Andrey Platonovich Platonov

"The Iron Old Woman"

In 1951, Platonov wrote the story “The Iron Old Woman.” The main character here is a child. Yegor is interested in many questions that he asks his mother, the iron old woman, the bug and the worm, and the wind. He asks them who they are, why they live, whether they feel good or not. Perhaps Platonov asks these questions full of philosophy to readers, but only does this through the mouth of the boy Yegor. The story makes you think about many life issues. The reader should not only think, but at the same time feel everything. This is the author's style of writing. Every line, every word requires careful and meaningful reading. In his works, Platonov seems to equate the beginning of two worlds: spiritual and material. Here matter and existence come together. The writer sees the world from the inside, and not from the outside, as others do. He loves all living things, understands the thoughts and feelings of a bug and a worm, hears the whisper of a leaf or flower.

He feels compassion not only for a person, but also for all living things. A. Platonov has an unusual form of narration. Already the first lines of the story set the reader up for the unusual atmosphere that is inherent in Plato’s works. As in fairy tales, the story begins with the noise of leaves on the trees, the songs of the wind moving through the world. In his story, everything around has its own life. Nature lives, just like people.

In Platonov there is a child living inside. For the author, every meeting with the world is an event, and in phenomena he finds discoveries that he makes together with his hero. A young child, sitting under a tree, listens to him and conducts a dialogue with nature. Yegor wants to understand the world around him, but at the same time he wants to kill the “iron old woman”. In all the questions that a child asks everyone he meets, there is one thing hidden: to understand who a person is in this world. We are not talking about fate and death here. Platonov looks deeper. He shows that it is not typical for a person to be alone, he does not want this at all. This is evidenced by Egorka’s meeting with the bug. The author gives an unusual description of the insect to which he gives human traits. It, with a small, motionless face, kind eyes, legs and arms, suddenly flew away, and the boy became bored. A feeling of loneliness took over him. This episode with the insect has a lot to say. This boredom makes you think about the meaning of life, gives you the desire to merge with living nature in order to get rid of boredom and loneliness.

The hero of the story feels equal to the world around him. The world is dear and alive to Yegorka. An ordinary burdock saved the boy from his night terrors. The kid often thinks about the plants of the ravine and hopes that they will always be nearby. The child in Plato's story looks at life differently than adults who live in hustle and bustle and do not notice anything around them. The boy often goes out into the yard at night to explore the world. The road in the story symbolizes the aspirations of Yegor, who wants to know everything. And the image of the old woman in this story serves as a connecting link between existence and non-existence, life and death.

The symbolic image of death, in the image of the “iron old woman,” acts as the destroyer of all living things. For the boy, she is completely real, and for this reason he wants to kill her. However, having heard dull sounds in the ravine, reminiscent of the crunching of dried bones, Yegor understands that only a nonliving creature can fight an inanimate creature. Yegor doesn’t want to become an iron old man at all. He just wants to scare the old woman and continue to remain a boy so he can live with his mother.

From a very early age, the child hears fairy tales that adults read to him. They are kind and evil heroes, fantastic and very real. As a rule, everything that a child does not understand in life, he tries to explain with fairy-tale images, and vice versa, he connects everything fabulous and incomprehensible with the real.

It is not surprising that adults often, in order to quickly calm the baby down, tell him about all sorts of horrors, as is what happens in the story “The Iron Old Woman.”

If we consider that many of Platonov’s works are autobiographical, then it is quite possible to assume that the events of “The Iron Old Woman” are real.

The beginning of the story reminds us very much of the above-mentioned works. Egor, like many of Platonov’s heroes, talks to inanimate objects as if they were animate. It can be assumed that most likely this comes from the child’s loneliness and his mental organization: he needs communication and strives to find equals in this world. He is not at all afraid of small creatures. Yegor sees in a beetle and a worm people with arms and legs and even the feelings of a real person: “When I come to you, I won’t say anything either!” - the boy says to the beetle. It is noteworthy that the baby is not frightened by all these insects: he calmly picks up the slippery worm, goes to bed with it, brings it to his face, without feeling any disgust.

