The lunch for the lumbermen

    
1. TALKING ON THE ROOF

      
      Here birds did not fly.  Whirlwinds, which love usualy to run along the local river, lose their power in depth of gloomy  dense woods. In the fir forest it is so quiet, as if for the bird and for  the beast was  the order  -   some order for all  of them to be just  away. To tell the truth, here it is not too pleasantly,  faster  darkly,  rather damply.  Exactly  -  gloomy coldness hugs you anywhere in the deep cellar.
      But look!  There  ahead all  brightened. Palisade of trunks became more sparse.  Now the silent firs, covered with moss,  stand  so,  that you can catch sight of on your  shoulder or on the palm a couple of  sunbeams.
      It's not any Kingdom of tales, you see the firry grove with small bilberry-bushes, which were  firmly rooted  on the coast of the river. There was a glade of the berries  among   trunks, resin-covered. It is a lot of berries!  Help yourself, dear guest! You will not regret.
      Through some steps it is possible for the wayfarer  to espy, that the forest  becomes sparse here. Then suddenly a kind of brushwood  appears under feet, thereat rotten dead wood crackles softly.
      Branches, lying on the ground, were  cover with moss,  therefore  the place ahead  looks like solid green meadow. Be sure, it will be not   badly to gaze to  all sides   -  as they say,   to keep your eyes open. To stumble, to catch on the thick branch by the foot and to fall is a trifling matter.
      On the falsely smooth meadow there are  scattered mossy green  hassocks. But for you  also one more interesting  panarama is discovered: a bit of meters in another side the various ferns  converge into  circles. Their leaves are fostered  elaborately, as if  here a skilled painter worked, and each of them was like a feather of some unknown bird. O, who did  put these luxury feathers into this green carpet?!
      Mosquitoes are able to afford to squeak impertinently. It smells here by the rot of old wood and by mushrooms. You can do all, that want, but always I am ready to collect enthusiastically the berries. So, the white thin threads of spiderwebs sometimes stick  to my sweaty face.
      Now the harvest is notably rich. Above the tussocks and moss saucers there are  the  bushes,  rather low, however burdened with the  berries. If anyone will  touch some tiny spherules by  fingers, immediatelly  he  may see, that their  gray patina is lost. In front of him  shiny jet-black colour arises.
      I thought: it would be good to bring  home bilberries for my children,  herewith I was having  in my mind just  spherules of those, which were  more large. Part of them I can plant  near the house, other will be good as fine food.
      My today's digging has been sedulous.  Painstaking craftsmanship  on the glade was shown by me,  the assiduous digger, and soon  I  have seen  thin roots. They have been here, the roots of  the low bilberry. To tell the brief, I began to pull them.  However down, in the ground,  it was a long  lusty rhizoma.  Moreover, it stretched to another neighboring plant of related species. To break it quckly off? I decided to go to another bush in order that to take it also.
      It did not happen so, that I went a long way off:  I digged out the second plant directly through two steps and pulled. But it  has caught  the third green relative as well with help of the root.
      What was open in front of me? That was the interesting picture.  It testified: the rhizomas were associated among themselves once and  for all.  It would not want now to do such thing, as some cutting of roots.  Friendly family of small bushes, you here all hold on hard for each other. The wayfarer is not going to bother you. Grow in peace!
      Thereupon it came to my mind  to strew on roots and around them  crumbly  soil, then the digger watered all from a puddle and went home.
      Whether was I satisfied? It is necessary to say: of course!  As far as the benign digger, who liked to have a walk in the woods,   herein  didn't manage to ruin  this cramped fraternity of bilberry. Therewith I am able  to report: forests near the river in spaces of our northern parallels  were wonderful earlier. They were rich, if not to forget   bilberries, also some business wood, that was ready to be good for each lumberman. However  axes, very zealous, and acute saws  with big teeth, they  created  such sights  -  diminished the number of local groves with greater speed.
      But now efficient mind appeared in all these sawyers: it  would be right, if to manage carefully in order that not to spray  the wealth of  the woods. About it, about the abundance of the  local  fir forest, I heared from one rural old man,  he was  here the renowned expert in questions  of the history of all groves near the river. In  words of the storyteller I could feel  his zealous care concerning the welfare of the green  nature.
By the way,   the oral histories of the rural inhabitant  were rather interesting for me. Do you want to know, how suddenly some magic grandmother became useful for the loggers?
      It will be needed to understand,  how she managed to help them in order that  they did not  lose  their honor and welfare.
