Children's fairy tales by Charushin. Charushin E

Evgeniy Ivanovich Charushin is a domestic artist and writer. He accompanied his wonderful stories for children's reading with his own illustrations.

Short stories about animals, written in a clear and entertaining way, are useful to read and retell for beginning readers, including special needs children. We offer Charushin's stories about animals that our children liked.

"My first zoology"

Stories about the life and habits of animals in nature.

About the fox

The fox mouses in winter and catches mice. She stands on a stump so that she can see further away, and listens and looks: where under the snow the mouse squeaks, where the snow moves a little. He hears, notices, and rushes. Done: a mouse was caught in the teeth of a red furry huntress.

Dog

Sharik has a thick, warm fur coat. He runs around in the cold all winter. And his house without a stove is just a doghouse, and there is straw laid down there, but he is not cold. Sharik barks, guards his master’s property, doesn’t let evil people in, and for this everyone loves him and feeds him well.

Cat

This is the cat Maruska. She caught a mouse in the closet, for which the owner fed her milk. Maruska is sitting on the rug, well-fed and contented. She sings songs and purrs, but her little kitten is not interested in purring. He plays with himself - he catches himself by the tail. He snorts, puffs up, puffs up at everyone.

Badger

Spring has come, the snow has melted. A badger crawled out of its dry hole. Still sleepy. Nosy, shaggy, weak-sighted. He slept like a bear all winter. The fur on his sides was matted. The badger stretches and straightens.
The badger went hunting - to catch frogs. Look for beetles under the roots in the moss. He will eat, drink, munch - and then go back to his apartment in the same way, to his dry hole.

Wild boar

This is a wild pig - boar.
He wanders through the forests, grunting. Picks up oak acorns. It digs in the ground with its long snout. With its crooked fangs it tears out the roots, turns them upside down - looking for something to eat.
It’s not for nothing that a boar is called a cleaver. He will cut down a tree with his fangs, as if with an ax; he will kill a wolf with his fangs, as if he would cut down a saber. Even the bear himself is afraid of him.

Squirrel

The squirrel is tired of jumping on the branches and gnawing and peeling pine cones. She wanted to eat mushrooms. Skok - jump, skok - jump from branch to branch, from twig to twig - and from tree to ground.
Little squirrel, you eat saffron milk caps, boletuses, russula and milk mushrooms, and porcini mushrooms, morels, boletus and butter mushrooms. Just be careful not to eat the beautiful red mushroom with white spots: it’s a poisonous fly agaric mushroom - you’ll get poisoned.

Crane

A crane woke up in a swamp, on a moss hummock, smoothed its feathers with its beak and began to purr at the top of its voice: Kurly, Kurly!
He flew to the peas and pecked the peas. He ate, flew to the river, got drunk, looked into the clean water - how good it was! The legs are long, the neck is thin, and he is all gray. The beetle spread its wings and began to stamp its feet, dance, squat, spin, and look into the water.

Owl

The owl's feathers are soft, its wings are silent, they do not whistle or make noise; The owl's claws are crooked, sharp, none of these claws can escape - not a mouse, not a squirrel, not a sleepy bird. The owl hunts at night and sleeps during the day.
Two titmice were flying through the forest, darting around the branches, and suddenly they saw an owl. They squealed and shouted: “Hey, get ready, birds, here! Here he is, here he is, the night robber, here he sits, goggle-eyed!”

Wolf

Beware, sheep in the stables, beware, pigs in the pigsties, beware, calves, foals, horses, cows! The wolf-robber went hunting.
You dogs, bark louder - scare the wolf! And you, collective farm watchman, load your gun with a bullet!

Whale

The whale is the largest animal in the world. He lives in the sea, swims in the water like a fish.
A whale will swim into the cold seas, where there is only ice and snow, and it will also swim to the south, where it is hot all year round, chasing schools of fish. Where the fish go, there he goes.
A whale will capture a whole school of fish along with water in its mouth, release the water, but the fish will remain in its mouth - it will get stuck in the whalebone. Just don't think that this is really a mustache. There are these plates in the whale's mouth, like a lattice, and these lattice is called whalebone.

Hedgehog

The guys were walking through the forest and found a hedgehog under a bush. He curled up into a ball there with fear. Try to pick it up with your hands - there are needles sticking out everywhere. They wrapped the hedgehog in a hat and brought it home. They put it on the floor and put the milk in a saucer.
And the hedgehog lies like a ball and doesn’t move.
He lay there for an hour and then for another hour.
Then a black hedgehog’s nose poked out of the thorns and began to move.
How does this smell delicious?
The hedgehog turned around, saw the milk and began to eat it. He ate and curled up into a ball again.
And then the guys got busy with something else, gaped - the hedgehog ran away back to the forest.

Elephant

A branch in the forest did not crunch, a leaf did not move - a huge wild elephant silently emerged from the dense thickets of the jungle.
The elephant stands like a towering gray mountain: legs like logs, ears like two sails, long tusks, crooked and strong. The elephant stretched out its trunk, tore a bush out of the ground, put it whole in its mouth and began to chew.
Such a strong man is not afraid of anyone, no one is afraid of him.

Polar bear

The polar bear is a wandering animal. This tramp's fur coat is warm; the frost does not touch it. Thick fur does not get wet in water. He doesn’t care about frost, blizzard, wind, or icy water.
A polar bear walks and wanders on the ice and snow; catches prey - a fish or a walrus, eats its fill and immediately falls asleep, right there on the ice.
And when he gets enough sleep, he wanders off again. He looks out, sniffs out someone to catch, something to fill his belly with again. He dives deftly, runs quickly, and swims easily. Such a person will not remain hungry for long; he will get food for himself.

Reindeer

In the North there is snow and ice, and the summer is short and short. You can’t make hay there, you can’t feed a cow or a horse in winter. Only reindeer can live there. He shovels the snow with his hooves and takes out a lichen - moss.
Whose milk do people drink in the North? Deer.
What does he drive? On a deer.
Whose meat does he eat? Deer.
A person cannot live without deer in those places.

Walrus

The walrus is fat and heavy. Like a huge leather bag of fat.
Two huge white fangs protrude from his bristly mustache. Instead of legs, the walrus has flippers. He uses them, like oars, to rake water.
It will dive deep under the water and graze on the bottom of the sea, like a cow in a meadow. He chews algae, looks for shells, and when he has eaten enough, he swims up, leans on the edge of the ice floe or on the shore with his fangs, pulls himself up and crawls out of the water. He lies down on the stones and rests.

"Big and Small"

How mothers teach their cubs to survive in nature.

Duck with ducklings

Quack, quack, ducklings!
Quack, quack, little ones!
You, like little boats, float!
Use your feet like oars to rake the water! Dive and reach the very bottom.
And at the bottom, in the lake, there is underwater grass, tasty mud and fat worms.
Eat more! Grow faster!

Bunnies

Sit in the grass, little bunnies, don't move! Don't blink your eyes, don't move your ears! Nobody will see you here, little ones.
But you can't run.
Whoever sits still has no trace of him. but there is no trace - who will find you

Squirrel with baby squirrels

Climb a pine tree, swing like a spring, straighten up and jump.
Jump from a Christmas tree to a pine tree, fly from a pine tree to an aspen tree, from an aspen tree to a birch tree, from a birch tree to a bush, from a bush to the ground.
Run along the ground to the tree, from branch to branch, from branch to branch, and again climb to the very top!
Husk the cone, eat the seeds and jump from tree to tree again.
You squirrels have sharp teeth, tenacious paws, a tail like a steering wheel - wherever you turn, that’s where you’ll fly.
What kind of tricksters you are!

Mother bear with cubs

Come on, climb onto the stump and pick the berries! Don't fall, don't hurt yourself! Even though we bears are clumsy, we are dodgers. We can run like that - we can catch up with the horse.
We climb trees and dive into the water.
We turn out heavy stumps and look for fat beetles.
We eat honey and grass, roots and berries.
And the game gets there - and it’s welcome.

She-wolf with cubs

The she-wolf brought food to the wolf cubs.
Everyone pulled food towards themselves.
The wolf cubs grumble and growl at each other, everyone wants a bigger piece for themselves.

Fox with cubs

Dig a hole - an underground house - deep, deep, cunning, cunning, with passages and exits; one exit is under a bush, another is under a root, the third is behind a stone, the fourth is in thick grass, the fifth is in a dense spruce forest.
The dogs will start to catch up with you - you’ll quickly go to the hole!
They bark, they dig! And while the dogs are barking, you slowly crawl out of the far exit and into the forest...
They only saw you!

Lynx and little lynx

Walk silently, step softly - your paws have pads. You are a forest animal - you must hide, lie in ambush, and get prey.
Yellow eyes - see at night.
Black ears can hear far.
Long legs - step carefully.

We read stories about animals many times and with great pleasure, drew illustrations. We hope you enjoy them too.

We bring to your attention the stories “About Tomka” by Evgeny Charushin. The page presents text with illustrations by the author himself from the book “About Tomka” republished in 1988 - Children's Literature Publishing House. The content of this book is supplemented on our website with stories from the collection “Tupa, Tomka and the Magpie”: “Tomka got scared” and “How Tomka didn’t seem stupid”, as well as the story: “That’s how the bird is a parrot!” from book " ".

Read stories “About Tomka” with pictures online

I saw a dog near the hunter. This is what he is like. The ears are long, the tail is short.

The hunter told me how smart the dog is, how he helps during the hunt, and how he’s smart and not dirty... This dog, he says, gives birth to puppies. Come take a look. And we went with him.

The puppies are small - they have just learned to walk. “Which one of them,” I think, “will be my hunting assistant? How do you know who is smart and who is no good?”

Here is one puppy - eating and sleeping. He will turn out to be a lazy person.

Here is an angry puppy - angry. He growls and starts to fight with everyone. And I won’t take it - I don’t like evil people.

But it’s even worse - he also climbs on everyone, but he doesn’t fight, he licks them. Even the game can be taken away from such a person.

At this time, the puppies' teeth itch and they like to chew on something. One puppy was chewing on a piece of wood. I took this piece of wood and hid it from him. Will he smell her or not?

The puppy began to search. He sniffed all the other puppies to see if they had a piece of wood. No, I didn't find it. The lazy one sleeps, the angry one growls, the kindly one licks the evil one and persuades him not to be angry. And so he began to sniff and sniff and went to the place where I hid it. I smelled it.

I was delighted. “Well,” I think, “this is a hunter!” There’s no way anyone can hide from something like this.” I named him Tomka. And he began to raise an assistant.

We went for a walk and took Tomka with us. They put him in his briefcase so he wouldn't get tired.

They came to the lake, sat down on the shore and began throwing pebbles into the water to see who could throw it further. And they put the briefcase with Tomka on the grass. So he got out of the briefcase, saw a pebble flop into the water, and ran.

Tomka is running along the sand, clubfooted, clumsy, his feet are tangled in the sand. He reached the water, stuck his paws in the water and looked back at us.
- Go, Tomka, go - don’t be afraid, you won’t drown!

Tomka climbed into the water. First it went up to my tummy, then up to my neck, and then I plunged all over. Only the stumpy tail sticks out.

He fidgeted and fidgeted and suddenly he popped out - and started coughing, sneezing, snorting. Apparently, he decided to breathe in the water - the water got into his nose and mouth. I didn't get the pebble.

Then we took the ball and threw it into the lake. Tomka loved to play with a ball; it was his favorite toy.

The ball splashed into the water, spun and stopped. It lies on the water as if on a smooth floor. Tomka recognized his favorite toy and could not stand it - he ran into the water.

He runs and squeals. But now he doesn’t stick his nose in the water. He walked and walked and just swam. He swam to the ball, grabbed it in his teeth, and came back to us.

That's how I learned to swim.

When Tomka was just a small puppy, I took him hunting with me. Let him get used to it.

Here we go with him. Tomka chases butterflies and dragonflies. Catches grasshoppers. Barks at birds. But he can’t catch anyone. Everyone flies away. He ran and ran and became so tired that he stuck his nose into a mound and fell asleep. Still small. And I feel sorry for waking him up.

Half an hour passed. A bumblebee has arrived. Booms and flies right over Tomkin's ear. Tomka woke up. I turned around, half asleep, and looked: who is this guy who is disturbing my sleep? He did not notice the bumblebee, but saw a cow and ran towards her.

And the cow was grazing far, far away and must have seemed very small to Tomka, no bigger than a sparrow.

Tomka runs to kill a cow, his tail raised in the air - he has never seen a cow before. I ran closer, and the cow was no longer as tall as a sparrow - it seemed as tall as a cat. Then Tomka ran a little quieter, and the cow was no longer as big as a cat, but as big as a goat. Tomka became scared. He didn’t come close and sniffed: what kind of animal is this?

At this time the cow moved - someone must have bitten her. And Tomka ran away from her!

Since then he has not come close to cows.

When Tomka sleeps, he barks in his sleep, squeals, and sometimes moves his paws, as if he is running somewhere.

The guys ask me:
- Why is Tomka barking? After all, he is sleeping!
“He dreams,” I answer.
- Which ones?
- Yes, probably some of my own, dog dreams - about hunting, about animals, about birds. A person cannot see such dreams.
- That’s interesting! - the guys say.

They surrounded Tomka, watching him sleep. And Tomka slept and slept and barked in a thin voice. I ask the guys:
- What is he seeing in his dream? Do you understand?
“I see,” the guys say. - He saw a small bunny.

Tomka slept a little more and moved his paws.
“Here,” the guys say, “it’s Tomka who ran.”
- Who did you run after?
- Yes, not for anyone, but from a goat. He saw her, and she was butting heads.

Then Tomka growled and barked.
- Wake up! - the guys shouted. - Wake up, Tomka! After all, he will eat you now!
“Who,” I ask, “will eat?”
- Bear! Tomka wants to fight with him. What a scary bear! Tomka can't handle him.

How Tomka didn’t seem stupid

Tomka doesn’t like it when people laugh at him; he’ll be offended and turn away. And then he learned to pretend that they were not laughing at him, but at someone else.

Once Tomka noticed a hen with chicks. He comes closer - he wants to sniff.

And the hen screamed and jumped on Tomka - and rode on him. He goes, pecks at Tomka and screams. You can almost hear her saying: “Oh, you so-and-so, ill-mannered! Here I am! Here I am! Don’t you dare go near the chickens!”

Tomka was offended, but did not want to seem funny and immediately pretended that no one was picking on him, no one was yelling at him.

And then the hen jumped off him and returned to the chickens.

The works of Evgeny Charushin, humane and kind, have delighted several generations of young readers and taught children to love the magical world of birds and animals.

Evgeniy Ivanovich Charushin, whose biography is presented in this article, is a graphic artist and writer. The years of his life are 1901-1965. On October 29, 1901, Evgeniy Charushin was born in Vyatka. His photo is presented below.

Evgeniy Ivanovich’s father, Charushin Ivan Apollonovich, is a provincial architect, one of the best architects in the Urals. More than 300 buildings in Izhevsk, Sarapul, Vyatka were built according to his designs. Like any architect, he was a good draftsman. The family of Ivan Apollonovich lived very friendly. Artists and musicians often gathered in the house. Parents have instilled in their son since childhood

Charushin's favorite book

Eugene's favorite reading was books about our little brothers. “The Life of Animals” by A.E. Brem was the most dear and beloved to him. He treasured it and re-read it all his life. The fact that the novice artist depicted more and more birds and animals has a significant share of Brehm’s influence. Charushin began to draw early. The aspiring artist went to a taxidermy workshop located nearby, or watched animals at home.

"Sopohud"

At the age of 14, he and his comrades organized the union of artists and poets “Sopokhud”. From a young age, Evgeniy wanted to capture what he saw in order to preserve the rapidly changing world. And drawing came to the rescue. Evgeniy Ivanovich said that the artist was born in him earlier than the writer. Somewhat later the necessary words came.

Work in the Political Department of the headquarters, study at the Academy of Arts

In 1918, Evgeny Charushin graduated from high school in Vyatka. He studied there together with Then Evgeniy Ivanovich was drafted into the army. Here they decided to use him “in his specialty” - he was appointed assistant decorator in the Political Department of the headquarters. Having served for 4 years, almost the entire civil war, Evgeniy Ivanovich returned home only in 1922.

He decided to study to be an artist. In winter, he studied in the workshops of the Vyatka Provincial Military Commissariat, and in the same year, in the fall, he entered the VKHUTEIN (Petrograd Academy of Arts), the painting department. Evgeny Charushin studied here for five years, from 1922 to 1927. His teachers were A. Karaev, M. Matyushin, A. Savinov, A. Rylov. However, as Evgeniy Ivanovich later recalled, these were the most fruitless years for him. Charushin was not interested in the search for a new word in painting, as well as academic drawing. It was much more pleasant to go to the bird market or the zoo. The young artist at that time loved to dress in fashion. According to the recollections of Valentin Kurdov, his close friend, he wore colorful stockings and knee socks, and wore a short, colorful coat of dog fur.

Travel, work at the Leningrad State Publishing House

Taking the advice of V. Bianchi, in 1924 Evgeny Charushin went to Altai on an exciting journey together with Valentin Kurdov and Nikolai Kostrov.

In 1926, Charushin went to work at the Leningrad State Publishing House, in the children's department, which was headed by the famous artist. In those years, artists were given the task of creating fundamentally new books for the little inhabitants of the Soviet Union, highly artistic, but at the same time educational and informative. Lebedev liked Charushin’s painted animals, and he began to support him in every possible way in his creative quest.

Collaboration in magazines, first illustrations for books

Evgeniy Ivanovich by that time (since 1924) was already working at Murzilka, a children's magazine. A little later, he began working in "Hedgehog" (from 1928 to 1935) and in "Chizh" (from 1930 to 1941). Evgeny Charushin received his first order from the Leningrad State Publishing House in 1928 - to prepare the story “Murzuk” by V.V. Bianki. The very first book with his drawings attracted the attention of both young readers and connoisseurs of book graphics. An illustration from it was acquired by the State Tretyakov Gallery itself.

Charushin illustrated several more books in 1929: “Free Birds”, “Wild Beasts”, “How a Bear Became a Big Bear”. These works fully demonstrated Evgeny Charushin’s extraordinary skill in conveying the habits of animals. Orphaned little bear cub sitting on a branch; a ruffled crow about to peck at a bone; wild boars wandering with babies... All this and much more is drawn expressively, brightly, but at the same time succinctly and concisely. The artist, creating the image of the animal, was able to highlight the most important, characteristic features.

The first stories of Evgeny Charushin

Many illustrations were made by Evgeniy Ivanovich Charushin. The works of Bianchi, as well as S. Ya. Marshak, M. M. Prishvin and other famous writers with his drawings attracted many readers. At the same time, at the insistence of Marshak, he himself tried to compose short children's stories about the lives of animals. His first story appeared in 1930 (“Schur”). Already in this work, not only an excellent knowledge of the characters of various animals was revealed, but also a sense of humor. In all the other stories of Evgeniy Ivanovich, one can also feel a mischievous, soft, slightly ironic, or kindly condescending smile. Evgeniy Ivanovich Charushin is an illustrator and writer who sought to understand animals, their facial expressions and movements. His accumulated experience helped him convey this in words and illustrations. There is no fiction in what Evgeniy Ivanovich created - animals always do what is natural for them.

New books by Charushin and illustrations for them

Evgeniy Ivanovich Charushin, whose paintings were very famous at that time, began to illustrate his own works: “Different Animals” (1930), “Wolf and Others”, “Nikitka and His Friends”, “About Tomka”, “About big and small”, “My first zoology”, “Vaska”, “Bear cubs”, “About the Magpie”, etc. However, this turned out to be the most difficult, since, by Evgeniy Ivanovich’s own admission, it was much easier for him to illustrate other people’s texts than own. In the 1930s, Charushin was recognized as one of the best artists specializing in children's books. At that time, its design had already developed into a separate direction in art. M. Gorky spoke very warmly about Charushin’s stories. Working in the technique of color or monochrome watercolor drawing, Evgeniy Ivanovich recreated an entire landscape environment with one light, dynamic spot. His stories about animals are elegant and lexically simple.

More about Charushin's work

Charushin treated his readers with great respect. He was glad that the animals he drew were liked not by editors and critics, but by kids. Looking at Charushin’s books, we can safely say that both the illustrations and the texts themselves reflect the integral, unified inner world of their creator. The drawings and stories are informative, concise, strict and understandable to anyone, even a small child. In the collection “Chicks” (1930), consisting of short stories about owlets, corncrakes, and hazel grouse, Evgeny Charushin masterfully highlights the most striking and memorable features of the characters.

Charushin knew the habits of animals very well. In his illustrations he depicted them with extraordinary character and precision. Each of his drawings is individual, in each of them the character is depicted with his own special character, which corresponds to a particular situation. Charushin solved this problem responsibly. He said that if there is no image, there is nothing to depict. Charushinsky animals are emotional and touching. The background and environment are barely outlined in his early books. The main thing is to show the animal in close-up, and not only to create an artistic image, but also to portray the hero as truthfully as possible. Evgeniy Ivanovich did not like animals that were poorly drawn from a biological point of view. He also believed that drawings in a children's book should be breathing, alive. Evgeny Charushin did not like Ivan Bilibin, believing that he was not engaged in drawing, but in coloring dead, cold contours.

Many textures create the picturesque images of Charushin’s animals, which masterfully convey the fur of an animal and the feathers of a bird. It was most convenient to create picturesque, complex drawings using the lithography technique. Most often, the artist used natural pastel colors. He did not recognize lithographic rules and laws, temperamentally moving a pencil, scratching the lithographic stone with a razor and a needle. Many times Evgeniy Ivanovich could glue over the missing parts in the drawing or cover them with whitewash.

Evgeniy Charushin created about 20 books in the pre-war period. His biography was marked by the appearance of the following works: 1930 - “Chicks”; in 1931 - “Wolf and Others”, “Chicken City”, “Roundup”, “Jungle - Bird Paradise”; in 1935 - At the same time, he continued to illustrate such authors as S. Ya. Marshak, V. V. Bianki, M. M. Prishvin, A. I. Vvedensky.

War years

During the war, Charushin was evacuated from Leningrad to Kirov (Vyatka), his homeland. Here he created paintings on partisan themes, painted posters, designed performances, painted the walls of the kindergarten and the foyer of the House of Schoolchildren and Pioneers, and taught children to draw.

Charushin Evgeny Ivanovich: brief biography of the post-war years

The artist returned to Leningrad in 1945. In addition to working on books, he began creating a series of prints depicting animals. Charushin became interested in sculpture even before the war. He painted tea sets, and then, in peacetime, created porcelain animal figurines and even entire decorative groups. He tried a different approach to the design of books for children. Perspective began to appear in Charushin’s drawings, and space began to be designated. The technique also changed: he began to work in watercolor and gouache, but not with broad strokes, but working very carefully on small details. In 1945, Charushin became an Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

The last book he illustrated was “Children in a Cage” by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak. Charushin's works have now been translated into many languages ​​of the peoples of the former USSR, as well as a number of foreign countries. His prints, illustrations, books, and porcelain sculptures were exhibited at exhibitions in Paris, London, and Sofia. The total circulation of Evgeny Charushin's books exceeds 60 million copies.

On February 18, 1965, Evgeniy Charushin died in Leningrad. He was buried at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery.

Interesting stories by Evgeny Charushin about animals and birds. Stories about a smart raven, a wolf cub, and a devoted bulldog.

Stories for extracurricular reading in grades 1-4.

Evgeny Charushin. Volchishko

A little wolf lived in the forest with his mother.

One day my mother went hunting.

And a man caught the wolf, put it in a bag and brought it to the city. He placed the bag in the middle of the room.

The bag did not move for a long time. Then the little wolf wallowed in it and got out. He looked in one direction and got scared: a man was sitting, looking at him.

I looked in the other direction - the black cat was snorting, puffing up, twice his size, barely standing. And next to him the dog bares his teeth.

The little wolf was completely afraid. I reached back into the bag, but I couldn’t fit in - the empty bag lay on the floor like a rag.

And the cat puffed up, puffed up and hissed! He jumped on the table and knocked over the saucer. The saucer broke.

The dog barked.

The man shouted loudly: “Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

The little wolf hid under a chair and began to live and tremble there.

There is a chair in the middle of the room.

The cat looks down from the back of the chair.

The dog is running around the chair.

A man sits in a chair and smokes.

And the little wolf is barely alive under the chair.

At night the man fell asleep, and the dog fell asleep, and the cat closed his eyes.

Cats - they don’t sleep, they only doze.

The little wolf came out to look around.

He walked around, walked around, sniffed, and then sat down and howled.

The dog barked.

The cat jumped on the table.

The man on the bed sat up. He waved his arms and shouted. And the little wolf crawled under the chair again. I began to live there quietly.

In the morning the man left. He poured milk into a bowl. The cat and dog began to lap up milk.

The little wolf crawled out from under the chair, crawled to the door, and the door was open!

From the door to the stairs, from the stairs to the street, from the street across the bridge, from the bridge to the garden, from the garden to the field.

And behind the field there is a forest.

And in the forest there is a mother wolf.

And now the little wolf has become a wolf.

Evgeny Charushin. Yashka

I walked around the zoo, got tired and sat down to rest on a bench. In front of me was an aviary cage in which two large black crows lived - a raven and a crow. I sat, rested and smoked. And suddenly one raven jumped up to the very bars, looked at me and said in a human voice:

- Give Yasha some peas!

I was even scared and confused at first.

“What,” I say, “what do you want?”

- Peas! Peas! - the raven shouted again. - Give Yasha some peas!

I didn’t have any peas in my pocket, but only a whole cake wrapped in paper and a shiny new penny. I threw him a penny through the bars. Yasha took the money with his thick beak, galloped off to the corner with it and stuck it in some crack. I gave him the cake too. Yasha first fed the cake to the crow, and then ate his half himself.

What an interesting and smart bird! And I thought that only parrots could pronounce human words. And there, in the zoo, I learned that you can teach a magpie, a raven, a jackdaw, and even a little starling to speak.

This is how they are taught to speak.

It is necessary to put the bird in a small cage and be sure to cover it with a scarf so that the bird does not have fun. And then, slowly, in an even voice, repeat the same phrase - twenty, or even thirty times. After the lesson, you need to treat the bird with something tasty and release it into a large cage, where it always lives. That's all the wisdom.

This raven Yasha was taught to speak like that. And on the twentieth day of the training, as soon as he was put in a small cage and covered with a scarf, he hoarsely said from under the scarf, like a human being: “Give Yasha some peas! Give Yasha some peas!” Then they gave him peas. - Eat, Yashenka, for your health.

It must be very interesting to keep such a talking bird. Perhaps I’ll buy myself a magpie or a jackdaw and teach it to talk.

Evgeny Charushin. Faithful Troy

A friend and I agreed to go skiing. I went to pick him up in the morning. He lives in a big house - on Pestel Street.

I entered the yard. And he saw me from the window and waved his hand from the fourth floor.

- Wait, I’ll come out now.

So I’m waiting in the yard, at the door. Suddenly someone from above thunders down the stairs.

Knock! Thunder! Tra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! Something wooden is knocking and cracking on the steps, like some kind of ratchet.

“Is it really,” I think, “that my friend with skis and poles has fallen and is counting the steps?”

I came closer to the door. What is there rolling down the stairs? I am waiting.

And then I saw a spotted dog, a bulldog, coming out of the door. Bulldog on wheels.

His torso is bandaged to a toy car - a gas truck.

And the bulldog steps on the ground with its front paws - it runs and rolls itself.

The muzzle is snub-nosed and wrinkled. The paws are thick, widely spaced. He drove out of the door and looked around angrily. And then a ginger cat crossed the yard. Like a bulldog rushing after a cat - only the wheels are bouncing on the rocks and ice. He drove the cat into the basement window and drove around the yard, sniffing the corners.

Then I pulled out a pencil and a notebook, sat down on the step and let’s draw it.

My friend came out with skis, saw that I was drawing a dog, and said:

- Draw him, draw him - this is not an ordinary dog. Because of his bravery, he became crippled.

- How so? - I ask.

My friend stroked the bulldog along the folds on the scruff of the neck, gave him candy in his teeth and said to me:

“Come on, I’ll tell you the whole story along the way.” A wonderful story, you really won't believe it.

“So,” said the friend when we went out the gate, “listen.”

His name is Troy. In our opinion, this means faithful.

And it was right to call him that.

One day we all left for work. Everyone in our apartment serves: one is a teacher at school, another is a telegraph operator at the post office, the wives also serve, and the children study. Well, we all left, and Troy was left alone to guard the apartment.

Some thief found out that our apartment was empty, turned the lock on the door and started running our house.

He had a huge bag with him. He grabs everything he can find and puts it in a bag, grabs it and sticks it. My gun ended up in the bag, new boots, a teacher’s watch, Zeiss binoculars, and children’s felt boots.

He pulled on about six jackets, French jackets, and all sorts of jackets: there was obviously no room in the bag.

And Troy lies by the stove, is silent - the thief does not see him.

This is Troy’s habit: he’ll let anyone in, but he won’t let anyone out.

Well, the thief has robbed us all clean. I took the most expensive, the best. It's time for him to leave. He leaned towards the door...

And Troy is standing at the door.

He stands and is silent.

And what kind of face does Troy have?

And looking for a pile!

Troy is standing, frowning, his eyes are bloodshot, and a fang is sticking out of his mouth.

The thief was rooted to the floor. Try to leave!

And Troy grinned, leaned forward and began to advance sideways.

He approaches quietly. He always intimidates the enemy like this - whether a dog or a person.

The thief, apparently out of fear, was completely stunned, rushing around

He started talking to no avail, and Troy jumped on his back and bit through all six jackets on him at once.

You know how bulldogs have a death grip?

They will close their eyes, their jaws will slam shut, and they will not open their teeth, even if they were killed here.

The thief rushes about, rubbing his back against the walls. Flowers in pots, vases, books are thrown off the shelves. Nothing helps. Troy hangs on it like some kind of weight.

Well, the thief finally guessed, he somehow wriggled out of his six jackets and the whole sack, along with the bulldog, was out the window!

This is from the fourth floor!

The bulldog flew headfirst into the yard.

Slurry splashed to the sides, rotten potatoes, herring heads, all sorts of rubbish.

Troy and all our jackets ended up right in the trash heap. Our garbage dump was filled to the brim that day.

After all, what happiness! If he had hit the rocks, he would have broken all his bones and not made a sound. He would die immediately.

And here it’s as if someone deliberately set him up for a trash heap - still, it’s easier to fall.

Troy emerged from the trash heap and climbed out as if completely intact. And just think, he still managed to intercept the thief on the stairs.

He grabbed him again, this time in the leg.

Then the thief gave himself away, screamed and howled.

Residents came running to howl from all the apartments, from the third, and from the fifth, and from the sixth floor, from the entire back staircase.

- Hold the dog. Ooh! I'll go to the police myself. Just tear off the damned devil.

It's easy to say - tear it off.

Two people pulled the bulldog, and he only waved his stumpy tail and clamped his jaw even tighter.

The residents brought a poker from the first floor and stuck Troy between his teeth. It was only in this manner that they unclenched his jaws.

The thief came out into the street, pale and disheveled. He's shaking all over, holding on to the policeman.

“What a dog,” he says. - What a dog!

They took the thief to the police. There he told how it happened.

I come home from work in the evening. I see the lock on the door is turned inside out. There is a bag of our goods lying around in the apartment.

And in the corner, in his place, Troy lies. All dirty and smelly.

Current page: 1 (book has 3 pages in total)

Charushin Evgeniy Ivanovich

Stories about animals

Charushin E.I. Stories about animals.

What kind of animal?

The first snow fell. And everything around became white. The trees are white, the ground is white, and the roofs, and the porch, and the steps on the porch - everything is covered with snow. The girl Katya wanted to take a walk in the snow. So she went out onto the porch, wants to go down the steps into the garden and suddenly sees: on the porch, in the snow, some holes. Some animal was walking in the snow. And there are footprints on the steps, and there are footprints on the porch, and there are footprints in the garden.

“That’s interesting!” thought the girl Katya. “What kind of animal walked here? We need to find out.” Katya took the cutlet, put it on the porch and ran away. The day has passed, the night has passed. It's morning. Katya woke up and quickly went out to the porch to see if the animal had eaten her cutlet. He looks - the cutlet is intact! Where she put it, here it lies. And there were even more traces. This means the animal came again. Then Katya removed the cutlet and put a bone in its place. From soup. In the morning Katya runs out onto the porch again. He looks - the animal didn’t touch the bone either. So what kind of animal is this? And he doesn't eat bones. Then Katya put a red carrot instead of a seed. In the morning he looks - there are no carrots! The animal came and ate all the carrots! Then Katya's dad made a trap. He turned the box upside down on the porch, propped it up with a splinter, and tied a carrot to the splinter with twine. If you pull the carrot, the splinter will bounce off, the box will fall and cover the animal. The next day, dad went, and mom, and even grandma - they all went to see if the animal had fallen into a trap. And Katya is ahead of everyone. There is a beast in the trap! Someone slammed a box and fell off the stand! Katya looked into the crack and saw an animal sitting there. White-white, fluffy-fluffy, pink eyes, long ears, pressed into a corner, chewing on a carrot. It's a rabbit! They took him home to the kitchen. And then they made a big cage. And he began to live in it. And Katya fed him carrots, hay, oats and breadcrumbs.