Children do not feel tired: they can’t wait to learn as much as possible about life. With both the beetle and the worm, Egor is ready to swap bodies in order to find out their condition, their feelings. It is surprising that Yegor does not torture insects, showing his physical superiority, but, on the contrary, treats them as equals.

But against the background of harmony, the image of the Iron Old Woman suddenly appears. The second part of the story seems to introduce disharmony into the child’s life. Frightened by his mother's words about a certain Iron Old Woman who will take him away if he does not sleep, he first of all thinks not about himself, but about a small defenseless worm. He hides it under the pillow, thereby trying to protect it.

A house is an image of a closed space “At home, his mother gave Yegor dinner, then told him to go to bed and covered him with a blanket over his head at night so that he would not be afraid to sleep and would not hear scary sounds. which are sometimes heard in the middle of the night from fields, forests and ravines." The author wants to convey to the reader that loving people, especially parents, try to protect their children from danger and problems in this world. However, all their attempts remain in vain: life will still force everyone to go their own way. The narrative begins with "house" and ends with "home" Indeed, human life begins with a narrow space, with the parental home, and ends with a narrow space too - before his death, he will also be needed only by a small circle of people, the closest and dearest.

Space - image open space- “peace” “He put on his pants and went outside barefoot...Clear stars shone in the sky; there were so many of them. That they seemed close..”, Yegor turns his gaze to the sky. This is no coincidence. The sky in Russian literature is a symbol of the sublime, the unidentified. In the decisive turning points favorite characters of the authors in their lives literary works turned their gaze to the sky, looking there for the answer to the question, what is the meaning of life and who is the “I” in this life (Remember Andrei Bolkonsky on the Field of Austerlitz) Platonov continues the traditions of the Russian classic: in order to comprehend the meaning of life, you need to go out into the world, since , living within the same walls, you will not know him. The author forces his hero to expand the scope of his existence, “brings him into the “world”, with the goal of understanding this very world. “Egor noticed that even in the calmest weather the maple sways little by little. as if he is reaching somewhere, wants to grow up quickly or move away and leave. It must be boring to be a tree: it lives in one place

Threshold is the boundary between home and space. In this text, the word threshold replaces the word window, which separates the hero from the world. “He peered into the darkness. The window overlooking the millet floor shone with the vague light of the night. It was as if there was a depth of still water outside the window. Yegor sat up in bed, thinking about who was walking there alone with a knapsack of bread. long journey...Who is he? I’ll go and find out everything.” "The window is a long road." The image of the road is also traditional. A life-long road.

Escape from a confined space into big world always involves overcoming a certain barrier, not everyone can and wants to cross this barrier - a lot depends on the person himself. Egor is small, but the desire to comprehend life is great, the author showed this well through the organization of space.

"Who are you? Why are you living? Is it good for you or not?" A boy asks these questions Egor is a hero Plato's story "The Iron Old Woman", written in 1951. Are these not the questions Platonov himself poses to us? At first glance, the story seems childish, but in fact, using the image of a child, Platonov poses important, deep philosophical questions to us. What kind of writer is this who makes you think and feel at the same time while reading, stopping on every line, even every word?

Perhaps the point is that everything in the writer’s world is made of “the stuff of existence.” It is no coincidence that two completely incompatible concepts - “substance” (matter) and “existence” (process) are combined by the author, turning into an oxymoron. But for Platonov this is natural; he seems to equate the material and spiritual principles of the world. When you read Platonov’s works, you get the impression that the writer looks at the world not from the outside, but from within: through the eyes of a flower, a speck, a leaf, a beetle, a worm; he knows their thoughts and feelings.

"Unknown flower" The flower works day and night so as not to die; he overcomes his pain from “hunger and fatigue” with patience. This can only be said about a living, intelligent being. Probably the fact is that Platonov had compassion for every living thing in the world: a leaf, an animal, a person. And if for ordinary person the world can only appear personified, then in Platonov everything around lives its own own life, like a person.

I discovered Platonov when I read the short stories “The Unknown Flower” and “The Iron Old Woman.” Then there were “Pit” and “River Potudan”, “Fro”, “Chevegur”. But I would like to talk specifically about the “Iron Old Woman”. From the very first lines of the story you feel the special Platonic atmosphere of the story. Here is the first sentence: “The leaves on the tree rustled; the wind flowing through the world sang in them.” It feels like this is the beginning fairy tale, because “the wind moving through the world” sings, a faint whisper of foliage seems to be heard (maybe thanks to the sound recording).

We read further - what a coincidence: “Little Egor sat under a tree and listened to their meek, muttering words.” Plato’s words are amazing: rough, generally childish, and at the same time wise. It is wonderful that a writer, being an adult, remains a child. This means that every meeting with the world is an event for him, and every phenomenon is a discovery. And Platonov makes these discoveries together with his hero.

"iron old woman" (fate? death?). It seems that the idea of ​​the story is quite clear, but this is only the first impression. Therefore, you definitely need to figure out why the boy asks everyone: the beetle, the worm, the wind, his mother, himself, the “iron old woman”: “Who are you?”, “Why do you live?” These questions reveal the main idea of ​​the story: a person wants to understand who he is in the world. Platonov brings us to the idea that a person does not want to be alone in the world, and the episode with the beetle is symbolic here.

"small, motionless face" kind eyes", "legs and arms". It is no coincidence that Yegor "became bored" when the beetle flew away. The boy intuitively feels that he is alone in the world, but he does not want to be "bored" and tries to get involved in the cycle of life, to feel his dependence on the wind and stars , burdock, beetle. It’s amazing, but a tiny episode telling about a boy’s meeting with a taciturn beetle, more reminiscent of a person than an insect, reveals so much in the story.

And now about “boredom”. Platonov's boredom is a special motive. This is not just the toil of doing nothing. Boredom is a search for higher meaning, a desire to merge with all living things. Overcoming boredom means overcoming loneliness. The motif of boredom was one of the most important in “The Pit.” Main character In the story, Voshchev is looking for the “substance of existence” in order to feel the fullness of his life. The “substance of existence” needs to be developed in order to give it to children like Nastya. But Nastya dies from loneliness, from “boredom”, which sucks the life out of her, from the inability to connect with the world.

... The boy Yegor from “The Iron Old Woman” is very close to Voshchev in his worldview. People like Yegor and Voshchev think that the world is organized according to the same laws as themselves, therefore they communicate with the world as their equal. In other words, the main thing for Platonov is that his heroes feel like they are part of a huge whole, that they consider everything they look at equal to themselves in “body” and “spirit.”

in the yard. The boy thinks about the herbs living in the ravine: “...nothing, they all live here and are not afraid, and he will be with them.” The child’s worldview in the story has much more meaning than it seems at first glance.

After all, adults are busy, they have no time to look back, stop, think. They simply live their lives, “wasting time sleeping.” This situation is unacceptable for a boy. Therefore, Egor, when everyone is sleeping, goes “outside” to experience the world: “I don’t want to sleep, I want to live.”

"find out everything." “Before everything” must be understood in the literal sense, because everything is interesting to him, everything is important: “Who is this?”, “Mom, who are you?”, “Mom, who is the old woman?”

Indeed, it’s time to talk about the old woman, after whom the story is named. The image of the old woman seems to be a link between life and death, being and non-being. Before us is probably symbolic image death that destroys all living things. Conventionally, death is presented in the image of an “iron old woman,” but Yegor sees it as quite real, existing precisely because of his special perception of the world. Therefore, hiding in a ravine at night, guarding the old woman, Yegor hears a “sad sound,” “the crunch of dried bones.”

“the sigh of all the dead” is a sigh of longing for life. Yegor feels sorry for the dead, and he wants to kill the old woman. But even Platonov’s little hero understands that only the inanimate can fight the inanimate. The boy needs to become an "iron old man." Here he plays the role of little St. George the Victorious, ready to accomplish a feat for the sake of people. But for Yegor this is a big sacrifice, and he says: “I will deliberately be made of iron in order to scare the old woman, let her die. And then I will not be made of iron - I don’t want to, I will be a boy with my mother.”

“To the Iron Old Woman,” I would like to say that this tiny story focuses the main features of Plato’s prose, “absorbs” its most important motives and images: compassion for all living things, the search for the “substance of existence,” a sense of the integrity of the world, motives of boredom, roads as attempts to comprehend the world and , finally, the idea of ​​​​saving the dead, which Platonov gleaned from the teachings of I. F. Fedorov. This makes the story "The Iron Old Woman" one of best works writer.

Platonov Andrey

Iron Old Woman

Andrey Platonovich PLATONOV

IRON OLD WOMAN

The leaves on the tree rustled; the wind sang in them, moving across the world.

Young Yegor sat under a tree and listened to the voice of the leaves, their gentle muttering words.

Yegor wanted to know what these words of the wind meant, what they were telling him, and he asked, turning his face to the wind:

Who are you? What are you telling me?

The wind fell silent, as if he himself was listening to the boy at this time, and then slowly muttered again, moving the leaves and repeating the previous words.

Who are you? - Yegor asked again, not seeing anyone.

Nobody answered him anymore; the wind left and the leaves fell asleep. Yegor waited to see what would happen now and saw that evening was already coming. The yellow light of the late sun illuminated the old autumn tree, and life became more boring. I had to go home, have dinner, sleep in the dark. Yegor did not like to sleep, he loved to live without interruption in order to see everything that lived without him, and he regretted that at night he had to close his eyes, and then the stars would burn in the sky alone, without his participation.

He picked up a beetle crawling through the grass to go home for the night and looked into its small, motionless face, into its kind black eyes, looking at both Yegor and the whole world at the same time.

Who are you? - Yegor asked the beetle.

The beetle did not answer anything, but Yegor understood that the beetle knew something that Yegor himself did not know, but only he was pretending to be small, he purposely became a beetle and was silent, but he himself was not a beetle, but someone else - no one knows who.

You're lying! - said Yegor and turned the beetle upside down to see who he was.

The beetle was silent; he moved his hard legs with evil force, protecting life from man and not recognizing him. Yegor was surprised by the persistent courage of the beetle, he fell in love with it and was even more convinced that it was not a beetle, but someone more important and smart.

You're lying, you're a bug! - Yegor said in a whisper right into the beetle’s face, examining it with enthusiasm. - Don’t pretend, I’ll still find out who you are. Better open up right away.

The beetle swung at Yegor with all its legs and arms at once. Then Yegor did not argue with him anymore.

When I get to you, I won’t say anything either. - And he released the beetle into the air so that it would fly away about its business.

The beetle first flew, and then sat on the ground and walked on foot. And Yegor suddenly became bored without the beetle. He realized that he would never see him again, and if he saw him, he would not recognize him, because there were many other beetles in the village. And this beetle will live somewhere, and then die, and everyone will forget it, only Yegor will remember this unknown beetle.

A dried leaf fell from a tree. He once grew on a tree from the earth, looked at the sky for a long time and now again returned from the sky to the earth, as if home from long journey. A raw worm, emaciated and pale, crawled onto the leaf.

“Who is this?” Yegor was puzzled in front of the worm. “He has no eyes and no head, what is he thinking about?” Yegor took the worm and took it to his home.

It was already quite dark; Lights were lit in the huts, all the people gathered from the fields to live together, because it became dark everywhere.

At home, his mother gave Yegor dinner, then told him to go to bed and covered him with a blanket over his head for the night so that he would not be afraid to sleep and would not hear the terrible sounds that sometimes come from fields, forests and ravines in the middle of the night. Egor hid under the blanket and unclenched left hand, where he had the worm all the time.

Who are you? - Yegor asked, bringing the worm closer to his face.

The worm was dozing, he did not move in his unclenched hand. He smelled of the river, fresh earth and grass; he was small, pure and gentle, probably still a cub, or maybe already a thin little old man.

Why are you living? - said Yegor. - Do you feel good or not?

