There is a stork's nest on the roof of the outermost house in a small town. In it sat a mother with four chicks, which were sticking out their little black beaks from the nest - they had not yet had time to blush. Not far from the nest, on the very ridge of the roof, stood, stretched out to a string and tucked under one leg, the father himself; he tucked his leg so as not to stand idle on the clock. One might think that he was carved from wood, before that he was motionless.
“This is important, so important! He thought. - There is a sentry at my wife's nest! Who knows that I am her husband? They might think that I'm on duty here. That's what is important! " And he continued to stand on one leg.
Children were playing in the street; seeing a stork, the most mischievous of the boys sung, as he could and remembered, an old song about storks; all the others followed him:
| Stork, white stork, Why do you stand the whole day, Like a sentry, On one leg? Or do you want to protect your children ? In vain you bother - We will catch them! We'll hang one, We'll throw the other into the pond, We'll slaughter the Third, We'll throw the youngest alive On the fire And we won't ask you! |
- Listen to what the boys are singing! - said the chicks. - They say that we will be hanged and drowned!
- Don't pay attention to them! Their mother told them. - Just don't listen, nothing will happen!
But the little boys did not stop, sang and teased the storks; only one of the boys, named Peter, did not want to pester his comrades, saying that it was a sin to tease animals. And the mother consoled the chicks.
- Never mind! She said. - Look how calmly your father stands, and it is on one leg!
- And we are scared! - said the chicks and deeply buried their heads in the nest.
The next day, the children again poured out into the street, saw the storks and sang again:
We'll hang one, throw another into the pond ... |
- So we will be hanged and drowned? The chicks asked again.
- No, no! - answered the mother. - But soon we will start learning! You need to learn to fly! When you learn, we will go with you to the meadow to visit the frogs. They will squat in front of us in the water and sing: "kva-kva-kva!" And we will eat them - that will be fun!
- And then? The chicks asked.
- Then all of us, storks, will gather for the autumn maneuvers. Then you have to be able to fly properly! It is very important! The general will pierce the one who will fly badly with his sharp beak! Now, try your best when the learning begins!
- So they will kill us all the same, as the boys said! Listen, they are singing again!
- Listen to me, not them! - said the mother, - After the maneuvers, we will fly away from here far, far, beyond the high mountains, beyond the dark forests, to the warm lands, to Egypt! There are triangular stone houses; their tops abut against the very clouds, and they call them pyramids. They were built a long time ago, so long ago that no stork could even imagine! There is also a river that overflows, and then the entire bank is covered with silt! You walk on silt and eat frogs!
- O! - said the chicks.
- Yes! That's lovely! There, day after day, you just do what you eat. But while we will be so good there, not a single leaf will remain on the trees, it will be so cold that the clouds will freeze in pieces and fall to the ground with white crumbs!
She wanted to tell them about the snow, but she could not explain it well.
- And these bad boys, too, will freeze in pieces? The chicks asked.
- No, they will not freeze in pieces, but they will have to freeze. They will sit and get bored in a dark room and will not dare to stick their nose out into the street! And you will be flying in foreign lands, where flowers bloom and the warm sun shines brightly.
A little time passed, the chicks grew up, they could already get up in the nest and look around. Every day the stork dad brought them nice frogs, little snakes, and all kinds of other delicacies he could get his hands on. And how he amused the chicks with various funny things! He pulled out his tail with his head, clicked his beak, as if there was a rattle in his throat, and told them various swamp stories.
- Well, now it's time to start learning! - the mother told them one fine day, and all four chicks had to crawl out of the nest onto the roof. My priests, how they staggered, balanced with their wings, and yet they almost fell off!
- Look at me! - said the mother. - Head like this, legs like this! One or two! One or two!
Here's what will help you pave your way in life! - and she made several flaps of her wings. The chicks jumped awkwardly and - bam! - they all stretched out!
They were still hard to climb.
- I do not want to study! - said one chick and scrambled back into the nest. - I do not want to fly to warm lands!
- So you want to freeze here in winter? Do you want the boys to come and hang, drown or burn you? Wait, I'll call them now!
- Ay, no, no! - said the chick and again jumped onto the roof.
On the third day, they already somehow flew and imagined that they could also stay in the air on spread wings. “There's no need to wave them all the time,” they said. - You can have a rest. And so they did, but ... immediately flopped onto the roof. I had to work with the wings again.
At this time, the boys gathered in the street and sang:
| Stork, white stork! |
- And what, let's fly off and peck out their eyes? The chicks asked.
- No, don't! - said the mother. - Listen better than me, this is much more important! One two Three! Now let's fly to the right; one two Three! Now to the left, around the pipe! Excellent! The last flap of the wings was so wonderful that I will allow you to go with me to the swamp tomorrow. Many other lovely families with children will gather there - so show yourself! I want you to be the cutest of them all. Keep your heads up, so much prettier and more impressive!
- But are we really not going to take revenge on these bad boys? The chicks asked.
- Let them shout to themselves what they want! You will fly to the clouds, see the land of the pyramids, and they will freeze here in winter, they will not see a single green leaf, not a sweet apple!
- And we will take revenge all the same! - the chicks whispered to each other and continued learning.
The smallest of all the kids was the smallest, the one who was the first to start singing a song about storks. He was no more than six years old, although the chicks thought he was a hundred years old - after all, he was much larger than their father and mother, and what did the chicks know about the years of children and adults! And so all the revenge of the chicks was to fall on this boy, who was the instigator and the most restless of the scoffers. The chicks were terribly angry with him and the more they grew up, the less they wanted to take offense from him. In the end, the mother had to promise them some way to take revenge on the little boy, but not earlier than just before their departure to the warmer climes.
- Let's first see how you will behave on large maneuvers! If things go wrong and the general pierces your chest with his beak, the boys will be right. We'll see!
- You will see! - said the chicks and diligently began to exercise. Every day things went better and better, and finally they began to fly so easily and beautifully that they just love it! Autumn has come; storks began to prepare for the winter flight to warm regions. That's how the maneuvers started! Storks flew back and forth over forests and lakes: they had to test themselves - after all, there was a huge journey ahead! Our chicks distinguished themselves and received on the test not zero with a tail, but twelve each with a frog and a snake! It could not have been better than this score for them: frogs and snakes could have been eaten, which they did.
- Now we will take revenge! They said.
- Good! - said the mother. - This is what I came up with - this will be the best. I know where is the pond in which little children sit until the stork takes them and takes them to dad and mom. Adorable tiny babies sleep and have wonderful dreams that they will never see again after. All parents really want to have such a baby, and all children - a tiny brother or sister. Let's fly to the pond, take the babies from there and carry them to those children who did not tease storks; bad scoffers will get nothing!
- And the evil one who first began to tease us, what will happen to him? - asked the young storks.
- There is one dead child in the pond, he fell asleep to death; we will take it to the evil boy. Let him cry when he sees that we brought him a dead brother. But to that kind boy - I hope you have not forgotten him - who said that it is a sin to tease animals, we will bring both brother and sister at once. His name is Peter, and we will also be called Peter in his honor!
As it was said, it was done, and since then all the storks have been called Peters.
0 yorum :
Post a Comment