Mistress of Copper Mountain

Two of our factory workers went to look at the grass. And their mowing was far away. Somewhere behind Severushka.

It was a holiday day, and it was hot - passion. Parun is clean. And both of them were timid in grief, at Gumeshki that is. Malachite ore was mined, as well as blue tit. Well, when a kinglet with a coil came in, there was a thread that would fit.

There was one young guy, unmarried, and his eyes began to look green. The other one is older. This one is completely ruined. There is green in the eyes, and the cheeks seem to have turned green. And the man kept coughing.

It's good in the forest. The birds sing and rejoice, the earth soars, the spirit is light. Listen, they were exhausted. We reached the Krasnogorsk mine. Iron ore was mined there back then. So our guys lay down on the grass under the rowan tree and immediately fell asleep. Only suddenly the young man, just as someone pushed him in the side, woke up. He looks, and in front of him, on a pile of ore near a large stone, a woman is sitting. Her back is to the guy, and you can see from her braid that she’s a girl. The braid is gray-black and doesn’t dangle like our girls’, but sticks straight to the back. At the end of the tape are either red or green. They shine through and ring subtly, like sheet copper. The guy marvels at the scythe, and then he notices further. The girl is small in stature, good-looking and such a cool wheel - she won’t sit still. He will lean forward, look exactly under his feet, then lean back again, bend to one side, to the other. He jumps to his feet, waves his arms, then bends down again. In a word, artut girl. You can hear him babbling something, but in what way he speaks it is unknown, and with whom he speaks is not visible. Just a laugh. Apparently she's having fun.

The guy was about to say a word, when suddenly he was hit on the back of the head.

My mother, but this is the Mistress herself! Her clothes are something. How did I not notice it right away? She averted her eyes with her oblique.

And the clothes are truly such that you won’t find anything else in the world. Made of silk, hear me, malachite dress. There is such a variety. It’s a stone, but it’s like silk to the eye, even if you stroke it with your hand. “Here,” the guy thinks, “trouble! As soon as I can get away with it before I notice.” From the old people, you see, he heard that this Mistress - a malachite girl - loves to play tricks on people. Just when she thought something like that, she looked back. He looks at the guy cheerfully, bares his teeth and says jokingly:

What are you doing, Stepan Petrovich? girlish beauty Are you staring at nothing? After all, they take money for a look. Come closer. Let's talk a little. The guy was scared, of course, but he didn’t show it. Attached. Even though she is a secret force, she is still a girl. Well, he’s a guy, which means he’s ashamed to be shy in front of a girl.

“I have no time,” he says, “to talk.” Without that we slept and went to look at the grass.

She chuckles and then says:

He will play a tune for you. Go, I say, there’s something to do.

Well, the guy sees that there is nothing to do. I went to her, and she loomed with her hand, go around the ore on the other side. He walked around and saw that there were countless lizards here. And everyone, listen, is different. Some, for example, are green, others are blue, which fade into blue, and others are like clay or sand with gold specks. Some, like glass or mica, shine, while others, like faded grass, and some are again decorated with patterns. The girl laughs.

“Don’t part,” he says, “my army, Stepan Petrovich.” You are so big and heavy, but they are small for me. - And she clapped her palms, the lizards ran away, they gave way.

So the guy came closer, stopped, and she clapped her hands again and said, all laughing:

Now you have nowhere to step. If you crush my servant, there will be trouble. He looked at his feet, and there wasn’t much ground there. All the lizards huddled together in one place, and the floor became patterned under their feet. Stepan looks - fathers, this is copper ore! All sorts and well polished. And there is mica, and blende, and all sorts of glitter that resemble malachite.

Well, now you recognize me, Stepanushka? - asks the malachite girl, and she bursts into laughter. Then, a little later, he says:

Don't be scared. I won't do anything bad to you.

The guy felt miserable that the girl was mocking him and even saying such words. He became very angry and even shouted:

Who should I be afraid of, if I am timid in grief!

“Okay,” the malachite girl answers. “That’s exactly what I need, someone who’s not afraid of anyone.” Tomorrow, as you descend the mountain, your factory clerk will be here, you tell him yes, look, don’t forget the words: “The owner of Copper Mountain ordered you, a stuffy goat, to get out of the Krasnogorsk mine. If you still break this iron cap of mine, I’ll dump all the copper in Gumeshki there for you, so there’s no way to get it.”

She said this and squinted:

Do you understand, Stepanushko? In grief, you say, you are timid, you are not afraid of anyone? So tell the clerk as I ordered, and now go and the one who is with you, look, don’t say anything. He is a frightened man, why bother him and involve him in this matter. And so she told the blue tit to help him a little.

And she clapped her hands again, and all the lizards ran away. She also jumped to her feet, grabbed a stone with her hand, jumped up and, like a lizard, ran along the stone. Instead of arms and legs, its paws were green, its tail stuck out, there was a black stripe halfway down its spine, and its head was human. She ran to the top, looked back and said:

Don’t forget, Stepanushko, as I said. She allegedly told you, the stuffy goat, to get out of Krasnogorka. If you do it my way, I’ll marry you!

The guy even spat in the heat of the moment:

Ugh, what a piece of trash! So that I marry a lizard.

And she sees him spitting and laughs.

Okay,” he shouts, “we’ll talk later.” Maybe you'll think about it?

And immediately over the hill, only a green tail flashed.

The guy was left alone. The mine is quiet. You can only hear someone else snoring behind a pile of ore. Woke him up. They went to their mowing, looked at the grass, returned home in the evening, and Stepan had one thing on his mind: what should he do? To say such words to the clerk is no small matter, but he was also, and it’s true, stuffy - there was some kind of rot in his gut, they say. Not to say, it’s also scary. She is the Mistress. What ore he wants can be thrown into the blende. Then do your homework. And worse than that, it’s a shame to show yourself off as a braggart in front of a girl.

I thought and thought and laughed:

I was not, I will do as she ordered.

The next morning, as people gathered around the trigger drum, the factory clerk came up. Everyone, of course, took off their hats, remained silent, and Stepan came up and said:

I saw the Mistress of the Copper Mountain last night, and she ordered me to tell you. She tells you, the stuffy goat, to get out of Krasnogorka. If you spoil this iron cap for her, she will dump all the copper on Gumeshki there, so that no one can get it.

The clerk even began to shake his mustache.

What are you? Drunk or crazy? What kind of mistress? Who are you saying these words to? Yes, I will rot you in grief!

“Your will,” says Stepan, “but this is the only way I was told.”

“Flog him,” the clerk shouts, “and take him down the mountain and chain him in the face!” And so as not to die, give him dog oatmeal and ask for lessons without any concessions. Just a little - tear mercilessly!

Well, of course, they flogged the guy and went up the hill. The mine overseer, who was also not the last dog, took him to the slaughter - it couldn’t be worse. It’s wet here, and there’s no good ore, I should have given up long ago. Here they chained Stepan to a long chain, so that he could work. It is known what time it was - the fortress. They did all sorts of shit on the person. The warden also says:

Cool off here for a bit. And the lesson will cost you so much pure malachite, - and assigned it completely incongruously.

Nothing to do. As soon as the warden left, Stepan began waving his stick, but the guy was still agile. He looks - okay. This is how malachite falls, no matter who throws it with their hands. And the water left somewhere from the face. It became dry.

“Here,” he thinks, “that’s good. Apparently the Mistress remembered me.”

I was just thinking, and suddenly there was a light. He looks, and the Mistress is here, in front of him.

Well done, he says, Stepan Petrovich. You can attribute it to honor. Not afraid of the stuffy goat. Well told him. Let's go, apparently, to look at my dowry. I also don’t go back on my word.

And she frowned, it just didn’t feel good for her. She clapped her hands, the lizards came running, the chain was removed from Stepan, and the Mistress gave them the order:

Break the lesson here in half. And so that the selection of malachite is of the silk variety. - Then he says to Stepan: - Well, groom, let's go look at my dowry.

And so let's go. She is in front, Stepan is behind her. Where she goes - everything is open to her. How large the rooms became underground, but their walls were different. Either all green, or yellow with gold specks. Which again have copper flowers. There are also blue ones and azure ones. In a word, it is decorated, which cannot be said. And the dress on her - on the Mistress - changes. One minute it shines like glass, then suddenly it fades, or else it sparkles like a diamond scree, or turns reddish like copper, then again shimmers like green silk. They're coming, they're coming, she stopped.

And Stepan sees a huge room, and in it there are beds, tables, stools - all made of king copper. The walls are malachite with diamond, and the ceiling is dark red under blackening, and on it there are copper flowers.

“Let’s sit,” he says, “here, and we’ll talk.” They sat down on stools, and the malachite girl asked:

Have you seen my dowry?

“I saw it,” says Stepan.

Well, how about marriage now?

But Stepan doesn’t know how to answer. Listen, he had a fiancée. A good girl, an orphan alone. Well, of course, compared to malachite, how can she compare in beauty! A simple person, an ordinary person. Stepan hesitated and hesitated, and then said:

Your dowry is fit for a king, but I am a working man, a simple one.

“You,” he says, “are a dear friend, don’t wobble.” Tell me straight, are you marrying me or not? - And she herself completely frowned.

Well, Stepan answered directly:

I can’t, because another one was promised.

He said so and thinks: he’s on fire now. And she seemed happy.

Well done, he says, to Stepanushka. I praised you for being a clerk, and for this I will praise you twice as much. You didn’t get enough of my wealth, you didn’t exchange your Nastenka for a stone girl. - And the guy’s fiancee’s name was probably Nastya. “Here,” he says, “is a gift for your bride,” and hands over a large malachite box. And there, listen, every woman’s device. Earrings, rings and other things that not even every rich bride has.

“How,” asks the guy, “will I get up to the top with this place?”

Don't be sad about it. Everything will be arranged, and I will free you from the clerk, and you will live comfortably with your young wife, but here’s my story for you - don’t think about me later. This will be my third test for you. Now let's eat a little.

She clapped her hands again, the lizards came running - the table was set full. She fed him with good cabbage soup, fish pie, lamb, porridge and other things that are required according to the Russian rite. Then he says:

Well, goodbye, Stepan Petrovich, don’t think about me. - And there are tears right there. She put her hand up, and the tears drip-drop and freeze on her hand like grains. Just a handful. - Here you go, take it for a living. People give a lot of money for these stones. You will be rich,” and he gives it to him.

The stones are cold, but the hand, listen, is hot, as if it were alive, and shakes a little. Stepan accepted the stones, bowed low and asked:

Where should I go? - And he himself also became gloomy.

She pointed with her finger, and a passage opened in front of him, like an adit, and it was light in it, like during the day. Stepan walked along this adit - again he saw enough of all the land riches and came just to his slaughter. He arrived, the adit closed, and everything became as before. The lizard came running, put a chain on his leg, and the box with gifts suddenly became small, Stepan hid it in his bosom. Soon the mine overseer approached. He got along with a laugh, but he sees that Stepan has a lot of tricks on top of the lesson, and a selection of malachite, sort and variety. “What,” he thinks, “is this thing? Where does it come from?" He climbed into the face, looked at everything and said:

In this face, anyone will break as much as they like. - And he took Stepan to another face, and put his nephew in this one.

The next day, Stepan began to work, and the malachite just flew off, and even the wren began to fall with a coil, and his nephew, pray tell, there is nothing good, everything is just a shambles and a snag. It was then that the warden took notice of the matter. He ran to the clerk. Anyway.

Not otherwise, he says, Stepan sold his soul to evil spirits.

The clerk says to this:

It’s his business to whom he sold his soul, but we need to get our own benefit. Promise him that we will release him into the wild, just let him find a malachite block worth a hundred pounds.

The clerk still ordered Stepan to be unchained and gave the following order - to stop work on Krasnogorka.

Who, he says, knows him? Maybe this fool was talking out of his mind then. And the ore and copper went there, but the cast iron was damaged.

The warden announced to Stepan what was required of him, and he replied:

Who would refuse freedom? I’ll try, but if I find it, that’s my happiness.

Stepan soon found them such a block. They dragged her upstairs. They’re proud, that’s what we are, but they didn’t give Stepan any freedom. They wrote to the master about the block, and he came from, hey, Sam-Petersburg. He found out how it happened and calls Stepan over.

That’s what,” he says, “I give you my noble word to set you free if you find me such malachite stones that I can cut out pillars from them no less than five fathoms across the valley.”

Stepan answers:

I've already been spun around. I am not a scientist. First, write freely, then I will try, and we’ll see what comes out.

The master, of course, screamed and stamped his feet, but Stepan said one thing:

I almost forgot - register my bride’s freedom too, but what kind of order is this - I myself will be free, and my wife will be in the fortress.

The master sees that the guy is not soft. I wrote him a document.

“Here,” he says, “just try, look.”

And Stepan is all his.

This is how he will look for happiness.

Of course, Stepan found it. What does he need if he knew the whole inside of the mountain and the Mistress herself helped him. They cut out the pillars they needed from this malachitana, dragged them up, and the master sent them to the butt of the most important church in Sam-Petersburg. And the block that Stepan first found is still in our city, they say. How rare it is to take care of it.

From that time on, Stepan was released, and after that all the wealth in Gumeshki disappeared. There are a lot of blue tits coming, but more of them are snags. It became unheard of to hear about the bead with a coil, and the malachite left, and water began to be added. So from that time on, Gumeshki began to decline, and then they were completely flooded. They said that it was the Mistress who was burning for the pillars, hear that they were placed in the church. And she doesn’t need it at all.

Stepan also had no happiness in his life. He got married, started a family, furnished the house, everything was as it should be. He should have lived smoothly and been happy, but he became gloomy and deteriorated in health. So it melted before our eyes.

The sick man came up with the idea of ​​getting a shotgun and got into the habit of hunting. And yet, hey, he goes to the Krasnogorsk mine, but doesn’t bring the spoils home. In the autumn he left and that was the end. Now he’s gone, now he’s gone... Where did he go? They shot it down, of course, people, let's look for it. And hey, hey, he’s lying dead in the mine next to a high stone, he’s smiling evenly, and his little gun is lying to the side, unfired. The people who were the first to come running said that they saw a green lizard near the dead man, and such a big one, the likes of which had never been seen in our area. It’s as if she’s sitting over a dead man, with her head raised, and her tears just falling. As people ran closer, she was on the stone, and that was all they saw. And when they brought the dead man home and began to wash him, they looked: he had one hand tightly clasped, and green grains were barely visible from it. Just a handful. Then one person who knew happened, looked at the grains from the side and said:

Why, this is a copper emerald! A rare stone, dear. There is a whole wealth left for you, Nastasya. Where did he get these stones from?

Nastasya - his wife - explains that the dead man never spoke about any such stones. I gave her the box when I was still a fiance. A large box, malachite. There is a lot of goodness in her, but there are no such stones. I haven't seen it.

They began to take those stones out of Stepan’s dead hand, and they crumbled into dust. They never found out at that time where Stepan got them from. Then we dug around Krasnogorka. Well, ore and ore, brown, with a copper sheen. Then someone found out that it was Stepan who had the tears of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. He didn’t sell them to anyone, hey, he kept them secretly from his own people, and he died with them. A?

This means what a Mistress of the Copper Mountain she is!

For the bad to meet her is grief, and for the good there is little joy.

Malachite Box

Nastasya, Stepanova’s widow, still has a malachite box. With every feminine device. There are rings, earrings and other things according to women's rites. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain herself gave Stepan this box when he was still planning to get married.

Nastasya grew up as an orphan, she was not used to this kind of wealth, and she was quite a fan of fashion. From the first years I lived with Stepan, I wore it, of course, from this box. It just didn't suit her. He’ll put the ring on... It fits exactly, doesn’t pinch, doesn’t slip, but goes to church or goes on a visit somewhere. Like a chained finger, in the end it will turn blue. He'll hang his earrings - worse than that. It will tighten your ears so much that your lobes will swell. And to take it on your hand is no heavier than those that Nastasya always carried. I tried on the buskis in six or seven rows only once. It’s like ice around your neck and they don’t warm up at all. She didn’t show those beads at people at all. It was a shame.

Look, they will say what a queen they have found in Polevoy!

Stepan also did not force his wife to carry from this box. Once he even said:

Nastasya put the box in the very bottom chest, where canvases and other things are kept in reserve.

When Stepan died and the stones ended up in his dead hand, Nastasya had to show that box to strangers. And the one who knows, who didn’t know about Stepanov’s stones, says to Nastasya later, when the people have subsided:

Look, don't waste this box for nothing. It costs more than thousands.

He, this man, was a scientist, also a free man. Previously, he wore smart clothes, but he was removed: he supposedly weakened the people. Well, he didn’t disdain wine. He was also a good tavern plug, so be remembered, the little head is dead. And he is correct in everything. Write a request, wash off a sample, look at the signs - he did everything according to his conscience, not like others, just to rip off half a pint. Anyone and everyone will bring a glass to him as a festive occasion. So he lived at our factory until his death. He ate around the people.

Nastasya heard from her husband that this dandy is correct and smart in business, even though he has a passion for wine. Well, I listened to him.

Okay,” he says, “I’ll save it for a rainy day.” - And she put the box in its old place.

Stepan was buried, the Sorochins were sent away with honor. Nastasya is a woman in wealth and wealth, and they began to woo her. And she, a smart woman, tells everyone one thing:

Even though the golden one is the second, we are still the stepfathers of all the timid children.

Well, we're behind in time.

Stepan left good provision for his family. A clean house, a horse, a cow, complete furnishings. Nastasya is a hard-working woman, the kids are timid, they don’t live very well. They live for a year, they live for two, they live for three. Well, they have become poor after all. How can one woman with young children manage a household? You also have to get a penny somewhere. At least some salt. Relatives are here and let Nastasya sing in her ears:

Sell ​​the box! What do you need it for? What good is there to lie in vain? Everything is one and Tanya won’t wear it when she grows up. There are some things over there! Only bars and merchants can buy. With our belt you won’t be able to wear an eco-friendly seat. And people would give money. Distributions for you.

In a word, they are slandering. And the buyer swooped in like a raven on a bone. All of them are merchants. Some give a hundred rubles, some give two hundred.

We feel sorry for your robbers, and because of your widowhood, we make allowances for you.

Well, they're trying to fool a woman, but they hit the wrong one. Nastasya remembered well what the old dandy told her, he wouldn’t sell it for such a trifle. It's also a pity. After all, it was a groom’s gift, a husband’s memory. And what’s more, her youngest girl burst into tears and asked:

Mommy, don't sell it! Mommy, don't sell it! It’s better for me to go among the people and save my dad’s memo.

From Stepan, you see, there are only three little kids left. Two little girls. They are timid, but this one, as they say, is neither like mother nor father. Even when Stepan was a little girl, people marveled at this little girl. Not just the girls and women, but also the men said to Stepan:

This one must have fallen out of your hands, Stepan.

Who has just been born! She herself is black and fable, and her eyes are green. It’s like she doesn’t look like our girls at all.

Stepan used to joke:

It's no surprise that she's black. My father hid in the ground from an early age. And that the eyes are green is also not surprising. You never know, I stuffed master Turchaninov with malachite. This is the reminder I still have.

So I called this girl Memo. - Come on, my reminder! - And when she happened to buy something, she would always bring something blue or green.

So that little girl grew up in people’s minds. Exactly and in fact, the horsetail fell out of the festive belt - it can be seen far away. And although she was not very fond of strangers, everyone was Tanyushka and Tanyushka. The most envious grandmothers, and they admired. Well, what a beauty! Everyone's nice. One mother sighed: “Beauty is beauty, but not ours.” Exactly who replaced the girl for me.

According to Stepan, this girl was killing herself. She was all clean, her face lost weight, only her eyes remained. Mother came up with the idea to give Tanya that malachite box - let him have some fun. Even if she’s small, she’s still a girl—from a young age, it’s flattering for them to make fun of themselves. Tanya started taking these things apart. And it’s a miracle - the one she tries on, she also fits it. Mother didn’t even know why, but this one knows everything. And he also says:

Mommy, what a good gift daddy gave! The warmth from it is as if you are sitting on a warm bed, and even someone is stroking you softly.

Nastasya sewed the patches herself; she remembers how her fingers would become numb, her ears would hurt, and her neck could not get warm. So he thinks: “This is not without reason. Oh, for good reason!” - Hurry up and put the box back in the chest. Only Tanya has since then asked:

Mommy, let me play with my dad’s gift!

When Nastasya gets strict, well, a mother’s heart, she will regret it, take out the box, and only punish:

Don't break anything!

Then, when Tanya grew up, she began to take out the box herself. The mother and the older boys will go to mowing or somewhere else, Tanya will stay behind to do housework. First, of course, he will manage that the mother punished him. Well, wash the cups and spoons, shake off the tablecloth, wave a broom in the hut, give food to the chickens, take a look at the stove. He’ll get everything done as quickly as possible, and for the sake of the box. By that time, only one of the upper chests remained, and even that one had become light. Tanya slides it onto a stool, takes out the box and sorts through the stones, admires it, and tries it on for herself.

Once upon a time a hitnik climbed up to her. Either he buried himself in the fence early in the morning, or then slipped through unnoticed, but none of the neighbors saw him pass along the street. The man is unknown, but apparently someone brought him up to date and explained the whole procedure.

After Nastasya left, Tanyushka ran around doing a lot of housework and climbed into the hut to play with her father’s pebbles. She put on the headband and hung the earrings. At this time, this hitnik puffed into the hut. Tanya looked around - there was an unfamiliar man on the threshold, with an axe. And the ax is theirs. In the senki, in the corner he stood. Just now Tanya was rearranging him, as if in chalk. Tanya was frightened, she sat frozen, and the man jumped, dropped the ax and grabbed his eyes with both hands, as they burned. Moans and screams:

Oh, fathers, I'm blind! Oh, blind! - and he rubs his eyes.

Tanya sees that something is wrong with the man, and begins to ask:

How did you come to us, uncle, why did you take the ax? And he, you know, groans and rubs his eyes. Tanya took pity on him - she scooped up a ladle of water and wanted to serve it, but the man just shied away with his back to the door.

Oh, don't come near! - So he sat in the senki and blocked the doors so that Tanya wouldn’t inadvertently jump out. Yes, she found a way - she ran out through the window and to her neighbors. Well, here we come. They began to ask what kind of person, what case? He blinked a little and explained that the person passing by wanted to ask for a favor, but something happened to his eyes.

Like the sun hit. I thought I would go completely blind. From the heat, perhaps.

Tanya didn’t tell her neighbors about the ax and the stones. They think: “It’s no big deal. Maybe she herself forgot to lock the gate, so a passer-by came in, and then something happened to him. You never know." Still, they didn’t let the passerby go until Nastasya. When she and her sons arrived, this man told her what he had told his neighbors. Nastasya sees that everything is safe, she did not get involved.

That man left, and so did the neighbors.

Then Tanya told her mother how it happened. Then Nastasya realized that he had come for the box, but apparently it was not easy to take it. And she herself thinks: “We still need to protect her more tightly.”

She took it quietly from Tanya and the others and buried that box in the golbets.

All the family left again. Tanya missed the box, but there was one. It seemed bitter to Tanya, but then suddenly she felt a warmth. What is this thing? Where? I looked around, and there was light coming from under the floor. Tanya was scared - was it a fire? I looked into the golbets, there was light in one corner. She grabbed a bucket and wanted to splash it, but there was no fire and there was no smell of smoke. I dug around in that place and saw a box. I opened it, and the stones became even more beautiful. So they burn with different lights, and the light from them is like in the sun. Tanya didn’t even drag the box into the hut. Here in the golbtse I played my fill.

This is how it has been since then. The mother thinks: “Well, she hid it well, no one knows,” and the daughter, like housekeeping, snatches an hour to play with her father’s expensive gift. Nastasya didn’t even let her family know about the sale. - If it fits around the world, then I’ll sell it. Even though it was tough for her, she strengthened herself. So they struggled for a few more years, then things got better. The older boys began to earn little, and Tanya did not sit idle. Listen, she learned how to sew with silks and beads. And so I learned that the best master craftswomen clapped their hands - where does she get the patterns, where does she get the silk?

And it also happened by chance. A woman comes to them. She was short, dark-haired, at her age, and keen-eyed, and, apparently, she was sneaking around so hard that you just had to hold on. On the back there is a canvas bag, in the hand there is a bird cherry bag, it looks like a wanderer. Asks Nastasya:

Couldn't you, mistress, have a day or two to rest? They don’t carry their legs, and they can’t walk very close.

At first Nastasya wondered if she had been sent for the box again, but then she finally let her go.

I don't mind the space. If you don’t lie there, go and take it with you. Only our piece is an orphan. In the morning - onion with kvass, in the evening kvass with onions, everything and change. You are not afraid of becoming thin, so you are welcome to live as long as you need to.

And the wanderer has already put her bag down, put her knapsack on the stove and takes off her shoes. Nastasya didn’t like this, but kept silent. “Look, you ignorant one! We didn’t have time to greet her, but she finally took off her shoes and untied her knapsack.”

The woman, sure enough, unbuttoned her purse and beckoned Tanya to her with her finger:

Come, child, look at my handiwork. If he takes a look, I’ll teach you... Apparently, you’ll have a keen eye for this!

Tanya came up, and the woman handed her a small fly, the ends sewn with silk. And such and such, hey, a hot pattern on that fly that just became lighter and warmer in the hut.

Tanya's eyes glared, and the woman chuckled.

Looked up to know, daughter, my handicraft? Do you want me to learn it?

I want, he says.

Nastasya got so angry:

And forget to think! There’s nothing to buy salt with, but you came up with the idea of ​​sewing with silks! Supplies, go figure, cost money.

Don’t worry about that, mistress,” says the wanderer. - If my daughter has an idea, she will have supplies. For your bread and salt I’ll leave it to her - it’ll last for a long time. And then you will see for yourself. They pay money for our skill. We don’t give away our work for nothing. We have a piece.

Here Nastasya had to give in.

If you spare enough supplies, you won’t learn anything. Let him learn as long as the concept is enough. I'll thank you.

This woman started teaching Tanya. Tanya quickly took over everything, as if she knew it before. Yes, here's another thing. Tanya was not only unkind to strangers, but to her own people, but she just clings to this woman and clings to her. Nastasya looked askance:

“I found myself a new family. She won’t approach her mother, but she’s stuck to a tramp!”

And she still teases her, keeps calling Tanya “child” and “daughter”, but never mentions her baptized name. Tanya sees that her mother is offended, but cannot restrain herself. Before that, hey, I trusted this woman because I told her about the box!

“We have,” he says, “we have a dear memento of my father—a malachite box.” That's where the stones are! I could look at them forever.

Will you show me, daughter? - asks the woman.

Tanya didn’t even think that something was wrong. “I’ll show you,” he says, “when none of the family is home.”

After such an hour, Tanyushka turned around and called that woman to the cabbage. Tanya took out the box and showed it, and the woman looked at it a little and said:

Put it on yourself and you will see better. Well, Tanya, - not the right word - began to put it on, and you know, she praises it.

Okay, daughter, okay! It just needs to be corrected a little.

She came closer and started poking the stones with her finger. The one that touches will light up differently. Tanya can see other things, but not others. After this the woman says:

Stand up, daughter, straight up.

Tanya stood up, and the woman began to slowly stroke her hair and her back. She ironed everything, and she herself instructs:

I'll make you turn around, so don't look back at me. Look ahead, take note of what will happen, and don’t say anything. Well, turn around!

Tanya turned around - in front of her was a room the likes of which she had never seen. It's not the church, it's not like that. The ceilings are high on pillars made of pure malachite. The walls are also lined with malachite the height of a man, and a malachite pattern runs along the upper cornice. Standing right in front of Tanya, as if in the mirror, is a beauty the likes of which they only talk about in fairy tales. Hair like night and eyes green. And she is all decorated with expensive stones, and her dress is made of green velvet with iridescence. And so this dress is made, just like the queens in the pictures. What does it hold on to? Out of shame, our factory workers would burn to death to wear something like that in public, but this green-eyed girl stands there calmly, as if that’s the way it should be. There are a lot of people in that room. They are dressed like a lord, and everyone is wearing gold and merit. Some have it hung on the front, some have it sewn on the back, and some have it on all sides. Apparently, the highest authorities. And their women are right there. Also bare-armed, bare-breasted, hung with stones. But where do they care about the green-eyed one! None hold a candle.

In a row with the green-eyed one is some kind of fair-haired guy. Eyes slanted, ears stumpy, like eating a hare. And the clothes he’s wearing are mind-blowing. This one didn’t think the gold was enough, so he, listen, put stones on his weapon. Yes, so strong that maybe in ten years they will find one like him. You can immediately see that this is a breeder. That green-eyed hare is babbling, but she at least raised an eyebrow, as if he were not there at all. Tanya looks at this lady, marvels at her, and only then notices:

After all, there are stones on it! - Tanya said, and nothing happened.

And the woman chuckles:

I didn’t notice, daughter! Don't worry, you'll see in time.

Tanya, of course, asks - where is this room?

And this, he says, is the royal palace. The same chamber that is decorated with local malachite - your late father mined it.

Who is this in her dad’s headdress and what kind of hare is she with?

Well, I won’t say that, you’ll soon find out for yourself.

On the same day that Nastasya came home, this woman began to get ready for the journey. She bowed low to the hostess, handed Tanya a bundle of silks and beads, then took out a small button. Either it is made of glass, or it is made of foolscap with a simple edge. He gives it to Tanya and says:

Accept, my daughter, a reminder from me. Whenever you forget something at work or a difficult situation comes up, look at this button. Here you will have the answer.

She said so and left. They only saw her.

From that time on, Tanya became a craftswoman, and as she grew older, she looked like a bride. The factory guys have calloused their eyes on Nastasya’s windows, but they are afraid to approach Tanya. You see, she’s unkind, gloomy, and where would a free woman marry a serf? Who wants to put on a noose?

In the manor's house they also inquired about Tanya because of her skill. They began to send people to her. A younger and nicer footman will be dressed like a gentleman, given a watch with a chain and sent to Tanya, as if on some business. They wonder if the girl will have an eye on this fellow. Then you can turn it back. It still didn't make any sense. Tanya will say that it’s on business, and other conversations of that lackey will be ignored. If he gets bored, he will make some mockery:

Go, my dear, go! They're waiting. They're afraid that your watch might wear out and your grip might loosen. See, without the habit, how you call them.

Well, these words are like boiling water for a dog to a footman or other servant of the lord. He runs as if scalded, snorting to himself:

Is this a girl? Stone statue, green-eyed! Will we find one!

He snorts like that, but he himself is overwhelmed. The one who will be sent cannot forget Tanya’s beauty. As if one is bewitched, one is drawn to that place, even to pass by and look out the window. On holidays, almost all the factory bachelors have business on that street. The path has been paved right by the windows, but Tanya doesn’t even look. The neighbors began to reproach Nastasya:

Why is it that Tatyana behaved so highly? She doesn’t have girlfriends and doesn’t want to look at guys. The prince-prince is waiting for Christ's bride, is everything going well?

Nastasya just sighs at these submissions:

Oh, ladies, I don’t even know. And so I had a wise girl, and this passing witch completely tormented her. You start talking to her, and she stares at her magic button and remains silent. She should have thrown away that damned button, but in fact it’s good for her. How to change the silk or something, it looks like a button. She told me too, but apparently my eyes have become dull, I can’t see. I would beat the girl, yes, you see, she’s a gold digger among us. Consider, it is only her work that we live. I think, I think so, and I’ll roar. Well, then she will say: “Mommy, I know that there is no destiny for me here. I don’t greet anyone and don’t go to games. What's the point of driving people into depression? And while I’m sitting under the window, my work requires it. Why are you coming at me? What bad thing have I done? So answer her!

Well, life started to go well after all. Tanya’s handicraft has become fashionable. It’s not like in the al factory in our city, they learned about it in other places, they send orders and pay a lot of money. A good man can earn so much money.

Only then did trouble befall them - a fire broke out. And it happened at night. The drive, the delivery, the horse, the cow, all kinds of gear - everything burned down. They were left with nothing but what they jumped out in. However, Nastasya snatched the box in time. The next day he says.

Apparently, the end has come - I will have to sell the box.

Sell ​​it, mommy. Just don’t sell yourself short...

Tanya glanced furtively at the button, and there the green-eyed one loomed - let them sell it. Tanya felt bitter, but what can you do? All the same, this green-eyed girl’s father’s memo will go away. She sighed and said.

To sell is to sell, - And I didn’t even look at those stones goodbye.

And that’s to say - they took shelter with neighbors, where to lay out.

They came up with this idea - to sell it, but the merchants were right there. Someone, perhaps, set up the arson himself in order to take possession of the box. Also, the little people are like nails, they’ll get scratched! They see that the kids have grown up and give more. Five hundred there, seven hundred, one reached a thousand. There is a lot of money in the plant, you can get it with it. Well, Nastasya still asked for two thousand. So they go to her and dress up. They throw it on little by little, but they hide from each other, they cannot come to an agreement among themselves. See, it’s such a piece that no one wants to give up. While they were walking like this, a new clerk arrived at Polevaya.

When they - clerks - sit for a long time, and in those years they had some kind of transfer. The stuffy goat that was with Stepan was dismissed by the old gentleman on Krylatovskoe for the stench. Then there was Fried Butt. The workers put him on a blank. Here Severyan the Killer stepped in. This again the Mistress of the Copper Mountain threw into the empty rock. There were two or three more there, and then this one arrived.

They say he was from foreign lands, he seemed to speak all sorts of languages, but worse in Russian. He strictly reprimanded one thing - flog. From above, like that, with a stretch - a couple. What kind of shortage they talk to him about, they shout one thing: paro! They called him Parotey.

In fact, this Parotya was not very thin. Although he shouted, he didn’t rush people to the fire department. The scoundrels there didn't even care. The people sighed a little at this Parot.

Here, you see, there’s something wrong. By that time the old master had become completely frail, he could barely move his legs. He came up with the idea of ​​marrying his son to some countess or something. Well, this young master had a mistress, and he had great affection for her. How should things be? It's still awkward. What will the new matchmakers say? So the old master began to persuade that woman, his son’s mistress, to marry the musician. This musician served with the master. He taught the little boys, through music, foreign conversation, as it was conducted according to their position.

How, he says, should you live like this - on bad fame, get married. I’ll give you a dowry and send your husband as a clerk to Polevaya. The matter is directed there, let only the people be stricter. That's enough, I guess it's no use even if you're a musician. And you will live better than the best with him in Polevoy. The first person, one might say, will be. Honor to you, respect from everyone. What's bad?

The butterfly turned out to be a conspiracy. Either she was in a quarrel with the young master, or she was playing tricks.

“For a long time,” he says, “I had a dream about this, but to say, I didn’t dare.”

Well, the musician, of course, was reluctant at first:

I don’t want to - she has a very bad reputation, she seems like a slut...

Only the master is a cunning old man. No wonder he built factories. He quickly ruined this musician. He intimidated them with something, or flattered them, or gave them something to drink - that was their business, but soon the wedding was celebrated, and the newlyweds went to Polevaya. So Parotya appeared in our plant. He only lived for a short time, and so - what can I say in vain - he is not a harmful person. Then, when one and a half Hari took over from his factory, they felt so sorry for even this Parotya.

Parotya arrived with his wife just at the time when the merchants were courting Nastasya. Baba Parotina was also prominent. White and ruddy - in a word, a lover. Probably the master wouldn't have taken it. I guess I chose it too! It was this mumbo-jumbo wife who heard that the box was being sold. “Let me,” he thinks, “let me see if it’s really worthwhile.”

She quickly got dressed and rolled up to Nastasya. Factory horses are always ready for them!

Well,” he says, “dear, show me what kind of stones you sell?”

Nastasya took out the box and showed it. The parotina woman’s eyes began to dart. Listen, she was brought up in Sam-Petersburg, she had been to various foreign countries with the young master, she had a lot of sense in these outfits. “What is this,” he thinks, “this? The queen herself does not have such decorations, but here it is - in Polevoy, among the fire victims! As long as the purchase doesn’t fall through.”

How much, he asks, are you asking?

Nastasya says:

I would like to take two thousand, the lady dressed herself up for appearance, and said:

Well, honey, get ready! Let's go to me with the box. There you will get the money in full.

Nastasya, however, did not give in to this.

“We don’t have such a custom,” he says, “for bread to follow the belly.” If you bring the money, the box is yours.

The lady sees what a woman she is, she’s eagerly running after the money, and she punishes:

Don't sell the box, honey.

Nastasya answers:

This be in hope. I won’t go back on my word. I’ll wait until evening, and then it’s my will.

Parotina's wife left, and the merchants all came running at once. They were watching, you see. They ask:

“I sold it,” Nastasya answers.

For how long?

In two, as prescribed.

What, they shout, have you made up your mind or what? You give it into the hands of others, but deny it to your own! - And let's raise the price.

Well, Nastasya didn’t take the bait.

“This,” he says, “is something you’re accustomed to spinning around in words, but I haven’t had the chance.” I reassured the woman and the conversation was over!

Parotina's woman turned around very quickly. She brought the money, passed it from hand to hand, picked up the box and went home. Just on the threshold, and Tanya is coming towards you. She, you see, went somewhere, and all this sale happened without her. He sees some lady with a box. Tanya stared at her - they say, she’s not the one she saw then. And Parotina’s wife stared even more than that.

What kind of obsession? Whose is this? - asks.

“People call me daughter,” Nastasya answers. - The very same heir to the box you bought. I wouldn’t sell it if the end didn’t come. From a young age I loved to play with these dresses. He plays and praises them - they make them feel warm and good. What can we say about this! What's in the cart is gone!

It’s wrong, dear, to think so,” says the mumps woman. - I’ll find a place for these stones. - And he thinks to himself: “It’s good that this green-eyed one doesn’t feel her strength. If someone like this showed up in Sam-Petersburg, she would turn the kings around. It must be - my fool Turchaninov didn’t see her.”

With that we parted ways.

Parotya’s wife, when she arrived home, boasted:

Now, dear friend, I’m not forced by you or the Turchaninovs. Just a little - goodbye! I’ll go to Sam-Petersburg or, better yet, abroad, sell the box and buy two dozen men like you, if the need arises.

She boasted, but she still wants to show off her new purchase. Well, what a woman! She ran to the mirror and first of all attached the headband. - Oh, oh, what is it! - I have no patience - he twists and pulls his hair. I barely got out. And he’s itching. I put on the earrings and almost tore my earlobes. She put her finger in the ring - it was chained, she could barely pull it off with soap. The husband chuckles: this is obviously not the way to wear it! And she thinks: “What is this thing? We need to go to the city and show it to the master. He’ll fit it just right, as long as he doesn’t replace the stones.”

No sooner said than done. The next day she drove off in the morning. It's not far from the factory troika. I found out who the most reliable master is - and went to him. The master is very old, but he is good at his work. He looked at the box and asked who it was bought from. The lady said that she knew. The master looked at the box again, but didn’t even look at the stones:

“I won’t take it,” he says, “let’s do whatever you want.” - This is not the work of the masters here. We can't compete with them.

The lady, of course, did not understand what the squiggle was, she snorted and ran to the other masters. Only everyone agreed: they will look at the box, admire it, but they don’t look at the stones and flatly refuse to work. The lady then resorted to tricks and said that she brought this box from Sam-Petersburg. They did everything there. Well, the master for whom she wove this just laughed.

“I know,” he says, “where the box was made, and I’ve heard a lot about the master.” All of us can't compete with him. The master fits one for one, it won’t suit another, whatever you want to do.

The lady didn’t understand everything here either, all she understood was that something was wrong, the masters were afraid of someone. I remembered that the old housewife said that her daughter loved to put these dresses on herself.

“Wasn’t it the green-eyed one they were chasing after? What a problem!”

Then he translates again in his mind:

“What do I care! I’ll sell it to any rich fool. Let him toil, and I’ll have the money!” With this I left for Polevaya.

I arrived, and there was news: we received the news - the old master ordered us to live long. He pulled a trick on Paroteya, but death outwitted him - it took him and hit him. He never managed to get his son married, and now he has become the complete master. After a short time, Parotina’s wife received a letter. So and so, my dear, I’ll come along the spring water to show myself at the factories and take you away, and we’ll caulk your musician somewhere. Parotya somehow found out about this and started a fuss. It's a shame, you see, for him in front of the people. After all, he’s a clerk, and then look, his wife is taken away. I started drinking heavily. With employees, of course. They are happy to try for nothing. That's when we feasted. One of these drinkers and boast:

A beauty grew up in our factory; you won’t soon find another like it.

Parotya asks:

Whose is this? Where does he live?

Well, they told him, and they mentioned the box in this family; your wife bought the box. Parotya says:

If only you could see, the drinkers found something to do.

Let's go now and see if they installed the new hut properly. The family may be free, but they still live on factory land. If something happens, you can press it.

Two or three went with this Parotei. They brought the chain, let’s measure it to see if Nastasya had stabbed herself in someone else’s estate, if the tops were coming out between the pillars.

They are looking for, in a word. Then they go into the hut, and Tanya was just alone. Parotya looked at her and was lost for words. Well, I have never seen such beauty in any land. He stands there like a fool, and she sits there, keeping quiet, as if it’s none of her business. Then Parotya walked away a little and began asking:

What are you doing?

Tanya says:

I sew to order, and I showed my work.

“Can I place an order,” says Parotya?

Why not, if we agree on the price.

“Can you,” Parotya asks again, “embroider my pattern with silk?”

Tanya slowly looked at the button, and there the green-eyed woman gave her a sign - take the order! - and points a finger at himself. Tanya answers:

I won’t have my own pattern, but I have a woman in mind, wearing expensive stones and wearing a queen’s dress, I can embroider this one. But such work will not be cheap.

“Don’t worry about this,” he says, “I’ll pay even a hundred, even two hundred rubles, as long as there is a similarity with you.”

“In the face,” he answers, “there will be similarities, but the clothes are different.”

We got dressed for a hundred rubles. Tanya set a deadline - in a month. Only Parotya, no, no, will run in as if to find out about the order, but he himself has the wrong thing in mind. He’s also frowned upon, but Tanya doesn’t notice at all. He will say two or three words, and that’s the whole conversation. The parotina drinkers began to laugh at him:

It won't break off here. You shouldn't be shaking your boots! Well, Tanya embroidered that pattern. Parotya looks - wow, my God! but this is she, adorned with clothes and stones! Of course, he gives me three hundred-dollar tickets, but Tanya didn’t take two.

“We’re not used to accepting gifts,” he says. We feed on labor.

Parotya ran home, admired the pattern, and kept it secret from his wife. He began to feast less, and began to delve into the factory business a little bit.

In the spring, a young gentleman came to the factories. I drove to Polevaya. The people were rounded up, a prayer service was served, and then the bell ringers began to ring in the manor’s house. Two barrels of wine were also rolled out to the people - to remember the old one and congratulate the new master. That means the seed has been done. All the Turchanin masters were experts at this. As soon as you fill the master's glass with a dozen of your own, it will seem like God knows what kind of holiday, but in reality it will turn out that you have washed your last pennies and there is no need at all. The next day people went to work, and there was another feast in the master's house. And so it went. They’ll sleep as long as they can and then go on a party again. Well, there, they ride boats, ride horses into the forest, play music, you never know. And Parotya is drunk all the time. The master placed the most dashing roosters with him on purpose - pump him up to capacity! Well, they try to please the new master.

Even though Parotya is drunk, he senses where things are heading. He feels awkward in front of guests. He says at the table, in front of everyone:

It doesn’t matter to me that master Turchaninov wants to take my wife away from me. May you be lucky! I don't need one like that. That's who I have! - Yes, and he takes that silk patch out of his pocket. Everyone gasped, but the mumps woman couldn’t even close her mouth. The master, too, had his eyes fixed on him. He became curious.

Who is she? - asks.

Parotya, you know, laughs:

The table is full of gold - and I won’t say that!

Well, what can you say, if the factory immediately recognized Tanya. One tries in front of the other - they explain to the master. Parotina woman with arms and legs:

What do you! What do you! Make such nonsense! Where did a factory girl get such a dress and expensive stones? And this husband brought the pattern from abroad. He showed it to me before the wedding. Now, with drunken eyes, you never know what will happen. Soon he won’t remember himself. Look, he's all swollen!

Parotya sees that his wife is not very nice, so he starts blabbering:

You are Stramina, Stramina! Why are you weaving braids, throwing sand in the master’s eyes! What pattern did I show you? Here they sewed it for me. The same girl they're talking about over there. I won't lie about the dress - I don't know. You can wear whatever dress you want. And they had stones. Now you have them locked in your closet. I bought them myself for two thousand but couldn’t wear them. Apparently, the Cherkassy saddle does not suit the cow. The whole factory knows about the purchase!

As soon as the master heard about the stones, he immediately:

Come on, show me!

Listen, he was a little smart and wasted. In a word, heir. He had a strong passion for stones. He had nothing to show off - as they say, neither his height nor his voice - just stones. Wherever he hears about a good stone, he can buy it now. And he knew a lot about stones, even though he wasn’t very smart.

Baba Parotina sees that there is nothing to do, she brought the box. The master looked and immediately:

How many?

It boomed completely unheard of. Master dress up. Halfway through they agreed, and the master signed the loan paper: you see, he didn’t have any money with him. The master put the box on the table in front of him and said:

Call this girl we're talking about. They ran for Tanya. She didn’t mind, she went straight away, thinking how big the order was. She comes into the room, and it’s full of people, and in the middle is the same hare that she saw then. In front of this hare is a box - a gift from his father. Tanya immediately recognized the master and asked:

Why did they call you?

The master cannot say a word. I stared at her, and that was all. Then I finally found a conversation.

Your stones?

“They were ours, now they’re theirs,” and she pointed to her wife’s parotina.

“Mine now,” the master boasted.

This is up to you.

Do you want me to give it back?

There is nothing to give.

Well, can you try them on yourself? I would like to see how these stones look on a person.

“This,” Tanya answers, “is possible.” She took the box, dismantled the decorations - a usual thing - and quickly attached them to their place. The master looks and just gasps.

Oh yes oh, no more words. Tanya stood in her attire and asked:

Have you looked? Will? It’s not easy for me to stand here - I have work.

The master is here in front of everyone and says:

Marry me. Agree?

Tanya just grinned:

It would be inappropriate for a master to say such a thing. - She took off her clothes and left. Only the master does not lag behind. The next day he came to make a match. He asks and prays to Nastasya: give up your daughter for me.

Nastasya says:

I don’t take away her will, as she wants, but in my opinion it doesn’t fit. Tanya listened and listened, and then said:

That's it, that's it... I heard that in the royal palace there is a chamber lined with malachite from the booty. Now, if you show me the queen in this chamber, then I will marry you.

The master, of course, agrees to everything. Now he’s starting to get ready for Sam-Petersburg and is calling Tanya with him - he says, I’ll give you the horses. And Tanya answers:

According to our ritual, the bride does not ride to the wedding on the groom’s horses, and we are still nothing. Then we’ll talk about it once you’ve fulfilled your promise.

When, he asks, will you be in Sam-Petersburg?

“I will certainly go to the Intercession,” he says. Don’t worry about it, but for now, leave here.

The master left, of course he didn’t take Parotina’s wife, he doesn’t even look at her. As soon as I came home to Sam-Petersburg, let’s spread the word all over the city about the stones and about my bride. I showed the box to many people. Well, the bride was very curious to see. The master prepared an apartment for Tanya for the fall, brought all sorts of dresses, shoes, and she sent the news - here she lives with such and such a widow on the very outskirts.

The master, of course, is going there right away:

What do you! Is it a good idea to live here? The apartment is ready, first grade!

And Tanya answers:

I'm fine here.

The rumor about the stones and Turchaninov’s bride reached the queen. She says:

Let Turchaninov show me his bride. There are a lot of lies about her.

Master to Tanyushka, they say, we need to get ready. Sew an outfit so that you can wear stones from a malachite box into the palace. Tanya answers:

It’s not your sadness about the outfit, but I’ll take the stones to keep. Yes, look, don’t try to send horses after me. I'll use mine. Just wait for me at the porch, in the palace.

The master thinks, where did she get the horses? where is the palace dress? - but still didn’t dare ask.

So they began to gather for the palace. Everyone rides up on horses, wearing silks and velvets. Turchaninov the master hangs around the porch early in the morning - waiting for his bride. Others are also curious to look at her - they stopped immediately. And Tanya put on her stones, tied herself with a scarf in the factory style, threw on her fur coat and walked quietly.

Well, people - where did this come from? - the shaft is falling behind her. Tanyushka approached the palace, but the royal lackeys didn’t let her in - it’s not allowed, they say, because of the factory workers. Turchaninov the master saw Tanyushka from afar, but he was ashamed in front of his own people that he took his bride on foot, and even in such a fur coat, and hid. Tanya then opened her fur coat, the footmen looked - what a dress! The queen doesn't have that! - they let me in right away. And when Tanya took off her scarf and fur coat, everyone around gasped:

Whose is this? Which lands is the queen?

And master Turchaninov is right there.

My bride,” he says.

Tanya looked at him sternly:

We'll see about that! Why did you deceive me - you didn’t wait at the porch?

Master back and forth - it was a mistake. Excuse me please.

They went to the royal chambers, where they were led. Tanya looks - it’s not the right place. Turchaninova asked the master even more sternly:

What kind of deception is this? It was told to you that in that chamber, which is lined with malachite from woodwork!

And she walked through the palace as if at home. And senators, generals and others follow her.

What, they say, is this? Apparently, it was ordered there.

There were a ton of people, and everyone couldn’t take their eyes off Tanya, but she stood right next to the malachite wall and waited. Turchaninov, of course, is right there. He mutters to her that something is wrong, the queen did not order her to wait in this room. And Tanya stands calmly, even if she raised an eyebrow, as if the master was not there at all.

The queen went out into the room where she was assigned. He looks - there is no one. The Tsarina’s earphones bring it home - Turchaninov’s bride took everyone to the malachite chamber. The queen grumbled, of course, - what kind of self-will! She stamped her feet. She got a little angry, that is. The queen comes to the malachite chamber. Everyone bows to her, but Tanya stands there and doesn’t move.

The queen shouts:

Come on, show me this unauthorized bride - Turchaninov’s bride!

Tanya heard this, her eyebrows furrowed, and she said to the master:

This is something else I came up with! I told the queen to show me, and you arranged to show me to her. Cheating again! I don't want to see you anymore! Get your stones!

With this word she leaned against the malachite wall and melted. All that remains is that the stones sparkle on the wall, as if stuck to the places where the head, neck, and arms were.

Everyone, of course, was scared, and the queen fell unconscious on the floor.

They started fussing and started lifting. Then, when the turmoil had subsided, the friends said to Turchaninov:

Pick up some stones! They'll steal it quickly. Not just any place - a palace! They know the price here!

Turchaninov and let's grab those stones. The one he grabs will curl up into a droplet. Sometimes the drop is pure, like a tear, sometimes it’s yellow, and sometimes it’s thick, like blood. So I didn’t collect anything. He looks and there is a button lying on the floor. From bottle glass, to a simple edge, completely trivial. Out of grief, he grabbed her. I just took it in my hand, and in this button, as in large mirror, a green-eyed beauty in a malachite dress, all decorated with expensive stones, bursts into laughter:

Oh, you crazy slanting hare! Should you take me? Are you my match?

After that, the master lost his last mind, but did not throw away the button. No, no, and he looks at it, and there’s still the same thing: the green-eyed girl is standing there, laughing and offensive words speaks. Out of grief, the master let’s copy, he got into debt, almost under him our factories were not sold under the hammer.

And Parotya, when he was suspended, went to the taverns. I drank to the point of drinking, and the patret is that silken shore. No one knows where this pattern went afterwards.

Parotina’s wife didn’t profit either; Go ahead, get the loan paper, if all the iron and copper are pledged!

From that time on, there was not a word from our factory about Tanya. How it wasn't. Nastasya, of course, grieved, but not from strength. Tanya, you see, at least she was a caretaker for the family, but Nastasya is still like a stranger.

And that is to say, Nastasya’s boys had grown up by that time. Both got married. The grandchildren have gone. There were a lot of people in the hut. Know, turn around - look after this one, give it to someone else... It's getting boring here!

The bachelor did not forget longer. He kept trampling under Nastasya’s windows. They waited to see if Tanya would appear at the window, but they never did.

Then, of course, they got married, but no, no, they remember:

That's what a girl we had at the factory! You won't see another one like this in your life.

Moreover, after this incident, a note came out. They said that the Mistress of the Copper Mountain began to double: people saw two girls in malachite dresses at once.

Stone Flower

The marble workers were not the only ones who were famous for their stone work. In our factories, too, they say, they had this skill. The only difference is that ours were more fond of malachite, as there was enough of it, and the grade is no higher. It was from this that malachite was suitably made. Hey, these are the kind of things that make you wonder how they helped him.

There was a master Prokopich at that time. First on these matters. No one could do it better. I was in my old age.

So the master ordered the clerk to put the boys under this Prokopich for training.

Let them go over everything down to the finer points.

Only Prokopich - either he was sorry to part with his skill, or something else - taught very poorly. Everything he does is a jerk and a poke. He puts lumps all over the boy's head, almost cuts off his ears, and says to the clerk:

This guy is no good... His eye is incapable, his hand can’t carry it. It won't do any good.

The clerk, apparently, was ordered to please Prokopich.

It’s not good, it’s not good... We’ll give you another... - And he’ll dress up another boy.

The kids heard about this science... Early in the morning they roared, as if they wouldn’t get to Prokopich. Fathers and mothers, too, do not like to give away their own child for wasted flour - they began to shield their own as best they could. And then, to say, this skill is unhealthy, with malachite. The poison is pure. That's why people are protected.

The clerk still remembers the master’s order - he assigns disciples to Prokopich. He will wash the boy in his own way and hand him back to the clerk.

This is no good...

The clerk began to get angry:

How long will this last? No good, no good, when will it be good? Teach this...

Prokopich know yours:

What do I... Even if I teach for ten years, this kid will be of no use...

What else do you want?

Even though you don’t put it on me at all, I don’t miss it...

So the clerk and Prokopich went through a lot of kids, but the point was the same: there were bumps on the head, and in the head there was a way to escape. They spoiled them on purpose so that Prokopich would drive them away.

This is how it came to Danilka the Underfed. This little boy was an orphan. Probably twelve years then, or even more. He is tall on his legs, and thin is thin, which is what keeps his soul going. Well, his face is clean. Curly hair, blue eyes.

At first they took him as a Cossack servant at the manor's house: give him a snuff box, give him a handkerchief, run somewhere, and so on. Only this orphan did not have the talent for such a task. Other boys climb like vines in such and such places. A little something - to attention: what do you order? And this Danilko will hide in a corner, stare at some painting, or even at a piece of jewelry, and just stand there. They shout at him, but he doesn’t even listen. They beat me, of course, at first, then they waved their hand:

Some blessed one! Slug! Such a good servant will not make.

They still didn’t give me a job in a factory or up a mountain - the place was very runny, there wasn’t enough for a week. The clerk put him in assistant grazing. And here Danilko didn’t fare well. The little guy is extremely diligent, but he still makes a mistake. Everyone seems to be thinking about something. He stares at a blade of grass, and the cows are over there! The gentle old shepherd was caught, felt sorry for the orphan, and at the same time he cursed:

What will come of you, Danilko? You will destroy yourself, and you will also put my old back in harm’s way. Where is this good? What are you even thinking about?

I myself, grandpa, don’t know... Well... neither of those things... I stared a little. A bug was crawling along a leaf. She herself is blue, and from under her wings she has a yellowish look peeking out, and the leaf is wide... Along the edges the teeth, like frills, are curved. Here it looks darker, but the middle is very green, they just painted it right now... And the bug is crawling.

Well, aren't you a fool, Danilko? Is it your job to sort out insects? She crawls and crawls, but your job is to look after the cows. Look at me, get this nonsense out of your head, or I’ll tell the clerk!

Danilushka was given one thing. He learned to play the horn - what an old man! Purely based on music. In the evening, when the cows are brought in, the women ask:

Play a song, Danilushko.

He will start playing. And the songs are all unfamiliar. Either the forest is noisy, or the stream is murmuring, the birds are calling to each other in all sorts of voices, but it turns out well.

Women began to greet Danidushka a lot for those songs. Whoever will mend a thread, whoever will cut a piece of canvas, who will sew a new shirt. There is no talk about a piece - everyone strives to give more and sweeter. The old shepherd also liked Danilushkov’s songs. Only here, too, something went a little wrong. Danilushko will start playing and forget everything, even if there are no cows. It was during this game that trouble befell him.

Danilushko, apparently, began to play, and the old man dozed off a little. They lost a few cows. As they began to gather for the pasture, they looked - one was gone, the other was gone. They rushed to look, but where are you? They grazed near Yelnichnaya... This is a very wolf-like place, desolate... They only found one little cow. They drove the herd home... They said so and so. Well, they also ran out of the factory and went looking for him, but they didn’t find him.

The reprisal then, we know what it was like. For any guilt, show your back. Unfortunately, there was another cow from the clerk's yard. Don't expect any descent here. First they stretched the old man, then it came to Danilushka, but he was skinny and scrawny. The Lord's executioner even made a slip:

“Someone,” he says, “will fall asleep in one go, or even lose his soul altogether.”

He hit anyway - he didn’t regret it, but Danilushko is silent. His executioner suddenly in a row is silent, the third is silent. The executioner then became enraged, let’s go bald from all over the shoulder, and he himself shouts:

Danilushko is trembling all over, tears are falling, but is silent. I bit the sponge and strengthened myself. So he fell asleep, but they didn’t hear a word from him. The clerk - he was there, of course - was surprised:

What a patient man he was! Now I know where to put him if he remains alive. Danilushko took a rest. Grandma Vikhorikha stood him up. There was, they say, an old lady like that. Instead of a doctor in our factories, she had great fame. I knew the power in herbs: some from teeth, some from stress, some from aches... Well, everything is as it is. I myself collected those herbs at the very time when which herb had full strength. From such herbs and roots I prepared tinctures, boiled decoctions and mixed them with ointments.

Danilushka had a good life with this grandmother Vikhorikha. The old lady, hey, is affectionate and talkative, and she has dried herbs and roots and all sorts of flowers hung all over the hut. Danilushko is curious about herbs - what’s the name of this one? where does it grow? what flower? The old lady tells him.

Once Danilushko asks:

Do you, grandma, know every flower in our area?

“I won’t brag,” he says, “but I seem to know everything about how open they are.”

But, he asks, “are there things that haven’t been opened yet?”

There are, - he answers, - and such. Have you heard Papor? It seems to bloom on Midsummer's Day. That flower is witchcraft. The treasures are opened to them. Harmful for humans. On the gap-grass the flower is a running light. Catch him - and all the gates are open for you. Vorovskoy is a flower. And then there is also a stone flower. It seems to be growing in the malachite mountain. On the snake holiday it has full power. The unfortunate person is the one who sees the stone flower.

Why, grandma, are you unhappy?

And this, child, I myself don’t know. That's what they told me.

Danilushko might have lived longer at Vikhorikha’s, but the clerk’s messengers noticed that the boy began to go more and more often, and now to the clerk. The clerk called Danilushka and said:

Now go to Prokopich and learn the malachite trade. The job is right for you.

Well, what will you do? Danilushko went, but he himself was still being shaken by the wind. Prokopich looked at him and said:

This was still missing. The studies here are beyond the ability of healthy boys, but what you get is enough to make you barely worth living.

Prokopich went to the clerk:

There is no need for this. If you accidentally kill, you will have to answer.

Only the clerk - where are you going - didn’t listen:

It’s given to you, teach it, don’t argue! He - this guy - is strong. Don't look how thin it is.

Well, it’s up to you,” says Prokopyich, “it would have been said.” I will teach, as long as they don’t force me to answer.

There is no one to pull. This guy is lonely, do whatever you want with him,” the clerk replies.

Prokopich came home, and Danilushko was standing near the machine, looking at the malachite board. A cut has been made on this board - break off the edge. Here Danilushko is staring at this place and shaking his little head. Prokopich became curious about what this new guy was looking at here. He asked strictly how things were done according to his rule:

What are you? Who asked you to pick up a craft? What are you looking at here?

Danilushko answers:

In my opinion, grandfather, this is not the side where the edge should be cut. Look, the pattern is here, and they’ll cut it off.

Prokopich shouted, of course:

What? Who are you? Master? It didn’t happen to your hands, but you judge? What can you understand?

“Then I understand that this thing has been ruined,” Danilushko answers.

Who spoiled it? A? It’s you, brat, to me, the first master!.. Yes, I’ll show you such damage... you won’t live!

He made some noise and shouted, but didn’t hit Danilushka with his finger. Prokopich, you see, was thinking about this board himself - which side to cut off the edge from. Danilushko hit the nail on the head with his conversation. Prokopich shouted and said very kindly:

Well, you, revealed master, show me how, in your opinion, to do it?

Danilushko began to show and tell:

That would be the pattern that would come out. Otherwise, it would be better to put the board narrower, beat off the edge in an open field, just leave a small braid on top.

Prokopich, you know, shouts:

Well, well... Of course! You understand a lot. I've accumulated - don't wake up! - And he thinks to himself: “The boy is right.” This will probably make some sense. Just how to teach him? Knock once and he’ll stretch his legs.”

I thought so, and asked:

What kind of scientist are you?

Danilushko told about himself.

Say, an orphan. I don’t remember my mother, and I don’t even know who my father was. They are calling. Danilka Nedokormysh, but I don’t know about his father’s middle name and nickname. He told how he was in the household and why he was driven away, how he spent the summer walking with a herd of cows, how he got caught in a fight. Prokopich regretted:

It’s not sweet, I see you, guy, have a hard time with your life, and then you came to me. Our craftsmanship is strict.

Then he seemed angry and growled:

Well, that's enough, that's enough! Look, what a talkative guy! With the tongue, not with the hands, everyone would work. A whole evening of balusters and balusters! The student too! I'll see tomorrow how good you are. Sit down to dinner, and it's time to go to bed.

Prokopich lived alone. His wife died a long time ago. Old lady Mitrofanovna, one of his neighbors, was running the house for him. In the mornings she went to cook, cook something, clean up the hut, and in the evenings Prokopich himself managed what he needed. After eating, Prokopich said:

Lie down on the bench over there!

Danilushko took off his shoes, put his knapsack under his head, covered himself with a thread, shivered a little - you see, it was cold in the hut in the fall - but he soon fell asleep. Prokopich also lay down, but he couldn’t sleep: he couldn’t get the conversation about the malachite pattern out of his head. He tossed and turned, got up, lit a candle, and went to the machine - let’s try on this malachite board this way and that. It will close one edge, another... it will add a margin, it will subtract it. He’ll put it this way, turn it the other way, and it turns out that the boy understood the pattern better.

Here's to Nedokormyshek! - Prokopich is amazed. - Nothing yet, nothing, but I pointed it out to the old master. Well, and a peephole! Well, and a peephole!

He quietly went into the closet and brought out a pillow and a large sheepskin coat. He slipped a pillow under Danilushka’s head and covered it with a sheepskin coat:

Sleep, big-eyed!

But he didn’t wake up, he just turned on the other side, stretched out under his sheepskin coat - he felt warm - and let’s whistle lightly with his nose. Prokopich did not have his own guys, this Danilushko fell to his heart.

The master is standing there, admiring it, and Danilushko, you know, is whistling and sleeping soundly. Prokopich's concern is how to get this boy properly on his feet, so that he is not so skinny and unhealthy.

Is it with his health that we can learn our skills? Dust, poison, will quickly wither away. First he should rest, get better, and then I’ll start teaching. There will be some sense, apparently.

The next day he says to Danilushka:

At first you will help with the housework. This is the order I have. Understood? For the first time, go buy viburnum. She was overwhelmed with frost, and now she’s just in time for pies. Yes, look, don’t go too far. As much as you can type, that’s okay. Take some bread - there is some in the forest - and go to Mitrofanovna. I told her to bake you a couple of eggs and pour some milk into the little jar. Understood?

The next day he says again:

When Danilushko caught it and brought it back, Prokopyich says:

Okay, not at all. Catch others.

And so it went. Every day Prokopyich gives Danilushka work, but everything is fun. As soon as the snow fell, he told him and his neighbor to go pick up firewood and help him out. Well, what a help! He sits forward on the sleigh, drives the horse, and walks back behind the cart. He’ll wash himself off, eat at home, and sleep better. Prokopinch made him a fur coat, a warm hat, mittens, and pymas made to order.

Prokopich, you see, had wealth. Even though he was a serf, he was on quitrent and earned little. He stuck tightly to Danilushka. To put it bluntly, he was holding on to his son. Well, I didn’t spare him for him, but didn’t let him get to his business until the time was right.

In a good life, Danilushko began to recover quickly and also clung to Prokopich. Well, how! - I understood Prokopichev’s concern; for the first time I had to live like this. Winter has passed. Danilushka felt completely at ease. Now he’s on the pond, now in the forest. It was only Danilushko’s skill that he looked closely at. He comes running home, and right away they have a conversation. He will tell Prokpyich this and that, and ask - what is this and how is it? Prokopich will explain and show in practice.

Danilushko notes. When he himself will accept it. “Well, I...” - Prokopich looks, corrects when necessary, indicates how best.

One day the clerk spotted Danilushka on the pond. He asks his messengers:

Whose boy is this? Every day I see him on the pond. On weekdays he plays around with a fishing rod, and he’s not a little boy... Someone is hiding him from work...

The messengers found out and told the clerk, but he didn’t believe it.

Well,” he says, “drag the boy to me, I’ll find out myself.”

They brought Danilushka. The clerk asks:

Whose are you? Danilushko answers:

Apprenticeship, they say, with a master in the malachite trade.

The clerk then grabbed him by the ear:

This is how you learn, you bastard! - Yes, by the ear and took me to Prokopich.

He sees that something is wrong, let’s protect Danilushka:

It was I who sent him to catch perch. I really miss fresh perch. Due to my poor health, I cannot take any other food. So he told the boy to fish.

The clerk didn't believe it. I also realized that Danilushko had become completely different: he had gained weight, he was wearing a good shirt, pants too, and boots on his feet. So let’s check Danilushka:

Well, show me what the master taught you?

Danilushko put on the donut, went up to the machine and let’s tell and show. Whatever the clerk asks, he has an answer ready for everything. How to chip a stone, how to saw it, remove a chamfer, when to glue it, how to apply polish, how to attach it to copper, like to wood.

In a word, everything is as it is.

The clerk tortured and tortured, and he said to Prokopich:

Apparently this suited you well?

“I’m not complaining,” Prokopich answers.

That's right, you're not complaining, you're just pampering! They gave him to you to learn the skill, and he is by the pond with a fishing rod! Look! I’ll give you such fresh perches - you won’t forget them until you die, and the boy will be sad.

He made such and such a threat, left, and Prokopich marveled:

When did you, Danilushko, understand all this? Actually, I haven’t taught you at all yet.

“I myself,” says Danilushko, “showed and told, and I noticed.”

Prokopich even started to cry, it was so close to his heart.

Son,” he says, “darling, Danilushko... What else I know, I’ll tell you everything... I won’t hide it...

Only from that time on, Danilushka did not have a comfortable life. The clerk sent for him the next day and began giving him work for the lesson. First, of course, something simpler: plaques, what women wear, little boxes. Then it all started: different candlesticks and decorations.

There we reached the carving. Leaves and petals, patterns and flowers. After all, they - the malachite workers - are in a messy business. It’s just a trivial thing, but how long has he been sitting on it! So Danilushko grew up doing this work.

And when he carved a sleeve - a snake - from a solid stone, the clerk recognized him as a master. I wrote to Barin about this:

“So and so, we have a new malachite master - Danilko Nedokormish. It works well, but it's still quiet when it's young. Will you order him to remain in class or, like Prokopich, to be released on quitrent?”

Danilushko did not work quietly, but surprisingly deftly and quickly. It’s Prokopich who really got the knack here. The clerk will ask Danilushka what lesson for five days, and Prokopich will go and say:

This is not in force. This kind of work takes half a month. The guy is studying. If you hurry, the stone will only serve no purpose.

Well, the clerk will argue how many, and you see, he will add more days. Danilushko and worked without strain. Even the big one learned to read and write little by little from the clerk. So, just a little, but still I understood how to read and write. Prokopich was also good at this. When he himself gets the hang of doing the clerk’s lessons for Danilushka, only Danilushko did not allow this:

What you! What are you doing, uncle! Is it your job to sit at the machine for me? Look, your beard has turned green from malachite, your health has begun to deteriorate, but what am I doing?

Danilushko had indeed recovered by that time. Even though in the old fashioned way they called him Nedokormysh, but what a guy he is! Tall and ruddy, curly and cheerful. In a word, girlish dryness. Prokopich has already started talking to him about brides, and Danilushko, you know, shakes his head:

He won't leave us! Once I become a real master, then there will be a conversation.

The master wrote back to the clerk's news:

“Let that prokopich student Danilko make another turned bowl on a leg for my home. Then I’ll look at whether to release the quitrent or keep it in lessons. Just make sure that Prokopyich doesn’t help that Danilka. If you don’t watch, you will be punished.”

The clerk received this letter, called Danilushka, and said:

Here, with me, you will work. They will set up the machine for you and bring you the stone you need.

Prokopich found out and was saddened: how could this be? what kind of thing? I went to the clerk, but would he really say... He just shouted: “It’s none of your business!”

Well, Danilushko went to work at a new place, and Prokopich punished him:

Don't rush, Danilushko! Don't prove yourself.

Danilushko was wary at first. He tried it on and figured it out more, but it seemed sad to him. Do it or don’t do it, but serve your sentence - sit with the clerk from morning to night. Well, Danilushko was bored and went wild. The cup was with his living hand and went out of business. The clerk looked as if this was the way it should be, and said:

Do the same again!

Danilushko made another, then a third. When he finished the third, the clerk said:

Now you can't dodge! I caught you and Prokopyich. The master, according to my letter, gave you time for one bowl, and you carved three. I know your strength. You won't deceive me anymore, and I'll show that old dog how to indulge! Will order for others!

So I wrote to the master about this and provided all three bowls. Only the master - either he found a clever verse on him, or he was angry with the clerk for some reason - turned everything the other way around.

The rent he assigned to Danilushka was trivial, he did not order the guy to take it from Prokopich - maybe the two of them would come up with something new sooner.

When I wrote, I sent the drawing. There is also a bowl drawn with all sorts of things. There is a carved border along the rim, a stone ribbon with a through pattern on the waist, and leaves on the footrest. In a word, it was invented. And on the drawing the master signed: “Let him sit for at least five years, so that something like this is done exactly.”

Here the clerk had to go back on his word. He announced that the master had written it, sent Danilushka to Prokopich and gave him the drawing.

Danilushko and Prokopyich became more cheerful, and their work went faster. Danilushko soon began to work on that new cup. There are a lot of tricks in it. If you hit me a little wrong, your work is gone, start again. Well, Danilushka has a true eye, a brave hand, enough strength - things are going well. One thing he doesn’t like is - there are a lot of difficulties, but there is absolutely no beauty at all. I told Prokopyich, but he was just surprised:

What do you care? They came up with it, which means they need it. I’ve turned and cut out all sorts of things, but I don’t really know where they go.

I tried to talk to the clerk, but where are you going? He stamped his feet and waved his arms:

Are you crazy? They paid a lot of money for the drawing. The artist may have been the first to do it in the capital, but you decided to overthink it!

Then, apparently, he remembered what the master ordered him - maybe the two of them could come up with something new - and he said:

Here's what... make this bowl according to the master's drawing, and if you invent another one of your own, it's your business. I won't interfere. We have enough stone, I guess. Whichever one you need, that’s the one I’ll give you.

It was then that Danilushka’s thought struck. It’s not us who said that you need to criticize someone else’s wisdom a little, but come up with your own - you’ll be turning from side to side for more than one night. Here Danilushko is sitting over this bowl according to the drawing, but he himself is thinking about something else. He translates in his head which flower, which leaf is best suited to the malachite stone. He became thoughtful and sad. Prokopich noticed and asked:

Are you healthy, Danilushko? It would be easier with this bowl. What's the hurry? I should go on a walk somewhere, otherwise you just sit and sit.

And then,” says Danilushko, “at least go to the forest.” Will I see what I need?

From then on, I began to run into the forest almost every day. It's time for mowing and berries. The grasses are all in bloom. Dannlushko stops somewhere in the meadow, or in a clearing in the forest, and stands and looks. And then again he walks through the mowing and looks at the grass, as if looking for something. There were a lot of people in the forest and in the meadows at that time. They ask Danilushka if he has lost anything? He will smile sadly and say:

I haven't lost it, but I can't find it.

Well, who started talking:

There's something wrong with the guy.

And he will come home and go straight to the machine and sit until the morning, and with the sun he will go back to the forest and mow. I began to drag all sorts of leaves and flowers home, and gathered more and more from them: cherry and omega, datura and wild rosemary, and all sorts of rezuns. He fell asleep on his face, his eyes became restless, he lost courage in his hands. Prokopich became completely worried, and Danilushko said:

The cup does not give me peace. I want to do it in such a way that the stone has full power.

Prokopich, let's talk him out of it:

What did you use it for? You're full, what else? Let the bars have fun as they please. If only they wouldn't hurt us. If they come up with a pattern, we’ll do it, but why bother meeting them? Put on an extra collar - that's all.

Well, Danilushko stands his ground.

“Not for the master,” he says, “I’m trying.” I can't get that cup out of my head. I see, hey, what kind of stone we have, and what are we doing with it? We sharpen and cut, and polish, and there’s no point at all. So I had the desire to do this so that I could see the full power of the stone for myself and show people.

In time, Danilushko walked away and sat down again at that bowl, according to the master’s drawing. It works, but he chuckles:

Stone tape with holes, carved border...

Then he suddenly abandoned this work. Another started. Standing at the machine without a break. Prokopich said:

I will make my own cup using the datura flower.

Prokopinch began to dissuade him. At first Danilushko didn’t even want to listen, then, three or four days later, he made some mistake and said to Prokopich:

OK. First I’ll finish the master’s bowl, then I’ll get to work on my own. Just don’t talk me out of it then... I can’t get her out of my head.

Prokopich answers:

Okay, I won’t interfere, but he thinks: “The guy leaves, he’ll forget. He needs to be married. That's what! The extra nonsense will fly out of your head as soon as you start a family.”

Danilushko busied himself with the bowl. There is a lot of work with her - you can’t fit it into one year. He works hard and doesn’t think about the datura flower. Prokopich began to talk about marriage:

For example, Katya Letemina is not a bride? Good girl... Nothing to complain about.

This was Prokopich speaking out of his mind. You see, he noticed a long time ago that Danilushko was looking at this girl very much. Well, she didn't turn away. So Prokopich, as if by accident, started a conversation. And Danilushko repeats his own:

Wait a minute! I can handle the cup. I'm tired of her. Just look - I’ll hit it with a hammer, and he’s talking about marriage! Katya and I agreed. She will wait for me.

Well, Danilushko made a bowl according to the master’s drawing. Of course, they didn’t tell the clerk, but they decided to have a little party at home. Katya - the bride - came with her parents, who also... there are more malachite craftsmen. Katya marvels at the cup.

“How,” he says, “only you managed to cut out such a pattern and didn’t break off the stone anywhere!” How smooth and clean everything is!

The masters also approve:

Exactly according to the drawing. There is nothing to complain about. Cleanly done. It’s better not to do it, and soon. If you start working like that, it will probably be hard for us to follow you.

Danilushko listened and listened, and then said:

It’s a shame that there’s nothing to complain about. Smooth and even, the pattern is clean, the carving is according to the drawing, but where is the beauty? There is a flower... the most inferior one, but when you look at it, your heart rejoices. Well, who will this cup make happy? What is she for? Anyone who looks at Katya over there will marvel at what kind of eye and hand the master has, how he had the patience to not break off a stone anywhere.

And where I made a mistake, - the craftsmen laugh, - I glued it and covered it with polish, and you won’t find the ends.

That's it... And where, I ask, is the beauty of the stone? There is a vein here, and you drill holes in it and cut flowers. What are they here for? Damage is a stone. And what a stone! First stone! You see, the first one!

I started to get excited. Apparently he drank a little.

The masters tell Danilushka that Prokopich told him more than once:

A stone is a stone. What will you do with him? Our job is to sharpen and cut.

There was only one old man here. He also taught Prokopyich and those other masters. Everyone called him grandfather. He’s such a decrepit little old man, but he also understood this conversation, and he says to Danilushka:

You, dear son, don’t walk on this floorboard! Get it out of your head! Otherwise you will end up with the Mistress as a mining master...

What kind of masters, grandfather?

And such... they live in grief, no one sees them... Whatever the Mistress needs, they will do. I happened to see it once. Here's the job! From ours, from here, in difference.

Everyone became curious. They ask what craft he saw.

Yes, a snake,” he says, “the same one you sharpen on your sleeve.”

So what? What is she like?

From the locals, I say, in distinction. Any master will see and immediately recognize that this is not the work here. Our snake, no matter how cleanly it is carved, is made of stone, but here it is alive. The little black ridge, the eyes... Just look - it will bite. What do they care about! They saw the stone flower and understood the beauty.

Danilushko, when I heard about the stone flower, let’s ask the old man. He said in all conscience:

I don't know, dear son. I heard that there is such a flower. Our brother cannot see him. Whoever looks, the white light will not be pleasant.

Danilushko says to this:

I'd like to take a look.

Here Katenka, his fiancée, began to flutter:

What are you, what are you, Danilushko! Are you really tired of the white light? - yes to tears. Prokopich and other masters have taken notice of the matter, let’s ridicule the old master:

Grandfather began to lose his mind. You tell stories. It's a waste of time to lead the guy astray.

The old man got excited and slammed the table:

There is such a flower! The guy is telling the truth: we don’t understand stone. Beauty is shown in that flower.

The masters laugh:

Grandpa, he took a sip too much! And he says:

There is a stone flower!

The guests have left, but Danilushka can’t get that conversation out of his head. He started running into the forest again and walking around his dope flower, but he didn’t even mention the wedding. Prokopich began to force:

Why are you disgracing a girl? How many years will she be a bride? Just wait - they will start laughing at her. Are there not enough girls?

Danilushko has one of his own:

Wait a little! I’ll just come up with an idea and select a suitable stone.

And he got into the habit of going to a copper mine - to Gumeshki. When he goes down into the mine, he walks around the faces, while at the top he sorts through the stones. Once he turned the stone, looked at it, and said:

No, not that one...

As soon as he said this, someone said:

Look elsewhere... at Snake Hill.

Danilushko looks - there is no one.

Who would it be? They’re joking or something... It’s like there’s nowhere to hide. He looked around again, went home, and after him again:

Do you hear, Danilo-master? At Snake Hill, I say.

Danilushko looked around - some woman was barely visible, like blue fog. Then nothing happened.

“What,” he thinks, “is this thing? Really herself? What if we go to Zmeinaya?”

Danilushko knew Snake Hill well. She was right there, not far from Gumeshki. Now it’s gone, it’s all been torn down a long time ago, but before they took the stone on top. So the next day Danilushko went there. The hill, although small, is steep. On the one hand, it looks completely cut off. The look here is first-class. All layers are visible, it couldn’t be better.

Danilushko approached this watcher, and then the malachite was turned out. It's a big stone - you can't carry it in your hands - and it looks like it's been shaped like a bush. Danilushko began to examine this find. Everything is as he needs: the color underneath is thicker, the veins are in the very places where it is required... Well, everything is as it is... Danilushko was delighted, quickly ran after the horse, brought the stone home, and said to Prokopich:

Look, what a stone! Exactly on purpose for my work. Now I’ll do it quickly. Then get married. That's right, Katenka has been waiting for me. Yes, it’s not easy for me either. This is the only work that keeps me going. I wish I could finish it soon!

Well, Danilushko set to work on that stone. He knows neither day nor night. But Prokopich remains silent. Maybe the guy will calm down, he'll be happy. The work is progressing well. The bottom of the stone was finished. As it is, listen, a datura bush. The leaves are wide in a bunch, teeth, veins - everything could not have been better. Prokopich even says that you can at least touch a living flower with your hand. Well, as soon as I got to the top, it got stuck. The stem has been chiseled out, the side leaves are thin - they just hold on! A cup like that of a Datura flower, or else... It became not alive and lost its beauty.

Danilushko lost sleep here. He sits over this bowl of his, figuring out how to fix it, how to do it better. Prokopich and the other craftsmen who came in to have a look are amazed - what else does the guy need? The cup came out - no one had done anything like this, but he felt bad. The guy will wash himself off, he needs to be treated. Katenka hears what people are saying and begins to cry. This brought Danilushka to his senses.

Okay, he says, I won’t do it again. Apparently, I can’t rise higher, I can’t catch the power of the stone. - And let’s hurry up with the wedding. Well, why rush, if the bride had everything ready a long time ago. We set a day. Danilushko cheered up. I told the clerk about the cup. He came running and looked - what a thing! I wanted to send this cup to the master now, but Danilushko said:

Wait a little, there is some finishing touches.

It was autumn time. The wedding happened right around the Snake Festival. By the way, someone mentioned this - soon the snakes will all gather in one place.

Danilushko took these words into account. I remembered again the conversations about the malachite flower. So he was drawn: “Shouldn’t I go last time to Snake Hill? Don’t I recognize anything there?” - and he remembered about the stone: “After all, it was as it should be! And the voice at the mine... spoke about Snake Hill.”

So Danilushko went. By then the ground had already begun to freeze, and there was a dusting of snow. Danilushko walked up to the twist where he took the stone, and looked, and in that place there was a large pothole, as if the stone had been broken. Danilushko didn’t think about who was breaking the stone and walked into a pothole. “I’ll sit,” he thinks, “I’ll rest behind the wind. It's warmer here." He looks at one wall and sees a serovik stone, like a chair. Danilushko sat down here, lost in thought, looked at the ground, and still that stone flower was missing from his head. “I wish I could take a look!”

Only suddenly it became warm, exactly summer returned. Danilushko raised his head, and opposite, against the other wall, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain was sitting. By her beauty and by her malachite dress, Danilushko immediately recognized her. All he thinks is:

“Maybe it seems to me, but in reality there is no one.” He sits in silence, looks at the place where the Mistress is, and seems to see nothing. She is also silent, seemingly lost in thought. Then he asks:

Well, Danilo-master, your dope cup didn’t come out?

“I didn’t come out,” he answers.

Don't hang your head! Try something else. The stone will be for you according to your thoughts.

No,” he answers, “I can’t do it anymore.” I'm exhausted and it doesn't work out. Show me the stone flower.

“It’s easy to show,” he says, “but you’ll regret it later.”

Won't you let me out of the mountain?

Why won’t I let you go! The road is open, but they are only turning towards me.

Show me, do me a favor! She also persuaded him:

Maybe you can try to achieve it yourself! “She also mentioned Prokopich: “He felt sorry for you, now it’s your turn to feel sorry for him.” - She reminded me about the bride: - The girl dotes on you, but you look the other way.

I know,” Danilushko shouts, “but without a flower I can’t live.” Show me!

When this happens,” he says, “let’s go, Danilo the Master, to my garden.”

She said and stood up. Then something rustled, like an earthen scree. Danilushko looks, but there are no walls. The trees are tall, but not like those in our forests, but made of stone. Some are marble, some are made of coiled stone... Well, all sorts... Only alive, with branches, with leaves. They sway in the wind and kick, like someone tossing pebbles. Below there is grass, also made of stone. Azure, red... different... The sun is not visible, but it is light, like before sunset. Between the trees, golden snakes flutter as if they are dancing. The light comes from them.

And then that girl led Danilushka to a large clearing. The earth here is like simple clay, and on it the bushes are black as velvet. These bushes have large green malachite bells and each has an antimony star. The fire bees sparkle above those flowers, and the stars tinkle subtly and sing evenly.

Well, Danilo the master, have you looked? - asks the Mistress.

“You won’t find,” Danilushko answers, “a stone to do something like that.”

If you had thought of it yourself, I would have given you such a stone, but now I can’t. - She said and waved her hand.

There was a noise again, and Danilushko found himself on the same stone, in the same hole. The wind just whistles. Well, you know, autumn.

Danilushko came home, and that day the bride was having a party. At first Danilushko showed himself to be cheerful - he sang songs, danced, and then became misty. The bride was even scared:

What happened to you? You're exactly at the funeral! And he says:

My head was broken. In the eyes there is black with green and red. I don't see the light.

That's where the party ended. According to the ritual, the bride and her bridesmaids went to see off the groom. How many roads are there if you lived through a house or two? Here Katenka says:

Let's go around, girls. We will reach the end along our street, and return along Yelanskaya.

He thinks to himself: “If the wind blows Danilushka, won’t he feel better?” And what about the girlfriends... Glad, glad.

And then, they shout, it must be carried out. He lives very close - they didn’t sing a kindly farewell song to him at all.

The night was quiet and snow was falling. It's time for a walk. So they went. The bride and groom are in front, and the bridesmaids and the bachelor who was at the party are a little behind. The girls started this song as a farewell song. And it is sung long and plaintively, purely for the dead. Katenka sees that there is no need for this at all: “Even without that, Danilushko is sad for me, and they even came up with such a lament to sing.”

He tries to divert Danilushka to other thoughts. He started talking, but soon became sad again. Meanwhile, Katenka’s friends finished seeing off and began to have fun. They are laughing and running around, but Danilushko is walking, hanging his head. No matter how hard Katenka tries, she cannot cheer her up. And so we reached home. The girlfriends and the bachelor began to go their separate ways, but Danilushko saw off his bride without any ceremony and went home.

Prokopich had been asleep for a long time. Danilushko slowly lit the fire, dragged his bowls into the middle of the hut and stood looking at them. At this time Prokopich began to cough. That's how it breaks. You see, by those years he had become completely unhealthy. This cough cut Danilushka like a knife through the heart. All old life I remembered. He felt deeply sorry for the old man. And Prokopich cleared his throat and asked:

What are you doing with the bowls?

Yes, I’m looking, isn’t it time to give it up?

It’s long overdue, he says. They just take up space in vain. You can't do better anyway.

Well, we talked a little more, then Prokopich fell asleep again. And Danilushko lay down, but he couldn’t sleep. He turned and turned, got up again, lit the fire, looked at the bowls, and approached Prokopyich. I stood here over the old man and sighed...

Then he took the balodka and gasped at the dope flower - it just stung. But he didn’t move that bowl, according to the master’s drawing! He just spat in the middle and ran out. So from that time on, Danilushka could not be found.

Those who said that he had made up his mind died in the forest, and those who said again - the Mistress took him as a mountain foreman.

Mining master

Katya, Danilov’s fiancée, remained unmarried. Two or three years have passed since Danilo got lost, and she has completely left the bride’s time. In twenty years, in our factory way, it is considered too old. Guys rarely marry such people; widowers do it more often. Well, this Katya, apparently, was pretty, all the suitors are approaching her, but all she has to say is:

Danilo made a promise.

They persuade her:

What can you do! She promised, but didn’t come out. Now there is no need to mention this. The man has long been bent.

Katya stands her ground:

Danilo made a promise. Maybe he will come again.

They interpret to her:

He is no longer alive. Sure thing.

And she stood her ground:

No one saw him dead, but for me he is even more alive.

They see that she’s not a girl, and they’ve fallen behind. Others started making fun of her: they called her the dead bride. She liked it. Katya Mertvyakova and Katya Mertvyakova, there was no other nickname.

Then some kind of pestilence hit the people, and Katya’s old men both died. She has a great family. Three married brothers and some married sisters. A quarrel broke out between them - who should remain in their father's place. Katya sees the confusion has begun and says:

I’ll go to Danilushkov’s hut to live. Prokopyich has become completely old. At least I follow him.

Brothers and sisters persuade, of course:

This is not suitable, sister. Prokopich may be an old man, but you never know what they can say about you.

“For me,” he answers, “what?” I won't be the gossip. Prokopich, hey, he’s not a stranger to me. Adoptive father to my Danil. I'll call him Auntie.

So she left. That’s enough to say: the family didn’t get along well. They thought to themselves: the extra one in the family means less noise. And what about Prokopich? He liked it.

“Thank you,” she says, “Katenka, for remembering me.”

So they began to live. Prokopich sits at the machine, and Katya runs around the house - in the garden there, cooking, cooking, etc. The household is small, of course, for two... Katya is a nimble girl, how long will it take her!.. She manages it and sits down to some kind of needlework: sewing, knitting, you never know. At first everything went smoothly for them, but Prokopich got worse and worse. He sits for a day, lies down for two. I've become worn out and old. Katya began to think about how they would continue to live.

“You can’t make a living from women’s handicrafts, and I don’t know any other craft.”

So he says to Prokopich:

Baby! You could at least teach me something simpler.

Prokopich even found it funny.

What are you doing? Isn’t it a girl’s thing to sit at malachite! I've never heard of this before.

Well, she finally began to take a closer look at the spear craft. I helped him wherever possible. Saw it there, sand it. Prokopich began to show her this and that. Not that it's real. Grind the plaque, make handles for forks and knives and other things that were in use. It’s a trivial matter, of course, a cheap thing, and all the disbursement happens on occasion.

Prokopich did not live long. At this point the brothers and sisters began to force Katya:

Now you have to force yourself to get married. How will you live alone? Katya cut them:

Not your sadness. I don't need your fiance. Danilushko will come. He will study in the city and come.

The brothers and sisters wave their hands at her:

Are you sane, Katerina? It’s a sin to say such a thing! A man died a long time ago, and she is waiting for him! Look, it will become more annoying.

“I’m not afraid,” he answers, “of that.” Then the family asks:

How will you at least live?

“Don’t worry about that either,” he replies. I can hold out alone.

The brothers and sisters understood that some money was left over from Prokopinch, and again for their own:

Here comes the fool! If you have money, man, you definitely need to go to the house. The hour is uneven - someone will hunt for money. They'll twist your head like a chicken. I only saw the light.

“As much as is my share,” he answers, “I will see that much.”

The brothers and sisters continued to make noise for a long time. Some scream, some persuade, some cry, but Katya said her own:

I can hold out alone. We don't need your fiance. I've had it for a long time.

Of course, the relatives got angry:

In case, don’t even show your eyes to us!

Thank you,” he answers, “dear brothers, dear sisters!” I will remember. Don’t forget to walk by!

Laughing, that is. Well, relatives and slam the doors. Katya was left alone. She cried, of course, first, and then she said:

You're lying! I won't give in!

She wiped away her tears and took care of the housework. Wash and scrape - bring cleanliness. I got it done and immediately sat down at the machine. Here, too, I began to establish my own order. What she doesn’t need is kept away, and what she constantly needs is at hand. I had put everything in order and wanted to get to work.

“I’ll try to sharpen at least one plaque myself.”

I had enough, but there was no suitable stone. The fragments of Danilushka's dope bowl remained, but Katya took care of them. They were tied in a special knot. Prokopich, of course, had a lot of stones. Only Prokopich until death big works sat. Well, the stone is still large. The scraps and pieces were all picked up and spent on small crafts. So Katya thinks:

“Apparently, we need to go to the mine dumps and look. Will there be a suitable pebble?

She heard from Danila and from Prokopyich that they took from Zmeinaya Gorka. That's where I went.

On Gumeshki, of course, there are always people: some sort ore, some transport them. They look at Katya - where did she go with the basket? Katya doesn’t like it, that people are staring at her in vain. She didn’t bother looking on the dumps on this side, she walked around the hill. And there was still a forest growing there. So Katya climbed through this forest to the very top of Snake Hill and sat down here. She felt bitter - she remembered Danilushka. He sits on a stone, and the tears just flow. There are no people, the forest is all around - she doesn’t even watch out. This is how tears fall to the ground.

She cried and looked - right at her foot the malachite stone appeared, but it was all sitting in the ground. How will you take it if there is no pick or crowbar? Katya still moved his hand. It seemed that the stone was not sitting firmly. Here she is and let’s use some kind of twig to rake the earth away from the stone. She scooped up as much as she could and began to shake it loose. The stone gave way. How it snapped from below - just a twig broke off. A small pebble, like a tile. Three fingers thick, a palm wide, and no more than two quarters long. Katya even marveled:

Just according to my thoughts. I'll cut it up to see how many plaques come out. And the losses are the smallest thing.

I brought the stone home and immediately began sawing. The work is not fast, and Katya still needs to manage the housework. You see, you’re at work all day, and there’s no time to be bored. Only when he sits down at the machine will he remember everything about Danilushka:

He should have seen what a new master has appeared here. He’s sitting in his spear-like place!

There were, of course, some people who complained. How could we not do without this... At night, on some holiday, Katya was sitting too long at work, and three guys climbed into her fence.

They wanted to scare Ali and something else - their business, but they were all drunk. Katya is swinging the saw and doesn’t hear that there are people in her shed. I heard it when they started breaking into the hut:

Open up, dead man's bride! Receive live guests!

Katya first persuaded them:

Go away guys!

Well, it's nothing to them. They're banging on the door, and just like that, they'll tear it down. Then Katya threw off the hook, threw open the doors and shouted:

Come in, no. Who to hit first?

The guys look, and she is with an axe.

You, they say, are no joke!

What, - he answers, - jokes! Whoever crosses the threshold gets hit in the forehead.

The pariahs, even if they are drunk, can see that this is not a joke. The girl is old, has a steep shoulder, a decisive eye, and apparently has had an ax in her hands. They didn’t dare to enter. They made some noise, made some noise, got away, and even talked about it themselves. They started teasing the guys that the three of them had run away from the same girl. They didn’t like it, of course, and they made it up that Katya wasn’t alone, and that there was a corpse behind her.

Yes, so scary that you will run away.

They believed the guys - they didn’t believe them, but from then on among the people it went like this:

“This house is unclean. No wonder she lives alone.”

Katya heard this, but she did not become sad. I also thought: “Let them weave. It’s better for me if they become afraid. Another time, you see, they won’t climb.”

The neighbors are surprised that Katya is sitting at the machine. They made her laugh:

I took up a man's craft! What will happen to her!

It was Katya who was saltier. She herself thought:

“Will it work out for me alone?” Well, I finally managed to control myself: “Market goods! Do you need a lot? If only it were smooth... I really can’t handle that?” Katya sawed the stone. He sees that the pattern is unusual, and as planned, in which place to saw off across. Katya marveled at how cleverly everything worked out. She divided it ready-made and began to grind it. It's not a particularly tricky thing, and you can't do it without habit. I struggled at first, then I learned. No matter where the plaques come out, there is no loss at all. Only throw away what had to go to the drain.

Katya made plaques, was once again amazed at what kind of stone it turned out to be, and began to figure out where to sell the craft. Prokopyich would take such small things to the city, and there he would rent them all out to one shop. Katya has heard about this shop many times. So she came up with the idea to go to the city.

“I’ll ask there if my ancestors will accept my handicraft.”

She closed the hut and went on foot. Polevaya didn’t even notice that she had gone to town. Katya found out where the owner who accepted the craft from Prokopich was, and went straight to the shop. He looks - it’s full of all sorts of stones, and there’s a whole cabinet of malachite plaques behind glass. There are a lot of people in the shop. Who buys, who sells crafts. The owner is strict and so important.

At first Katya was afraid to approach, then she laughed and asked:

Don't we need malachite plaques?

The owner pointed his finger at the cabinet:

Don't you see how much good I have?

The craftsmen who handed over the work sing to him:

Many craftsmen have worked on this craft. Only the stone is transferred. They don’t understand that a plaque requires a good pattern.

One of the Polevsky masters. He quietly says to the owner:

This girl is an idiot. The neighbors saw her at the machine. Look, I've cooked it up.

The owner then says:

Well, show me what you came with?

Katya gave him the plaque. The owner looked, then stared at Katya and said:

Who did you steal from?

Katya, of course, found this offensive. She spoke differently:

What right do you have, without knowing the person, to talk about him like that? Look, if you're not blind! Who can steal so many plaques for one pattern? Come on, tell me! - and poured out all her crafts onto the counter.

The owner and the craftsmen see - that's right, one pattern. And the pattern is rare. It’s as if a tree is protruding from the middle, and a bird is sitting on a branch, and there is also a bird below. Clearly visible and cleanly done. The buyers heard this conversation, they also reached out to take a look, only the owner immediately covered up all the plaques. I found a spot.

Not visible in a bunch. Now I'll put them under glass. Then choose what anyone likes. - And Katya himself says: - Go through that door. Now you will receive the money.

Katya went, and the owner followed her. He closed the door and asked:

How much are you renting?

Katya heard prices from Prokopyich. That’s what she said, and the owner started laughing:

What you! What you! This is the price I paid to one field master, Prokopich, and also to his adopted son Danil. But they were masters!

“I heard it from them,” he answers. I'll be from the same family.

That's it! - the owner was surprised. - So, apparently, you still have Danilov’s work?

No,” he answers, “mine.”

Perhaps the stone remained from him?

And she mined the stone herself.

The owner apparently doesn’t believe it, but he just didn’t dress up. He paid honestly and also said:

Something like this will happen in the future, bring it. I will accept it without fail and give you a real price.

Katya left, rejoicing - how much money she received! And the owner put those plaques under glass. Buyers came running:

How many?

He, of course, was not mistaken - he prescribed ten times what was purchased, and he also slandered:

This pattern has never happened before. Polevsky master Danila's work. It's better not to do it.

Katya came home, and she was still amazed.

What a thing! My plaques turned out to be the best! It was a good stone. Apparently, it was a happy occasion. “Then I said: “Wasn’t it Danilushko who gave me the message?”

I thought so, curled up and ran to Snake Hill.

And that malachite guy who wanted to embarrass Katya in front of the city merchant also returned home. He is envious that Katya came up with such a rare pattern. He came up with:

We need to see where she gets the stone. Isn’t it a new place that Prokopich or Danilo showed her?

He saw that Katya was running somewhere, and he followed her. She sees - she bypassed Gumeshki and went somewhere behind Snake Hill. The master is there, and he himself thinks:

“There’s a forest there. I’ll sneak through the forest right to the hole.”

We went into the forest. Katya is very close and is not at all wary, does not look back, does not listen. The master is glad that he will get a new place so easily. Suddenly something rustled to the side, so much so that the master even got scared. Has stopped. What's happened? While he was sorting this out, Katya was gone. He ran and ran through the forest. I barely made it to the Seversky Pond, about two versts from Gumeshki.

Katya never knew that they were spying on her. I climbed up the hill, to the very place where I took the first pebble. The hole seemed to have become larger, and the same pebble was again visible on the side. Katya shook him, and he fell behind. Again, like a twig, it snapped. Katya took the pebble and began to cry and lament. Well, like girls and women howling for the dead, they collect all sorts of words:

Who are you looking at me for? dear dear friend, he left, and so on...

She cried, as if she felt better, stood there, lost in thought, looking in the direction of the mine. The place here is like a clearing. The forest all around is dense and tall, but in the smaller direction of the mine I went. It's sunset time. At the bottom of the forest in the clearing it began to get dark, but in that place the sun came to the mine. So this place is burning, and all the stones on it are shining.

Katya found this interesting. I wanted to come closer. She stepped, and there was a crunch under her foot. She pulled her leg back and looked - there was no ground under her feet. She stands on some tall tree, at the very top. The same peaks approached from all sides. In the gaps between the trees below you can see grass and flowers, and they don’t look like those here at all.

If anyone else in Katya's place would have been scared, she would have started screaming and screaming, but she thought about something completely different:

“Here it is, the mountain, has opened up! If only I could look at Danilushka!”

I just thought and saw through the gaps - someone was walking below, he looked like Danilushka and was raising his hands up, as if he wanted to say something. Katya didn’t give a damn, so she rushed towards him... from the tree! Well, she immediately fell to the ground and stood there eating. She came to her senses and said to herself:

It’s true that I started to feel tempting. We need to go home quickly.

She has to go, but she just sits and sits, still waiting for the mountain to open up again, for Danilushko to show up again. I sat there until it got dark. Then she just went home, and she thought: “I’ve seen Danilushka after all.” The master who had been spying on Katya had run home by this time. I looked - Katya’s hut was locked. He hid and I’ll see what she brought. He sees Katya coming, and he stood across the road:

Where did you go?

To Zmeinaya, he answers.

At night? What is there to do?

See Danila...

The master just shied away, and the next day whispers spread throughout the plant:

The dead bride has gone completely crazy. At night he goes to Zmeinaya, waiting for the dead man. As if the plant hadn't been set on fire out of the blue.

The brothers and sisters heard it, came running again, let's stern and persuade Katya. Only she didn’t listen. She showed them the money and said:

Where do you think I got this from? They don’t take money from good craftsmen, but they paid me so much for a first-time job! Why is that?

The brothers heard about her luck and said:

It was a happy occasion. What is there to talk about?

Such cases, he answers, have never happened. It was Danilo himself who placed such a stone for me and drew out the pattern. Brothers laugh, sisters wave their hands:

And really gone crazy! I need to tell the clerk. As if they really didn’t set the plant on fire!

They didn't say, of course. We were ashamed to give our sister away. They just left and agreed:

We need to keep an eye on Katerina. Where will it go- Run after her now.

And Katya saw off her relatives, locked the doors and began sawing a new stone. He saws and makes a wish:

If the same one is published, it means that I have not been tempted - I have seen Danilushka.

So she’s in a hurry to cut it. She wants to see how the real pattern comes out as soon as possible. It’s long past night, and Katya is still sitting at the machine. One sister woke up at this time, saw a fire in the hut, ran to the window, looked through the crack in the shutter and marveled:

And sleep won’t take her! Punishment with a girl!

Katya sawed off a board - the pattern became clear. Even better than that. A bird flew down from the tree, spread its wings, and another one flew towards from below.

Five times this pattern on the board. From point to point it is outlined how to cut across. Katya didn’t even think about it. She grabbed it and ran somewhere. Her sister is behind her. On the way, I knocked on my brothers’ door and said, run quickly. The brothers ran out and more people were knocked down. And it was already getting light. They look - Katya runs past Gumeshek. Everyone rushed there, but she, apparently, did not even sense that the people were behind her. I ran through the mine and walked more quietly around Snake Hill. The people also stayed late - let's see, they say, what she will do.

Katya goes up the hill, as usual. I looked, and the forest all around was unprecedented. I felt the wood with my hand, and it was cold and smooth, like a polished stone. And the grass below also turned out to be stone, and it was still dark here. Katya thinks:

“Apparently, I hit a mountain.”

Relatives and people at that time were alarmed:

Where did she go? Now it was close, but it wasn’t!

They run and fuss. Some go up the hill, some around the hills. They call out to each other: “Can’t you see it there?”

And Katya walks in the stone forest and thinks how she can find Danila. She walked and walked and shouted:

Danilo, answer me!

Golk walked through the forest. The branches tapped: “He’s gone! He is not here! He is not here!" Only Katya did not calm down:

Danilo, answer me!

Through the forest again: “He’s gone! He is not here! He is not here!"

Katya again:

Danilo, answer me!

It was then that the Mistress of the Mountain appeared in front of Katya.

Why, he asks, did you climb into my forest? What do you want? Are you looking for a good stone? Anyone, take it and leave quickly!

Katya says here:

I don't need your dead stone! Give me the living Danilushka. Where have you hidden it? What right do you have to lure other people’s suitors!

Well, brave girl. I started to step right on my throat. This is for the Mistress! And she’s okay, standing calmly:

What else can you say?

Otherwise I’ll say - give it to Danila! You have it...

The hostess burst out laughing and said:

You stupid girl, do you know who you're talking to?

“I’m not blind,” he shouts, “I see.” Just not afraid of you, homewrecker! I'm not at all afraid! No matter how cunning you are, Danilo is drawn to me. I saw it myself. What, did you take it?

The hostess then says:

But let's listen to what he himself has to say.

Before that, it was dark in the forest, but then it immediately came to life. It became light. The grass below lit up with different lights, the trees were one more beautiful than the other. In the gap you can see a clearing, and on it there are stone flowers, and golden bees, like sparkles, above those flowers. Well, hey, such beauty that I couldn’t get enough of it. And Katya sees: Danilo is running through this forest. Straight to her. Katya rushed forward:

Danilushko!

Wait,” says the Mistress, “and asks: “Well, Danilo-master, choose - what to do?” If you go with her, you’ll forget everything about me, if you stay here, you’ll have to forget her and the people.

“I can’t,” he answers, “to forget people, but I remember her every minute.”

Here the Mistress smiled brightly and said:

You got it, Katerina! Take your master. For your daring and firmness, here is a gift for you. Let Danila remember everything that is mine. Just let him forget this! - And the clearing with strange flowers immediately went out.

Now go in that direction,” the Mistress pointed out and even warned. - You, Danilo, don’t tell people about the mountain. Say that you went to a distant master for training. And you, Katerina, forget even to think that I lured your fiancé away. He himself came for what he had now forgotten.

Katya bowed here:

Forgive me in a bad word!

Okay,” he answers, “it’ll turn into stone!” I’m telling you so that you don’t get cold feet.

Katya and Danila walked through the forest, and it was getting darker and darker, and underfoot it was uneven - there were bumps and holes. We looked around, and they were at the mine - on Gumeshki. The time is still early, and there are no people at the mine. They slowly made their way home.

And those who ran after Katya are still wandering through the forest and calling out to each other: “Can’t you see there?”

They searched and searched, but did not find it. We ran home, and Danilo was sitting by the window. They were scared, of course. They shy away, they say different spells. Then they see that Danilo began to fill his pipe. Well, let's go.

“The dead man,” they think, “wouldn’t smoke a pipe.”

They began to approach one by one. They look and Katya is in the hut. She's hanging around the stove, but she's cheerful. Haven't seen her like this for a long time. Then they became completely bolder, entered the hut, and began to ask:

Where are you, Danilo, haven’t you been seen for a long time?

“I went to Kolyvan,” he answers. I heard about the masonry master there, as if there was no one better at his job. So I wanted to learn a little. The deceased father tried to dissuade him. Well, I took my own leave - I left secretly, it only affected Katya.

Why, they ask, did you break your cup?

Danilo became a little confused when the cup was mentioned, then he said:

Well, you never know... He came back from the party... Maybe he drank too much... It didn’t go according to his thoughts, so he gasped. This has probably happened to every master. What to talk about.

Then the brothers and sisters began to approach Katya, why didn’t she tell her about Kolyvan. Only we got a little from Katya too. I immediately cut it off:

Whose cow would moo, mine would be silent. I didn’t tell you enough that Danilo is alive. And you? They slipped suitors into my path and led me astray! You better sit down at the table. I baked some chirla.

That was the end of the matter. The relatives sat, talked about this and that, and went their separate ways. In the evening Danilo went to the clerk to show up. He made some noise, of course. Well, they finally settled the matter.

So Danilo and Katya began to live in their hut. Well, they say, they lived according to it. At work, everyone called Danila a mining foreman. No one could do anything against him. And they had wealth. Only no, no - and Danilo will think. Katya understood, of course, what she was talking about, but kept quiet.

fragile twig

Danila and Katya, who rescued her fiancé from the Mistress of the Mountain, had a lot of children. Eight, listen, people, and all boys. Mother was more than once jealous of at least one girl for a glance. And the father, you know, laughs:

This, apparently, is our situation with you. The kids grew up healthy. Only one was unlucky. Either from the porch, or from somewhere else, he fell and injured himself: his hump began to grow. The Baushki ruled, of course, but it didn’t work out. So the hunchbacked one had to toil in this world. Other kids, as I noticed, come out angry on such and such occasions, but this one is okay - he grew up cheerful and a master of inventions. He was the third in the family, and all the brothers listened to him and asked:

What do you think, Mitya? In your opinion, Mitya, what is this for?

Father and mother often shouted:

Mityushka! Look at that! Okay, to your eye?

Mityayko, didn’t you notice where I put the sparrows?

And it seemed to Mityunka that his father had played the horn skillfully from a young age. This one also makes a pickle, so it pronounces the song itself.

Due to his skill, Danilo still made good money. Well, Katya didn’t sit idle. So, they raised a family and didn’t go to people for food. And Katya took care of the children’s clothes. So that everyone on the right would have little ones, fur coats, and so on. In the summer, of course, it’s okay to be barefoot: your own skin, not purchased. And Mityunka, how sorry he was for everyone, and had shoes. The older brothers did not envy this, but the little mothers themselves said:

End of free trial.

The name of Pavel Petrovich Bazhov is known to every adult. When we mention the name of this Russian writer, wonderful original tales about a malachite box, a stone flower, hardworking and kind Ural miners and skilled craftsmen arise in our minds. Bazhov’s works take you into the world of the Ural underground and mountain kingdom and introduce you to its magical inhabitants: the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Jumping Ognevushka, the Silver Hoof, the Great Snake and the Blue Snake.

P.P. Bazhov - master of Ural tales

Pavel in the Urals in 1879. His family traveled a lot, and much of what the boy heard and saw as a child in Sysert, Polevsky, Seversky, Verkh-Sysert formed the basis for his tales about the Urals and his life. Pavel Bazhov has always been attracted to folklore.

He had great respect for the history of his people, their original character and oral creativity. The writer constantly collected and updated folklore records and, based on them, created his own unique tales. The heroes of his works are ordinary workers.

Display of historical events in the tales of P. Bazhov

Serfdom existed in the Urals until late XIX century. Works by P.P. Bazhov describe the time when the people lived under the yoke of masters. Factory owners, in pursuit of income, did not think about price human life and the health of their charges, forced to work in dark and damp mines from morning to night.

Despite the hard times and hard labor, the people did not lose heart. Among the workers there were very creative ones, smart people who know how to work and deeply understand the world of beauty. Descriptions of their characters, life and spiritual aspirations are contained in Bazhov’s works. The list of them is quite long. The writing merits of Pavel Bazhov were appreciated during his lifetime. In 1943, he was awarded the Stalin Prize for his book of Ural fairy tales, “The Malachite Box.”

The message of the Ural tales

Tales are not early works Pavel Bazhov. Despite the fact that the journalist, publicist and revolutionary Bazhov was always interested in folklore, the idea of ​​writing fairy tales did not immediately appear to him.

The first tales, “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain” and “Dear Name,” were published before the war, in 1936. Since then, Bazhov’s works began to appear in print regularly. The purpose and meaning of the tales was to raise the morale and self-awareness of the Russian people, to realize themselves as a strong and invincible nation, capable of feats and resistance to the enemy.

It is no coincidence that Bazhov’s works appeared before the start of the Great Patriotic War and continued to go out during it. In this regard, P.P. Bazhov was a visionary. He managed to foresee the onset of trouble and make his contribution to the fight against world evil.

Mystical images in the literary works of P.P. Bazhova

Many people know what works Bazhov wrote, but not everyone understands where the writer borrowed the magical images of his tales from. Of course, the folklorist only conveyed folk knowledge about otherworldly forces who helped good heroes and punished evil people. There is an opinion that the surname Bazhov comes from the word “bazhit”, which is a Ural dialect and literally means “to bewitch”, “to foretell”.

Most likely, the writer was a person well versed in mysticism, since he decided to recreate the mythological images of the Great Snake, the Jumping Firefly, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Silver Hoof and many others. All these magical heroes represent forces of nature. They have countless riches and reveal them only to people with pure and open hearts, opposing forces evil and those in need of help and support.

Bazhov's works for children

The meaning of some tales is very deep and does not lie on the surface. It must be said that not all of Bazhov’s works will be understandable to children. Tales addressed directly to the younger generation traditionally include “The Silver Hoof,” “The Jumping Fire Girl,” and “The Blue Snake.” Bazhov's works for children are written in a very concise and accessible language.

Here, much attention is not paid to the experiences of the heroes, but the emphasis is on the description of miracles and magical characters. Here the Jumping Firegirl plays mischief in a fiery sarafan; in another fairy tale, the Silver Hoof suddenly appears and knocks out precious stones for the orphan girl and the good hunter Kokovani. And, of course, who doesn’t want to meet the Blue Snake, who spins her wheel and shows where the gold is?

Bazhov's tales and their use in fairy tale therapy

Bazhov’s works are very convenient to use in fairy tale therapy, the main task of which is to develop in children positive values ​​and motivations, strong moral foundations, and to develop their creative perception of the world and good intellectual abilities. Vivid images of fairy tales, simple, sincere, hardworking people from the people, fantastic characters will make a child’s world beautiful, kind, unusual and fascinating.

The most important thing in Bazhov's tales is morality. The child must learn and remember it, and the help of an adult in this is very necessary. After the fairy tale is told, you need to have a conversation with the children in the same friendly manner about the main characters, their behavior and fate. Kids will be happy to talk about those characters and their actions that they liked, and express their opinion about negative heroes and their behavior. Thus, the conversation will help consolidate the positive effect of fairy tale therapy, contributing to the strong rooting of the acquired knowledge and images in the child’s mind.

List of works by Bazhov:

• "Diamond Match";
• "The Amethyst Case";
• “Bogatyreva’s mitten”;
• "Vasina Mountain";
• “Veselukhin spoon”;
• "Blue Snake";
• "Mining Master";
• "Far Peeper";
• "Two lizards";
• "Demidov's kaftans";
• “Dear name”;
• “Dear Earth Revolution”;
• "Ermakov's swans";
• "Zhabreev Walker";
• "Iron tires";
• “Zhivinka in action”;
• "Living Light";
• "Snake's Trail";
• "Golden Hair";
• "Mountain's Golden Bloom";
• "Golden Dykes"
• "Ivanko-krylatko";
• "Stone Flower";
• "Key of the Earth"
• "Indigenous secrecy";
• "Cat's ears";
• "Circular lantern";
• "Malachite Box";
• "Markov stone";
• "Copper Share";
• “Mistress of the Copper Mountain”;
• "At the same place";
• "Inscription on the Stone";
• "Wrong Heron";
• "Jumping Firefly";
• "Eagle Feather";
• "Clerk's soles";
• “About the Great Snake”;
• “About divers”;
• “About the main thief”;
• "Rudyanoy Pass";
• "Silver Hoof";
• “Sinyushkin Well”;
• "Sun Stone";
• "Juicy Pebbles";
• “A gift from the old mountains”;
• "Cockroach soap";
• "Tayutkino's mirror";
• "Grass West";
• "Heavy twist";
• "At the old mine";
• "Fragile twig";
• "Crystal varnish";
• "Cast Iron Grandmother";
• "Silk Hill";
• "Broad shoulder"

Bazhov’s works, a list of which parents should study in advance, will help to form in children a feeling of sympathy for good characters, such as the old man Kokovanya, Darenka, and a negative attitude and censure towards others (the clerk from the fairy tale “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain”). They will instill in the child a sense of kindness, justice and beauty and teach him to sympathize, help others and act decisively. Bazhov’s works will develop the creative potential of children and will contribute to the emergence in them of the values ​​and qualities necessary for a successful and happy life.

Mistress of Copper Mountain

Two of our factory workers went to look at the grass. And their mowing was far away. Somewhere behind Severushka.

It was a holiday day, and it was hot - passion. Parun is clean. And both of them were timid in grief, at Gumeshki that is. Malachite ore was mined, as well as blue tit. Well, when a kinglet with a coil came in, there was a thread that would fit.

There was one young guy, unmarried, and his eyes began to look green. The other one is older. This one is completely ruined. There is green in the eyes, and the cheeks seem to have turned green. And the man kept coughing.

It's good in the forest. The birds sing and rejoice, the earth soars, the spirit is light. Listen, they were exhausted. We reached the Krasnogorsk mine. Iron ore was mined there back then. So our guys lay down on the grass under the rowan tree and immediately fell asleep. Only suddenly the young man—someone pushed him in the side—woke up. He looks, and in front of him, on a pile of ore near a large stone, a woman is sitting. Her back is to the guy, and you can see from her braid that she’s a girl. The braid is gray-black and doesn’t dangle like our girls’, but sticks straight to the back. At the end of the tape are either red or green. They shine through and ring subtly, like sheet copper. The guy marvels at the scythe, and then he notices further. The girl is small in stature, good-looking and such a cool wheel - she won’t sit still. He will lean forward, look exactly under his feet, then lean back again, bend to one side, to the other. He jumps to his feet, waves his arms, then bends down again. In a word, artut girl. You can hear him babbling something, but in what way he speaks it is unknown, and with whom he speaks is not visible. Just a laugh. Apparently she's having fun.

The guy was about to say a word, when suddenly he was hit on the back of the head.

- My mother, but this is the Mistress herself! Her clothes are something. How did I not notice it right away? She averted her eyes with her oblique.

And the clothes are truly such that you won’t find anything else in the world. Made of silk, hear me, malachite dress. There is such a variety. It’s a stone, but it’s like silk to the eye, even if you stroke it with your hand. “Here,” the guy thinks, “trouble! As soon as I can get away with it before I notice.” From the old people, you see, he heard that this Mistress - a malachite girl - loves to play tricks on people. Just when she thought something like that, she looked back. He looks at the guy cheerfully, bares his teeth and says jokingly:

“What, Stepan Petrovich, are you staring at the girl’s beauty for nothing?” After all, they take money for a look. Come closer. Let's talk a little. The guy was scared, of course, but he didn’t show it. Attached. Even though she is a secret force, she is still a girl. Well, he’s a guy, which means he’s ashamed to be shy in front of a girl.

“I have no time,” he says, “to talk.” Without that we slept and went to look at the grass.

She chuckles and then says:

- I'll play a tune for you. Go, I say, there’s something to do.

Well, the guy sees that there is nothing to do. I went to her, and she loomed with her hand, go around the ore on the other side. He walked around and saw that there were countless lizards here. And everyone, listen, is different. Some, for example, are green, others are blue, which fade into blue, and others are like clay or sand with gold specks. Some, like glass or mica, shine, while others, like faded grass, and some are again decorated with patterns. The girl laughs.

“Don’t part,” he says, “my army, Stepan Petrovich.” You are so big and heavy, but they are small for me. “And she clapped her hands together, and the lizards ran away and gave way.”

So the guy came closer, stopped, and she clapped her hands again and said, all laughing:

“Now you have nowhere to step.” If you crush my servant, there will be trouble. He looked at his feet, and there wasn’t much ground there. All the lizards huddled together in one place, and the floor became patterned under our feet. Stepan looks - fathers, this is copper ore! All sorts and well polished. And there is mica, and blende, and all sorts of glitter that resemble malachite.

- Well, now you recognize me, Stepanushka? - asks the malachite girl, and she bursts into laughter. Then, a little later, he says:

- Don't be scared. I won't do anything bad to you.

The guy felt miserable that the girl was mocking him and even saying such words. He became very angry and even shouted:

- Who should I be afraid of, if I am timid in grief!

“Okay,” answers the malachite girl. “That’s just the kind of guy I need, someone who’s not afraid of anyone.” Tomorrow, as you descend the mountain, your factory clerk will be here, you tell him yes, look, don’t forget the words: “The owner of Copper Mountain ordered you, a stuffy goat, to get out of the Krasnogorsk mine. If you still break this iron cap of mine, I’ll dump all the copper in Gumeshki there for you, so there’s no way to get it.”

She said this and squinted:

– Do you understand, Stepanushko? In grief, you say, you are timid, you are not afraid of anyone? So tell the clerk as I ordered, and now go and the one who is with you, look, don’t say anything. He is a frightened man, why bother him and involve him in this matter. And so she told the blue tit to help him a little.

And she clapped her hands again, and all the lizards ran away. She also jumped to her feet, grabbed a stone with her hand, jumped up and, like a lizard, ran along the stone. Instead of arms and legs, its paws were green, its tail stuck out, there was a black stripe halfway down its spine, and its head was human. She ran to the top, looked back and said:

– Don’t forget, Stepanushko, as I said. She allegedly told you, the stuffy goat, to get out of Krasnogorka. If you do it my way, I’ll marry you!

The guy even spat in the heat of the moment:

- Ugh, what trash! So that I marry a lizard.

And she sees him spitting and laughs.

“Okay,” he shouts, “we’ll talk later.” Maybe you'll think about it?

And immediately over the hill, only a green tail flashed.

The guy was left alone. The mine is quiet. You can only hear someone else snoring behind a pile of ore. Woke him up. They went to their mowing, looked at the grass, returned home in the evening, and Stepan had one thing on his mind: what should he do? To say such words to the clerk is no small matter, but he was also, and it’s true, stuffy—there was some kind of rot in his gut, they say. Not to say, it’s also scary. She is the Mistress. What ore he wants can be thrown into the blende. Then do your homework. And worse than that, it’s a shame to show yourself off as a braggart in front of a girl.

I thought and thought and laughed:

“I wasn’t, I’ll do as she ordered.”

The next morning, as people gathered around the trigger drum, the factory clerk came up. Everyone, of course, took off their hats, remained silent, and Stepan came up and said:

“I saw the Mistress of the Copper Mountain last night, and she ordered me to tell you. She tells you, the stuffy goat, to get out of Krasnogorka. If you spoil this iron cap for her, she will dump all the copper on Gumeshki there, so that no one can get it.

The clerk even began to shake his mustache.

-What are you doing? Drunk or crazy? What kind of mistress? Who are you saying these words to? Yes, I will rot you in grief!

“Your will,” says Stepan, “but this is the only way I was told.”

“Whip him,” the clerk shouts, “and take him down the mountain and chain him in the face!” And so as not to die, give him dog oatmeal and ask for lessons without any concessions. Just a little - tear mercilessly!

Well, of course, they flogged the guy and went up the hill. The mine overseer, also not the last dog, took him to the slaughter - it couldn’t be worse. It’s wet here, and there’s no good ore, I should have given up long ago. Here they chained Stepan to a long chain, so that he could work. It is known what time it was - the fortress. They did all sorts of shit on the person. The warden also says:

- Cool off here for a bit. And the lesson will cost you so much pure malachite, - and he assigned it completely inappropriately.

Nothing to do. As soon as the warden left, Stepan began waving his stick, but the guy was still agile. He looks - okay. This is how malachite falls, no matter who throws it with their hands. And the water left somewhere from the face. It became dry.

“That’s good,” he thinks. Apparently the Mistress remembered me.”

I was just thinking, and suddenly there was a light. He looks, and the Mistress is here, in front of him.

“Well done,” says Stepan Petrovich. You can attribute it to honor. Not afraid of the stuffy goat. Well told him. Let's go, apparently, to look at my dowry. I also don’t go back on my word.

And she frowned, it just didn’t feel good for her. She clapped her hands, the lizards came running, the chain was removed from Stepan, and the Mistress gave them the order:

– Break the lesson here in half. And so that the selection of malachite is of the silk variety. “Then he says to Stepan: “Well, groom, let’s go look at my dowry.”

And so let's go. She is in front, Stepan is behind her. Where she goes, everything is open to her. How large the rooms became underground, but their walls were different. Either all green, or yellow with gold specks. Which again have copper flowers. There are also blue ones and azure ones. In a word, it is decorated, which cannot be said. And the dress on her – on the Mistress – changes. One minute it shines like glass, then suddenly it fades, or else it sparkles like a diamond scree, or turns reddish like copper, then again shimmers like green silk. They're coming, they're coming, she stopped.

And Stepan sees a huge room, and in it there are beds, tables, stools - all made of king copper. The walls are malachite with diamond, and the ceiling is dark red under blackening, and on it there are copper flowers.

“Let’s sit,” he says, “here, and talk.” They sat down on stools, and the malachite girl asked:

-Have you seen my dowry?

“I saw it,” says Stepan.

- Well, how about marriage now?

But Stepan doesn’t know how to answer. Listen, he had a fiancée. A good girl, an orphan alone. Well, of course, compared to malachite, how can she compare in beauty! A simple person, an ordinary person. Stepan hesitated and hesitated, and then said:

“Your dowry is fit for a king, but I am a working man, a simple one.”

“You,” he says, “are a dear friend, don’t wobble.” Tell me straight, are you marrying me or not? – And she herself completely frowned.

Well, Stepan answered directly:

- I can’t, because another one was promised.

He said so and thinks: he’s on fire now. And she seemed happy.

“Well done,” he says, “to Stepanushka.” I praised you for being a clerk, and for this I will praise you twice as much. You didn’t get enough of my wealth, you didn’t exchange your Nastenka for a stone girl. – And the guy’s fiancee’s name was probably Nastya. “Here,” he says, “is a gift for your bride,” and hands over a large malachite box. And there, listen, every woman’s device. Earrings, rings and other things that not even every rich bride has.

“How,” asks the guy, “will I get up to the top with this place?”

- Don't be sad about it. Everything will be arranged, and I will free you from the clerk, and you will live comfortably with your young wife, but here’s my story for you - don’t think about me later. This will be my third test for you. Now let's eat a little.

She clapped her hands again, the lizards came running - the table was set full. She fed him with good cabbage soup, fish pie, lamb, porridge and other things that are required according to the Russian rite. Then he says:

- Well, goodbye, Stepan Petrovich, don’t think about me. - And there are tears right there. She put her hand up, and the tears drip-drop and freeze on her hand like grains. Just a handful. - Here you go, take it for a living. People give a lot of money for these stones. You will be rich,” and he gives it to him.

The stones are cold, but the hand, listen, is hot, as if it were alive, and shakes a little. Stepan accepted the stones, bowed low and asked:

-Where should I go? - And he himself also became gloomy.

She pointed with her finger, and a passage opened in front of him, like an adit, and it was light in it, like during the day. Stepan walked along this adit - again he saw enough of all the land riches and came just to his slaughter. He arrived, the adit closed, and everything became as before. The lizard came running, put a chain on his leg, and the box with gifts suddenly became small, Stepan hid it in his bosom. Soon the mine overseer approached. He was ready to laugh, but he sees that Stepan has a lot of tricks on top of the lesson, and a selection of malachite, sort and variety. “What,” he thinks, “is this thing? Where does it come from?" He climbed into the face, looked at everything and said:

- In this face, anyone will break as much as they like. - And he took Stepan to another pit, and put his nephew in this one.

The next day, Stepan began to work, and the malachite just flew off, and even a bead with a coil began to fall, and his nephew, pray tell, there is nothing good, everything is just a sham and a snag. It was then that the warden took notice of the matter. He ran to the clerk. Anyway.

“No other way,” he says, “Stepan sold his soul to evil spirits.”

The clerk says to this:

“It’s his business to whom he sold his soul, but we need to get our own benefit.” Promise him that we will release him into the wild, just let him find a malachite block worth a hundred pounds.

Still, the clerk ordered Stepan to be unchained and gave the following order: to stop work on Krasnogorka.

“Who,” he says, “knows him?” Maybe this fool was talking out of his mind then. And the ore and copper went there, but the cast iron was damaged.