The worm curled up in the palm of his hand, feeling the night and wanting peace. But Yegor did not want to sleep: he still wanted to live, to play with someone, he wanted it to be morning outside the window and he could get out of bed. But it was night outside - it had just begun, it was long, you couldn’t sleep through it all; and if you fall asleep, you will still wake up before dawn, at that terrible time when everyone is sleeping - both people and grass, and the awakened person is alone in the world - no one sees or remembers him.

The leaves on the tree rustled; the wind sang in them, moving across the world. Young Yegor sat under a tree and listened to the voice of the leaves, their gentle muttering words.

Yegor wanted to know what these words of the wind meant, what they were telling him, and he asked, turning his face to the wind:

Who are you? What are you telling me?

The wind fell silent, as if he. He himself listened to the boy at this time, and then slowly muttered again, moving the leaves and repeating the previous words.

Who are you? - Yegor asked again, not seeing anyone.

Nobody answered him anymore; the wind left and the leaves fell asleep. Yegor waited to see what would happen now and saw that evening was already coming. The yellow light of the late sun illuminated the old autumn tree, and life became more boring. I had to go home, have dinner, sleep in the dark. Yegor did not like to sleep, he loved to live without interruption in order to see everything that lived without him, and he regretted that at night he had to close his eyes, and then the stars would burn in the sky alone, without his participation.

He picked up a beetle crawling through the grass to go home for the night and looked into its small, motionless face, into its kind black eyes, looking at both Yegor and the whole world at the same time.

Who are you? - Yegor asked the beetle.

The beetle did not answer anything, but Yegor understood that the beetle knew something that Yegor himself did not know, but only he was pretending to be small, he purposely became a beetle and was silent, but he himself was not a beetle, but someone else - no one knows who.

You're lying! - said Yegor and turned the beetle upside down to see who he was.

The beetle was silent; he moved his hard legs with evil force, defending life from man and not recognizing him. Yegor was surprised by the persistent courage of the beetle, he fell in love with it and was even more convinced that it was not a beetle, but someone more important and smart.

“You’re lying, that you’re a beetle,” Yegor said in a whisper into the beetle’s face, examining it with enthusiasm. - Don’t pretend, I’ll still find out who you are. Better open up right away.

The beetle swung at Yegor with all its legs and arms at once. Then Yegor did not argue with him anymore.

When I get to you, I won’t say anything either. - And he released the beetle into the air so that it would fly away about its business.

The beetle first flew, and then sat on the ground and walked on foot. And Yegor suddenly became bored without the beetle. He realized that he would never see him again and if he saw him, he would not recognize him, because there were many other beetles in the village. And this beetle will live somewhere, and then die, and everyone will forget it, only Yegor will remember this unknown beetle.

A dried leaf fell from a tree. He once grew on a tree from the ground, looked at the sky for a long time and now returned from the sky to the ground again, as if home from a long journey. A raw worm, emaciated and pale, crawled onto the leaf.

“Who is this? - Yegor was puzzled in front of the worm. “He has no eyes and no head, what is he thinking about?” - Yegor took the worm and took it to his home.

It was already quite dark; Lights were lit in the huts, all the people gathered from the fields to live together, because it became dark everywhere.

At home, his mother gave Yegor dinner, then told him to go to bed and covered him with a blanket over his head for the night so that he would not be afraid to sleep and would not hear the terrible sounds that sometimes come from fields, forests and ravines in the middle of the night. Yegor hid under the blanket and unclenched his left hand, where he had the worm all the time.

Who are you? - Yegor asked, bringing the worm closer to his face.

The worm was dozing, he did not move in his unclenched hand. He smelled of the river, fresh earth and grass; he was small, pure and gentle - probably still a cub, or maybe already a thin little old man.

Why are you living? - said Yegor. - Do you feel good or not?

The worm curled up in the palm of his hand, feeling the night and wanting peace. But Yegor did not want to sleep; he still wanted to live, to play with someone, he wanted it to be morning outside the window and he could get out of bed. But it was night outside - it had just begun, it was long, you couldn’t sleep through it all; and if you fall asleep, you will still wake up before dawn, at that terrible time when everyone is sleeping, both people and grass, and the awakened person is alone in the world - no one sees or remembers him.

The worm lay in Yegor's hand.

Let me be you, and you be me! - Yegor said to the worm. - Then I will find out who you are, and you will become like me, you will be a person, you will be better.

The worm disagreed; he was probably already asleep without thinking about who Yegor was.

“I’m tired of being all Yegor and Yegor,” said one boy. - I want to be something else. Wake up, worm. Let’s talk to you - you think about me, and I’ll think about you...

The mother heard her son's conversation and approached him. She was not yet asleep, she was walking around the hut and finishing the last chores that she had not completed during the day.

“Are you not sleeping there, muttering, what a jokester,” she said and tucked the blanket under Yegor’s feet. - Sleep. Otherwise, the iron old woman walks into the field in the dark, she looks for those who are not sleeping, and takes them with her.

Mom, who is she? - asked Yegor.

She is iron, you can’t see her, she lives in darkness, she frightens you with fear, and it takes people’s hearts away...

Who is she?

Who knows, son. “Go to sleep,” said the mother. “Don’t be afraid of her, she’s probably nothing, some poor old lady.”

Where does she live? - Yegor recognized.

She walks through the ravines, looks for grass, gnaws dry bones, and when someone dies, she is glad, she wants to remain alone in the world, and everything lives, everything lives, everything wants to wait until everyone dies and she walks alone, the iron old woman. Well, go to sleep now, she doesn’t walk around the yards, I’ll lock the door...

The mother left her son. Yegor hid the worm under his pillow so that he could sleep there warmly and not be afraid of anything.

Mom, who are you? - he asked.

But his mother did not answer him. She decided that Yegor would talk and talk a little more and fall asleep, he was obviously dozing.

“Who am I? - Yegor thought and didn’t know. - Someone I am too. It doesn’t happen that I’m nobody.”

The hut became quiet. The mother went to bed, the father had already been asleep for a long time. Yegor listened. In the yard, the fence creaked from time to time, and the maple tree growing near the fence shook it. Yegor noticed that even in the calmest weather, the maple tree sways little by little, as if it were reaching somewhere, wanting to grow or move quickly and leave, and the fence constantly creaks from it, complaining of restlessness. It must be boring to be a tree; it lives in one place.

“Mom,” Yegor called quietly, sticking his head out from under the blanket. - What is maple?

But the mother fell asleep, no one answered Yegor. He peered into the darkness; the window overlooking the millet field shone with the vague light of the night, as if outside the window there was a depth of still water. Yegor sat up in bed, thinking about what was happening now in the dark field and who was going there alone with a knapsack of bread on a long journey. Probably someone is walking along an empty road and is not afraid of anything. Who is he?

From afar, someone sighed long, then groaned and fell silent. Yegor stared out the window; the former light of the dark earth illuminated the glass, but the dull, groaning sound was repeated again - whether it was a cart driving in the distance or an iron old woman walking along a ravine and yearning that people live and are born, but she can’t wait to be alone in the world. “I’ll go and find out everything,” Yegor decided. “What’s there at night, who is the old woman?”

He put on his pants and went outside barefoot.

The maple was moving its branches, getting ready to set off, the burdocks were rubbing against the fence, and the cow was chewing in the barn. No one was sleeping in the yard.

Clear stars shone in the sky; there were so many of them that they seemed close, so at night under the stars it was just as not scary as during the day among wildflowers.

Egor passed the millet, passed dormant, whispering sunflowers and along an abandoned, forgotten road headed towards the ravine.

The ravine was old, it was not washed away more water, and it was overgrown with weeds and bushes. Old men and women stored twigs here and in winter they wove baskets from them in their huts.

When Yegor walked through the thickets of weeds and bushes and found himself at the bottom of the ravine, he saw that it was quieter and darker here than at the top of the earth - not a blade of grass, not a leaf moved here - and he became afraid.

Stars, look at me,” Yegor whispered. - Otherwise I’m afraid alone.

But only three stars were visible from the ravine, and they flickered faintly at a distant, receding height, as if they were moving away and fading there in the darkness.

