Once there was a rich girl who never worked because her mother was spoiled. Many people asked her to marry, but her mother dissuaded them all. She said:
- Let it go, do not ask it, for it is unprofitable, and you will not live with it.
A lad asks him again, and his mother wants to talk him out of it, but he says:
- Is your snake such a mother that she does not want her daughter's happiness? Will you marry me, sister?
- Yes I do with a good heart! - says the girl.
The lad says:
- Come, let us go and swear!
The boy marries the girl in spite of her mother, they go away and swear an oath.
The girl just kept to the way she was used to at her mother's, sitting there, nice and comfy, in her pyjamas, not working at anything all day and night, just wiggling her legs. She didn't care if her master scolded her for it.
Her master thought, "Let her go, young lady, for I will teach you to work, even if your mother has not taught you!" For when she came home from the field, her mother was forever complaining that the bride did not work at all. She said:
- With this, my dear boy, you will never live, because it touches nothing. She sits forever like a great countess! You'd better divorce him.
- I cannot divorce you, madam, for I have married you as a thing that I know not. But leave thy snake to me, and I will teach him to work.
The next morning the young farmer went out into the field, and when he came home he asked:
- How many of us have worked today, Mother?
His mother replied:
- Two, my sweet boy!
- Well, let's eat together! - said the boy.
The two of them ate, and the if-wife was still hungry in the evening and in the morning.
In the morning, when her master left, she cried a good song, then began to sigh and think. One day he asks his mother-in-law:
- Mother, if I put out the fire, is it a thing?
- Thing, my sweet girl, thing!
So he started the fire. Then he asked:
- Well, if I put wood on the fire, is it a thing?
- "It is a thing, my dear daughter," said the old man.
He also brought wood. Then he asked again:
- Well, if I bring water, is it a thing?
- Thing, my sweet girl, thing!
- What if I clean the house?
- That's a thing!
He brought water, he was sweeping the house, and the old man was pleased that he was beginning to carry himself well, and he explained to him what things there were around the house, and he started him in them, helped him, taught him.
The farmer came home, and when he had to sit down at the table, he asked his mother:
- How many of us have worked today, Mother?
- "Three, my dear boy," said the old man with great joy.
- Well, then, let's eat three! - said the farmer with pleasure.
So they sat down to table, the if-wife even more gladly, for she had been quite dehydrated for a day and a half.
From that day onwards, there were always three of them working and three of them eating.
They are still alive today, if they are not dead.
(Ágnes Kovács: Folk tales for kindergarten children)
