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Victor Dragunsky
Deniskin's stories

Paul's Englishman

“Tomorrow is the first of September,” my mother said, “and now autumn has come, and you will go to the second grade already. Oh, how time flies!

- And on this occasion, - dad picked up, - we will now "slaughter a watermelon"!

And he took a knife and cut the watermelon. When he cut, such a full, pleasant, green crackle was heard that my back turned cold with a premonition of how I would eat this watermelon. And I had already opened my mouth to clutch at a pink watermelon slice, but then the door opened and Pavel entered the room. We were all terribly happy, because he had not been with us for a long time, and we missed him.

- Whoa, who's here! Dad said. - Pavel himself. Pavel the Warthog himself!

“Sit down with us, Pavlik, there is a watermelon,” my mother said. - Deniska, move over.

I said:

- Hello! - and gave him a place next to him.

He said:

- Hello! - and sat down.

And we began to eat, and ate for a long time, and were silent. We didn't feel like talking. And what is there to talk about when there is such deliciousness in the mouth!

And when Paul was given the third piece, he said:

Oh, I love watermelon. Even more. My grandmother never lets me eat it.

- And why? Mom asked.

- She says that after a watermelon I get not a dream, but a continuous running around.

“Really,” Dad said. - That's why we eat watermelon early in the morning. By evening, its action ends and you can sleep peacefully. Come on, don't be afraid.

“I am not afraid,” said Pavel.

And we all got down to business again, and again we were silent for a long time. And when mom began to remove the crusts, dad said:

“And why, Pavel, haven’t been with us for so long?”

“Yes,” I said. - Where have you been? What did you do?

And then Pavel puffed up, blushed, looked around, and suddenly casually let slip, as if reluctantly:

- What did he do, what did he do ... He studied English, that's what he did.

I was right in a hurry. I immediately realized that all summer was in vain. He fiddled with hedgehogs, played bast shoes, dealt with trifles. But Pavel, he did not waste time, no, you're naughty, he worked on himself, he raised his level of education. He studied English language and now I suppose he will be able to correspond with the English pioneers and read English books! I immediately felt that I was dying of envy, and then my mother added:

- Here, Deniska, study. This is not your lappet!

- Well done, - said dad, - respect!

Pavel directly beamed:

- A student, Seva, came to visit us. So he works with me every day. It's been two whole months now. Totally tortured.

What about difficult English? I asked.

"Go crazy," Pavel sighed.

“It wouldn’t be difficult,” Dad intervened. - The devil himself will break his leg there. Very difficult spelling. It is spelled Liverpool and pronounced Manchester.

- Well, yes! - I said. - Right, Pavel?

- It’s just a disaster, - said Pavel, - I was completely exhausted from these activities, I lost two hundred grams.

- So why don't you use your knowledge, Pavlik? Mom said. “Why didn’t you say hello to us in English when you came in?”

“I haven’t gone through hello yet,” said Pavel.

- Well, you ate a watermelon, why didn’t you say “thank you”?

“I said,” Pavel said.

- Well, yes, you said in Russian, but in English?

“We haven’t reached the “thank you” yet,” Pavel said. – Very difficult preaching.

Then I said:

- Pavel, and you teach me how to say “one, two, three” in English.

“I haven’t studied it yet,” Pavel said.

– What did you study? I shouted. Have you learned anything in two months?

“I learned how to speak English Petya,” said Pavel.

- Well, how?

“True,” I said. – Well, what else do you know in English?

“That’s all for now,” Pavel said.

watermelon lane

I came from the yard after football tired and dirty, like I don’t know who. I had fun because we beat house number five with a score of 44:37. Thank God there was no one in the bathroom. I quickly rinsed my hands, ran into the room and sat down at the table. I said:

- I, mother, can now eat a bull.

She smiled.

- A live bull? - she said.

“Aha,” I said, “alive, with hooves and nostrils!”

Mom immediately left and returned a second later with a plate in her hands. The plate smoked so nicely, and I immediately guessed that there was pickle in it. Mom put the plate in front of me.

- Eat! Mom said.

But it was noodles. Dairy. All in foam. It is almost the same as semolina. There are always lumps in porridge, and foam in noodles. I just die as soon as I see foam, not to eat. I said:

– I will not noodles!

Mom said:

- No talking!

- There are foams!

Mom said:

- You will drive me into a coffin! What foams? Who do you look like? You are the spitting image of Koschey!

I said:

“Better kill me!”

But my mother blushed all over and slammed her hand on the table:

- You're killing me!

And then dad came in. He looked at us and asked:

- What is the dispute about? Why such a heated debate?

Mom said:

- Enjoy! Doesn't want to eat. The guy will soon be eleven years old, and he, like a girl, is naughty.

I'm almost nine. But my mother always says that I'll be eleven soon. When I was eight years old, she said that I would soon be ten.

Papa said:

- Why doesn't he want to? What, the soup is burnt or too salty?

I said:

- This is noodles, and there are foams in it ...

Papa shook his head.

- Ah, that's it! His Excellency Von-Baron Kutkin-Putkin does not want to eat milk noodles! He should probably serve marzipans on a silver tray!

I laughed because I love it when dad jokes.

- What is marzipan?

“I don’t know,” Dad said, “probably something sweet and smells like cologne.” Especially for the von-baron Kutkin-Putkin!.. Well, let's eat noodles!

- Yes, foams!

- You're stuck, brother, that's what! Dad said and turned to Mom. “Take his noodles,” he said, “otherwise I just hate it!” He doesn't want porridge, he can't have noodles!.. What whims! Hate!..

He sat down on a chair and looked at me. His face was as if I was a stranger to him. He did not say anything, but only looked like this - in a strange way. And I immediately stopped smiling - I realized that the jokes were already over. And dad was so silent for a long time, and we were all so silent, and then he said, and as if not to me, and not to my mother, but to someone who is his friend:

“No, I’ll probably never forget that terrible autumn,” dad said, “how sad, uncomfortable it was then in Moscow ... War, the Nazis are rushing to the city. It's cold, hungry, adults all walk around frowning, they listen to the radio every hour ... Well, everything is clear, isn't it? I was then about eleven or twelve years old, and, most importantly, then I grew very quickly, stretched upward, and I was terribly hungry all the time. I didn't have enough food. I always asked my parents for bread, but they didn’t have enough, and they gave me theirs, but I didn’t have enough of that either. And I went to bed hungry, and in my dream I saw bread. Yes that … Everyone was like that. The history is known. Written, rewritten, read, reread...

And then one day I was walking along a small alley, not far from our house, and suddenly I saw a hefty truck, littered to the top with watermelons. I don't even know how they got to Moscow. Some stray watermelons. They must have been brought in to give out cards. And upstairs in the car there is an uncle, so thin, unshaven and toothless, or something - his mouth is very retracted. And so he takes a watermelon and throws it to his friend, and he - to the saleswoman in white, and she - to someone else fourth ... And they do it so cleverly in a chain: the watermelon rolls along the conveyor from the car to the store. And if you look from the outside, people are playing with green-striped balls, and this is a very interesting game. I stood like that for a long time and looked at them, and the uncle, who is very thin, also looked at me and kept smiling at me with his toothless mouth, a nice man. But then I got tired of standing and already wanted to go home, when suddenly someone in their chain made a mistake, looked, or something, or simply missed, and please - trrah! .. The heavy watermelon suddenly fell on the pavement. Right next to me. It cracked somehow crookedly, sideways, and a snow-white thin crust was visible, and behind it such a purple, red flesh with sugar streaks and obliquely set bones, as if the sly eyes of a watermelon looked at me and smiled from the middle. And here, when I saw this wonderful pulp and splashes of watermelon juice, and when I smelled this smell, so fresh and strong, only then I realized how much I want to eat. But I turned around and went home. And I did not have time to move away, suddenly I hear - they are calling:

"Boy, boy!"

I looked around, and this worker of mine, who is toothless, is running towards me, and he has a broken watermelon in his hands. He says:

“Come on, honey, watermelon, drag it, eat at home!”

And I did not have time to look back, and he had already thrust me a watermelon and was running to his place, further unloading. And I hugged the watermelon and barely dragged it home, and called my friend Valka, and we both ate this huge watermelon. Ah, what a treat it was! Can't be transferred! Valka and I cut off huge pieces, the entire width of the watermelon, and when we bit, the edges of the watermelon slices touched our ears, and our ears were wet, and pink watermelon juice dripped from them. And the bellies of Valka and I swelled up and also looked like watermelons. If you click on such a belly with your finger, you know what kind of ringing will go! Like a drum. And we regretted only one thing, that we had no bread, otherwise we would have eaten even better. Yes…

Dad turned away and looked out the window.

- And then it got even worse - autumn turned around, - he said, - it became completely cold, winter, dry and fine snow fell from the sky, and it was immediately blown away by a dry and sharp wind. And we had very little food, and the Nazis went on and on towards Moscow, and I was hungry all the time. And now I dreamed not only of bread. I also dreamed of watermelons. And one morning I saw that I didn’t have a stomach at all, it just seemed to be stuck to the spine, and I couldn’t think about anything except food. And I called Valka and told him:

“Let’s go, Valka, let’s go to that watermelon lane, maybe they are unloading watermelons there again, and maybe one will fall again, and maybe they will give it to us again.”

And we wrapped ourselves in some kind of grandmother's scarves, because the cold was terrible, and went to the watermelon lane. It was a gray day outside, there were few people, and it was quiet in Moscow, not like now. There was no one at all in the watermelon alley, and we stood in front of the store doors and waited for the watermelon truck to arrive. And it was already getting dark, but he still did not come. I said:

“Probably coming tomorrow…”

“Yes,” said Valka, “probably tomorrow.”

And we went home with him. And the next day we went to the alley again, and again in vain. And every day we walked like this and waited, but the truck did not come ...

Papa was silent. He looked out the window, and his eyes were as if he was seeing something that neither I nor my mother could see. Mom came up to him, but dad immediately got up and left the room. Mom followed him. And I was left alone. I sat and also looked out the window, where papa was looking, and it seemed to me that I was seeing papa and his comrade right now, how they trembled and waited. The wind beats on them, and the snow too, but they tremble and wait, and wait, and wait ... And this just made me terribly, and I directly grabbed my plate and quickly, spoon by spoon, sipped it all, and then tilted to himself, and drank the rest, and wiped the bottom with bread, and licked the spoon.

Would…

Once I sat and sat, and for no reason at all suddenly thought up such a thing that I was even surprised myself. I thought that this is how good it would be if everything around the world was arranged the other way around. Well, for example, so that children are in charge in all matters, and adults should have to obey them in everything, in everything. In general, adults should be like children, and children like adults. That would be great, it would be very interesting.

Firstly, I imagine how my mother would “like” such a story that I go around and command her as I want, and dad would probably “like” it too, but there’s nothing to say about my grandmother. Needless to say, I would remember them all! For example, my mother would be sitting at dinner, and I would say to her:

“Why did you start a fashion without bread? Here's more news! Look at yourself in the mirror, who do you look like? Poured Koschey! Eat now, they tell you! - And she would eat with her head down, and I would only give the command: - Faster! Don't hold your cheek! Thinking again? Are you solving the world's problems? Chew properly! And don't rock in your chair!"

And then dad would come in after work, and he wouldn’t even have time to undress, and I would have already screamed:

"Yeah, he showed up! You always have to wait! My hands now! As it should, as it should be mine, there is nothing to smear the dirt. After you, the towel is scary to look at. Brush three and do not spare soap. Come on, show me your nails! It's horror, not nails. It's just claws! Where are the scissors? Don't move! I do not cut with any meat, but I cut it very carefully. Don't sniffle, you're not a girl... That's it. Now sit down at the table."

He would sit down and quietly say to his mother:

"Well, how are you?!"

And she would also say quietly:

"Nothing, thanks!"

And I would immediately:

“Table talkers! When I eat, I am deaf and dumb! Remember this for the rest of your life. Golden Rule! Dad! Put down the newspaper now, you are my punishment!”

And they would sit with me like silk, and when my grandmother came, I would squint, clasp my hands and wail:

"Dad! Mother! Admire our grandmother! What a view! The chest is open, the hat is on the back of the head! Cheeks are red, the whole neck is wet! Okay, nothing to say. Admit it, did you play hockey again? What is that dirty stick? Why did you bring her into the house? What? Is this a stick? Get her out of my sight right now—to the back door!”

Then I would walk around the room and say to all three of them:

“After dinner, everyone sit down for lessons, and I’ll go to the cinema!” Of course, they would immediately whine and whimper:

“And we are with you! And we also want to go to the cinema!”

And I would them:

“Nothing, nothing! Yesterday we went to a birthday party, on Sunday I took you to the circus! Look! I enjoyed having fun every day. Sit at home! Here you have thirty kopecks for ice cream, and that’s it!”

Then the grandmother would pray:

“Take me at least! After all, each child can bring one adult with them for free!”

But I would shirk, I would say:

“And people over seventy years old are not allowed to enter this picture. Stay at home, you bastard!"

And I would walk past them, deliberately tapping my heels loudly, as if I didn’t notice that their eyes were all wet, and I would start getting dressed, and I would turn around in front of the mirror for a long time, and sing, and they would be even worse from this. were tormented, and I would open the door to the stairs and say ...

But I did not have time to think of what I would say, because at that time my mother came in, the real one, alive, and said:

Are you still sitting? Eat now, look who you look like? Poured Koschey!

“Where is it seen, where is it heard…”

During the break, our October counselor Lucy ran up to me and said:

- Deniska, can you perform at the concert? We decided to organize two kids to be satirists. Want?

I speak:

- I want it all! Only you explain: what are satirists?

Lucy says:

- You see, we have various problems ... Well, for example, losers or lazy people, they need to be caught. Understood? It is necessary to speak about them so that everyone laughs, this will have a sobering effect on them.

I speak:

They are not drunk, they are just lazy.

“That’s what they say: “sobering,” Lucy laughed. – But in fact, these guys will just think about it, they will become embarrassed, and they will improve. Understood? Well, in general, do not pull: if you want - agree, if you don't want - refuse!

I said:

- All right, come on!

Then Lucy asked:

- Do you have a partner?

Lucy was surprised.

How do you live without a friend?

- I have a comrade, Mishka. And there is no partner.

Lucy smiled again.

- It's almost the same thing. Is he musical, is your Bear?

- No, ordinary.

- Can you sing?

“Very quiet… But I’ll teach him to sing louder, don’t worry.”

Here Lucy was delighted:

- After the lessons, drag him to the small hall, there will be a rehearsal!

And I set off with all my might to look for Mishka. He stood in the buffet and ate sausage.

- Mishka, do you want to be a satirist?

And he said:

- Wait, let me eat.

I stood and watched him eat. He is small himself, and the sausage is thicker than his neck. He held this sausage with his hands and ate it straight whole, without cutting it, and the skin cracked and burst when he bit it, and hot odorous juice splashed from there.

And I could not stand it and said to Aunt Katya:

- Give me, please, also a sausage, as soon as possible!

And Aunt Katya immediately handed me a bowl. And I was in a hurry so that Mishka would not have time to eat his sausage without me: I alone would not be so tasty. And so I also took my sausage with my hands and, without cleaning it, began to gnaw it, and hot odorous juice splashed out of it. And Mishka and I gnawed like that for a couple, and burned ourselves, and looked at each other, and smiled.

And then I told him that we would be satirists, and he agreed, and we barely made it to the end of the lessons, and then ran to the small hall for a rehearsal. Our counselor Lucy was already sitting there, and with her was one boy, about the fourth, very ugly, with small ears and big eyes.

Lucy said:

– Here they are! Meet our school poet Andrey Shestakov.

We said:

– Great!

And they turned away so that he would not ask.

And the poet said to Lucy:

- What is it, performers, or what?

He said:

“Was there really nothing better?”

Lucy said:

- Just what you need!

But then our singing teacher Boris Sergeevich came. He went straight to the piano.

- Come on, let's start! Where are the verses?

Andryushka took a piece of paper out of his pocket and said:

- Here. I took the meter and chorus from Marshak, from a fairy tale about a donkey, grandfather and grandson: “Where has this been seen, where has it been heard ...”

Boris Sergeevich nodded.



Dad studies for Vasya all year.

Dad decides, and Vasya gives up?!

Mishka and I just jumped. Of course, the guys quite often ask their parents to solve the problem for them, and then show the teacher as if they were such heroes. And at the board, no boom-boom - deuce! The case is well known. Oh yes Andryushka, he caught it great!


Chalk lined asphalt into squares,
Manechka and Tanechka are jumping here,
Where is it seen, where is it heard -
They play "classes" but don't go to class?!

It's great again. We really enjoyed! This Andryushka is just a real fellow, like Pushkin!

Boris Sergeevich said:

- Nothing, not bad! And the music will be the simplest, something like that. - And he took Andryushka's verses and, quietly strumming, sang them all in a row.

It turned out very cleverly, we even clapped our hands.

And Boris Sergeevich said:

- Well, sir, who are our performers?

And Lucy pointed at Mishka and me:

- Well, - said Boris Sergeevich, - Misha has a good ear ... True, Deniska does not sing very correctly.

I said:

- But it's loud.

And we began to repeat these verses to the music and repeated them probably fifty or a thousand times, and I yelled very loudly, and everyone calmed me down and made comments:

- Do not worry! You are quiet! Calm down! Don't be so loud!

Andryushka was especially excited. He completely blew me away. But I only sang loudly, I didn't want to sing softer, because real singing is exactly when it's loud!

... And then one day, when I came to school, I saw an announcement in the locker room:

ATTENTION!

Today at a big break

there will be a performance in the small hall

flying patrol

« Pioneer Satyricon»!

Performed by a duet of kids!

One day!

Come all!

And something immediately clicked in me. I ran to class. Mishka sat there and looked out the window.

I said:

- Well, today we perform!

And Mishka suddenly mumbled:

- I don't feel like speaking...

I was right dumbfounded. How - reluctance? That's it! We've been rehearsing, haven't we? But what about Lucy and Boris Sergeevich? Andryushka? And all the guys, because they read the poster and will come running as one? I said:

- Are you out of your mind, or what? Let people down?

And Mishka is so plaintively:

- I think my stomach hurts.

I speak:

- It's out of fear. It hurts me too, but I don't refuse!

But Mishka was still kind of thoughtful. At the big break, all the guys rushed to the small hall, and Mishka and I could hardly trudge behind, because I also completely lost the mood to speak. But at that moment Lyusya ran out to meet us, she firmly grabbed our hands and dragged us along, but my legs were soft, like a doll’s, and weaved. I must have been infected by Mishka.

In the hall there was a fenced-off place near the piano, and children from all classes, both nannies and teachers, crowded around.

Mishka and I stood near the piano.

Boris Sergeevich was already in place, and Lucy announced in an announcer's voice:

- We begin the performance of the "Pioneer Satyricon" on topical topics. Text by Andrey Shestakov, performed by world-famous satirists Misha and Denis! Let's ask!

And Mishka and I went a little ahead. The bear was white as a wall. And I was nothing, only my mouth was dry and rough, as if there was emery.

Boris Sergeevich played. Mishka had to start, because he sang the first two lines, and I had to sing the second two lines. Here Boris Sergeevich began to play, and Mishka threw aside left hand, as Lucy taught him, and wanted to sing, but he was late, and while he was getting ready, it was my turn, it turned out that way according to the music. But I did not sing, since Mishka was late. Why on earth!

Mishka then put his hand back in place. And Boris Sergeevich loudly and separately began again.

He struck, as he should have done, the keys three times, and on the fourth Mishka threw back his left hand again and finally sang:


Vasya's dad is strong in mathematics,
Dad studies for Vasya all year.

I immediately picked it up and shouted:


Where is it seen, where is it heard -
Dad decides, and Vasya gives up?!

Everyone in the hall laughed, and this made my soul feel better. And Boris Sergeevich went further. He again struck the keys three times, and on the fourth Mishka carefully threw his left hand to the side and for no reason sang at first:


Vasya's dad is strong in mathematics,
Dad studies for Vasya all year.

I knew right away that he had lost his way! But since this is the case, I decided to sing to the end, and then we'll see. I took it and finished it:


Where is it seen, where is it heard -
Dad decides, and Vasya gives up?!

Thank God, it was quiet in the hall - everyone, apparently, also understood that Mishka had gone astray, and thought: “Well, it happens, let him sing further.”

And when the music reached the place, he again extended his left hand and, like a record that was “jammed”, wound it up for the third time:


Vasya's dad is strong in mathematics,
Dad studies for Vasya all year.

I had a terrible desire to hit him on the back of the head with something heavy, and I yelled with terrible anger:


Where is it seen, where is it heard -
Dad decides, and Vasya gives up?!

“Mishka, you seem to be completely crazy!” Are you tightening the same thing for the third time? Let's talk about girls!

And Mishka is so cheeky:

I know without you! - And politely says to Boris Sergeyevich: - Please, Boris Sergeyevich, go on!

Boris Sergeevich began to play, and Mishka suddenly grew bolder, again put out his left hand and on the fourth beat began to cry as if nothing had happened:


Vasya's dad is strong in mathematics,
Dad studies for Vasya all year.

Then everyone in the hall squealed with laughter, and I saw in the crowd what an unhappy face Andryushka had, and I also saw that Lucy, all red and disheveled, was making her way towards us through the crowd. And Mishka stands with his mouth open, as if he is surprised at himself. Well, while the court and the case, I shout out:


Where is it seen, where is it heard -
Dad decides, and Vasya gives up?!

This is where something terrible started. Everyone was laughing as if stabbed to death, and the Mishka turned purple from green. Our Lucy grabbed his hand and dragged him to her. She screamed:

- Deniska, sing alone! Don't let me down!.. Music! AND!..

And I stood at the piano and decided not to let you down. I felt that it didn’t matter to me, and when the music reached me, for some reason I suddenly threw my left hand out to the side and screamed out of the blue:


Vasya's dad is strong in mathematics,
Dad studies for Vasya all year ...

I'm even surprised that I didn't die from this damn song. I probably would have died if the bell hadn't rung at that time...

I won't be a satirist anymore!

Viktor Yuzefovich Dragunsky(December 1, 1913 - May 6, 1972) - Soviet writer, author of short stories and novels for children. The cycle "Deniska's stories" about the boy Denis Korablev and his friend Mishka Slonov received the greatest popularity. These stories brought Dragunsky immense popularity and recognition. Read funny stories about Deniska online on the website of Mishkin's Books!

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    3 - Hedgehog in the fog

    Kozlov S.G.

    A fairy tale about the Hedgehog, how he walked at night and got lost in the fog. He fell into the river, but someone carried him to the shore. It was a magical night! Hedgehog in the fog read Thirty mosquitoes ran out into the clearing and began to play ...

Viktor Dragunsky.

Denis' stories.

"He's alive and glowing..."

One evening I was sitting in the yard, near the sand, and waiting for my mother. She probably lingered at the institute, or at the store, or, perhaps, stood at the bus stop for a long time. Don't know. Only all the parents of our yard had already come, and all the guys went home with them and probably already drank tea with bagels and cheese, but my mother was still not there ...

And now the lights in the windows began to light up, and the radio began to play music, and dark clouds moved in the sky - they looked like bearded old men ...

And I wanted to eat, but my mother was still not there, and I thought that if I knew that my mother was hungry and was waiting for me somewhere at the end of the world, I would immediately run to her, and would not be late and would not made her sit on the sand and get bored.

And at that moment Mishka came out into the yard. He said:

- Great!

And I said

- Great!

Mishka sat down with me and picked up a dump truck.

- Wow! Mishka said. - Where did you get it? Does he pick up the sand himself? Not by myself? Does he dump himself? Yes? And the pen? What is she for? Can it be rotated? Yes? A? Wow! Will you give it to me home?

I said:

- No I will not give. Present. Dad gave before leaving.

The bear pouted and moved away from me. It got even darker outside.

I looked at the gate so as not to miss when my mother comes. But she didn't go. Apparently, I met Aunt Rosa, and they stand and talk and do not even think about me. I lay down on the sand.

Mishka says:

- Can you give me a dump truck?

- Get off, Mishka.

Then Mishka says:

“I can give you one Guatemala and two Barbados for him!”

I speak:

- Compared Barbados with a dump truck ...

- Well, do you want me to give you a swim ring?

I speak:

- He's screwed on you.

- You'll glue it!

I even got angry.

- Where can I swim? In the bathroom? On Tuesdays?

And Mishka pouted again. And then he says:

- Well, it wasn't! Know my kindness! On the!

And he handed me a box of matches. I took her in hand.

- You open it, - said Mishka, - then you will see!

I opened the box and at first I didn’t see anything, and then I saw a small light green light, as if a tiny star was burning somewhere far, far away from me, and at the same time I myself was holding it in my hands now.

“What is it, Mishka,” I said in a whisper, “what is it?

“It’s a firefly,” said Mishka. - What, good? He's alive, don't worry.

“Mishka,” I said, “take my dump truck, do you want to?” Take forever, forever! And give me this star, I'll take it home ...

And Mishka grabbed my dump truck and ran home. And I stayed with my firefly, looked at it, looked and could not get enough of it: how green it is, as if in a fairy tale, and how close it is, in the palm of your hand, but it shines, as if from afar ... And I could not breathe evenly, and I could hear my heart beating and my nose pricked a little, as if I wanted to cry.

And I sat like that for a long time, a very long time. And there was no one around. And I forgot about everyone in the world.

But then my mother came, and I was very happy, and we went home. And when they began to drink tea with bagels and cheese, my mother asked:

- Well, how is your dump truck?

And I said:

- I, mother, changed it.

Mom said:

- Interesting! And for what?

I answered:

- To the firefly! Here he is in a box. Turn off the light!

And my mother turned off the light, and the room became dark, and the two of us began to look at the pale green star.

Then mom turned on the light.

“Yes,” she said, “it’s magic!” But still, how did you decide to give such a valuable thing as a dump truck for this worm?

“I've been waiting for you for so long,” I said, “and I was so bored, and this firefly, it turned out to be better than any dump truck in the world.

Mom looked at me intently and asked:

- And what, exactly, is it better?

I said:

- How can you not understand? After all, he is alive! And it glows!

Gotta have a sense of humor

Once Mishka and I were doing homework. We put notebooks in front of us and copied. And at that time I was telling Mishka about lemurs, that they have big eyes, like glass saucers, and that I saw a photograph of a lemur, how he is holding a fountain pen, he himself is small, small and terribly cute.

Then Mishka says:

- Did you write?

I speak:

- You check my notebook, - says Mishka, - and I check yours.

And we exchanged notebooks.

And as soon as I saw that Mishka had written, I immediately began to laugh.

I look, and Mishka is also rolling, he’s turned blue.

I speak:

- What are you, Mishka, rolling?

- I'm rolling, what did you write off wrong! What are you?

I speak:

- And I'm the same, only about you. Look, you wrote: "Moses have come." Who are these “moses”?

The bear blushed.

- Moses are probably frosts. And you wrote: "Natal winter." What is it?

“Yes,” I said, “not “natal,” but “arrived.” You can't write anything, you have to rewrite. It's all the lemurs' fault.

And we started rewriting. And when they rewrote, I said:

Let's set tasks!

“Come on,” Mishka said.

At this time, dad came. He said:

Hello fellow students...

And sat down at the table.

I said:

- Here, dad, listen to what task I will set for Mishka: here I have two apples, and there are three of us, how to divide them among us equally?

Mishka immediately pouted and began to think. Dad didn't pout, but he thought too. They thought for a long time.

I then said:

- Are you giving up, Mishka?

Mishka said:

- I give up!

I said:

- So that we all get equally, it is necessary to cook compote from these apples. - And he began to laugh: - It was Aunt Mila who taught me! ..

The bear pouted even more. Then dad narrowed his eyes and said:

– And since you are so cunning, Denis, let me give you a task.

“Let’s ask,” I said.

Dad walked around the room.

“Listen,” Dad said. One boy is in first grade "B". His family consists of five people. Mom gets up at seven o'clock and spends ten minutes getting dressed. But dad brushes his teeth for five minutes. Grandma goes to the store as much as mom gets dressed plus dad brushes his teeth. And grandfather reads newspapers, how much grandmother goes to the store minus what time mother gets up.

When they're all together, they start waking up this first class "B" boy. It takes time to read grandpa's papers plus grandma's grocery shopping.

When a boy from first class "B" wakes up, he stretches for as long as mom gets dressed plus dad brushes his teeth. And he washes, how many grandfather's newspapers, divided by grandmother. He's late for class by as many minutes as he stretches plus washes, minus his mother's getting up multiplied by his father's teeth.

The question is: who is this boy from the first "B" and what threatens him if this continues? All!

Then dad stopped in the middle of the room and began to look at me. And Mishka laughed at the top of his lungs and began to look at me too. They both looked at me and laughed.

I said:

– I can’t solve this problem right away, because we haven’t gone through it yet.

And I did not say another word, but left the room, because I immediately guessed that the answer to this problem would turn out to be a lazy person and that such a person would soon be expelled from school. I went out of the room into the corridor and climbed behind the hanger and began to think that if this task is about me, then this is not true, because I always get up pretty quickly and stretch for very little, just as much as necessary. And I also thought that if dad wants to invent me so much, then please, I can leave the house straight to the virgin lands. There will always be work there, people are needed there, especially young people. I will conquer nature there, and dad will come with a delegation to Altai, see me, and I will stop for a minute and say:

And he will say:

"Hi from your mom..."

And I will say:

“Thank you… How is she doing?”

And he will say:

"Nothing".

And I will say:

“She must have forgotten her only son?”

And he will say:

“What are you talking about, she lost thirty-seven kilos! That's how bored!"

- Oh, there he is! What are those eyes you have? Have you taken this task personally?

He picked up his coat and hung it up in its place, and went on to say:

“I made it all up. There is no such boy in the world, not like in your class!

And dad took my hands and pulled me out from behind the hanger.

Then he looked at me intently again and smiled:

“You need to have a sense of humor,” he told me, and his eyes became cheerful, cheerful. “But it’s a funny task, isn’t it?” Well! Laugh!

And I laughed.

And he too.

And we went to the room.

Glory to Ivan Kozlovsky

I have only fives in the report card. Only four in calligraphy. Because of the blot. I don't really know what to do! I always have blots coming off my pen. I already dip only the very tip of the pen into the ink, but the blots still come off. Just some miracles! Once I wrote a whole page cleanly, cleanly, it's expensive to look at - a real five page. In the morning I showed it to Raisa Ivanovna, and there, in the very middle, was a blot! Where did she come from? She wasn't there yesterday! Maybe it leaked from some other page? Don't know…


The stories about Denisk have been translated into many languages ​​of the world and even into Japanese. Victor Dragunsky wrote a sincere and cheerful preface to the Japanese collection: “I was born quite a long time ago and quite far, one might even say, in another part of the world. As a child, I loved to fight and never let myself be offended. As you can imagine, my hero was Tom Sawyer, and never, by any means, Sid. I'm sure you share my point of view. At school, I studied, frankly, it doesn’t matter ... From the very early childhood I fell in love with the circus and still love it to this day. I was a clown. About the circus, I wrote the story "Today and daily." In addition to the circus, I really love little children. I write about children and for children. This is my whole life, its meaning.


"Deniska's stories" are funny stories with a sensitive vision of important details, they are instructive, but without moralizing. If you have not read them yet, start with the most touching stories and the story "Childhood Friend" is best suited for this role.

Deniskin Stories: Childhood Friend

When I was six or six and a half years old, I had absolutely no idea who I would eventually be in this world. I really liked all the people around and all the work too. I then had a terrible confusion in my head, I was kind of confused and could not really decide what I should do.

Either I wanted to be an astronomer, so as not to sleep at night and observe distant stars through a telescope, or I dreamed of becoming a sea captain in order to stand with my legs apart on the captain's bridge and visit distant Singapore and buy a funny monkey there. Otherwise, I was dying to turn into a subway driver or station manager and walk around in a red cap and shout in a thick voice:

- Go-o-tov!

Or I had an appetite to learn to be the kind of artist who draws white stripes on the asphalt for speeding cars. And then it seemed to me that it would be nice to become a brave traveler like Alain Bombard and cross all the oceans on a fragile shuttle, eating only raw fish. True, this Bombar lost twenty-five kilograms after his trip, and I only weighed twenty-six, so it turned out that if I also swam like him, then I would have absolutely nowhere to lose weight, I would weigh only one at the end of the trip. kilo. What if I don’t catch one or two fish somewhere and lose a little more weight? Then I'll probably just melt in the air like smoke, that's all.

When I calculated all this, I decided to abandon this idea, and the next day I was already impatient to become a boxer, because I saw the European boxing championship on TV. How they thrashed each other - just some kind of horror! And then they showed their training, and here they were already beating a heavy leather "pear" - such an oblong heavy ball, you have to hit it with all your might, hit it with all your might, in order to develop the force of impact in yourself. And I saw so much of it all that I also decided to become the strongest man in the yard in order to beat everyone, in which case.

I told dad

- Dad, buy me a pear!

- It's January, there are no pears. Eat some carrots.

I laughed.

- No, dad, not like that! Not an edible pear! You, please, buy me an ordinary leather punching bag!

- And why do you need it? Dad said.

“Practice,” I said. - Because I will be a boxer and I will beat everyone. Buy it, huh?

- How much is such a pear? Dad asked.

“Nothing,” I said. - Rubles ten or fifty.

"You're crazy, brother," said dad. - Get over somehow without a pear. Nothing will happen to you. And he got dressed and went to work. And I was offended at him for the fact that he refused me so with a laugh. And my mother immediately noticed that I was offended, and immediately said:

Wait, I think I've come up with something. Come on, come on, wait a minute.

And she bent down and pulled out a large wicker basket from under the sofa; it was stacked with old toys that I no longer played with. Because I had already grown up and in the fall I had to buy a school uniform and a cap with a shiny visor.

Mom began to dig into this basket, and while she was digging, I saw my old tram without wheels and on a string, a plastic pipe, a dented top, one arrow with a rubber blotch, a piece of a sail from a boat, and several rattles, and many other different toys. junk. And suddenly mom took out a healthy teddy bear from the bottom of the basket.

She threw it on my sofa and said:

- Here. This is the one that Aunt Mila gave you. You were then two years old. Good Mishka, excellent. Look how tight! What a fat belly! Look how it rolled out! Why not a pear? Better! And you don't have to buy! Let's train as much as you like! Get started!

And then she was called to the phone, and she went out into the corridor.

And I was very happy that my mother came up with such a great idea. And I made Mishka more comfortable on the couch, so that it would be more convenient for me to train on him and develop the power of impact.

He sat in front of me so chocolate, but very mangy, and he had different eyes: one of his own - yellow glass, and the other big white - from a button from a pillowcase; I didn't even remember when he showed up. But it didn’t matter, because Mishka looked at me rather cheerfully with his different eyes, and he spread his legs and stuck out his stomach towards me, and raised both hands up, as if joking that he was already giving up in advance ...

And I looked at him like that and suddenly remembered how a long time ago I never parted with this Mishka for a minute, dragged him everywhere with me, and nursed him, and seated him at the table next to me to dine, and fed him from a spoon semolina, and he had such a funny muzzle when I smeared him with something, even with the same porridge or jam, he had such a funny cute muzzle then, just like a living one, and I put him to bed with me, and rocked him , like a little brother, and whispered various tales to him right into his velvet, hard ears, and I loved him then, loved him with all my heart, then I would give my life for him. And now he is sitting on the couch, my former best friend, a true friend childhood. Here he is sitting, laughing with different eyes, and I want to train the force of impact about him ...

- What are you, - said my mother, she had already returned from the corridor. - What happened to you?

And I didn’t know what was happening to me, I was silent for a long time and turned away from my mother so that she wouldn’t guess by her voice or lips what was happening to me, and I lifted my head to the ceiling so that the tears rolled back, and then, when I held myself together a little , I said:

- What are you talking about, mom? With me nothing ... I just changed my mind. It's just that I'll never be a boxer.

About the author.
Viktor Dragunsky lived a long, interesting life. But not everyone knows that before becoming a writer, in his early youth he changed many occupations and at the same time succeeded in everyone: a turner, a saddler, an actor, a director, an author of small plays, a “red” clown in the arena of the Moscow circus. With the same respect, he treated any work that he did in his life. He loved children very much, and the children were drawn to him, feeling in him a kind elder comrade and friend. When he was an actor, he willingly performed in front of children, usually in the role of Santa Claus during the winter holidays. He was kind cheerful person but irreconcilable to injustice and lies.


Viktor Yuzefovich Dragunsky is a man of amazing destiny. He was born on November 30, 1913 in New York to a family of emigrants from Russia. However, already in 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, the family returned back and settled in Gomel, where Dragunsky spent his childhood. Together with his stepfather, actor Mikhail Rubin, at the age of ten, he began performing on provincial stages: he recited couplets, tapped and parodied. In his youth, he worked as a boatman on the Moscow River, as a turner at a factory, and as a saddler in a sports workshop. By a happy coincidence, in 1930, Viktor Dragunsky entered the literary and theater workshop of Alexei Diky, and here an interesting stage in his biography begins - acting. In 1935 he began performing as an actor. Since 1940, he has been publishing feuilletons and humorous stories, writing songs, interludes, clownery, and scenes for the stage and circus. During the Great Patriotic War, Dragunsky was in the militia, and then performed at the fronts with concert brigades. For a little over a year he worked as a clown in the circus, but returned to the theater again. At the Theater of the Film Actor, he organized an ensemble of literary and theatrical parody, uniting young underemployed actors in the amateur troupe "Blue Bird". Dragunsky played several roles in films. He was almost fifty when his books for children with strange names began to appear: “Twenty Years Under the Bed”, “No Bang, No Bang”, “Professor of Sour Soup” ... Dragunsky's first Deniska stories became instantly popular. Books from this series were printed in large numbers.

However, Viktor Dragunsky wrote prose works for adults as well. In 1961, the story "He Fell on the Grass" was published about the very first days of the war. In 1964, the story "Today and Daily" was published, telling about the life of circus workers. Main character this book is a clown.

Viktor Yuzefovich Dragunsky died in Moscow on May 6, 1972. The writing dynasty of the Dragunskys was continued by his son Denis, who became quite a successful writer, and his daughter Ksenia Dragunskaya, a brilliant children's writer and playwright.

A close friend of Dragunsky, children's poet Yakov Akim once said: “A young person needs all vitamins, including all moral vitamins. Vitamins of kindness, nobility, honesty, decency, courage. All these vitamins were given generously and talentedly to our children by Viktor Dragunsky.

© Dragunsky V. Yu., heirs, 2014

© Dragunskaya K. V., foreword, 2014

© Chizhikov V. A., afterword, 2014

© Losin V. N., illustrations, heritage, 2014

© LLC AST Publishing House, 2015

* * *

About my dad


When I was little, I had a dad. Viktor Dragunsky. Famous children's writer. Only no one believed me that he was my dad. And I screamed: “This is my dad, dad, dad!!!” And she started to fight. Everyone thought he was my grandfather. Because he was no longer very young. I am a late child. Junior. I have two older brothers - Lenya and Denis. They are smart, scholarly, and quite bald. But they know a lot more stories about dad than I do. But since it wasn’t them who became children’s writers, but I, then they usually ask me to write something about dad.

My dad was born a long time ago. In 2013, on the first of December, he would have turned one hundred years old. And not somewhere there he was born, but in New York. This is how it happened - his mom and dad were very young, got married and left the Belarusian city of Gomel for America, for happiness and wealth. I don’t know about happiness, but they didn’t work out with wealth at all. They ate exclusively bananas, and in the house where they lived, hefty rats ran. And they returned back to Gomel, and after a while they moved to Moscow, to Pokrovka. There my dad did not study well at school, but he liked to read books. Then he worked at a factory, studied acting and worked in the Theater of Satire, and also as a clown in a circus and wore a red wig. Maybe that's why I have red hair. And as a child, I also wanted to be a clown.

Dear readers!!! People often ask me how my dad is doing, and they ask me to ask him to write something else - bigger and funnier. I don’t want to upset you, but my dad died a long time ago when I was only six years old, that is, more than thirty years ago, it turns out. Therefore, I remember very few cases about him.



One such case. My dad was very fond of dogs. He always dreamed of getting a dog, only his mother did not allow him, but finally, when I was five and a half years old, a spaniel puppy named Toto appeared in our house. So wonderful. Eared, spotted and with thick paws. He had to be fed six times a day, like a baby, which made mom a little angry ... And then one day dad and I come from somewhere or just sit at home alone, and we want to eat something. We go to the kitchen and find a saucepan with semolina, and so tasty (I generally can’t stand semolina) that we immediately eat it. And then it turns out that this is Totoshina porridge, which my mother specially cooked in advance to mix it with some vitamins, as it should be for puppies. Mom was offended, of course.

Outrageous is a children's writer, an adult, and ate puppy porridge.

They say that in his youth my dad was terribly cheerful, he was always inventing something, around him there were always the coolest and witty people in Moscow, and at home we always had noisy, fun, laughter, a holiday, a feast and solid celebrities. Unfortunately, I don’t remember this anymore - when I was born and grew up a little, dad was very ill with hypertension, high blood pressure, and it was impossible to make noise in the house. My friends, who are now quite adult aunts, still remember that I had to walk on tiptoe so as not to disturb my dad. Somehow they didn’t even let me in to see him very much, so that I wouldn’t disturb him. But I still penetrated to him, and we played - I was a frog, and dad was a respected and kind lion.

My dad and I also went to eat bagels on Chekhov Street, there was such a bakery with bagels and a milkshake. We were also in the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, we were sitting very close, and when the clown Yuri Nikulin saw my dad (and they worked together in the circus before the war), he was very happy, took a microphone from the ringmaster and sang “The Song about Hares” especially for us .

My dad also collected bells, we have a whole collection at home, and now I continue to replenish it.

If you read "Deniska's Stories" attentively, you will understand how sad they are. Not all, of course, but some - just very much. I won't name now which ones. You yourself read and feel. And then - let's check. Some people are surprised, they say, how did an adult manage to penetrate the soul of a child, speak on his behalf, just as if the child himself had told it? .. And it’s very simple - dad remained a little boy all his life. Exactly! A person does not have time to grow up at all - life is too short. A person only manages to learn how to eat without getting dirty, walk without falling, do something there, smoke, lie, shoot from a machine gun, or vice versa - treat, teach ... All people are children. Well, at least almost everything. Only they don't know about it.

I don't remember much about my dad. But I can compose all sorts of stories - funny, strange and sad. I have this from him.

And my son Tema is very similar to my dad. Well, spilled! In the house in Karetny Ryad, where we live in Moscow, there are elderly pop artists who remember my dad when he was young. And they call Theme just that - "Dragoon offspring." And we, along with Tema, love dogs. We have a lot of dogs at the dacha, and those that are not ours just come to us for lunch. Once a striped dog came, we treated her to a cake, and she liked it so much that she ate and barked with joy with her mouth full.

Xenia Dragunskaya


"He's alive and glowing..."


One evening I was sitting in the yard, near the sand, and waiting for my mother. She probably lingered at the institute, or at the store, or, perhaps, stood at the bus stop for a long time. Don't know. Only all the parents of our yard had already come, and all the guys went home with them and probably already drank tea with bagels and cheese, but my mother was still not there ...

And now the lights in the windows began to light up, and the radio began to play music, and dark clouds moved in the sky - they looked like bearded old men ...

And I wanted to eat, but my mother was still not there, and I thought that if I knew that my mother was hungry and was waiting for me somewhere at the end of the world, I would immediately run to her, and would not be late and would not made her sit on the sand and get bored.

And at that moment Mishka came out into the yard. He said:

- Great!

And I said

- Great!

Mishka sat down with me and picked up a dump truck.

- Wow! Mishka said. - Where did you get it? Does he pick up the sand himself? Not by myself? Does he dump himself? Yes? And the pen? What is she for? Can it be rotated? Yes? A? Wow! Will you give it to me home?

I said:

- No I will not give. Present. Dad gave before leaving.

The bear pouted and moved away from me. It got even darker outside.

I looked at the gate so as not to miss when my mother comes. But she didn't go. Apparently, I met Aunt Rosa, and they stand and talk and do not even think about me. I lay down on the sand.

Mishka says:

- Can you give me a dump truck?

- Get off, Mishka.



Then Mishka says:

“I can give you one Guatemala and two Barbados for him!”

I speak:

- Compared Barbados with a dump truck ...

- Well, do you want me to give you a swim ring?

I speak:

- He's screwed on you.

- You'll glue it!

I even got angry.

- Where can I swim? In the bathroom? On Tuesdays?

And Mishka pouted again. And then he says:

- Well, it wasn't! Know my kindness! On the!

And he handed me a box of matches. I took her in hand.

- You open it, - said Mishka, - then you will see!

I opened the box and at first I didn’t see anything, and then I saw a small light green light, as if a tiny star was burning somewhere far, far away from me, and at the same time I myself was holding it in my hands now.

“What is it, Mishka,” I said in a whisper, “what is it?

“It’s a firefly,” said Mishka. - What, good? He's alive, don't worry.

“Mishka,” I said, “take my dump truck, do you want to?” Take forever, forever! And give me this star, I'll take it home ...

And Mishka grabbed my dump truck and ran home. And I stayed with my firefly, looked at it, looked and could not get enough of it: how green it is, as if in a fairy tale, and how close it is, in the palm of your hand, but it shines, as if from afar ... And I could not breathe evenly, and I could hear my heart beating and my nose pricked a little, as if I wanted to cry.

And I sat like that for a long time, a very long time. And there was no one around. And I forgot about everyone in the world.

But then my mother came, and I was very happy, and we went home. And when they began to drink tea with bagels and cheese, my mother asked:

- Well, how is your dump truck?

And I said:

- I, mother, changed it.

Mom said:

- Interesting! And for what?

I answered:

- To the firefly! Here he is in a box. Turn off the light!

And my mother turned off the light, and the room became dark, and the two of us began to look at the pale green star.



Then mom turned on the light.

“Yes,” she said, “it’s magic!” But still, how did you decide to give such a valuable thing as a dump truck for this worm?

“I've been waiting for you for so long,” I said, “and I was so bored, and this firefly, it turned out to be better than any dump truck in the world.

Mom looked at me intently and asked:

- And what, exactly, is it better?

I said:

- How can you not understand? After all, he is alive! And it glows!

The secret becomes clear

I heard my mother say to someone in the hallway:

- ... The secret always becomes clear.

And when she entered the room, I asked:

- What does it mean, mother: "The secret becomes clear"?

“And this means that if someone acts dishonestly, they will find out about him anyway, and he will be ashamed, and he will be punished,” my mother said. – Understood?.. Go to sleep!

I brushed my teeth, went to bed, but did not sleep, but all the time I thought: how is it that the secret becomes clear? And I didn’t sleep for a long time, and when I woke up, it was morning, dad was already at work, and my mom and I were alone. I brushed my teeth again and started eating breakfast.

First I ate an egg. This is still tolerable, because I ate one yolk, and shredded the protein with the shell so that it was not visible. But then my mother brought a whole bowl of semolina.

- Eat! Mom said. - No talking!

I said:

- I can’t see semolina!

But my mother screamed:

“Look who you look like!” Poured Koschey! Eat. You must get better.

I said:

- I'm crushing on her!

Then my mother sat down next to me, put her arm around my shoulders and asked kindly:

- Do you want to go with you to the Kremlin?

Well, still ... I do not know anything more beautiful than the Kremlin. I was there in the Palace of Facets and in the Armory, I stood near the Tsar Cannon and I know where Ivan the Terrible was sitting. And there is still a lot of interesting things. So I quickly answered my mother:

- Of course, I want to go to the Kremlin! Even more!

Then mom smiled.

- Well, eat all the porridge, and let's go. And I'll wash the dishes. Just remember - you have to eat everything to the bottom!

And my mother went to the kitchen.

And I was left alone with the porridge. I spanked her with a spoon. Then he salted it. I tried it - well, it's impossible to eat! Then I thought that maybe there is not enough sugar? He sprinkled sand, tried it ... It got even worse. I don't like porridge, I tell you.

And she was also very thick. If it was liquid, then another thing, I would close my eyes and drink it. Then I took and poured boiling water into the porridge. It was still slippery, sticky and disgusting. The main thing is that when I swallow, my throat contracts itself and pushes this porridge back. Terribly embarrassing! After all, you want to go to the Kremlin! And then I remembered that we have horseradish. With horseradish, it seems that almost everything can be eaten! I took the whole jar and poured it into the porridge, and when I tried it a little, my eyes immediately popped into my forehead and my breathing stopped, and I must have lost consciousness, because I took the plate, quickly ran to the window and threw the porridge out into the street. Then he immediately returned and sat down at the table.

At this time, my mother entered. She looked at the plate and was delighted:

- Well, what a Deniska, what a good fellow! Ate all the porridge to the bottom! Well, get up, get dressed, working people, let's go for a walk in the Kremlin! And she kissed me.

At the same moment the door opened and a policeman entered the room. He said:

- Hello! – and went to the window and looked down. - And also an intelligent person.

- What you need? Mom asked sternly.

- What a shame! - The policeman even stood at attention. - The state provides you with new housing, with all the amenities and, by the way, with a garbage chute, and you pour various muck out the window!

- Do not slander. I don't spill anything!

- Oh, you don't spill it?! The policeman laughed sarcastically. And, opening the door to the corridor, he shouted: - The victim!

And some uncle came to us.

As I looked at him, I immediately realized that I would not go to the Kremlin.

This guy had a hat on his head. And on the hat is our porridge. She lay almost in the middle of the hat, in the dimple, and a little along the edges, where the ribbon is, and a little behind the collar, and on the shoulders, and on the left trouser leg. As soon as he entered, he immediately began to stutter:

– The main thing is that I’m going to be photographed… And suddenly such a story… Porridge… mm… semolina… Hot, by the way, through the hat and then… it burns… How can I send my… ff… photo when I’m covered in porridge?!

Then mother looked at me, and her eyes turned green, like gooseberries, and this is a sure sign that mother was terribly angry.

“Excuse me, please,” she said quietly, “permit me, I’ll clean you up, come here!”

And all three of them went out into the corridor.



And when my mother returned, I was even scared to look at her. But I overcame myself, went up to her and said:

Yes, Mom, you said it right yesterday. The secret always becomes clear!

Mom looked into my eyes. She looked for a long time and then asked:

Did you remember this for the rest of your life?

And I answered:

Don't bang, don't bang!

When I was a preschooler, I was terribly compassionate. I couldn't hear anything pathetic at all. And if someone ate someone, or threw him into the fire, or imprisoned him, I immediately began to cry. For example, the wolves ate a goat, and horns and legs remained of him. I roar. Or Babarikha put the queen and the prince in a barrel and threw this barrel into the sea. I'm crying again. But how! Tears run from me in thick streams straight to the floor and even merge into whole puddles.

The main thing is that when I listened to fairy tales, I was already in the mood to cry in advance, even before that most terrible place. My lips twisted and broke, and my voice began to tremble, as if someone was shaking me by the scruff of the neck. And my mother simply didn’t know what to do, because I always asked her to read me or tell me fairy tales, and a little it came to the terrible, as I immediately understood this and began to shorten the fairy tale on the go. For some two or three seconds before disaster strikes, I was already beginning to ask in a trembling voice: “Skip this place!”

Mom, of course, skipped, jumped from fifth to tenth, and I listened further, but only quite a bit, because in fairy tales something happens every minute, and as soon as it became clear that some kind of misfortune was about to happen again , I again began to yell and beg: “And skip this!”

Mom again missed some bloody crime, and I calmed down for a while. And so, with excitement, stops and quick contractions, my mother and I eventually got to a happy ending.

Of course, I still realized that the tales from all this became somehow not very interesting: firstly, they were very short, and secondly, there were almost no adventures in them at all. But on the other hand, I could listen to them calmly, not shed tears, and then, after such tales, I could still sleep at night, and not wallow with my eyes open and be afraid until morning. And that's why I really liked such abbreviated fairy tales. They were so calm. Like cool sweet tea anyway. For example, there is such a fairy tale about Little Red Riding Hood. Mom and I missed so much in her that she became the most a short fairy tale in the world and the happiest. Her mother used to say this:

“Once upon a time there was Little Red Riding Hood. Once she baked pies and went to visit her grandmother. And they began to live, live and make good.

And I was glad that everything turned out so well for them. But, unfortunately, that was not all. I especially experienced another fairy tale, about a hare. This is such a short fairy tale, like a counting rhyme, everyone in the world knows it:


One two three four five,
The bunny went out for a walk
Suddenly the hunter runs out...

And here it was already starting to tingle in my nose and my lips parted in different directions, upper to the right, lower to the left, and the fairy tale continued at that time ... The hunter, it means, suddenly runs out and ...


Shoots straight at the bunny!

This is where my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't understand how it works. Why is this ferocious hunter shooting directly at the bunny? What did the bunny do to him? What did he start first, or what? After all, no! After all, he wasn't pissed off, was he? He just went out for a walk! And this one, without further ado:


Bang Bang!



From your heavy shotgun! And then tears began to flow from me, like from a faucet. Because the bunny wounded in the stomach screamed:


Oh oh oh!

He shouted:

- Oh oh oh! Goodbye everyone! Farewell, bunnies and bunnies! Farewell, my cheerful, easy life! Farewell, scarlet carrots and crispy cabbage! Farewell forever, my clearing, and flowers, and dew, and the whole forest, where under every bush both a table and a house were ready!

I saw with my own eyes how gray bunny lays down under a thin birch and dies ... I burst into three streams with burning tears and spoiled everyone's mood, because I had to be calmed, and I only roared and roared ...

And then one night, when everyone had gone to bed, I lay for a long time on my cot and remembered the poor bunny and kept thinking how good it would be if this did not happen to him. How really good it would be if all this hadn't happened. And I thought about it for so long that suddenly, imperceptibly for myself, I rewrote the whole story:


One two three four five,
The bunny went out for a walk
Suddenly the hunter runs out...
Right in the bunny...
Doesn't shoot!!!
Don't bang! Not puff!
Don't oh-oh-oh!
My bunny is not dying!!!

Wow! I even laughed! How difficult it all turned out! It was the real miracle. Don't bang! Not puff! I put only one short "no", and the hunter, as if nothing had happened, stomped past the bunny in his hemmed boots. And he stayed alive! He will again play in the mornings in the dewy clearing, he will jump and jump and beat with his paws on the old, rotten stump. Such a funny, glorious drummer!

And so I lay in the dark and smiled and wanted to tell my mother about this miracle, but I was afraid to wake her up. And eventually fell asleep. And when I woke up, I already knew forever that I would no longer roar in pitiful places, because now I can intervene at any moment in all these terrible injustices, I can intervene and turn everything around in my own way, and everything will be fine. It is only necessary to say in time: “Don’t bang, don’t bang!”

That I love

I really like to lie on my stomach on my father's knee, lower my arms and legs and hang on my knee like that, like linen on a fence. I also really like to play checkers, chess and dominoes, only to be sure to win. If you don't win, then don't.

I love listening to the beetle dig into the box. And I like to get into bed with my dad in the morning to talk with him about the dog: how we will live more spaciously, and buy a dog, and we will work with it, and we will feed it, and how funny and smart it will be, and how she will steal sugar, and I will wipe the puddles after her, and she will follow me like a faithful dog.

I also like to watch TV: it doesn't matter what they show, even if it's only tables.

I love to breathe through my nose into my mother's ear. I especially love to sing and always sing very loudly.

I terribly love stories about red cavalrymen, and that they always win.

I like to stand in front of the mirror and make faces like I'm Petrushka from puppet theater. I love sprats too.

I like to read fairy tales about Kanchil. This is such a small, smart and mischievous doe. She has merry eyes, and little horns, and pink polished hooves. When we live more spaciously, we will buy Kanchil, he will live in the bathroom. I also like to swim where it is shallow so that I can hold my hands on the sandy bottom.

I love to wave red flags and blow "go away!" at demonstrations.

I love making phone calls.

I love planing, sawing, I know how to sculpt the heads of ancient warriors and bison, and I blinded a capercaillie and a tsar cannon. All this I love to give.

When I read, I like to nibble on crackers or something.

I love guests.

I also love snakes, lizards and frogs. They are so dexterous. I carry them in my pockets. I like to have the snake lying on the table when I have lunch. I love it when my grandmother screams about the frog: “Remove this muck!” and runs out of the room.

I love to laugh... Sometimes I don't feel like laughing at all, but I force myself, squeeze out laughter - look, after five minutes it really becomes funny.

When I'm in a good mood, I like to ride. One day my dad and I went to the zoo, and I was jumping around him in the street, and he asked:

- What are you jumping?

And I said:

- I jump that you are my dad!

He understood!



I love going to the zoo! There are wonderful elephants. And there is one elephant. When we live more spaciously, we will buy a baby elephant. I'll build him a garage.

I really like to stand behind the car when it snorts and sniff the gas.

I like to go to cafes - eat ice cream and drink it with sparkling water. Her nose hurts and tears come to her eyes.

When I run down the hallway, I like to stomp my feet with all my might.

I love horses very much, they have such beautiful and kind faces.