The Girl Who Always Found Helpers

The Girl Who Always Found Helpers

Once, in a large family, there lived six brothers and their younger sister. The brothers often traveled on business. Whenever they went far from home, their sister stayed with their wives. For some reason, the sisters-in-law did not like the girl. Perhaps they envied the care her brothers showed her. Perhaps they simply liked giving orders. Whenever the men were away, they invented harder and harder tasks for her. One morning they said, “Go into the forest and bring back a great bundle of firewood. But do not tie it with anything.” The girl knew that if she piled the branches together, they would scatter all along the road. She went into the forest and sang quietly about how lonely she was without her brothers. A snake named Jambro heard her. “Why are you so sad?” he asked. She told him about the strange task. “Gather the wood,” said Jambro. “I will help.” She made a bundle, and Jambro curled gently around it like a living rope. “Now carry it,” he said. “And when you reach home, set it down softly.” So she did. Her sisters-in-law were astonished. Next they gave her a small clay jug. “Bring us milk from a tigress.” The girl was frightened, but she went to the forest. Near the tigress’s den, she saw two tiger cubs. “Why do you look so sad?” they asked. “I was sent for milk from your mother. I do not wish to trouble anyone, and I do not know what to do.” The cubs whispered together. “Hide here and be quiet. We will help in a way that hurts no one.” When their mother returned, they waited for a calm moment and asked her for a little milk for the girl. When the path was safe, they gave her the small jug. “Go home quickly,” they told her. “Thank you,” she whispered. The sisters-in-law were even more surprised when she returned. A few days later, they sent her for bear’s milk. Once again, the girl met not enemies, but helpers. Two bear cubs listened to her, helped her obtain a little milk, and showed her the safe path back. Then the sisters-in-law handed her a water jug with a large hole in the bottom. “Bring water from the spring,” they said, “and do not lose a single drop.” The girl sat beside the water. “How can I fill a broken jug?” A little frog peeped out of the reeds. “Why be sad when we can think together?” The frog pressed herself against the hole from below. “Fill it now,” she said. The girl filled the jug, carried it carefully home, and once again the impossible task was done. Then the sisters-in-law poured a whole basket of tiny mustard seeds onto the ground. “Gather every last seed,” they ordered. The girl looked at the hundreds of little grains and sighed. Just then, a flock of doves settled in the yard. “What has happened?” they asked. She explained. “This is work for many beaks, not two hands,” said the doves. They set to work together. Peck, peck, peck. One seed, then another, then another. Before long, the basket was full again. Once more the sisters-in-law commanded, “Bring a great bundle of leaves from the forest, and do not tie it.” There the girl met another snake, named Horhorang. He heard her story and said, “Gather the leaves. I will keep them together for you.” Again, an impossible order became possible because someone had not walked past another creature’s trouble. The sisters-in-law grew angrier and angrier. They no longer wanted to give the girl work or test her skill. They simply disliked that she kept returning. One day they noticed flowers high in a tree. “Climb up and pick them,” they said. “We need them for the festival.” The girl climbed the tree. Then the sisters-in-law laid thorny branches below so that she could hardly climb down safely, and they went away. This time there was no frog nearby, no doves, no Jambro. The girl waited. After a while, her brothers returned from a distant journey. They stopped to rest under the same tree. A drop fell onto one brother’s hand. “But there is no rain,” he said. Then another drop fell. The brothers looked up and saw their sister. “How did you get up there?” they cried. They cleared away the thorns and helped her down. The girl told them everything: the strange orders, the dangerous errands, the broken jug, the scattered seeds, and the many creatures who had helped her in her hardest moments. The brothers went home deeply troubled. They gathered the family and said, “In this house, no one has the right to hurt another person or deliberately place them in danger.” The sisters-in-law had to hear the whole story from beginning to end. At first they tried to excuse themselves. Then they fell silent. At last they saw how much fear and loneliness they had caused. “We acted badly,” they admitted. From then on, there were no more impossible tasks. And the girl never forgot the friends who had helped her in the forest. In hot weather she left clean water for birds. She did not disturb frogs’ shelters near the spring. She kept away from the dens of wild animals, and she remembered Jambro and Horhorang with gratitude. For help has a curious way of making invisible paths between living beings when it is given without mockery and without demanding a reward. Then even on the hardest day, someone may be there to say, “Do not be afraid. Let us try together.”

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