Many years ago there lived a farmer. Since his early youth he used to work as a farm worker. For ten years of his hard work he earned some wealth. Then he married a good woman from a poor family, and she bore him three sons. They lived in peace and harmony. From early childhood his two elder sons worked and helped their father every day, and when they grew up, they became skilled craftsmen. But the youngest son was not like his brothers. Every time when his father tried to teach him, his mother always found excuses. The mother sighed:
"Our son is still very young! When I was a girl, I hadn't eaten enough bread. Let him eat his fill, let him frolic a little!"
The mother indulged the younger son by placing him the sweetest piece of cake or the most tender piece of meat. Day after day, year after year passed there in such a way. Thus, the youngest son grew up to be an insolent loafer. He liked to eat and sleep more than anything else in the world. The farmer suffered for a long time, but finally he got tired and could not withstand it any longer. He called his son and said:
"Hey, son, it's time to start learning something, innit? Maybe you want to be a tanner?"
"No, I don't!" - the son replied. - "To tan skins all the life - it will corrode my hands to the bone!"
"Well then, be a tailor."
"What do you say, father? A hump will grow up on my back if all the time I bend it over waistcoats and camisoles."
"All right, son. I'm not forcing you. But what do you say about blacksmithing? There is no one stronger and braver than a good blacksmith!"
"Okay," - answered the son. - "I think I could work as a blacksmith."
The father found the most skilled blacksmith in the district, paid him in advance for teaching, and took his son to the forge.
"Well, son, look how this good men works and learn wisdom by the follies of others," - instructed the father.
The mother secretly dragged a featherbed and pillows out of the house and said:
"You, my son, are used to sleeping on a soft bed. When you are tired from your labours, lie down on the featherbed that I had sewed for you myself, incline your head on the pillow that I had stuffed with the soft down for you."
Thus the father and the mother went home, and the son began to live in the house of the blacksmith. The young man put his bed in the corner, lay down on it, and began to squint, looking at the blacksmith and his apprentice, who were working the iron.
"What's the use of watching?" - asked the blacksmith. - "Take a hammer in your hands!"
"But why should I bother?" - replied the farmer's son. - "My father said: "Behold how people work and you will get the trick of it."
The blacksmith shook his head and took up his business. But the youngest son was lying on the soft bed, just turning to the right and to the left, and keeping an eye on the blacksmith. The old man could not resist any more and said:
"Why do you wallow all the time? You'll get a bedsore on your back!"
"No, I won't," - replied the youngest son, - "The featherbed is soft. I got a headache from your thunder, but my mother told me, "If you are getting tired, my son, take a rest and incline your head on the feather pillow."
The Blacksmith could not do anything with the lad as lazy as that, he could not even talk to him. He was just about giving it up as a bad job. Sure enough, the hands do not hurt because of somebody else's work. And the youngest son said to himself:
"There is no need in great intelligence to forge a horseshoe. Once you bang on the anvil, another time you strike the iron with a hammer, and that's the end of it. In such a way, I'll be able to hammer out the devil and all, no worse than the master himself!"
Thus the day passed after day, month after month. Three years later, the farmer came to pick up his child from the school.
"Well, can my guy forge a horseshoe and shoe a horse?" - the farmer asked the blacksmith.
"Who knows?" - replied the blacksmith. - "He had been watching, but I don't know what he has learned - he hasn't shown it."
"And you, my son, what do you say?" - asked the farmer.
"What can I say - if it comes down to it, you won't take the piss out of me!"
The father was delighted, fully paid the blacksmith, and returned home with the favourite son. He converted the old barn into a forge, laid in a store of instruments, and said to the youngest son:
"Well, son, now show me your skills, make me a new share for the plough."
The young smith went to the barn, and his father went after him, along with the older sons. The young man put one brother to kindle coals, the other brother - to inflate bellows; he rolled up his sleeves and took a big hammer in his hands. And when the iron was heated, such great roar rung in the forge, that it was enough to try the patience of a saint. The young smith hammered and hammered on the iron, until his hands covered with blisters, but finally he realized that he cannot forge the ploughshare - the iron was burnt out. Then he said:
"Father, why do you need a new share? After all, the old share is still good enough. I'd better make a new axe for you!"
"Well, my son," - the father replied. - "Make the axe. My axe became completely blunted."
The young smith began to forge the axe. He beat and beat on the iron, and then he realized that nothing came out of it.
"Oh, father!" - he said again. - "Don't feel like I do the axe. This is a tough job. But I'd rather make a dozen nails, thin as a needle."
"It's nice," - said the farmer. - "Nails are also needed on the farm."
Again, the smith set to work. He banged and banged, he knocked and knocked, working the iron, but forged nothing. All the iron he consumed, only a small piece was left. Then his father saw that the son had not learnt anything. He took this piece of iron and threw it into a vat of water. The iron hissed - and that was all!
"Listen, son," - said the father. - "You see, what has happened from your learning - you got a single puff! But that's what I tell you: there was no slackers in our family and never will. Go out of the house wherever you choose, and don't come back, at least until you learn some trade."
The youngest son dropped his head and walked away from his house. He left the village behind, sat down on a stump and thought about: "What now? What to do with it?" He was thinking for a long time and decided to go back to the blacksmith. When he came there, the master laughed at him, but still took him back in training.
"But now I will teach you in my own way!" - he said and began to teach.
The guy had forgotten to think about a soft feather bed. He would like to get some sleep on the hard straw - but not likely! The blacksmith would not allow him to breathe freely. If the youth just dropped the hammer, just straightened his back up - the old man was right there, hissing in his ear:
"Puff-puff!"
The lad felt ashamed, roused himself, and took his work up. Thus he lived as an apprentice for three years. And when the three years were over, the master said to him:
"Now go wherever you want and feel free to do any work!"
The guy said goodbye to the blacksmith and went away aimlessly. He was walking for a long time and finally came to a big city. There he found a job as an apprentice in the smithy. On the same day, a very important gentleman appeared in the smithy and said:
"Hey, master, fix my carriage - it should be as a new one. I am betrothed to a young bride, and I'm taking her to the altar in this coach."
"Where is the carriage?" - asked the master.
"Yeah, there it is standing at the gate."
The master came out of the gate and the apprentice went behind him, they looked at the coach - man alive! That was a carriage! The door was hanging on one eyelet, the spring curved as a screw, the rims on the wheels curled like a corkscrew. How could such a wreck come up to the place? The master scratched his chin.
"I don't really know what to say," - he said to the gentleman. - "It will take three months to fix the clunker and then - it is possible to bite the dust!"
"What are you talking about?" - cried the gentleman. - "It should be ready in three days! If I don't get my coach at the time, I'll tell my servants to break your forge to pieces!"
Who could help them - new lords, new laws! It was impossible to argue with such a gentleman. The gentleman yelled for some time and left. The master told the young smith:
"Well, fine lad, help me out as best you may!"
"Okay," - said the apprentice, - "sent two pupils to me, and you can go to relax."
The master went home, and the rest of the team became at once as busy as a beehive. The young smith broke up the old carriage for their parts, sent his helpers to keep the fire in the forging furnace, and took the hammer. Once he stroked on the anvil - one rim was ready. He stroked for the second time - and the other rim looked like a new one. Having finished repairing the wheels, he set to the springs. In less than a pig's whisper the job was done! The pupils were just wondering, but the young smith remedied the defects, cleaned the carriage up, and rolled it out under the shed.
Then all the three went to the meadow behind the smithy, and lay down on the grass there. At noon, the blacksmith went to see how the work was getting on. He came to the forge, but what is it? It's quiet, empty, no apprentices or labourers. Even the fire in the furnace went out. The master became furious and rushed to seek his cake-eaters, looked - the young smith was lying motionless on the grass, and the pupils were sleeping nearby.
"What the hell? Oh, you are good for nothing!" - cried the master. - "That's how you pay me back for my kindness!"
The young smith turned on his left side, yawned, and said:
"Okay, master, why are you raising sand?"
"What does it mean?" - The old blacksmith shouted even louder. - "The carriage should be ready in three days, and you sit back! The gentleman will wring my neck of - and it's all because of you, lazy beggar!"
"Don't worry, master. Don't cry before you are hurt," - said the lad. - "While your head is still on the shoulders, turn it back and look over there."
The master turned that way and opened his mouth in surprise - there was a new carriage under the shed! The man ran up close to it, looked at it from all sides - everything was dressed, everything was in place - put the harness on the horse and go wherever you want in the same hour!
"All right, bro," - said the old blacksmith. - "I have never seen such work! You have no need to be a labourer, stay in my smithy as a master."
"No, good man," - said the young smith. - "Sorry, I can't stay in this city for a long time. If you want to reward me, give me the best piece of iron, and let me work in the smithy for three more days."
"Well," - said the old blacksmith. - "Have it your own way."
The young smith worked for three days and three nights. He never let anyone be close to the smithy. And then he went out of the door with a bag on his shoulder and walked away from the city. How long he was going down the road - we do not know, but finally he came to his home. He entered the house, threw his bag on the table and said to his father:
"Look, father, maybe your son has learned something!"
Then he untied the bag and pulled out a forged casket:
"This is for you, mother."
The mother opened the casket - there was a patterned comb and a needle case with such thin needles that beads could be strung with them.
"This is for you, brethren, for the festive garments," - said the young blacksmith and spilled out a pile of shiny buttons.
"And you, father, take this cup. If you like my gift, take wine with our family that has never been lazy!"
![The Young Blacksmith [Славянский Владимир Владимирович]](/img/s/slawjanskij_wladimir_wladimirowich/theyoungblacksmith/theyoungblacksmith.jpg)