The warden announced to Stepan what was required of him, and he replied:

-Who would refuse freedom? I’ll try, but if I find it, that’s my happiness.

Stepan soon found them such a block. They dragged her upstairs. They are proud, that’s what we are, but they didn’t give Stepan any freedom. They wrote to the master about the block, and he came from, hey, Sam-Petersburg. He found out how it happened and calls Stepan over.

“That’s what,” he says, “I give you my noble word to set you free if you find me such malachite stones that, that means, I can cut out pillars from them no less than five fathoms across the valley.”

Stepan answers:

“I’ve already been spun around.” I am not a scientist. First, write freely, then I will try, and we’ll see what comes out.

The master, of course, screamed and stamped his feet, but Stepan said one thing:

- I almost forgot - register my bride’s freedom too, but what kind of order is this - I myself will be free, and my wife will be in the fortress.

The master sees that the guy is not soft. I wrote him a document.

“Here,” he says, “just try, watch.”

And Stepan is all his.

- It’s like looking for happiness.

Of course, Stepan found it. What does he need if he knew the whole inside of the mountain and the Mistress herself helped him. They cut out the pillars they needed from this malachitana, dragged them up, and the master sent them to the butt of the most important church in Sam-Petersburg. And the block that Stepan first found is still in our city, they say. How rare it is to take care of it.

From that time on, Stepan was released, and after that all the wealth in Gumeshki disappeared. There are a lot of blue tits coming, but more of them are snags. It became unheard of to hear about the bead with a coil, and the malachite left, and water began to be added. So from that time on, Gumeshki began to decline, and then they were completely flooded. They said that it was the Mistress who was burning for the pillars, hear that they were placed in the church. And she doesn’t need it at all.

Stepan also had no happiness in his life. He got married, started a family, furnished the house, everything was as it should be. He should have lived smoothly and been happy, but he became gloomy and deteriorated in health. So it melted before our eyes.

The sick man came up with the idea of ​​getting a shotgun and got into the habit of hunting. And yet, hey, he goes to the Krasnogorsk mine, but doesn’t bring the spoils home. In the autumn he left and that was the end. Now he’s gone, now he’s gone... Where did he go? They shot it down, of course, people, let's look for it. And hey, hey, he’s lying dead in the mine next to a high stone, he’s smiling evenly, and his little gun is lying to the side, unfired. The people who were the first to come running said that they saw a green lizard near the dead man, and such a big one, the likes of which had never been seen in our area. It’s as if she’s sitting over a dead man, with her head raised, and her tears just falling. As people ran closer, she was on the stone, and that was all they saw. And when they brought the dead man home and began to wash him, they looked: he had one hand tightly clasped, and green grains were barely visible from it. Just a handful. Then one person who knew happened, looked at the grains from the side and said:

- But it’s a copper emerald! Rare - a stone, dear. There is a whole wealth left for you, Nastasya. Where did he get these stones from?

Nastasya, his wife, explains that the dead man never spoke about any such stones. I gave her the box when I was still a fiance. A large box, malachite. There is a lot of goodness in her, but there are no such stones. I haven't seen it.

They began to take those stones out of Stepan’s dead hand, and they crumbled into dust. They never found out at that time where Stepan got them from. Then we dug around Krasnogorka. Well, ore and ore, brown, with a copper sheen. Then someone found out that it was Stepan who had the tears of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. He didn’t sell them to anyone, hey, he kept them secretly from his own people, and he died with them. A?

This means what a Mistress of the Copper Mountain she is!

For the bad to meet her, it is grief, and for the good, there is little joy.

Malachite Box

Nastasya, Stepanova’s widow, still has a malachite box. With every feminine device. There are rings, earrings and other things according to women's rites. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain herself gave Stepan this box when he was still planning to get married.

Nastasya grew up as an orphan, she was not used to this kind of wealth, and she was quite a fan of fashion. From the first years I lived with Stepan, I wore it, of course, from this box. It just didn't suit her. He’ll put the ring on... It fits exactly, doesn’t pinch, doesn’t slip, but goes to church or goes on a visit somewhere. Like a chained finger, in the end it will turn blue. He will hang his earrings - worse than that. It will tighten your ears so much that your lobes will swell. And to take it on your hand is no heavier than those that Nastasya always carried. I tried on the buskis in six or seven rows only once. It’s like ice around your neck and they don’t warm up at all. She didn’t show those beads at people at all. It was a shame.

- Look, they’ll say what a queen they’ve found in Polevoy!

Stepan also did not force his wife to carry from this box. Once he even said:

Nastasya put the box in the very bottom chest, where canvases and other things are kept in reserve.

When Stepan died and the stones ended up in his dead hand, Nastasya had to show that box to strangers. And the one who knows, who didn’t know about Stepanov’s stones, says to Nastasya later, when the people have subsided:

- Look, don’t waste this box for nothing. It costs more than thousands.

He, this man, was a scientist, also a free man. Previously, he wore smart clothes, but he was removed: he supposedly weakened the people. Well, he didn’t disdain wine. He was also a good tavern plug, so be remembered, the little head is dead. And he is correct in everything. Write a request, wash off a sample, look at the signs - he did everything according to his conscience, not like others, just to rip off half a pint. Anyone and everyone will bring a glass to him as a festive occasion. So he lived at our factory until his death. He ate around the people.

Nastasya heard from her husband that this dandy is correct and smart in business, even though he has a passion for wine. Well, I listened to him.

“Okay,” he says, “I’ll save it for a rainy day.” - And she put the box in its old place.

Stepan was buried, the Sorochins were sent away with honor. Nastasya is a woman in wealth and wealth, and they began to woo her. And she, a smart woman, tells everyone one thing:

“Even though we’re second in gold, we’re still stepfathers to all the timid kids.”

Well, we're behind in time.

Stepan left good provision for his family. A clean house, a horse, a cow, complete furnishings. Nastasya is a hard-working woman, the kids are timid, they don’t live very well. They live for a year, they live for two, they live for three. Well, they have become poor after all. How can one woman with young children manage a household? You also have to get a penny somewhere. At least some salt. Relatives are here and let Nastasya sing in her ears:

- Sell the box! What do you need it for? What good is there to lie in vain? Everything is one and Tanya won’t wear it when she grows up. There are some things over there! Only bars and merchants can buy. With our belt you won’t be able to wear an eco-friendly seat. And people would give money. Distributions for you.

In a word, they are slandering. And the buyer swooped in like a raven on a bone. All of them are merchants. Some give a hundred rubles, some give two hundred.

“We feel sorry for your robbers, and, due to your widowhood, we make allowances for you.”

Well, they're trying to fool a woman, but they hit the wrong one. Nastasya remembered well what the old dandy told her, he wouldn’t sell it for such a trifle. It's also a pity. After all, it was a groom’s gift, a husband’s memory. And what’s more, her youngest girl burst into tears and asked:

- Mommy, don’t sell it! Mommy, don't sell it! It’s better for me to go among the people and save my dad’s memo.

From Stepan, you see, there are only three little kids left. Two little girls. They are timid, but this one, as they say, is neither like mother nor father. Even when Stepan was a little girl, people marveled at this little girl. Not just the girls and women, but also the men said to Stepan:

- This one must have fallen out of your hands, Stepan.

Who has just been born! She herself is black and fable, and her eyes are green. It’s like she doesn’t look like our girls at all.

Stepan used to joke:

“It’s no surprise that she’s black.” My father hid in the ground from an early age. And that the eyes are green is also not surprising. You never know, I stuffed master Turchaninov with malachite. This is the reminder I still have.

So I called this girl Memo. - Come on, my reminder! “And when she happened to buy something, she would always bring something blue or green.”

So that little girl grew up in people’s minds. Just like that, the horsetail fell out of the festive belt - you can see it from afar. And although she was not very fond of strangers, everyone was Tanyushka and Tanyushka. The most envious grandmothers, and they admired. Well, what a beauty! Everyone's nice. One mother sighed: “Beauty is beauty, but not ours.” Exactly who replaced the girl for me.

According to Stepan, this girl was killing herself. She was all clean, her face lost weight, only her eyes remained. Mother came up with the idea to give Tanya that malachite box - let him have some fun. Even if she’s small, she’s still a girl—from a young age, it’s flattering for them to make fun of themselves. Tanya started taking these things apart. And it’s a miracle - the one she tries on, she fits it too. Mother didn’t even know why, but this one knows everything. And he also says:

- Mommy, what a good gift my dad gave! The warmth from it is as if you are sitting on a warm bed, and even someone is stroking you softly.

Nastasya sewed the patches herself; she remembers how her fingers would become numb, her ears would hurt, and her neck could not get warm. So he thinks: “This is not without reason. Oh, for good reason!” - Hurry up and put the box back in the chest. Only Tanya has since then asked:

- Mommy, let me play with my dad’s gift!

When Nastasya gets strict, well, like a mother’s heart, she will take pity, take out the box, and only punish:

– Don’t break anything!

Then, when Tanya grew up, she began to take out the box herself. The mother and the older boys will go to mowing or somewhere else, Tanya will stay behind to do housework. First, of course, he will manage that the mother punished him. Well, wash the cups and spoons, shake off the tablecloth, wave a broom in the hut, give food to the chickens, take a look at the stove. He’ll get everything done as quickly as possible, and for the sake of the box. By that time, only one of the upper chests remained, and even that one had become light. Tanya slides it onto a stool, takes out the box and sorts through the stones, admires it, and tries it on for herself.

Once upon a time a hitnik climbed up to her. Either he buried himself in the fence early in the morning, or then slipped through unnoticed, but none of the neighbors saw him pass along the street. The man is unknown, but apparently someone brought him up to date and explained the whole procedure.

After Nastasya left, Tanyushka ran around doing a lot of housework and climbed into the hut to play with her father’s pebbles. She put on the headband and hung the earrings. At this time, this hitnik puffed into the hut. Tanya looked around - there was an unfamiliar man on the threshold, with an axe. And the ax is theirs. In the senki, in the corner he stood. Just now Tanya was rearranging him, as if in chalk. Tanya was frightened, she sat frozen, and the man jumped, dropped the ax and grabbed his eyes with both hands, as they burned. Moans and screams:

- Oh, fathers, I'm blind! Oh, blind! - and he rubs his eyes.

Tanya sees that something is wrong with the man and begins to ask:

- How did you come to us, uncle, why did you take the ax? And he, you know, groans and rubs his eyes. Tanya took pity on him - she scooped up a ladle of water and wanted to serve it, but the man just shied away with his back to the door.

- Oh, don't come closer! “So I sat in the senki and blocked the doors so that Tanya wouldn’t inadvertently jump out.” Yes, she found a way - she ran out through the window and to her neighbors. Well, here we come. They began to ask what kind of person, what case? He blinked a little and explained that the person passing by wanted to ask for a favor, but something happened to his eyes.

- Like the sun hit. I thought I would go completely blind. From the heat, perhaps.

Tanya didn’t tell her neighbors about the ax and the stones. They think: “It’s no big deal. Maybe she herself forgot to lock the gate, so a passer-by came in, and then something happened to him. You never know." Still, they didn’t let the passerby go until Nastasya. When she and her sons arrived, this man told her what he had told his neighbors. Nastasya sees that everything is safe, she didn’t get involved.

That man left, and so did the neighbors.

Then Tanya told her mother how it happened. Then Nastasya realized that he had come for the box, but apparently it was not easy to take it. And she herself thinks: “We still need to protect her more tightly.”

She took it quietly from Tanya and the others and buried that box in the golbets.

All the family left again. Tanya missed the box, but there was one. It seemed bitter to Tanya, but then suddenly she felt a warmth. What is this thing? Where? I looked around, and there was light coming from under the floor. Tanya was scared - was it a fire? I looked into the golbets, there was light in one corner. She grabbed a bucket and wanted to splash it, but there was no fire and there was no smell of smoke. She dug around in that place and saw a box. I opened it, and the stones became even more beautiful. So they burn with different lights, and the light from them is like in the sun. Tanya didn’t even drag the box into the hut. Here in the golbtse I played my fill.

This is how it has been since then. The mother thinks: “Well, she hid it well, no one knows,” and the daughter, like housekeeping, snatches an hour to play with her father’s expensive gift. Nastasya didn’t even let her family know about the sale. – If it fits around the world, then I’ll sell it. Even though it was tough for her, she strengthened herself. So they struggled for a few more years, then things got better. The older boys began to earn little, and Tanya did not sit idle. Listen, she learned how to sew with silks and beads. And so I learned that the best master craftswomen clapped their hands - where does she get the patterns, where does she get the silk?

And it also happened by chance. A woman comes to them. She was short, dark-haired, at her age, and keen-eyed, and, apparently, she was sneaking around so hard that you just had to hold on. On the back there is a canvas bag, in the hand there is a bird cherry bag, it looks like a wanderer. Asks Nastasya:

“Can’t you, mistress, have a day or two to rest?” They don’t carry their legs, and they can’t walk very close.

At first Nastasya wondered if she had been sent for the box again, but then she finally let her go.

- There is no space for space. If you don’t lie there, go and take it with you. Only our piece is an orphan. In the morning - onion with kvass, in the evening kvass with onions, everything and change. You are not afraid of becoming thin, so you are welcome to live as long as you need to.

And the wanderer has already put her bag down, put her knapsack on the stove and takes off her shoes. Nastasya didn’t like this, but kept silent. “Look, you ignorant one! We didn’t have time to greet her, but she finally took off her shoes and untied her knapsack.”

The woman, sure enough, unbuttoned her purse and beckoned Tanya to her with her finger:

“Come on, child, look at my handiwork.” If he takes a look, I’ll teach you... Apparently, you’ll have a keen eye for this!

Tanya came up, and the woman handed her a small fly, the ends sewn with silk. And such and such, hey, a hot pattern on that fly that just became lighter and warmer in the hut.

Tanya's eyes glared, and the woman chuckled.

“Have you noticed, my daughter, my handicraft?” Do you want me to learn it?

“I want to,” he says.

Nastasya got so angry:

- And forget to think! There’s nothing to buy salt with, but you came up with the idea of ​​sewing with silks! Supplies, go figure, cost money.

“Don’t worry about that, mistress,” says the wanderer. “If my daughter has an idea, she will have supplies.” I’ll leave her the bread and salt for yours—it’ll last for a long time. And then you will see for yourself. They pay money for our skill. We don’t give away our work for nothing. We have a piece.

Here Nastasya had to give in.

“If you spare enough supplies, you won’t learn anything.” Let him learn as long as the concept is enough. I'll thank you.

This woman started teaching Tanya. Tanya quickly took over everything, as if she knew it before. Yes, here's another thing. Tanya was not only unkind to strangers, but to her own people, but she just clings to this woman and clings to her. Nastasya looked askance:

“I found myself a new family. She won’t approach her mother, but she’s stuck to a tramp!”

And she still teases her, keeps calling Tanya “child” and “daughter”, but never mentions her baptized name. Tanya sees that her mother is offended, but cannot restrain herself. Before that, hey, I trusted this woman because I told her about the box!

“We have,” he says, “we have my father’s dear memento—a malachite box.” That's where the stones are! I could look at them forever.

– Will you show me, daughter? - asks the woman.

Tanya didn’t even think that something was wrong. “I’ll show you,” he says, “when none of the family is home.”

After such an hour, Tanyushka turned around and called that woman to the cabbage. Tanya took out the box and showed it, and the woman looked at it a little and said:

– Put it on yourself – you’ll see better. Well, Tanya, - not the right word - began to put it on, and you know, she praises it.

- Okay, daughter, okay! It just needs to be corrected a little.

She came closer and started poking the stones with her finger. The one that touches will light up differently. Tanya can see other things, but not others. After this the woman says:

- Stand up, daughter, straight up.

Tanya stood up, and the woman began to slowly stroke her hair and her back. She ironed everything, and she herself instructs:

“I’ll make you turn around, so don’t look back at me.” Look ahead, take note of what will happen, and don’t say anything. Well, turn around!

Tanya turned around - in front of her was a room the likes of which she had never seen. It's not the church, it's not like that. The ceilings are high on pillars made of pure malachite. The walls are also lined with malachite the height of a man, and a malachite pattern runs along the upper cornice. Standing right in front of Tanya, as if in the mirror, is a beauty the likes of which they only talk about in fairy tales. Hair like night and eyes green. And she is all decorated with expensive stones, and her dress is made of green velvet with iridescence. And so this dress is made, just like the queens in the pictures. What does it hold on to? Out of shame, our factory workers would burn to death to wear something like that in public, but this green-eyed girl stands there calmly, as if that’s the way it should be. There are a lot of people in that room. They are dressed like a lord, and everyone is wearing gold and merit. Some have it hung on the front, some have it sewn on the back, and some have it on all sides. Apparently, the highest authorities. And their women are right there. Also bare-armed, bare-breasted, hung with stones. But where do they care about the green-eyed one! None hold a candle.

The tale was first published along with two others: “About the Great Snake” and “Dear Name” - in the collection “Pre-revolutionary folklore in the Urals”, Sverdlovsk Regional Publishing House, 1936. This tale is closest to the Ural miner’s folklore. Geographically, they are connected with the ancient Sysertsky mining district, “which included five factories,” pointed out P. Bazhov: Sysertsky or Sysert - the main plant of the district, Polevskoy (aka Polevaya or Poleva) - the oldest plant in the district, Seversky (Severna ), Verkhniy (Verkh-Sysertsky), Ilyinsky (Nizhve-Sysertsky). Near the Polevsky plant there was also the most famous copper deposit of the fortress era of the Urals - the Gumeshki mine, otherwise known as Copper Mountain, or simply Gora. Most of the tales of the Polevsky region are connected with these Gumeshki, which for a century were a terrible underground hard labor for more than one generation of workers” (P. Bazhov, Preface to the tales published in the magazine “October”, No. 5–6, 1939, p. 158 ). P. Bazhov heard stories about the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, about the Great Snake, about the mysterious Gumeshki mine both in his own family and among the factory elders. These were experienced workers who had dedicated their entire lives to the mining industry. In old age, when they had already become worn out, they were transferred from the mines and copper smelting furnaces to easier work (as watchmen, foresters, etc.). They were the tellers of legends about old factories and the lives of miners. The image of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain or Malachite in mining folklore has various options: Mountain queen, Stone girl, Golden woman, Azovka girl, Mountain spirit, Mountain elder, Mountain master - (see P. L. Ermakov, Memoirs of a miner, Sverdlgiz, 1947; L. Potapov. Cult of the mountains in Altai, Soviet magazine ethnography”, No. 2, 1946: “Songs and tales of miners”, folklore of miners of the Shakhty region, Rostov regional publishing house, 1940; N. Dyrenkova, Shor folklore, M-L. 1940 A. Misyurev, Legends and were, folklore of old miners of the South And Western Siberia; – Novosibirsk, 1940) – All these folk characters are guardians of the riches of the mountain subsoil. P. Bazhov’s image of Malachite is much more complex. The writer embodied in it the beauty of nature, inspiring a person to creative pursuits. The image of the Malachite Girl from the tales of P. Bazhov is widely included in Soviet art. It is recreated on stage, in painting and sculpture. “Images of Bazhov’s tales - in the wall paintings of the Palace of Pioneers in Sverdlovsk, the House of Pioneers in Serov, in works of handicraft art, in toys for children” (Vl. Biryukov, Singer of the Urals, newspaper “Red Kurgan”, February 1, 1951 T.). Bazhov's tales were recreated by Paleshan artists. “In the large white-stone Palace of Pioneers in Sverdlovsk there are whole labyrinths of rooms, and there are a lot of interesting things in them. But the guys enter one of the rooms with a joyful feeling of expectation of something special, a little mysterious and beautiful. This is the room of Bazhov's tales. On the high, spacious wall, the girl, Zalotoy Volos, was spreading her long braids. Nearby is a green-eyed beauty in a heavy malachite dress of the Copper Mountain Mistress. A mischievous red-haired girl, Ognevushka-Jumping, is dancing on the wall. This is how the master from Palekh painted the room” (“Pionerskaya Pravda” March 10, 1950) The tale of “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain” marked the beginning of a whole group of works united by the image of Malachite. This group, in addition to the indicated tale, includes nine more works, including; “The Clerk's Soles” (1936), “Sochnevy Pebbles” (1937), “Malachite Box” (1938), “Stone Flower” (1938), “Mining Master” (1939), “Two Lizards” (1939), “Fragile twig" (1940), "Grass trap" (1940), "Tayutka's mirror" (1941).

View the full list of fairy tales

Biography of Bazhov Pavel Petrovich

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich(January 27, 1879 - December 3, 1950) - famous Russian Soviet writer, famous Ural storyteller, prose writer, talented editor folk legends, legends, Ural tales.

Biography

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov was born on January 27, 1879 in the Urals near Yekaterinburg in the family of the hereditary mining master of the Sysertsky plant, Pyotr Vasilyevich and Augusta Stefanovna Bazhov (as this surname was spelled then).

The surname Bazhov comes from the local word “bazhit” - that is, to bewitch, to foretell. Bazhov also had a boyish street nickname - Koldunkov. And later, when Bazhov began to publish his works, he signed himself with one of his pseudonyms - Koldunkov.

