The author of the work is Vitya Maleev at school. Audio story by Vitya Maleev at school and at home listen online

Nikolay Nosov

Vitya Maleev

at school and at home

Drawings by Yu. Pozin.

CHAPTER FIRST

I don’t want to ruin your summer,” she said. - I will transfer you this way, but you must promise that you will study arithmetic yourself in the summer.

I, of course, made a promise, but as soon as classes were over, all arithmetic jumped out of my head, and I probably would not have remembered it if it had not been time to go to school. I was ashamed that I had not fulfilled my promise, but now nothing can be done anyway.

Well, that means the holidays have flown by! One fine morning - it was the first of September - I got up early, put my books in my bag and went to school. On this day, as they say, there was great excitement on the street. All the boys and girls, both big and small, as if on command, poured out into the street and walked to school. They walked one by one, two by two, and even whole groups of several people. Some walked slowly, like me, others rushed headlong, as if towards a fire. The kids brought flowers to decorate the classroom. The girls screamed. And some of the guys squealed and laughed too. Everyone had fun. And I had fun. I was glad that I would see my pioneer squad again, all the pioneer children from our class and our counselor Volodya, who worked with us last year. It seemed to me as if I was a traveler who had long ago left on a long journey, and was now returning home and was about to soon see his native shores and the familiar faces of family and friends.

But still, I was not entirely happy, since I knew that among my old school friends I would not meet Fedya Rybkin, my best friend, with whom I sat at the same desk last year. He recently left our city with his parents, and now no one knows whether we will ever see him or not.

And I was also sad, because I didn’t know what I would say to Olga Nikolaevna if she asked me if I studied arithmetic in the summer. Oh, this is arithmetic for me! Because of her, my mood completely deteriorated.

The bright sun shone in the sky like summer, but the cool autumn wind tore yellowed leaves from the trees. They spun in the air and fell down. The wind drove them along the sidewalk, and it seemed that the leaves were also in a hurry somewhere.

From a distance I saw a large red poster above the entrance to the school. It was covered on all sides with garlands of flowers, and on it was written in large white letters: “Welcome!” I remembered that the same poster hung here on this day last year, and the year before, and on the day when I came to school for the first time as a very small child. And I remembered all the past years. How we were in first grade and dreamed of growing up quickly and becoming pioneers.

I remembered all this, and some kind of joy stirred in my chest, as if something good had happened! My legs began to walk faster of their own accord, and I could barely restrain myself from starting to run. But this didn’t suit me: after all, I’m not some first grader - after all, I’m still a fourth grader!

The school yard was already full of children. The guys gathered in groups. Each class is separate. I quickly found my class. The guys saw me and ran towards me with a joyful cry and began clapping me on the shoulders and back. I didn’t think that everyone would be so happy about my arrival.

Where is Fedya Rybkin? - asked Grisha Vasiliev.

Really, where is Fedya? - the guys shouted. - You always went together. Where did you lose it?

“No Fedya,” I answered. - He will no longer study with us.

He left our city with his parents.

How so?

Very simple.

Aren't you lying? - asked Alik Sorokin.

Here's another! I'll lie!

The guys looked at me and smiled incredulously.

Guys, Vanya Pakhomov is not there either,” said Lenya Astafiev.

And Seryozha Bukatin! - the guys shouted.

Maybe they also left, but we don’t know,” said Tolya Dezhkin.

Then, as if in response to this, the gate opened, and we saw Vanya Pakhomov approaching us

Hooray! - we shouted.

Everyone ran towards Vanya and attacked him.

Let me in! - Vanya fought us off. - You’ve never seen a person in your life, or what?

But everyone wanted to pat him on the shoulder or on the back. I also wanted to slap him on the back, but I hit the back of the head by mistake.

Oh, so you still have to fight! - Vanya got angry and began to struggle away from us with all his might.

But we surrounded him even more tightly.

I don’t know how it would all end, but then Seryozha Bukatin came. Everyone abandoned Vanya to the mercy of fate and attacked Bukatin.

Now, it seems, everything is already assembled,” said Zhenya Komarov.

Or maybe that's not true. So we’ll ask Olga Nikolaevna.

Believe it or not. I really need to cheat! - I said.

The guys began to look at each other and tell how they spent the summer. Some went to a pioneer camp, some lived with their parents in the country. We all grew up and got tanned over the summer. But Gleb Skameikin got the most tan. His face looked as if he had been smoked over a fire. Only his light eyebrows sparkled.

Where did you get that tan? - Tolya Dezhkin asked him. - You probably lived in a pioneer camp the whole summer?

No. First I was in a pioneer camp, and then I went to Crimea.

How did you get to Crimea?

Very simple. At the factory, dad was given a ticket to a holiday home, and he came up with the idea that mom and I should go too.

So, have you visited Crimea?

I visited.

Have you seen the sea?

I also saw the sea. I saw everything.

The guys surrounded Gleb from all sides and began to look at him like he was some kind of curiosity.

Well, tell me what the sea is like. Why are you silent? - said Seryozha Bucatin.

The sea is big,” Gleb Skameikin began to tell. “It’s so big that if you stand on one bank, you can’t even see the other bank.” On one side there is a shore, but on the other side there is no shore. That's a lot of water, guys! In a word, just water! And the sun is so hot there that all my skin has peeled off.

Honestly! I myself was even scared at first, and then it turned out that under this skin I had another skin. So now I walk around in this second skin.

Yes, you’re not talking about the skin, but about the sea!

Now I’ll tell you... The sea is huge! And there is an abyss of water in the sea! In a word - a whole sea of water.

It is not known what else Gleb Skameikin would have told about the sea, but at that time Volodya came up to us. Well, there was a cry! Everyone surrounded him. Everyone was in a hurry to tell him something about themselves. Everyone asked whether he would be our counselor this year or if they would give us someone else.

Page 1 of 21

Vitya Maleev at school and at home (Chapter 1)

Just think how quickly time flies! Before I knew it, the holidays were over and it was time to go to school. All summer I did nothing but run around the streets and play football, and I even forgot to think about books. That is, I sometimes read books, but not educational ones, but some kind of fairy tales or stories, and so that I could study Russian or arithmetic - this was not possible. I was already a good student in Russian, but I didn’t like arithmetic. The worst thing for me was solving problems. Olga Nikolaevna even wanted to give me a summer job in arithmetic, but then she regretted it and transferred me to the fourth grade without work.
“I don’t want to ruin your summer,” she said. “I’ll transfer you this way, but you must promise that you will study arithmetic yourself in the summer.”
I, of course, made a promise, but as soon as classes were over, all arithmetic jumped out of my head, and I probably would not have remembered it if it had not been time to go to school. I was ashamed that I had not fulfilled my promise, but now nothing can be done anyway.
Well, that means the holidays have flown by! One fine morning - it was the first of September - I got up early, put my books in my bag and went to school. On this day, as they say, there was great excitement on the street. All the boys and girls, both big and small, as if on command, poured out into the street and walked to school. They walked one by one, two by two, and even whole groups of several people. Some walked slowly, like me, others rushed headlong, as if towards a fire. The kids brought flowers to decorate the classroom. The girls screamed. And some of the guys squealed and laughed too. Everyone had fun. And I had fun. I was glad that I would see my pioneer squad again, all the pioneer children from our class and our counselor Volodya, who worked with us last year. It seemed to me as if I was a traveler who had long ago left on a long journey, and was now returning home and was about to soon see his native shores and the familiar faces of family and friends.
But still, I was not entirely happy, since I knew that among my old school friends I would not meet Fedya Rybkin, my best friend, with whom I sat at the same desk last year. He recently left our city with his parents, and now no one knows whether we will ever see him or not.
And I was also sad, because I didn’t know what I would say to Olga Nikolaevna if she asked me if I studied arithmetic in the summer. Oh, this is arithmetic for me! Because of her, my mood completely deteriorated.
The bright sun shone in the sky like summer, but the cool autumn wind tore yellowed leaves from the trees. They spun in the air and fell down. The wind drove them along the sidewalk, and it seemed that the leaves were also in a hurry somewhere.
From a distance I saw a large red poster above the entrance to the school. It was covered on all sides with garlands of flowers, and on it was written in large white letters: “Welcome!” I remembered that the same poster hung here on this day last year, and the year before, and on the day when I came to school for the first time as a very small child. And I remembered all the past years. How we were in first grade and dreamed of growing up quickly and becoming pioneers.
I remembered all this, and some kind of joy stirred in my chest, as if something good had happened! My legs began to walk faster of their own accord, and I could barely restrain myself from starting to run. But this didn’t suit me: after all, I’m not some first grader - after all, I’m still a fourth grader!
The school yard was already full of children. The guys gathered in groups. Each class is separate. I quickly found my class. The guys saw me and ran towards me with a joyful cry and began clapping me on the shoulders and back. I didn’t think that everyone would be so happy about my arrival.
- Where is Fedya Rybkin? - asked Grisha Vasiliev.
- Really, where is Fedya? - the guys shouted. - You always went together. Where did you lose it?
“Fedya is gone,” I answered. - He will no longer study with us.
- Why?
— He left our city with his parents.
- How so?
- Very simple.
- Aren’t you lying? - asked Alik Sorokin.
- Here's another! I'll lie!
The guys looked at me and smiled incredulously.
“Guys, Vanya Pakhomov is not there either,” said Lenya Astafiev.
- And Seryozha Bukatin! - the guys shouted.
“Maybe they also left, but we don’t know,” said Tolya Dezhkin.
Then, as if in response to this, the gate opened, and we saw Vanya Pakhomov approaching us.
- Hooray! - we shouted.
Everyone ran towards Vanya and attacked him.
- Let me in! - Vanya fought us off. “You’ve never seen a person in your life, or what?”
But everyone wanted to pat him on the shoulder or on the back. I also wanted to slap him on the back, but I hit the back of the head by mistake.
- Oh, so you still have to fight! - Vanya got angry and began to struggle away from us with all his might.
But we surrounded him even more tightly.
I don’t know how it would all end, but then Seryozha Bukatin came. Everyone abandoned Vanya to the mercy of fate and attacked Bukatin.
“Now, it seems, everything is already assembled,” said Zhenya Komarov.
“Everyone, except for Fedya Rybkin,” answered Igor Grachev.
- How can we count him if he left?
- Or maybe it’s not true. So we’ll ask Olga Nikolaevna.
- Believe it or not. I really need to cheat! - I said.
The guys began to look at each other and tell how they spent the summer. Some went to a pioneer camp, some lived with their parents in the country. We all grew up and got tanned over the summer. But Gleb Skameikin got the most tan. His face looked as if he had been smoked over a fire. Only his light eyebrows sparkled.
- Where did you get such a tan? - Tolya Dezhkin asked him. — You probably lived in a pioneer camp the whole summer?
- No. First I was in a pioneer camp, and then I went to Crimea.
— How did you get to Crimea?
- Very simple. At the factory, dad was given a ticket to a holiday home, and he came up with the idea that mom and I should go too.
— So you’ve been to Crimea?
- I visited.
-Have you seen the sea?
- I also saw the sea. I saw everything.
The guys surrounded Gleb from all sides and began to look at him like he was some kind of curiosity.
- Well, tell me what the sea is like. Why are you silent? - said Seryozha Bucatin.
“The sea is big,” Gleb Skameikin began to tell. “It’s so big that if you stand on one bank, you can’t even see the other bank.” On one side there is a shore, but on the other side there is no shore. That's a lot of water, guys! In a word, just water! And the sun is so hot there that all my skin has peeled off.
- You're lying!
- Honestly! I myself was even scared at first, and then it turned out that under this skin I had another skin. So now I walk around in this second skin.
- Yes, you’re not talking about the skin, but about the sea!
- Now I’ll tell you... The sea is huge! And there is an abyss of water in the sea! In a word - a whole sea of water.
It is not known what else Gleb Skameikin would have told about the sea, but at that time Volodya came up to us. Well, there was a cry! Everyone surrounded him. Everyone was in a hurry to tell him something about themselves. Everyone asked whether he would be our counselor this year or if they would give us someone else.
- What are you guys doing? But would I give you to someone else? We will work with you as we did last year. Well, if I bore you myself, then it’s a different matter! Volodya laughed.
- You? Are you bored?.. - we all shouted at once. - We will never tire of you in our lives! We always have fun with you!
Volodya told us how in the summer he and his fellow Komsomol members went on a trip along the river in a rubber boat. Then he said that he would see us again and went to his fellow high school students. He also wanted to talk to his friends. We were sorry that he left, but then Olga Nikolaevna came up to us. Everyone was very happy to see her.
— Hello, Olga Nikolaevna! - we shouted in unison.
- Hello, guys, hello! - Olga Nikolaevna smiled. - Well, have you had some fun over the summer?
- Let's go for a walk, Olga Nikolaevna!
- We had great rest?
- Fine.
- Aren't you tired of resting?
- I'm tired of it, Olga Nikolaevna! I want to study!
- That's fine!
- And I, Olga Nikolaevna, rested so much that I was even tired! If only a little more I would have been completely exhausted,” said Alik Sorokin.
- And you, Alik, I see, have not changed. The same joker as last year.
- The same, Olga Nikolaevna, only grown a little
“Well, you’ve grown up quite a bit,” Olga Nikolaevna grinned.
“I just haven’t gotten the hang of it,” added Yura Kasatkin. The whole class snorted loudly.
“Olga Nikolaevna, Fedya Rybkin will no longer study with us,” said Dima Balakirev.
- I know. He left with his parents for Moscow.
- Olga Nikolaevna, and Gleb Skameikin was in Crimea and saw the sea.
- That's good. When we write an essay, Gleb will write about the sea.
- Olga Nikolaevna, his skin came off.
- From whom?
- From Glebka.
- Oh, okay, okay. We'll talk about this later, but now line up, we have to go to class soon.
We lined up. All the other classes lined up too. Director Igor Aleksandrovich appeared on the school porch. He congratulated us on the start of the new school year and wished all the students good success in this new school year. Then the class teachers began to separate the students into classes. The youngest students went first - the first graders, followed by the second grade, then the third, and then we, and the senior grades followed us.
Olga Nikolaevna led us to class. All the guys decided to sit down like last year, so I ended up at the desk alone, I didn’t have a partner. It seemed to everyone that this year we had a small class, much smaller than last year.
“The class is the same as last year, exactly the same size,” Olga Nikolaevna explained. “You’ve all grown up over the summer, so it seems to you that the class is smaller.”
It was true. Then I deliberately went to see the third grade during recess. It was exactly the same as the fourth one.
At the first lesson, Olga Nikolaevna said that in the fourth grade we would have to work much more than before - so we would have a lot of subjects. In addition to the Russian language, arithmetic and other subjects that we had last year, we are now adding geography, history and natural science. Therefore, you need to take up your studies properly from the very beginning of the year. We wrote down the lesson schedule. Then Olga Nikolaevna said that we need to choose a class leader and his assistant.
- Gleb Skameikin is the headman! Gleb Skameikin! - the guys shouted.
- Quiet! What a noise! Don't you know how to choose? Anyone who wants to speak must raise their hand.
We began to choose in an organized manner and chose Gleb Skameikin as headman, and Shura Malikov as assistant.
At the second lesson, Olga Nikolaevna said that first we will repeat what we covered last year, and she will check who forgot what over the summer. She immediately started checking, and it turned out that I had even forgotten the multiplication table. That is, not all of it, of course, but only from the end. I remembered well up to seven seven forty-nine, but then I got confused.
- Eh, Maleev, Maleev! - said Olga Nikolaevna. “It’s clear that you haven’t even picked up a book over the summer!”
This is my last name Maleev. When Olga Nikolaevna is angry, she always calls me by my last name, and when she is not angry, she simply calls me Vitya.
I noticed that for some reason it is always more difficult to study at the beginning of the year. The lessons seem long, as if someone is deliberately dragging them out. If I were the main boss of schools, I would do something so that classes would not start immediately, but gradually, so that the children would gradually get out of the habit of going out for walks and gradually get used to the lessons. For example, you could make it so that in the first week there was only one lesson, in the second week - two lessons, in the third - three, and so on. Or it could also be done so that in the first week there are only easy lessons, for example physical education, in the second week you can add singing to physical education, in the third week you can add Russian, and so on until it comes to arithmetic. Maybe someone will think that I'm lazy and don't like studying at all, but that's not true. I really like to study, but it’s difficult for me to start working right away: I’d be walking and walking, and then suddenly the car stops - let’s study.
In the third lesson we had geography. I thought that geography was some very difficult subject, like arithmetic, but it turned out that it was quite easy. Geography is the science of the Earth on which we all live; about what mountains and rivers, what seas and oceans are on Earth. I used to think that our Earth was flat, like a pancake, but Olga Nikolaevna said that the Earth is not flat at all, but round, like a ball. I had heard about this before, but I thought that these were perhaps fairy tales or some kind of fiction. But now we know for sure that these are not fairy tales. Science has established that our Earth is a huge, huge ball, and people live around this ball. It turns out that the Earth attracts all people and animals and everything that is on it, so the people who live below do not fall anywhere. And here’s another interesting thing: those people who live below walk upside down, that is, upside down, but they themselves don’t notice it and imagine that they are walking correctly. If they lower their heads down and look at their feet, they will see the ground on which they are standing, and if they lift their heads up, they will see the sky above them. That's why it seems to them that they are walking correctly.
We had a little fun in geography, and an interesting incident happened in the last lesson. The bell had already rung and Olga Nikolaevna came to the class, when suddenly the door opened and a completely unfamiliar student appeared on the threshold. He stood hesitantly near the door, then bowed to Olga Nikolaevna and said:
- Hello!
“Hello,” Olga Nikolaevna answered. - What do you want to say?
- Nothing.
“Why did you come if you don’t want to say anything?”
- So simple.
- I don’t understand you!
- I came to study. This is fourth grade, isn't it?
- Here.
- So I need to go to the fourth.
- So you must be a newbie?
- Newbie.
Olga Nikolaevna looked at the magazine:
- Your last name is Shishkin?
- Shishkin, and his name is Kostya.
- Why did you, Kostya Shishkin, come so late? Don't you know that you have to go to school in the morning?
- I came in the morning. I was just late for my first lesson.
— For the first lesson? And now it's the fourth. Where have you been for two lessons?
- I was there... in fifth grade.
- Why did you end up in fifth grade?
“I came to school, I heard the bell ring, the kids were running to class in a crowd... Well, I followed them, so I ended up in fifth grade.” At recess, the guys ask: “Are you new?” I say: “Newbie.” They didn’t tell me anything, and it wasn’t until the next lesson that I realized that I was in the wrong class. Here.
“Sit down and don’t end up in someone else’s class again,” said Olga Nikolaevna.
Shishkin came up to my desk and sat down next to me, because I was sitting alone and the seat was free.
Throughout the lesson, the guys looked back at him and chuckled quietly. But Shishkin did not pay attention to this and pretended that nothing funny had happened to him. His lower lip protruded slightly forward, and his nose somehow turned up of its own accord. This gave him a kind of contemptuous look, as if he was proud of something.
After lessons, the guys surrounded him from all sides.
- How did you get into fifth grade? Didn't the teacher check the kids? asked Slava Vedernikov.
- Maybe she checked it in the first lesson, but I came to the second lesson.
- Why didn’t she notice that a new student appeared in the second lesson?
“And in the second lesson there was already a different teacher,” answered Shishkin. “It’s not like it was in fourth grade.” There is a different teacher for every lesson, and until the teachers know the children, there is confusion.
“It was only with you that there was confusion, but in general there is no confusion,” said Gleb Skameikin. “Everyone should know which class they need to go to.”
— What if I’m a beginner? - says Shishkin.
- Newbie, don’t be late. And then, don’t you have a tongue? I could ask.
- When to ask? I see the guys running, and so I follow them.
“You could have ended up in tenth grade!”
- No, I wouldn’t get into the tenth. I would have guessed it right away: the guys there are great,” Shishkin smiled.
I took my books and went home. Olga Nikolaevna met me in the corridor
- Well, Vitya, how do you think about studying this year? she asked. “It’s time for you, my friend, to get down to business properly.” You need to work harder on your arithmetic, it's been failing you since last year. And it’s a shame not to know the multiplication tables. After all, they take it in the second grade.
- Yes, I know, Olga Nikolaevna. I just forgot a little about the end!
— You need to know the entire table from start to finish well. Without this, you cannot study in the fourth grade. Learn it by tomorrow, I'll check it.

Vitya Maleev at school and at home

Chapter 1

Just think how quickly time flies? Before I knew it, the holidays were over and it was time to go to school. All summer I did nothing but run around the streets and play football, and I even forgot to think about books. That is, I sometimes read books, but not educational ones, but some fairy tales and stories, and so that I could study the Russian language or arithmetic - this was not the case. I was already good at Russian, but I didn’t like arithmetic. The worst thing for me was solving problems. Olga Nikolaevna even wanted to give me a non-summer job in arithmetic, but then she took pity on me and transferred me to the fourth grade without work.

“I don’t want to ruin your summer,” she said. “I’ll transfer you this way, but you must promise that you will study arithmetic yourself in the summer.”

I, of course, made a promise, but as soon as classes were over, all arithmetic jumped out of my head, and I probably would not have remembered it if it had not been time to go to school. I was ashamed that I did not fulfill my promise, but now nothing can be done anyway.

But still, I was not entirely happy, since I knew that I would not meet Fedya among my old school friends. Rybkin - my best friend, with whom we sat at the same desk last year. He recently left our city with his parents, and now no one knows whether we will ever see him or not.

And I was also sad, because I didn’t know what I would say to Olga Nikolaevna if she asked me if I was hired in arithmetic in the summer. Oh, this is arithmetic for me! Because of her, my mood completely deteriorated.

From a distance I saw a large red poster above the entrance to the school. It was covered on all sides with garlands of flowers, and on it was written in large white letters: “Welcome!” I remembered that the same poster hung on the day when I came to school for the first time as a very small child. And I remembered all the past years. How we were in first grade and dreamed of growing up quickly and becoming pioneers.

- Where is Fedya Rybkin? - asked Grisha Vasiliev.

- Really, where is Fedya? - the guys shouted. – You always went together. Where did you lose it?

“Fedya is gone,” I answered. - He will no longer study with us.

- Why?

— He left our city with his parents.

- How so?

- Very simple.

- Aren’t you lying? - asked Alik Sorokin.

- Here's another! I'll lie!

The guys looked at me and smiled incredulously.

“Guys, Vanya Pakhomov is not there either,” said Lenya Astafiev.

- And Seryozha Bukatin! - the guys shouted.

“Maybe they also left, but we don’t know,” said Tolya Dezhkin.

