found a good craftsman who made him a spear with an iron tip, asked the way to the Loboboyki mountains and set off on his way. As soon as he approached the rock he needed, the mountains above it began to collide with their foreheads, striking sparks and instilling fear in him. They fought like this for three days and three nights, until they got tired and stopped to rest. Then the guy rushed to the rock like an arrow and thrust his spear into it three times. The mountains trembled, they were about to knock their foreheads together again, but a stream of water gushed out from the rock.
teaching to the very sky and cooled their fighting ardor. At the same moment, water appeared in all the wells, the rivers came to life, and the mountain streams whispered their songs. The people drank water, became happy, and covered the guy’s path with flowers. He went further and soon reached another kingdom. Here, from young to old, all the women and men succumbed to the evil grief: the royal daughter - the beauty of the world - fell seriously ill and lay on her deathbed. All the royal messengers announced long ago that whoever healed the princess, the king would give her as a wife and half his kingdom in addition. All the doctors and healers tried their herbs and spells on her, but no one was able to save her. The king and queen grieved, their daughter was dearer to them than anything else in the world, and they cried with three streams of bloody tears that their daughter was melting like a wax candle. It was at this time, when all hopes had faded and they were waiting from minute to minute for inevitable death, our guy entered the palace, bowed to the king and the doctors and asked permission to treat the princess.
- Hey, young man, many came here, many promised to cure her, yes, apparently, the princess’s illness is incurable.
“Blessed Tsar, many came, many promised to heal her, let me try my strength too.”
- Why is this if there has been no hope and light for a long time?
“Allow him, sir, to try his strength, how to know where happiness is buried,” the courtiers prayed to the king.
“Well, so be it, at least I’ll know that all means have been tested,” the king agreed.
The guy measured two steps from the threshold of the palace, dug a man-sized hole, found a red striped worm, threw it into a vodka glass and kept it in the sun from dawn to dark. Then he gave the princess three drops of the infusion to drink, and she got out of bed cheerful and healthy.
The king, without hesitation, called all the musicians and played the wedding. There was a feast there for the whole world, everyone drank, ate, looked at the young people, could not stop looking at them. The fun lasted for a whole month, and then it died down, and then the guy told the king that he had his own house and his brothers couldn’t wait for him. In vain did the king beg him to stay, in vain did he promise him the royal throne, the guy stood his ground. Seeing such a thing, the king ordered three carts to be loaded with gold and precious stones, which, according to his calculations, was worth half the kingdom, gave the young people a royal dress embroidered in gold, and, saying goodbye, sent them off in peace on a long journey. The younger brother set off on the return journey and exactly a year after the day of separation from his brothers he reached the cherished crossroads. And the older brothers are already right there, waiting for the younger one. They themselves never earned anything; they were all idle, each hoping to profit from the labor of others.
- Hello, dear brothers!
“Welcome, brother,” answered the older brothers, looking greedily at the loaded carts.
- Where did you go, where did you work, what kind of goods did you get?
- Eh, brother, we worked until we worked up a sweat, but we didn’t get hold of anything, we just got worn out.
- Nothing, brothers, as we agreed when saying goodbye, so
Let's do it: we'll divide everything like brothers. Take yourself a cart of some good stuff.
The brothers rejoiced and ran to the carts, and when they saw a young maiden on the last cart, they both rushed to him and shouted at the top of their lungs:
- This is mine!
- No, mine!
- Why yours?
- Because I was the first to run up to her.
- No, mine, because I’m older.
“Stop, brothers, don’t argue in vain, this is my wife,” the younger one shouted and, running up to the cart, took his betrothed.
The older brothers opened their mouths in surprise and began to question him.
- Where did you work, brother, that you earned so much money, and even... found such a beautiful bride?
The younger brother began to tell them everything how it was, how much good he had done in the world, how many people he had saved from inevitable death, and they looked at each other and both spoke at once:
“Listen, May, can’t any of us do the same as him, and have not just one pose of gold, but three, and a beautiful bride to boot?”
- Follow this road to the dense forest and climb the tallest and thickest tree. “Wait there until night and find out what you should do,” the laying brother told them and drove the oxen home.
And the elders rushed as fast as they could to the forest, found the right tree, climbed to the top with half-hearted grief, held their breath, and waited for the devils to come. At midnight, voices and the clatter of hooves were heard in the forest. The unclean ones gathered, how many of them there were: five, six, at the foot of the tree and began to complain to their chief:
- Oh, your baseness, I came up with a good idea and it was not in vain that you praised me, but I don’t know who showed the people the medicine, and all the cattle recovered.
- Your highest meanness, and all my plans are destroyed. Little did I know that there would be a mortal who would do this? But one was found, he stuck a spear into the rock three times, the wells were filled with water, the rivers and streams came to life, and got rid of drought and thirst.
“Your baseness, and my villainy led nowhere.”
Someone healed a sick princess.
-Who did all this?
“Didn’t anyone overhear us the last time we held a council here?”
“Or maybe even now someone is hiding in a tree and listening?”
- Well, let's see.
Instantly the three unclean ones climbed to the top of the tree and, bumping into the older brothers, shouted:
- Here they are, may!
- Ay, ay! Stop! It's not us!..
Only the devils didn’t listen to them, but grabbed them by the scruff of the neck and threw them off the tree upside down. The brothers fell to the ground and never rose again.
And the younger brother soon reached home and lived and did good for a long time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru