Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. The old woman looked after the house, and the old man went to the mountains to collect firewood. Everything would be fine, but they didn’t have children, and this made them very sad. One day an old man was gathering for firewood, looked at the old woman and asked:
- What are you, old woman, how sad? And the old woman answers him:
- How can I, old man, not be sad? We have neither a son nor a daughter. If we die, there will be no one to bury us.
The old man sighed heavily, took his chige and silently left the house.
He came to the mountains and heard: somewhere a bird was singing, and its voice was ringing like a crystal bell. The old man looked around and saw a bird sitting on a tree. Her belly is like emerald grass, her chest is like the blue sky - you can’t take your eyes off it.
The bird tilted its head to the side, looked at the old man with beady eyes and flew to another tree. She sits on a branch and looks at the old man, as if beckoning him to follow her. The old man came closer, and the bird took off and flew on. And she sings and bursts into song.
The old man followed her and went into the thicket. And the bird rose into the sky and disappeared, only it was seen. The old man listened - the bird was not singing, it was quiet all around, only somewhere a stream was babbling. The old man looked around: under the rock there was a spring flowing and the water in it was clear and clean.
He went up to the spring, knelt down and let’s drink some water. As soon as he took the first sip, his stooped back straightened, his old legs stopped trembling, and hot blood ran through his veins. “What miracles,” the old man thought. He stretched out his hand to tug at his beard to see if he was dreaming, but there was no beard, as if it never existed.
The old man was delighted: had he really come across the spring of youth that people in the village had been talking about?
The old man took another sip, and at that same moment the deep wrinkles disappeared from his face, and the old man turned into a young man. He quickly grabbed the chige and ran home. He runs, and he remembers the way so that he can lead the old woman to the spring.
And the old woman waited and waited for her old man and went to meet him. “Maybe the old man is tired? Let me help,” he thinks.
An old woman wanders along the road, and a young man hurries towards her. An old woman stopped him and asked:
-Have you seen the old man with firewood? He left for the mountains in the morning, but never returned.
And the young man bursts out laughing:
- Look at me more closely, old one! Don't you really recognize your Kim?
The old woman was frightened: the voice seemed familiar. Kim told her everything that had happened to him and took her to a wonderful spring. The old woman took two sips and turned into a beautiful girl. The young man and the girl took hands and went home.
They approached the house, and a neighbor was standing at the gate.
“Good evening, neighbor,” Kim tells him. But his neighbor doesn’t even recognize him.
Kim told him everything that happened to him, his neighbor’s eyes lit up:
- Tell me quickly, where does the spring flow?
He explained to Kim how to find the spring, and the neighbor ran home. He put on a new robe, put on a huge hat and hurried to the mountains.
He came to the place that Kim told him about and saw a spring gushing under the rock. The neighbor knelt down, drank a sip, drank another and turned into a young man. I thought and thought: “I want to be younger than Kim,” I took another sip and became a boy. The neighbor wiped his lips: “Oh, the water is delicious! I’ll take another sip!” He decided to go ahead and drink water.
Kim went to a neighbor’s house in the evening, but he wasn’t home! Kim was scared - had something happened? - and ran to the spring. He came running and saw: a new robe and a huge hat were lying on the ground, but his neighbor was nowhere to be seen. Kim came closer, raised his hat - what a miracle? A baby lies under a hat and sleeps soundly.
Kim shook his head:
- Oh, how stupid you are, neighbor! Is it possible to drink so much wonderful water?
He wrapped the baby in a robe and brought it home. The wife saw the child and was delighted: she had long dreamed of having a son.
So the three of them began to live together, and the baby grew into a kind and good person.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru