Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Stories about children
The boy was guarding the sheep and, as if seeing a wolf, began to call:
Help, wolf! Wolf!
The men came running and saw: it’s not true. As he did this two and three times, it happened that a wolf actually came running.
The boy began to shout:
Come here, come quickly, wolf!
The men thought that he was deceiving again as always - they did not listen to him.
The wolf sees that there is nothing to be afraid of: he has slaughtered the entire herd in the open.
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HOW AUNT TALKED ABOUT HOW SHE LEARNED TO SEW
When I was six years old, I asked my mother to let me sew. She said: “You’re still young, you’ll only prick your fingers,” and I kept pestering her.
Mother took a red piece of paper from the chest and gave it to me; then she threaded a red thread into the needle and showed me how to hold it.
I began to sew, but could not make even stitches; one stitch came out large, and the other hit the very edge and broke through. Then I pricked my finger and tried not to cry, but my mother asked me: “What are you doing?” - I couldn’t resist and cried. Then my mother told me to go play.
When I went to bed, I kept imagining stitches; I kept thinking about how I could quickly learn to sew, and it seemed so difficult to me that I would never learn.
And now I’ve grown up and don’t remember how I learned to sew; and when I teach my girl to sew, I’m surprised how she can’t hold a needle.
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HOW A BOY TALKED ABOUT HOW A STORM CAUGHT HIM IN THE FOREST
When I was little, I was sent to the forest to pick mushrooms. I reached the forest, picked mushrooms and wanted to go home. Suddenly it became dark, it began to rain and there was thunder. I got scared and sat down under a large oak tree. Lightning flashed, so bright that it hurt my eyes, and I closed my eyes. Something crackled and rattled above my head; then something hit me in the head. I fell and lay there until the rain stopped. When I woke up, trees were dripping all over the forest, birds were singing and the sun was playing. A large oak tree broke and smoke came out of the stump. There were oak scraps lying around me. The dress I was wearing was all wet and sticking to my body; there was a bump on my head and it hurt a little. I found my hat, took the mushrooms and ran home. There was no one at home; I got some bread from the table and climbed onto the stove. When I woke up, I saw from the stove that my mushrooms had been fried, put on the table and were already ready to eat. I shouted: “What are you eating without me?” They say: “Why are you sleeping? Go quickly and eat.”
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BONE
The mother bought plums and wanted to give them to the children after dinner. They were still on the plate. Vanya never ate plums and kept smelling them. And he really liked them. I really wanted to eat it. He kept walking past the plums. When there was no one in the upper room, he could not resist, grabbed one plum and ate it. Before dinner, the mother counted the plums and saw that one was missing. She told her father.
At dinner my father says:
Well, children, did anyone eat one plum?
Everyone said:
Vanya blushed like a lobster and said too:
No, I didn't eat.
Then the father said:
What any of you has eaten is not good; but that’s not the problem. The trouble is that plums have seeds, and if someone doesn’t know how to eat them and swallows a seed, he will die within a day. I'm afraid of this.
Vanya turned pale and said:
No, I threw the bone out the window.
And everyone laughed, and Vanya began to cry.
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GIRL AND MUSHROOMS
Two girls were walking home with mushrooms.
They had to cross the railway.
They thought the car was far away, so they climbed up the embankment and walked across the rails.
Suddenly a car made noise. The older girl ran back, and the smaller one ran across the road.
The older girl shouted to her sister:
"Don't go back!"
But the car was so close and made such a loud noise that the smaller girl did not hear; she thought that she was being told to run back. She ran back across the rails, tripped, dropped the mushrooms and began to pick them up.
The car was already close, and the driver whistled as hard as he could.
The older girl shouted:
“Throw the mushrooms!”, and the little girl thought that she was being told to pick mushrooms, and crawled along the road.
The driver could not hold the cars. She whistled as hard as she could and ran into the girl.
The older girl screamed and cried. All the passengers looked from the windows of the cars, and the conductor ran to the end of the train to see what had happened to the girl.
When the train passed, everyone saw that the girl was lying head down between the rails and not moving.
Then, when the train had already moved far, the girl raised her head, jumped on her knees, picked mushrooms and ran to her sister.
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HOW A BOY TELLED ABOUT HOW HE FOUND QUEEN BEES TO GRANDFATHER
My grandfather lived in a bee yard in the summer. When I visited him, he gave me honey.
One day I came to the beekeeping area and began walking between the hives. I wasn’t afraid of bees, because my grandfather taught me to walk quietly through the fire pit.
And the bees got used to me and didn’t bite me. In one hive I heard something clucking.
I came to my grandfather’s hut and told him.
He went with me, listened for himself and said:
One swarm has already flown out of this hive, the first one, with an old queen; and now the young queens have hatched. They are the ones screaming. They will fly out tomorrow with another swarm.
I asked my grandfather:
What kind of uterus are there?
He said:
Come tomorrow; God willing, it will be restored, I will show you and give you honey.
When I came to my grandfather the next day, he had two closed swarms with bees hanging in his entryway. Grandfather told me to put on a net and tied a scarf around my neck; then he took one closed hive with bees and carried it to the beeyard. The bees were buzzing in it. I was afraid of them and hid my hands in my trousers; but I wanted to see the uterus, and I followed my grandfather.
At the fire pit, the grandfather went up to the empty log, adjusted the trough, opened the sieve and shook the bees out of it onto the trough. The bees crawled along the trough into the log and kept trumpeting, and the grandfather moved them with a broom.
And here is the uterus! - Grandfather pointed to me with a broom, and I saw a long bee with short wings. She crawled with the others and disappeared.
Then my grandfather took off the net from me and went into the hut. There he gave me a large piece of honey, I ate it and smeared it on my cheeks and hands.
When I came home, my mother said:
Again, spoiled man, your grandfather fed you honey.
And I said:
He gave me honey because yesterday I found him a hive with young queens, and today we planted a swarm.
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In the harvest, men and women went to work. Only the old and the young remained in the village. A grandmother and three grandchildren remained in one hut. Grandma turned off the stove and lay down to rest. Flies landed on her and bit her. She covered her head with a towel and fell asleep.
One of the granddaughters, Masha (she was three years old), opened the stove, heaped coals into a crock and went into the hallway. And in the entryway lay sheaves. The women prepared these sheaves for svyasla. Masha brought coals, put them under the sheaves and began to blow. When the straw began to catch fire, she was delighted, went into the hut and brought her brother, Kiryushka, by the hand (he was one and a half years old, he had just learned to walk), and said:
Look, Kilyuska, what a furnace I blew up.
The sheaves were already burning and crackling. When the entryway was filled with smoke, Masha got scared and ran back to the hut. Kiryushka fell on the threshold, hurt his nose and cried. Masha dragged him into the hut, and they both hid under a bench. Grandmother heard nothing and slept.
The eldest boy, Vanya (he was eight years old), was on the street. When he saw smoke coming from the hallway, he ran through the door, jumped through the smoke into the hut and began to wake up his grandmother; but the grandmother, dazed from sleep, forgot about the children, jumped out and ran through the courtyards after the people. Masha, meanwhile, sat under the bench and was silent; only the little boy screamed because he had broken his nose painfully. Vanya heard his cry, looked under the bench and shouted to Masha:
Run, you'll burn!
Masha ran into the hallway, but it was impossible to get past the smoke and fire. She came back. Then Vanya raised the window and told her to climb in.
When she climbed through, Vanya grabbed his brother and dragged him. But the boy was heavy and did not give in to his brother. He cried and pushed Vanya. Vanya fell twice while he was dragging him to the window: the door to the hut was already on fire. Vanya stuck the boy’s head through the window and wanted to push him through; but the boy (he was very scared) grabbed hold of him with his little hands and did not let them go. Then Vanya shouted to Masha:
Pull him by the head! - and he pushed from behind.
This book for family reading contains the best works of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, which have been loved by both preschool children and demanding teenagers for more than a century. The main characters of the stories are children, “troubled”, “dexterous”, and therefore close to modern boys and girls. The book ends with the story “Prisoner of the Caucasus,” in which the harsh truth about the war is combined with kindness and humanity. The book teaches Love - for man and for everything that surrounds him: nature, animals, native land. She is kind and bright, like all the works of a brilliant writer.
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The given introductory fragment of the book All the best fairy tales and stories (L. N. Tolstoy, 2013) provided by our book partner - the company liters.
Stories about animals and plants
Lion and dog
In London they showed wild animals and for viewing they took money or dogs and cats to feed the wild animals. One man wanted to see the animals: he grabbed a little dog on the street and brought it to the menagerie. They let him in to watch, but they took the little dog and threw him into a cage with a lion to be eaten.
The dog tucked its tail and pressed itself into the corner of the cage. The lion came up to her and smelled her.
The dog lay down on its back, raised its paws and began wagging its tail.
The lion touched it with his paw and turned it over.
The dog jumped up and stood on its hind legs in front of the lion.
The lion looked at the dog, turned his head from side to side and did not touch it.
When the owner threw meat to the lion, the lion tore off a piece and left it for the dog.
In the evening, when the lion went to bed, the dog lay down next to him and put her head on his paw.
Since then, the dog lived in the same cage with the lion, the lion did not touch her, ate food, slept with her, and sometimes played with her.
One day the master came to the menagerie and recognized his dog; he said that the dog was his own, and asked the owner of the menagerie to give it to him. The owner wanted to give it back, but as soon as they began to call the dog to take it from the cage, the lion bristled and growled.
So the lion and the dog lived for a whole year in the same cage.
A year later the dog got sick and died. The lion stopped eating, but kept sniffing, licking the dog and touching it with his paw.
When he realized that she was dead, he suddenly jumped up, bristled, began to whip his tail on the sides, rushed to the wall of the cage and began to gnaw at the bolts and the floor.
All day long he struggled, thrashed about in the cage and roared, then he lay down next to the dead dog and fell silent. The owner wanted to take away the dead dog, but the lion would not let anyone near it.
The owner thought that the lion would forget his grief if he was given another dog, and let a live dog into his cage; but the lion immediately tore it into pieces. Then he hugged the dead dog with his paws and lay there for five days.
On the sixth day the lion died.
Old poplar
For five years our garden was abandoned; I hired workers with axes and shovels and began working with them in the garden myself. We cut down and cut out dry land and game and extra bushes and trees. The other trees that grew the most were poplar and bird cherry. The poplar comes from the roots, and it cannot be dug, but the roots must be cut out in the ground. Behind the pond stood a huge poplar tree, twice its girth. There was a clearing around it; it was all overgrown with poplar shoots. I ordered them to be cut down: I wanted the place to be cheerful, and most importantly, I wanted to lighten the old poplar, because I thought: all these young trees come from it and draw sap from it. When we were cutting down these young poplar trees, I sometimes felt sorry to see how their succulent roots were being cut underground, and how then the four of us pulled and could not pull out the chopped poplar. He held on with all his might and did not want to die. I thought: “Apparently, they need to live if they hold on to life so tightly.” But I had to chop, and I chopped. Later, when it was too late, I learned that there was no need to destroy them.
I thought that the shoots were drawing sap from the old poplar, but it turned out the opposite. When I cut them down, the old poplar was already dying. When the leaves blossomed, I saw (it split into two branches) that one branch was bare; and that same summer it dried up. He had been dying for a long time and knew it and transferred his life to the shoots.
Because of this, they grew so quickly, and I wanted to make it easier for him - and I beat all his children.
On Holy a man went to see if the ground had thawed? He went out into the garden and felt the ground with a stake. The earth has become soggy. The man went into the forest. In the forest, the buds are already swelling on the vine.
The man thought:
“Let me plant a vine in the garden, it will grow and there will be protection!”
He took an ax, chopped a dozen vines, trimmed the thick ends with stakes and stuck them in the ground.
All the weeds produced shoots at the top with leaves and below the ground they produced the same shoots instead of roots; and some caught on the ground and began to move, while others clumsily caught on the ground with their roots - froze and fell.
By autumn, the man was happy with his lozins: six of them began to work. The next spring, the sheep gnawed off four vines, and only two remained. The next spring, these too were gnawed by the sheep. One completely disappeared, but the other managed, began to take root and grew into a tree. In the spring, the bees hummed on the vine. During the swarming period, swarms were often planted on the vine, and the men raked them. Women and men often had breakfast and slept under the vine; and the guys climbed on it and broke out the rods from it.
The man who planted the vine died long ago, but it kept growing. The eldest son twice cut branches from it and drowned them with them. Lozina kept growing. They will chop it off all around, make a cone, and in the spring it will put out branches again, although thinner, but twice as large as the previous ones, like a foal’s cowlick.
And the eldest son stopped managing the house, and the village was resettled, and the vine continued to grow in the open field. Strange men drove around, chopped it up - it kept growing. A thunderstorm hit the vineyard; she coped with the side branches, and kept growing and blooming. One man wanted to cut it down on a block, but he abandoned it: it was very rotten. The vine fell to one side and was holding on only on one side, but it kept growing, and every year bees flew in to pick the diarrhea from its flowers.
Once the guys gathered early in the spring to guard the horses under the vine. It seemed cold to them; They began to make a fire, gathered stubble, Chernobyl, and brushwood. One climbed onto a vine and broke branches from it. They put everything in the hollow of the cane and lit it.
The vine hissed, the juice boiled in it, smoke began to rise, and it began to run across the fire; her entire insides turned black. The young shoots shriveled and the flowers withered.
The guys drove the horses home. The burnt vine was left alone in the field. A black raven flew in, sat on her and shouted:
- What, the old poker died, it was high time!
Bird cherry
One bird cherry grew on the hazel path and drowned out hazel bushes. I thought for a long time whether to chop it or not to chop it: I felt sorry. This bird cherry grew not as a bush, but as a tree, inch three in the cut and fathoms four in height, all branched, curly and all sprinkled with bright, white, fragrant flowers. Her scent could be heard from afar. I wouldn’t have cut it down, but one of the workers (I had previously told him to cut down all the bird cherry trees) started cutting it down without me. When I arrived, he had already cut an inch and a half into it, and the juice was still squelching under the ax when it fell into the same chopper. “There’s nothing to do, apparently it’s fate,” I thought, I took the ax myself and began to chop together with the man.
Every job is fun to do; fun and hack. It’s fun to thrust the ax deeply at an angle, and then cut straight down what was cut down, and continue to cut further and further into the tree.
I completely forgot about the bird cherry tree and was only thinking about how to knock it down as quickly as possible. When I was out of breath, I put the ax down, leaned against the tree with the man and tried to knock him down. We swayed: the tree shook its leaves, and dew dripped from it, and white, fragrant flower petals fell down.
At the same time, something seemed to scream and crunch in the middle of the tree; we lay down, and it seemed to cry - there was a crackling sound in the middle, and the tree fell down. It tore at the cut and, swaying, lay like branches and flowers on the grass. The branches and flowers trembled after the fall and stopped.
- Eh! This is an important thing! - said the man. - It's such a pity!
And I was so sorry that I quickly moved to other workers.
How trees walk
Once we cleaned out semi-tubercle there was an overgrown path near the pond, a lot of rose hips, willows, and poplars were cut, then bird cherry came. She grew up on the road itself and was so old and fat that she could not have been less than ten years old. And five years ago I knew that the garden had been cleared.
I couldn’t understand how such an old bird cherry could grow here. We cut it down and moved on. Further on, in another thicket, another similar bird cherry grew, even thicker. I examined its root and found that it was growing under an old linden tree.
The linden tree drowned it out with its branches, and the bird cherry tree reached out arshin five with a straight stem on the ground; and when she got out into the light, she raised her head and began to bloom. I cut it down at the root and marveled at how fresh it was and how rotten the root was. When I cut it down, the men and I began to pull it away; but no matter how much we dragged, we could not move it: it seemed to be stuck.
I said:
- Look, did you catch it somewhere?
The worker crawled under it and shouted:
- Yes, it has a different root, here on the road!
I went up to him and saw that it was true.
The bird cherry, so as not to be drowned out by the linden tree, moved from under the linden tree to the path, three arshins from the previous root. The root that I cut down was rotten and dry, but the new one was fresh.
She sensed, clearly, that she could not live under the linden tree, she stretched out, grabbed the ground with a branch, made a root out of the branch, and threw that root.
Only then did I understand how that first bird cherry tree grew on the road. She probably did the same thing, but she had already completely discarded the old root, so I didn’t find it.
Trees breathe
The child was sick. He thrashed and thrashed, then fell silent. His mother thought he had fallen asleep; I looked and he wasn’t breathing.
She began to cry, called her grandmother and said:
- Look, my baby died.
Grandma says:
- Wait until you cry, maybe he just froze and didn’t die. Here, let’s put a piece of glass to his mouth, if he sweats, it means he’s breathing and alive.
They put a piece of glass to his mouth. The glass has become sweaty. The child was alive.
He woke up and recovered.
Great Lent There was a thaw, but it didn’t drive away all the snow, and it froze again, and there was fog.
Early in the morning I walked across the crust into the garden. I look - all the apple trees are variegated: some branches are black, while others are exactly sprinkled with white stars. I came closer and looked at the black twigs - they were all dry, I looked at the motley ones - they were all alive and their buds were covered in frost. There is no frost anywhere, only at the very tips of the buds, on the mouths, where they began to open, just like a man’s mustache and beard become rusty in the cold.
Dead trees do not breathe, but living trees breathe just like people. We use our mouths and noses, they use our kidneys.
I planted two hundred young apple trees and for three years, in spring and autumn, I dug them up, and wrapped them in straw to prevent hares for the winter. In the fourth year, when the snow melted, I went to look at my apple trees. They got fatter in the winter; the bark on them was glossy and plump; the branches were all intact and on all the tips and forks there were round flower buds, like peas. Some places have already burst rants and the scarlet edges of the flower leaves were visible. I knew that all the blossoms would be flowers and fruits, and I rejoiced looking at my apple trees. But when I unwrapped the first apple tree, I saw that below, above the ground, the bark of the apple tree was gnawed all the way down to the wood, like a white ring. The mice did it. I unwrapped another apple tree - and the same thing happened on the other one. Of the two hundred apple trees, not a single one remained intact. I covered the gnawed places with resin and wax; but when the apple trees blossomed, their flowers immediately fell asleep. Small leaves came out - and they withered and dried up. The bark wrinkled and turned black. Of the two hundred apple trees, only nine remained. On these nine apple trees the bark was not completely eaten away, but a strip of bark remained in the white ring. On these strips, in the place where the bark separated, growths appeared, and although the apple trees were sick, they continued to grow. The rest all disappeared, only shoots appeared below the gnawed places, and then all of them were wild.
The bark of trees is the same as the veins of a person: blood flows through the veins through a person, and through the bark the sap flows through the tree and rises into branches, leaves and flowers. You can hollow out all the insides of a tree, as happens with old vines, but if only the bark is alive, the tree will live; but if the bark is gone, the tree is gone. If a person’s veins are cut, he will die, firstly, because the blood will flow out, and secondly, because the blood will no longer flow through the body.
So the birch tree dries up when the guys dig a hole to drink the sap, and all the sap flows out.
So the apple trees disappeared because the mice ate up all the bark all around, and the juice could no longer flow from the roots into the branches, leaves and flowers.
How wolves teach their children
I was walking along the road and heard a scream behind me. The shepherd boy shouted. He ran across the field and pointed at someone.
I looked and saw two wolves running across the field: one mother, another young one. The young man carried a slaughtered lamb on his back and held its leg with his teeth. The seasoned wolf ran behind.
When I saw the wolves, I ran after them along with the shepherd, and we began to scream. Men with dogs came running to our cry.
As soon as the old wolf saw the dogs and people, he ran up to the young one, snatched the lamb from him, threw it on his back, and both wolves ran faster and disappeared from sight.
Then the boy began to tell how it happened: a large wolf jumped out of the ravine, grabbed the lamb, killed it and carried it away.
A wolf cub ran out and rushed to the lamb. The old man gave the lamb to the young wolf to carry, and he ran lightly next to him.
Only when trouble came did the old man leave his studies and take the lamb himself.
Description
Hares feed at night. In winter, forest hares feed on tree bark, field hares - winter crops and grass, bean grass - grains on the threshing floors. During the night, hares make a deep, visible trail in the snow. Hares are hunted by people, dogs, wolves, foxes, crows, and eagles. If the hare had walked simply and straightly, then in the morning he would have been found by the trail and caught; but the hare is cowardly, and cowardice saves him.
The hare walks through fields and forests at night without fear and makes straight tracks; but as soon as morning comes, his enemies wake up: the hare begins to hear the barking of dogs, the screeching of sleighs, the voices of men, the crackling of a wolf in the forest, and begins to rush from side to side out of fear. He will gallop forward, get scared of something and run back in his tracks. If he hears something else, he will jump to the side with all his might and gallop away from the previous trail. Again something will knock - again the hare will turn back and again jump to the side. When it becomes light, he will lie down. The next morning, the hunters begin to disassemble the hare's trail, get confused by the double tracks and distant jumps, and are surprised at the hare's cunning. But the hare didn’t even think of being cunning. He's just afraid of everything.
Owl and hare
It got dark. The owls began to fly in the forest along the ravine, looking out for prey.
A big hare jumped out into the clearing and began to preen himself.
The old owl looked at the hare and sat down on a branch, and the young owl said:
- Why don’t you catch the hare?
The old one says:
- It’s too big for him - he’s a great hare: you cling to him, and he’ll drag you into the thicket.
And the young owl says:
“And I’ll grab hold of the tree with one paw and quickly hold on to the tree with the other.”
And the young owl set off after the hare, grabbed its back with its paw so that all its claws were gone, and prepared its other paw to cling to the tree. As the hare dragged the owl, she clung to the tree with her other paw and thought: “He won’t leave.”
The hare rushed and tore the owl apart. One paw remained on the tree, the other on the hare's back.
The next year, the hunter killed this hare and was amazed that it had overgrown owl claws in its back.
An officer's story
I had little face... Her name was Bulka. She was all black, only the tips of her front paws were white.
In all faces, the lower jaw is longer than the upper and the upper teeth extend beyond the lower ones; but Bulka’s lower jaw protruded forward so much that a finger could be placed between the lower and upper teeth. Bulka's face was wide; the eyes are large, black and shiny; and white teeth and fangs always stuck out. He looked like a blackamoor. Bulka was quiet and did not bite, but he was very strong and tenacious. When he would cling to something, he would clench his teeth and hang like a rag, and, like a tick, he could not be torn off.
Once they let him attack a bear, and he grabbed the bear’s ear and hung like a leech. The bear beat him with his paws, pressed him to himself, threw him from side to side, but could not tear him away and fell on his head to crush Bulka; but Bulka held on to it until they poured cold water on him.
I took him as a puppy and raised him myself. When I went to serve in the Caucasus, I didn’t want to take him and left him quietly, and ordered him to be locked up. At the first station I wanted to get on to another crossbar, when suddenly I saw something black and shiny rolling along the road. It was Bulka in his copper collar. He flew at full speed towards the station. He rushed towards me, licked my hand and stretched out in the shadows under the cart. His tongue stuck out the entire palm of his hand. He then pulled it back, swallowing drool, then again stuck it out to the whole palm. He was in a hurry, did not have time to breathe, his sides were jumping. He turned from side to side and tapped his tail on the ground.
End of introductory fragment.
The great Russian writer Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) loved children very much, and even more he loved talking to them.
He knew many fables, fairy tales, stories and stories that he enthusiastically told to children. Both his own grandchildren and peasant children listened to him with interest.
Having opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana, Lev Nikolaevich himself taught there.
He wrote a textbook for the little ones and called it "ABC". The author's work, consisting of four volumes, was “beautiful, short, simple and, most importantly, clear” for children to understand.
Lion and mouse
The lion was sleeping. The mouse ran over his body. He woke up and caught her. The mouse began to ask him to let her in; She said:
If you let me in, I will do you good.
The lion laughed that the mouse promised to do good to him, and let it go.
Then the hunters caught the lion and tied it to a tree with a rope. The mouse heard the lion's roar, came running, chewed the rope and said:
Remember, you laughed, you didn’t think that I could do you any good, but now you see, sometimes good comes from a mouse.
How a thunderstorm caught me in the forest
When I was little, I was sent to the forest to pick mushrooms.
I reached the forest, picked mushrooms and wanted to go home. Suddenly it became dark, it began to rain and there was thunder.
I got scared and sat down under a large oak tree. Lightning flashed so brightly that it hurt my eyes and I closed my eyes.
Something crackled and rattled above my head; then something hit me in the head.
I fell and lay there until the rain stopped.
When I woke up, trees were dripping all over the forest, birds were singing and the sun was playing. A large oak tree broke and smoke came out of the stump. Oak secrets lay around me.
My dress was all wet and sticking to my body; there was a bump on my head and it hurt a little.
I found my hat, took the mushrooms and ran home.
There was no one at home, I took out some bread from the table and climbed onto the stove.
When I woke up, I saw from the stove that my mushrooms had been fried, put on the table and were already ready to eat.
I shouted: “What are you eating without me?” They say: “Why are you sleeping? Go quickly and eat.”
Sparrow and swallows
Once I stood in the yard and looked at a nest of swallows under the roof. Both swallows flew away in front of me, and the nest was left empty.
While they were away, a sparrow flew from the roof, jumped onto the nest, looked around, flapped its wings and darted into the nest; then he stuck his head out and chirped.
Soon after that, a swallow flew to the nest. She poked her head into the nest, but as soon as she saw the guest, she squeaked, beat her wings in place and flew away.
Sparrow sat and chirped.
Suddenly a herd of swallows flew in: all the swallows flew up to the nest, as if to look at the sparrow, and flew away again.
The sparrow was not shy, he turned his head and chirped.
The swallows again flew up to the nest, did something, and flew away again.
It was not for nothing that the swallows flew up: they each brought dirt in their beaks and little by little covered the hole in the nest.
Again the swallows flew away and came again, and covered the nest more and more, and the hole became tighter and tighter.
At first the sparrow's neck was visible, then only its head, then its nose, and then nothing became visible; The swallows completely covered him in the nest, flew away and began circling around the house whistling.
Two comrades
Two comrades were walking through the forest, and a bear jumped out at them.
One ran, climbed a tree and hid, while the other stayed on the road. He had nothing to do - he fell to the ground and pretended to be dead.
The bear came up to him and began to sniff: he stopped breathing.
The bear sniffed his face, thought he was dead, and walked away.
When the bear left, he climbed down from the tree and laughed.
Well, he says, did the bear speak into your ear?
And he told me that bad people are those who run away from their comrades in danger.
Liar
The boy was guarding the sheep and, as if he saw a wolf, began to call:
Help, wolf! Wolf!
The men came running and saw: it’s not true. As he did this two and three times, it happened that a wolf actually came running. The boy began to shout:
Come here, come quickly, wolf!
The men thought that he was deceiving again as always - they did not listen to him. The wolf sees that there is nothing to be afraid of: he has slaughtered the entire herd in the open.
Hunter and Quail
A quail got caught in a hunter's net and began to ask the hunter to let him go.
Just let me go,” he says, “I’ll serve you.” I'll lure you other quails into the net.
Well, the quail,” said the hunter, “wouldn’t have let you in anyway, and now even more so.” I’ll turn my head for wanting to hand over your own people.
Girl and mushrooms
Two girls were walking home with mushrooms.
They had to cross the railway.
They thought the car was far away, so they climbed up the embankment and walked across the rails.
Suddenly a car made noise. The older girl ran back, and the younger girl ran across the road.
The older girl shouted to her sister: “Don’t go back!”
But the car was so close and made such a loud noise that the smaller girl did not hear; she thought that she was being told to run back. She ran back across the rails, tripped, dropped the mushrooms and began to pick them up.
The car was already close, and the driver whistled as hard as he could.
The older girl shouted: “Throw away the mushrooms!”, and the little girl thought that she was being told to pick mushrooms, and crawled along the road.
The driver could not hold the cars. She whistled as hard as she could and ran into the girl.
The older girl screamed and cried. All the passengers looked from the windows of the cars, and the conductor ran to the end of the train to see what had happened to the girl.
When the train passed, everyone saw that the girl was lying head down between the rails and not moving.
Then, when the train had already moved far, the girl raised her head, jumped on her knees, picked mushrooms and ran to her sister.
Old grandfather and grandson
(Fable)
Grandfather became very old. His legs did not walk, his eyes did not see, his ears did not hear, he had no teeth. And when he ate, it flowed backwards from his mouth.
His son and daughter-in-law stopped sitting him at the table and let him dine at the stove. They brought him lunch in a cup. He wanted to move it, but he dropped it and broke it.
The daughter-in-law began to scold the old man for ruining everything in the house and breaking cups, and said that now she would give him dinner in a basin.
The old man just sighed and said nothing.
One day a husband and wife are sitting at home and watching - their little son is playing on the floor with planks - he is working on something.
The father asked: “What are you doing this, Misha?” And Misha said: “It’s me, father, who’s making the tub. When you and your mother are too old to feed you from this tub.”
The husband and wife looked at each other and began to cry.
They felt ashamed that they had offended the old man so much; and from then on they began to sit him at the table and look after him.
Little mouse
The mouse went out for a walk. She walked around the yard and came back to her mother.
Well, mother, I saw two animals. One is scary and the other is kind.
Mother asked:
Tell me, what kind of animals are these?
The mouse said:
One is scary - his legs are black, his crest is red, his eyes are protruding, and his nose is hooked. When I walked past, he opened his mouth, raised his leg and began screaming so loudly that out of fear I did not know where to go.
This is a rooster, said the old mouse, he does no harm to anyone, don’t be afraid of him. Well, what about the other animal?
The other was lying in the sun and warming himself. His neck was white, his legs were gray and smooth. He was licking his white chest and moving his tail slightly, looking at me.
The old mouse said:
Stupid, you are stupid. After all, it's the cat himself.
Two guys
Two men were driving: one to the city, the other from the city.
They hit each other with the sleigh. One shouts:
Give me the way, I need to get to the city quickly.
And the other shouts:
Give me the way. I need to go home soon.
And the third man saw and said:
Whoever needs it quickly, put it back.
Poor man and rich man
In one house they lived: upstairs was a rich gentleman, and downstairs was a poor tailor.
The tailor kept singing songs while working and disturbed the master's sleep.
The master gave the tailor a bag of money so that he would not sing.
The tailor became rich and kept his money safe, but he no longer began to sing.
And he became bored. He took the money and brought it back to the master and said:
Take your money back, and let me sing the songs. And then melancholy came over me.
Lion and dog
In London they showed wild animals and for viewing they took money or dogs and cats to feed the wild animals.
One man wanted to see the animals: he grabbed a little dog on the street and brought it to the menagerie. They let him in to watch, but they took the little dog and threw him into a cage with a lion to be eaten.
The little dog tucked its tail and pressed itself into the corner of the cage. The lion came up to her and smelled her.
The little dog lay down on its back, raised its paws and began wagging its tail.
The lion touched it with his paw and turned it over.
The dog jumped up and stood on its hind legs in front of the lion.
The lion looked at the dog, turned his head from side to side and did not touch it.
When the owner threw meat to the lion, the lion tore off a piece and left it for the dog.
In the evening, when the lion went to bed, the dog lay down next to him and put her head on his paw.
Since then, the dog lived in the same cage with the lion, the lion did not touch her, ate food, slept with her, and sometimes played with her.
One day the master came to the menagerie and recognized his dog; he said that the dog was his own, and asked the owner of the menagerie to give it to him. The owner wanted to give it back, but as soon as they began to call the dog to take it from the cage, the lion bristled and growled.
So the lion and the dog lived for a whole year in the same cage.
A year later the dog got sick and died. The lion stopped eating, but kept sniffing, licking the dog and touching it with his paw.
When he realized that she was dead, he suddenly jumped up, bristled, began to whip his tail on the sides, rushed to the wall of the cage and began to gnaw at the bolts and the floor.
All day long he struggled, thrashed about in the cage and roared, then he lay down next to the dead dog and fell silent. The owner wanted to take away the dead dog, but the lion would not let anyone near it.
The owner thought that the lion would forget his grief if he was given another dog, and let a live dog into his cage; but the lion immediately tore it into pieces. Then he hugged the dead dog with his paws and lay there for five days.
On the sixth day the lion died.
Kitty
There were brother and sister - Vasya and Katya; and they had a cat. In the spring the cat disappeared. The children looked for her everywhere, but could not find her.
One day they were playing near the barn and heard someone meowing in thin voices overhead. Vasya climbed the ladder under the roof of the barn. And Katya stood and kept asking:
- Found? Found?
But Vasya did not answer her. Finally Vasya shouted to her:
- Found! Our cat... and she has kittens; so wonderful; come here quickly.
Katya ran home, took out milk and brought it to the cat.
There were five kittens. When they grew a little and began to crawl out from under the corner where they had hatched, the children chose one kitten, gray with white paws, and brought it into the house. The mother gave away all the other kittens, but left this one to the children. The children fed him, played with him and took him to bed.
One day the children went to play on the road and took a kitten with them.
The wind moved the straw along the road, and the kitten played with the straw, and the children rejoiced at him. Then they found sorrel near the road, went to collect it and forgot about the kitten.
Suddenly they heard someone shouting loudly: “Back, back!” - and they saw that the hunter was galloping, and in front of him two dogs saw a kitten and wanted to grab it. And the kitten, stupid, instead of running, sat down to the ground, hunched its back and looked at the dogs.
Katya was scared of the dogs, screamed and ran away from them. And Vasya, as best he could, ran towards the kitten and at the same time as the dogs ran up to it.
The dogs wanted to grab the kitten, but Vasya fell with his stomach on the kitten and blocked it from the dogs.
The hunter jumped up and drove the dogs away, and Vasya brought the kitten home and never took it with him into the field again.
Hares
Forest hares feed on tree bark at night, field hares feed on winter crops and grass, and bean hares feed on grain grains on threshing floors. During the night, hares make a deep, visible trail in the snow. Hares are hunted by people, dogs, wolves, foxes, crows, and eagles. If the hare had walked simply and straightly, then in the morning he would have been found by the trail and caught; but the hare is cowardly, and cowardice saves him.
The hare walks through fields and forests at night without fear and makes straight tracks; but as soon as morning comes, his enemies wake up: the hare begins to hear the barking of dogs, the screeching of sleighs, the voices of men, the crackling of a wolf in the forest, and begins to rush from side to side in fear. He will gallop forward, get scared by something, and run back in his tracks. If he hears something else, he will jump to the side with all his might and gallop away from the previous trail. Again something knocks - again the hare turns back and again jumps to the side. When it becomes light, he will lie down.
The next morning, the hunters begin to disassemble the hare's trail, get confused by double tracks and distant jumps, and are surprised at the hare's cunning. But the hare didn’t even think of being cunning. He's just afraid of everything.
Bulka
I had a face. Her name was Bulka. She was all black, only the tips of her front paws were white.
In all faces, the lower jaw is longer than the upper and the upper teeth extend beyond the lower ones; but Bulka’s lower jaw protruded forward so much that a finger could be placed between the lower and upper teeth. Bulka's face is wide; the eyes are large, black and shiny; and white teeth and fangs always stuck out. He looked like a blackamoor. Bulka was quiet and did not bite, but he was very strong and tenacious. When he would cling to something, he would clench his teeth and hang like a rag, and, like a tick, he could not be torn off.
Once they let him attack a bear, and he grabbed the bear’s ear and hung like a leech. The bear beat him with his paws, pressed him to himself, threw him from side to side, but could not tear him away and fell on his head to crush Bulka; but Bulka held on to it until they poured cold water on him.
I took him as a puppy and raised him myself. When I went to serve in the Caucasus, I didn’t want to take him and left him quietly, and ordered him to be locked up. At the first station, I was about to board another transfer station, when suddenly I saw something black and shiny rolling along the road. It was Bulka in his copper collar. He flew at full speed towards the station. He rushed towards me, licked my hand and stretched out in the shadows under the cart. His tongue stuck out the entire palm of his hand. He then pulled it back, swallowing drool, then again stuck it out to the whole palm. He was in a hurry, did not have time to breathe, his sides were jumping. He turned from side to side and tapped his tail on the ground.
I found out later that after me he broke through the frame and jumped out of the window and, right in my wake, galloped along the road and rode like that for twenty miles in the heat.
How wolves teach their children
I was walking along the road and heard a scream behind me. The shepherd boy shouted. He ran across the field and pointed at someone.
I looked and saw two wolves running across the field: one seasoned, the other young. The young man carried a slaughtered lamb on his back and held its leg with his teeth. The seasoned wolf ran behind.
When I saw the wolves, I ran after them along with the shepherd, and we began to scream. Men with dogs came running to our cry.
As soon as the old wolf saw the dogs and people, he ran up to the young one, snatched the lamb from him, threw it on his back, and both wolves ran faster and disappeared from sight.
Then the boy began to tell how it happened: a large wolf jumped out of the ravine, grabbed the lamb, killed it and carried it away.
A wolf cub ran out and rushed to the lamb. The old man gave the lamb to the young wolf to carry, and he ran lightly next to him.
Only when trouble came did the old man leave his studies and take the lamb himself.
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, stories, fairy tales and fables in prose for children. The collection includes not only the well-known stories of Leo Tolstoy “Kostochka”, “Kitten”, “Bulka”, but also such rare works as “Treat everyone kindly”, “Do not torture animals”, “Don’t be lazy”, “The boy and father" and many others.
Jackdaw and jug
Galka wanted to drink. There was a jug of water in the yard, and the jug only had water at the bottom.
Jackdaw was out of reach.
She began throwing pebbles into the jug and added so many that the water became higher and could be drunk.
Rats and egg
Two rats found an egg. They wanted to share it and eat it; but they see a crow flying and wants to take an egg.
The rats began to think about how to steal an egg from a crow. Carry? - do not grab; roll? - it can be broken.
And the rats decided this: one lay on its back, grabbed the egg with its paws, and the other carried it by the tail, and, like on a sleigh, pulled the egg under the floor.
Bug
Bug carried a bone across the bridge. Look, her shadow is in the water.
It occurred to the Bug that there was not a shadow in the water, but a Bug and a bone.
She let her bone go and take it. She didn’t take that one, but hers sank to the bottom.
Wolf and goat
The wolf sees that a goat is grazing on a stone mountain and he cannot get close to it; He says to her: “You should go down: here the place is more level, and the grass is much sweeter for you to feed.”
And the Goat says: “That’s not why you, wolf, are calling me down: you’re not worrying about mine, but about your own food.”
Mouse, cat and rooster
The mouse went out for a walk. She walked around the yard and came back to her mother.
“Well, mother, I saw two animals. One is scary and the other is kind.”
The mother said: “Tell me, what kind of animals are these?”
The mouse said: “There’s a scary one, he walks around the yard like this: his legs are black, his crest is red, his eyes are bulging, and his nose is hooked. When I walked past, he opened his mouth, raised his leg and began screaming so loudly that I didn’t know where to go from fear!”
“It’s a rooster,” said the old mouse. - He does no harm to anyone, don’t be afraid of him. Well, what about the other animal?
- The other was lying in the sun and warming himself. His neck is white, his legs are gray, smooth, he licks his white chest and moves his tail slightly, looking at me.
The old mouse said: “You are a fool, you are a fool. After all, it’s the cat itself.”
Kitty
There were brother and sister - Vasya and Katya; and they had a cat. In the spring the cat disappeared. The children looked for her everywhere, but could not find her.
One day they were playing near the barn and heard someone meowing in thin voices overhead. Vasya climbed the ladder under the roof of the barn. And Katya stood and kept asking:
- Found? Found?
But Vasya did not answer her. Finally Vasya shouted to her:
- Found! Our cat... and she has kittens; so wonderful; come here quickly.
Katya ran home, took out milk and brought it to the cat.
There were five kittens. When they grew a little and began to crawl out from under the corner where they had hatched, the children chose one kitten, gray with white paws, and brought it into the house. The mother gave away all the other kittens, but left this one to the children. The children fed him, played with him and took him to bed.
One day the children went to play on the road and took a kitten with them.
The wind moved the straw along the road, and the kitten played with the straw, and the children rejoiced at him. Then they found sorrel near the road, went to collect it and forgot about the kitten.
Suddenly they heard someone shouting loudly:
“Back, back!” - and they saw that the hunter was galloping, and in front of him two dogs saw a kitten and wanted to grab it. And the kitten, stupid, instead of running, sat down to the ground, hunched its back and looked at the dogs.
Katya was scared of the dogs, screamed and ran away from them. And Vasya, as best he could, ran towards the kitten and at the same time as the dogs ran up to it.
The dogs wanted to grab the kitten, but Vasya fell with his stomach on the kitten and blocked it from the dogs.
The hunter jumped up and drove the dogs away, and Vasya brought the kitten home and never took it with him into the field again.
Old man and apple trees
The old man was planting apple trees. They told him: “Why do you need apple trees? It will take a long time to wait for fruit from these apple trees, and you will not eat any apples from them.” The old man said: “I won’t eat, others will eat, they will thank me.”
Boy and father (The truth is most precious)
The boy was playing and accidentally broke an expensive cup.
Nobody saw it.
The father came and asked:
- Who broke it?
The boy shook with fear and said:
- I.
Father said:
- Thank you for telling the truth.
Do not torture animals (Varya and Chizh)
Varya had a siskin. The siskin lived in a cage and never sang.
Varya came to the siskin. - “It’s time for you, little siskin, to sing.”
- “Let me go free, in freedom I will sing all day long.”
Don't be lazy
There were two men - Peter and Ivan, they mowed the meadows together. The next morning Peter came with his family and began to clean up his meadow. The day was hot and the grass was dry; By evening there was hay.
But Ivan didn’t go to clean, but stayed at home. On the third day, Peter took the hay home, and Ivan was just getting ready to row.
By evening it started to rain. Peter had hay, but Ivan had all his grass rotted away.
Don't take it by force
Petya and Misha had a horse. They began to argue: whose horse?
They began to tear each other's horses.
- “Give it to me, my horse!” - “No, give it to me, the horse is not yours, but mine!”
The mother came, took the horse, and the horse became no one's.
Don't overeat
The mouse was gnawing on the floor, and there was a gap. The mouse went into the gap and found a lot of food. The mouse was greedy and ate so much that its belly became full. When it became day, the mouse went home, but its belly was so full that it did not fit through the crack.
Treat everyone kindly
The squirrel jumped from branch to branch and fell straight onto the sleepy wolf. The wolf jumped up and wanted to eat her. The squirrel began to ask: “Let me go.” The wolf said: “Okay, I’ll let you in, just tell me why you squirrels are so cheerful? I’m always bored, but I look at you, you’re up there, playing and jumping.” The squirrel said: “Let me go to the tree first, and from there I’ll tell you, otherwise I’m afraid of you.” The wolf let go, and the squirrel went up a tree and from there said: “You’re bored because you’re angry. Anger burns your heart. And we are cheerful because we are kind and do no harm to anyone.”
Respect old people
The grandmother had a granddaughter; Before, the granddaughter was sweet and still slept, and the grandmother herself baked bread, swept the hut, washed, sewed, spun and weaved for her granddaughter; and then the grandmother became old and lay down on the stove and kept sleeping. And the granddaughter baked, washed, sewed, weaved and spun for her grandmother.
How my aunt talked about how she learned to sew
When I was six years old, I asked my mother to let me sew. She said: “You are still small, you will only prick your fingers”; and I kept pestering. Mother took a red piece of paper from the chest and gave it to me; then she threaded a red thread into the needle and showed me how to hold it. I began to sew, but could not make even stitches; one stitch came out large, and the other hit the very edge and broke through. Then I pricked my finger and tried not to cry, but my mother asked me: “What are you doing?” - I couldn’t resist and cried. Then my mother told me to go play.
