The adventures of a little boy and his grandfather. The amazing adventures of a young boy and his grandfather. One fine summer day

EXAMPLE TEXT:

ONE BEAUTIFUL SUMMER DAY...

All this happened one fine summer day.

The boy Yurchik, together with his grandfather and grandmother, came from the city to the dacha to relax. Grandfather worked very hard all winter and spring, and grandmother helped him, and they both needed a good rest for a long time. And although Yurchik didn’t work and didn’t even go to school, he still breathed a sigh of relief when he came here.

Why did he breathe a sigh of relief? - you ask.

Here's why: all winter he went to kindergarten, and there they always told him: “This is not allowed” and “That is not allowed” and “You are still small.” And when he came from kindergarten home, dad and mom started saying the same thing.

The boy Yurchik was not some kind of mischievous person. He never did anything that was said “impossible.” But, you yourself understand, it’s not very pleasant to listen to such comments all the time, and most importantly - reminders that you are still small... It’s just the way it is in the world: at first a person is small, and then he grows up, and he himself is in this not at all to blame. So why remind us of such unpleasant things: that you are still small and cannot be completely independent? This is very insulting.

The kindergarten teacher said so, mom and dad said so, but grandfather and grandmother never said such things to Yurchik. They talked to Yurchik as to an equal. And if sometimes it turned out that something could not be done, then Yurchik himself guessed about it and, of course, did nothing of the kind. And he behaved even better than at home or in kindergarten.

It must now be clear to everyone that the boy Yurchik had a lot to get tired of during the winter and it also didn’t bother him to rest here, at the dacha, with his grandfather and grandmother.

So it was a beautiful summer day.

Grandfather and grandmother sat down in the garden near the veranda on folding chairs and began to relax. And the boy Yurchik found his last year’s truck with a crane somewhere in the storage room, tied a rope to it and drove it around the house with a terrible roar. He ran around the house once, he ran around a second time, he ran around a third time... A terrible roar filled the garden, it was a lot of fun! And no one thought to say: “This cannot be done.”

“Eh, eh,” the grandfather suddenly said. - Why are you, dear comrade, using technology irrationally? The machine wears out, but there is no benefit.

Yurchik stopped.

What use could it possibly be? - he asked.

How is this what? You see, it’s a hot day, it would be nice to swim in the lake now. Even though it’s not far to go there, my grandmother and I are so tired that it’s hard for us. So you should take us to the lake in your car.

Yurchik smiled and looked at his grandfather incredulously: were they really joking with him, like with some foolish child? It can't be, grandpa isn't like that...

ONE BEAUTIFUL SUMMER DAY...

All this happened one fine summer day.

The boy Yurchik, together with his grandfather and grandmother, came from the city to the dacha to relax. Grandfather worked very hard all winter and spring, and grandmother helped him, and they both needed a good rest for a long time. And although Yurchik didn’t work and didn’t even go to school yet, he still breathed a sigh of relief when he came here.

Why did he breathe a sigh of relief? - you ask.

But here's why: all winter he went to kindergarten, and there they always told him: “this is not possible” and “that is not possible” and “you are still small.” And when he came home from kindergarten, dad and mom started saying the same thing.

The boy Yurchik was not some kind of mischievous person. He never did anything that was said “not allowed.” But, you yourself understand, it’s not very pleasant to listen to such comments all the time, and most importantly - reminders that you are still small... It’s just the way of things in the world: at first a person is small, and then he grows up, and he himself is not in the least bit responsible for this. guilty. So why remind us of such unpleasant things that you are still small and cannot be completely independent? This is very insulting.

The kindergarten teacher said so, mom and dad said so, but grandfather and grandmother never said such words to Yurchik. They talked to Yurchik as to an equal. And if sometimes it turned out that something could not be done, then Yurchik himself guessed about it and, of course, did nothing of the kind. And he behaved even better than at home or in kindergarten.

It must now be clear to everyone that the boy Yurchik had a lot to get tired of during the winter and it also didn’t bother him to rest here, at the dacha, with his grandfather and grandmother.

So it was a beautiful summer day.

Grandfather and grandmother sat down in the garden near the veranda on folding chairs and began to relax. And the boy Yurchik found his last year’s truck with a crane somewhere in the storage room, tied a rope to it and drove it around the house with a terrible roar. He ran around the house once, he ran around a second time, he ran around a third time... A terrible roar filled the garden, it was a lot of fun! And no one thought to say: “This cannot be done.”

“Eh, eh,” the grandfather suddenly said. - Why are you, dear comrade, using technology irrationally? The machine wears out, but there is no benefit.

Yurchik stopped.

What use could it possibly be? - he asked.

How is this what? You see, it’s a hot day, it would be nice to swim in the lake now. Even though it’s not far to go there, my grandmother and I are so tired that it’s hard for us. So you should take us to the lake in your car!

Yurchik smiled and looked at his grandfather incredulously: were they really joking with him, like with some foolish child? It can’t be, grandpa isn’t like that...

Why are you silent? Don't you agree? - asked the grandfather.

Of course, I agree,” said Yurchik, “but my car...

Is it too small for us? - the grandfather quickly finished his grandson’s thought. “You don’t have to worry about this: now my grandmother and I will swallow the reduction pills and we will be quite suitable passengers for this car.”

A! - said the boy Yurchik. - Then it's okay.

He wasn't surprised at all.

And you, of course, were surprised? You must have never heard of some kind of shrinking pills?

In order for everything to be clear, I need to tell you that Yurchik’s grandfather was a very learned inventor. He always invented various amazing things, things that no one had ever seen or heard of. Yurchik knew this and had long been accustomed to the fact that the most incredible things could be expected from his grandfather. That's why he wasn't surprised.

Did you get it or did you invent it yourself? - Yurchik asked his grandfather when he entered the room for a moment and took out two small boxes.

“Invented, of course,” the grandfather answered casually. - There are reduction pills in this box. Swallow one and you'll immediately shrink. To become suitable passengers for your car, grandma and I will swallow three each.

And he opened one box: it contained several shiny pink tablets, similar to dragee candies.

How can you become big again? - asked Yurchik.

“I like this question,” the grandfather said approvingly. - He says that you can think logically. What would my shrinking pills be worth if I couldn’t become the same again?

And he opened the second box.

Take a look: this is the second part of my invention. Enlargement pills. To become the same again as before, you need to swallow as many pills as you swallowed diminutives. That's all.

These tablets were also shiny, like candy, only green. Yurchik looked at them with great interest.

“What if you don’t swallow diminutives at all? - he thought. - Just swallow magnifying glasses - then you can immediately become big? That would be great!”

Just as he was about to ask his grandfather about this, his grandmother jumped up from her chair.

If you go for a swim, then you have to go! - she said decisively. - And then I won’t have time. I need to cook lunch.

That's right, let's not waste time! - Grandfather supported the grandmother. He handed her three pink tablets, took the same amount for himself, and they immediately ate them. They didn't even drink water.

At that same moment, Yurchik saw that his grandfather, so tall, broad-shouldered, was not yet quite an old man, wearing glasses, with a long, not yet completely gray beard - began to quickly decrease, and along with him his clothes, and glasses, and a long beard, and even an automatic pen decreased.

And the grandmother, also quite tall and stocky, and not quite an old woman, began to shrink with the same speed as the grandfather, along with everything that she was wearing. Of all the things, only two boxes with pink and green pills remained the same. They did not shrink because the grandfather prudently placed them on the steps of the veranda.

Finally, the grandfather and grandmother stopped shrinking: they became very tiny, the size of Yurchik’s palm. To talk to them, Yurchik had to squat down and even bow his head.

“I exaggerated it a little, that is, I understated it,” said the grandfather. - It would be possible with two tablets

One fine summer laziness
In defense of a friend
Adventure in the forest
Adventure with chickens
Epilogue

All this happened one fine summer day.
The boy Yurchik, together with his grandfather and grandmother, came from the city to the dacha to relax. Grandfather worked very hard all winter and spring, and grandmother helped him, and they both needed a good rest for a long time. And although Yurchik didn’t work and didn’t even go to school, he still breathed a sigh of relief when he came here.
- Why did he breathe a sigh of relief? - you ask.
Here's why: all winter he went to kindergarten, and there they always told him: “This is not allowed” and “That is not allowed” and “You are still small.” And when he came home from kindergarten, dad and mom started saying the same thing.
The boy Yurchik was not some kind of mischievous person. He never did anything that was said “impossible.” But, you yourself understand, it’s not very pleasant to listen to such comments all the time, and most importantly - reminders that you are still small... It’s just the way it is in the world: at first a person is small, and then he grows up, and he himself is in this not at all to blame. So why remind us of such unpleasant things: that you are still small and cannot be completely independent? This is very insulting.
The kindergarten teacher said so, mom and dad said so, but grandfather and grandmother never said such things to Yurchik. They talked to Yurchik as to an equal. And if sometimes it turned out that something could not be done, then Yurchik himself guessed about it and, of course, did nothing of the kind. And he behaved even better than at home or in kindergarten.
It must now be clear to everyone that the boy Yurchik had a lot to get tired of during the winter and it also didn’t bother him to rest here, at the dacha, with his grandfather and grandmother.
So it was a beautiful summer day.
Grandfather and grandmother sat down in the garden near the veranda on folding chairs and began to relax. And the boy Yurchik found his last year’s truck with a crane somewhere in the storage room, tied a rope to it and drove it around the house with a terrible roar. He ran around the house once, he ran around a second time, he ran around a third time... A terrible roar filled the garden, it was a lot of fun! And no one thought to say: “This cannot be done.”
“Eh, eh,” the grandfather suddenly said. - Why are you, dear comrade, using technology irrationally? The machine wears out, but there is no benefit.
Yurchik stopped.
- What good can it do? - he asked.
- What kind of thing is this? You see, it’s a hot day, it would be nice to swim in the lake now. Even though it’s not far to go there, my grandmother and I are so tired that it’s hard for us. So you should take us to the lake in your car.
Yurchik smiled and looked at his grandfather incredulously: were they really joking with him, like with some foolish child? It can't be, grandpa isn't like that...
- Why are you silent? Don't you agree? - asked the grandfather.
“Of course, I agree,” said Yurchik, “but my car...
- Is it too small for us? - the grandfather quickly finished his grandson’s thought. “You don’t have to worry about this: now my grandmother and I will swallow the reduction pills and we will be quite suitable passengers for this car.”
- A! - said the boy Yurchik. - Then it's okay.
He wasn't surprised at all.
And you, of course, were surprised? You must have never heard of some kind of shrinking pills?
In order for everything to be clear, I need to tell you that Yurchik’s grandfather was a very learned inventor. He always invented various amazing things, things that no one had ever seen or heard of. Yurchik knew this and had long been accustomed to the fact that the most incredible things could be expected from his grandfather. That's why he wasn't surprised
- Did you get it or did you invent it yourself? - Yurqik asked his grandfather when he entered the room for a moment and took out two small boxes.
“Invented, of course,” the grandfather answered casually. - There are reduction pills in this box. Swallow one and you'll immediately shrink. To become suitable passengers for your car, grandma and I will swallow three each.
And he opened one box: it contained several shiny pink tablets, similar to dragee candies.
- How can you become big again? - asked Yurchik.
“I like this question,” the grandfather said approvingly. - He says that you can think logically. What would my shrinking pills be worth if I couldn’t become the same again?
And he opened the second box.
- Take a look: this is the second part of my invention. Enlargement pills. To become the same again as before, you need to swallow as many pills as you swallowed diminutives. That's all.
These tablets were also shiny, like candy, only Green colour. Yurchik looked at them with great interest.
“What if you don’t swallow diminutives at all? - he thought. - Just swallow magnifying glasses - then you can immediately become big? That would be great."
Just as he was about to ask his grandfather about this, his grandmother jumped up from her chair.
- If you go for a swim, then you have to go! - she said decisively. - And then I won’t have time. I need to cook lunch.
- That's right, let's not waste time! - Grandfather supported the grandmother. He handed her three pink tablets, took the same amount for himself, and they immediately ate them. They didn't even drink water.
At the same moment, Yurchik saw that his grandfather - such a tall, broad-shouldered, not quite old man, wearing glasses, with a long, not yet completely gray beard - began to quickly shrink, and his clothes and glasses were shrinking with him ,
and a long beard, and even an automatic pen sticking out of the breast pocket of his linen jacket...
And the grandmother, also quite tall and stocky, and not quite an old woman, began to shrink at the same speed as the grandfather, along with everything she was wearing. Of all the things, only two boxes with pink and green pills remained the same. They did not shrink because the grandfather prudently placed them on the steps of the veranda.
Finally, the grandfather and grandmother stopped shrinking: they became very tiny, the size of Yurchik’s palm. To talk to them, Yurchik had to squat down and even bow his head.
“I exaggerated it a little, that is, I understated it,” said the grandfather. - You could get by with two tablets. Well, never mind, it will be easier for you to carry us. Put us in the car. Don’t forget to put both boxes there, and let’s go!
Yurchik carefully took first his grandmother, then his grandfather, and put them in the car. The truck was too big for them - they could have put fifty more of these grandparents in there.
- What to sit on? - asked the grandmother. - On something hard it will shake.
“I’ll put a handkerchief in,” said Yurchik.
He ran into the room and brought his grandfather’s handkerchief, spread it in the front of the body, sat his grandfather and grandmother there, and put boxes of pills in the back of the body.
Go!

The lake was very close to their dacha, and Yurchik knew the way to it like the back of his hand.
First, he carefully drove the car down the hill, holding it so that it would not accelerate too much. Further, the path wound through a flooded meadow, covered with thick tall grass, green bushes and trees scattered here and there - old branchy oaks and the same old sedges.
The path was well-trodden and smooth. Even though the car rattled with all its loose tin parts.
but she walked smoothly and did not shake. And so Yurchik ran faster and faster and finally started skipping, looking around all the time: how are grandfather and grandmother feeling there?
And they seemed to feel quite well: they looked around all the time, showed something to each other, laughed and talked - but what exactly, Yurchik did not hear, their voices were thin!
Yurchik ran faster.
And suddenly some dry twig got under the wheel, and the car shook violently.
- Be careful, please! - the grandfather shouted at the top of his lungs, so that Yurchik could hear him.
- Oh grandpa, I'm sorry, I accidentally! - said Yurchik and, not at the same speed, but without stopping, he drove his passengers to the lake.
Here he dropped them both off on the soft white sand near the water. Oh, how great it will be to swim now!
- Well, let's quickly increase! - exclaimed the grandmother. - - We won’t get into the water so tiny - the fish will eat us.
“Don’t worry, we’ll increase now,” said grandfather. - Yurchik, give me a box of green pills!
Yurchik leaned towards the car. I looked into the back of the car and froze - there was only one box in the car!..
Where is the second one?!
Maybe it rolled into another corner of the body? No, she’s not there either.
Perhaps, while disembarking the passengers, he accidentally took out the box? No, not visible anywhere.
- What are you doing? - Grandfather shouted. - Why are you digging?
Yurchik sniffled.
- One box is missing! - he said embarrassed.
- Lacks? Which? - Grandfather was scared.
- Don't know.
- So open the box quickly and see - what kind of pills are there?
Yurchik grabbed the box, opened it, looked...
“Pink ones...” he said in fear.
Grandmother clasped her hands. Grandfather looked at her reproachfully and said cheerfully:
- There is no need to despair. It is clear that the box fell out of the car when, due to the driver’s negligence, we ran into some obstacle.
Yurchik sniffed again in embarrassment.
“But, fortunately,” continued the grandfather, “it happened very close to here.” Therefore, without wasting time, run, Yurchik, along the path to that place. I'm sure you'll quickly find what's missing.
- And we? - Grandmother asked in fear.
“In the meantime, we’ll sit here and sunbathe,” the grandfather grinned.
Yurchik did not take long to beg - he was already running headlong along the path in the direction from which they had come.
Here is a viburnum bush covered with still green berries. Here is a branchy oak on the right, and an old sedge on the left. A few more steps - and he will reach the place where the car ran over a dry branch. And in fact, there, in front, there is something white... Yes, this, of course, is the lost box!
And suddenly, from a distance, Yurchik saw something jump out of the thick grass onto the path.
Jump-jump - straight to the box...
Yurchik stopped. He immediately guessed: it was a frog, an ordinary medium-sized frog. But - although it’s not very pleasant to admit it - Yurchik was not only afraid, but simply really did not like frogs. They are somehow slippery, they jump... And it is still unknown where she wants to jump!.. It is better not to deal with them. And that’s why Yurchik stopped before reaching the box and decided to wait until the frog went home...
But it was a terrible mistake!
The frog had no intention of leaving. She was heading specifically towards the box, which she probably noticed from afar. Now she has already jumped up to her, opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue... One, one, one! - and in an instant, all the green pills, one after another, disappeared into her mouth. Yurchik rushed towards her with a desperate cry.
But it was already too late.
With lightning speed the frog began to grow. She became like a big apple, then like a soccer ball, then like a pig, a calf... and she grew and grew!..
Yurchik no longer saw what she eventually became, as he began to run, overcome by horror. And only after running a fair distance did he decide to look back and saw that the giant monster had clumsily jumped towards him. Then Yurchik no longer looked back, but rushed forward at the speed of sound - and this is a speed that can only be exceeded by jet planes and space rockets. Somewhere far behind him, he heard rare heavy impacts on the ground - it was a monster jumping.
“We need to climb a tree!” - thought Yurchik. He noticed a tall, tall sedge tree not far away and was about to rush towards it, when suddenly a new thought struck him:
“What about grandparents? After all, the monster will instantly reach them and swallow them like pathetic insects! We must run to them, save them!”
And, straining his last strength, Yurchik rushed on.
Here he is near the lake.
- Grandfather! Grandmother! Save yourself! The frog swallowed magnifying pills and is jumping here... This is no longer a frog, this is a huge monster! Look, look, it has already seen you. What to do?!
Grandfather and grandmother looked where Yurchik was pointing and saw a monster. Grandma gasped and fainted. But grandfather, it was not for nothing that he was a very learned inventor!
He immediately slapped his forehead with his palm and exclaimed:
- Hurry up, take the box of shrinking pills and throw it to the monster!
Without hesitation, Yurchik grabbed the box, rushed forward and, swinging with all his might, threw it right at the feet of the giant frog.
The monster didn’t think long either: with one wave of its long tongue it picked up the box with all the pills and swallowed it.
And Yurchik and his grandfather saw how the monster immediately began to get smaller and smaller, and after a few seconds there was already a very ordinary frog in front of them, of medium size, and not at all scary.
Yurchik grabbed the twig and was about to drive her away, when suddenly a large shadow flashed in the sky - it was a stork. With his sharp beak he deftly caught the frog and swallowed it.
Suddenly... the grandfather and grandson even froze in surprise: the shrinking pills must have had such a powerful force that they also affected the stork, which swallowed a frog with these pills in its stomach. The stork suddenly began to shrink, but not as much as the frog. He turned into a small bird and flew away, apparently very surprised by this transformation.
“We got rid of this danger,” said the grandfather, “now you, Yurchik, will have to take us home as soon as possible.” We are not immune from new unpleasant encounters and dangers.
Grandmother, who had already come to her senses, asked with concern:
- Do we have any other enlargement pills at home?
- No! - answered the grandfather.
Grandma gasped again and fainted again.
Yurchik and her grandfather sprinkled water from the lake on her, brought her back to consciousness, put her in the car, and Yurchik, this time without any incident, drove her and her grandfather home.

When they finally found themselves on their veranda, the grandfather said:
- You shouldn't despair. Our situation is difficult, but not hopeless. Luckily for us, in the city, in my laboratory, there is still a small supply of the tablets we need, so we only need to think about one thing: how to get them there?
- I'll go and bring it! - Yurchik said decisively.
Grandfather nodded his head.
- I think so too. You will take the key to the laboratory in the pocket of my summer coat, and I will explain to you exactly where to find the pills. True, without my note you may not be allowed into the territory of our institute. So you need to write a note. Let's try!
Yurchik brought a piece of paper, the grandfather pulled out his automatic pen from his breast pocket - as you remember, it shrank along with his grandfather - and began to write.
But... nothing came of it. If my grandfather wrote in his usual handwriting, the letters would be so tiny that no one could make out what was written, even with a magnifying glass. When my grandfather tried to draw huge (for him!) letters so that a normal person could easily read them, they came out incredibly clumsy and had nothing in common with my grandfather’s handwriting.
- No one will recognize such a note; they will say that it is a fake! - grandfather sighed. - I’ll have to write a note on a typewriter, but somehow I’ll be able to sign it... Bring my typewriter here.
Yurchik quickly brought his grandfather’s typewriter from the room: it was small and light. My grandfather always wrote all sorts of letters and scientific works on it.
But who will write? After all, compared to his grandfather, the typewriter was now so huge that he simply could not reach the necessary letters.
- You will write! - Grandfather said to Yurchik.
Yurchik turned red like boiled crayfish.
- I... I don’t know how to write yet! - he stammered.
- But do you know the letters?
- I know...
“In this case, that’s enough,” said the grandfather. - Sit down at the typewriter, put paper in it... You can do this, I know.
Yurchik blushed again and looked at his grandfather in surprise: did his grandfather really know that Yurchik had tried to write on the map more than once?
tavern? When no one was in the room, he secretly put paper into the typewriter and hit the black circles with white letters. And these letters were clearly imprinted on the paper, in a very real way, to him! But Yurchik thought that no one knew about this.
- Invest, invest! - the grandfather repeated, winking. - It’s very good that you have experience in this matter.
Yurchik stopped being shy, sat down at the typewriter, put in a piece of paper and began to write. His grandfather stood next to the typewriter and told him which letters needed to be struck to make the right word. And what do you think - everything turned out very well - It was written on the note - the grandfather read it out loud:
“Please let my grandson into my laboratory,” and the grandfather’s signature. He managed to make it with his tiny fountain pen.
- Take the money for the trip in the pocket of my coat, in the same place as the key to the laboratory. Take the bus and get to Nauchnaya Street...
Then suddenly grandma intervened in the conversation!
- Smart people, but they came up with God knows what! - she was indignant. - Don’t you, grandfather, understand that Yurchik can get on the wrong bus? And not where you need to go? And what will he say if on the bus people start to be surprised and ask where this one is going... - the grandmother caught herself, - not quite an adult boy?
Grandfather shook his head - yes, she was right... But, as always. he quickly figured out what to do.
- - I'll go with you! You put me in your pocket, just so that no one sees... because, you know, it’s somehow awkward: they know me in the city, there are many of my students there. I wouldn't want any of them to see me like this. But I will hide in your pocket and tell you what to do and what to say.
“It will be better this way,” the grandmother agreed.
Yurchik suggested that grandma go with them to the city.
Rod, he has enough room in his pocket. But the grandmother refused - she was so tired that she would rather stay at the dacha and rest.
“Just don’t linger,” she said, “because I will be very worried.”
Grandfather and Yurchik knew that she was always worried about everything, and they tried not to cause her unnecessary worries. They promised not to delay. Then she forced them to eat before the journey; they couldn’t set off on an empty stomach! There was no lunch, of course, because there was no one to cook, but all three were well fed with bread, sausage and milk.
For grandparents, Yurchik finely chopped bread and sausage, and poured milk into small saucers for jam.
Then Yurchik changed his clothes, put his grandfather in his pocket, covered him with a handkerchief, said goodbye to his grandmother and headed to the bus stop.
Luckily, there was no one at the stop. Yurchik was very afraid that he would meet one of the dacha neighbors here and questions would begin... It’s good that this did not happen.
Soon a bus appeared in the distance.
- Grandfather, he’s coming! - Yurchik said quietly. - Ours or not ours?
- What do you see on it? - asked the grandfather.
- Something is written: one word begins with “O”, and the other with “K”.
- So, ours!
The bus arrived and stopped. Yurchik deftly jumped onto the step, from the step into the car and handed the conductor the money. He kept them ready in his hand all the time.
- Where are you going? - asked the conductor.
Yurchik was slightly confused, but the grandfather whispered from his pocket: “Tell me - to Nauchnaya.”
That's what he said.
- Right! - said the conductor, looking at the coins that Yurchik gave her, and tore off his ticket.

Look, he’s so small, but he’s riding alone, and he’s behaving so ferociously,” one remarked fat woman. - And my parents let me in!
- Now they don’t listen to their parents from the cradle! - muttered some gloomy guy with a newspaper.
- No, there’s something wrong here... Did you see how he took the ticket and said where he was going? Maybe this is not a child at all, but an adult, a midget? - another woman, thin, guessed.
- What nonsense! - the fat woman was indignant. - Isn't it clear that this is a child? Now I’ll ask him... Boy, where are you going and where are your parents?
“Repeat after me, only politely!” - grandfather whispered.
And Yurchik very politely said what was suggested to him:
- - If this interests you so much, citizen, I can tell you that I am going about my business, and my parents are now on a business trip. Where are you going, if it’s not a secret?
The fat woman recoiled, she was shocked. The gloomy uncle looked up from his newspaper and looked with interest at Yurchik over his glasses. And the thin woman whispered loudly:
- You see, you see! I told you it was a Lilliputian. Adult!
- Why is he dressed like a little boy: short pants, socks... Lilliputians dress like adults! - the fat woman did not give up.
- Now adults also wear short pants - shorts. It's fashionable!
- Well, they're dudes!
- Or maybe there are dudes among the Lilliputians? So they walk in fashion!
Yurchik did not listen to this conversation, much less take part in it. He walked forward and sat down in an empty seat near the window. His heart was pounding excitedly, but his grandfather, who was sitting in his pocket near his heart and clearly heard this pounding, whispered reassuringly:
- Nothing, nothing, Yurchik! Because I'm with you...
Then everything really went well. Fat and thin women, followed by a gloomy uncle, soon got off the bus, and the new passengers did not care about the boy who sat quietly and did not bother anyone. They probably thought that his mother was also traveling on this bus, but was sitting somewhere in the back, or maybe they didn’t think anything about it at all... Moreover, the attention of all the bus passengers was riveted on what was going on outside the windows. The bus walked across a bridge over a small river, which only became large and full-flowing during the spring flood. But now it was no longer spring, but summer. The flood ended long ago, and the river entered its banks. However, today passengers were surprised to notice that this river again, like in the spring, became wide, swollen, seething...
Everyone clung to the windows, exclamations of surprise and perplexed questions were heard: “What happened to the river?” The bridge was left behind long ago, and people on the bus were gossiping about it for a long time.
Thus, no one paid any attention to Yurchik, and he, with his grandfather in his pocket, calmly drove to the city, and then to Nauchnaya Street.
The conductor loudly announced the name of the stop, so that Yurchik, even without his grandfather’s prompting, guessed that he needed to get off. And he left and went to the institute - here he had visited his grandfather more than once, and he knew the way. There was only one thing that was scary: how he would explain himself to the guard at the gate.
The guard at the gate looked sternly at Yurchik and asked:
- What do you want, baby?
Yurchik was unpleasantly surprised by this treatment. But he didn't show that it bothered him. He greeted politely and handed the guard his grandfather’s note.
“Let me into the laboratory,” the guard read out loud. - But the professor is not there, he is on vacation. What will you do in the laboratory there?
Yurchik whacks and whacks, doesn’t know what to answer. But the grandfather did not sleep.
“Repeat after me,” he whispered from his pocket. And Yurchik confidently repeated what his grandfather had told him:
- Yes, grandfather is on vacation, but today he came here, and we will go to the dacha together...
All this was, as you can see, the purest truth: after all, grandfather really came here and got together with Yurchik - and with pills! - go to the dacha. But the watchman understood it completely differently: he thought that the professor, that is, Yurchik’s grandfather, had arrived in the morning and was waiting for his grandson in his laboratory.
And he let Yurchik through the gate.
It’s good that grandfather’s laboratory was in a separate house, in the middle of a dense garden, where it is now, in work time, There was no one. And that’s why no one saw how Yurchik puffed and puffed, trying to open the laboratory’s thick lock with a key; how his grandfather, leaning out of his pocket, did his best to help him with advice; and how, in the end, by inserting a wand into the eye of the key, he managed to unlock the door.

Phew, finally! - said the grandfather as soon as Yurchik crossed the threshold of the laboratory. - First of all, get me out of your pocket as soon as possible, because I’m tired of sitting on something sticky...
Yurchik pulled out his grandfather and saw that in fact there was something sticky in his pocket: it was candy that Yurchik had left in the pocket of his jacket the day before. It melted from the heat, and maybe because grandfather was sitting on it... And now grandfather’s linen trousers were covered in sticky candy filling.
“It’s no problem,” said the grandfather, “I have my work pants here, I can change.” Get the pills out quickly. You can't imagine how eager I am to be again normal person!
And he showed Yurchik to a shelf where in glass flasks, bottles and cardboard boxes there were various mysterious substances invented by his grandfather.
The shelf was high. With great difficulty, Yurchik pulled a table towards her, placed a chair on the table and climbed up.
- So! Fine! - his grandfather encouraged him. - Don't be afraid! Stretch your hand to the right! Over there, next to the large yellow glass jar, there are two round boxes. Such as with tooth powder. Found? Wonderful. Take them and get off. Carefully!!!
But it was too late to say “be careful”! Yurchik staggered, grabbed the shelf with both hands, but did not fall. However, both round boxes flew down, opened, and all the pills rolled on the floor.

When the boy Yurchik started going to school, he began to study well from the very first day. There was no way he could study poorly: firstly, because he liked everything at school and found it interesting, and secondly, he would be ashamed to study poorly. I am ashamed mainly in front of my grandfather. Judge for yourself what it would be and what it would look like: the grandfather is a famous scientist-inventor, and the grandson is lazy and ignorant? Very beautiful, nothing to say!
And then one day Yurchik unexpectedly “grabbed” the four. It was necessary to copy from the book: “The cat caught the mouse.” Yurchik wrote everything correctly and even rewrote it very beautifully. Only in one place instead of “o” he wrote “and”, and it came out: “The whale caught the mouse.” Well, then everyone started laughing and asking Yurchik where he had seen such whales? And was this mouse in the sea or was the whale lying in wait for it near a hole in the pantry? And Yurchik also found it funny, and he laughed along with everyone else.
But then the teacher shook her head and said:
- Well, Yurchik, even though you made us all laugh, I can’t give you an A. It is written beautifully, but with an error. Be more careful in future.
And I gave him a four!
Then Yurchik immediately stopped laughing and became sad. Someone else might not have been so upset about four
ki, because it’s still not a C or a D, but a good mark! But, as you already know, Yurchik studied excellently from the very first day, and this was the first four in his life...
So, sadly, Yurchik left school after class and went home. His mother was on a business trip at the time, so Yurchik temporarily lived with his grandparents. This means that now he will have to meet with his grandfather, with the same grandfather who is most ashamed to admit that he received a B, and not an A, as always.
- Don’t tell me! - his friend and neighbor Sergei advised Yurchik. - Is it necessary to tell everything? And it’s not such a grief - a four!
For Sergei, a four would indeed not be a grief, but just the opposite. He would even be very happy to receive such a mark. The fact is that although he was a resourceful and capable boy, and was not very lazy, all sorts of unexpected things always happened to him. For example, one day on the way to school, for some reason he decided to take a shortcut and climbed over the fence. He climbed over and shortened the path, but he caught on some nail on the fence and tore his pants in the most visible place, if you look from behind. What was he supposed to do? Sergei was the very first to run into class, sat down at his desk, but never got up so that no one would see the hole. And everything would have been fine if Sergei had not been called to the board to solve examples in arithmetic. Sergei refused - he couldn’t get up! But the teacher got angry, thinking that he was just being stubborn, and gave him a bad grade.
And another time the teacher asked him the multiplication table, and he knew everything perfectly. So she asks:
- What is two times three?
He says:
- Six!
- And three times
two - how much?
asks the teacher. And this is one hell of a thing! -
without hesitation, Sergei answered.
And although, in fact, he was not mistaken - because two times three and three times two will still be six - but the teacher again got angry with him for expressing himself in such an unscientific way, and again slapped a two!.. You see what adventures happened with Yurchik’s best friend!
- Don’t say anything to grandpa and that’s it! - Sergey advised.
Yurchik shook his head. How can one not talk when grandfather is always interested in everything that happened at school and asks questions. So how do you tell a lie? No, Yurchik does not agree to this. Telling a lie is even more shameful than getting a B...
With such thoughts, Yurchik approached the house where his grandfather lived, asked Sergei, climbed the stairs, rang the bell and entered the room where his grandfather was sitting at his desk, resting his head on his hand. He sat like this and looked attentively at Yurchik. And Yurchik stopped at the threshold and began to think quickly - what should he do?
Should we talk about the four right away or not? Maybe not talk at all? Or maybe say, just not now, but a little later? No, it doesn't matter. It is impossible not to speak at all. And if so, then it’s better right away! Yurchik had already opened his mouth to tell everything, when suddenly the grandfather smiled, nodded his head approvingly and said with a satisfied look:
- Well done, Yurchik! I decided correctly: of course, I need to tell everything at once. It is impossible not to speak at all. Why do you get a four?
Yurchik widened his eyes, “how does grandfather know?” Has someone already told him about the four? Maybe the teacher said it on the phone? No, do they really tell their parents about the B grade? This is not a deuce! And then - how does grandfather know that Yurchik was in doubt: to say or not to say?
- Nobody told me anything, neither on the phone nor on the radio! - said the grandfather. - You’re just thinking about it now, and I’m reading your thoughts.
“You can’t read minds, this is not a book!” - thought Yurchik.
“No, you can,” said the grandfather. - Well, if you don’t read, then you can listen, but it’s the same thing.
Yurchik smiled. What kind of miracles? “Now I’ll think about something incredible,” he decided, “I’ll think that now it’s not winter, but summer, and we’re not in the city, but in the country.”
“Unfortunately, now it’s still winter,” the grandfather said without thinking, “and we’re not at the dacha, but in the city... Maybe you’ll think about something impossible, or you’re already convinced that I read, that is, I hear your thoughts?
“This is really so,” Yurchik said in confusion. - How do you do this?
The grandfather laughed and took the hand he was leaning on away from his ear. In his palm lay a small black round device, similar to the earpiece of a radio receiver or the part of a telephone receiver that is put to the ear to listen.
“This is my new invention,” said the grandfather. - Pocket thought receiver. If you put it to your ear and look at a person, you will hear that person’s thoughts as if he were saying them out loud.
- And if you look at an animal, for example, a cat? - asked Yurchik. - Or on a whale? - he added, remembering his mistake.
- It won't work. We express our thoughts in words that are understandable to everyone who knows the language. But animals, for example, cats or, say, whales, cannot speak. Consequently, they cannot think, and with the help of my invention it is impossible to find out what they feel there.
Yurchik thought for a while and in general terms understood his grandfather’s explanation.
- Can I hear your thoughts? - he asked.
Grandfather smiled.
- Try!
Yurchik carefully picked up the amazing device and put it to his ear. Looking intently into his grandfather's eyes, he listened carefully for several minutes, then shrugged his shoulders in confusion and took his hand away from his ear.
“I don’t understand anything... Some kind of biocurrents... traction-bractions,” he said offendedly.
- Not traction-bractions, but abstractions! - his grandfather corrected him. - This is such a scientific word. It's no wonder you don't understand him. After all, you are only going to school for the first year, and such words are only taught in the tenth grade. But I always think in such scientific words, that’s why you can’t understand my thoughts... Well, that’s enough already! Give me the device here, I’ll hide it, because the batteries will run out from prolonged use.
Grandfather hid his mind receiver in a desk drawer, then sat down on the sofa and sat Yurchik next to him.
- Now tell me what happened with the four of you! - he said.
And Yurchik, of course, spoke about everything in detail.
For two weeks, in Yurchik’s class, as well as in the whole school, everyone was talking about the fact that soon there would be an exhibition of children’s works at the Palace of Pioneers and that it was necessary to present something interesting to this exhibition. Everyone not only talked about it, but worked energetically. The girls made some extraordinary embroideries, young artists created entire art galleries. But most of the boys, including Yurchik, of course, built a wonderful, beautiful, brilliant model space rocket. They sawed, planed, glued, painted, sparing no effort and time. And some of them were so passionate about this work that they even forgot about the assigned lessons. Not “some”, but one, and it was Sergei, Yurchik’s friend.
- I need these lessons! - he said. - Well, let there be bad marks - three, two, three - stand... Then I’ll correct it, but now the rocket is more important!!!
He said this, of course, to Yurchik, and not to the teacher. And although Yurchik did not agree with him and argued that both were important, Sergei just casually waved his hand and again began to hover around the rocket.
Why spin? But because the real benefit from it is teamwork did not have. He was so fast, impetuous and not very careful: if he grabbed some small part, he might break it. And he’s also a restless person - he’ll start doing something and give up! What is the use of such an employee? But the boys did not chase him when he hovered around them, because Sergei was very cheerful, witty and entertained everyone with his jokes and funny jokes.
And now the deadline was approaching when it was necessary to submit all the works for the exhibition. Three days before this deadline, a completely finished, wonderful, beautiful, brilliant model of a space rocket stood in Yurchik’s class on a separate table, arousing the envy of all the students, even the fourth graders who came to look at it.