Yegor touched the grass, saw a pebble, then shook a burdock, the same as in his yard, and recovered from his fear: nothing, they all live here and are not afraid, and he will be with them. Soon he noticed a small cave dug into the side of a ravine to remove clay from there, and climbed in. He now wanted to take a little nap - he was tired of living and walking during the day.

“And when the iron old woman passes by, I’ll call her,” Yegor said to himself and, huddling in the ground from the cool of the night, he closed his eyes.

It became completely quiet, and everything went numb, all the stars were hidden by the heavenly curtain, and the grass drooped, as if dead.

A sad sound resounded in this low land, like a sigh of regret from all the dead people. Yegor immediately opened his eyes, hearing this languid sound in his sleep. Above him stood the dark body of a man, large and dim from the surrounding black night, ready to be and ready to disappear.

Who are you? - asked Yegor. -Are you an old woman?

Old woman, said the old woman.

Are you made of iron?.. I need iron.

Why do you need me? - asked the iron old woman.

I want to see you - who are you, why are you? - said Yegor.

If you’re going to die, then I’ll tell you,” answered the old woman’s voice.

Tell me, I’ll die,” Yegor agreed and took a lump of clay in his hand to cover the old woman’s eyes and overpower her.

Come to me, I'll tell you in your ear. - And the old woman moved for the first time, and again the familiar dull sound of rustling iron or the crunching of dried bones was heard. - Come to me, I’ll tell you everything, and then you’ll die. Because you are little, you still have a long time to live, and I have to wait a long time for your death. Have pity on me, I'm old.

“Who are you, tell me,” Yegor asked. - Don't be afraid of me, I'm not afraid of you.

The old woman leaned towards Yegor and began to approach him. The boy pressed his back to the ground in his cave and with open eyes looked at the iron old woman leaning towards him. When she bent over and approached him and there was little darkness left between them, Yegor shouted:

I know, I know you. I don't need you, I'll kill you! “He threw a handful of clay into her face and froze and sank to the ground.

But even though he was frozen, lying face down, Yegor once again heard the voice of the iron old woman:

You don't know me, you didn't see me. But all your life I will wait for your death and destroy you, because you are not afraid of me.

“I’m a little afraid, but then I’ll get used to it and stop,” Yegor thought and forgot.

He woke up from the familiar warmth, he was carried by soft big hands, and he asked:

Who are you? Aren't you an old woman?

Who are you? - asked his mother.

Yegor opened his eyes and closed them again: the light of the sun illuminated the entire village, the maple tree in their yard and the whole earth. Yegor opened his eyes again and saw his mother’s neck, against which his head rested.

Why did you run into the ravine? - asked the mother. - We were looking for you early in the morning; your father left to work in the field, all in doubt.

Yegor said that he fought with an old iron woman in a ravine, but he just didn’t have time to see her face because he threw clay at her.

The mother thought for a moment, then she lowered Yegor to the ground and looked at him as if he were a stranger.

Walk with your own feet, fighter... You dreamed it.

No, I really saw her,” said Yegor. - There are iron old women.

“Or maybe they do,” the mother said and took her son home.

Mom, who is she?

But I don’t know, I heard, I haven’t seen her myself. People say that fate, or something, is our grief. As you grow up, you will know for yourself.

“Fate,” said Yegor, not knowing what it means. - I’ll grow a little more and catch the old iron woman...

Catch her, catch her, son,” said the mother. - I’ll peel your potatoes and fry them now.

“Come on,” Yegor agreed. - I wanted to eat, old women are strong. I'm tired of her.

They entered the vestibule of the hut. In the hallway, a familiar worm crawled along the floor, returning from Yegor’s bed to his home in the ground. “Crawl, dumb! - Yegor became angry. - Look, you. He never said who he was. I'll find out later anyway. And if I find out about the old woman, I’ll become an iron old man myself.”

Yegor stopped in the hallway and thought: “I’ll be the iron one on purpose to scare the old woman so she’ll die. And then I won’t be made of iron - I don’t want to, I’ll be a boy with my mother again.”