Teddy Bear

The hunters killed three mother bears and sold three litters of cubs to the zoo.

At the zoo they were all put in one cage - brown, red, blackish, unequal in color and height - some larger, some smaller.

The smallest is the most gloomy. He sits in the corner, scratches his tummy, sucks his paw and grumbles all the time.

And others are funny: they fight, climb around the cage, flounder, scream, puff - shaggy, pot-bellied, big-headed, club-toed bear cubs.

One of them has outgrown everyone else, but he doesn’t really know how to eat.

His attendant feeds him with a pacifier. He will pour milk into a bottle, put a rag in the neck and give it to him. He touches the bottle and sucks. He doesn’t let anyone near him, he grumbles. It's so scary!

The other one, blackish, with a white bib spot, keeps climbing and climbing. He climbed along the iron bars of the cage to the ceiling. The rods are slippery - it can climb two inches, then slide back an inch. I climbed and climbed, got halfway, but couldn’t go any further. Tired. He works with his paws with all his might, squeals with anger, he wants to climb onto the ceiling, but nothing comes of it - he slides down.

Invented. He grabbed the iron rod with his teeth and hangs - his paws are resting.

He hung there, rested, and immediately reached the ceiling. Then he climbed up the ceiling, but fell, fell and screamed in a desperate voice.

The servant came running, took him in her arms, rocked him, stroked him.

Little Bear calmed down, smelled candy in his pocket, took it out and, together with the piece of paper, began to suck it and smack it.

They brought milk porridge to the cubs. Everyone was leaning on the trough, pushing, getting right into the mess, snapping, slurping, smacking, sniffling.

Suddenly someone screamed again.

Screaming at the top of his lungs, straining himself.

And this is the same sucker who doesn’t really know how to eat. He got out of the cage when the porridge was given, and climbed on the broom - the broom stood by the cage.

The bear climbed on the broom and fell down with it. He hurt himself on the floor, and even the broom stick hit him on the head.

He lies with his eyes closed and screams. But he doesn’t let go of the broom.

They gave him a pacifier again.

The cubs ate the porridge. They were taken out in such a way that you couldn’t recognize any color - everything was a mess. They became striped and spotted. Let's eat and let's play again.

I wanted to buy a bear cub, but I couldn’t: they don’t sell bear cubs at the zoo.

Bear fisherman

Last year I lived in Kamchatka all winter. But this is the very edge of our Motherland. There I celebrated spring. The Kamchatka spring begins interestingly, not our way.

As the streams run, as the Kamchatka rivers open up, the red lentil sparrow flies from India and everywhere sings its song with a clear, flute whistle:

Have you seen Chinook salmon?

Have you seen Chinook salmon?

Have you seen Chinook salmon?

And Chinook salmon is a type of salmon fish. And here the most interesting thing in the Kamchatka spring begins.

At this very time, all the fish from the ocean enter rivers and streams to spawn at the very sources, in running fresh water.

The fish come in herds, shoals, schools; the fish are climbing, hurrying, pushing, it’s obvious that it’s hard for them: their bellies are swollen, full of caviar or milk. Sometimes they swim so thickly that the lower ones crawl along the bottom, and the upper ones stick out of the water.

Oh, how many fish there are!

And they say that in the old days, when there were very few people in Kamchatka, the fish were even thicker. In the ancient records it is said that the oar stood in the rivers and went against the current “butt”.

Everyone is happy and making noise. And they also ask each other:

– Have you seen Chinook salmon?

– Have you seen Chinook salmon?

– Have you seen Chinook salmon?

And it will occasionally swim by - this Chinook salmon is a huge, precious salmon.

She swims along the bottom among small fish - pink salmon. It's like a pig and piglets are walking through the yard.

And after a few days, all these fish fall back into the salt water. Only she doesn’t swim in shoals, not in herds, but randomly, each in her own way. Some are tail first, and some are rolled along the bottom and rolled out onto the shore like a rotten log. All the fish are barely alive, sick, and dead. She spawned and became exhausted.

And now other fishermen are operating all over Kamchatka. Some croak, some quack, some growl, some meow.

Wild fishermen are fishing.

I think I’ll go into the forest, rest, and watch the forest fishermen. Somehow they get the job done. And he went far, far away from the village.

It's nice in the forest in spring! The birches are spreading their sticky leaves and standing transparent, as if not trees, but green smoke. Among them, dense spruce trees and tall junipers grow dark.

The air is clean, light, smells of spruce resin, young leaves, rotten earth.

And a choir of birds... And the flute sings, and the trill crumbles, and the tapping, and the whistling.

The sun is burning with all its might. And the shadow is still cold.

I approached the river bank, hid and immediately saw a fisherman.

Hey man, he's a hero! As tall as a sparrow. The fish is thirty times larger.

This is a bare-footed sandpiper fishing. There are fish running around, fussing, fussing, pecking. And the fish was thrown out of the water onto the shore - dead.

The sandpiper squeaks and minces with its feet.

Then two crows flew in. They scared off the sandpiper, but didn’t bother the fish themselves.

Apparently they've already eaten their fill. As soon as we sat down on the sandbank, we fell asleep. They sit, nosey, eyes closed. The seagulls flew in screaming and making noise. They began to gut this fish. One head remains.

How well I chose the place!

There is a sharp bend near the river, and everything that floats on top is thrown ashore by the water.

While I was here, three fish were washed ashore by the current.

I look - a fox is climbing down the rocks from the other bank. Such a lousy one. The fur hangs in clumps on the sides - Lisa Patrikeevna is shedding her winter coat.

She went down to the water, stealthily grabbed a nearby fish and hid with it behind a stone.

Then she appeared again, licking her lips. And she took away the second fish.

Suddenly barking, howling, and squealing arose: the village dogs came running and rushed from the cliff to the water, to the fox. Apparently they smelled it from above. Fox along the bank, up the bank - and into the forest. The dogs are behind her.

Well, I left. Who should I wait for here?

Not a single animal will come here now: it will be afraid of dog tracks.

Again I walked along streams and rivers.

I saw how another fox ate fish and savored it. I only ate the backs.

I also saw a big merganser - from a goose. He slept among the scraps. I swallowed a lot of fish.

And then I lay down and fell asleep unnoticed. It made me tired. I don’t know how long I slept. I just have a dream: it’s like I’m making some wonderful thing, maybe an airplane, or a thresher, or maybe some kind of tower. The dream appears in order: first I worked, then I got tired and also went to bed. He lay down and snored loudly and loudly.

And then in a dream I realize:

“How is this so? After all, I never snore. I do not know how".

And then everything somehow got confused for me. I’m already half awake, but I continue to dream that I’m lying down and snoring.

I know this is not true. I'm even angry.

I got angry, woke up, opened my eyes. What kind of miracle? I snore. I was even scared. How so? What's happened?

Then I woke up... No, it’s not me snoring... And it doesn’t look like snoring at all.

It’s someone growling nearby, snorting, splashing.

I raised my head. I look - a bear is sitting in the river. The big bear is an old Kamchadal. So much for sleeping with snoring!

But I don't have a gun. What to do? We need to clean up quickly.

I began to carefully, carefully crawl away from the river... And suddenly I touched some stone. This stone rolled and into the water - splash! I froze. I lie there, not breathing, and my eyes are closed. Now the bear is going to kill me. When he gets ashore, he sees, and that’s the end.

I lay there for a long time, afraid to move. Then I hear: as if everything is fine. The bear barks in the old place and grumbles. Didn't he hear the stone splash into the water?

Is he deaf or what?

I became bolder and looked out from behind the bushes. And then I looked a little closer and completely forgot my fear. This bear also caught fish. And how wonderful!

Mikhailo Ivanovich sits up to his neck in water, only his dry head sticks out of the water like a stump. His head is huge, shaggy, with a wet beard. He tilts it on one side, then on the other: he is looking for fish.

And the water is completely transparent, I can just see the bear, how he moves his paws there, and I see the bear’s body.

The fur is stuck to the body, and the bear’s body seems to be misaligned with its head. He turns out to be such a big-headed guy. Small and big-headed.

This bear is sitting. And suddenly he began to grab something in the water with his paws.

I see him taking out a pink salmon fish. He bit the pink salmon and... sat on it.

Why did he, I think, sit on a fish?

He sat down and sat in the water on a fish. Moreover, he checks with his paws: is it here, is it under him?

Now the second fish swims past, and the bear caught it. He bit it and also sits on it. And when he sat down, of course, he stood up. And the first fish was dragged away from under him by the current. I can see from above how this pink salmon rolled along the bottom. And how the bear barks! Lost fish. Oh you! It is not clear to him, poor fellow, what is being done with his reserve, where it goes. He will sit and sit, and then feel under him with his paw: is the fish here, has it run away? And as soon as he grabs the new one, I see again: the old one rolled out from under him and look for a fistula!

After all, in fact, what a shame: the fish are lost, and that’s it!

He sat on the fish for a long, long time, grumbled, even missed two fish, and did not dare to catch; I saw them sail by. Then again - once again! I picked up a pink salmon with my paw. And again everything is the same: the same fish are no longer there.

I’m lying on the shore, I want to laugh, but I can’t laugh. Try and laugh! Here the bear will eat you out of anger along with your buttons.

A huge, sleepy Chinook salmon was dragged onto the bear. He grabbed it and put it under him...

Well, of course, underneath it is empty.

Then the bear was so offended that he forgot the Chinook salmon and roared at the top of his lungs, just like a steam locomotive. He reared up, hit the water with his paws, knocking the water into foam. Roars and chokes.

Well, I couldn’t stand it either. How I'll laugh! How I want! The bear heard me and saw me. He stands in the water like a man, on two legs, and looks at me.

And it’s so funny to me that I’m no longer afraid of anything - I burst out laughing, waving my arms: go away, you fool, there’s no more urine! Leave!

And fortunately for me, that’s exactly what happened.

The bear barked, climbed out of the water, shook himself off and went into the forest.

And the Chinook salmon were again dragged by the current.

Punka and the birds

Cats are hunters. They love to catch birdies.

Our Punya is also not averse to hunting, but not at home. He doesn't bother anyone at home.

Once they brought me several songbirds in a small cage. Goldfinches, canaries.

“Where,” I think, “should I put them, what should I do with them?”

Released into the wild - it's blizzardy and frosty outside. In a cage is also not suitable.

I put a Christmas tree in the corner. Covered the furniture with pieces of paper to prevent them from getting dirty, and... do what you want. Just don't interfere with my work.

Goldfinches and canaries flew out of their cages and towards the Christmas tree.

They're crawling around in the tree, singing! Like!

Punka came, looked and was interested.

“Well,” I think, “now we need to catch Punka and throw him out of the room.”

The hunt will certainly begin.

But Punka only liked the Christmas tree. He sniffed it, but didn’t pay any attention to the birds.

Goldfinches and canaries are afraid. They don’t jump close to Punka.

And it doesn’t matter to him whether there are birds here or not. He lies down and sleeps near the Christmas tree.

But I still drove Punka away. Who knows. Even though he doesn’t look at the birds, he suddenly catches one.

Time has passed. The birds began to build nests: they were looking for different pieces of fluff, pulling threads out of rags.

Punka goes to see them. He sleeps with them. Goldfinches and canaries are not afraid of him: why be afraid of him if he doesn’t catch them.

And the little birds became so brave that they began to pull at Punka’s fur.

Punka is sleeping. And the birds pull the wool out of it.

Scary story

The boys Shura and Petya were left alone. They lived in a dacha - right next to the forest, in a small house. That evening, their father and mother went to visit their neighbors. When it got dark, Shura and Petya washed themselves, undressed themselves and went to bed in their own beds. They lie and are silent. There is no father or mother. It's dark in the room. And in the darkness someone is crawling along the wall - rustling; maybe a cockroach, or maybe someone else!... Shura says from her bed:

– I’m not scared at all.

“I’m not scared at all either,” Petya answers from the other bed.

“We are not afraid of thieves,” says Shura.

“We’re not afraid of cannibals either,” Petya answers.

“We’re not afraid of tigers either,” says Shura.

“They won’t come here,” Petya answers. And just Shura wanted to say that he is not afraid of crocodiles, when suddenly they hear - behind the door, in the entryway, someone quietly stamping their feet on the floor: stomp... stomp... stomp... splat. ... slap... stomp... stomp.... How Petya rushes onto Shura’s bed! They covered their heads with a blanket and clung to each other. They lie quietly so that no one can hear them.

“Don’t breathe,” Shura says to Petya.

- I'm not breathing.

Thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... And through the blanket you can still hear someone walking behind the door and puffing in addition . But then mom and dad came. They opened the porch, entered the house, and turned on the light. Petya and Shura told them everything. Then mom and dad lit another lamp and began to look around all the rooms, in all corners. There is no one. We arrived in the hallway. Suddenly, in the hallway along the wall, someone runs into the corner... He ran and curled up in the corner like a ball. They look - yes, it’s a hedgehog! He must have climbed into the house from the forest. They wanted to pick it up, but it twitched and stabbed with thorns. Then they rolled him up in a hat and took him to the closet. They gave me milk in a saucer and a piece of meat. And then everyone fell asleep. This hedgehog lived with the guys at the dacha all summer. He still puffed and stamped his feet at night, but no one was afraid of him anymore.

The Amazing Postman

The boy Vasya and his dad went to the dacha. But Vasya’s mother stayed in the city: she needed to buy something else. Mom wanted to come with shopping in the evening. Here comes the train. Vasya sits on a bench in the carriage next to his dad and looks out the window. And in the window there are trees, and fences, and different houses. A boy is also sitting on a bench opposite Vasya, with a watch on his left hand. He is carrying some kind of basket. This boy is already big; he is probably fifteen years old. As the train approaches the station, the boy will look at his watch, write something down in his notebook with a pencil, bend over his basket, pull something out of it and run out of the car. And then he comes again and sits, looking out the window. Vasya sat and sat, looked and looked at the boy with the basket, and suddenly he started crying at the top of his voice! He remembered that he had forgotten his bicycle at home.

- How can I live without a bicycle? - cries. “I spent the whole winter thinking about how I would ride through the forests on it.”

“Well, well, don’t cry,” said his dad. - Mom will go and bring you a bicycle.

“No, he won’t bring it,” Vasya cries. - She doesn't love him. It creaks...

“Well, boy, stop, don’t cry,” the boy with the watch on his hand suddenly said. - I’ll arrange this for you now. I myself love to ride a bike. Only it is real, two-wheeled. Do you have a telephone at home? - he asks Vasya’s dad.

“Yes,” dad answers. - Number five fifty-five zero six.

“Well, everything’s okay,” says the boy. – We will urgently send a postman with a letter. He pulled out a tiny paper ribbon from a thin piece of tissue from his pocket and wrote on it: “Call 5-55-06, tell him: “Mom needs to take Vasya’s bicycle to the dacha.” Then he put this letter in some shiny little tube, I opened my basket and there, in the basket, sat a dove - long-nosed, gray.

The boy pulled out a pigeon and tied a tube with a letter to its leg.

“Here is my postman,” he says. - Ready to fly. Look.

And as soon as the train stopped at the station, the boy looked at his watch, noted the time in his notebook and released the dove out the window. The dove flies straight up - that’s all they saw!

“I’m teaching carrier pigeons today,” says the boy. – At each station I release one and record the time. The dove will fly straight to the city, to its dovecote. And there they are waiting for him. And on this last one, they will see the tube, read the letter and call you at your apartment. If only the hawk didn't catch him along the way. And it’s true: Vasya arrived at the dacha, waited and waited for his mother - and in the evening his mother arrived with a bicycle. We received a letter. This means that the hawk did not catch the dove.

Cat Epifan

Good and free on the Volga River! Look how wide it is! The other shore is barely visible! This living, flowing water sparkles. And the whole sky looks like this water: clouds, and blue azure, and little sandpipers that, whistling, fly in a bunch from sand to sand, and flocks of geese and ducks, and an airplane on which a man flies somewhere on his business, and white steamships with black smoke, and barges, and shores, and a rainbow in the sky. You look at this flowing sea, you look at the walking clouds, and it seems to you that the shores are also going somewhere - they are also walking and moving, like everyone else around. There, on the Volga, in a dugout, on the very Volga bank - in a steep cliff, lives a watchman-buoy. If you look from the river, you will only see a window and a door. You look from the shore - one iron pipe sticks out of the grass. His whole house is in the ground, like an animal hole. Steamboats sail along the Volga day and night. Tugboats puff, smoke, pull barges behind them on ropes, carry various cargoes or drag long rafts. They slowly rise against the current, splashing through the water with their wheels. Here comes a steamer, carrying apples, and the whole Volga will smell of sweet apples. Or it smells like fish, which means they are bringing roach from Astrakhan. Mail and passenger ships, one-story and two-story, are running. These float on their own. But the fastest ships are double-decker fast steamers with a blue ribbon on the funnel. They stop only at large piers, and after them high waves spread across the water and roll across the sand. An old buoy keeper places red and white buoys along the river near the shoals and riffles. These are floating wicker baskets with a lantern on top. Buoys show the right path. At night the old man rides a boat, lights the lanterns on the buoys, and puts them out in the morning. And at other times the old beacon keeper fishes. He is an avid fisherman. One day the old man was fishing all day. I caught some fish in my ear: bream, white bream, and ruff. And he came back. He opened the door to the dugout and looked: that’s the thing! It turns out that a guest has come to see him! An all-white, fluffy cat sits on the table next to a pot of potatoes. The guest saw the owner, arched his back and began to rub his side against the pot. His entire white side was stained with soot.

– Where did you come from, from what areas? And the cat purrs and squints his eyes and stains his side even more, rubbing it with soot. And his eyes are different. One eye is completely blue, and the other is completely yellow.

“Well, help yourself,” said the beacon keeper and gave the cat a ruff. The cat grabbed the fish in his claws, purred a little and ate it. He ate it and licked his lips - apparently he still wants it. And the cat ate four more fish. And then he jumped onto the old man’s hay and dozed off. Lounging on the hay field, purring, stretching out one paw, then the other, putting out claws on one paw, then on the other. And he apparently liked it so much that he ended up living with the old man. And the old beacon keeper is happy. It's much more fun together. And so they began to live. The baker had no one to talk to before, but now he began to talk to the cat, calling him Epifan. Before there was no one to fish with, but now the cat began to go boating with him. He sits in the stern of the boat and seems to be in charge. In the evening the old man says:

- Well, Epifanushka, isn’t it time for us to light the buoys, because, perhaps, it will be dark soon? If we don’t light the buoys, our ships will run aground. And the cat seems to know what it is to light beacons. Without saying a word, he goes to the river, climbs into the boat and waits for the old man when he comes with oars and kerosene for lanterns. They will go, light the lanterns on the buoys - and back. And they fish together. An old man is fishing, and Epifan is sitting next to him. The cat caught a small fish. I caught a big one - in the old man's ear. That's how it happened. They serve together and fish together. One day, the beacon keeper was sitting with his cat Epifan on the shore and fishing. And then some fish bit hard. The old man pulled it out of the water and looked: it was a greedy brush that swallowed a worm. It's as tall as a little finger, but it jerks like a big pike. The old man took it off the hook and handed it to the cat.

“Here,” he says, “Epifasha, chew a little.” But Epifasha doesn’t exist. What is it, where did it go? Then the old man sees that his cat has gone far, far along the shore, whitening on the rafts. “Why did he go there,” thought the old man, “and what is he doing there? I’ll go and take a look.” He looks and his cat Epifan catches fish himself. He lies flat on a log, puts his paw in the water, doesn’t move, doesn’t even blink. And when the fish swam out in a school from under the log, he - one! - and picked up one fish with his claws. The old beacon keeper was very surprised.

“What a trickster you are,” he says, “what an Epifan, what a fisherman!” Well, catch me,” he says, “a sterlet in my ear, and a fatter one.” But the cat doesn’t even look at him. He ate the fish, moved to another place, and again lay down from the log to fish. Since then, this is how they fish: separately - and each in their own way. The fisherman uses tackle and a fishing rod with a hook, and the cat Epiphanes uses his paw and claws. And the beacons are lit together.