 
*      *      *

      It has happened  such thing in the woods:  green  firs and resinous  pines founded themselves in trouble. If  not all of them, then the solid part  of  massive  forests  was cut out along the coasts  of the river. The loggers  lost their work on this occasion. The local chief of the forestry administration  was ready to cry:  I am the fortuneless man! The hapless economy has fallen to my lot! We did not have time to heal, as all normal people, and now we have to  beg our bread along all  world!
      After some considerations he assembled  the loggers and said:
      -  You may do  various chores  in your household  though the whole century. Therefore take the axes, the saws, go home up  to the best  times. And I recommend you  not to dawdle there.
      He began afterwords to think about different serious deals:  how to raise the timber industry?  Where to find new rich areas  with  firs and pines? Where  to obtain  diesel fuel for  powerful  mashines? Also how to regain  now the solid account in the Bank?
      Concerning to his thoughts, all of them were just very difficult, and the time  began to leak  and to leak drop by drop. As to the logger  Pavel, he was not going to be a loafer. To him it was high time to do one homemade thing: the roof by his house needed to be covered with slate. So, he climbed up to the roof,  looked - there  was the old lady upstairs. She rocked her leg, as a small girl.  Also herewith she winked to the owner:
      -  Clever I am?
      -  If you climbed here at one moment, as you say,  then why not to answer, that you are very agile? But speak  now  immediately,  what  position you have in our area, in the timber industry.  I see, you  came from somewhere, however with what purpose? And why does the guest have to sit on the roof of my house?
      - I am the grandmother  by name Willow, and I live among  the bushes near the river.  Incidentally,  the mistress of all willows by the river is in front of you now.
Where I want, there it is possible for me to have a walk and to afford  something kind of to sit on a pine stump or on somebody's roof.  Do you  understand now?
      -  Each of us, of loggers, must be ready-witted: here it is the local, exclusively vicinal care.   Your business has the right to go, how all  things go here, on the coasts of the  river with  these pine forests.  All is normal. Continue to sit on the roof, if  by you  there is such indispensable desire, forasmuch as I am too busy in order that to dawdle and to quarrel  with the  mistress, with the grandmother by name Willow.
      Pavel spoke, but  he did not forget to knock  at the same time: his hammer took pains  without any rest.  The grandmother had no desire  to be on the roof by some boring person. She began to give advices both loud, and not foolish:
      -  In the work with the hammer, I see,  you know the particular use.  However  listen to me, then something  will be harmless to you. Household chores are important, because they can be profitable both in  the house, and in the timber industry. Why don't you make a stout chair of  willow's twigs? After all, you  need to use today different  things in order that to improve  your mental attitude. For each owner of the house it  will be greater pleasure to sit in a rocking chair evenings to relax. Create the rocking chair, also second, third. People will take into consideration all your interesting efforts.
      Pavel screwed up his eyes, saw himself  sitting near the hot furnace  in evening enervation, then  knocked  stronger and fastened  down  the sheet of slate to another sheet. After that he answered politely:
      -  The grandmother Willow says  engrossingly. It is  impossible not to believe her. She persuaded me. All right!  In the beginning I will make one rocking chair. Thanks for the advice.
      - Take a minute!  It seems to me, you are able to get rid of  all my advices, circumspect  and very deep. Learn, while I am here  in front of you. Who will tell to you, how such fancy furniture must be created?
      Pavel continues to knock by the loud  hammer. Be sure, he can not forget about the new roof.  Simultaneously  the mistress of the  willow's bushes by the river may do that she wants, anyway  -  not to stop the conversation, and it is useful for the logger to listen to her.
      - To exercise, to study such art  is a good  business,  each  lumberman in our village can not to refuse. Why should I, for example,  be arrogant? The more knowledges, the it will be better for me. But who among us, in the vicinal timber industry, does know, how to make a rocking chair of willow's branches?  Nobody does!
      Suddenly  two twigs appeared  in the hands of the grandmother.
      Immediately she took and crossed them. The chap  was  surprised by her manipulations both dexterous, and fast.  However the cunning person, which was like for the small girl,  did not become to delay her deals:  in one moment  two crossed twigs  found themselves under the Pavel's nose. Look, my dear lumberman!  It is possible to weave willow's branches just by such manner, as you want. At all there are no difficulties in working on creation  of various chairs. Make furniture without any procrastination!
      This old Willow, smiling without intermission, does not try to be silent  and again gives promptings. The capable hands, also the clever head  have  had by  the chap, therefore here someone will manage to create any couch. If there is a strong  desire now by  the do-all, it is not hard to make a tea table. Besides, if you have such mastership, there is possibility for the master  always to do a what-not or a bookcase.
      The beautiful furniture in the house is into the compulsory satisfaction for every man, because  the owner's heart begins to beat joyfully. And the other one must be taken into a guess. In prosperity  the family will live, if  your skill will be developed today and tomorrow, day by day.
      - It is necessary for you, fine fellers, to hear me, old Willow, if all do not want  here to be  suddenly as  some inveterate roofers.
      - Good, Granny.
      - No need to break and  to destroy all willows  without exception on the coasts of the river. Take, my friends,  those trees, that  are there more thick. However not to forget about any others in order that to be with prosperity.
      The young collocutor is taken to think with new  zeal: "She is right, it seems to me.  Earlier we worked without  any circumspection, because  the awful hurry  was there and it forced all of us  to break, to destroy willows, though they would be thin or  thick.  At the end, what did it happen? Thinned places appeared in the woods, near and in the distance. Our iron powerful  technics trampled a lot of willows into sands wrongfully. Now each my friend-lumberman has to bite his elbows, as they say.”
      No doubt, the vicinal hostess of willows is talking very sensible things.
      As everyone may understand, she gives the hint: all  thin branches  of coastal bushes have to be started up  into  business.  It would be nice to open some furniture shop in local forestry. Pavel will be there the master on manufacture of book shelves,  rocking chairs.
      When there is the correct hope here, then anything will not frighten  the lumbermen: again the timber industry  will  run to well-being just near the river. Therewith for the directing it is necessary to consider all questions more assiduously. Oh, today  plenty of wastelands  are on  the coasts with their willows! All these places  were left  by the river after felling. For whom do they give behoof, those holes in  forest decoration?!
      The grandmother's suggestion,  concerning  the wicker furniture,  was   sufficiently
convincing for Pavel. He went and dressed up decently.
      The jacket was pulled on his shoulders, the tie was pinned on the neck.  And then he, the decent young man, appeared in front of  the director with proposal: let's open a furniture business in timber industry. He  accumulated  insolence and  wanted to have  for himself  the  important post  now: " As to me, there is desire now to be  the head of the furniture manufacture".
      The director asked at once:  who did give this advice to the guy concerning  the willow furniture?  who did transfer such strange craftsmanship in manufacture of this furniture to him, the normal lumberman?
      Why does Pavel have to be silent about this happy case?
      Pavel said immediately, that the hostess  by name Willow, the grandmother  of all vicinal willows along the river, was very kind and communicative. Let to the director know, that  on the eve they,   Pavel and old Willow,  sat together on the roof of the house. They have conversed  there rather long. If to speak about foreign policy, then  the grandma spoke nothing, because for her it was not interesting. The hostess of the willow bushes  took care of another. She  worried: the willows, thick and thin, near the river were trampled without any benefit for the timber industry.  Ultimately the fact is the fact: these cunning forest inhabitants are nosy  to the last degree.
      They are creatures of the peculiar old order here, near the river, are not they? To take notice all interesting things in woods is to them always not sloth. It seems, they like to sit on roofs in the village and to have a talk with loggers.
      - You try to spread here in front of me very strange facts. With what aim do you talk, why do you have this foolish  desire to cozen me?  It is no need  at all  for you  to mess with some  incomprehensible devils! - sternly said the director.
      He was angry just to last degree. However the furniture trade was been allowed under some consideration, when the grumpy man has afforded to think a little better.
      And now nothing has disturbed to work to him, to the lumberman, who has believed to the words of the willow hostess.
      Assistants  for the young chief of the shop were found in the village without big  difficulties. They have helped  to make chairs and sofas:  the neighboring girl, the native mother of Pavel, also  personally the wife of the director.
      With regards to Pavel, in the shop he was the person, which  gave not only  different instructions, the guy was there  the do-all. Who did create intricate lockers for trade day after day?  In spite of the fact that Pavel  had  solid knowledge  in his skill,  he found in addition to all  -  and it was right  -   a lot of special minutes to teach  his pupils. Certainly, all of them helped him then  in the work, as they could.
      Nobody will not argue: the deal of  the makers of the intricate furniture went with  success. Various orders  to the shop began to strew as peas. Only that was left for Pavel and company  -  to propel  all theirs work more widely.
      Initially the inhabitants of the native village had desire to acquire sofas and what-nots for household. Then, having heard about fine wooden articles, other guests began to roll out of the vicinal settlement, that was bigger, to the shop of the master Pavel.
      Also local authorities  of the forest region did not renounce to buy  the willow samples from the lumberman's  company. And to be silent for Pavel  in the office of the rural power about  some new interesting sofas,  rocking chairs was not possible, was it?  They, the workers of the shop,  have added  glory for the woods near the native northern river. There is no shame here, is not it?
      Further it has happened such deal. Suddenly some big timber boss has arrived to the village, where has been the furniture manufactory. What does he make there? At the beginning the serious person has desire to  become acquainted with  the initiative of the village's inhabitants.               
      Without fail after that, he hastens to advisement of fundamental economic questions  with the director of the local timber industry.  And what will the big boss create thereafter, will he drive home,  seeing nothing, hearing nothing, taking into consideration nothing?
O, here strange thoughts take place to be!  If you are nutty upon them, it will be better to stop these ideas. First, the important person will afford to praise the initiators. Second,  it will be originated something the interesting  in  the  cases, equally binding for all by the way.
You will not mistaken, when  will look attentively, how  on the railway station the big  container begins  fast to move  far away, just  to the dwelling-place of the big person.  There will be  plenty of  wooden articles in this container. The sofa, for example. The table for tea ceremonies. The various rocking chairs  and the different  shelves will be also.
      The railway will be, of course, hurry, and soon  the container will appear in the right place. The  house of the big person  got the possibility to be  forever with comfortable wicker furnishings.               
      But what did it happen, if to consider this case in details?  Delightfully beautiful thing did.
      The big person, drinking tea with dear guests, will tell  about  the skillful worker Pavel, also about ingenious loggers on the northern river.  And what does an event occur then?  All the guests, looking at this willow's beauty, are in full admiration, be shure.
  Someone does not be lazy to ask at once: how much does it cost? Faster to receive this marvelous  beauty for household?
      Immediately he gets the answer: it is cheaply enough to be acquired, and the road to the village on the river is today in normal condition. There is asphalt now there. 
So visitors from different habitats soon were there, near the forest river. Pavel and his company wait already, they are able to be useful for all guests.
For such case, certainly,  many troubles were not to get  to the loggers at the village. Though some unpleasantness, as they say, could go into  the small eye of needle, however it was very difficult. That's how grandma Willow helped! Now it became good for woods, for the loggers.            



2. THE  LUNCH  FOR  THE LOGGERS

               
      The region of the northern forests is  rather great. There firry and piny massives are, as they say, very extensive. For  such big expanses always it will be unknown, where  by all of them the beginning, where the ending.  Exactly there are  special density,  sleepy green peace here even in some sunny day.  If you will look around, at once gloomy quietude will persuade you to sleep, though the  night will come not soon.
      Maybe, somebody was affording to dream  all day long  on the village's hill, but certainly was  not  Maria, the girl, who labored in timber industry as the constant cook for the local loggers. You are to understand: she had plenty of the different worries.
      So, she had habitude to go early in the morning  into the forest.  To dream  was not any possibility, because each day it was needed  for her to  cook a tasty soup and a porridge.  Be diligent, the girl Maria! Feed all these successful loggers in woods without superfluous conversations. Here she took pains not to be tired  up to the evening rest.
      Once here as well, assiduously not getting  fatigue,  she regaled the loggers with the soup, and when  all of them, as  one,  finished their dinner, Maria became to gather empty  soup plates.
      Suddenly out of nowhere in front of the girl appears... who?  Some grandmother does. What  can this old woman  herein search?   She  gazes into the one side, then into the second, into the third.
      It seems,  here something was  both interesting, and enjoyable for her.
      The grandma took and began to laugh:
      -  I like it.  But why? It is impossible not to see, that  the work in woods looks wholly fine. All logs, which were sawed down,  today are gathered accurately  by diligent hands of  lumbermen and calmly lie without  superfluous boughs. Herewith all thin perches, these long tops of trees,  are also in one  heap,  forasmuch as they must get the regular use. It is to my liking,  that the local workers are attentive and today revere our timber opulence really.
      For the girl these words were, of course, acceptable. Because in them she saw and  felt  just serious praise into the address of loggers with their very clever, economical mastership. Also what did Maria want immediately to undertake?  To stand onto the table in front of the guest  the soup plate of the fine porridge.
      However the old woman has no desire to lunch, to sit here near Maria's porridge, she is not stretching her hand for the spoon. The grandmother invites the girl nearer to the river: “It is necessary to show,  that I am just indispensable for the cook of the lumbermen, forasmuch as you are the dear soul for me.”
      Plenty of thoughts appeared in the head of the sedulous cook Maria. One of them was rather long. What special thing is there, around the water? also what did I see near the river never? also what did I not hear from the people about?
      It is true, in the forest closer to the small slow stream  everyone could espy  the bushes of willows. And at a distance along the river's coasts  -  see!  -  there were  regular dense planting of young pine trees there. The picture for the lumbermen, as they say, was just usual. When the grandma and Maria came to the willows, when the dark stream  of the river became by visible very good to them, the old woman again took for her own way  -  began to smile, as if she was today happy up to complete treat.
      There was some  perplexity  at the girl. Now it is necessary to tell, the discomposure did not go away anywhere, did not pass  by some magic way. If the strange visitor would eat my soup  -  the new idea came  into the head of Maria  -  then the  old woman would stand here calmly, not  taking an all round view,  and would not want to laugh near this empty water.
      - Maybe, the accidental old lady, time for us to come back? I shall give you the soup plate, where will be a lot of  bouillon with vermicelli and mushrooms. Our lumbermen said to me, that  my cooking always is  turned out very tasty.
      -  You are not right, my kind-hearted girl. That is very interesting place, where  you need to stand without fail. Because you have deal  with the grandmother  by name Willow.  Since ancient times I am the inhabitant of local forests. It is no wonder, that at  dense bushes of willows I like to live, to have a walk each day. Please, understand!  The old lady gets the mirth, when she can  see the right order here throughout.  Earlier there were  the bald spots after diligent work of the loggers on the coasts along the river. Now all wastelands are occupied by young pine plantations. Is not it good?
      -  Let me figure out. You are talking about a young forest with greater satisfaction.  Of course,  all we think about the future concerning our village, the fir and pine groves. On  the wastelands along the river the small pines are planted in order that  to keep the woods from dying. Our groves need  to stay alive. Also the river in the distance do.
      - We understand each other. The river and all around  will be alive well  -  the grandmother, who is called, as you know, Willow,  will be to thrive too. Therefore I wish to thank the masters of local forestry.
      Again the conversationalist  affords to laugh, also  the supposition appears suddenly by her:  the intelligent lumbermen  now  have the special merit. They have the right to eat  not only soup and porridge. Let to potatoes and to green cucumbers   be on the table every day  as the enjoyable celebration for those, who  are cutting woods always very providently.
      At once the question  resounds on the part of Maria:
      - To take care, to feed the workers  of our forest business? It will be made with all my responsibility. The potatos may be found somewhere. But where to take these  cucumbers for the necessary gift? To eat cucumbers, to crackle by fresh  green vegetables, probably, will  be into enjoyment for everyone. However I can not  discover  the cucumbers in dense woods, can I ?
      There is the circumspect allegation  by the old lady too.   
      She did not invite the girl, this kind-hearted forest culinary master, to leave for the big city in order that to  buy any cucumbers there. She offers Maria to create  a couple of vegetable beds on the coast of the river and to cherish here green cucumbers. 
      Nothing will happen the bad, if to do the ground more crumbly and  to fertilize, the grandma gives the prompting. Then the local soil in the bottomland of the river will be very useful for any vegetables. Cucumbers will grow, they will become by the delicious gift for all people here. Incidentally cucumbers like to have a lot of the water, they are always ready to say "thanks", sitting on the vegetables beds closer to the river. "Thanks" to you, the clever girl Maria!  Also therewith they will not be tired to grow and to remain to be the gift for the masters of forestry. 
      -  You, the nice cook, have to think rather dexterously in order that to consider during  a day all forest conditions. Then take your spade, it must dig on the coast of the river without lassitude.  I have no doubt, the rural loggers will search  words of respect for the work of  their cook.  In that case, Maria, it will be such thing, that you will want  to  remember the old grandmother by name Willow. All will be correct. I can admit here, there is desire by me: you must not forget Willow and her kind-hearted advice.
      It is clear, that olericulture on the wood-cutting area is not the biggest need. Simultaneously there was a great deal of truth in what the old lady said. Therefore Maria thought a little, thereupon dug up the vegetable bed.   
      Then she asked some of those, who travelled on the timber carrying vessels,  to try to take part in her business and to search  seeds there, where it was possible. And did go the work concerning the cucumbers by her?  This work  did not go really -   only there were difficulties  by the cook.
      The seeds did not hasten  to give though  small sprouts. Let  the soil be very fertile near the water, but  the nights in woods were more cold, than in any clean  field.  Yes, afterwards  the sprouts appeared, however they did not  hurry in order that to rise to the sky.
      To tell the brief, they  lie down on the ground all the same and diligently begin to waste away. 
      When the such unhoped misfortune on the vegetable bed has become suddenly visible, Maria has decided to go  along the coast of the river to the bushes of the willows.
      Why? That's why: she believed to the old lady.  This clever Willow did not want to  joke. There was no meaninglessness  in her words. Is it correctly?
      Of course,  in the head of the kind-hearted cook all was right. Therefore the grandma appeared immediately, she was able to solace the poor girl:
      -  What  can I see in my bushes!? It seems, in front of me the cook Maria is standing. The girl  wants to hear my word again. Herewith I may say, that she does not feel any joy. Yes! It is impossible to confirm, that she treads  upon air. That advice, which I gave earlier here, was exclusively right. Be sure! There was not any error in my words!
      The old lady, this inhabitant of the willow thickets, wanted to tell still something. It was necessary, because in northern woods the different interesting events were many centuries ago. The cook has to understand all cunning  things concerning though turnip, though cabbage. Though cucumbers.
      During long times here the local settlement has been interested in those gifts of nature, which were in the kitchen gardens at different lands. The forest dwellers were not rich,  they sold fish, venison, furs, and what  did  they  buy there? Yes, turnip was bought by them, also cabbage.
      One inhabitant of  this northern  forest settlement went to trade year after year to the far lands, and then he took and planted near his home  just cabbage in order that not to bring vegetables from distant places. 
      Neighbours liked  his employment, and soon there were  unjoky kitchen gardens  everywhere in villages of all northern forest  land.
      So it turned out, that the honourable glory wanted to go along all forest North, saying to people about these woods, this river and the willows, which grew on stream's  shores.  As to the man, who has been the first, having decided to grow cabbages and turnips, it has been happened so:  he has loved to sit on the bench beside his house, to play the fife. 
      One day  some evil-minded people came,  trampled his vegetable beds. Then they took  his cheerful small whistle in his greengrocery near the kitchen garden and threw it into a dark forest lake. But there  the fife continued to sing. What about? The fife sang: "Headstrong  people, listen to me! It is better to grow cabbage, than to kill pretty forest creatures and to trade venison."
      The girl was glad to hear the story about  the founder of northern olericulture, and she asked:
- What was his name?
- You may guess now yourself.
- If I am not mistaken, his name was Kitchen Garden.
Her  conversationalist has told, having  laughed:
      - Let it be so. 
-  It means, I have to agree  here with you. However it is difficult to me at once to take
and to believe fully concerning the fife, though you are very old, very clever  without any doubts. No conversations were among our rural inhabitants about the fife, which could sing in some  dark forest lake.
In this case the venerable  greyheaded  woman by name Willow did not become to laugh, she said simply:
- As to me, I have no desire to be persuading too strongly. If you did not want to
believe to me,  please, you may do it without any objections from my side. However there is my request here. Wait a little! Soon the warm rains will come, then it will be possibility to make the planting of your small sensitive cucumbers. All-in-all  I should give else one good prompting. The ancient inhabitants of woods have been not foolish, when they have swum on the local rivers. When they have builded  forest settlements, having loved their mother, their northern land.
      Is the need  here in the good weather, in fast appearance of the warm days? Why can not the girl wait a little?
      All right,  the cook of the remarkable lumbermen is now in wait for  the summer warmth. However  these nice days were in no hurry to run nearer to the northern river.
      Tomorrow the cold wind blows, the next day the drizzle falls onto the willows beside the river. A well-known fact:  in the forest North often  the sky frowns,  herewith the sun is not in a hurry to caress  here thickets of spruces and pines.
      The weather is always  weather,  to point out to the rain clouds, how to swim in the sky,  will be an awkward business for people. But, may be, did the longtime masters of the garden affairs  know some cunnings in order that  the soil  became fertile?
      If the ideas appeared by Maria, where the solid bunch of questions was, then why not to seek the recent interlocutor? She went back to the venerable old lady: sorry,  but immediately I need to find out  the ancient secret of hearty vegetable beds!
      The sight of the decent cook was too serious  in order that Willow  did not pay any attention: simultaneously the girl was today reverent and anxious.
- Be sure, it was made rightly, when you decided to come here,  -  the grandmother
announced  kindly. -   Also you speaks correct things.
      It seems, the inhabitant  of  the willow thickets had a special  reason to love ancient times!  She, standing close to the river with dark water, was ready to laud all these forest  places,  where there was a lot of  blueberries and cranberries in the marshy depressions. Where  in vague ageold days the fife sang its clever ballad about forest deer.               
       Of course, now it was perspicuously for Maria:  the northern people  used to walk onto the shore of the local river not for entertainments.  Oh, they knew the price of not only furs and fish! Also it was known to them, how to work,  to plow the  soil in the floodplain and to wait the gifts of the harvest.
      This tenderhearted Willow was able to screw an explanatory word. Thus her clever step  was sufficient in order that to hint  about something  not superfluous in woods. About gifts of  the northern kitchen garden? Oh, she  has hinted here just it: the cucumber cares can be for you not very arduous!  Deft people  were at this land, and they managed  to grow  even sweet melons under the local modest sun.
      To trust today unreservedly? If to remember all of a sudden  history about the singing fife in the dark water of the lake, it was very difficult, but it will be much more awkward for the unquiet mistress of soups and porridge to believe into sweet melons near the cold river water.               
      -  Were  these fruits of the south land  really sweet?  When  they were grown in the our northern villages? -  Maria was surprised.
      - There will be no error, when it will be said by me: veritable honey!  -  the hoary occupant of the coastal thickets reported.  -  Justifiably I did not go  myself for the sweet fruits  to the forest villages in those ageold days.  But you know after all, that the rumors is flying quickly. Also I have some knowledge regarding  our forest wonders,  this moneybox of the grandmother Willow  is big.  Herewith  you have to mean, that it is  full-full. 
      There was no limit for the young cook  again and again to be surprised:
      -  But how could these honey melons  grow happily? When near the river all  cucumbers  begin to suffer because of a cold, to be ill, to fade?! There are no possibilities for them to be healthy in our places and to rise normally.               
      The old lady prepared  her clever answer, you see,  previously. What thing did become  known for Maria  this time?
      Oh, the inhabitant of the willow thickets  did not faltered, there was the true conception  by her in the deals of the past days. At once she went to expound. The prompting was on-the-fly: you was not in the world then, but  a century ago the northern people had the guess to put  special wooden boxes on the ground.
      In what was the whole point here? They  took pains to install the wooden boxes accurately, then began to carry  good soil, to fill  their construction.  Further all top had to be  covered with glass in order that the warmth was in the box. That warmth, which will allow to any sweet melons, when plenty of moisture will be,  to grow and to thrive.
      Though there will be a severe frost in the morning, though there will be a push of an ice cold wind, the tiny sprouts  will not hasten to fade.
      The such thing happened here. It came to  the  girl's mind:  the grandmother  by name Willow  decided with passion to esteem,  to honor  just those greenhouses,  which  now were for many inhabitants of the northern settlements in commonness. What does the steam from the warm soil  make there in fact ? It  is driving away all prickly cold.
      The interesting history  is packaged, if all was a century ago, even two centuries ago. All may have the place in order that to eat  sweet fruits, when you take  plates of glass and begin to use  those northern box-shaped buildings just for rich harvest.  Of course, it was useful  to apply your hands  to nursing  of various melons-cucumbers.
      That's right, with wariness the girl is trying to give her voice, but the wonderful fife, which in the old days sang in the  dark forest lake,   praised the northern people in those long years not for some greenhouses.
      At once the old lady  decided to  smile politically:
- Let’s will not multiply all kind of chit-chat. You, my ready-witted girl, knows already
well, that I have not any desire to be sedulous in  some argumentations. It is necessary just to ask: did not you  hear  earlier about  pearls of  the south seas? So, you must understand!  Our northern people  have mined freshwater pearls  regularly much more earlier, than have gotten  pearl gifts from the South. Also  long ago white light has been allowed  for the local inhabitants, for their transparently covered windows in the rural houses. Yes, without any glass all windows were assiduously covered, herewith they were transparent.
      - How can it be? -  Maria did not believe.
      To the cook  of the lumbermen it was not difficult to notice:  by the grandmother Willow  there is such habit  -  to keep  gentle smiles in conversation.  Most likely she did it owing to  her  all-knowing age.   
      Here again she speaks gently. She  is smiling approvingly  and  is not abandoning to give prompting by the  quiet voice. Maria is interested in the art of agriculture,  in this ancient art, which  was known to the inhabitants of the northern lands. And therefore it can not be obnoxious for the softhearted old lady. After all in earlier years local people managed to think  very well, drudgingly concerning vegetable beds.
      It will be not bad  -  the dweller of the willow bushes, she  afforded  to laugh, to wink with the goodnatured  cunning  -   even it will be very useful to keep these things in  your mind,  dear cook Maria. 
      In  south lands there  were  people, which  guessed  to cover the windows of their houses with help of bubbles  of fishes. But  inhabitants of our Northland  knew something more interesting, than bubbles. Forasmuch as they have unveiled,  have unveiled  tirelessly, have taken  pains  to learn day by day   the secrets of their forests and fields.
      For example, they go along some river, roam  on shallows.  Whether was  it possible not to  see there  mother-of-pearl  spherules?  Here they  gather for themselves  river pearls, petty, but  very beautiful.  What do they make after that?  If they may sell all their finds, why not to trade? 
      Another case may happen. They  dig some hill, suddenly see... what thing?  Let will be in front of them not a glass plate,  but just  a bit of mica.