Then, as if in response to this, the gate opened, and we saw Vanya Pakhomov approaching us.

- Hooray! - we shouted.

Everyone ran towards Vanya and attacked him.

- Let me in! - Vanya fought us off. “You’ve never seen a person in your life, or what?”

But everyone wanted to pat him on the shoulder or on the back. I also wanted to slap him on the back, but I hit the back of the head by mistake.

- Oh, so you still have to fight! - Vanya got angry and began to struggle away from us with all his might.

But we surrounded him even more tightly.

I don’t know how it would all end, but then Seryozha Bukatin came. Everyone abandoned Vanya to the mercy of fate and attacked Bukatin.

“Now, it seems, everything is already assembled,” said Zhenya Komarov.

- Or maybe this is not true. So we’ll ask Olga Nikolaevna.

- Believe it or not. I really need to cheat! - I said.

- Where did you get such a tan? - Tolya Dezhkin asked him. — You probably lived in a pioneer camp the whole summer?

- No. First I was in a pioneer camp, and then I went to Crimea.

— How did you get to Crimea?

- Very simple. At the factory, dad was given a ticket to a vacation home, and he came up with the idea that mom and I should go too.

— So you’ve been to Crimea?

- I visited.

-Have you seen the sea?

- I also saw the sea. I saw everything.

The guys surrounded Gleb from all sides and began to look at him like he was some kind of curiosity.

- Well, tell me what the sea is like. Why are you silent? - said Seryozha Bucatin.

“The sea is big,” Gleb Skameikin began to tell. “It’s so big that if you stand on one bank, you can’t even see the other bank.” On one side there is a shore, but on the other side there is no shore. That's a lot of water, guys! In a word, just water! And the sun is so hot there that all my skin has come off.

- You're lying!

- Honestly! I myself was even scared at first, and then it turned out that under this skin I had another skin. So now I walk around in this second skin.

- Yes, you’re not talking about the skin, but about the sea!

- Now I’ll tell you... The sea is huge! And there is an abyss of water in the sea! In a word - a whole sea of water.

It is not known what else Gleb Skameikin would have told about the sea, but at that time Volodya came up to us.

Well, there was a cry! Everyone surrounded him. “Everyone was in a hurry to tell him something about themselves.” Everyone asked whether he would be our counselor this year or if they would give us someone else.

- What are you guys doing? But would I give you to someone else? We will work with you as we did last year. Well, if I bore you myself, then it’s a different matter! - Volodya laughed.

- You? Are you bored?.. - we all shouted at once. - We will never tire of you in our lives! We always have fun with you!

Volodya told us how in the summer he and his fellow Komsomol members went on a trip along the river in a rubber boat. Then he said that he would see us again, and went to his fellow high school students. He also wanted to talk to his friends. We felt sorry that he left, but then Olga Nikolaevna came up to us. Everyone was very happy to see her.

— Hello, Olga Nikolaevna! - we shouted in unison.

- Hello, guys, hello! - Olga Nikolaevna smiled. - Well, have you had some fun over the summer?

- Let's go for a walk, Olga Nikolaevna!

- We had great rest?

- Fine.

- Aren't you tired of resting?

- I'm tired of it, Olga Nikolaevna! I want to study!

- That's fine!

- And I, Olga Nikolaevna, rested so much that I was even tired! If it had been a little more, I would have been completely exhausted,” said Alik Sorokin.

- And you, Alik, I see, have not changed: You are the same joker as you were last year.

- The same, Olga Nikolaevna, only grown a little.

“Well, you’ve grown up quite a bit,” Olga Nikolaevna grinned.

The whole class snorted loudly.

“Olga Nikolaevna, Fedya Rybkin will no longer study with us,” said Dima Balakirev.

- I know. He left with his parents for Moscow.

- Olga Nikolaevna, and Gleb Skameikin was in Crimea and saw the sea.

- That's good. When we write an essay, Gleb will write about the sea.

- Olga Nikolaevna, his skin came off.

- From whom?

- From Glebka.

- Oh, okay, okay. We'll talk about this later, but now line up, we have to go to class soon.

We lined up. All the other classes lined up too. Director Igor Aleksandrovich appeared on the porch of the school: He congratulated us on the start of the new school year and wished all the students good success in this new school year.

Then the class teachers began to separate the students into classes. The youngest students went first - the first graders, followed by the second grade, then the third, and then we, and the senior grades followed us.

Olga Nikolaevna led us to class. All the guys decided to sit down like last year, so I ended up at the desk alone, I didn’t have a partner. It seemed to everyone that this year we had a small class, much smaller than last year.

“The class is the same as last year, exactly the same size,” Olga Nikolaevna explained. “You’ve all grown up over the summer, so it seems to you that the class is smaller.”

It was true. Then I deliberately went to see the third grade during recess. He was exactly the same as the fourth.

At the first lesson, Olga Nikolaevna said that in the fourth grade we will have to work much more than before, since we will have many subjects. In addition to the Russian language, arithmetic and other subjects that we had last year, now we are adding geography, history and natural science. Therefore, we need to start studying properly from the very beginning of the year. We wrote down the lesson schedule.

Then Olga Nikolaevna said that we need to choose a class leader and his assistant.

- Gleb Skameikin is the headman! Gleb Skameikin! - the guys shouted.

- Quiet! What a noise! Don't you know how to choose? Anyone who wants to speak must raise their hand.

We began to choose in an organized manner and chose Gleb Skameikin as headman, and Shura Malikov as assistant.

At the second lesson, Olga Nikolaevna said that first we will repeat what we covered last year, and she will check who forgot what over the summer. She immediately started checking, and it turned out that I had even forgotten the multiplication table. That is, not all of it, of course, but only from the end. I remembered well up to seven seven - forty-nine, but then I got confused.

- Eh, Maleev, Maleev! - said Olga Nikolaevna. “It’s clear that you haven’t even picked up a book over the summer!”

This is my last name Maleev. When Olga Nikolaevna is angry, she always calls me by my last name, and when she is not angry, she simply calls me Vitya.

I noticed that for some reason it is always more difficult to study at the beginning of the year. The lessons seem long, as if someone is deliberately dragging them out. If I were the main boss of schools, I would do something so that classes would not start immediately, but gradually, so that the children would gradually get out of the habit of going out for walks and gradually get used to the lessons. For example, you could make it so that in the first week there was only one lesson, in the second week - two lessons, in the third - three, and so on. Or it could also be done so that in the first week there are only easy lessons, for example physical education, in the second week you can add singing to physical education, in the third week you can add Russian, and so on until it comes to arithmetic. Maybe someone will think that I'm lazy and don't like studying at all, but that's not true. I really like to study, but it’s difficult for me to start working right away: I’d be walking and walking, and then suddenly the car stops - let’s study.

In the third lesson we had geography. I thought that geography was some very difficult subject, like arithmetic, but it turned out that it was quite easy. Geography is the science of the Earth on which we all live; about what mountains and rivers, what seas and oceans are on Earth. I used to think that our Earth was flat, like a pancake, but Olga Nikolaevna said that the Earth is not flat at all, but round, like a ball. I had heard about this before, but I thought that these were perhaps fairy tales or some kind of fiction. But now we know for sure that these are not fairy tales. Science has established that our Earth is a huge, enormous ball, and people live around this ball. It turns out that the Earth attracts all people and animals and everything that is on it, so the people who live below do not fall anywhere. And here’s another interesting thing: those people who live below walk upside down, that is, upside down, but they themselves don’t notice it and imagine that they are walking correctly. If they lower their heads down and look at their feet, they will see the ground on which they are standing, and if they lift their heads up, they will see the sky above them. That's why it seems to them that they are walking correctly.

Nikolay Nosov Vitya Maleev at school and at home Drawings by Yu. Pozin.

I don’t want to ruin your summer,” she said. - I will transfer you this way, but you must promise that you will study arithmetic yourself in the summer.

Where is Fedya Rybkin? - asked Grisha Vasiliev.

Really, where is Fedya? - the guys shouted. - You always went together. Where did you lose it?

“No Fedya,” I answered. - He will no longer study with us.

He left our city with his parents.

How so?

Very simple.

Aren't you lying? - asked Alik Sorokin.

Here's another! I'll lie!

The guys looked at me and smiled incredulously.

Guys, Vanya Pakhomov is not there either,” said Lenya Astafiev.

And Seryozha Bukatin! - the guys shouted.

Maybe they also left, but we don’t know,” said Tolya Dezhkin.

Then, as if in response to this, the gate opened, and we saw Vanya Pakhomov approaching us

Hooray! - we shouted.

Everyone ran towards Vanya and attacked him.

Let me in! - Vanya fought us off. - You’ve never seen a person in your life, or what?

But everyone wanted to pat him on the shoulder or on the back. I also wanted to slap him on the back, but I hit the back of the head by mistake.

Current page: 1 (book has 10 pages in total)

Font:

100% +

Nikolay Nosov
Vitya Maleev at school and at home

Chapter first

“I don’t want to ruin your summer,” she said. “I will transfer you this way, but you must promise that you will study arithmetic yourself in the summer.”

– Where is Fedya Rybkin? – asked Grisha Vasiliev.

- Really, where is Fedya? - the guys shouted. – You always went together. Where did you lose it?

