Lived in one of the Ural factories master Prokopyich, the first malachite in those places. The master was already elderly, so the master also ordered a student to be assigned to him. Prokopyich’s science didn’t go, “everything is jerky, but with a jab.” He will teach the little boy cones all over his head, tear off his ears, and send him back - not capable, they say, of science.
Local boys began to be afraid of Prokopyich, and parents did not want to send their child to torment. And so it came to Danilka Nedokormysh. This twelve-year-old boy was an orphan — his mother did not remember, and did not know his father at all. Danilka's face was clean and handsome, so they took him as a “Cossack” to the manor house. Here it would be necessary to curl in a loach, and the boy will stare at what decoration and will freeze in the corner.
They considered Danilka “a blissful slow-moving” and sent them in sub-orders. But here, his work did not go. The old shepherd will fall asleep, Danilka is dreaming, and the cows will run away. Once they lost several cows, one of them was a clerk.
Reprisal then, it is known what was. For any fault, back kazhi.
First, an old shepherd was carved, and then they embarked on the frail Danilka. The executioner first hit lightly. Danilka clenched his teeth and was silent. Then the executioner got angry and began to beat with all his might. The boy was somber, not uttering a sound.
Danilka was a local grandmother.From her, a boy learned about a stone flower. This flower grows with the Mistress in the malachite mountain, "on a serpent holiday has full power." If a person sees that flower, his whole life will be miserable, and why - the grandmother did not know.
Soon Danilka was on his feet. The clerk noticed this and put him as a student to Prokopyich: the boy is an orphan, teach, as you want, no one will intercede. Danilka’s eye turned out to be true. On the very first day, he pointed out the error to the master.
Prokopyich lived alone, his wife died, did not make any children, so the master became attached to an orphan. It is harmful to work with malachite, stone dust quickly clogs the lungs, so the master decided to feed the thin and frail Danilka first, and then take up science. He put the boy to the farm, and began to give tasks - whatever work is fun.
Prokopyich was a serf, but he was allowed to work for himself “on a rent”, therefore the master had his own income. He took Danilka for his son, he arranged for him good clothes, boots. The master had not yet allowed him to craft his craft, but Danilka himself questioned Prokopyich and remembered everything.
Soon the clerk became interested: Whose boy is this idle for days on end? I decided to check what the master managed to learn it. It turned out that between the case Danilka managed to learn a lot of wisdom. From this day Danilushkino ended a free life, the clerk began to give him work.
After all, among them - among the malachites - this is a baggy affair. Just a trifle thing, and how much he sits above it!
During this work, Danila and grew up. He worked quickly, but Prokopyich taught him not to rush and told the clerk that Danilka was a slow-moving man.In his free time, the boy even learned to read, write. Over time, Danila became a prominent guy - tall, ruddy, curly and cheerful, "in a word, dry girlish."
When Danila turned the "arm-snake out of solid stone", the clerk recognized him as a master and wrote a master about him. He decided to try the new master, ordered to make a cup from malachite, sent a drawing and ordered to watch, so that Danilo Prokopyich did not help.
He placed the clerk Danilo at home. At first the guy tried to work slowly, and then he became bored, she turned the cup in one fell swoop. The clerk ordered him to grind two more of the same cups. It turned out that Danila made three bowls for the period that the master gave for one.
The clerk understood that Prokopyich drove him by the nose, got angry and described everything to the master. The same “turned everything the way it is” - appointed a small fee to Danila and did not order Prokopyich to take it, hoping that together they would come up with something new. The master attached a drawing of an intricate bowl to the letter, ordered him to do the same, and took an unlimited period.
Danila went to work, but he didn’t like the cup - there was no beauty in it, only curls. With the permission of the clerk, Danil decided to grind another bowl, according to his idea.
We didn’t say: someone else’s cry - you need a little wisdom, and you’ll come up with your own - you’ll turn more than one night from side to side.
Daniel became a master, thoughtful, gloomy, slept off his face, walked all over the meadows, looked for a flower to make his cup in his likeness and show all the beauty of the stone. He chose a dope flower for the bowl, but first decided to finish the master's order.
Prokopyich discouraged him, then decided to marry, hoping that after the wedding all the nonsense would go out of his head. Danila admitted that the neighbor Katya has been waiting for him for a long time. Finally, he turned the master’s cup and arranged a feast for this occasion, invited the bride and old masters. One old man, teacher Prokopyya, and told the guy that those who can see the stone flower comprehend the beauty of the stone and forever get to the Mistress in the mountain masters.
Danil lost peace, forgot about the wedding - he wanted so much to understand the beauty of the stone. Once he went malachite to search for his dope bowl, and his voice tells him: go down to the Serpentine Mountain. Then a woman flashed before Danila and disappeared. The guy went to the Serpentine Mountain, found what he was looking for, set to work, but his cup does not come out, there is no life in it.
Danil understood that he himself was not able to catch the beauty of the stone, he decided to marry. The wedding took place "just around the Snake feast." Danila came for the last time to the Snake Hill, sat down to rest, and then the Mistress appeared to him. The guy recognized her by her beauty and malachite dress. He asked the Mistress to show him a stone flower. She tried to dissuade him: those who saw the flower lose the joy of life and themselves return to it. But Danila did not back down. The Mistress took him to her garden with trees and grass of different stones and led her to black, like velvet bushes.
On these bushes, large green bells are malachite and in each antimony asterisk. The fire bees sparkle above those flowers, and the little stars ring softly, sing evenly.
Danila the master looked at the stone flower, and the Mistress let him go home.
That day Katya-bride had a party. At first Danila had fun with everyone, and then he was sad. After returning home after the party, Daniel broke his dope bowl, spat in the master's bowl and ran out of the hut.
Long sought Danila. Some believed that he had gone mad and bent over in the forest, while others said that the Mistress took Danila to the mountain masters.
