Uncle Misha, a former collective farm groom, was not very talkative. But when the conversation turned to some kind of clock, he remembered this story and told it with pleasure.
It happened in his childhood. They lived then on a large farm, which consisted of several farms and was located on the edge of a spacious meadow along the shore of a shallow river. On weekdays, everyone worked in the fields, and on weekends and holidays they decorated sleighs or carriages, harnessed horses and went to the fair in the nearest town, which was about ten versts from the farm. The children who were leaving home were looking forward to their parents' return with great impatience: they would bring gifts and all kinds of purchases.
.. So this time, my father brought a wall clock into the house in an old colored litter. Yes, not any kind - with a cuckoo. How much surprise and joy there was when the clockwork was turned on and the cuckoo itself appeared from the window! It seemed to be a wooden bird, but it cooed as if it were alive. And if it weren't for the adults, their shouts and jostling, the kids would endlessly bring the hands on the clock to see the cuckoo once again and hear the funny “peek-a-boo.”
The parents explained sternly that the cuckoo would be cooing anyway, but in due course. And if you disturb her often, she can break down. In the beginning, the children sat at the clock from time to time and waited for the hands to converge and the wooden bird to appear. Over time, everyone got used to the clock and it became commonplace.
But one day something strange happened: the clock was ticking, and the cuckoo was silent. Or rather, she lost her voice. When the time came, the doors opened, the cuckoo appeared, raised its tail, nodded its head, and even opened its beak, but it did not make any sounds. Of course, they immediately thought of the children as being to blame. But they claimed that they remembered their parents' orders and did not even approach the clock.
Fortunately, my father knew a watchmaker in the town. They turned to him for repairs. My father was surprised, and so was everyone at home, when the master told me what he saw when he opened the door. Everything was fine, but the bellows, which made sounds like cuckoo calls when air passed through them, were badly damaged. More precisely, bitten to holes in many places. The childish prank was shutting down ... That left the mice. But they have not been seen in the house since two cats, brought from Bialystok, began to run it.
The watchmaker replaced the bags, and the watch was put back in its original place. For a couple of days, the cuckoo, as before, cheerfully announced the New Hour to the whole house. But then she stopped talking again, which once again scared the whole house.…
Only one person in the family behaved calmly. It was Justina's grandmother. She just smiled and narrowed her eyes slyly.
The whole family was gathered at a large oak table. We listened to Grandma Justina. She was sitting on the bed, closer to the stove, working continuously with knitting needles and talking slowly.:
- So, my dear children, I've been in this house for more than a dozen years. I know her like no one else. My dear Vladya and I moved here, I gave birth to my children here, and from here, God willing, I will choose the next world.
And they listened to the following from the old woman Justina ... When they moved from the old house to this one, they moved the housekeeper to the felt boots that are now lying on the stove. How long had he lived in harmony with the owners of the house, but now he was starting to play pranks.
"My parents also said," Grandma continued, "that brownies have a hard time getting used to new things. Heavy ones can move at night, and small ones can smash and break. Apparently, our brownie liked the clock itself, maybe they even moved there to live. But I didn't like the cuckoo sentry, so I ruined it.
The father was indignant:
- So I have to throw away my watch now? But not everyone has one in their house, and what money was paid for it!
His mother, as the eldest, took the floor again.:
- Let the clock tick, and the cuckoo watches every half hour. But let her be without a voice. Let's go meet the brownie, he's been living with us for so many years. Maybe he'll thank us too, if he's kind.
That's what they decided. And wow! How grandma looked into the water…
Two years have passed. It was closer to Christmas. The frosts were bitter. Because the calf that was born was brought into the house so that it could dry off and stand on its feet. But when they left the barn with him, they left a burning lantern on the floor in a hurry. In the evening, tired, everyone in the house fell asleep soundly, and in the middle of the night, with a terrible crash, a clock fell from the wall onto the hearth... They jumped up, turned on the light, and one of the household saw smoke coming from the barn door-it was a moonlit night just then.
They rushed to the barn and beat the flames in the process. A few more minutes and the whole household would have been on fire.
–Here," Grandma Justina said later, "in a couple of hours, the brownie knocked off the nail.
And there was another case, no less amazing, when the old mistress was buried. As the coffin was being carried out of the house, they suddenly heard a cuckoo ring several times in the clock. But the bellows have holes. Somehow the brownie managed to say goodbye to his grandmother, remembering her kind heart.
"So judge for yourself whether it's true or a fairy tale," Grandfather Misha finished his story.
- Has the watch been preserved? - the listeners started pestering me with questions.
"Well, that's a completely different story," he waved it off. - Maybe I will, but for the second time. For the second time…