Arkady GaidarChuk and Gek. Chuk and Gek

There lived a man in the forest near the Blue Mountains. He worked a lot, but the work did not decrease, and he could not go home on vacation.

Finally, when winter came, he was completely bored, asked permission from his superiors and sent a letter to his wife asking her to come and visit him with the children.

He had two children - Chuk and Gek.

And he and his mother lived in a distant huge city, the best of which there is nothing in the world.

Day and night, red stars sparkled above the towers of this city.

And, of course, this city was called Moscow.

Just when the postman was going up the stairs with a letter, Chuk and Huck were having a fight. In short, they just howled and fought.

I have already forgotten what started this fight. But it seems to me that either Chuk stole an empty matchbox from Huck, or, conversely, Huck stole a tin of polish from Chuk.

Both of these brothers had just hit each other once with their fists, and were about to hit each other a second time, when the bell rang, and they looked at each other with alarm again. They thought their mother had come! And this mother had a strange character. She did not swear for fighting, did not shout, but simply took the fighters to different rooms and for a whole hour, or even two, did not allow them to play together. And in one hour - tick and tick - there are sixty minutes. And in two hours it’s even more.

That's why both brothers immediately wiped away their tears and rushed to open the door.

But it turns out that it was not the mother, but the postman who brought the letter.

Then they shouted:

- This is a letter from dad! Yes, yes, from dad! And he will probably arrive soon.

Here, to celebrate, they began to jump, jump and tumble on the spring sofa. Because although Moscow is the most wonderful city, when dad hasn’t been home for a whole year, Moscow can get boring.

And they were so happy that they did not notice how their mother entered.

She was very surprised to see that both of her beautiful sons, lying on their backs, were screaming and beating their heels on the wall, so loudly that the pictures above the sofa were shaking and the spring of the wall clock was humming.

But when the mother found out why there was such joy, she did not scold her sons.

She just kicked them off the couch.

She somehow threw off her fur coat and grabbed the letter, without even shaking off the snowflakes from her hair, which had now melted and sparkled like sparks above her dark eyebrows.

Everyone knows that letters can be funny or sad, and therefore, while the mother was reading, Chuk and Huck carefully watched her face.

At first the mother frowned, and they frowned too. But then she started smiling, and they decided that this letter was funny.

“Father won’t come,” the mother said, putting the letter aside. “He still has a lot of work to do, and they won’t let him go to Moscow.”

The deceived Chuk and Gek looked at each other in confusion. The letter turned out to be the most saddening thing.

They pouted at once, sniffled and looked angrily at their mother, who was smiling for some unknown reason.

“He won’t come,” the mother continued, “but he invites us all to visit him.”

Chuk and Huck jumped off the sofa.

“He’s an eccentric man,” the mother sighed. - It’s good to say - visit! It’s like getting on a tram and going...

“Yes, yes,” Chuk quickly picked up, “since he’s calling, we’ll sit down and go.”

“You’re stupid,” said the mother. – It’s a thousand and another thousand kilometers to go there by train. And then in a sleigh with horses through the taiga. And in the taiga you will come across a wolf or a bear. And what a strange idea this is! Just think for yourself!

- Gay, gay! “Chuk and Gek didn’t think for even half a second, but unanimously declared that they had decided to travel not only a thousand, but even a hundred thousand kilometers. They are not afraid of anything. They are brave. And yesterday they drove away with stones a strange dog that had jumped into the yard.

And so they talked for a long time, waving their arms, stamping their feet, jumping up and down, and the mother sat silently, listening to them and listening. Finally she laughed, grabbed them both in her arms, spun them around and threw them onto the sofa.

Know that she had been waiting for such a letter for a long time, and she was only deliberately teasing Chuk and Huck, because she had a cheerful character.

A whole week passed before their mother got them ready for the trip. Chuk and Gek didn’t waste any time either. Chuk made himself a dagger from a kitchen knife, and Huck found himself a smooth stick, hammered a nail into it, and it turned out to be a pike so strong that if you pierced the skin of a bear with something and then poked it in the heart with this pike, then, of course, the bear would have died immediately.

Finally all the work was finished. We've already packed our luggage. They attached a second lock to the door to prevent thieves from burglarizing the apartment. We shook out the remains of bread, flour and cereals from the cupboard so that the mice would not breed. And so the mother went to the station to buy tickets for the evening train tomorrow.

But then, without her, Chuk and Gek had a quarrel.

Ah, if only they knew what trouble this quarrel would lead them to, then they would never have quarreled that day!

The thrifty Chuk had a flat metal box in which he kept silver tea papers, candy wrappers (if there was a picture of a tank, an airplane or a Red Army soldier in it), feathers for arrows, horsehair for a Chinese trick and all sorts of other very necessary things.

Huck didn't have such a box. And in general, Huck was a simpleton, but he knew how to sing songs.

And just at the time when Chuk was going to get his precious box from a secluded place, and Huck was singing songs in the room, the postman came in and gave Chuk a telegram for his mother.

Chuk hid the telegram in his box and went to find out why Huck no longer sings songs, but shouts:

- Rra! Rra! Hooray!

- Hey! Hit! Turumbey!

Chuk curiously opened the door and saw such a “turumbey” that his hands shook with anger.

There was a chair in the middle of the room, and on its back hung a tattered, pike-marked newspaper. And that's okay. But the damned Huck, imagining that there was a bear carcass in front of him, furiously poked his lance into the yellow cardboard from under his mother’s shoes. And in the cardboard box Chuk kept a signal tin pipe, three colored badges from the October holidays and money - forty-six kopecks, which he did not spend, like Huck, on various stupid things, but saved thriftyly for the long journey.

And, seeing the hole in the cardboard, Chuk snatched the pike from Huck, broke it over his knee and threw it on the floor.

But like a hawk, Huck swooped down on Chuk and snatched the metal box from his hands. In one fell swoop he flew up to the windowsill and threw the box through the open window.

The offended Chuk screamed loudly and shouted: “Telegram! Telegram!" - in only a coat, without galoshes and a hat, he ran out the door.

Sensing something was wrong, Huck rushed after Chuk.

But in vain they looked for the metal box in which lay a telegram that had not yet been read by anyone.

Either she fell into a snowdrift and now lay deep under the snow, or she fell on the path and was dragged away by some passer-by, but, one way or another, along with all the goods and the unopened telegram, the box disappeared forever.

Arkady Gaidar

Chuk and Gek

There lived a man in the forest near the Blue Mountains. He worked a lot, but the work did not decrease, and he could not go home on vacation.

Finally, when winter came, he was completely bored, asked permission from his superiors and sent a letter to his wife asking her to come and visit him with the children.

He had two children - Chuk and Gek.

And he and his mother lived in a distant, huge city, the best of which there is nothing in the world.

Day and night, red stars sparkled over the towers of this city.

And, of course, this city was called Moscow.

Just when the postman was going up the stairs with a letter, Chuk and Huck were having a fight. In short, they just howled and fought.

I have already forgotten what started this fight. But I remember that either Chuk stole an empty matchbox from Huck, or, conversely, Huck stole a tin of polish from Chuk.

Both of these brothers had just hit each other once with their fists, and were about to hit each other a second time, when the bell rang, and they looked at each other with alarm. They thought their mother had come! And this mother had a strange character. She did not swear for fighting, did not shout, but simply took the fighters to different rooms and for a whole hour, or even two, did not allow them to play together. And in one hour - tick and tick - there are sixty minutes. And in two hours it’s even more.

That's why both brothers immediately wiped away their tears and rushed to open the door.

But it turns out that it was not the mother, but the postman who brought the letter.

Then they shouted:

This is a letter from dad! Yes, yes, from dad! And he will probably arrive soon.

Here, to celebrate, they slept, jumping, jumping and tumbling on the spring sofa. Because although Moscow is the most wonderful city, when dad hasn’t been home for a whole year, Moscow can get boring.

And they were so happy that they did not notice how their mother entered.

She was very surprised to see that both of her beautiful sons, lying on their backs, were screaming and beating their heels on the wall, so loudly that the pictures above the sofa were shaking and the spring of the wall clock was humming.

But when the mother found out why there was such joy, she did not scold her sons.

She just kicked them off the couch.

She somehow threw off her fur coat and grabbed the letter, without even shaking off the snowflakes from her hair, which had now melted and sparkled like sparks above her dark eyebrows.

Everyone knows that letters can be funny or sad, and therefore, while the mother was reading, Chuk and Huck carefully watched her face.

At first the mother frowned, and they frowned too. But then she started smiling, and they decided that this letter was funny.

“Father won’t come,” the mother said, putting the letter aside. “He still has a lot of work to do, and they won’t let him go to Moscow.”

The deceived Chuk and Gek looked at each other in confusion. The letter seemed most sad.

They pouted at once, sniffled and looked angrily at their mother, who was smiling for some unknown reason.

“He won’t come,” the mother continued, “but he invites us all to visit him.”

Chuk and Huck jumped off the sofa.

“He’s an eccentric man,” the mother sighed. - It’s good to say - visit! It was as if he had taken a tram and went...

Yes, yes,” Chuk quickly picked up, “since he’s calling, we’ll sit down and go.”

“You’re stupid,” said the mother. - It’s a thousand and another thousand kilometers to go there by train. And then in a sleigh with horses through the taiga. And in the taiga you will come across a wolf or a bear. And what a strange idea this is! Just think for yourself!

Gay-gay! - Chuk and Gek didn’t think for half a second, but unanimously declared that they decided to travel not only a thousand, but even a hundred thousand kilometers. They are not afraid of anything. They are brave. And yesterday they drove away with stones a strange dog that had jumped into the yard.

And so they talked for a long time, waving their arms, stamping their feet, jumping up and down, and the mother sat silently, listening to them and listening. Finally she laughed, grabbed them both in her arms, spun them around and threw them onto the sofa.

Know that she had been waiting for such a letter for a long time, and she was only deliberately teasing Chuk and Huck, because she had a cheerful character.

A whole week passed before their mother got them ready for the trip. Chuk and Gek didn’t waste any time either. Chuk made himself a dagger from a kitchen knife, and Huck found himself a smooth stick, hammered a nail into it, and it turned out to be a pike so strong that if you pierced the skin of a bear with something and then poked it in the heart with this pike, then, of course, the bear would have died immediately.

Finally all the work was finished. We've already packed our luggage. They attached a second lock to the door to prevent thieves from burglarizing the apartment. We shook out the remains of bread, flour and cereals from the cupboard so that the mice would not breed. And so the mother went to the station to buy tickets for the evening train tomorrow.

But then, without her, Chuk and Gek had a quarrel.

Ah, if only they knew what trouble this quarrel would lead them to, then they would never have quarreled that day!

The thrifty Chuk had a flat metal box in which he kept silver tea papers, candy wrappers (if there was a picture of a tank, an airplane or a Red Army soldier in it), feathers for arrows, horsehair for a Chinese trick and all sorts of other very necessary things.

Huck didn't have such a box. And in general, Huck was a simpleton, but he knew how to sing songs.

And just at the time when Chuk was going to get his precious box from a secluded place, and Huck was singing songs in the room, the postman came in and gave Chuk a telegram for his mother.

Chuk hid the telegram in his box and went to find out why Huck no longer sings songs, but shouts:

R-ra! R-ra! Hooray!

Hey! Hit! Turumbey!

Chuk curiously opened the door and saw such a “turumbey” that his hands shook with anger.

There was a chair in the middle of the room, and on its back hung a tattered, pike-marked newspaper. And that's okay. But damned Huck, imagining that there was a bear carcass in front of him, furiously poked his lance into the yellow cardboard from under his mother’s boots. And in the cardboard box Chuk kept a signal tin pipe, three colored badges from the October holidays and money - forty-six kopecks, which he did not spend, like Huck, on various stupid things, but saved thriftyly for the long journey.

And, seeing the hole in the cardboard, Chuk snatched the pike from Huck, broke it over his knee and threw it on the floor.

But like a hawk, Huck swooped down on Chuk and snatched the metal box from his hands. In one fell swoop he flew up to the windowsill and threw the box through the open window.

The offended Chuk screamed loudly and shouted: “Telegram! Telegram!" - in only a coat, without galoshes and a hat, he ran out the door.

Sensing something was wrong, Huck rushed after Chuk.

But in vain they looked for the metal box in which lay a telegram that had not yet been read by anyone.

Either she fell into a snowdrift and now lay deep under the snow, or she fell on the path and was dragged away by some passer-by, but, one way or another, along with all the goods and the unopened telegram, the box disappeared forever.

Returning home, Chuk and Gek were silent for a long time. They had already made peace, because they knew what would happen to both of them from their mother. But since Chuk was a whole year older than Huck, fearing that he might get hurt more, he came up with the idea:

You know, Huck: what if we don’t tell mom about the telegram? Just think - a telegram! We're having fun even without a telegram.

“You can’t lie,” Huck sighed. - Mom always gets even worse angry for lying.

And we won't lie! - Chuk exclaimed joyfully. “If she asks where the telegram is, we’ll tell you.” If he doesn’t ask, then why should we jump forward? We are not upstarts.

Okay,” Huck agreed. - If there is no need to lie, then we will do so. That's a good idea, Chuk.

And they had just decided on this when the mother entered. She was pleased because she had gotten good train tickets, but still she immediately noticed that her dear sons had sad faces and teary eyes.

Answer, citizens,” the mother asked, shaking off the snow, “why was there a fight without me?”

There was no fight,” Chuk refused.

“It wasn’t,” Huck confirmed. - We just wanted to fight, but immediately changed our minds.

“I really love this kind of thinking,” said the mother.

She undressed, sat down on the sofa and showed them hard green tickets: one large ticket and two small ones. Soon they had dinner, and then the knocking died down, the lights went out, and everyone fell asleep.

But the mother knew nothing about the telegram, so, of course, she didn’t ask anything.

The next day they left. But since the train left very late, Chuk and Gek did not see anything interesting through the black windows when leaving.

At night, Huck woke up to get drunk. The light bulb on the ceiling was extinguished, but everything around Huck was illuminated with a blue light: the shaking glass on the table covered with a napkin, and the yellow orange, which now seemed greenish, and the face of his mother, who, rocking, slept soundly. Through the snowy patterned window of the carriage, Huck saw the moon, and such a huge one, which never happens in Moscow. And then he decided that the train was already rushing through the high mountains, from where it was closer to the moon.

He pushed my mother aside and asked her to get a drink. But for one reason she did not give him anything to drink, but ordered him to break off and eat a slice of orange.

Huck was offended and broke off a piece, but he no longer wanted to sleep. He nudged Chuka to see if he would wake up. Chuk snorted angrily and did not wake up.

Then Huck put on his felt boots, opened the door slightly and went out into the corridor.

The carriage corridor was narrow and long. Folding benches were attached near its outer wall, which slammed shut on their own if you climbed off them. Ten more doors opened into the corridor here. And all the doors were shiny, red, with yellow gilded handles.

Huck sat on one bench, then on another, on a third, and so he got almost to the end of the carriage. But then a conductor passed by with a lantern and shamed Huck that people were sleeping, and he was slapping benches.

The conductor left, and Huck hurriedly went to his compartment. He opened the door with difficulty. Carefully, so as not to wake up his mother, he closed it and threw himself onto the soft bed.

And since the fat Chuk fell apart to its full extent, Huck unceremoniously poked him with his fist to make him move.

But then something terrible happened: instead of the blond, round-headed Chuk, the angry mustachioed face of some guy looked at Huck, who sternly asked:

End of free trial.

Arkady Gaidar

Chuk and gek

© Astrel Publishing House LLC, 2010

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

© The electronic version of the book was prepared by liters company (www.litres.ru)

There lived a man in the forest near the Blue Mountains. He worked a lot, but the work did not decrease, and he could not go home on vacation.

Finally, when winter came, he was completely bored, asked permission from his superiors and sent a letter to his wife asking her to come and visit him with the children.

He had two children - Chuk and Gek.

And he and his mother lived in a distant, huge city, the best of which there is nothing in the world.

Day and night, red stars sparkled over the towers of this city.

And, of course, this city was called Moscow.

Just when the postman was going up the stairs with a letter, Chuk and Huck were having a fight. In short, they just howled and fought.

I have already forgotten what started this fight. But I remember that either Chuk stole an empty matchbox from Huck, or, conversely, Huck stole a tin of polish from Chuk.

Both of these brothers had just hit each other once with their fists, and were about to hit each other a second time, when the bell rang, and they looked at each other with alarm again. They thought their mother had come! And this mother had a strange character. She did not swear for fighting, did not shout, but simply took the fighters to different rooms and for a whole hour, or even two, did not allow them to play together. And in one hour - tick and tick - there are sixty minutes. And in two hours it’s even more.

That's why both brothers immediately wiped away their tears and rushed to open the door.

But it turns out that it was not the mother, but the postman who brought the letter.

Then they shouted:

- This is a letter from dad! Yes, yes, from dad! And he will probably arrive soon.

Here, to celebrate, they began to jump, jump and tumble on the spring sofa. Because although Moscow is the most wonderful city, when dad hasn’t been home for a whole year, Moscow can get boring.

And they were so happy that they did not notice how their mother entered.

She was very surprised to see that both of her beautiful sons, lying on their backs, were screaming and beating their heels on the wall, so loudly that the pictures above the sofa were shaking and the spring of the wall clock was humming.

But when the mother found out why there was such joy, she did not scold her sons.

She just kicked them off the couch.

She somehow threw off her fur coat and grabbed the letter, without even shaking off the snowflakes from her hair, which had now melted and sparkled like sparks above her dark eyebrows.

Everyone knows that letters can be funny or sad, and therefore, while the mother was reading, Chuk and Huck carefully watched her face.

At first the mother frowned, and they frowned too. But then she started smiling, and they decided that this letter was funny.

“Father won’t come,” the mother said, putting the letter aside. “He still has a lot of work to do, and they won’t let him go to Moscow.”

The deceived Chuk and Gek looked at each other in confusion. The letter turned out to be the most saddening thing.

They pouted at once, sniffled and looked angrily at their mother, who was smiling for some unknown reason.

“He won’t come,” the mother continued, “but he invites us all to visit him.”

Chuk and Huck jumped off the sofa.

“He’s an eccentric man,” the mother sighed. - It’s good to say - visit! It’s like getting on a tram and going...

“Yes, yes,” Chuk quickly picked up, “since he’s calling, we’ll sit down and go.”

“You’re stupid,” said the mother. – It’s a thousand and another thousand kilometers to go there by train. And then in a sleigh with horses through the taiga. And in the taiga you will come across a wolf or a bear. And what a strange idea this is! Just think for yourself!

- Gay, gay! “Chuk and Gek didn’t think for even half a second, but unanimously declared that they had decided to travel not only a thousand, but even a hundred thousand kilometers. They are not afraid of anything. They are brave. And yesterday they drove away with stones a strange dog that had jumped into the yard.

And so they talked for a long time, waving their arms, stamping their feet, jumping up and down, and the mother sat silently, listening to them and listening. Finally she laughed, grabbed them both in her arms, spun them around and threw them onto the sofa.

Know that she had been waiting for such a letter for a long time, and she was only deliberately teasing Chuk and Huck, because she had a cheerful character.

A whole week passed before their mother got them ready for the trip. Chuk and Gek didn’t waste any time either. Chuk made himself a dagger from a kitchen knife, and Huck found himself a smooth stick, hammered a nail into it, and it turned out to be a pike so strong that if you pierced the skin of a bear with something and then poked it in the heart with this pike, then, of course, the bear would have died immediately.

Finally all the work was finished. We've already packed our luggage. They attached a second lock to the door to prevent thieves from burglarizing the apartment. We shook out the remains of bread, flour and cereals from the cupboard so that the mice would not breed. And so the mother went to the station to buy tickets for the evening train tomorrow.

But then, without her, Chuk and Gek had a quarrel.

Ah, if only they knew what trouble this quarrel would lead them to, then they would never have quarreled that day!

The thrifty Chuk had a flat metal box in which he kept silver tea papers, candy wrappers (if there was a picture of a tank, an airplane or a Red Army soldier in it), feathers for arrows, horsehair for a Chinese trick and all sorts of other very necessary things.

Huck didn't have such a box. And in general, Huck was a simpleton, but he knew how to sing songs.

And just at the time when Chuk was going to get his precious box from a secluded place, and Huck was singing songs in the room, the postman came in and gave Chuk a telegram for his mother.

Chuk hid the telegram in his box and went to find out why Huck no longer sings songs, but shouts:

R-ra! R-ra! Hooray!

Hey! Hit! Turumbey!

Chuk curiously opened the door and saw such a “turumbey” that his hands shook with anger.

There was a chair in the middle of the room, and on its back hung a tattered, pike-marked newspaper. And that's okay. But damned Huck, imagining that there was a bear carcass in front of him, furiously poked his lance into the yellow cardboard from under his mother’s boots. And in the cardboard box Chuk kept a signal tin pipe, three colored badges from the October holidays and money - forty-six kopecks, which he did not spend, like Huck, on various stupid things, but saved thriftyly for the long journey.

And, seeing the hole in the cardboard, Chuk snatched the pike from Huck, broke it over his knee and threw it on the floor.

But like a hawk, Huck swooped down on Chuk and snatched the metal box from his hands. In one fell swoop he flew up to the windowsill and threw the box through the open window.

The offended Chuk screamed loudly and shouted: “Telegram! Telegram!" - in only a coat, without galoshes and a hat, he ran out the door.

Sensing something was wrong, Huck rushed after Chuk.

But in vain they looked for the metal box in which lay a telegram that had not yet been read by anyone.

Either she fell into a snowdrift and now lay deep under the snow, or she fell on the path and was dragged away by some passer-by, but, one way or another, along with all the goods and the unopened telegram, the box disappeared forever.

Returning home, Chuk and Gek were silent for a long time. They had already made peace, because they knew what would happen to both of them from their mother. But since Chuk was a whole year older than Huck, fearing that he might get hurt more, he came up with the idea:

- You know, Huck: what if we don’t tell mom about the telegram? Just think - a telegram! We're having fun even without a telegram.

“You can’t lie,” Huck sighed. “Mom always gets even worse angry for lying.”

– We won’t lie! – Chuk exclaimed joyfully. “If she asks where the telegram is, we’ll tell you.” If he doesn’t ask, then why should we jump forward? We are not upstarts.

“Okay,” Huck agreed. “If we don’t have to lie, then we’ll do it.” That's a good idea, Chuk.

And they had just decided on this when the mother entered. She was pleased because she had gotten good train tickets, but still she immediately noticed that her dear sons had sad faces and teary eyes.

“Answer me, citizens,” the mother asked, shaking off the snow, “why was there a fight without me?”

“There was no fight,” Chuk refused.

“It wasn’t,” Huck confirmed. “We just wanted to fight, but we immediately changed our minds.”

“I really like this kind of thinking,” said the mother.

She undressed, sat down on the sofa and showed them hard green tickets: one large ticket and two small ones. Soon they had dinner, and then the knocking died down, the lights went out, and everyone fell asleep.

But the mother knew nothing about the telegram, so, of course, she didn’t ask anything.

The next day they left. But since the train left very late, Chuk and Gek did not see anything interesting through the black windows when leaving.

At night, Huck woke up to get drunk. The light bulb on the ceiling was extinguished, but everything around Huck was illuminated with a blue light: the shaking glass on the table covered with a napkin, and the yellow orange, which now seemed greenish, and the face of his mother, who, rocking, slept soundly. Through the snowy patterned window of the carriage, Huck saw the moon, and such a huge one, which never happens in Moscow. And then he decided that the train was already rushing through the high mountains, from where it was closer to the moon.

He pushed my mother aside and asked her to get a drink. But for one reason she did not give him anything to drink, but ordered him to break off and eat a slice of orange.

Huck was offended and broke off a piece, but he no longer wanted to sleep. He nudged Chuka to see if he would wake up. Chuk snorted angrily and did not wake up.

Then Huck put on his felt boots, opened the door slightly and went out into the corridor.

The carriage corridor was narrow and long. Folding benches were attached near its outer wall, which slammed shut on their own if you climbed off them. Ten more doors opened into the corridor here. And all the doors were shiny, red, with yellow gilded handles.

Huck sat on one bench, then on another, on a third, and so he got almost to the end of the carriage. But then a conductor passed by with a lantern and shamed Huck that people were sleeping, and he was slapping benches.

The conductor left, and Huck hurriedly went to his compartment. He opened the door with difficulty. Carefully, so as not to wake up his mother, he closed it and threw himself onto the soft bed.

And since the fat Chuk fell apart to its full extent, Huck unceremoniously poked him with his fist to make him move.

But then something terrible happened: instead of the blond, round-headed Chuk, the angry mustachioed face of some guy looked at Huck, who sternly asked:

– Who’s pushing around here?

Then Huck screamed at the top of his lungs. The frightened passengers jumped up from all the bunks, the light flashed, and, seeing that he was not in his own compartment, but in someone else’s, Huck screamed even louder.

But all the people quickly realized what was happening and began to laugh. The mustachioed guy put on trousers and a military tunic and took Huck to his place.

Huck slipped under his blanket and became quiet. The car rocked and the wind rustled.

The unprecedented huge moon again illuminated with blue light the shaking glass, the orange on a white napkin and the face of the mother, who was smiling at something in her sleep and did not know at all what trouble had befallen her son.

Finally Huck fell asleep too.

...And Huck had a strange dream:

It was as if the whole carriage had come to life,

From wheel to wheel.

Cars are running - a long row -

And they talk to the locomotive.

First. Forward, comrade! The path is long

He lay down in front of you in the darkness.

Second. Shine brighter, lanterns,

Until the morning dawn!

Third. Burn, fire! Blow the whistle!

Spin, wheels, to the East!

Fourth. Then let's end the conversation

When we reach the Blue Mountains.

When Huck woke up, the wheels, without any talk, were rhythmically tapping under the floor of the carriage. The sun was shining through the frosty windows. The beds were made. The washed-up Chuk was gnawing on an apple. And mom and the mustachioed military man, against the open doors, laughed at Huck’s nightly adventures. Chuk immediately showed Huck a pencil with a yellow cartridge tip, which he had received as a gift from the military man.

There lived a man in the forest near the Blue Mountains. He worked a lot, but the work did not decrease, and he could not go home on vacation.
Finally, when winter came, he was completely bored, asked permission from his superiors and sent a letter to his wife asking her to come and visit him with the children.

He had two children - Chuk and Gek.
And he and his mother lived in a distant, huge city, the best of which there is nothing in the world.
Day and night, red stars sparkled over the towers of this city.
And, of course, this city was called Moscow.
Just when the postman was going up the stairs with a letter, Chuk and Huck were having a fight. In short, they just howled and fought.

I have already forgotten what started this fight. But I remember that either Chuk stole an empty matchbox from Huck, or, conversely, Huck stole a tin of polish from Chuk.
Both of these brothers had just hit each other once with their fists, and were about to hit each other a second time, when the bell rang, and they looked at each other with alarm. They thought their mother had come! And this mother had a strange character. She did not swear for fighting, did not shout, but simply took the fighters to different rooms and for a whole hour, or even two, did not allow them to play together. And in one hour - tick and tick - there are sixty minutes. And in two hours it’s even more.
That's why both brothers immediately wiped away their tears and rushed to open the door.
But it turns out that it was not the mother, but the postman who brought the letter.

Then they shouted:
-This is a letter from dad! Yes, yes, from dad! And he will probably arrive soon.
Here, to celebrate, they began to jump, jump and tumble on the spring sofa. Because although Moscow is the most wonderful city, when dad hasn’t been home for a whole year, Moscow can get boring.

And they were so happy that they did not notice how their mother entered.
She was very surprised to see that both of her beautiful sons, lying on their backs, were screaming and beating their heels on the wall, so loudly that the pictures above the sofa were shaking and the spring of the wall clock was humming.
But when the mother found out why there was such joy, she did not scold her sons.
She just kicked them off the couch.
She somehow threw off her fur coat and grabbed the letter, without even shaking off the snowflakes from her hair, which had now melted and sparkled like sparks above her dark eyebrows.

Everyone knows that letters can be funny or sad, and therefore, while the mother was reading, Chuk and Huck carefully watched her face.
At first the mother frowned, and they frowned too. But then she started smiling, and they decided that this letter was funny.
“Father won’t come,” the mother said, putting the letter aside. “He still has a lot of work to do, and they won’t let him go to Moscow.”
The deceived Chuk and Gek looked at each other in confusion. The letter seemed most sad.
They pouted at once, sniffled and looked angrily at their mother, who was smiling for some unknown reason.

“He won’t come,” the mother continued, “but he invites us all to visit him.”
Chuk and Huck jumped off the sofa.
“He’s an eccentric person,” the mother sighed. “It’s good to say - for a visit!” It was as if he had taken a tram and went...
“Yes, yes,” Chuk quickly picked up, “since he’s calling, we’ll sit down and go.”
“You’re stupid,” said the mother. “It’s a thousand and another thousand kilometers to go there by train.” And then in a sleigh with horses through the taiga. And in the taiga you will come across a wolf or a bear. And what a strange idea this is! Just think for yourself!
“Hey, hey!” Chuk and Gek didn’t think for even half a second, but unanimously declared that they had decided to travel not only a thousand, but even a hundred thousand kilometers. They are not afraid of anything. They are brave. And yesterday they drove away with stones a strange dog that had jumped into the yard.

And so they talked for a long time, waving their arms, stamping their feet, jumping up and down, and the mother sat silently, listening to them and listening. Finally she laughed, grabbed them both in her arms, spun them around and threw them onto the sofa.
Know that she had been waiting for such a letter for a long time, and she was only deliberately teasing Chuk and Huck, because she had a cheerful character.
A whole week passed before their mother got them ready for the trip. Chuk and Gek didn’t waste any time either. Chuk made himself a dagger from a kitchen knife, and Huck found himself a smooth stick, hammered a nail into it, and it turned out to be a pike so strong that if you pierced the skin of a bear with something and then poked it in the heart with this pike, then, of course, the bear would have died immediately.

Finally all the work was finished. We've already packed our luggage. They attached a second lock to the door to prevent thieves from burglarizing the apartment. We shook out the remains of bread, flour and cereals from the cupboard so that the mice would not breed. And so the mother went to the station to buy tickets for the evening train tomorrow.
But then, without her, Chuk and Gek had a quarrel.
Ah, if only they knew what trouble this quarrel would lead them to, then they would never have quarreled that day!

The thrifty Chuk had a flat metal box in which he kept silver tea papers, candy wrappers (if there was a picture of a tank, an airplane or a Red Army soldier in it), feathers for arrows, horsehair for a Chinese trick and all sorts of other very necessary things.
Huck didn't have such a box. And in general, Huck was a simpleton, but he knew how to sing songs.
And just at the time when Chuk was going to get his precious box from a secluded place, and Huck was singing songs in the room, the postman came in and gave Chuk a telegram for his mother.

Chuk hid the telegram in his box and went to find out why Huck no longer sings songs, but shouts:
R-ra! R-ra! Hooray!
Hey! Hit! Turumbey!
Chuk curiously opened the door and saw such a “turumbey” that his hands shook with anger.

There was a chair in the middle of the room, and on its back hung a tattered, pike-marked newspaper. And that's okay. But damned Huck, imagining that there was a bear carcass in front of him, furiously poked his lance into the yellow cardboard from under his mother’s boots. And in the cardboard box Chuk kept a signal tin pipe, three colored badges from the October holidays and money - forty-six kopecks, which he did not spend, like Huck, on various stupid things, but saved thriftyly for the long journey.

And, seeing the hole in the cardboard, Chuk snatched the pike from Huck, broke it over his knee and threw it on the floor.
But like a hawk, Huck swooped down on Chuk and snatched the metal box from his hands. In one fell swoop he flew up to the windowsill and threw the box through the open window.
The offended Chuk screamed loudly and shouted: “Telegram! Telegram!" - in only a coat, without galoshes and a hat, he ran out the door.

Sensing something was wrong, Huck rushed after Chuk.
But in vain they looked for the metal box in which lay a telegram that had not yet been read by anyone.
Either she fell into a snowdrift and now lay deep under the snow, or she fell on the path and was dragged away by some passer-by, but, one way or another, along with all the goods and the unopened telegram, the box disappeared forever.

Returning home, Chuk and Gek were silent for a long time. They had already made peace, because they knew what would happen to both of them from their mother. But since Chuk was a whole year older than Huck, fearing that he might get hurt more, he came up with the idea:
-You know, Huck: what if we don’t tell mom about the telegram? Just think - a telegram! We're having fun even without a telegram.
“You can’t lie,” Huck sighed. “Mom always gets even worse angry for lying.”
“We won’t lie!” Chuk exclaimed joyfully. “If she asks where the telegram is, we’ll tell you.” If he doesn’t ask, then why should we jump forward? We are not upstarts.
“Okay,” agreed Huck. “If you don’t have to lie, then we’ll do it.” That's a good idea, Chuk.

And they had just decided on this when the mother entered. She was pleased because she had gotten good train tickets, but still she immediately noticed that her dear sons had sad faces and teary eyes.
“Answer me, citizens,” the mother asked, shaking off the snow, “why was there a fight without me?”
“There was no fight,” Chuk refused.
“It wasn’t,” Huck confirmed. “We just wanted to fight, but we immediately changed our minds.”
“I really love this kind of thinking,” said the mother.
She undressed, sat down on the sofa and showed them hard green tickets: one large ticket and two small ones. Soon they had dinner, and then the knocking died down, the lights went out, and everyone fell asleep.

But the mother knew nothing about the telegram, so, of course, she didn’t ask anything.
The next day they left. But since the train left very late, Chuk and Gek did not see anything interesting through the black windows when leaving.
At night, Huck woke up to get drunk. The light bulb on the ceiling was extinguished, but everything around Huck was illuminated with a blue light: the shaking glass on the table covered with a napkin, and the yellow orange, which now seemed greenish, and the face of his mother, who, rocking, slept soundly. Through the snowy patterned window of the carriage, Huck saw the moon, and such a huge one, which never happens in Moscow. And then he decided that the train was already rushing through the high mountains, from where it was closer to the moon.

He pushed my mother aside and asked her to get a drink. But for one reason she did not give him anything to drink, but ordered him to break off and eat a slice of orange.
Huck was offended and broke off a piece, but he no longer wanted to sleep. He nudged Chuka to see if he would wake up. Chuk snorted angrily and did not wake up.
Then Huck put on his felt boots, opened the door slightly and went out into the corridor.
The carriage corridor was narrow and long. Folding benches were attached near its outer wall, which slammed shut on their own if you climbed off them. Ten more doors opened into the corridor here. And all the doors were shiny, red, with yellow gilded handles.

Huck sat on one bench, then on another, on a third, and so he got almost to the end of the carriage. But then a conductor passed by with a lantern and shamed Huck that people were sleeping, and he was slapping benches.
The conductor left, and Huck hurriedly went to his compartment. He opened the door with difficulty. Carefully, so as not to wake up his mother, he closed it and threw himself onto the soft bed.
And since the fat Chuk fell apart to its full extent, Huck unceremoniously poked him with his fist to make him move.
But then something terrible happened: instead of the blond, round-headed Chuk, the angry mustachioed face of some guy looked at Huck, who sternly asked:
-Who's pushing around here?
Then Huck screamed at the top of his lungs. The frightened passengers jumped up from all the bunks, the light flashed, and, seeing that he was not in his own compartment, but in someone else’s, Huck screamed even louder.

But all the people quickly realized what was happening and began to laugh. The mustachioed guy put on trousers and a military tunic and took Huck to his place.
Huck slipped under his blanket and became quiet. The car rocked and the wind rustled.
The unprecedented huge moon again illuminated with blue light the shaking glass, the orange on a white napkin and the face of the mother, who was smiling at something in her sleep and did not know at all what trouble had befallen her son.
Finally Huck fell asleep too.
...And Huck had a strange dream
It was as if the whole carriage had come to life,
It's like you can hear voices
From wheel to wheel
Cars are running - a long row -
And they talk to the locomotive.
First.
Forward, comrade! The path is long
He lay down in front of you in the darkness.
Second.
Shine brighter, lanterns,
Until the morning dawn!
Third.
Burn, fire! Blow the whistle!
Spin, wheels, to the East!
Fourth.
Then let's end the conversation
When we reach the Blue Mountains.

When Huck woke up, the wheels, without any talk, were rhythmically tapping under the floor of the carriage. The sun was shining through the frosty windows. The beds were made. The washed-up Chuk was gnawing on an apple. And mom and the mustachioed military man, against the open doors, laughed at Huck’s nightly adventures. Chuk immediately showed Huck a pencil with a yellow cartridge tip, which he had received as a gift from the military man.

But Huck was not envious or greedy about things. He, of course, was confused and gaping. Not only had he climbed into someone else’s compartment at night, but now he couldn’t remember where he had put his trousers. But Huck could sing songs.
After washing his face and saying hello to his mother, he pressed his forehead against the cold glass and began to look at what this region was like, how they lived here and what people were doing.
And while Chuk walked from door to door and got to know the passengers, who willingly gave him all sorts of nonsense - some a rubber stopper, some a nail, some a piece of twisted twine - Huck saw a lot through the window during this time.

Here is a forest house. In huge felt boots, only a shirt and with a cat in his hands, a boy jumped out onto the porch. Fuck! – the cat flew head over heels into a fluffy snowdrift and, awkwardly climbing, jumped on the loose snow. I wonder why he left her? She probably stole something from the table.

But there is no longer a house, no boy, no cat - there is a factory in the field. The field is white, the pipes are red. The smoke is black and the light is yellow. I wonder what they do at this factory? Here is a booth, and, wrapped in a sheepskin coat, stands a sentry. The sentry in the sheepskin coat is huge, wide, and his rifle seems thin, like a straw. However, try it, stick your nose in!

Then the forest went dancing. The trees that were closer jumped quickly, and the distant ones moved slowly, as if a glorious snowy river was quietly circling them.
Huck called out to Chuk, who was returning to the compartment with rich booty, and they began to watch together.
Along the way we came across large, bright stations, where about a hundred locomotives hissed and puffed at once; There were also very tiny stations - well, really, no bigger than the food stall that sold various small items on the corner near their Moscow house.

Trains, loaded with ore, coal and huge logs, half a car thick, rushed towards us.
They caught up with a train with bulls and cows. The locomotive on this train was nondescript, and its whistle was thin, squeaky, but then, like one bull, he barked: moo!.. Even the driver turned around and probably thought that it was the big locomotive that was catching up with him.
And at one siding they stopped side by side next to a mighty iron armored train. Guns wrapped in tarpaulins stuck out menacingly from the towers. The Red Army soldiers stomped merrily, laughed and, clapping their mittens, warmed their hands.

But one man in a leather jacket stood near the armored train, silent and thoughtful. And Chuk and Gek decided that this, of course, was the commander who was standing and waiting for an order to come from Voroshilov to open battle against the enemies.
Yes, they saw a lot of things along the way. The only pity is that there were snowstorms raging outside and the windows of the carriage were often tightly sealed with snow.
And finally in the morning the train pulled up to a small station.
As soon as the mother managed to stop Chuk and Huck and accept things from the military man, the train sped off.

The suitcases were dumped in the snow. The wooden platform was soon empty, and the father never came out to meet him.
Then the mother got angry with the father and, leaving the children to guard the things, went to the coachmen to find out what kind of sleigh their father had sent for them, because there was still a hundred kilometers to go through the taiga to the place where he lived.
The mother walked for a very long time, and then a scary goat appeared nearby. At first he gnawed the bark from a frozen log, but then he made a disgusting meme and started looking very intently at Chuk and Huck.

Then Chuk and Huck hastily took cover behind their suitcases, because who knows what goats need in these parts.
But then the mother returned. She was completely saddened and explained that, probably, her father did not receive a telegram about their departure and therefore he did not send horses to the station for them.
Then they called the coachman. The driver hit the goat on the back with a long whip, took the things and carried them to the station buffet.
The buffet was small. A fat samovar, as tall as Chuka, was puffing behind the counter. It trembled, hummed, and its thick steam, like a cloud, rose to the log ceiling, under which the sparrows that had flown to warm themselves were chirping.

While Chuk and Gek were drinking tea, the mother was bargaining with the coachman: how much he would take to take them to the place in the forest. The driver asked for a lot - as much as a hundred rubles. And let’s just say: the road wasn’t really close. Finally they agreed, and the coachman ran home for bread, hay and warm sheepskin coats.

“Father doesn’t even know that we have already arrived,” said the mother. “He will be surprised and happy!”
“Yes, he will be happy,” Chuk confirmed importantly, sipping his tea. “And I will be surprised and happy too.”
“Me too,” agreed Huck. “We’ll drive up quietly, and if dad leaves the house somewhere, we’ll hide the suitcases and crawl under the bed ourselves.” Here he comes. Sat down. Thought about it. And we are silent, silent, and suddenly we howl!
“I won’t crawl under the bed,” the mother refused, “and I won’t howl either.” Climb and howl yourself... Why, Chuk, are you hiding sugar in your pocket? And so your pockets are full, like a trash can.

“I’ll feed the horses,” Chuk explained calmly. “Take it, Huck, and you’ll get a piece of cheesecake.” Otherwise you never have anything. All you have to do is ask me!
Soon the coachman arrived. They put luggage in wide sleighs, churned up hay, and wrapped themselves in blankets and sheepskin coats.
Goodbye big cities, factories, stations, villages, towns! Now there is only forest, mountains and again a dense, dark forest ahead.
...Almost until dusk, groaning, aahing and marveling at the dense taiga, they passed unnoticed. But Chuk, who couldn’t see the road well from behind the driver, became bored. He asked his mother for a pie or a roll. But, of course, his mother did not give him a pie or a bun. Then he frowned and, having nothing else to do, began to push Huck and push him to the edge.

At first, Huck patiently pushed away. Then he lost his temper and spat on Chuk. Chuk got angry and rushed into a fight. But since their hands were tied in heavy fur sheepskin coats, they could do nothing but hit each other with their foreheads wrapped in bashlyks.
The mother looked at them and laughed. And then the coachman hit the horses with his whip - and the horses rushed. Two white fluffy hares jumped out onto the road and danced. The coachman shouted:
-Hey Hey! Wow!.. Watch out: we’ll crush you!

Mischievous hares rushed merrily into the forest. A fresh wind blew in my face. And, involuntarily, clinging to each other, Chuk and Gek rushed in a sleigh down the mountain towards the taiga and towards the moon, which was slowly creeping out from behind the already nearby Blue Mountains.
But without any command, the horses stood near a small hut covered with snow.
“We’ll spend the night here,” said the coachman, jumping into the snow. “This is our station.”

The hut was small, but strong. There were no people in it.
The driver quickly boiled the kettle; They brought a bag of food from the sleigh.
The sausage was so frozen and hardened that it could be used to hammer nails. The sausage was scalded with boiling water, and the pieces of bread were placed on a hot stove.
Behind the stove, Chuk found some kind of crooked spring, and the driver told him that it was a spring from a trap that is used to catch all kinds of animals. The spring was rusty and lying around idle. Chuk realized this immediately.
We drank tea, ate and went to bed. There was a wide wooden bed against the wall. Instead of a mattress, there were dry leaves piled on it.

Huck did not like to sleep either against the wall or in the middle. He liked to sleep on the edge. And although from early childhood he heard the song “Bay-bayushki-bayu, don’t lie on the edge,” Huck still always slept on the edge.
If they put him in the middle, then in his sleep he would throw everyone’s blankets off, fight back with his elbows and push Chuk in the stomach with his knee.
Without undressing and covering themselves with sheepskin coats, they lay down: Chuk against the wall, mother in the middle, and Huck at the edge.
The coachman put out the candle and climbed onto the stove. Everyone fell asleep at once. But, of course, as always, at night Huck got thirsty and woke up.

Half asleep, he put on his felt boots, got to the table, took a sip of water from the kettle and sat down on a stool in front of the window.
The moon was behind the clouds and, through the small window, the snowdrifts seemed black and blue.
“This is how far our dad has gone!” - Huck was surprised. And he thought that, probably, further than this place, there weren’t many places left in the world.

But Huck listened. He thought he heard a knock outside the window. It wasn't even a knock, but the creaking of snow under someone's heavy steps. This is true! Then in the darkness something sighed heavily, moved, tossed and turned, and Huck realized that it was a bear that had passed by the window.
-Evil bear, what do you want? We've been going to dad for so long, and you want to devour us so that we never see him?.. No, go away before people kill you with a well-aimed gun or a sharp saber!
So Huck thought and muttered, and with fear and curiosity he pressed his forehead harder and harder against the icy glass of the narrow window.

But then the moon quickly rolled out from behind the fast clouds. The black-blue snowdrifts sparkled with a soft matte shine, and Huck saw that this bear was not a bear at all, but just a loose horse walking around the sleigh and eating hay.
It was annoying. Huck climbed onto the bed under his sheepskin coat, and since he had just been thinking about bad things, a gloomy sleep came to him.

Huck had a strange dream!
It's like a scary Turvoron
Spit saliva like boiling water
Threatens with an iron fist.
There's fire all around! Footprints in the snow!
Rows of soldiers are coming.
And dragged from distant places
Crooked fascist flag and cross.
“Wait!” Huck shouted to them. “You’re going the wrong way!” You can't do it here!
But no one stood, and they didn’t listen to him, Huck.

In anger, Huck then snatched the tin signal pipe, the one that Chuk had lying in a cardboard box from under his boots, and buzzed so loudly that the thoughtful commander of the iron armored train quickly raised his head, waved his hand imperiously - and his heavy and formidable guns simultaneously struck with a volley.
“Good!” Huck praised. “Just shoot again, otherwise one time is probably not enough for them...”

The mother woke up because both of her dear sons were unbearably pushing and tossing on both sides.
She turned to Chuku and felt something hard and sharp poke her in the side. She rummaged around and took out from under the blanket a spring from a trap, which the thrifty Chuk had secretly brought with him to bed.
Mother threw the spring behind the bed. In the light of the moon, she looked into Huck’s face and realized that he was having a disturbing dream.
Sleep, of course, is not a spring, and it cannot be thrown away. But it can be put out. Mother turned Huck from his back to his side and, rocking him, gently blew on his warm forehead.

Soon Huck began to sniffle and smile, and this meant that the bad dream had faded away.
Then the mother stood up and, in stockings, without felt boots, went to the window.
It was not yet light, and the sky was full of stars. Some stars burned high, while others bent very low over the black taiga.
And - amazing thing! - right there and just like little Huck, she thought that further than this place where her restless husband had taken her, there were probably not many places left in the world.

The whole next day the road went through forests and mountains. On the climbs, the coachman jumped off the sleigh and walked along the snow next to him. But on the steep slopes the sleigh raced with such speed that it seemed to Chuk and Gek as if they, along with the horses and sleigh, were falling to the ground straight from the sky.
Finally, in the evening, when both people and horses were quite tired, the coachman said:
-Well, here we are! Behind this toe there is a turn. Here, in the clearing, is their base... Hey, but-oh!.. Pile up!

Squealing merrily, Chuk and Huck jumped up, but the sleigh was pulled, and they plopped down into the hay.
The smiling mother took off her woolen scarf and was left only in a fluffy hat.
Here comes the turn. The sleigh quickly turned around and drove up to three houses that stood out on a small edge, sheltered from the winds.
Very strange! No dogs barked, no people were visible. There was no smoke coming from the chimneys. All the paths were covered with deep snow, and there was silence all around, like in a cemetery in winter. And only white-sided magpies were jumping stupidly from tree to tree.

“Where have you brought us?” the coachman’s mother asked in fear. “Do we really need to come here?”
“Wherever they wanted to go, I brought it there,” the coachman answered. “These houses are called “Reconnaissance and Geological Base Number Three.” Yes, here is the sign on the pole... Read. Maybe you need a base called number four? So it’s two hundred kilometers in a completely different direction.
“No, no!” the mother answered, looking at the sign. “We need this one.” But look: the doors are locked, the porch is covered in snow, and where have the people gone?

“I don’t know where to go,” the coachman himself was surprised. “Last week we brought food here: flour, onions, potatoes.” All the people were here: eight people, a ninth chief, ten with a watchman... What a worry! It wasn’t the wolves who ate them all... Just wait, I’ll go and look at the guardhouse.
And, throwing off his sheepskin coat, the driver walked through the snowdrifts to the outer hut.
Soon he returned:
-The hut is empty, but the stove is warm. So, the watchman here, yes, apparently, went hunting. Well, he’ll come back by night and tell you everything.
“What will he tell me!” the mother gasped. “I can see for myself that people haven’t been here for a long time.”

“I don’t know what he’ll tell,” answered the coachman. “But I have to tell you something, that’s why he’s a watchman.”
With difficulty they drove up to the porch of the lodge, from which a narrow path led to the forest.
They entered the hallway and past shovels, brooms, axes, sticks, past a frozen bear skin that hung on an iron hook, they walked into the hut. Following them, the driver was dragging things.
It was warm in the hut. The coachman went to give the horses food, and the mother silently undressed the frightened children.
“We went to see our father, we went, and now we’ve arrived!”

The mother sat down on the bench and thought. What happened, why is the base empty and what should we do now? Go back? But she only had money left to pay the driver for the journey. So, we had to wait for the watchman to return. But the driver will go back in three hours, what if the watchman takes it and doesn’t return soon? Whereas? But from here to the nearest station and telegraph is almost a hundred kilometers!

The coachman entered. Looking around the hut, he sniffed the air, went to the stove and opened the damper.
“The watchman will be back by night,” he reassured. “There’s a pot of cabbage soup in the oven.” If he had been gone for a long time, he would have taken the cabbage soup out into the cold... Otherwise, do whatever you want,” the coachman suggested. “Since this is the case, then I’m not a block of wood.” I'll take you back to the station for free.
“No,” the mother refused. “We have nothing to do at the station.”

They put the kettle on again, heated up the sausage, ate and drank, and while the mother was unpacking things, Chuk and Huck climbed onto the warm stove. It smelled of birch brooms, hot sheepskin and pine chips. And since the upset mother was silent, Chuk and Gek were silent too. But you can’t stay silent for long, and therefore, not finding anything to do, Chuk and Huck quickly and soundly fell asleep.

They did not hear how the coachman drove away and how their mother, climbing onto the stove, lay down next to them. They woke up when it was completely dark in the hut. We all woke up at once, because we heard stomping on the porch, then something rumbled in the entryway—a shovel must have fallen. The door swung open, and with a lantern in his hands, a watchman entered the hut, and with him a large shaggy dog. He threw the gun off his shoulder, threw the dead hare onto the bench and, raising the lantern to the stove, asked:

-What kind of guests came here?
“I am the wife of the head of the geological party, Seryogin,” said the mother, jumping off the stove, “and these are his children.” If necessary, here are the documents.
“There they are, the documents: they’re sitting on the stove,” the watchman muttered and shined a flashlight on the alarmed faces of Chuk and Gek. “It’s like a copy of your father!” Especially this fat one.” And he pointed his finger at Chuk.
Chuk and Gek were offended: Chuk - because he was called fat, and Gek - because he always considered himself more like his father than Chuk.

“Tell me, why did you come?” the watchman asked, looking at his mother. “You weren’t ordered to come.”
-How was it not ordered? Who didn't tell you to come?
-But it was not ordered. I myself carried a telegram from Seryogin to the station, and in the telegram it was clearly written: “Delay your departure for two weeks. Our party is urgently leaving for the taiga.” Since Seryogin writes “stay,” it means you should have held on, but you are being unauthorized.

“What telegram?” asked the mother. “We didn’t receive any telegram.” And, as if looking for support, she looked at Chuk and Gek in confusion.
But under her gaze, Chuk and Gek, staring at each other in fear, hastily retreated deeper into the stove.
“Children,” the mother asked, looking suspiciously at her sons, “didn’t you receive any telegram without me?”

Dry wood chips and brooms crunched on the stove, but there was no answer to the question.
“Answer, tormentors!” the mother said then. “You probably received the telegram without me and didn’t give it to me?”
A few more seconds passed, then a smooth and friendly roar was heard from the stove. Chuk sang it in a bassy and monotonous tone, while Huck sang it more subtly and with shimmer.
“This is where my death is!” exclaimed the mother. “This is who, of course, will bring me to the grave!” Stop buzzing and tell me exactly what happened.

However, hearing that their mother was about to go to her grave, Chuk and Gek howled even louder, and a lot of time passed until, interrupting and shamelessly blaming each other, they dragged on their sad story.

Well, what are you going to do with such people? Beat them with a stick? To imprison? Shackled and sent to hard labor? No, the mother didn’t do any of this. She sighed, ordered her sons to get off the stove, wipe their noses and wash, and she began to ask the watchman what she should do now and what to do.

The watchman said that the reconnaissance party, on urgent orders, had gone to the Alkarash gorge and would not return earlier than in ten days.
“But how are we going to live these ten days?” asked the mother. “After all, we don’t have any supplies with us.”
“And so live your life,” answered the watchman. “I’ll give you some bread, I’ll give you a hare, skin it and cook it.” Tomorrow I’ll go into the taiga for two days, I need to check the traps.

“This is not good,” said the mother. “How can we be left alone?” We don't know anything here. And here is the forest, animals...
“I’ll leave the second gun,” said the watchman. “The firewood is under the shed, the water is in the spring behind the hill.” There's cereal in a bag, salt in a jar. And I’ll tell you straight out that I don’t have time to babysit you either...
“Such an evil guy!” whispered Huck. “Come on, Chuk, you and I will tell him something.”
“Here we go again!” Chuk refused. “Then he’ll take us and throw us out of the house altogether.” Just wait, dad will come, we’ll tell him everything.
-Well, dad! Dad for a long time...

Huck walked up to his mother, sat on her lap and, knitting his eyebrows, looked sternly into the face of the rude watchman.
The watchman took off his fur casing and moved towards the table, towards the light. And only then did Huck notice that a huge tuft of fur, almost to the waist, had been torn out from the shoulder to the back of the casing.
“Take the cabbage soup out of the stove,” the watchman said to the mother. “There are spoons and bowls on the shelf, sit down and eat.” And I will mend my fur coat.
“You are the master,” said the mother. “You get it, you treat it.” Give me a sheepskin coat: I’ll pay better than yours.

The watchman looked up at her and met Huck's stern gaze.
-Hey! “Yes, I see, you are stubborn,” he muttered, handed his sheepskin coat to his mother and reached for the dishes on the shelf.
“Where did it explode like that?” asked Chuk, pointing to the hole in the casing.
- We didn’t get along with the bear. So he scratched me,” the watchman answered reluctantly and slammed a heavy pot of cabbage soup onto the table.
“Do you hear, Huck?” said Chuk when the watchman went out into the hallway. “He had a fight with a bear and that’s probably why he’s so angry today.”
Huck heard everything himself. But he did not like anyone to offend his mother, even if it was a person who could quarrel and fight with the bear himself.

In the morning, at dawn, the watchman took with him a bag, a gun, a dog, got on his skis and went into the forest. Now we had to manage it ourselves.
The three of them went to fetch water. Behind a hillock, a spring gushed out from a steep rock among the snow. Thick steam came from the water, like from a teapot, but when Chuk put his finger under the stream, it turned out that the water was colder than frost itself.

Then they carried firewood. My mother did not know how to light a Russian stove, and therefore the wood did not light up for a long time. But when they flared up, the flames burned so hot that the thick ice on the window on the opposite wall quickly melted. And now through the glass one could see the entire edge of the forest with the trees along which magpies were jumping, and the rocky peaks of the Blue Mountains.
The mother knew how to gut chickens, but she had never had to skin a hare, and she fussed with him so much that during this time it was possible to skin and butcher a bull or a cow.

Huck didn’t like this ripping off at all, but Chuk helped willingly, and for this he got a hare’s tail, so light and fluffy that if you threw it from the stove, it fell to the floor smoothly, like a parachute.
After lunch, the three of them went out for a walk.

Chuk tried to persuade his mother to take a gun or at least gun cartridges with her. But the mother did not take the gun.
On the contrary, she deliberately hung the gun on a high hook, then stood on a stool, put the cartridges on the top shelf and warned Chuk that if he tried to steal even one cartridge from the shelf, then he should no longer hope for a good life.
Chuk blushed and quickly left, because one cartridge was already in his pocket.

It was an amazing walk! They walked in single file to the spring along a narrow path. The cold blue sky shone above them; Like fairy-tale castles and towers, the pointed cliffs of the Blue Mountains rose to the sky. In the frosty silence, curious magpies chirped sharply. Gray, nimble squirrels jumped briskly between the thick cedar branches. Under the trees, on the soft white snow, strange traces of unfamiliar animals and birds were imprinted.

Something in the taiga groaned, hummed, and cracked. A mountain of icy snow must have fallen from the top of the tree, breaking branches.
Previously, when Huck lived in Moscow, it seemed to him that the whole earth consisted of Moscow, that is, of streets, houses, trams and buses.
Now it seemed to him that the whole earth consisted of a tall, dense forest.
And in general, if the sun was shining above Huck, then he was sure that there was no rain or clouds over the whole earth.

And if he was having fun, then he thought that everyone in the world was having fun and having fun too.
Two days passed, the third came, and the watchman did not return from the forest, and alarm hung over the small house covered with snow.
It was especially scary in the evenings and at night. They tightly locked the hallway and doors and, in order not to attract animals with light, tightly curtained the windows with a rug, although it was necessary to do exactly the opposite, because the animal is not a person and is afraid of fire. The wind was humming above the chimney, as expected, and when the blizzard whipped sharp snow floes against the wall and windows, it seemed to everyone that someone was pushing and scratching outside.

They climbed onto the stove to sleep, and there their mother told them various stories and fairy tales for a long time. Finally she dozed off.
“Chuk,” asked Huck, “why are there wizards in different stories and fairy tales?” What if they really were?
“And there would be witches and devils too?” asked Chuk.
“No!” Huck waved it off with annoyance. “No need for devils.” What's the use of them? And we would ask the wizard, he would fly to dad and tell him that we had arrived a long time ago.

-What would he fly on, Huck?
- Well, on what... I would wave my hands or something like that. He already knows.
“It’s cold to wave your hands now,” said Chuk. “I have these gloves and mittens, and even when I was carrying the log, my fingers were completely frozen.”
-No, tell me, Chuk, would it still be good?
“I don’t know,” Chuk hesitated. “Do you remember, in the yard, in the basement where Mishka Kryukov lives, there lived some lame man.” Either he was selling bagels, then all sorts of women and old women came to him, and he told them who would have a happy life and who would have an unhappy one.

-And did he guess well?
-I don't know. I only know that then the police came, they took him away, and they took a lot of other people’s property out of his apartment.
-So he was probably not a wizard, but a swindler. What do you think?
“Of course, he’s a crook,” agreed Chuk. “Yes, I think so, and all wizards should be crooks.” Well, tell me, why does he need to work, since he can crawl into any hole anyway? Just know, grab what you need... You better sleep, Huck, anyway, I won’t talk to you anymore.
-Why?
- Because you talk all sorts of nonsense, and at night you dream about it, and you start shaking your elbows and knees. Do you think it’s good how you punched me in the stomach yesterday? Let me give you a drink too...

On the morning of the fourth day, the mother had to chop wood herself. The hare was eaten long ago, and its bones were snatched up by magpies. For lunch they cooked only porridge with vegetable oil and onions. The bread was running out, but the mother found flour and baked flat cakes.
After such a dinner, Huck was sad, and his mother thought he had a fever.
She ordered him to stay at home, dressed Chuka, took buckets and sleds, and they went out to bring water and at the same time collect twigs and branches at the edge of the forest - then it would be easier to light the stove in the morning.
Huck was left alone. He waited a long time. He got bored and started to come up with something.

...And mother and Chuk were delayed. On the way back to the house, the sled overturned, the buckets overturned, and we had to go to the spring again. Then it turned out that Chuk had forgotten his warm mitten at the edge of the forest, and had to return halfway. While they were looking for this and that, dusk fell.
When they returned home, Huck was not in the hut. At first they thought that Huck was hiding on the stove behind the sheepskins. No, he wasn't there.
Then Chuk smiled slyly and whispered to his mother that Huck, of course, crawled under the stove.

Mother got angry and ordered Huck to get out. Huck didn't respond.
Then Chuk took a long grip and began to move it under the stove. But Huck wasn’t under the stove either.
The mother became alarmed and looked at the nail by the door. Neither Huck's sheepskin coat nor his hat were hanging on a nail.
The mother went out into the yard and walked around the hut. She went into the hallway and lit the lantern. I looked into a dark closet, under a shed with firewood...
She called Huck, scolded, begged, but no one responded. And darkness quickly fell on the snowdrifts.

Then the mother jumped into the hut, pulled the gun off the wall, took out cartridges, grabbed a lantern and, shouting to Chuk not to dare move, ran out into the yard.
A lot of tracks were trampled over four days.
The mother did not know where to look for Huck, but she ran to the road, because she did not believe that Huck alone could dare to go into the forest.
The road was empty.
She loaded the gun and fired. She listened and shot again and again.

Suddenly a return shot struck very close by. Someone was rushing to her aid.
She wanted to run towards him, but her felt boots got stuck in a snowdrift. The lantern fell into the snow, the glass broke, and the light went out.
Chuk's piercing scream was heard from the porch of the lodge.
It was upon hearing the shots that Chuk decided that the wolves that had devoured Huck had attacked his mother.

The mother threw away the lantern and, gasping for breath, ran towards the house. She pushed the naked Chuk into the hut, threw the gun into the corner and, scooping it up with a ladle, took a sip of ice-cold water.
There was thunder and knocking at the porch. The door swung open. A dog flew into the hut, and behind it came a guard shrouded in steam.
-What's the problem? “What kind of shooting?” he asked, without saying hello or undressing.
“The boy is missing,” said the mother. Tears streamed from her eyes, and she could no longer say a word.
“Stop, don’t cry!” the watchman barked. “When did you disappear?” For a long time? Recently?.. Back, Brave!” he shouted to the dog. “Speak up, or I’ll go back!”
“An hour ago,” answered the mother. “We went for water.” We arrived, but he was not there. He got dressed and went somewhere
-Well, he won’t go far in an hour, and in his clothes and felt boots he won’t immediately freeze... Come to me, Brave! Here, smell it!

The watchman pulled the hood off the nail and pushed Huck's galoshes under the dog's nose.
The dog sniffed the things carefully and looked at its owner with intelligent eyes.
“Follow me!” the watchman said, opening the door. “Go look, Brave!”
The dog wagged its tail and remained standing in place.
“Forward!” the watchman repeated sternly. “Search, Brave, search!”
The dog restlessly twisted its nose, shifted from foot to foot and did not move.
“What kind of dancing is this?” the watchman got angry. And, again thrusting Huck’s hood and galoshes under the dog’s nose, he pulled her by the collar.
However, Bold did not follow the watchman; he spun, turned and walked to the corner of the hut opposite from the door.

Here he stopped near a large wooden chest, scratched the lid with his furry paw and, turning to the owner, barked loudly and lazily three times.
Then the watchman thrust the gun into the hands of the dumbfounded mother, walked up and opened the lid of the chest.
In the chest, on a pile of all sorts of rags, sheepskins, bags, covered with his fur coat and a hat under his head, Huck slept soundly and calmly.

When they pulled him out and woke him up, blinking his sleepy eyes, he could not understand why there was such noise and such wild fun around him. His mother kissed him and cried. Chuk pulled his arms and legs, jumped up and shouted:
- Hey-la! Hey-li-la!..
The shaggy dog ​​Bold, whom Chuk kissed on the face, turned around in confusion and, also not understanding anything, quietly wagged his gray tail, looking tenderly at the crust of bread lying on the table.
It turns out that when mother and Chuk went to fetch water, the bored Huck decided to joke. He took his sheepskin coat and hat and climbed into the chest. He decided that when they returned and began to look for him, he would howl terribly from the chest.
But since his mother and Chuk walked for a very long time, he lay there and lay there and quietly fell asleep.

Suddenly the watchman stood up, walked over and slammed a heavy key and a crumpled blue envelope onto the table.
“Here,” he said, “get it.” This is for you the key to the room and the pantry and a letter from the boss Seryogin. He and the people will be here in four days, just in time for the New Year.
So this is where he disappeared, this unfriendly, gloomy old man! He said that he was going hunting, and he himself was skiing to the distant Alkarash gorge.
Without opening the letter, the mother stood up and put her hand on the old man’s shoulder with gratitude.

He didn’t answer anything and began to grumble at Huck for spilling a box of wads in the chest, and at the same time at his mother for breaking the glass of the lantern. He grumbled long and persistently, but no one was afraid of this kind eccentric now. All that evening the mother did not leave Huck’s side and, every moment, grabbed his hand, as if she was afraid that he was about to disappear somewhere again. And she cared so much about him that finally Chuk became offended and privately regretted several times that he had not reached into the chest too.

Now it's fun. The next morning the watchman opened the room where their father lived. He heated the stove hot and moved all their things here. The room was large and bright, but everything in it was arranged and piled up to no avail.
The mother immediately started cleaning. She spent the whole day rearranging everything, scraping, washing, cleaning.
And when in the evening the watchman brought a bundle of firewood, surprised by the change and the unprecedented cleanliness, he stopped and did not go further than the threshold.
And the dog Brave went.
She walked straight across the freshly washed floor, walked up to Huck and poked him with her cold nose. Here, they say, you fool, I found you, and for this you should give me something to eat.
The mother became happy and threw a piece of sausage to Bold. Then the watchman grumbled and said that if you feed dogs sausage in the taiga, it will make the magpies laugh.

His mother cut off half a circle for him too. He said “thank you” and left, still surprised at something and shaking his head.
The next day it was decided to prepare a Christmas tree for the New Year.
They couldn’t imagine making toys out of anything!
They tore off all the color pictures from old magazines. They made animals and dolls from scraps and cotton wool. They pulled out all the tissue paper from my father’s drawer and piled up lush flowers.

Why was the watchman gloomy and unsociable, and when he brought firewood, he stopped for a long time at the door and marveled at their new and new ideas. Finally he couldn't bear it anymore. He brought them silver paper from wrapping tea and a large piece of wax that he had left over from shoemaking.
It was wonderful! And the toy factory immediately turned into a candle factory. The candles were clumsy and uneven. But they burned as brightly as the most elegant store-bought ones.
Now it was time for the Christmas tree. The mother asked the watchman for an ax, but he didn’t even answer her, but got on his skis and went into the forest.

Half an hour later he returned.
OK. Even though the toys weren’t all that elegant, even though the hares made from rags looked like cats, even though all the dolls looked alike - straight-nosed and pop-eyed, and even though the fir cones wrapped in silver paper didn’t sparkle as much as fragile and thin glass toys, but, of course, no one had such a Christmas tree in Moscow. It was a real taiga beauty - tall, thick, straight and with branches that diverged at the ends like stars.

Four days of business flew by unnoticed. And then New Year's Eve arrived. Already in the morning, Chuk and Huck could not be driven home. With blue noses, they stood out in the cold, waiting for the father and all his people to come out of the forest.

But the watchman who heated the bathhouse told them not to freeze in vain, because the whole party would return only for lunch.
Indeed. They had just sat down at the table when the watchman knocked on the window. Having dressed somehow, all three of them went out onto the porch.
“Now look,” the watchman told them. “Now they will appear on the slope of that mountain to the right of the big peak, then they will disappear again into the taiga, and then in half an hour everyone will be home.”

And so it happened. First, a dog team with a loaded sleigh flew out from behind the pass, followed by high-speed skiers.
Compared to the enormity of the mountains, they seemed ridiculously small, although from here their arms, legs and heads were clearly visible.
They flashed along a bare slope and disappeared into the forest.
Exactly half an hour later, dogs were heard barking, noise, creaking, and screams.
The hungry dogs, sensing the house, dashed out of the forest. And behind them, not lagging behind, nine skiers rolled out to the edge of the forest. And, seeing mother, Chuk and Gek on the porch, they raised their ski poles as they ran and shouted loudly: “Hurray!”

Then Huck could not stand it, jumped into the porch and, scooping up the snow with felt boots, rushed towards a tall, bearded man who was running ahead and shouting “hurray” louder than anyone else.
During the day they cleaned themselves, shaved and washed.
And in the evening there was a Christmas tree for everyone, and everyone celebrated the New Year together.
When the table was set, the lamp was extinguished and the candles were lit. But since, except for Chuk and Gek, the rest were all adults, they, of course, did not know what to do now.

It’s good that one person had a button accordion and started a merry dance. Then everyone jumped up and everyone wanted to dance. And everyone danced very beautifully, especially when they invited mom to dance.
But my father didn’t know how to dance. He was very strong, good-natured, and when he simply walked on the floor without any dancing, all the dishes in the closet rattled.
He sat Chuk and Huck on his lap, and they loudly clapped their hands to everyone.

Then the dance ended and the people asked Huck to sing a song. Huck did not break down. He himself knew that he could sing songs, and was proud of it.
The accordion player played along, and he sang a song to them. I don’t remember which one now. I remember that it was a very good song, because all the people, listening to it, fell silent and quiet. And when Huck stopped to catch his breath, you could hear the candles crackling and the wind humming outside the window.

And when Huck finished singing, everyone made a noise, shouted, picked Huck up in their arms and began to throw him up. But the mother immediately took Huck away from them, because she was afraid that in the heat of the moment they would hit him against the wooden ceiling.
“Now sit down,” the father said, looking at his watch. “Now the most important thing will begin.”

He went and turned on the radio. Everyone sat down and became silent. At first it was quiet. But then there was noise, hum, beeps. Then something knocked, hissed, and a melodic ringing came from somewhere far away.
The big and small bells rang like this:
Tir-lil-lily-don!
Tir-lil-lily-don!
Chuk and Gek looked at each other. They wondered what it was. It was in far, far away Moscow, under the red star, on the Spasskaya Tower, that the golden Kremlin clock was ringing.

And this ringing - before the New Year - was now being listened to by people in cities, in the mountains, in the steppes, in the taiga, on the blue sea.
And, of course, the thoughtful commander of the armored train, the one who tirelessly waited for orders from Voroshilov to open battle against the enemies, heard this ringing too.
And then all the people stood up, congratulated each other on the New Year and wished everyone happiness.

What happiness is - everyone understood it in their own way. But all together people knew and understood that they had to live honestly, work hard, and deeply love and take care of this huge happy land, which is called the Soviet country.

Chuk and Gek. Gaidar story for children to read

There lived a man in the forest near the Blue Mountains. He worked a lot, but the work did not decrease, and he could not go home on vacation.

Finally, when winter came, he was completely bored, asked permission from his superiors and sent a letter to his wife asking her to come and visit him with the children.

He had two children - Chuk and Gek.

And he and his mother lived in a distant, huge city, the best of which there is nothing in the world.

Day and night, red stars sparkled over the towers of this city.

And, of course, this city was called Moscow.

Just when the postman was going up the stairs with a letter, Chuk and Huck were having a fight. In short, they just howled and fought.

I have already forgotten what started this fight. But I remember that either Chuk stole an empty matchbox from Huck, or, conversely, Huck stole a tin of polish from Chuk.

Both of these brothers had just hit each other once with their fists, and were about to hit each other a second time, when the bell rang, and they looked at each other with alarm. They thought their mother had come! And this mother had a strange character. She did not swear for fighting, did not shout, but simply took the fighters to different rooms and for a whole hour, or even two, did not allow them to play together. And in one hour - tick and tick - there are sixty minutes. And in two hours it’s even more.

That's why both brothers immediately wiped away their tears and rushed to open the door.

But it turns out that it was not the mother, but the postman who brought the letter.

Then they shouted:

- This is a letter from dad! Yes, yes, from dad! And he will probably arrive soon.

Here, to celebrate, they slept, jumping, jumping and tumbling on the spring sofa. Because although Moscow is the most wonderful city, when dad hasn’t been home for a whole year, Moscow can get boring.

And they were so happy that they did not notice how their mother entered.

She was very surprised to see that both of her beautiful sons, lying on their backs, were screaming and beating their heels on the wall, so loudly that the pictures above the sofa were shaking and the spring of the wall clock was humming.

But when the mother found out why there was such joy, she did not scold her sons.

She just kicked them off the couch.

She somehow threw off her fur coat and grabbed the letter, without even shaking off the snowflakes from her hair, which had now melted and sparkled like sparks above her dark eyebrows.

Everyone knows that letters can be funny or sad, and therefore, while the mother was reading, Chuk and Huck carefully watched her face.

At first the mother frowned, and they frowned too. But then she started smiling, and they decided that this letter was funny.

“Father won’t come,” the mother said, putting the letter aside. “He still has a lot of work to do, and they won’t let him go to Moscow.”

The deceived Chuk and Gek looked at each other in confusion. The letter seemed most sad.

They pouted at once, sniffled and looked angrily at their mother, who was smiling for some unknown reason.

“He won’t come,” the mother continued, “but he invites us all to visit him.”

Chuk and Huck jumped off the sofa.

“He’s an eccentric man,” the mother sighed. - It’s good to say - visit! It was as if he had taken a tram and went...

“Yes, yes,” Chuk quickly picked up, “since he’s calling, we’ll sit down and go.”

“You’re stupid,” said the mother. – It’s a thousand and another thousand kilometers to go there by train. And then in a sleigh with horses through the taiga. And in the taiga you will come across a wolf or a bear. And what a strange idea this is! Just think for yourself!

- Gay, gay! “Chuk and Gek didn’t think for even half a second, but unanimously declared that they had decided to travel not only a thousand, but even a hundred thousand kilometers. They are not afraid of anything. They are brave. And yesterday they drove away with stones a strange dog that had jumped into the yard.

And so they talked for a long time, waving their arms, stamping their feet, jumping up and down, and the mother sat silently, listening to them and listening. Finally she laughed, grabbed them both in her arms, spun them around and threw them onto the sofa.

Know that she had been waiting for such a letter for a long time, and she was only deliberately teasing Chuk and Huck, because she had a cheerful character.

A whole week passed before their mother got them ready for the trip. Chuk and Gek didn’t waste any time either. Chuk made himself a dagger from a kitchen knife, and Huck found himself a smooth stick, hammered a nail into it, and it turned out to be a pike so strong that if you pierced the skin of a bear with something and then poked it in the heart with this pike, then, of course, the bear would have died immediately.

Finally all the work was finished. We've already packed our luggage. They attached a second lock to the door to prevent thieves from burglarizing the apartment. We shook out the remains of bread, flour and cereals from the cupboard so that the mice would not breed. And so the mother went to the station to buy tickets for the evening train tomorrow.

But then, without her, Chuk and Gek had a quarrel.

Ah, if only they knew what trouble this quarrel would lead them to, then they would never have quarreled that day!

The thrifty Chuk had a flat metal box in which he kept silver tea papers, candy wrappers (if there was a picture of a tank, an airplane or a Red Army soldier in it), feathers for arrows, horsehair for a Chinese trick and all sorts of other very necessary things.

Huck didn't have such a box. And in general, Huck was a simpleton, but he knew how to sing songs.

And just at the time when Chuk was going to get his precious box from a secluded place, and Huck was singing songs in the room, the postman came in and gave Chuk a telegram for his mother.

Chuk hid the telegram in his box and went to find out why Huck no longer sings songs, but shouts:

R-ra! R-ra! Hooray!

Hey! Hit! Turumbey!

Chuk curiously opened the door and saw such a “turumbey” that his hands shook with anger.

There was a chair in the middle of the room, and on its back hung a tattered, pike-marked newspaper. And that's okay. But damned Huck, imagining that there was a bear carcass in front of him, furiously poked his lance into the yellow cardboard from under his mother’s boots. And in the cardboard box Chuk kept a signal tin pipe, three colored badges from the October holidays and money - forty-six kopecks, which he did not spend, like Huck, on various stupid things, but saved thriftyly for the long journey.

And, seeing the hole in the cardboard, Chuk snatched the pike from Huck, broke it over his knee and threw it on the floor.

But like a hawk, Huck swooped down on Chuk and snatched the metal box from his hands. In one fell swoop he flew up to the windowsill and threw the box through the open window.

The offended Chuk screamed loudly and shouted: “Telegram! Telegram!" - in only a coat, without galoshes and a hat, he ran out the door.

Sensing something was wrong, Huck rushed after Chuk.

But in vain they looked for the metal box in which lay a telegram that had not yet been read by anyone.

Either she fell into a snowdrift and now lay deep under the snow, or she fell on the path and was dragged away by some passer-by, but, one way or another, along with all the goods and the unopened telegram, the box disappeared forever.

Returning home, Chuk and Gek were silent for a long time. They had already made peace, because they knew what would happen to both of them from their mother. But since Chuk was a whole year older than Huck, fearing that he might get hurt more, he came up with the idea:

- You know, Huck: what if we don’t tell mom about the telegram? Just think - a telegram! We're having fun even without a telegram.

“You can’t lie,” Huck sighed. “Mom always gets even worse angry for lying.”

– We won’t lie! – Chuk exclaimed joyfully. “If she asks where the telegram is, we’ll tell you.” If he doesn’t ask, then why should we jump forward? We are not upstarts.

“Okay,” Huck agreed. “If we don’t have to lie, then we’ll do it.” That's a good idea, Chuk.

And they had just decided on this when the mother entered. She was pleased because she had gotten good train tickets, but still she immediately noticed that her dear sons had sad faces and teary eyes.

“Answer me, citizens,” the mother asked, shaking off the snow, “why was there a fight without me?”

“There was no fight,” Chuk refused.

“It wasn’t,” Huck confirmed. “We just wanted to fight, but we immediately changed our minds.”

“I really like this kind of thinking,” said the mother.

She undressed, sat down on the sofa and showed them hard green tickets: one large ticket and two small ones. Soon they had dinner, and then the knocking died down, the lights went out, and everyone fell asleep.

But the mother knew nothing about the telegram, so, of course, she didn’t ask anything.

The next day they left. But since the train left very late, Chuk and Gek did not see anything interesting through the black windows when leaving.

At night, Huck woke up to get drunk. The light bulb on the ceiling was extinguished, but everything around Huck was illuminated with a blue light: the shaking glass on the table covered with a napkin, and the yellow orange, which now seemed greenish, and the face of his mother, who, rocking, slept soundly. Through the snowy patterned window of the carriage, Huck saw the moon, and such a huge one, which never happens in Moscow. And then he decided that the train was already rushing through the high mountains, from where it was closer to the moon.

He pushed my mother aside and asked her to get a drink. But for one reason she did not give him anything to drink, but ordered him to break off and eat a slice of orange.

Huck was offended and broke off a piece, but he no longer wanted to sleep. He nudged Chuka to see if he would wake up. Chuk snorted angrily and did not wake up.

Then Huck put on his felt boots, opened the door slightly and went out into the corridor.

The carriage corridor was narrow and long. Folding benches were attached near its outer wall, which slammed shut on their own if you climbed off them. Ten more doors opened into the corridor here. And all the doors were shiny, red, with yellow gilded handles.

Huck sat on one bench, then on another, on a third, and so he got almost to the end of the carriage. But then a conductor passed by with a lantern and shamed Huck that people were sleeping, and he was slapping benches.

The conductor left, and Huck hurriedly went to his compartment. He opened the door with difficulty. Carefully, so as not to wake up his mother, he closed it and threw himself onto the soft bed.

And since the fat Chuk fell apart to its full extent, Huck unceremoniously poked him with his fist to make him move.

But then something terrible happened: instead of the blond, round-headed Chuk, the angry mustachioed face of some guy looked at Huck, who sternly asked:

– Who’s pushing around here?

Then Huck screamed at the top of his lungs. The frightened passengers jumped up from all the bunks, the light flashed, and, seeing that he was not in his own compartment, but in someone else’s, Huck screamed even louder.

But all the people quickly realized what was happening and began to laugh. The mustachioed guy put on trousers and a military tunic and took Huck to his place.

Huck slipped under his blanket and became quiet. The car rocked and the wind rustled.

The unprecedented huge moon again illuminated with blue light the shaking glass, the orange on a white napkin and the face of the mother, who was smiling at something in her sleep and did not know at all what trouble had befallen her son.

Finally Huck fell asleep too.

And Huck had a strange dream

It was as if the whole carriage had come to life,

From wheel to wheel

Cars are running - a long row -

And they talk to the locomotive.

First.

Forward, comrade! The path is long

He lay down in front of you in the darkness.

Second.

Shine brighter, lanterns,

Until the morning dawn!

Third.

Burn, fire! Blow the whistle!

Spin, wheels, to the East!

Fourth.

Then let's end the conversation

When we reach the Blue Mountains.

When Huck woke up, the wheels, without any talk, were rhythmically tapping under the floor of the carriage. The sun was shining through the frosty windows. The beds were made. The washed-up Chuk was gnawing on an apple. And mom and the mustachioed military man, against the open doors, laughed at Huck’s nightly adventures. Chuk immediately showed Huck a pencil with a yellow cartridge tip, which he had received as a gift from the military man.

But Huck was not envious or greedy about things. He, of course, was confused and gaping. Not only had he climbed into someone else’s compartment at night, but now he couldn’t remember where he had put his trousers. But Huck could sing songs.

After washing his face and saying hello to his mother, he pressed his forehead against the cold glass and began to look at what this region was like, how they lived here and what people were doing.

And while Chuk walked from door to door and got acquainted with the passengers, who willingly gave him all sorts of nonsense - some a rubber stopper, some a nail, some a piece of twisted twine - Huck saw a lot through the window during this time.

Here is a forest house. In huge felt boots, only a shirt and with a cat in his hands, a boy jumped out onto the porch. Fuck! – the cat flew head over heels into a fluffy snowdrift and, awkwardly climbing, jumped on the loose snow. I wonder why he left her? She probably stole something from the table.

But there is no longer a house, no boy, no cat - there is a factory in the field. The field is white, the pipes are red. The smoke is black and the light is yellow. I wonder what they do at this factory? Here is a booth, and, wrapped in a sheepskin coat, stands a sentry. The sentry in the sheepskin coat is huge, wide, and his rifle seems thin, like a straw. However, try it, stick your nose in!

Then the forest went dancing. The trees that were closer jumped quickly, and the distant ones moved slowly, as if a glorious snowy river was quietly circling them.

Huck called out to Chuk, who was returning to the compartment with rich booty, and they began to watch together.

Along the way we came across large, bright stations, where about a hundred locomotives hissed and puffed at once; There were also very tiny stations - well, really, no bigger than the food stall that sold various small items on the corner near their Moscow house.

Trains, loaded with ore, coal and huge logs, half a car thick, rushed towards us.

They caught up with a train with bulls and cows. The locomotive on this train was nondescript, and its whistle was thin, squeaky, but then, like one bull, he barked: moo!.. Even the driver turned around and probably thought that it was the big locomotive that was catching up with him.

And at one siding they stopped side by side next to a mighty iron armored train. Guns wrapped in tarpaulins stuck out menacingly from the towers. The Red Army soldiers stomped merrily, laughed and, clapping their mittens, warmed their hands.

But one man in a leather jacket stood near the armored train, silent and thoughtful. And Chuk and Gek decided that this, of course, was the commander who was standing and waiting for an order to come from Voroshilov to open battle against the enemies.

Yes, they saw a lot of things along the way. The only pity is that there were snowstorms raging outside and the windows of the carriage were often tightly sealed with snow.

And finally in the morning the train pulled up to a small station.

As soon as the mother managed to stop Chuk and Huck and accept things from the military man, the train sped off.

The suitcases were dumped in the snow. The wooden platform was soon empty, and the father never came out to meet him.

Then the mother got angry with the father and, leaving the children to guard the things, went to the coachmen to find out what kind of sleigh their father had sent for them, because there was still a hundred kilometers to go through the taiga to the place where he lived.

The mother walked for a very long time, and then a scary goat appeared nearby. At first he gnawed the bark from a frozen log, but then he made a disgusting meme and started looking very intently at Chuk and Huck.

Then Chuk and Huck hastily took cover behind their suitcases, because who knows what goats need in these parts.

But then the mother returned. She was completely saddened and explained that, probably, her father did not receive a telegram about their departure and therefore he did not send horses to the station for them.

Then they called the coachman. The driver hit the goat on the back with a long whip, took the things and carried them to the station buffet.

The buffet was small. A fat samovar, as tall as Chuka, was puffing behind the counter. It trembled, hummed, and its thick steam, like a cloud, rose to the log ceiling, under which the sparrows that had flown to warm themselves were chirping.

While Chuk and Gek were drinking tea, the mother was bargaining with the coachman: how much he would take to take them to the place in the forest. The driver asked for a lot - as much as a hundred rubles. And let’s just say: the road wasn’t really close. Finally they agreed, and the coachman ran home for bread, hay and warm sheepskin coats.

“Father doesn’t even know that we have already arrived,” said the mother. - He will be surprised and delighted!

“Yes, he will be happy,” Chuk confirmed importantly, sipping his tea. - And I will be surprised and delighted too.

“Me too,” Huck agreed. “We’ll drive up quietly, and if dad leaves the house somewhere, we’ll hide the suitcases and crawl under the bed ourselves.” Here he comes. Sat down. Thought about it. And we are silent, silent, and suddenly we howl!

“I won’t crawl under the bed,” the mother refused, “and I won’t howl either.” Climb and howl yourself... Why, Chuk, are you hiding sugar in your pocket? And so your pockets are full, like a trash can.

“I’ll feed the horses,” Chuk explained calmly. - Take it, Huck, and you’ll get a piece of cheesecake. Otherwise you never have anything. All you have to do is ask me!

Soon the coachman arrived. They put luggage in wide sleighs, churned up hay, and wrapped themselves in blankets and sheepskin coats.

Goodbye big cities, factories, stations, villages, towns! Now there is only forest, mountains and again a dense, dark forest ahead.

Almost until dusk, oohing, aahing and marveling at the dense taiga, they passed unnoticed. But Chuk, who couldn’t see the road well from behind the driver, became bored. He asked his mother for a pie or a roll. But, of course, his mother did not give him a pie or a bun. Then he frowned and, having nothing else to do, began to push Huck and push him to the edge.

At first, Huck patiently pushed away. Then he lost his temper and spat on Chuk. Chuk got angry and rushed into a fight. But since their hands were tied in heavy fur sheepskin coats, they could do nothing but hit each other with their foreheads wrapped in bashlyks.

The mother looked at them and laughed. And then the coachman hit the horses with his whip - and the horses rushed. Two white fluffy hares jumped out onto the road and danced. The coachman shouted:

- Hey Hey! Wow!.. Watch out: we’ll crush you!

Mischievous hares rushed merrily into the forest. A fresh wind blew in my face. And, involuntarily, clinging to each other, Chuk and Gek rushed in a sleigh down the mountain towards the taiga and towards the moon, which was slowly creeping out from behind the already nearby Blue Mountains.

But without any command, the horses stood near a small hut covered with snow.

“We’ll spend the night here,” said the coachman, jumping into the snow. - This is our station.

The hut was small, but strong. There were no people in it.

The driver quickly boiled the kettle; They brought a bag of food from the sleigh.

The sausage was so frozen and hardened that it could be used to hammer nails. The sausage was scalded with boiling water, and the pieces of bread were placed on a hot stove.

Behind the stove, Chuk found some kind of crooked spring, and the driver told him that it was a spring from a trap that is used to catch all kinds of animals. The spring was rusty and lying around idle. Chuk realized this immediately.

We drank tea, ate and went to bed. There was a wide wooden bed against the wall. Instead of a mattress, there were dry leaves piled on it.

Huck did not like to sleep either against the wall or in the middle. He liked to sleep on the edge. And although from early childhood he heard the song “Bay-bayushki-bayu, don’t lie on the edge,” Huck still always slept on the edge.

If they put him in the middle, then in his sleep he would throw everyone’s blankets off, fight back with his elbows and push Chuk in the stomach with his knee.

Without undressing and covering themselves with sheepskin coats, they lay down: Chuk against the wall, mother in the middle, and Huck at the edge.

The coachman put out the candle and climbed onto the stove. Everyone fell asleep at once. But, of course, as always, at night Huck got thirsty and woke up.

Half asleep, he put on his felt boots, got to the table, took a sip of water from the kettle and sat down on a stool in front of the window.

The moon was behind the clouds and, through the small window, the snowdrifts seemed black and blue.

“This is how far our dad has gone!” - Huck was surprised. And he thought that, probably, further than this place, there weren’t many places left in the world.

But Huck listened. He thought he heard a knock outside the window. It wasn't even a knock, but the creaking of snow under someone's heavy steps. This is true! Then in the darkness something sighed heavily, moved, tossed and turned, and Huck realized that it was a bear that had passed by the window.

- Evil bear, what do you want? We've been going to dad for so long, and you want to devour us so that we never see him?.. No, go away before people kill you with a well-aimed gun or a sharp saber!

So Huck thought and muttered, and with fear and curiosity he pressed his forehead harder and harder against the icy glass of the narrow window.

But then the moon quickly rolled out from behind the fast clouds. The black-blue snowdrifts sparkled with a soft matte shine, and Huck saw that this bear was not a bear at all, but just a loose horse walking around the sleigh and eating hay.

It was annoying. Huck climbed onto the bed under his sheepskin coat, and since he had just been thinking about bad things, a gloomy sleep came to him.

Huck had a strange dream!

It's like a scary Turvoron

Spit saliva like boiling water

Threatens with an iron fist.

There's fire all around! Footprints in the snow!

Rows of soldiers are coming.

And dragged from distant places

Crooked fascist flag and cross.

- Wait! - Huck shouted to them. – You are going the wrong way! You can't do it here!

But no one stood, and they didn’t listen to him, Huck.

In anger, Huck then snatched the tin signal pipe, the one that Chuk had lying in a cardboard box from under his boots, and buzzed so loudly that the thoughtful commander of the iron armored train quickly raised his head, waved his hand imperiously - and his heavy and formidable guns simultaneously struck with a volley.

- Fine! - Huck praised. - Just shoot again, otherwise once is probably not enough for them...

The mother woke up because both of her dear sons were unbearably pushing and tossing on both sides.

She turned to Chuku and felt something hard and sharp poke her in the side. She rummaged around and took out from under the blanket a spring from a trap, which the thrifty Chuk had secretly brought with him to bed.

Mother threw the spring behind the bed. In the light of the moon, she looked into Huck’s face and realized that he was having a disturbing dream.

Sleep, of course, is not a spring, and it cannot be thrown away. But it can be put out. Mother turned Huck from his back to his side and, rocking him, gently blew on his warm forehead.

Soon Huck began to sniffle and smile, and this meant that the bad dream had faded away.

Then the mother stood up and, in stockings, without felt boots, went to the window.

It was not yet light, and the sky was full of stars. Some stars burned high, while others bent very low over the black taiga.

And - amazing thing! - Immediately and just like little Huck, she thought that further than this place where her restless husband had taken her, there were probably not many places left in the world.

The whole next day the road went through forests and mountains. On the climbs, the coachman jumped off the sleigh and walked along the snow next to him. But on the steep slopes the sleigh raced with such speed that it seemed to Chuk and Gek as if they, along with the horses and sleigh, were falling to the ground straight from the sky.

Finally, in the evening, when both people and horses were quite tired, the coachman said:

- Well, here we are! Behind this toe there is a turn. Here, in the clearing, is their base... Hey, but-oh!.. Pile up!

Squealing merrily, Chuk and Huck jumped up, but the sleigh was pulled, and they plopped down into the hay.

The smiling mother took off her woolen scarf and was left only in a fluffy hat.

Here comes the turn. The sleigh quickly turned around and drove up to three houses that stood out on a small edge, sheltered from the winds.

Very strange! No dogs barked, no people were visible. There was no smoke coming from the chimneys. All the paths were covered with deep snow, and there was silence all around, like in a cemetery in winter. And only white-sided magpies were jumping stupidly from tree to tree.

-Where have you taken us? – the mother asked the coachman in fear. - Do we really need to come here?

“Wherever they were dressed up, I brought it there,” answered the coachman. – These houses are called “Reconnaissance and Geological Base Number Three.” Yes, here is the sign on the pole... Read. Maybe you need a base called number four? So it’s two hundred kilometers in a completely different direction.

- No no! – looking at the sign, the mother answered. - We need this one. But look: the doors are locked, the porch is covered in snow, and where have the people gone?

“I don’t know where to go with them,” the coachman himself was surprised. – Last week we brought food here: flour, onions, potatoes. All the people were here: eight people, the ninth chief, ten with the watchman... What a worry! It wasn’t the wolves who ate them all... Just wait, I’ll go and look at the guardhouse.

And, throwing off his sheepskin coat, the driver walked through the snowdrifts to the outer hut.

Soon he returned:

- The hut is empty, but the stove is warm. So, the watchman here, yes, apparently, went hunting. Well, he’ll come back by night and tell you everything.

- What will he tell me! - the mother gasped. “I can see myself that people haven’t been here for a long time.”

“I don’t know what he’ll tell you,” answered the coachman. “But he has to tell me something, that’s why he’s a watchman.”

With difficulty they drove up to the porch of the lodge, from which a narrow path led to the forest.

They entered the hallway and past shovels, brooms, axes, sticks, past a frozen bear skin that hung on an iron hook, they walked into the hut. Following them, the driver was dragging things.

It was warm in the hut. The coachman went to give the horses food, and the mother silently undressed the frightened children.

“We went to see our father, we went, and now we’ve arrived!”

The mother sat down on the bench and thought. What happened, why is the base empty and what should we do now? Go back? But she only had money left to pay the driver for the journey. So, we had to wait for the watchman to return. But the driver will go back in three hours, what if the watchman takes it and doesn’t return soon? Whereas? But from here to the nearest station and telegraph is almost a hundred kilometers!

The coachman entered. Looking around the hut, he sniffed the air, went to the stove and opened the damper.

“The watchman will be back by night,” he reassured. “There’s a pot of cabbage soup in the oven.” If he had been gone for a long time, he would have taken the cabbage soup out into the cold... Otherwise, do as you wish,” the coachman suggested. - Since this is the case, then I’m not a blockhead. I'll take you back to the station for free.

“No,” the mother refused. “We have nothing to do at the station.”

They put the kettle on again, heated up the sausage, ate and drank, and while the mother was unpacking things, Chuk and Huck climbed onto the warm stove. It smelled of birch brooms, hot sheepskin and pine chips. And since the upset mother was silent, Chuk and Gek were silent too. But you can’t stay silent for long, and therefore, not finding anything to do, Chuk and Huck quickly and soundly fell asleep.

They did not hear how the coachman drove away and how their mother, climbing onto the stove, lay down next to them. They woke up when it was completely dark in the hut. We all woke up at once, because we heard stomping on the porch, then something rumbled in the entryway—a shovel must have fallen. The door swung open, and with a lantern in his hands, a watchman entered the hut, and with him a large shaggy dog. He threw the gun off his shoulder, threw the dead hare onto the bench and, raising the lantern to the stove, asked:

- What kind of guests came here?

“I am the wife of the head of the geological party, Seryogin,” said the mother, jumping off the stove, “and these are his children.” If necessary, here are the documents.

“There they are, the documents: they’re sitting on the stove,” the watchman muttered and shone his flashlight on the alarmed faces of Chuk and Gek. – Just like my father – a copy! Especially this fat one. – And he pointed his finger at Chuk.

Chuk and Gek were offended: Chuk - because he was called fat, and Gek - because he always considered himself more like his father than Chuk.

- Why, tell me, did you come? – Looking at the mother, the watchman asked. “You weren’t ordered to come.”

- How was it not ordered? Who didn't tell you to come?

- But it was not ordered. I myself carried a telegram from Seryogin to the station, and in the telegram it was clearly written: “Delay your departure for two weeks. Our party is urgently leaving for the taiga.” Since Seryogin writes “stay,” it means you should have held on, but you are being unauthorized.

– What telegram? – asked the mother. – We did not receive any telegram. – And, as if looking for support, she looked at Chuk and Huck in confusion.

But under her gaze, Chuk and Gek, staring at each other in fear, hastily retreated deeper into the stove.

“Children,” the mother asked, looking suspiciously at her sons, “did you receive any telegram without me?”

Dry wood chips and brooms crunched on the stove, but there was no answer to the question.

- Answer, tormentors! - the mother said then. “You probably received the telegram without me and didn’t give it to me?”

A few more seconds passed, then a smooth and friendly roar was heard from the stove. Chuk sang it in a bassy and monotonous tone, while Huck sang it more subtly and with shimmer.

- This is where my death is! - exclaimed the mother. “That’s who, of course, will bring me to the grave!” Stop buzzing and tell me exactly what happened.

However, hearing that their mother was about to go to her grave, Chuk and Gek howled even louder, and a lot of time passed until, interrupting and shamelessly blaming each other, they dragged on their sad story.

Well, what are you going to do with such people? Beat them with a stick? To imprison? Shackled and sent to hard labor? No, the mother didn’t do any of this. She sighed, ordered her sons to get off the stove, wipe their noses and wash, and she began to ask the watchman what she should do now and what to do.

The watchman said that the reconnaissance party, on urgent orders, had gone to the Alkarash gorge and would not return earlier than in ten days.

- But how are we going to live these ten days? - asked the mother. - After all, we don’t have any reserves with us.

“And so live your life,” answered the watchman. “I’ll give you some bread, I’ll give you a hare, peel it and cook it.” Tomorrow I’ll go into the taiga for two days, I need to check the traps.

“It’s not good,” said the mother. - How will we be left alone? We don't know anything here. And here is the forest, animals...

“I’ll leave the second gun,” said the watchman. – Firewood under the canopy, water in the spring behind the hill. There's cereal in a bag, salt in a jar. And I’ll tell you straight out that I don’t have time to babysit you either...

- Such an evil guy! - Huck whispered. - Come on, Chuk, you and I will tell him something.

- Here's another! – Chuk refused. “Then he’ll take us and kick us out of the house altogether.” Just wait, dad will come, we’ll tell him everything.

- Well, dad! Dad for a long time...

Huck walked up to his mother, sat on her lap and, knitting his eyebrows, looked sternly into the face of the rude watchman.

The watchman took off his fur casing and moved towards the table, towards the light. And only then did Huck notice that a huge tuft of fur, almost to the waist, had been torn out from the shoulder to the back of the casing.

“Take the cabbage soup out of the stove,” the watchman said to the mother. - There are spoons and bowls on the shelf, sit down and eat. And I will mend my fur coat.

“You are the master,” said the mother. - You get it, you treat it. Give me a sheepskin coat: I’ll pay better than yours.

The watchman looked up at her and met Huck's stern gaze.

- Hey! “Yes, I see, you are stubborn,” he muttered, handed his sheepskin coat to his mother and reached for the dishes on the shelf.

-Where did it explode like that? – Chuk asked, pointing to the hole in the casing.

“We didn’t get along with the bear.” So he scratched me,” the watchman answered reluctantly and slammed a heavy pot of cabbage soup onto the table.

- Do you hear, Huck? - said Chuk when the watchman went out into the hallway. “He got into a fight with a bear and that’s probably why he’s so angry today.”

Huck heard everything himself. But he did not like anyone to offend his mother, even if it was a person who could quarrel and fight with the bear himself.

In the morning, at dawn, the watchman took with him a bag, a gun, a dog, got on his skis and went into the forest. Now we had to manage it ourselves.

The three of them went to fetch water. Behind a hillock, a spring gushed out from a steep rock among the snow. Thick steam came from the water, like from a teapot, but when Chuk put his finger under the stream, it turned out that the water was colder than frost itself.

Then they carried firewood. My mother did not know how to light a Russian stove, and therefore the wood did not light up for a long time. But when they flared up, the flames burned so hot that the thick ice on the window on the opposite wall quickly melted. And now through the glass one could see the entire edge of the forest with the trees along which magpies were jumping, and the rocky peaks of the Blue Mountains.

The mother knew how to gut chickens, but she had never had to skin a hare, and she fussed with him so much that during this time it was possible to skin and butcher a bull or a cow.

Huck didn’t like this ripping off at all, but Chuk helped willingly, and for this he got a hare’s tail, so light and fluffy that if you threw it from the stove, it fell to the floor smoothly, like a parachute.

After lunch, the three of them went out for a walk.

Chuk tried to persuade his mother to take a gun or at least gun cartridges with her. But the mother did not take the gun.

On the contrary, she deliberately hung the gun on a high hook, then stood on a stool, put the cartridges on the top shelf and warned Chuk that if he tried to steal even one cartridge from the shelf, then he should no longer hope for a good life.

Chuk blushed and quickly left, because one cartridge was already in his pocket.

It was an amazing walk! They walked in single file to the spring along a narrow path. The cold blue sky shone above them; Like fairy-tale castles and towers, the pointed cliffs of the Blue Mountains rose to the sky. In the frosty silence, curious magpies chirped sharply. Gray, nimble squirrels jumped briskly between the thick cedar branches. Under the trees, on the soft white snow, strange traces of unfamiliar animals and birds were imprinted.

Something in the taiga groaned, hummed, and cracked. A mountain of icy snow must have fallen from the top of the tree, breaking branches.

Previously, when Huck lived in Moscow, it seemed to him that the whole earth consisted of Moscow, that is, of streets, houses, trams and buses.

Now it seemed to him that the whole earth consisted of a tall, dense forest.

And in general, if the sun was shining above Huck, then he was sure that there was no rain or clouds over the whole earth.

And if he was having fun, then he thought that everyone in the world was having fun and having fun too.

Two days passed, the third came, and the watchman did not return from the forest, and alarm hung over the small house covered with snow.

It was especially scary in the evenings and at night. They tightly locked the hallway and doors and, in order not to attract animals with light, tightly curtained the windows with a rug, although it was necessary to do exactly the opposite, because the animal is not a person and is afraid of fire. The wind was humming above the chimney, as expected, and when the blizzard whipped sharp snow floes against the wall and windows, it seemed to everyone that someone was pushing and scratching outside.

They climbed onto the stove to sleep, and there their mother told them various stories and fairy tales for a long time. Finally she dozed off.

“Chuk,” asked Huck, “why are there wizards in different stories and fairy tales?” What if they really were?

– And would there be witches and devils too? – asked Chuk.

- Not really! - Huck waved it off with annoyance. - No need for devils. What's the use of them? And we would ask the wizard, he would fly to dad and tell him that we had arrived a long time ago.

- What would he fly on, Huck?

- Well, on what... I would wave my hands or something like that. He already knows.

“It’s too cold to wave your arms now,” said Chuk. “I have these gloves and mittens, and even when I was carrying the log, my fingers were completely frozen.”

- No, tell me, Chuk, would it still be good?

“I don’t know,” Chuk hesitated. - Do you remember, in the yard, in the basement where Mishka Kryukov lives, there lived some lame man. Either he was selling bagels, then all sorts of women and old women came to him, and he told them who would have a happy life and who would have an unhappy one.

- And did he guess well?

- I don't know. I only know that then the police came, they took him away, and they took a lot of other people’s property out of his apartment.

“So he was probably not a wizard, but a swindler.” What do you think?

“Of course, he’s a swindler,” agreed Chuk. “Yes, I think so, and all wizards must be crooks.” Well, tell me, why does he need to work, since he can crawl into any hole anyway? Just know, grab what you need... You better sleep, Huck, anyway, I won’t talk to you anymore.

- Why?

- Because you talk all sorts of nonsense, and at night you dream about it, and you start shaking your elbows and knees. Do you think it’s good how you punched me in the stomach yesterday? Let me give you a drink too...

On the morning of the fourth day, the mother had to chop wood herself. The hare was eaten long ago, and its bones were snatched up by magpies. For lunch they cooked only porridge with vegetable oil and onions. The bread was running out, but the mother found flour and baked flat cakes.

After such a dinner, Huck was sad, and his mother thought he had a fever.

She ordered him to stay at home, dressed Chuka, took buckets and sleds, and they went out to bring water and at the same time collect twigs and branches at the edge of the forest - then it would be easier to light the stove in the morning.

Huck was left alone. He waited a long time. He got bored and started to come up with something.

But mother and Chuk were delayed. On the way back to the house, the sled overturned, the buckets overturned, and we had to go to the spring again. Then it turned out that Chuk had forgotten his warm mitten at the edge of the forest, and had to return halfway. While they were looking for this and that, dusk fell.

When they returned home, Huck was not in the hut. At first they thought that Huck was hiding on the stove behind the sheepskins. No, he wasn't there.

Then Chuk smiled slyly and whispered to his mother that Huck, of course, crawled under the stove.

Mother got angry and ordered Huck to get out. Huck didn't respond.

Then Chuk took a long grip and began to move it under the stove. But Huck wasn’t under the stove either.

The mother became alarmed and looked at the nail by the door. Neither Huck's sheepskin coat nor his hat were hanging on a nail.

The mother went out into the yard and walked around the hut. She went into the hallway and lit the lantern. I looked into a dark closet, under a shed with firewood...

She called Huck, scolded, begged, but no one responded. And darkness quickly fell on the snowdrifts.

Then the mother jumped into the hut, pulled the gun off the wall, took out cartridges, grabbed a lantern and, shouting to Chuk not to dare move, ran out into the yard.

A lot of tracks were trampled over four days.

The mother did not know where to look for Huck, but she ran to the road, because she did not believe that Huck alone could dare to go into the forest.

The road was empty.

She loaded the gun and fired. She listened and shot again and again.

Suddenly a return shot struck very close by. Someone was rushing to her aid.

She wanted to run towards him, but her felt boots got stuck in a snowdrift. The lantern fell into the snow, the glass broke, and the light went out.

Chuk's piercing scream was heard from the porch of the lodge.

It was upon hearing the shots that Chuk decided that the wolves that had devoured Huck had attacked his mother.

The mother threw away the lantern and, gasping for breath, ran towards the house. She pushed the naked Chuk into the hut, threw the gun into the corner and, scooping it up with a ladle, took a sip of ice-cold water.

There was thunder and knocking at the porch. The door swung open. A dog flew into the hut, and behind it came a guard shrouded in steam.

- What's the problem? What kind of shooting? – he asked without saying hello or undressing.

“The boy is missing,” said the mother. Tears streamed from her eyes, and she could no longer say a word.

- Stop, don't cry! - the watchman barked. - When did he disappear? For a long time? Recently?.. Back, Brave! - he shouted to the dog. “Speak up, or I’ll go back!”

“An hour ago,” the mother answered. - We went for water. We arrived, but he was not there. He got dressed and went somewhere

- Well, he won’t go far in an hour, and in his clothes and felt boots he won’t immediately freeze... Come to me, Brave! Here, smell it!

The watchman pulled the hood off the nail and pushed Huck's galoshes under the dog's nose.

The dog sniffed the things carefully and looked at its owner with intelligent eyes.

- Behind me! “The watchman said, opening the door. - Go look, Brave!

The dog wagged its tail and remained standing in place.

- Forward! – the watchman repeated sternly. - Search, Brave, search!

The dog restlessly twisted its nose, shifted from foot to foot and did not move.

- What kind of dancing is this? – the watchman got angry. And, again thrusting Huck’s hood and galoshes under the dog’s nose, he pulled her by the collar.

However, Bold did not follow the watchman; he spun, turned and walked to the corner of the hut opposite from the door.

Here he stopped near a large wooden chest, scratched the lid with his furry paw and, turning to the owner, barked loudly and lazily three times.

Then the watchman thrust the gun into the hands of the dumbfounded mother, walked up and opened the lid of the chest.

In the chest, on a pile of all sorts of rags, sheepskins, bags, covered with his fur coat and a hat under his head, Huck slept soundly and calmly.

When they pulled him out and woke him up, blinking his sleepy eyes, he could not understand why there was such noise and such wild fun around him. His mother kissed him and cried. Chuk pulled his arms and legs, jumped up and shouted:

- Hey-la! Hey-li-la!..

The shaggy dog ​​Bold, whom Chuk kissed on the face, turned around in confusion and, also not understanding anything, quietly wagged his gray tail, looking tenderly at the crust of bread lying on the table.

It turns out that when mother and Chuk went to fetch water, the bored Huck decided to joke. He took his sheepskin coat and hat and climbed into the chest. He decided that when they returned and began to look for him, he would howl terribly from the chest.

But since his mother and Chuk walked for a very long time, he lay there and lay there and quietly fell asleep.

Suddenly the watchman stood up, walked over and slammed a heavy key and a crumpled blue envelope onto the table.

“Here,” he said, “take it.” This is for you the key to the room and the pantry and a letter from the boss Seryogin. He and the people will be here in four days, just in time for the New Year.

So this is where he disappeared, this unfriendly, gloomy old man! He said that he was going hunting, and he himself was skiing to the distant Alkarash gorge.

Without opening the letter, the mother stood up and put her hand on the old man’s shoulder with gratitude.

He didn’t answer anything and began to grumble at Huck for spilling a box of wads in the chest, and at the same time at his mother for breaking the glass of the lantern. He grumbled long and persistently, but no one was afraid of this kind eccentric now. All that evening the mother did not leave Huck’s side and, every moment, grabbed his hand, as if she was afraid that he was about to disappear somewhere again. And she cared so much about him that finally Chuk became offended and privately regretted several times that he had not reached into the chest too.

Now it's fun. The next morning the watchman opened the room where their father lived. He heated the stove hot and moved all their things here. The room was large and bright, but everything in it was arranged and piled up to no avail.

The mother immediately started cleaning. She spent the whole day rearranging everything, scraping, washing, cleaning.

And when in the evening the watchman brought a bundle of firewood, surprised by the change and the unprecedented cleanliness, he stopped and did not go further than the threshold.

And the dog Brave went.

She walked straight across the freshly washed floor, walked up to Huck and poked him with her cold nose. Here, they say, you fool, I found you, and for this you should give me something to eat.

The mother became happy and threw a piece of sausage to Bold. Then the watchman grumbled and said that if you feed dogs sausage in the taiga, it will make the magpies laugh.

His mother cut off half a circle for him too. He said “thank you” and left, still surprised at something and shaking his head.

The next day it was decided to prepare a Christmas tree for the New Year.

They couldn’t imagine making toys out of anything!

They tore off all the color pictures from old magazines. They made animals and dolls from scraps and cotton wool. They pulled out all the tissue paper from my father’s drawer and piled up lush flowers.

Why was the watchman gloomy and unsociable, and when he brought firewood, he stopped for a long time at the door and marveled at their new and new ideas. Finally he couldn't bear it anymore. He brought them silver paper from wrapping tea and a large piece of wax that he had left over from shoemaking.

It was wonderful! And the toy factory immediately turned into a candle factory. The candles were clumsy and uneven. But they burned as brightly as the most elegant store-bought ones.

Now it was time for the Christmas tree. The mother asked the watchman for an ax, but he didn’t even answer her, but got on his skis and went into the forest.

Half an hour later he returned.

OK. Even though the toys weren’t all that elegant, even though the hares made from rags looked like cats, even though all the dolls looked alike - straight-nosed and pop-eyed, and even though the fir cones wrapped in silver paper didn’t sparkle as much as fragile and thin glass toys, but, of course, no one had such a Christmas tree in Moscow. It was a real taiga beauty - tall, thick, straight and with branches that diverged at the ends like stars.

Four days of business flew by unnoticed. And then New Year's Eve arrived. Already in the morning, Chuk and Huck could not be driven home. With blue noses, they stood out in the cold, waiting for the father and all his people to come out of the forest.

But the watchman who heated the bathhouse told them not to freeze in vain, because the whole party would return only for lunch.

Indeed. They had just sat down at the table when the watchman knocked on the window. Having dressed somehow, all three of them went out onto the porch.

“Now look,” the watchman told them. “Now they will appear on the slope of that mountain to the right of the big peak, then they will disappear again in the taiga, and then in half an hour everyone will be home.”

And so it happened. First, a dog team with a loaded sleigh flew out from behind the pass, followed by high-speed skiers.

Compared to the enormity of the mountains, they seemed ridiculously small, although from here their arms, legs and heads were clearly visible.

They flashed along a bare slope and disappeared into the forest.

Exactly half an hour later, dogs were heard barking, noise, creaking, and screams.

The hungry dogs, sensing the house, dashed out of the forest. And behind them, not lagging behind, nine skiers rolled out to the edge of the forest. And, seeing mother, Chuk and Gek on the porch, they raised their ski poles as they ran and shouted loudly: “Hurray!”

Then Huck could not stand it, jumped into the porch and, scooping up the snow with felt boots, rushed towards a tall, bearded man who was running ahead and shouting “hurray” louder than anyone else.

During the day they cleaned themselves, shaved and washed.

And in the evening there was a Christmas tree for everyone, and everyone celebrated the New Year together.

When the table was set, the lamp was extinguished and the candles were lit. But since, except for Chuk and Gek, the rest were all adults, they, of course, did not know what to do now.

It’s good that one person had a button accordion and started a merry dance. Then everyone jumped up and everyone wanted to dance. And everyone danced very beautifully, especially when they invited mom to dance.

But my father didn’t know how to dance. He was very strong, good-natured, and when he simply walked on the floor without any dancing, all the dishes in the closet rattled.

He sat Chuk and Huck on his lap, and they loudly clapped their hands to everyone.

Then the dance ended and the people asked Huck to sing a song. Huck did not break down. He himself knew that he could sing songs, and was proud of it.

The accordion player played along, and he sang a song to them. I don’t remember which one now. I remember that it was a very good song, because all the people, listening to it, fell silent and quiet. And when Huck stopped to catch his breath, you could hear the candles crackling and the wind humming outside the window.

And when Huck finished singing, everyone made a noise, shouted, picked Huck up in their arms and began to throw him up. But the mother immediately took Huck away from them, because she was afraid that in the heat of the moment they would hit him against the wooden ceiling.

“Now sit down,” the father said, looking at his watch. – Now the most important thing begins.

He went and turned on the radio. Everyone sat down and became silent. At first it was quiet. But then there was noise, hum, beeps. Then something knocked, hissed, and a melodic ringing came from somewhere far away.

The big and small bells rang like this:

Tir-lil-lily-don!

Tir-lil-lily-don!

Chuk and Gek looked at each other. They wondered what it was. It was in far, far away Moscow, under the red star, on the Spasskaya Tower, that the golden Kremlin clock was ringing.

And this ringing - before the New Year - was now being listened to by people in cities, in the mountains, in the steppes, in the taiga, on the blue sea.

And, of course, the thoughtful commander of the armored train, the one who tirelessly waited for orders from Voroshilov to open battle against the enemies, heard this ringing too.

And then all the people stood up, congratulated each other on the New Year and wished everyone happiness.

What happiness is - everyone understood it in their own way. But all together people knew and understood that they had to live honestly, work hard, and deeply love and take care of this huge happy land, which is called the Soviet country.