Pyotr Vasilyevich Bazhev was a foreman in the puddling and welding shop of the Sysert metallurgical plant near Yekaterinburg. The writer's mother, Augusta Stefanovna, was a skilled lacemaker. This was a great help for the family, especially during the husband’s forced unemployment.

The future writer lived and was formed among the Ural miners. Childhood impressions turned out to be the most important and vivid for Bazhov.

He loved to listen to other old experienced people, experts on the past. The Sysert old men Alexey Efimovich Klyukva and Ivan Petrovich Korob were good storytellers. But the best of all whom Bazhov had the chance to know was the old Polevsky miner Vasily Alekseevich Khmelinin. He worked as a watchman for the wood warehouses at the plant, and children gathered at his guardhouse on Dumnaya Mountain to listen to interesting stories.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov spent his childhood and adolescence in the town of Sysert and at the Polevsky plant, which was part of the Sysert mining district.

The family often moved from factory to factory, which allowed the future writer to get to know the life of the vast mountain district well and was reflected in his work.

Thanks to chance and his abilities, he got the opportunity to study.

Bazhov studied at a men's zemstvo three-year school, where there was a talented literature teacher who managed to captivate the children with literature.

Thus, a 9-year-old boy once read by heart the entire school collection of poems by N.A. Nekrasov, learned by him on his own initiative.

We stopped at Ekaterinburgsky religious school: it has the lowest tuition fees, you don’t have to buy a uniform, and there are also student apartments rented by the school - these circumstances turned out to be decisive.

Having passed the entrance exams perfectly, Bazhov was enrolled in the Ekaterinburg Theological School. The assistance of a family friend was needed because the theological school was not only, so to speak, professional, but also class-based: it trained mainly church ministers, and mostly the children of the clergy studied there.

After graduating from college at the age of 14, Pavel entered the Perm Theological Seminary, where he studied for 6 years. This was the time of his acquaintance with classical and modern literature.

In 1899, Bazhov graduated from the Perm Seminary - third in terms of total points. The time has come to choose a path in life. The offer to enter the Kyiv Theological Academy and study there full-time was rejected. He dreamed of university. However, the way there was closed. First of all, because the ecclesiastical department did not want to lose its “personnel”: the choice of higher educational institutions for seminary graduates was strictly limited to Dorpat, Warsaw, and Tomsk universities.

Bazhov decided to teach at an elementary school in an area inhabited by Old Believers. He began his career in the remote Ural village of Shaidurikha, near Nevyansk, and then in Yekaterinburg and Kamyshlov. He taught Russian, traveled a lot around the Urals, was interested in folklore, local history, ethnography, and was engaged in journalism.

For fifteen years, every year during school holidays, Bazhov wandered around his native land on foot, everywhere he looked at the life around him, talked with workers, wrote down their apt words, conversations, stories, collected folklore, studied the work of lapidaries, stone cutters, steelworkers, foundries , gunsmiths and many other Ural craftsmen, talked with them about the secrets of their craft and kept extensive notes. A rich supply of life impressions and samples folk speech helped him a lot in his future work as a journalist, and then in his writing. He replenished his “pantry” all his life.

Just at this time, a vacancy opened up at the Yekaterinburg Theological School. And Bazhov returned there - now as a teacher of the Russian language. Later, Bazhov tried to enter Tomsk University, but was not accepted.

In 1907, P. Bazhov moved to the diocesan (women's) school, where until 1914 he taught classes in the Russian language, and at times – in Church Slavonic and algebra.

Here he meets his future wife, and at that time simply his student, Valentina Ivanitskaya, with whom they married in 1911. The marriage was based on love and unity of aspirations. The young family lived a more meaningful life than most of Bazhov’s colleagues who spent free time for the cards. The couple read a lot and went to theaters. Seven children were born into their family.

When did the first one start? World War, the Bazhovs already had two daughters. Due to financial difficulties, the couple moved to Kamyshlov, closer to Valentina Alexandrovna’s relatives. Pavel Petrovich transferred to the Kamyshlovsky Theological School.

Participated in civil war 1918-21 in the Urals, Siberia, Altai.

In 1923-29 he lived in Sverdlovsk and worked in the editorial office of the Peasant Newspaper. At this time, he wrote over forty tales on themes of Ural factory folklore.

Since 1930 - in the Sverdlovsk book publishing house.

In 1937, Bazhov was expelled from the party (a year later he was reinstated). But then, having lost his usual job in a publishing house, he devoted all his time to tales, and they shimmered in the “Malachite Box” like genuine Ural gems.

In 1939 the most famous work Bazhov - a collection of fairy tales “The Malachite Box”, for which the writer receives State Prize. Subsequently, Bazhov expanded this book with new tales.

Bazhov’s writing career began relatively late: the first book of essays, “The Ural People,” was published in 1924. Only in 1939 were his most significant works published - the collection of tales “The Malachite Box,” which received the USSR State Prize in 1943, and an autobiographical story about childhood "Green filly" Subsequently, Bazhov replenished the “Malachite Box” with new tales: “The Key-Stone” (1942), “Tales of the Germans” (1943), “Tales of the Gunsmiths” and others. His later works can be defined as “tales” not only because of their formal genre characteristics (the presence of a fictional narrator with an individual speech characteristics), but also because they go back to the Ural “secret tales” - oral traditions of miners and prospectors, distinguished by a combination of real-life and fairy-tale elements.

Bazhov’s works, dating back to the Ural “secret tales” - oral traditions of miners and prospectors, combine real-life and fantastic elements. Tales that have absorbed plot motifs, the colorful language of folk legends and folk wisdom, embodied the philosophical and ethical ideas of our time.

He worked on the collection of tales “The Malachite Box” from 1936 to last days own life. First separate publication it came out in 1939. Then, from year to year, the “Malachite Box” was replenished with new tales.

Tales " Malachite casket"is a kind of historical prose in which events and facts of the history of the Middle Urals of the 18th-19th centuries are recreated through the personality of the Ural workers. Tales live as an aesthetic phenomenon thanks to a complete system of realistic, fantastic and semi-fantastic images and a rich moral and humanistic problematic (themes of labor, creative search, love, fidelity, freedom from the power of gold, etc.).

Bazhov sought to develop his own literary style and looked for original forms of embodiment of his literary talent. He succeeded in this in the mid-1930s, when he began publishing his first tales. In 1939, Bazhov combined them into the book “Malachite Box,” which he subsequently supplemented with new works. Malachite gave the name to the book because, according to Bazhov, “the joy of the earth is collected” in this stone.

Direct artistic and literary activity began late, at the age of 57. According to him, “there was simply no time for literary work of such kind.

Creating fairy tales became the main work of Bazhov’s life. In addition, he edited books and almanacs, including those on Ural local history.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov died on December 3, 1950 in Moscow, and was buried in his homeland in Yekaterinburg.

Tales

As a boy, he first heard an interesting story about the secrets of the Copper Mountain.

The old people of Sysert were good storytellers - the best of them was Vasily Khmelin, he at that time worked as a watchman of the wood warehouses at the Polevsky plant, and children gathered at his gatehouse to listen to interesting stories about the fairytale snake Poloz and his daughters Zmeevka, about the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, about the grandmother Blue. Pasha Bazhov remembered the stories of this old man for a long time.

Bazhov chose an interesting form of storytelling: “skaz” - this is primarily an oral word, an oral form of speech transferred to a book; in the tale one can always hear the voice of the narrator - grandfather Slyshko - involved in the events; he speaks in a colorful folk language, full of local words and expressions, sayings and sayings.

Calling his works skaz, Bazhov took into account not only the literary tradition of the genre, which implies the presence of a narrator, but also the existence of ancient oral traditions of the Ural miners, which in folklore were called “secret tales.” From these folklore works, Bazhov adopted one of the main signs of his tales: a mixture of fairy-tale images.

The main theme of Bazhov's tales is the common man and his work, talent and skill. Communication with nature, with the secret foundations of life, is carried out through powerful representatives of the magical mountain world.

One of the most striking images of this kind is the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, whom Master Stepan meets from the tale “The Malachite Box”. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain helps the hero of the tale Stone Flower Danila to reveal his talent - and becomes disappointed in the master after he gives up trying to make the Stone Flower himself.

The works of the mature Bazhov can be defined as “tales” not only due to their formal genre characteristics and the presence of a fictional narrator with an individual speech characteristic, but also because they go back to the Ural “secret tales” - oral traditions of miners and prospectors, distinguished by a combination of reality and reality. everyday and fairy-tale elements.

Bazhov's tales absorbed plot motifs, fantastic images, color, the language of folk legends and folk wisdom. However, Bazhov is not a folklorist-processor, but an independent artist who used his knowledge of the Ural miners’ life and oral creativity to implement philosophical and ethical ideas.

Talking about the art of Ural craftsmen, reflecting the colorfulness and originality of the old mining life, Bazhov at the same time puts in his tales general issues- about true morality, about the spiritual beauty and dignity of the working person.

Fantastic characters in fairy tales personify the elemental forces of nature, which trusts its secrets only to the brave, hardworking and pure of soul. Bazhov managed to give the fantastic characters (the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Great Snake, the Jumping Ognevushka) extraordinary poetry and endowed them with a subtle, complex psychology.

Bazhov's tales are an example of the masterful use of the folk language. Carefully and at the same time creatively treating the expressive capabilities of the folk language, Bazhov avoided the abuse of local sayings, the pseudo-folk “playing off phonetic illiteracy” (Bazhov’s expression).

P.P. Bazhov's tales are very colorful and picturesque. His color is in keeping with the spirit folk painting, folk Ural embroidery - solid, thick, ripe. The color richness of tales is not accidental. It is generated by the beauty of Russian nature, the beauty of the Urals. The writer in his works generously used all the possibilities of the Russian word to convey the diversity color range, its richness and juiciness, so characteristic of the Ural nature.

The tales of Pavel Petrovich are an example of the masterful use of the folk language. Carefully and at the same time creatively treating expressive possibilities folk word, Bazhov avoided the abuse of local sayings and pseudo-folk “playing up phonetic illiteracy” (the expression of the writer himself).

Bazhov's tales absorbed plot motifs, fantastic images, color, the language of folk legends and their folk wisdom. However, the author is not just a folklorist-processor, he is an independent artist who uses his excellent knowledge of the Ural miners’ life and oral creativity to embody philosophical and ethical ideas. Talking about the art of the Ural craftsmen, about the talent of the Russian worker, reflecting the colorfulness and originality of the old mining life and the characteristics characteristic of it social contradictions, Bazhov at the same time poses general questions in his tales - about true morality, about spiritual beauty and the dignity of the working person, about the aesthetic and psychological laws of creativity. Fantastic characters in fairy tales personify the elemental forces of nature, which trusts its secrets only to the brave, hardworking and pure of soul. Bazhov managed to give his fantastic characters (the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Great Snake, Ognevushka-Rocking, etc.) extraordinary poetry and endowed them with a subtle and complex psychology.

The tales recorded and processed by Bazhov are originally folklore. As a boy, he heard many of them (the so-called “secret tales” - ancient oral traditions of Ural miners) from V. A. Khmelinin from the Polevsky plant (Khmelinin-Slyshko, Slyshko’s grandfather, “Glass” from “Ural Byli”). Grandfather Slyshko is the narrator in “The Malachite Box.” Later, Bazhov had to officially declare that this was a technique, and he did not just write down other people’s stories, but was actually their author.

Later, the term “skaz” entered Soviet folklore with the light hand of Bazhov to define workers’ prose (workers’ prose). After some time, it was established that it did not denote any new folklore phenomenon - “tales” turned out to be traditions, legends, fairy tales, memories, that is, genres that have existed for many hundreds of years.

Ural

The Urals are “a rare place both in terms of craftsmanship and beauty.” It is impossible to experience the beauty of the Urals if you do not visit the amazing Ural ponds and lakes, enchanting with peace and quiet, pine forests, on the legendary mountains. Here, in the Urals, talented craftsmen lived and worked for centuries; only here could Danila the master sculpt his stone flower, and somewhere here the Ural craftsmen saw the Mistress of the Copper Mountain.

Since childhood, he liked the people, legends, fairy tales and songs of his native Urals.

The work of P.P. Bazhov is firmly connected with the life of the mining and processing Urals - this cradle of Russian metallurgy. The writer’s grandfather and great-grandfather were workers and spent their entire lives at copper smelting furnaces at Ural factories.

Due to the historical and economic characteristics of the Urals, the life of factory settlements was very unique. Here, as everywhere else, the workers could barely make ends meet and had no rights. But, unlike other industrial regions of the country, the Urals were characterized by significantly lower earnings for artisans. Here there was an additional dependence of workers on the enterprise. The factory owners presented the free use of land as compensation for reduced wages.

Old workers, “byvaltsy”, were the keepers of folk mining legends and beliefs. They were not only a kind of “folk poets”, but also a kind of “historians”.

The Ural land itself gave birth to legends and fairy tales. P.P. Bazhov learned to see and understand the wealth and beauty of the mountainous Urals.

Archetypal images

The Mistress of the Copper Mountain is the keeper of precious rocks and stones, sometimes appears before people in the form of a beautiful woman, and sometimes in the form of a lizard in a crown. Its origin most likely stems from the “spirit of the area”. There is also a hypothesis that it is refracted popular consciousness the image of the goddess Venus, with whose sign Polevsky copper was branded for several decades in the 18th century.

The Great Snake is responsible for gold. His figure was created by Bazhov based on the superstitions of the ancient Khanty and Mansi, Ural legends and signs of miners and ore miners. Wed. mythological serpent.

Grandma Sinyushka is a character related to Baba Yaga.

Ognevushka-Jumping - dancing over a gold deposit (connection between fire and gold).

Representing a collection of ancient legends that circulated among miners.

P. P. Bazhov

The writer was born in the Urals - in the city of Sysert. His father was a mining foreman. The future writer, journalist, publicist and folklorist graduated from a factory school in Sysert. From 10 to 14 years old, the boy studied at a theological school in Yekaterinburg. Then he graduated from seminary in Perm. After receiving his education, he taught Russian. During his summer vacation, he traveled around the Urals and collected folklore.

P. P. Bazhov began to write “ Ural tales"in the 1930s. At first they were published in the magazine. Then a collection of Ural tales was published, which was called “The Malachite Box”. It was published in 1939. The author has updated the book many times.

In 1943, Pavel Petrovich received the Stalin Prize for his work.

"Ural Tales"

Bazhov P. collected “Ural Tales,” as mentioned above, throughout the Urals. He heard many of them from miners as a child. After some time, Pavel Petrovich made an official statement that he composed “Ural Tales” himself. The works are combined into groups that are related to each other common characters. P. Bazhov thought through such a move in order to give his book more integrity. Many tales are interconnected by the place of action.

The most important wonderful character of P. Bazhov's fairy tales is the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. She guards the treasure. The hostess is unusually beautiful and has magical powers. Only talented stone craftsmen were allowed to descend into her domain. She could help, but she could also destroy.

List of tales included in the collection

The book “Ural Tales” by P. P. Bazhov includes the following works:

• "Mining Master".
• "Vasin's Mountain"
• "Cast Iron Grandmother"
• "Snake trail"
• “A gift from the old mountains.”
• "Diamond Match"
• "The Amethyst Case."
• "Two lizards."
• "Golden Hair"
• "Sunstone".
• "Copper Share"
• "Silk Hill".
• "Blue Snake"
• "Mistress of the Copper Mountain."
• “About the Great Snake.”
• "Tyutka's mirror."
• "Far Peeper"
• "Crystal varnish".
• "Inscription on the Stone."
• "Markov stone".
• "Golden Bloom of the Mountain"
• "The mysterious Tulunkin."
• "At the old mine."
• "Rudy Pass".

And many others.

"Mistress of the Copper Mountain"

This is one of the most significant, well-known and beloved by readers of the book “Ural Tales”. We offer a brief summary of the contents of this work below.

A young worker named Stepan once saw a girl in the forest - beautiful, with a long braid and wearing clothes made of malachite. He realized that this was the Mistress of the Copper Mountain herself. The girl told him that she had business with him. We need to go to the factory clerk and tell him to get out of the Krasnogorsk mine. The Mistress promised Stepan that she would marry him if he fulfilled her order. Then she turned into a lizard and ran away. The next morning Stepan went to the clerk and handed over everything that was ordered. For this they flogged him, took him down the mountain, and chained him up. At the same time, they ordered to extract a lot of malachite. The Mistress helped Stepan because he was not afraid to fulfill her order. He mined a lot of malachite. The Mistress showed him her dowry. And then she began to ask if he agreed to take her as his wife. Stepan thought and said that he already had a fiancée. The Mistress praised him for not coveting her wealth. She gave Stepan a box of jewelry for his bride. And then she said that he would live richly, but he must forget her. Soon he got married, built a house, and had children. But he was not happy. Stepan began going into the forest to hunt and every time he looked at the Krasnogorsk mine. Stepan could not forget the Mistress. One day he went into the forest and did not return - he was found dead.

"Malachite Box"

Another very famous work of the cycle “Ural Tales”. A brief summary of the “Malachite Box” is presented in this article. This tale is a continuation of the story about the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. Stepan died, but the malachite box remained with his widow Nastasya. Jewelry was kept in it, given by the Mistress. Only Nastasya didn’t wear them and wanted to sell them. There were many people who wanted to buy the box. But everyone offered a small price. There was another reason why she kept the box. The youngest daughter, Tatyana, loved these decorations very much. Tanyusha grew up and, thanks to a wanderer who asked to stay at their house for the night, she learned to embroider with silk and beads. And she was such a craftswoman that she began to earn a lot of money. Soon the master saw the girl and was so struck by her beauty that he invited her to become his wife. She agreed, but set the condition that she would marry him if he showed her the queen in a room made of malachite made by her father. The master promised to fulfill her wish. Finding herself in the queen’s malachite chamber, the girl leaned against the wall and melted. Since then, no one has heard anything about her, they only began to notice that the Mistress of the Copper Mountain began to double.

"Stone Flower"

This work is the last of the series about the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, which was created by Pavel Bazhov. “Ural Tales”, as you know, includes several stories about this amazing beauty. “The Stone Flower” is a story about the orphan Danilka, who at the age of 12 became an apprentice to a malachite master. The boy was talented and the teacher liked him. When Danila grew up, he became an excellent craftsman. He had a dream. He wanted to create a malachite bowl that looked like a flower. I even found a suitable stone. But he just couldn’t cut out a beautiful flower. One day he met the Mistress of the Copper Mountain herself. He asked her to show him her stone flower. The Mistress tried to dissuade him from this, but he insisted. He saw the flower of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain and from then on he completely lost peace. Then he broke his unfinished bowl and left. He was never seen again, but there were rumors that he was serving with the Mistress of the Copper Mountain.

"Silver Hoof"

P. P. Bazhov wrote “Ural Tales” for children, but they are also interesting for adults. One of the stories that appeals to readers of all ages is “The Silver Hoof.” Lonely old man Kokovanya sheltered an orphan. Grandfather worked every day, and his granddaughter put things in order in the hut and cooked. In the evenings, Kokovanya told the girl fairy tales. And one day he told her about a magic goat with a silver hoof, which he knocks on, and precious stones appear in that place. Once a girl was waiting for her grandfather from hunting and saw through the window that her cat was playing with the same goat from the fairy tale. She ran out to look at him. And the goat jumped onto the roof, began to beat with his hoof, and precious stones fell from under his feet. Grandfather and granddaughter collected them and lived comfortably for the rest of their lives.

"Sinyushkin Well"

The book “Ural Tales” includes the story of the good fellow Ilya. He was left an orphan early. The only inheritance he received was a sieve full of feathers from Lukerya’s grandmother, who instructed her grandson not to pursue riches. One day Ilya decided to take a short route to the mine. And this path lay through the swamp. Ilya felt thirsty. He looks, and in the swamp there is an area with clean water, like a well. He decided to drink this water, lay down on the ground, and from the water Sinyushka stretched out her hands to him. He managed to overcome her charms, he stood up and spat on her hand. And she began to tease him that he would not be able to drink water from her well. Ilya promised Sinyushka that he would return and left.

The fellow kept his promise. Ilya returned, tied the ladle to a perch and used it to scoop up water from the well. Sinyushka was amazed at his ingenuity and promised to show her wealth. Ilya came to the well again. And girls come up to him with trays full of jewelry. He remembered that his grandmother had punished him and began to refuse everything. An eighteen-year-old beauty approached him with a sieve containing berries and feathers. Ilya realized that this was Sinyushka. He took the sieve from her hands. When I came home, the berries turned into gems. Ilya began to live richly, but he could not forget Sinyushka. One day he met a girl very similar to her, and he married her.

This tale is about the fact that the main riches in life are not gold and gems. Sinyushkin's well is a test that only those who do not envy, are not greedy and remember advice can pass.

"Jumping Firefly"

The book that Bazhov P. wrote - “Ural Tales” - includes a story about a gold mine. One day the men were sitting by the fire, and with them was the boy Fedyunka. And suddenly they saw red-haired girl who jumped out of the fire. She danced, and then stopped near a pine tree and stamped her foot. According to legend, this is how she indicated the place where gold should be looked for. Only she deceived this time - there was nothing under the pine tree. Soon Fedyunka saw Jumping again. This time she showed him the right place. The boy found gold and lived comfortably for 5 years. The people heard about it, and everyone rushed to that mine for gold. People were coming there from all directions. But the gold disappeared there because of this.