When I went to bed, I kept imagining stitches: I kept thinking about how I could quickly learn to sew, and it seemed so difficult to me that I would never learn. And now I’ve grown up and don’t remember how I learned to sew; and when I teach my girl to sew, I’m surprised how she can’t hold a needle.
Bulka (Officer's Story)
I had a face. Her name was Bulka. She was all black, only the tips of her front paws were white.
In all faces, the lower jaw is longer than the upper and the upper teeth extend beyond the lower ones; but Bulka’s lower jaw protruded forward so much that a finger could be placed between the lower and upper teeth. Bulka’s face was wide; the eyes are large, black and shiny; and white teeth and fangs always stuck out. He looked like a blackamoor. Bulka was quiet and did not bite, but he was very strong and tenacious. When he would cling to something, he would clench his teeth and hang like a rag, and, like a tick, he could not be torn off.
Once they let him attack a bear, and he grabbed the bear’s ear and hung like a leech. The bear beat him with his paws, pressed him to himself, threw him from side to side, but could not tear him away and fell on his head to crush Bulka; but Bulka held on to it until they poured cold water on him.
I took him as a puppy and raised him myself. When I went to serve in the Caucasus, I didn’t want to take him and left him quietly, and ordered him to be locked up. At the first station, I was about to board another transfer station, when suddenly I saw something black and shiny rolling along the road. It was Bulka in his copper collar. He flew at full speed towards the station. He rushed towards me, licked my hand and stretched out in the shadows under the cart. His tongue stuck out the entire palm of his hand. He then pulled it back, swallowing drool, then again stuck it out to the whole palm. He was in a hurry, did not have time to breathe, his sides were jumping. He turned from side to side and tapped his tail on the ground.
I found out later that after me he broke through the frame and jumped out of the window and, right in my wake, galloped along the road and rode like that for twenty miles in the heat.
Milton and Bulka (Story)
I got myself a pointing dog for pheasants. This dog's name was Milton: she was tall, thin, speckled gray, with long wings and ears, and very strong and smart. They didn’t fight with Bulka. Not a single dog ever snapped at Bulka. Sometimes he would just show his teeth, and the dogs would tuck their tails and move away. One day I went with Milton to buy pheasants. Suddenly Bulka ran after me into the forest. I wanted to drive him away, but I couldn’t. And it was a long way to go home to take him. I thought that he would not disturb me, and moved on; but as soon as Milton smelled a pheasant in the grass and began to look, Bulka rushed forward and began poking around in all directions. He tried before Milton to raise a pheasant. He heard something in the grass, jumped, spun: but his instincts were bad, and he could not find the trail alone, but looked at Milton and ran to where Milton was going. As soon as Milton sets off on the trail, Bulka runs ahead. I recalled Bulka, beat him, but could not do anything with him. As soon as Milton began to search, he rushed forward and interfered with him. I wanted to go home, because I thought that my hunt was ruined, but Milton figured out better than me how to deceive Bulka. This is what he did: as soon as Bulka runs ahead of him, Milton will leave the trail, turn in the other direction and pretend that he is looking. Bulka will rush to where Milton pointed, and Milton will look back at me, wave his tail and follow the real trail again. Bulka again runs to Milton, runs ahead, and again Milton will deliberately take ten steps to the side, deceive Bulka and again lead me straight. So throughout the hunt he deceived Bulka and did not let him ruin the matter.
Shark (Story)
Our ship was anchored off the coast of Africa. It was a beautiful day, a fresh wind was blowing from the sea; but in the evening the weather changed: it became stuffy and, as if from a heated stove, hot air from the Sahara desert was blowing towards us.
Before sunset, the captain came out onto the deck, shouted: “Swim!” - and in one minute the sailors jumped into the water, lowered the sail into the water, tied it and set up a bath in the sail.
There were two boys with us on the ship. The boys were the first to jump into the water, but they were cramped in the sail; they decided to race against each other in the open sea.
Both, like lizards, stretched out in the water and, with all their strength, swam to the place where there was a barrel above the anchor.
One boy at first overtook his friend, but then began to fall behind. The boy's father, an old artilleryman, stood on the deck and admired his son. When the son began to lag behind, the father shouted to him: “Don’t give him away! push yourself!”
Suddenly someone shouted from the deck: “Shark!” - and we all saw the back of a sea monster in the water.
The shark swam straight towards the boys.
Back! back! come back! shark! - the artilleryman shouted. But the guys didn’t hear him, they swam on, laughing and shouting even more fun and louder than before.
The artilleryman, pale as a sheet, looked at the children without moving.
The sailors lowered the boat, rushed into it and, bending their oars, rushed as hard as they could towards the boys; but they were still far from them when the shark was no more than 20 steps away.
At first the boys did not hear what they were shouting and did not see the shark; but then one of them looked back, and we all heard a high-pitched squeal, and the boys swam in different directions.
This screech seemed to awaken the artilleryman. He jumped up and ran towards the guns. He turned his trunk, lay down next to the cannon, took aim and took the fuse.
All of us, no matter how many of us were on the ship, froze in fear and waited for what would happen.
A shot rang out, and we saw that the artilleryman fell near the cannon and covered his face with his hands. We didn’t see what happened to the shark and the boys, because for a minute the smoke obscured our eyes.
But when the smoke dispersed over the water, first a quiet murmur was heard from all sides, then this murmur became stronger, and finally, a loud, joyful cry was heard from all sides.
The old artilleryman opened his face, stood up and looked at the sea.
The yellow belly of a dead shark swayed across the waves. In a few minutes the boat sailed to the boys and brought them to the ship.
Lion and dog (True)
Illustration by Nastya Aksenova
In London they showed wild animals and for viewing they took money or dogs and cats to feed the wild animals.
One man wanted to see the animals: he grabbed a little dog on the street and brought it to the menagerie. They let him in to watch, but they took the little dog and threw him into a cage with a lion to be eaten.
The dog tucked its tail and pressed itself into the corner of the cage. The lion approached her and smelled her.
The dog lay down on its back, raised its paws and began wagging its tail.
The lion touched it with his paw and turned it over.
The dog jumped up and stood on its hind legs in front of the lion.
The lion looked at the dog, turned his head from side to side and did not touch it.
When the owner threw meat to the lion, the lion tore off a piece and left it for the dog.
In the evening, when the lion went to bed, the dog lay down next to him and put her head on his paw.
Since then, the dog lived in the same cage with the lion, the lion did not touch her, ate food, slept with her, and sometimes played with her.
One day the master came to the menagerie and recognized his dog; he said that the dog was his own, and asked the owner of the menagerie to give it to him. The owner wanted to give it back, but as soon as they began to call the dog to take it from the cage, the lion bristled and growled.
So the lion and the dog lived for a whole year in the same cage.
A year later the dog got sick and died. The lion stopped eating, but kept sniffing, licking the dog and touching it with his paw.
When he realized that she was dead, he suddenly jumped up, bristled, began to whip his tail on the sides, rushed to the wall of the cage and began to gnaw at the bolts and the floor.
All day long he struggled, thrashed about in the cage and roared, then he lay down next to the dead dog and fell silent. The owner wanted to take away the dead dog, but the lion would not let anyone near it.
The owner thought that the lion would forget his grief if he was given another dog, and let a live dog into his cage; but the lion immediately tore her to pieces. Then he hugged the dead dog with his paws and lay there for five days.
On the sixth day the lion died.
Jump (Byl)
One ship circumnavigated the world and was returning home. The weather was calm, all the people were on deck. A large monkey was spinning around in the middle of the people and amusing everyone. This monkey writhed, jumped, made funny faces, imitated people, and it was clear that she knew that they were amusing her, and that is why she became even more dissatisfied.
She jumped up to a 12-year-old boy, the son of a ship's captain, tore his hat off his head, put it on and quickly climbed up the mast. Everyone laughed, but the boy was left without a hat and did not know whether to laugh or cry.
The monkey sat down on the first crossbar of the mast, took off his hat and began to tear it with his teeth and paws. She seemed to be teasing the boy, pointing at him and making faces at him. The boy threatened her and shouted at her, but she tore her hat even angrier. The sailors began to laugh louder, and the boy blushed, took off his jacket and rushed after the monkey to the mast. In one minute he climbed the rope to the first crossbar; but the monkey was even more dexterous and faster than him, and at the very moment he was thinking of grabbing his hat, he climbed even higher.
So you won’t leave me! - the boy shouted and climbed higher. The monkey beckoned him again and climbed even higher, but the boy was already overcome with enthusiasm and did not lag behind. So the monkey and the boy reached the very top in one minute. At the very top, the monkey stretched out to its full length and, hooking its back hand1 onto the rope, hung its hat on the edge of the last crossbar, and itself climbed to the top of the mast and from there writhed, showed its teeth and rejoiced. From the mast to the end of the crossbar, where the hat hung, there were two arshins, so it was impossible to get it except by letting go of the rope and the mast.
But the boy became very excited. He dropped the mast and stepped onto the crossbar. Everyone on deck looked and laughed at what the monkey and the captain's son were doing; but when they saw that he let go of the rope and stepped onto the crossbar, shaking his arms, everyone froze with fear.
All he had to do was stumble, and he would have smashed to pieces on the deck. And even if he hadn’t stumbled, but had reached the edge of the crossbar and taken his hat, it would have been difficult for him to turn around and walk back to the mast. Everyone looked at him silently and waited to see what would happen.
Suddenly, someone among the people gasped in fear. The boy came to his senses from this scream, looked down and staggered.
At this time, the ship's captain, the boy's father, left the cabin. He carried a gun to shoot seagulls2. He saw his son on the mast, and immediately took aim at his son and shouted: “Into the water! jump into the water now! I’ll shoot you!” The boy was staggering, but did not understand. “Jump or I’ll shoot you!.. One, two...” and as soon as the father shouted: “three,” the boy swung his head down and jumped.
Like a cannonball, the boy’s body splashed into the sea, and before the waves had time to cover him, 20 young sailors had already jumped from the ship into the sea. About 40 seconds later - it seemed like a long time to everyone - the boy's body emerged. He was grabbed and dragged onto the ship. After a few minutes, water started pouring out of his mouth and nose and he began to breathe.
When the captain saw this, he suddenly screamed, as if something was strangling him, and ran to his cabin so that no one would see him cry.
Fire dogs (Byl)
It often happens that in cities during fires, children are left in houses and they cannot be pulled out, because they hide from fear and are silent, and from the smoke it is impossible to see them. Dogs in London are trained for this purpose. These dogs live with firefighters, and when a house catches fire, the firefighters send the dogs to pull the children out. One such dog in London saved twelve children; her name was Bob.
One time the house caught fire. And when the firefighters arrived at the house, a woman ran out to them. She cried and said that there was a two-year-old girl left in the house. The firefighters sent Bob. Bob ran up the stairs and disappeared into the smoke. Five minutes later he ran out of the house and carried the girl by the shirt in his teeth. The mother rushed to her daughter and cried with joy that her daughter was alive. The firefighters petted the dog and examined it to see if it was burned; but Bob was eager to go back into the house. The firefighters thought there was something else alive in the house and let him in. The dog ran into the house and soon ran out with something in its teeth. When the people looked at what she was carrying, they all burst out laughing: she was carrying a large doll.
Kostochka (Byl)
The mother bought plums and wanted to give them to the children after lunch. They were on the plate. Vanya never ate plums and kept sniffing them. And he really liked them. I really wanted to eat it. He kept walking past the plums. When there was no one in the upper room, he could not resist, grabbed one plum and ate it. Before dinner, the mother counted the plums and saw that one was missing. She told her father.
At dinner, the father says: “What, children, didn’t anyone eat one plum?” Everyone said: "No." Vanya turned red as a lobster and also said: “No, I didn’t eat.”
Then the father said: “Whatever one of you has eaten is not good; but that’s not the problem. The trouble is that plums have seeds, and if someone doesn’t know how to eat them and swallows a seed, he will die within a day. I'm afraid of this."
Vanya turned pale and said: “No, I threw the bone out the window.”
And everyone laughed, and Vanya began to cry.
The Monkey and the Pea (Fable)
The monkey was carrying two full handfuls of peas. One pea popped out; The monkey wanted to pick it up and spilled twenty peas.
She rushed to pick it up and spilled everything. Then she got angry, scattered all the peas and ran away.
The Lion and the Mouse (Fable)
The lion was sleeping. The mouse ran over his body. He woke up and caught her. The mouse began to ask him to let her in; she said: “If you let me in, I’ll do you good.” The lion laughed that the mouse promised to do good to him, and let it go.
Then the hunters caught the lion and tied it to a tree with a rope. The mouse heard the lion's roar, came running, gnawed the rope and said: “Remember, you laughed, you didn’t think that I could do you any good, but now you see, good comes from a mouse.”
Old grandfather and granddaughter (Fable)
Grandfather became very old. His legs did not walk, his eyes did not see, his ears did not hear, he had no teeth. And when he ate, it flowed backwards from his mouth. His son and daughter-in-law stopped sitting him at the table and let him dine at the stove. They brought him lunch in a cup. He wanted to move it, but he dropped it and broke it. The daughter-in-law began to scold the old man for ruining everything in the house and breaking cups, and said that now she would give him dinner in a basin. The old man just sighed and said nothing. One day a husband and wife are sitting at home and watching - their little son is playing on the floor with planks - he is working on something. The father asked: “What are you doing this, Misha?” And Misha said: “It’s me, father, who’s making the tub. When you and your mother are too old to feed you from this tub.”
The husband and wife looked at each other and began to cry. They felt ashamed that they had offended the old man so much; and from then on they began to sit him at the table and look after him.
Liar (Fable, another name - Don't lie)
The boy was guarding the sheep and, as if seeing a wolf, began to call: “Help, wolf! wolf!" The men came running and saw: it’s not true. As he did this two and three times, it happened that a wolf actually came running. The boy began to shout: “Here, here quickly, wolf!” The men thought that he was deceiving again as always - they did not listen to him. The wolf sees that there is nothing to be afraid of: he has slaughtered the entire herd in the open.
Father and Sons (Fable)
The father ordered his sons to live in harmony; they didn't listen. So he ordered a broom to be brought and said:
"Break it!"
No matter how much they fought, they could not break it. Then the father untied the broom and ordered them to break one rod at a time.
They easily broke the bars one by one.
The Ant and the Dove (Fable)
The ant went down to the stream: he wanted to drink. The wave washed over him and almost drowned him. The dove carried a branch; She saw the ant drowning, and threw it a branch into the stream. The ant sat on a branch and escaped. Then the hunter laid a net on the dove and wanted to slam it. The ant crawled up to the hunter and bit him on the leg; the hunter gasped and dropped his net. The dove fluttered and flew away.
Hen and Swallow (Fable)
The chicken found the snake eggs and began to hatch them. The swallow saw it and said:
“That's it, stupid! You bring them out, and when they grow up, they will be the first to offend you.”
The Fox and the Grapes (Fable)
The fox saw ripe bunches of grapes hanging, and began to figure out how to eat them.
She struggled for a long time, but could not reach it. To drown out her annoyance, she says: “They’re still green.”
Two Comrades (Fable)
Two comrades were walking through the forest, and a bear jumped out at them. One ran, climbed a tree and hid, while the other stayed on the road. He had nothing to do - he fell to the ground and pretended to be dead.
The bear came up to him and began to sniff: he stopped breathing.
The bear sniffed his face, thought he was dead, and walked away.
When the bear left, he climbed down from the tree and laughed: “Well,” he said, “did the bear speak in your ear?”
“And he told me that the bad people are those who run away from their comrades in danger.”
The Tsar and the Shirt (Fairy Tale)
One king was sick and said: “I will give half of the kingdom to the one who cures me.” Then all the wise men gathered and began to judge how to cure the king. No one knew. Only one sage said that the king could be cured. He said: if you find a happy person, take off his shirt and put it on the king, the king will recover. The king sent to look for a happy person throughout his kingdom; but the king's ambassadors traveled for a long time throughout the kingdom and could not find a happy person. There was not a single one that everyone was happy with. He who is rich is sick; whoever is healthy is poor; who is healthy and rich, but whose wife is not good, and whose children are not good; Everyone is complaining about something. One day, late in the evening, the king’s son was walking past a hut, and he heard someone say: “Thank God, I’ve worked hard, I’ve eaten enough and I’m going to bed; what more do I need? The king's son was delighted and ordered to take off the man's shirt, and give him as much money as he wanted for it, and take the shirt to the king. The messengers came to the happy man and wanted to take off his shirt; but the happy one was so poor that he didn’t even have a shirt on.
Two Brothers (Fairy Tale)
Two brothers went traveling together. At noon they lay down to rest in the forest. When they woke up, they saw a stone lying next to them and something was written on the stone. They began to take it apart and read:
“Whoever finds this stone, let him go straight into the forest at sunrise. A river will come in the forest: let him swim through this river to the other side. You will see a bear with cubs: take the cubs from the bear and run without looking back straight up the mountain. On the mountain you will see home, and in that home you will find happiness."
The brothers read what was written, and the youngest said:
Let's go together. Maybe we will swim across this river, bring the cubs home and find happiness together.
Then the elder said:
I won’t go into the forest for cubs and I don’t advise you to either. First thing: no one knows whether the truth is written on this stone; maybe all this was written for fun. Yes, maybe we got it wrong. Second: if the truth is written, we will go into the forest, night will come, we will not get to the river and will get lost. And even if we find a river, how will we cross it? Maybe it's fast and wide? Third: even if we swim across the river, is it really an easy matter to take the cubs away from the mother bear? She will bully us, and instead of happiness we will disappear for nothing. Fourth thing: even if we manage to carry away the cubs, we will not make it up the mountain without rest. The main thing is not said: what kind of happiness will we find in this house? Maybe there awaits us the kind of happiness we don’t need at all.
And the younger one said:
I don't think so. There would be no point in writing this on stone. And everything is written clearly. First thing: we won't get into trouble if we try. The second thing: if we don’t go, someone else will read the inscription on the stone and find happiness, and we will be left with nothing. The third thing: if you don’t bother and don’t work, nothing in the world makes you happy. Fourth: I don’t want them to think that I was afraid of anything.
Then the elder said:
And the proverb says: “To seek great happiness is to lose little”; and also: “Don’t promise a pie in the sky, but give a bird in your hands.”
And the smaller one said:
And I heard: “Fear wolves, don’t go into the forest”; and also: “Water will not flow under a lying stone.” For me, I need to go.
The younger brother went, but the older brother stayed.
As soon as the younger brother entered the forest, he attacked the river, swam across it and immediately saw a bear on the shore. She slept. He grabbed the cubs and ran without looking back up the mountain. As soon as he reached the top, people came out to meet him, they brought him a carriage, took him to the city and made him king.
He reigned for five years. In the sixth year, another king, stronger than him, came against him with war; conquered the city and drove it away. Then the younger brother went wandering again and came to the older brother.
The elder brother lived in the village neither rich nor poor. The brothers were happy with each other and began to talk about their lives.
The elder brother says:
So my truth came out: I lived quietly and well all the time, and even though you were a king, you saw a lot of grief.
And the smaller one said:
I don’t grieve that I went into the forest up the mountain then; Even though I feel bad now, I have something to remember my life with, but you have nothing to remember it with.
Lipunyushka (Fairy Tale)
An old man lived with an old woman. They had no children. The old man went to the field to plow, and the old woman stayed at home to bake pancakes. The old woman baked pancakes and said:
“If we had a son, he would take pancakes to his father; and now who will I send with?”
Suddenly a little son crawled out of the cotton and said: “Hello, mother!..”
And the old woman says: “Where did you come from, son, and what is your name?”
And the son says: “You, mother, pulled back the cotton and put it in a column, and I hatched there. And call me Lipunyushka. Give me, mother, I’ll take the pancakes to the priest.”
The old woman says: “Will you tell, Lipunyushka?”
I'll tell you, mother...
The old woman tied the pancakes in a knot and gave them to her son. Lipunyushka took the bundle and ran into the field.
In the field he came across a bump on the road; he shouts: “Father, father, move me over the hummock! I brought you pancakes."
The old man heard someone calling him from the field, went to meet his son, transplanted him over a hummock and said: “Where are you from, son?” And the boy says: “Father, I was born in cotton,” and served his father pancakes. The old man sat down to have breakfast, and the boy said: “Give me, father, I’ll plow.”
And the old man says: “You don’t have enough strength to plow.”
And Lipunyushka took up the plow and began to plow. He plows himself and sings his own songs.
A gentleman was driving past this field and saw that the old man was sitting having breakfast, and the horse was plowing alone. The master got out of the carriage and said to the old man: “How is it, old man, that your horse plows alone?”
And the old man says: “I have a boy plowing there, and he sings songs.” The master came closer, heard the songs and saw Lipunyushka.
The master says: “Old man! sell me the boy." And the old man says: “No, you can’t sell it to me, I only have one.”
And Lipunyushka says to the old man: “Sell it, father, I’ll run away from him.”
The man sold the boy for a hundred rubles. The master gave the money, took the boy, wrapped him in a handkerchief and put him in his pocket. The master arrived home and said to his wife: “I brought you joy.” And the wife says: “Show me what it is?” The master took a handkerchief out of his pocket, unfolded it, and there was nothing in the handkerchief. Lipunyushka ran away to his father a long time ago.
Three Bears (Fairy Tale)
One girl left home for the forest. She got lost in the forest and began to look for the way home, but didn’t find it, but came to a house in the forest.
The door was open; She looked at the door, saw: there was no one in the house, and entered. Three bears lived in this house. One bear had a father, his name was Mikhailo Ivanovich. He was big and shaggy. The other was a bear. She was smaller, and her name was Nastasya Petrovna. The third was a little bear cub, and his name was Mishutka. The bears were not at home, they went for a walk in the forest.
There were two rooms in the house: one was a dining room, the other was a bedroom. The girl entered the dining room and saw three cups of stew on the table. The first cup, a very large one, was Mikhaily Ivanychev’s. The second cup, smaller, was Nastasya Petrovnina’s; the third, blue cup, was Mishutkina. Next to each cup lay a spoon: large, medium and small.
The girl took the largest spoon and sipped from the largest cup; then she took the middle spoon and sipped from the middle cup; then she took a small spoon and sipped from the blue cup; and Mishutka’s stew seemed to her the best.
The girl wanted to sit down and saw three chairs at the table: one large - Mikhail Ivanovich's; the other smaller one is Nastasya Petrovnin, and the third, small, with a blue pillow is Mishutkin. She climbed onto a large chair and fell; then she sat down on the middle chair, it was awkward; then she sat down on a small chair and laughed - it was so good. She took the blue cup onto her lap and began to eat. She ate all the stew and began to rock on her chair.
The chair broke and she fell to the floor. She stood up, picked up the chair and went to another room. There were three beds: one large - Mikhail Ivanychev's; the other middle one is Nastasya Petrovnina; the third little one is Mishenkina. The girl lay down in the big one; it was too spacious for her; I lay down in the middle - it was too high; She lay down in the small bed - the bed was just right for her, and she fell asleep.
And the bears came home hungry and wanted to have dinner.
The big bear took the cup, looked and roared in a terrible voice:
WHO WAS THE BREAD IN MY CUP?
Nastasya Petrovna looked at her cup and growled not so loudly:
WHO WAS THE BREAD IN MY CUP?
And Mishutka saw his empty cup and squeaked in a thin voice:
WHO WAS BREAD IN MY CUP AND SLAUGHED IT ALL OUT?
Mikhail Ivanovich looked at his chair and growled in a terrible voice:
Nastasya Petrovna looked at her chair and growled not so loudly:
WHO WAS SITTING ON MY CHAIR AND MOVE IT OUT OF PLACE?
Mishutka looked at his broken chair and squeaked:
WHO SAT ON MY CHAIR AND BROKE IT?
The bears came to another room.
WHO WENT INTO MY BED AND CRUSHED IT? - Mikhail Ivanovich roared in a terrible voice.
WHO WENT INTO MY BED AND CRUSHED IT? - Nastasya Petrovna growled not so loudly.
And Mishenka put up a little bench, climbed into his crib and squeaked in a thin voice:
WHO WENT IN MY BED?
And suddenly he saw the girl and screamed as if he was being cut:
Here she is! Hold it, hold it! Here she is! Ay-yay! Hold it!
He wanted to bite her.
The girl opened her eyes, saw the bears and rushed to the window. It was open, she jumped out the window and ran away. And the bears did not catch up with her.
What kind of dew happens on the grass (Description)
When you go into the forest on a sunny morning in summer, you can see diamonds in the fields and grass. All these diamonds sparkle and shimmer in the sun in different colors - yellow, red, and blue. When you come closer and see what it is, you will see that these are drops of dew collected in triangular leaves of grass and glistening in the sun.
The inside of the leaf of this grass is shaggy and fluffy, like velvet. And the drops roll on the leaf and do not wet it.
When you carelessly pick a leaf with a dewdrop, the droplet will roll off like a light ball, and you will not see how it slips past the stem. It used to be that you would tear off such a cup, slowly bring it to your mouth and drink the dewdrop, and this dewdrop seemed tastier than any drink.
Touch and Vision (Reasoning)
Braid your index finger with your middle and braided fingers, touch the small ball so that it rolls between both fingers, and close your eyes. It will seem like two balls to you. Open your eyes, you will see that there is one ball. The fingers deceived, but the eyes corrected.
Look (preferably from the side) at a good, clean mirror: it will seem to you that this is a window or a door and that there is something behind there. Feel it with your finger and you will see that it is a mirror. The eyes deceived, but the fingers corrected.
Where does the water go from the sea? (Reasoning)
From springs, springs and swamps, water flows into streams, from streams into rivers, from small rivers into large rivers, and from large rivers it flows from the sea. From other sides other rivers flow into the seas, and all rivers have flowed into the seas since the world was created. Where does the water go from the sea? Why doesn't it flow over the edge?
Water from the sea rises in fog; the fog rises higher, and clouds become from the fog. The clouds are driven by the wind and spread across the ground. Water falls from the clouds to the ground. It flows from the ground into swamps and streams. From streams flows into rivers; from rivers to sea. From the sea again the water rises into the clouds, and the clouds spread across the earth...