Once upon a time there lived a poor man who went to work as a farm laborer. And no matter where he was hired, no matter what pay they gave him, he did not take it.
“Teach me,” he says, “to understand what birds and animals say, then I’ll hire you.”
Clearly, no one knows this. That's when his grandfather meets him.
“Join me,” he says, “and teach me to understand what kind of bird and what kind of animal they say?” “Okay,” he says, “I’ll teach you, but you owe me a whole year to do the work that I ask.” Once you work, I’ll teach you, but if you don’t work, I won’t teach you.
So he went to work, and he had to light the inextinguishable furnace. His grandfather gives him a couple of horses and says:
“You will carry firewood on these horses, and you will feed them coals, but make sure that the stove does not go out.” And as soon as it fades a little, all your work is gone.
He said this and disappeared. That’s how he started hauling, he carries wood for that stove, but he doesn’t haul it, he just throws it in, it’s gone. Once he began to feed the horses, and they said to him:
“Don’t put coal on us, but give us at least a little hay, then we can manage it ourselves.”
He put some hay in them; before he worked tirelessly, but now he does it little by little, rests, but the stove still doesn’t go out. The man served for a year and went to get his paycheck.
“Well,” says the grandfather, “go, now you will know everything.”
He left, walked and walked, and a tavern was visible on the road.
“Here, he thinks, I’ll spend the night there.” Suddenly he hears a raven sitting and cawing:
“This tavern will burn down at night, and whoever spends the night in it will get into trouble!”
He understood everything and did not go into the tavern. He goes further, and lo and behold, a cab driver is coming.
- Hello! - Hello!
They asked each other who and where they were from, and the driver said:
“Hire yourself with me.” “Okay,” he says, “I’ll hire you.” “Where,” he asks the owner, “should we spend the night?” “Over there, in the tavern, perhaps.” - No, master, we’d better stop in the steppe.
They stopped, just went to bed, and the farmhand heard that the dog, which had been running after the cabman all the way, was barking:
- Hey, get up, the inn is on fire!
He woke up the owner, who thanked him for advising him not to spend the night in this tavern. She begins to believe him even more. So, before reaching the house a little, the farm laborer heard what the sparrows were chirping among themselves, and said to the owner:
“Your gold and silver shops have been robbed at home, and your mistress is so sad that she keeps a knife with her: as soon as she sees you, she will kill herself.” And we,” he says, “will leave our trucks so many miles away, and we ourselves will enter the house, and as soon as she comes out, we will be behind her and take the knife from her.”
And so they did. They arrived, and only the hostess climbed over the stile, and they held her hands.
“It’s okay,” he says, “don’t worry, if only the family is safe.”
So the workers sat down to dinner, and the healer was between them. They eat and throw the bones under the table, and the dog, which was with its owner on the road, started a quarrel with the yard dog.
“You,” he says, “didn’t protect the owner’s property, but you see, you’re trying to get the bone.”
“But,” says the dog, “can you protect yourself from your thief?” All the gold and silver is over there in the dung heap and is still buried.
And the healer understands all this and after dinner comes to the owner:
“Over there,” he says, “all your goods are buried.” From that time on, the owner loved him so much that he soon married his daughter to him and took him as his son-in-law. Here they live, and other merchants began to reprimand the young man:
- What kind of farmhand did you marry? Find out how he finds out, so we will destroy him. She began:
- Tell me, tell me, how do you do everything? - Yes, if I tell you, I’ll die right away. But she doesn’t care, she interprets everything of her own. “Well, dress me up,” she says, “for death, give me a clean shirt.”
So I got dressed, I have to lie down on the bench, and he says:
“I’ll at least go feed the chickens.”
I took some millet and went out to the farmstead. Chickens run up, there is no rooster. Then the rooster runs up:
“Oh, you so-and-so,” he shouts, “as soon as I find a grain somewhere, I don’t eat it myself, I call you, but you didn’t call me.” You don’t need to trust your wife, like our fool, our master, but you need to drag you by the braids.
He guessed then - and into the hut, instantly grabbed his wife by the braids.
“Here,” he says, “how I’ll find out!” He pulled her away thoroughly, and then they began to live peacefully.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru