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 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.
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.
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 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
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 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.