      These experienced diggers were capable to offer their remarkable finds to owners of rural houses.   There were window-panes nowhere in northern woods. However there was a mica, which could be transparent for white light, was not it?
      Maria was not foolish, she understood all from the first word up to the last word,  but  something was especially interesting for her, of course:
      -  How much transparent mica was in our dense firry hursts?   
-  All was sufficiently:  as much as it would be desirable for them, therefore inhabitants of
villages did not live in misery. Yes, they were not very poor.  If  someone  wished to look from the window of the house to the side of the red sun, it was possible to admire by the sky, though in the morning,  though in the evening on the sunset. But it is necessary to consider to you, the girl: these mica treasures have been unveiled on  dependable  hills  -  just in  places, free  from great dampness.  In  bogs, even very big and deep,  the seemly treasures were never.
      What did it turn out for the cook Maria? There were many advices from the grandmother Willow, also it was added a lot of wishes  to continue the employment concerning the cucumbers for the  sedulous loggers.
      With help of her fosterlings the dexterous girl  has recieved everything, that has been necessary. Soon  the capacious box stood on coast of the river, this wooden building was covered by the  plates of enduring glass. Did the cucumbers grow under the transparent plates?  All was good, if to mean  the hard glass erection,  however again it was far up to well-being for the vegetables.
      If now the summer is here in woods already and all sprouts have no desire to blossom, then it means: bad harvest will be.  What a misfortune! There is no flowers on these cultural vegetables, and most likely there will  be no cucumbers in the glass box.
      Certainly,  the sprouts can rise in due course. They will  be more strong and will blossom in a month or in two months, but it will be too late. It will be a pity, if the green crackling gifts, that  the cook Maria prepares now,  will not have time to get to a table  of the woodcutters before, than snows will come.
      Where  to go on this case? Without doubts you, the diligent girl,  have to step to the bushes near  the river and to call  again the grandmother Willow,  to ask the help.  Perhaps, she knows some interesting secret in order that  to waken great desire in the sprouts  to blossom in the wooden box.
      Whether was  the secret of the old lady here as something actually?
      Be assured, something is necessary  to know in order that to nurse the cucumbers happily. The northern olericulture is to you not simple employment. Yes, it is a very little thing for luck to make thrusting  the sprouts into the vegetable beds without serious cogitating.
      That skilful man, whose fife has sung in the forest lake,  has understood:  special care is necessary here for cucumbers, therefore  each owner of  green plantings  must  glance  more heedfully  to the side of clouds  with their cold  winds, also  to the side of the river coasts with their constant clay. Herewith it will be useful not to forget about dark lakes among  firry woods. The appeared grandmother Willow began to speak just about it. She edified Maria, which was the nice girl -  esteemed as the stubborn indefatigable owner of the kitchen garden:
- To me it is pleasant, that you are not going to recede. I respect with your
persistence. I wish to add something concerning the fife,  which sang in our forest land.  All,  that  was grown near the northern lake, has been very tasty. As they say, you should not  lose time. Take the cucumber more soon and bite, and crackle  by the cucumber with  pleasure,  herewith speak   good words about  the skilful  owner of the kitchen garden! This northern vegetable was peculiar. It was just for such reason, that each cucumber  was  grown  not on the argillaceous meagre ground,  but  on the soil, flavoured by black laky silt.
      Here the cook of the loggers became to understand, that the conversation about the forest  lake and the river clay had the absolute right to be not adventitious, not empty.
      - Well, if it is necessary  some fertilizer, lime and compost, for my glass box, -  Maria has started to think audibly, -  then…
      -  No! - the grandmother Willow has smiled tenderly. - My reasonable girl!  I shall not tell  about compost with lime of anything bad, but these things do not go to comparison with our ancient way to grow the vegetables.  You should find the dark forest  lake in our woods in order that to gather there silt. Be sure, it is stronger, than different  fertilizers. This black laky silt will be very useful  for the cucumbers,  and there will  be a lot of flowers in the your glass box. Such admirable taste will be given to yours vegetables, that the loggers, these  skilful masters of axes and saws, will estimate  your gifts at once! 
      Has this laky campaign turned out happy, if Maria has gone immediately there, where it has been said ? She has found a lot of silt, has been not too lazy, and special force has been given to the plants in  her box. When the cucumbers have received solid furtherance, then they has begun to blossom, to fructify, to thank the loggers for fairdealing veneration of  the green woods.
      Maria did not disturb the old lady in the further. But then she did not forget to recollect Willow often, though did not speak to anybody about the inhabitant of woods.  Who will take and believe unreservedly into  the fable concerning  the old woman, capable to live in the dense bushes on  the coast of the river?