On the day when the event you are about to learn about happened, there was a pleasant winter weather. Snow was falling, but there was no frost, and therefore the snow was soft, fluffy - it’s good to make snowballs from such snow. From such snow you can quickly roll large balls, and from them make a snow woman!
Therefore, it is not surprising that during the big break, all the schoolchildren poured out into the garden, and then a cheerful fuss began: snowmen grew up in all corners of the garden at the same time, and in the middle there was a fortress. And over all this snowballs were constantly flying in different directions.
Yurchik and Sergei, of course, were also here. They bravely defended their first-class fortress shoulder to shoulder from the attack of second-graders and only caught their breath when
The opponents retreated and began to build a fortress themselves in the opposite corner of the garden.
- Get ready, friends! - Olezhka, the universally recognized commander of the first-graders, shouted. - Now we ourselves will go on the offensive!
- Oh, wait! - said Sergei. - Don't attack without me. I'll just run to class and grab some mittens, I forgot them in my briefcase.
A few minutes later he was here again, and the desperate snow fight was resumed with varying success for both sides.
But then the bell rang. The students returned to class. And suddenly they were shocked by a terrible sight: a wonderful, wonderful, brilliant model of a space rocket was lying on the table, broken, smashed, destroyed!.. For a moment everyone stood in silence.
as if they were struck by thunder. Then, with indignant screams, they rushed to their mutilated creation.
- What scoundrel did this?
- How did it happen?
- This is someone on purpose, out of envy!
- I should beat the dirty guy so that he knows!
The teacher came running in response to the noise, and not only her own teacher, Vassa Pavlovna, but also from other neighboring classes; it was still impossible to start the lesson there because of the terrible noise.
“There’s no need to hit anyone,” said Vassa Pavlovna, after examining the damage. “We need to find out who did this and get him to fix the model.” It's not an easy task, but it's quite possible. But who did it?
Nobody confessed!..
It soon became known that all the students of the first shift were in the yard during the big break. And no stranger came into the school.. And the windows in the classroom were closed, so that the wind could not knock over the model and cause trouble.
“We were all in the yard too,” said Olezhka.
And then suddenly it was like something
I remembered and looked at Sergei. And Yurchik also remembered... No, not all the students in their class were in the yard all the time!
- Sergei ran to class to get mittens! - said Olezhka. - Was the model intact then, Seryozha?
- Yes, to be honest, I didn’t even look in that direction! - Sergei waved it off.
- Listen, maybe you touched her... somehow by accident?
Sergei blushed to his ears.
- What are you... thinking about me?
The students surrounded Sergei. He stood among them, confused and frightened. “Of course, it’s him... he’s probably... He also refuses, he’s afraid to confess,” it was written on the faces of his comrades.
“If you did this, tell the truth,” said Vassa Pavlovna. - You never know what can happen! We will all help you fix the rocket.
- I didn’t break... I didn’t even look at her! - Sergei exclaimed in despair.
-Who else besides you?
- After all, everyone was in the yard!
Sergei did not answer. He looked around the class in surprise, then frowned, pursed his lips and, without saying anything, turned away from his comrades.
Vassa Pavlovna looked at him reproachfully and ordered everyone to sit down at their desks and take up their books. Everyone dispersed and sat down, quietly indignant. Nobody, of course, believed Sergei. It was not for nothing that he was the number one naughty and daredevil in his class. But until now no one thought that he was a liar and a coward!..
Yurchik sat down in his place next to Sergei, terribly upset. And he, like everyone else, thought that it was Sergei who broke the model. But at the same time, he felt sorry for his friend and simply couldn’t believe that he could lie so stubbornly and be afraid to admit his guilt... He was ashamed of Sergei.
Somehow the lessons ended and everyone went home. And Kchik and Sergei, as always, went together. They walked and were silent. Finally Sergei said:
- You do not trust me? I see that you don’t believe it!..
Yurchik muttered something incomprehensible. Then Sergei suddenly stopped and exclaimed:
- Do not believe?! Then you are no longer my friend! - and with these words he ran away from Yurchik, although he had to go in the same direction.
This made Yurchik very excited. What to do? Trust a friend? Yes, of course, believe it! But this is not enough: it is necessary
so that everyone believes him... How to do this? If only everyone could know his thoughts...
And suddenly Yurchik stopped. Yes, find out thoughts! It's very easy to do. After all, my grandfather has a wonderful, amazing invention just for this.
Hurry to grandpa!
And Yurchik rushed home with all his might.

Fortunately, my grandfather had already come home from his institute. Yurchik rushed into his room like crazy.
- Grandfather! - he shouted excitedly. - Give me your pocket thought receiver quickly. We need to save Sergei!
- What's happened? - the grandfather was surprised. - What happened and what does he need to be saved from?
Yurchik told everything. “Grandfather listened carefully and shook his head.
“Unfortunately, I cannot provide the device for general use,” he said. - My invention has not yet been tested and approved. Yes, I don’t think that it is so necessary in this case. If Sergei is not guilty of anything, it will definitely come out.
- Yes, but until this becomes clear, he will suffer! - Yurchik objected hotly. - This cannot be tolerated!
- Well, if so... Okay. I'll give you the device! Just give me your word that you won’t show it to anyone or tell about it.
Yurchik thought about it. This, of course, is not what he wanted. But it was not bad either. Firstly, Yurchik will be able to be completely convinced that Sergei is not guilty. And secondly, with the help of this thought receiver it will be possible to find the real culprit... Although this is not an easy task - to search in the entire first shift, but you can try...
- OK! - said Yurchik. - Here's my honest
October’s word that I won’t show it to anyone or tell anyone.
Then the grandfather took out a device that was already familiar to us from the desk drawer and gave it to his grandson. Yurchik put the device in his pocket and quickly ran out of the room.
“First of all, we need to run to Sergei,” Yurchik decided, “I need to tell him that I will find the culprit, so that he doesn’t suffer in vain.”
Sergei really suffered. He sat alone in the room, holding an open book about Pinocchio on his lap, and did not even notice that the book was lying upside down. Seeing the out of breath Yurchik, he shuddered and looked at him in fear.
And Yurchik stopped at the threshold, put his hand to his ear and looked attentively at his friend.
“Why did he come? Maybe to say that he doesn't believe me? But I’m telling the truth - I didn’t break the model. And should we talk about Grisha or not? - Sergei thought so, and Yurchik heard all his thoughts clearly.
“Listen, Sergey,” said Yurchik, again putting his hand in his pocket, “I used to believe that it wasn’t you who did this, but now I know for sure.” Rest assured.
- You are a true friend, Yurchik! - Sergei said joyfully. - Why do you know for sure now? Has the culprit been found?
- No, but we will find him. And why I know, I can’t tell you, so don’t ask. I just know that's all. And I also know that you wanted to tell me something about Grisha... What exactly?
Sergei widened his eyes in surprise.
- Yeah. About Grisha... I didn’t want to tell anyone, but... If you know something yourself, I’ll tell you. Just don't tell anyone.
- What exactly? I do not know anything!
And then Sergei excitedly told Yurchik that he was not the only one in their class during the big break. When Sergei ran for his mittens, he actually didn’t even look at the model. But he saw that in the corner at his desk was sitting one student, Grisha, whom everyone was little
The boys and girls nicknamed him “the book eater.” They called him that because he read a lot. And he read so quickly, as if he was swallowing books! Grisha learned to read terribly early, probably when he was four, or maybe even three years old... And some said that he always knew how to read, and that’s how he was born literate. And from then on, he read all the time and read everything that came to hand, and this was his only favorite pastime.
So, when Sergei ran into the classroom to get some mittens, Grisha, as usual, sat with his head in both hands and immersed in a book.
“You understand,” Sergei said, “for some reason he was silent and didn’t even say anything when everyone was thinking about me... But he knows that I didn’t even approach the rocket. Why was he silent?
- Why didn’t you say that you saw him there? - Yurchik was surprised. - Maybe it was he who broke the model?
- I... I didn't mean to. Let him say it himself! Am I going to be an informer, or what? And they wouldn’t believe it - they still know that Grisha only thinks about books. Why would he touch the rocket! He wasn't interested in her at all!
Yurchik shook his head decisively and said:
- I think he did it, that’s why he was silent!
Sergei shrugged.
- I think so too, but I don’t know for sure. So why am I going to talk about it? So that they start thinking about him like they do about me? Or maybe he is not to blame for anything at all...
“Now I find out,” said Yurchik, squeezing the device in his pocket with his hand. - Rest assured, everything will become clear. Bye! I'm going to him!
And, without wasting time, Yurchik ran to Grisha.
His room was littered with books. Books stood in the closet and on shelves, lay on the table, and on the windowsill, and even on chairs. But Grisha, contrary to usual, did not sit with his nose buried in a book, but stood at the window and thought about something... Hearing that someone had entered, he turned to the door and looked somehow alarmed at Yurchik.
“And why did he come? - thought Grisha. - Did you really find out that I broke this damned model? Did Sergei really say that he saw me in class?
- Sergei is not like you! - Yurchik responded indignantly to his thoughts. - He didn’t want to tell anyone about you! And you are a coward! If you broke the model, you should have said something, and not let everyone think about Sergei.
“No one saw it... How does he know?” - Grisha thought in surprise and fear.
- It’s my business - how do I know! - Yurchik answered. - I know and I can tell everyone!
“They won’t believe him... He has no evidence... And everyone knows that he is friends with Sergei,” Grisha quickly flashed through his head.
“Yes, I’m friends with Sergei,” said Yurchik, “and although I don’t have evidence, they would still believe me, but I won’t tell anyone - you have to admit everything yourself.”
“Confess everything? I’ll never make up my mind, thought Grisha. “It’s simply impossible, unthinkable!”
“Nothing is impossible,” answered Yurchik. - And you will decide if you want.
“I will burn with shame...”
- You won't burn!
Grisha looked at Yurchik with horror.
- How do you know what I'm thinking about? - he asked with a trembling voice.
Yurchik smiled and hid his hand with the device in his pocket.
“You see,” he said, “you can’t hide anything from me.” Let's talk honestly. It will be better for you.
“Let’s talk... about what?..” Grisha asked uncertainly.
- About the fact that tomorrow you need to tell everything the truth!.. In front of the whole class.
- I'm afraid! - Grisha said scared.
- Do not be afraid. There's nothing wrong. You didn't break our model on purpose, did you?
- Nope... I just wanted to look... But it fell on the floor and broke... And I don’t know how to fix it.
Oh you! - said Yurchik. - Come on, I’ve read so many books. Would Pinocchio, or Chi-pollino, or the brave Bibigon be afraid of anything? Haven’t you read about the brave Periwinkle with his horse, Zvonk? None of them would be afraid to admit their guilt, so that they would not think of someone else. And don't be afraid! And Sergey and I will help you fix it, rest assured!
Grisha sniffed and suddenly sighed with relief.
“Thank you, Yurchik,” he said. - You are a real comrade! I felt so bad myself, I couldn’t even read... Tomorrow everyone will know the truth! I'll tell you everything. And now let’s go to Sergei, I want to ask for his forgiveness.
The next day, Grisha boldly admitted his guilt in front of the whole class. And although the boys said a lot of unpleasant words to him, they all began to help him repair the model.
And when the exhibition opened at the Palace of Pioneers, this
a wonderful, beautiful, brilliant model of a space rocket received first prize. And all the guys from their class were terribly proud and happy.
And the pocket mental device returned to the drawer of grandfather’s desk that evening when Grisha asked Sergei for forgiveness.
Yurchik, of course, told his grandfather everything. And the grandfather was also very pleased that his amazing invention helped Yurchik discover the truth, and Grishcha - to overcome his cowardice and act as a real October boy should.
rkiyushche y aseu
- Who is going on a trip around the world? - the grandfather asked in surprise, coming one evening to visit his grandson Yurchik. Yurchik and his mother stood in the middle of the room, looking confusedly at the dining table. There was a whole bunch of different things on the table. There were: a towel, soap and Toothbrush, shorts, swimming trunks, a bathing cap, a bowl, a spoon and a knife, and even an aluminum mug, two loaves of bread, a bunch of bagels, a large piece of lard, several tin boxes with canned meat and condensed milk... On the edge of the table lay an empty backpack, and if he could even think anything, he would probably tremble with fear: “Are they really going to push all this into me?!”
Yurchik joyfully rushed to his grandfather, and his mother said worriedly:
“I can swear that two loaves of bread won’t last him three days!” On fresh air, and on the road, the boys always have a voracious appetite! But it probably won’t fit in the backpack anymore!
And she began to squeeze everything that was on the table into her backpack.
While she was doing this, Yurchik managed to explain to his grandfather what was going on.
Now, during the holidays, a pioneer playground has opened at the school. It’s a lot of fun there, especially in their group; they have a wonderful, wonderful counselor, Victor. He always comes up with interesting things! And so he decided to go on a hike with the guys for three whole days! They will travel by train to some station where there is a forest, and then they will travel through the forest, and spend the night in the forest, and swim in the forest lake, and sit by the fire in the mysterious twilight of the forest...
“Or maybe some other danger will happen? Maybe we’ll have to overcome terrible obstacles?” - the boys secretly hoped. Girls, of course, would prefer to do without fears and dangers...
Everyone had to take food for three days. What should I take? And how many? - not for one day, but for three!..
“It’s not a great joy to walk with such a burden on your sleep,” said my mother.
Not!
The backpack was stuffed to the brim. Yurchik put it on his shoulders and proudly walked around the room. Let them not think that it is hard for him!
- That's terrible! - Mom said. - And who came up with this? You are still too young for such trips!
- I’m not going alone! - Yurchik was indignant. - Everyone here is like me. And I’m not little anymore. Really, grandpa?
- Is it true! - said the grandfather.
Mom looked at him reproachfully and wanted to say something...
“Wait,” the grandfather told her. - Yurchik is really not small anymore. And he, of course, must go on a hike with the same load as all his comrades! It's just a pity that he won't be able to help me test my new invention. And that would be very helpful!
- What invention? - Yurchik became interested.
And what kind of grandfather is Yurchik! No one has such a grandfather! He is a scientist, an inventor, and he always comes up with things that would never even occur to anyone... But what has he invented now?
“You see,” said the grandfather, “sometimes a person finds himself in a situation where it would be very convenient for him to do without food.” Do not carry unnecessary weight with you. For example, on long journeys, especially in space. But a person cannot live without water and food. He will quickly lose strength, become weak and will generally be unable to do anything. So I decided to invent pills that would replace food and drink for a person. They contain everything nutritious that is necessary for life, and at the same time they take up very little space. And their weight is not at all overwhelming.
Mom even clasped her hands.
- Ah! Are there really such pills? It would be just happiness for our [Orchik! He wouldn't have to carry such a weight with him!
- Yeah, and for all our guys too! - Yurchik happily picked up.
“Let me finish,” the grandfather remarked calmly. - Such pills already exist, I invented them! And I tested it myself. But Yurchik would have done a great service to me and to science if he had undertaken to test them on a hike. I would not take any food with me at all, but only pills.
And the grandfather took out of his pocket and showed his mother and Yurchik a tiny glass tube in which lay several tiny pills.
- Unfortunately, this is all my stock for now. Making such pills is still very difficult, complicated and expensive. So there is no need to even think about their mass use. I can
give a few pills just to you. And exactly enough for three days. Moreover, with the condition: to maintain scientific secrets, not to disclose anything.
- In this, grandfather, you can rely on me! - Yurchik assured warmly. - I never eat, I never divulge what I shouldn’t. I just don’t know - will it be good? Everyone will come loaded, and I will come without anything. They will laugh at me!..
- Well, we’ll have to be patient for the sake of science! - said the grandfather.
Such an argument would, of course, convince everyone.
So, Yurchik agreed to test his grandfather’s invention on a hike. Mom happily took almost everything out of the backpack. There were only a towel and the rest of the washing and bathing accessories left there. But in Yurchik’s pocket, prudently secured with a safety pin, there was a small glass tube containing eight tiny pills - enough for three breakfasts, three lunches and two dinners. After all, on the third day they will already have dinner at home.
Early in the morning, a group of young travelers gathered in the schoolyard. In total there were seven boys and five girls.
The boys' names were: Andryusha, Boris, Mitya, Olezhka, Sashka, Sergei and Yurchik. And of the girls, the oldest was called Natasha and the youngest - Natasha, and the middle ones were Galya, Valya and Lyalya. In order to somehow distinguish between the two Natashas, ​​the older one was called Natasha Bolshaya, and the younger one was called Talusya-Malyusya. Actually, these were the five most heroic girls in their class.
First to come best friends Yurchika - Sergei and Olezhka. The others followed them. Heavy backpacks were piled behind everyone’s shoulders, filled to overflowing with all sorts of things, mainly, of course, food. However, everyone was cheerful, cheerful and ready for any difficulties of the hike.
- Let's go! - Victor said, looking around his squad. - Where is Yurchik?
- I'm here! - Yurchik exclaimed, jumping out from around the corner and quickly getting into formation as if he was almost late and had just rushed in. But, of course, he came a long time ago. I just didn’t want my comrade to bombard him with surprised questions, and decided not to show himself to them until the last minute.
Everyone really looked at his backpack in surprise, dangling freely over his shoulders.
- What's happened? Where's your food? - asked Olezhka.
- Maybe something happened to you? - asked Sergei.
- Maybe your parents didn’t let you in, and you ran away without anything? - Natasha Bolshaya asked.
- Nothing happened, and my parents let me in! - Yurchik answered. “I just don’t need any food.” I can do without it!
4 N. Scored d
The boys and girls laughed and made noise:
- Look, what a lazy fellow! Afraid of the heavy load! Well, look, when you get hungry, don’t ask us!
- What did I ask? No matter how it is! - Yurchik grinned.
For some reason, Victor alone was not at all surprised,
is concerned that Yurchik is going on a hike without food. He simply did not pay any attention to it and ordered to march immediately. And everyone hurried to the metro station to go to the station.
It’s probably not worth going into detail about how everything went further. You have all read about such campaigns, and you yourself have taken part in them. And therefore, it is not difficult for each of you to imagine how the train took our travelers to one of the stops, around which there was a wonderful, dense forest; how they went deeper into this forest along paths lost in lush grass and among bushes; how fun it was to look at everything around - there was a squirrel up there among the branches, there was some amazing-looking stump of an old willow tree, and there in the bushes, not far from the path, there was some bird’s nest!..
Everyone walked sedately, with measured steps one after another, without leaving the path. And only Yurchik rushed through the forest as if in a daze, now running far ahead, now stopping, crawling through dense thickets, jumping over stumps and ant heaps.
And it’s not surprising that Yurchik felt so free: after all, he walked light, and everyone else was dragging heavy backpacks!
Finally we stopped in a beautiful forest clearing. Everyone untied their backpacks, took out their supplies and began to gobble up so much that their ears were cracking. And Yurchik stepped aside, hid behind a bush, took out his tube of pills and swallowed one. And what? - it seemed to him as if he had just eaten well and didn’t want anything else, not even sweets. So, while everyone was eating, he darted around the clearing, climbed trees, and chased butterflies.
The boys looked at him with curiosity and chuckled.
- Come on, let’s see what you can sing later without food!
Only Sergei did not laugh. He took a moment when no one was looking and quietly said to Yurchik:
- Take a piece of bread with lard from me. I won't tell anyone...
Yurchik shook his hand with gratitude:
- You a true friend. Earring! But really, I don’t need anything.
The next stop was made near a forest lake. It was amazingly beautiful here! And most importantly - transparent pure water and the sandy shore of the lake was just beckoning!.. But Victor said that first you need to collect brushwood, light a fire and cook dinner, and then swim.
The boys began energetically collecting dry branches and putting them in a pile, and the girls began peeling potatoes and heating water in a pot for kulesh. Yurchik, too, along with everyone else, carried brushwood and fanned the fire. And even when all the boys ran to the lake, leaving the girls to finish cooking dinner, Yurchik still brought more and more armfuls of fuel from the forest so that the fire would not go out prematurely.
- Why don’t you go swimming? - Olezhka shouted to him. - The girls can manage without us!
“And I still have time,” answered Yurchik, “I’ll still buy myself when you have lunch!”
And indeed, when the kulesh was cooked and everyone began to gobble it up, Yurchik ran to the lake and began to swim, dive, somersault and do all sorts of tricks in the water - that’s what he was up to great master!
About two years ago I had a very unpleasant accident with Yurchik and almost burned with shame because I couldn’t swim! So I must tell you that Yurchik got rid of this shortcoming a long time ago. And now he swims like an otter! And otters are excellent swimmers - everyone knows that!
So, all the boys and girls sat around the pot and ate kulesh, and Yurchik did not get out of the water.
- Oh, this is unfair! - Natasha]Big suddenly declared. - Yurchik worked harder than anyone, helped us, and now everyone eats, but he doesn’t!.. And soon there will be nothing left!
- Is it true! Is it true! - the other girls also made noise. - Yurchik! Go eat quickly! And you, boys, have a conscience - leave Yurchik at least a little!
But Yurchik only laughed and refused. Of course, you yourself guessed that he had long since quietly swallowed the second pill and now didn’t want to eat at all. And all the time while the guys were having lunch, he could swim and sunbathe as much as he wanted.

Let's move on. Victor said that by evening we need to get to the forestry base, where the forester lives, and spend the night there. But there were still a few kilometers to the base!..
No one, of course, gave any indication that walking was becoming more and more difficult! The boys are fine yet, but some of the girls have gone completely sour.
- Talusya! Are you falling behind again? - Natasha Bolshaya called from time to time. - Hurry up, Malusya! We can’t stop because of you all the time!
- I'm keeping up!.. I'm going fast! - Talusya answered in fright, trying to walk faster. But apparently it wasn’t easy for her, and she was really tired! And so after a few minutes she found herself behind everyone again.
Fortunately, Yurchik noticed this before the strict Natasha. He walked up to Talusa, silently removed the backpack from her shoulders and put it on himself.
- What you? For what? I can do it myself! - Talusya was embarrassed. - I'm not little...
- I’m not saying that you’re small! - Yurchik said as his grandfather always tells him. - But I’m going with absolutely nothing, I can help you too!
- So let me at least carry yours! - said Talusya.
But he didn't give it. He took Talusya by the hand and made her run after her comrades. She laughed cheerfully. How nice it is to walk without a heavy burden!..
Seeing them, the boys began to joke.
- What, brother, are you hungry? Do you hope that Ta-lyusya-Malyusya will share dinner with you as a reward for your help?!
- So what! - Talusya was indignant. - - And I’ll share! And there is nothing like that here!
But Yurchik only smiled. Let them think what they want! Anyway, everyone will see that he will not touch Talochka’s supplies.
Soon Lyalya began to lag behind.
- Hard? - Yurchik asked her. - Give me your backpack here -
Zack, I'll carry him too.
- Oh, Yurchik! - Lyalya was delighted. - And I’ll share dinner with you too!
So Yurchik carried two full backpacks over his shoulders, and even his own empty one. The boys were surprised and laughed.
- Look at him! - they shouted. - He already wants to earn two dinners! Or he wants to prove that he is not lazy!
- Neither one nor the other! - Yurchik answered. He was not at all angry with his comrades for making fun of him. After all, they didn’t know his secret!!!
And finally we got to the forester’s hut. Everyone was very happy. Now you can have a good rest! We quickly had dinner and went to bed in the hayloft full of fragrant hay.
Yurchik, who was quite tired under the weight of two backpacks, quietly swallowed another pill, waved away Lyalya and Talusya, who persistently invited him to dinner, climbed into the hay and fell into a sweet sleep.
The next morning he woke up and jumped up, fresh as a cucumber. Grandfather’s pills, apparently, didn’t just fill you up, but they also perfectly restored your strength! So again
Having swallowed one, Yurchik, without further ado, again took Lyalya and Talusya’s backpacks.
This time the boys no longer mocked or made jokes at his expense.
- Olezhka! - Sergei shouted. - Why are we allowing Yurchik to pretend to be a knight, a gentleman and an ancient Russian hero?! Let him help one girl, and we can do the rest ourselves!
They took Lyalya’s backpack from him and divided her things among themselves. The rest of the boys also began to help the girls. And only Natasha Bolshaya proudly refused. She said that she herself was no weaker than the boys and, if necessary, she could help one of them. That's what she was like, this Natasha Big!
The second day was even more pleasant than the first. Victor said that there was nowhere to rush, and therefore now they rested more at rest stops, they said, different interesting stories, sang, played funny Games. We spent the night near a fire in the forest. And then the third day came, the last day of the journey.
Yurchik was already imagining how he would return home and report to his grandfather. He will tell him how, thanks to the pills, he felt great, even when he was carrying a heavy burden. And don’t let mom be upset because he still carried weights!..
After breakfast we decided to play wand and knock. Around the clearing where our travelers camped, wonderful bushes grew - they could hide in them. They left the backpacks in the clearing, found a good stick, decided who should drive, and the game began.
- I’m with you, Yurchik, can I? - Talya asked in a whisper, making her way behind him under the thickest bush at the end of the clearing.
Both hid behind this bush. Suddenly Talusya carefully pulled Yurchik by the sleeve.
- Look! - she whispered. - What a butterfly!
And in fact: close by, on a thin blade of grass, she was sitting
a wonderful, unusual, bright butterfly with a multi-colored pattern on large wings.
- Quiet! - Yurchik whispered. - This is probably a swallowtail! But how big and beautiful... We'll catch him now!
And he carefully crawled towards the butterfly. I hover behind him, holding my handkerchief at the ready. But the butterfly either sensed the approach of danger, or simply did not want to sit in one place for a long time. She flapped her wings slightly and flew to another, then to a third grass, away from the guys.
Bending low and trying not to rustle, Yurchik and Talusya moved after her. So she flew, she flew, further and further, and now she flew very far from the place where she was first seen.
But was it possible to stop fishing?! The butterfly flew low all the time, sat down on one flower or another, as if it was inviting itself, and was given into the hands. But at that moment, when the children were already hoping to catch her, she suddenly took off, rushed further and finally flew somewhere high up and disappeared among the trees...
Then only Yurchik and Talusya noticed that they were somewhere very far away, in a completely unfamiliar place, where the voices of their comrades were no longer heard.
- Aw! Aw! - the two of them shouted with all their might.
But only the forest echo answered them:
“Oooh!..”
- We are lost? - Talusya asked in fear. - What should we do now?
- Nonsense! - Yurchik answered. - Let's go back and that's it!
-Where should I go? Which way?
- Of course, this one! - Yurchik said confidently and waved his hand in the direction from which it seemed to him they had come.
But he was wrong!..
And taking Talusya by the hand, Yurchik moved with her through the forest, not realizing that they were going in the wrong place, but quite the opposite.
He began to guess about this only when a lot of time had passed, and there was still no end or edge in sight of the forest. Probably, they really went in the wrong direction!.. But what to do now? Go forward and forward - we will definitely go out somewhere, because we don’t have such forests here that there is no end to them!.. It’s only in the taiga, somewhere in Siberia, you can get so lost and completely disappear, even with a bear or even meet a tiger!.. And here, besides squirrels and hares, there are no animals.
“I’m tired,” Talusya finally said, “let’s sit for a while.” And please don't hide it from me. I already know that we are lost.
They sat down under a tree and began to rest. Talusya fell asleep immediately, and Yurchik sat and sat above her and imperceptibly dozed off himself.
IV
When the children woke up, the sun was already setting. It must be long past lunch time! - this was clear even without a watch.
- I'm so hungry! - Talusya sighed.
- Me too! - Yurchik responded. He remembered that he had one last pill in his tube, intended for today's lunch. But... what will Tala eat? He can’t be fed himself if she remains hungry!
- Maybe we can look for mushrooms or berries? - the girl suggested hesitantly.
- You can’t see any mushrooms, and how can you eat them raw? - said Yurchik. -
And the berries over there on those bushes are probably blackberries or raspberries... Only they are still quite green. You can't eat them. Let's move on!
And they moved on. Soon Talusya stopped again.
- I can’t stand it anymore, I’m so hungry! - she said.
Yurchik was scared. What if she becomes so weak that she cannot walk? But they need to go, because they must eventually get out of this forest!!! It’s okay for him, because he’s a boy, and no difficulties frighten him. And she’s a girl, and also Talyusya-Malyusya, it’s not for nothing that they called her that!..
“Listen,” said Yurchik, “I told you that these berries cannot be eaten, because they are green.” But wait here, wait. I’ll now find you an extraordinary berry, magical!
“Well, look,” Talusya smiled sadly and sat down under a tree, “I still can’t go further.”
Well, he thought that she would become weak... And it is absolutely clear that he must give her this last pill as soon as possible. But he cannot break his promise to his grandfather; he has no right to show her the pill and explain what it is. He will make sure that she swallows it, not knowing what the matter is... And Yurchik walked away a little and quickly found a still completely green berry on a wild raspberry bush. He tore it off, took out a pill and stuck it in the depression that remains on a raspberry when it is torn from the branch.
- Found! - said Yurchik, turning to Talusa. - Close your eyes, open your mouth and immediately swallow what I give you!
- Aren’t you going to put something nasty in my mouth? - she asked in fear.
-Who do you take me for? Not a nasty thing, but a magic berry! Here, you can take a look at it. It’s not tasty, really, but you swallow it right away without understanding it. You'll see, as soon as you eat it, you'll be full, as if you've eaten a whole meal, first, second, and third!
Talusya opened her mouth trustingly and closed her eyes. Yurchik put a berry with a pill in her mouth, and she swallowed it.
- ABOUT! - she said in surprise after a minute. - I’m really, really full. And I can go further for at least another whole day.
- Well, let's go faster! - said Yurchik.
Having merrily ran forward a few steps, Talusya suddenly stopped.
- And you? - she asked. -Have you found a magic berry for yourself?
“No,” answered Yurchik, “you see what’s the matter...
And not knowing how to get out, he began to weave some kind of fable to her: as if such magical berries could be found only three times a day - one each during lunch, breakfast and dinner. And so, they say, he, Yurchik, learned about this secret and thus ate all this time... And the magic berries also have such a mysterious property: if he doesn’t eat at least one himself, but gives it to someone else, then more he won’t find a single one... Yurchik came up with this in case they have to wander in the forest until nightfall and Talusya asks to find another berry. But he didn’t have any more pills!
And here he was not mistaken. They still had to get lost! It’s good that at least Talusya ran forward and forward cheerfully, she even hummed a song and said that she really liked wandering like this. It's like in a fairy tale!..
But Yurchik became more and more sad. He wanted to eat more and more. He clenched his fists and teeth and mentally assured himself that all this was nothing for him. After all, he is a boy, not a girl, and he cannot overcome such difficulties!..
Twilight, quickly falling on the forest, began to thicken, and it became completely dark. Suddenly, in the distance, between the branches of trees and bushes, something flashed.
- Talusya! - Yurchik exclaimed joyfully. - Look! These are the headlights of a car!.. There is a highway somewhere ahead! What joy!.. - The children rushed forward.
But it wasn't that easy. In the darkness, bushes and tree trunks seemed to be deliberately blocking their path, some stumps and dry branches fell under their feet, tall grass clung to them... But everything was left behind - and now they were on the highway!
Headlights flashed in the distance. A truck was approaching. Yurchik raised his hand. However, the car stopped on its own.
The driver looked out of the cab.
- Hey, that’s probably what they are, the kids you’re looking for! - he exclaimed. - Come on, climb in quickly, I’ll take you to your comrades, even though I’m not on the road!
The car turned around, rushed off - and a few minutes later Yurchik and Talusya were already among their own!.. It turned out that their comrades were looking for them all the time, and Victor was so excited that he already wanted to run to the station, gather people there and go looking for them with lanterns ... You can imagine how happy the children were when Yurchik and Talusya were among them again!
- Oh, guys, I'm dying - yes! - this was the first thing Yurchik said.
At the same moment, everyone rushed to take out everything that was left there from their backpacks. Even if there is only a little left, after all, according to the plan, I should have been home already! - but Yurchik had enough. His comrades vied with each other to slip him their supplies, and it didn’t even occur to anyone to remind him how he said: “Why should I ask for food? No matter how it is!”
- What about you, Talusechka?! - the girls were surprised. “You’re probably dying of hunger too!”
“No,” said Talusya. - I don’t feel like eating at all. Yurchik gave me a magic berry, and I eat and am full.
Everyone was very surprised.
- Magic berry?! So this is probably what he ate all the time! - said Olezhka.
- Why haven’t you eaten such a berry now? - Natasha Bolshaya asked.
- And he only had one! - Talusya explained. - It was the last one.
Here everyone looked with respect at Yurchik, who turned out to be such a good friend for his little girlfriend. And everyone began to feed and treat him even more enthusiastically, until he was completely full.
- Did you give Talusa the last pill? Well done! - Victor said to Yurchik in a whisper when they were all already waiting at the train station.
And then Yurchik understood why Victor was not at all worried all the time that one of the guys was not eating anything. This means that his grandfather warned Victor that Yurchik was performing an important scientific task - he was testing his grandfather’s invention on a hike. But when and where did grandfather see Victor?! This has remained a secret.

You all probably know that various foreign tourists often come to our country. And not only from socialist, but also from capitalist countries.
One day, one such tourist, named Mr. Quick, came to our city and went into a restaurant to have lunch.
I sat down at the table and called the waiter.
- Please give me fried chicken! - said the tourist.
As you can see, he did not speak our language very well. But the waiter, of course, understood him.
- What do you prefer - a leg or a wing? - asked the waiter.
Mr. Quick was indignant.
- Which leg? Which wing? Give me a whole chicken. I'm very hungry! - he said.
Then Mr. Quick noticed that the people sitting at the neighboring tables were looking at him with surprise and interest and smiling cheerfully. Mr. Quick thought they were pleasantly surprised at how well he spoke their language. And he, too, smiled with satisfaction and self-confidence and began to look forward to the ordered food.
Not even five minutes had passed before the waiter appeared and placed on the table in front of Mr. Quick a dish on which lay a deliciously roasted large bird.
- What is this?! - exclaimed Mr. Quick. - I ask you for chicken, and you give me turkey! My stomach is sick, she doesn’t like to eat turkey!
- Sorry, but this is chicken! - said the waiter.
Mr. Quick even blushed with indignation.
- You laugh at me! - he said. - I know better than all people what kind of chickens there are! After all, chickens are my business.
Business - translated into our language means “occupation” or “business”. But most often this is what they call a business that gives a person money or profit. That's what Mr. Quick meant when he said chickens were his business.
And he proudly explained that in his homeland everyone calls him the “chicken king” because he is the owner of huge poultry farms where one million two hundred thousand chickens hatch every day! The whole country would only eat his chickens if there weren’t another “chicken king” with whom they have to compete all the time - who will buy more chickens from? Mr. Quick has been involved in this business all his life. How can you force such a great connoisseur and specialist to consider a turkey a chicken?!
He told all this in such a distorted language that if you had written everything the way he said it, you would not have understood anything. So here his indignant speech is stated only approximately.
But the waiter had to deal with foreign tourists many times, and so he immediately understood everything.
“Calm down, please,” he said politely. “There really are no such chickens anywhere in the world.” But this is real chicken, and you can easily be convinced of this when you try it. - And he quickly and deftly cut off a slice of the fried bird and placed it on the plate in front of Mr. Quick.
Mr. Quick took up his knife and fork, incredulously cut off a piece and put it in his mouth.
- ABOUT! - he said with an expression of great pleasure.
Niya, - This is really a chicken! Unusually tender and tasty meat!
And since Mr. Quick was very hungry on a long journey, he began to eat quickly and greedily and said nothing more until he had eaten his fill. Having eaten and paid for lunch, Mr. Quick asked the waiter if he could tell him, unless, of course, it was a secret: where do such chickens, as big as turkeys, come from?!
- Oh no, it's not a secret at all! - said the waiter, - Our restaurant receives them directly from the experimental farm of the scientific institute. It is located on Nauchnaya Street, in the same place as the institute.
- And can the tourist watch? - Mr. Quick asked with interest.
- Of course you can. There are always plenty of excursions there.
And the waiter explained in detail to the foreigner how to get to the experimental farm.
Following the waiter's clear instructions and confidently wielding his amazing tongue, Mr. Quick soon found himself where he needed to be.
At the gates of the experimental farm, he encountered a large group of schoolchildren who had come here on an excursion. The head of the farm hospitably greeted the visitors and invited a foreign tourist who understood our language to join the schoolchildren.
Mr. Quick readily agreed.
- I understand and speak your language very well! - he said.
One of the boys snorted mockingly, but the other one quietly poked him in the side with his fist:
- Why are you laughing? Inconvenient! This is a foreigner!
The mocker became embarrassed and hid behind his comrades.
And everyone followed the manager into a spacious, outwardly unremarkable building, standing in the middle of a green garden.
Mr. Quick looked around curiously. For some reason, there are no aviaries visible here, that is, areas fenced with a metal mesh where chickens would graze. And in general, apart from two houses - one larger, the other smaller - there was nothing on the territory of the experimental farm.
- Where do you keep the birds? - Mr. Quick asked the manager.
“Nowhere,” he kindly explained, “as soon as they hatch in the incubator, we transfer them to consumers.”
- How? So small?
The manager smiled.
- Wait a minute, now you will see everything for yourself!
And so they all came to a room where there were large, cabinet-like devices.
“These are incubators,” the manager explained, “they are heated by electricity.” We have six of them. We put eggs in them alternately for six days. After three weeks, the chickens begin to hatch, also in turn - first in the first incubator, then in the second, third, and so on until the end, until all the incubators are empty and filled with new eggs. Then there is a break for two weeks, during which we carefully monitor that all the devices are working well, that the eggs are heated evenly on all sides, and the like.
- I know all this very well! - Mr. Quick said dismissively. - But this is very little. It is not profitable to have such a small farm.
“You forget that this is only an experimental farm,” explained the manager. “It sets itself a mainly scientific task: testing a new invention.” However, I already told you - - wait a minute, you will see everything for yourself now. - And having politely bowed to the foreigner, the head walked away from him to the schoolchildren and led the young excursionists to one of the incubators. There, chickens have already begun to hatch from eggs.
Boys and girls, with joyful exclamations, vying with each other, looked into the window, through which one could watch the tiny creatures break through the shell with their beaks and crawl out into the white light. Fluffy, yellow, they resembled balls of soft wool and were very popular with schoolchildren, especially girls.
Only Mr. Quick looked indifferently at this great miracle of nature: after all, he had any number of similar incubators at home, and he had seen so many chickens hatching from eggs that it did not interest him at all. He waited impatiently to see what would happen next. And then everyone saw an even greater miracle, and now it was no longer a miracle of nature, but a miracle created by the human mind.
Two women in white coats began to take the chickens out of the incubator one by one and transplant them into spacious wooden cages, and along the way they put a small round green tablet, similar to candy, into each of their mouths.
Before the chickens had time to get into the cage, immediately, in front of everyone, they began to quickly, quickly increase in size, grow, and became giant chickens!.. They became larger than ordinary adult roosters and hens, the size of a good turkey, but... they remained at the same time, the same chickens - yellow, fluffy, looking like large balls of soft wool.
Mr. Quick even took his breath away! What kind of miracles?! This is truly an invention!.. If only he, Mr. Quick, could get a few of these tablets and find out what they are made of... He would then have such a profit that no other “chicken kings” could compete with him!!! After all, with these tablets you don’t even have to feed the chickens, and you don’t even need to wait for them to grow up!..
- This is just great! - L1ister Quick was delighted. He asked the manager what kind of pills they were, where they were obtained and what they were made of?
“They are produced right there, at our experimental farm,” answered the manager. - But I can’t tell you what they are made of: it’s a production secret, or rather, a scientific secret! One of our scientists, a famous inventor, came up with such a remedy, but it is still only being tested.
- This scientist is the grandfather of our student! - one of the boys intervened in the conversation. - Here is his grandson, Yurchik!
Mr. Quick rushed to the boy and began to warmly shake his hand.
- I am very happy! - Mr. Quick repeated enthusiastically. - It’s a great joy for me to meet such a grandson great person!
Yurchik was a little embarrassed, but decided that he needed to carry on a conversation with this eccentric foreigner.
- You are probably a scientist too? Also an inventor? - he asked politely.
- Oh yeah! - Mr. Quick answered. - I am a great connoisseur of chicken business!
The boys and girls looked at him with respect. After all, they knew that in capitalist countries there live not only capitalists, but also working people - workers, peasants, office workers, and scientists. And they thought that this foreigner was a scientist. It never occurred to them that he was a real capitalist.
Meanwhile, the cages with giant chickens were taken out of the room and loaded onto trucks, and the head began to show the schoolchildren what to do next.
While everyone was carefully watching how the incubator was being cleaned before laying new eggs, Mr. Quick quietly approached Yurchik and slowly took him aside.
- Cute boy! - he said quietly. - Tell me, please, has your great grandfather not yet sold a patent for his invention to anyone?
- What is a patent? - asked Yurchik. - How is it possible to sell?
“Oh, that means passing on a production secret,” explained Mr. Quick, “and getting money for it.”
“No,” said Yurchik, shrugging his shoulders, “he didn’t sell anything to anyone!”
Mr. Quick was extremely happy.
- My dear boy! - he exclaimed. - I really ask you to introduce your famous grandfather to me! I wanted to buy his invention and give him lots and lots of money!
Yurchik looked at the foreigner in surprise.
- How can a grandfather sell his invention? - he asked. - This is his scientific work, and not some kind of property! Is scientific work for sale?
- Of course, it's for sale! - Mr. Quick answered confidently. - I’ll give you a lot of money! And no one will know about it... This will be our business.
Yurchik's eyes widened: what kind of strange talk is this?! And suddenly a guess flashed in his head like lightning - that’s it! This foreigner must not be a scientist at all... No wonder he says “business.” Yurchik heard this word somewhere - maybe on TV or radio - and knew that such words were spoken by capitalists. And talking to a capitalist... no, it’s better not to! And Yurchik began to quickly back away from the foreigner, closer to his comrades.
- Guys! - he said in a whisper, tugging Olezhka and Sergei by the shoulders. - Do you know who this is? This is not a scientist at all. This is a living, real capitalist!..
- Yah! - the boys were surprised. - How do you know?
- He suggested that my grandfather sell him his invention! And he promised a lot, a lot of money for it! And so that grandfather would do it in secret!.. Just think! Only a capitalist could offer such a thing.
- Is it true! What miracles!.. So that’s what they are, capitalists?!
Boys and girls surrounded Mr. Quick and began to look at him with curiosity.
Mr. Quick looked around irritably in all directions and turned to Yurchik.
- Will you go with me now to your grandfather? - he asked, hiding his irritation.
“No,” Yurchik answered decisively, trying to speak in such a way that a foreigner would understand, “I don’t want to introduce you to my grandfather.” My grandfather didn't sell his inventions! And in general, we are not a capitalist country.
- And you don’t have to think that everything is bought and sold from us, like from you! - Olezhka added with a laugh.
Mr. Quick became even more irritated, even blushed all over, and made a movement to get out of the crowd of schoolchildren.
- I don't think anything! I just don't understand! - he stammered. And hastily bowing to the manager, he hurried to the exit.
“Damned boys! - he thought angrily. - Damned Bolsheviks! And in general, a damned country! But chickens... What chickens!!! I won’t regret anything to get these miracle pills and take possession of the secret of their manufacture!.. And I’ve already figured out how to do it!”
Then Mr. Quick laughed maliciously, ran to the institution that deals with foreign tourists, and asked to be sent home immediately, without waiting until his tourist voucher expired. He did not even demand that the money be returned to him for unused days.
Arriving in his country, Mr. Quick quickly found one famous spy nicknamed Skilful, which means “clever” in their language.
Skilful was just getting ready for another spy trip, and Mr. Quick, for a lot of money, persuaded him to simultaneously with his spy assignments
to carry out a private assignment: to get into this very experimental farm and steal the secret of making miraculous enlargement tablets, or at least get as many of these tablets as possible, then it will be possible to do an analysis and find out what they consist of.
The spy listened carefully to Mr. Quick's story about giant chickens and agreed to take on the matter.
“But to get there,” he said, “you need to understand at least a little about the chicken business.” And I’m in it - neither be nor me.
- Well, this matter can be fixed! - Mr. Quick reassured Skilful and took him to his poultry farms. There the spy quickly learned everything he could about chickens and chickens.
Then he received from Mr. Quick a large sum for all sorts of expenses and, without wasting time, began to carry out his vile order.

One fine evening, when Yurchik was sitting peacefully with his grandfather on the sofa and talking about his school affairs, the excited head of the experimental farm suddenly entered the room.
- You see, professor, what strange story, he said, “not all chickens grow bigger!”
- So how? - Yurchikin’s grandfather asked. - Not everyone increases equally?
“No,” the manager explained, “some don’t increase at all.”
Grandfather smiled.
- Maybe some chicken just didn’t swallow the pill? - he asked.
- I thought so myself at first. I didn’t even want to tell you about this when the day before yesterday one chicken remained small. But yesterday the same thing happened again, only there were no more two chickens. Today I myself made sure that each chicken was given a pill and that they swallowed it. And - what would you think? - again one chicken remained the same as it was!
“There’s something wrong here,” said the grandfather. - What did you do with these unfortunate chickens?
- Nothing, I put him in a separate cage. Maybe they are sick?
- Well, let's go have a look.
The reader, of course, understands that Yurchik could not have stayed at home when his grandfather hurried to Nauchnaya Street. Soon all three were already entering the gates of the experimental farm.
In the corner of the room where the incubators stood, yellow fluffy chickens sat in a separate cage and cheerfully pecked at the crumbled and soaked bun.
“I gave them food,” the manager explained, “maybe they are not sick at all?”
“We’ll check that now,” said the grandfather, “give me four tablets!”

The manager opened the door of an iron cabinet with an intricate lock that could only be opened by a person who knew its secret. In this cabinet, a small supply of enlargement tablets was kept in glass jars. They were still being produced in small quantities, they were expensive, and therefore each tablet was registered: they were given out every day only according to the number of chickens and carefully monitored so that not a single one was wasted.
Yurchikin's grandfather took out four tablets, examined them and, taking the chickens one by one in his hands, thrust the tablets into their open beaks. And at that very moment the chickens began to grow larger and larger, and all four became huge, like good turkeys.
- As you can see, everything is fine! - Grandfather said calmly. “You probably just didn’t notice then that the chickens didn’t swallow the pills.”
The manager shrugged.
- But then the pills would have stayed here! - he remarked.
“They could have fallen on the floor,” said the grandfather, “and then they were swept up and thrown out with the trash.” After all, they sweep here every day?
Maybe this really was the case, but neither the manager nor Yurchik believed that such an extraordinary incident could happen for three days in a row!
The grandfather went home, advising the manager to carefully monitor how the chickens were given the pills. And Yurchik also went to his home, but still could not get rid of thoughts about the pills. It seemed to him that not everything was in order in this matter and that he just needed to remember something for everything to immediately become clearer. But what exactly to remember - that’s something Yurchik didn’t know.
Several days passed, and Yurchik began to forget about the adventure with the chickens. And then one morning, walking
to school, he met the manager of an experimental farm on the street.
- Good afternoon! - said Yurchik. - Well, are the chickens okay?
The manager stopped.
- Oh, is it you, Yurchik? Hello! Are you asking how it is with chickens? You see,” he said, hesitating a little, “not everything is all right with them.” The pills don't work again! I hate to tell your grandfather, but yesterday again two chickens did not increase! I just don’t know what to do?!!
“We need to follow up properly,” suggested Yurchik, “but we really shouldn’t tell grandpa just yet.” Why bother him in vain?
- Yes, yes, perhaps you're right. Yes, I’m trying to follow, but I don’t notice anything. It's as simple as an adventure book!..
_ - Do you want us to help you keep track, me and my two friends?! - Yurchik exclaimed. - Maybe someone is actually doing this on purpose, like saboteurs in books about spies?!
The manager smiled.
- Well, you know, spies have nothing to do here! Our facility has no defensive significance! Why invent fables? But I will be very grateful for your help. Here's how to do it: come back in two weeks - that's when we'll start hatching the next chicks.
for six days you will help me monitor, and if we don’t notice anything then, then I don’t know what to do!..
- It's coming! - Yurchik exclaimed, - - In just two weeks, spring break will begin at school, and we will be able to come every day.
- Just not all at once, but one by one! - the manager noted. - And let it be a circle of young naturalists or something, otherwise I won’t be able to allow you to hang around the incubators every day.
- OK! Let's do so! Goodbye! - And Yurchik ran on his way so as not to be late for class.
Still, he did not agree with the manager that there was no point in looking for the hand of the enemy in this matter. The manager must have never read books about spies and saboteurs. And all the boys, including Yurchik, are well aware that these vile people are hunting for any of our secrets. Even if they have no defensive significance. But here there is precisely such a secret - a scientific secret, a new invention! And surely there will be greedy people in the capitalist world who want to take possession of this secret!..
And suddenly Yurchik even stopped and opened his mouth from an unexpected thought: it’s true!.. And how could he forget about that capitalist tourist who wanted to buy his invention from his grandfather!.. Wouldn’t this capitalist be happy with any a way to spoil grandfather, and our science, and our people in general?!!
Isn't it his hand in this matter?..
During the lessons I had to think about something else, but as soon as the bell rang for the big break, Yurchik called his closest friends, Sergei and Olezhka, into a secluded corner and told them everything.
“It seems to me that this is not a simple matter and it needs to be investigated,” he told them. -Are you willing to help me?
Both boys, of course, agreed with delight.
On the eve of spring break, three friends gathered at Yur-
chika, took a blank notebook and in beautiful letters They wrote on the cover with multi-colored pencils:
"Diary of a circle of young naturalists."
Then they divided among themselves the days when each person should be on duty, and the next day they went to the experimental farm.
- Good afternoon! - said Yurchik, entering with his friends into the room where the incubators stood. - We are a circle of young naturalists of the 2nd “A” class of the 235th school. Can we conduct our observations at your place?
“Please, please,” answered the manager, “we are always glad to see our replacement - young poultry farmers.” Please meet our old specialists in this matter.
The boys politely greeted two women in white coats standing near the incubator. One of them could not be called “old”, because she was still a very young, red-cheeked girl. She smiled welcomingly at the boys and shook their hands.
But the other one was really old. Gray strands of hair peeked out from under a white scarf pulled low over her forehead. Broad-shouldered and awkward, with large, dexterous hands, she made a rather strange impression. From under very long skirt huge flat shoes peeked out. The old woman looked sternly at the boys and said in a hoarse voice:
“It’s a mess for so many strangers to be in the workroom all the time.”
Yurchik thought that this was correct, and besides, he liked what the old henwife said about them, the boys, as adults - “strangers.” He looked at her with respect and politely explained:
- We won't all be here at the same time. We'll take turns!
- Ah, then it’s a different matter! - The old woman nodded her head approvingly and turned to the incubator, because the chickens were about to hatch.
For the first time, all three friends were present, they were very interested. The manager himself handed each tablet to the henkeepers from the jar where these tablets were stored, and the “young poultry keepers” tensely watched as the henkeepers took the chickens and put green shiny balls into their beaks. All chicks grew in size in a timely manner. Then new eggs were placed in the emptied and cleaned incubator so that after three weeks the chickens would hatch again.
- That's all for today! - said the manager. - Tomorrow hatching will begin in the second incubator, then in the third, fourth and so on. So come tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and throughout three days until chicks hatch in all our incubators.
The boys were very happy. They wrote in their diary:
"2nd of March. All three carried out observations. All the chickens have grown."
- Who is this old bird lady? - asked Yurchik when the manager came out to see the boys off. - It seems to me that when we came on the excursion, she was not there, there was some other one.
The manager laughed.
- Oh, I see you are an observant guy! - he said. - Indeed, we used to have another poultry worker, but she quit because she had to go somewhere, and we hired this old woman. This is an experienced specialist, she knows everything there is to know about chickens and chickens!
In the following days the following entries appeared in the diary:
"March, 3rd. The observations were conducted by Sergei. All the chickens have increased in size. There was a tour from a candy factory.”
It is not difficult to imagine with what excitement the boys discussed this recording when they gathered at the
Yurchika. After all, there are only three days left until the end of the chicks hatching from all the incubators... And in two weeks, school will begin again, and the “circle of young naturalists” will certainly not be able to conduct observations. Is it really that they won’t succeed in the remaining three days at least
notice something and find at least some solution to the unpleasant mystery?!
- Be careful these two days, Yurchik and Sergei! - said Olezhka. - And on the third, last day, we will go again, all three of us, to observe.

The next day after this, Yurchik hurried with all his might to go on duty at the experimental farm. He ran, even out of breath.
Why was he so out of breath?
But because after several days of the spring thaw, it froze again this morning and there were wonderful icy paths on the sidewalks in many places. Was it possible to pass by such paths indifferently? Yurchik, of course, could not. He definitely had to take a running start on each slide at least twice!.. Boys and girls crowded around the slides, everyone wanted to slide, so while Yurchik waited each time for his turn, time passed. And now, of course, he had to rush at full speed so as not to be late for duty.
Yes, that’s Science Street!..
There was a clock on the corner, Yurchik saw that he was not late, and slowed down a little.
Suddenly he noticed that some strange, but seemingly familiar figure was hastily moving in front of him in the same direction. She was a broad-shouldered, tall woman. Waving her arms, she quickly walked forward with long steps. The long tails of her unsightly coat and the skirt visible from under it dangled comically around her feet, shod in huge flat boots.
“Ah,” Yurchik guessed, “this is an old poultry house!” So, I’m not the only one who was almost late today!”
As soon as he thought about it, the woman suddenly
she slipped on a frozen puddle, awkwardly waved her arms, trying to stay on her feet, but couldn’t resist and plopped down on the ground. Yurchik screamed in fear and rushed to help. Suddenly he saw that as he fell, some kind of tin box fell out of the old woman’s pocket, opened, and shiny green balls rolled out across the frozen snow.
- What it is?! - Yurchik exclaimed. - Pills?! Where are they here from?
The bird-keeper immediately jumped to her feet with unexpected speed and agility for such an old woman.
But, looking at the box and at Yurchik’s confused face, she quickly pulled up her skirt and laughed in her hoarse voice:
- What pills? These are candies! Ordinary menthol cough sweets! Enjoy it if you want and help me collect them.
Indeed... Yurchik remembered that when he coughed, his mother bought him exactly the same sweets. Mechanically he took one, put it in his mouth and immediately felt its pleasant, sweet coolness. Yurchik felt ashamed of his stupid suspicion. He blushed and quickly began collecting the scattered candies into a box.
“You have to suck this stuff,” said the woman, “because you hear how hoarse I am?” Just don't tell anyone about these sweets. Nobody knows that I have a cold, they think that I have such a voice. And if they find out, they can suspend me from work until it goes away, and that doesn’t suit me at all!
Yurchik promised not to talk, although it all seemed somewhat strange to him.
But the day passed without any complications. The chickens hatched and then grew larger as expected. Everything was going fine, and only from time to time Yurchik noticed that the old henwife seemed to be looking at him with some concern.

“Is she really afraid that I’ll talk about her cold? - thought Yurchik. “It’s a pity that she doesn’t know how well I can keep my mouth shut!”
Returning home, Yurchik wrote in his diary:
"5th of March. Yura’s observations: everything is fine, all the chickens have increased in size.”
He wrote this down and thought about it. But it’s still suspicious... What a strange coincidence: this cold... and menthol candies, surprisingly similar to enlargement pills... No, all this is not without reason! We need to consult with the guys...
But for some reason the guys didn’t come. And it’s not surprising, because it’s the holidays, and all the cinemas are showing interesting films for schoolchildren. However, Yurchik became more and more worried and finally decided that he had done a stupid thing by not telling the manager about everything.
And, without waiting for his comrades, he ran again to Nauchnaya Street. It was already getting dark. Yurchik approached the gate of the experimental farm and saw that the gate was locked. Through the lattice fence it was clear that the windows of two houses on the farm territory were dark. Yurchik knocked on the gate with all his might and shouted:
- Hey Hey! Is there anyone alive there?
And suddenly he saw a clumsy figure rush out from the house in which there was a small factory that produced enlargement pills. She rushed to the fence, jumped over it with unexpected dexterity and disappeared into the depths of the alley.
Without thinking twice, Yurchik rushed after her with a scream. But he couldn’t catch up and only saw a familiar coat and long skirt flash around the corner.
Yes, it was none other than she, the old poultry lady! For some reason she was snooping around here, on the territory of the experimental farm, in the evening, when no one was there... And then, hearing knocking and screams at the gate, she so deftly jumped over the fence! An old woman - and jump like that?! Whatever you want, this is undoubtedly suspicious! What to do now? How do you find out what kind of person this old poultry lady is? If she is a hidden enemy, then how to expose her?..
Suddenly Yurchik remembered how last year at school he
one story turned up and he found out who the real culprit was. He managed to do this with the help of his grandfather’s wonderful invention - a pocket thought receiver. You put this device to your ear and you hear all the thoughts of the person you are looking at, as if he were saying them out loud.
Pocket thought receiver! Yes, you immediately need to go to your grandfather now and ask him for this device for tomorrow. Under any pretext!
Grandfather will not refuse - although this invention must still not be approved, but grandfather knows that Yurchik can be trusted... So, without wasting time, quickly go to grandfather!..
Grandfather really didn’t refuse. He didn’t even insist that Yurchik tell him why he needed the thought receiver.
- You can believe me, grandfather, that I take it not for entertainment, but for a very important matter! - said Yurchik. - I’ll tell you everything later, you can believe me.
“Of course, I believe you,” answered the grandfather. - The main thing to remember: as before, no one should know about this device!
Yurchik came to the experimental farm, deliberately a little late. Sergei was on duty that day. Yurchik came up with a plausible explanation for his arrival at an inopportune time. But he didn't have to explain anything. The manager, poultry housekeepers and Sergei, who were near the incubator, were extremely excited. They had every reason to be nervous; The hatching of chickens in the next incubator has just begun, and out of the four chickens placed in the cage, not one has grown at all!
And so, with unflagging, tripled attention, everyone continued to take out the hatched chickens and put pills in their beaks, and therefore no one paid attention to Yurchik’s appearance. Only the old birdwoman glanced at him. And Yurchik thought he noticed fear and anger in that look.
Then Yurchik immediately took the device clutched in his fist out of his pocket, put it to his ear and fixed his eyes on the old woman. Some strange sounds quickly began to sound in the device. What it is? Are these really her thoughts? Or maybe the device has deteriorated?..
Yurchik took his eyes off the old poultry house and looked at the manager.
“I’ll probably have to tell the professor about everything!” - the manager thought worriedly, and Yurchik understood his thoughts perfectly, as well as if he was saying them out loud. This means the device worked flawlessly! Why can’t you find out what the old woman is thinking about?..
Yurchik began to listen to her again - again he heard only some random nonsense. And suddenly he realized: the old birdwoman was not thinking in our language!.. Yes, yes!.. And this indicated that she was not the one she pretended to be. She was an outsider. And she snuck here, probably with bad intentions!..
Only for one minute did Yurchik figure out what to do.
You can’t tell the manager about your discovery, because you can’t talk about the device. But under no circumstances should this matter be postponed - no one knows what this old witch can do?! This means that you need to immediately run to your grandfather and tell him everything. And the grandfather will instantly decide what to do next.

This is where we have to end the story about the amazing adventures of the boy Yurchik and his grandfather, a scientist-inventor. It’s a shame, of course, but nothing can be done!
The fact is that soon after the events described in the last story, Yurchik’s parents went to work at a construction site at the farthest end of our great Motherland. Until now, somehow I haven’t had to mention that Yurchik’s mom and dad were experienced builders, and as soon as an important construction project began somewhere, they were always sent there. This is what happened now.
Of course, they took Yurchik with them. And my grandfather remained to work in his laboratory at the scientific institute on Nauchnaya Street. Only now he could no longer show each new invention to his beloved grandson before all other people.
And if this is so, then it means that there cannot be new stories about the boy Yurchik and his grandfather. You can, however, talk about Yurchik separately and about his grandfather separately. But, you yourself understand, these will be completely different stories!..
In any case, we can only say that Yurchikin’s grandfather continued to persistently work on improving his amazing inventions and on inventing new ones.
And, if someday, in the future, living beings will be able to increase and decrease by the will of man, and people will be able to talk to each other without uttering a single word out loud, and they will even be able to eat nothing for the rest of their lives - except, of course, ice cream and other tasty things; If some other incredible and unprecedented inventions appear, such as we cannot even imagine now, you will probably
No, you will immediately guess that Yurchik’s grandfather took part in all this.
And perhaps Yurchik also helped him. After all, he had long ago decided to always study with straight A's in order to become a scientist and help his grandfather.
It will take a long time for him to grow up and learn, but you can be sure that his dreams will come true, and he and his grandfather will work together for a long time. After all, now the grandfather is not yet quite old, and by the time Yurchik grows up and the grandfather gets old, people will definitely invent means that will destroy all sorts of diseases and prolong life.
We have heard rumors that Yurchikin’s grandfather is now already working on an invention so that people will never grow old or die.
But not all people are people, only good ones. Those who have never offended anyone or caused grief to anyone in their entire life.
This will be a wonderful invention, the best of all! Then anyone who wants to pull a girl’s braid, offend a friend, or bring home a bad grade from school and thereby upset their parents, every such imbecile will involuntarily think carefully before doing such a thing, because who wants to shorten their life!..
And the various criminals, spies, capitalists and fascists, warmongers - all those who do nothing but bring grief to people?! They will definitely have to either put an end to their dirty deeds once and for all, or die.
Although it should be noted that even without a miraculous invention, all such human evil spirits will sooner or later be destroyed. Justice and good will still prevail over evil, sooner or later. And that's it good people in the world they are trying to make this happen as early as possible.
But that's enough, it's time to finish the book!
There is still much that can be discussed, but all this no longer relates directly to the boy Yurchik and his grandfather.
So, goodbye, dear readers! Thank you for your attention!