“A long time ago will be back” lived in Chertukhin peasant Michael Ivanovich Bachur, nicknamed the Holy. In his old age, his wife died, and he began to feed on alms. I met a beggar girl once on the way, brought home and married her. Mary turned out to be a “sensible woman” and put the house in order. Yes, only Mikhail was already old, so they did not have children. Michael went to the sorcerer, and he says: if you go around the earth, it will help you. The old man set off on his way and met a soldier on the way. The soldier frightened Mikhail and forced him to change his appearance: he took away his beard, wand, a whole with a checked hole and gave his mustache. A soldier came to Michael’s house and began to live with his wife (they say that even before this Marya cheated on her husband with a sexton). They lived a false Michael with Mary richly and amicably. The neighbors said that Mikhail has a hell of laborers, because he lives so well. However, Marya, soon becoming heavier, died in childbirth. And the imaginary Mikhail (or the real one, who knows?) Was strangled in the forest on an aspen. The body strangely disappeared from the loop.
In the house, the neighbors saw the lifeless Marya and the newborn boy. We decided to feed him the whole world in turn, then let him be a shepherd. A chain was found on the child’s neck, and on it was a chain with a hole. They didn’t bury Marya - the house with her body burned down, and on the threshold of the burning house people saw the devil ...
When the orphan Mishutka grew up a bit, he was given to the drunkard and brawler shepherd Neal in an equal way. One day, Neil brutally beat a boy and the next day he was found dead. Mishutka half asleep saw that Neil was killed by a man with a beard and a wand.
Mishutka became a shepherd. Everything would be fine, but the cows began to lose half a day's milk. Chertuhintsy conceived to drown a shepherdess. But once I saw Mishutka sleeping on the shore of a huge catfish. Deacon Porfiry Prokopyich helped him cope with the fish. When the belly was som, the milk poured from there: the fish sucked milk from the cows that wandered into the water.
To the surprise of Chertukhintsev, he returned to the village of Mikhail (or the imaginary Mikhail). He took Mishutka with him, they began to walk around the world together, to collect alms.
At that time, there lived a nearby lady, Raisa Vasilyevna Rysakova, or Rysachikha. She owned the village Skudilische and cruelly beat the men. I almost screwed up to the death of the most humble - Ivan Nedotyapu. Ivan escaped, and after a while he appeared to the headman Nikita Mironich and brought in a quitrent to the lady - from the alms she collected. It seemed to the headman that Ivan had a radiance over his head. Nikita Mironych brought the money to the lady, she took and said that a man can not be a saint, but perhaps the devil. She decided that it was necessary to let people go from corvee to dues - let them collect alms, and pay dues from that money.
Rysachikha’s husband, a major general, died long ago, and there was no end to her matchmaking: Rysachikha was a beauty. Often, Prince Kopyto-Nalyvaiko went to her and married, and the prince did not give passage to Alyonushka, the maid of the lady. And that poor one, it seemed that this was a major general coming from the next world, she was "tilicata". Alenka became pregnant, and the lady ordered to give her out as a freak Homka, who served instead of the executioner. Then Alyonushka strangled herself under the window by the lady, Homka killed the keykeeper Savishnu, the lady’s earpiece, and the blacksmith Burkan, who loved Alyonushka, killed Khomka.
The trotter agreed to Prince Hoof-Nalivaiko. He explained to her that the peasants should not be flogged one by one, but all at once. But the Skudilishche did not have time to live under his rule: the peasants "released to the quitrents" became robbers, and Burkan became their chieftain. They killed the prince. The Trotters money business was upset. The day came - they described her property, a lot was auctioned off, then the matchmakers were gone. The lynx met the seedy gentleman Bodyaga, funny and roguish. But he disappeared after three years. Then, they said, she lived with a sexton (or it was unclean in the guise of a sexton). The lady became less likely to flog the peasants, she packed herself up with godmothers to everyone, and her godchildren turned out to be blind: the fact is that she touched their eyes with a magic ring.
And again, Ivan Nedotyapa came to Nikita Mironych and brought a quitrent. They told him the whole truth about the lady, then he left the money to the headman and his wife, And he revealed the secret: he owns an unchangeable ruble, returning from everywhere to his owner. Ivan decided to get rid of this ruble, asked to bake it in a pie and handed it to Mi-hail, who was passing by. Warden redeemed for Nedotyapiny free money. But ... on the same day, the king granted free will to all peasants. And the last son of the elder, Rysachikha, managed to dazzle.
What was the former Rysachikhinsky peasants to do? Nikita Mironych opened an inn and organized a “beggar affair”, which yesterday’s peasants fed. He provided them with clothing suitable for beggars and received part of the proceeds. Mikhail and Mishutka stopped in his yard. Sekletinya, a midwife from Chertukhin, was there. She learned about the unchangeable ruble - the one that was found on Mishutka’s neck. The horned “prince of this world” is depicted on this coin. Sekletinya wanted to take possession of the virgin. At night, the robber crept up to Mikhail and killed him, but did not have time to deal with Mishutka: Sekletinya hit the villain with logs. And the dead Michael suddenly grew a huge mustache. Sekletinya went on with Mishutka. She tried to take the ruble from the boy, but Mishutka ran away from her. When Sekletinya returned to Chertukhino, she met a troika, and on it was Mishutka and a terrible "Turkish anaral" with a mustache, like the dead Michael. The Anaral ordered Secletinha to remain silent. However, she chatted all over in Chertukhin. Soon, the talkative woman's tongue swelled and she died. But Mishutka later married Rysachikhin’s daughter and became a master, but that’s another story.