“Fedya is gone,” I answered. - He will no longer study with us.

- Why?

– He left our city with his parents.

- How so?

- Very simple.

- Aren’t you lying? – asked Alik Sorokin.

- Here's another! I'll lie!

The guys looked at me and smiled incredulously.

“Guys, Vanya Pakhomov is not there either,” said Lenya Astafiev.

- And Seryozha Bukatin! - the guys shouted.

“Maybe they also left, but we don’t know,” said Tolya Dezhkin.

Then, as if in response to this, the gate opened, and we saw Vanya Pakhomov approaching us.

- Hooray! - we shouted.

Everyone ran towards Vanya and attacked him.

- Let me in! – Vanya fought us off. – You’ve never seen a person in your life, or what?

But everyone wanted to pat him on the shoulder or on the back. I also wanted to slap him on the back, but I hit the back of the head by mistake.

- Oh, so you still have to fight! – Vanya got angry and began to struggle away from us with all his might.

But we surrounded him even more tightly.

I don’t know how it would all end, but then Seryozha Bukatin came. Everyone abandoned Vanya to the mercy of fate and attacked Bukatin.

“Now, it seems, everything is already assembled,” said Zhenya Komarov.

- Or maybe it’s not true. So we’ll ask Olga Nikolaevna.

- Believe it or not. I really need to cheat! - I said.

- Where did you get such a tan? – Tolya Dezhkin asked him. – You probably lived in a pioneer camp the whole summer?

- No. First I was in a pioneer camp, and then I went to Crimea.

- How did you get to Crimea?

- Very simple. At the factory, dad was given a ticket to a vacation home, and he came up with the idea that mom and I should go too.

– So you’ve been to Crimea?

- I visited.

-Have you seen the sea?

– I also saw the sea. I saw everything.

The guys surrounded Gleb from all sides and began to look at him like he was some kind of curiosity.

- Well, tell me what the sea is like. Why are you silent? – said Seryozha Bucatin.

- Honestly! I myself was even scared at first, and then it turned out that under this skin I had another skin. So now I walk around in this second skin.

- Yes, you’re not talking about the skin, but talking about the sea!

– I’ll tell you now... The sea is huge! And there is an abyss of water in the sea! In a word – a whole sea of water.

- What are you guys doing? But would I give you to someone else? We will work with you as we did last year. Well, if I bore you myself, then it’s a different matter! – Volodya laughed.

- You? Are you bored?.. - we all shouted at once. – We will never tire of you in our lives! We always have fun with you!

– Hello, Olga Nikolaevna! - we shouted in unison.

- Hello, guys, hello! – Olga Nikolaevna smiled. - Well, did you have enough fun over the summer?

- Let's go for a walk, Olga Nikolaevna!

- We had great rest?

- Fine.

– Aren’t you tired of resting?

- I'm tired of it, Olga Nikolaevna! I want to study!

- That's fine!

- And I, Olga Nikolaevna, rested so much that I was even tired! If it had been a little more, I would have been completely exhausted,” said Alik Sorokin.

– And you, Alik, I see, have not changed. The same joker as last year.

– The same, Olga Nikolaevna, only grown a little

“Well, you’ve grown up quite a bit,” Olga Nikolaevna grinned.

“Olga Nikolaevna, Fedya Rybkin will no longer study with us,” said Dima Balakirev.

- I know. He left with his parents for Moscow.

– Olga Nikolaevna, and Gleb Skameikin was in Crimea and saw the sea.

- That's good. When we write an essay, Gleb will write about the sea.

- Olga Nikolaevna, his skin came off.

- From whom?

- From Glebka.

- Oh, okay, okay. We'll talk about this later, but now line up, we have to go to class soon.

We lined up. All the other classes lined up too. Director Igor Aleksandrovich appeared on the school porch. He congratulated us on the start of the new school year and wished all the students good success in this new school year. Then the class teachers began to separate the students into classes. First came the youngest students - first graders, followed by second grade, then third, and then us, and after us came the senior grades.

“The class is the same as last year, exactly the same size,” Olga Nikolaevna explained. “You’ve all grown up over the summer, so it seems to you that the class is smaller.”

It was true. Then I deliberately went to see the third grade during recess. He was exactly the same as the fourth.

At the first lesson, Olga Nikolaevna said that in the fourth grade we would have to work much more than before - so we would have a lot of subjects. In addition to the Russian language, arithmetic and other subjects that we had last year, now we are adding geography, history and natural science. Therefore, we need to start studying properly from the very beginning of the year. We wrote down the lesson schedule. Then Olga Nikolaevna said that we need to choose a class leader and his assistant.

- Gleb Skameikin is the headman! Gleb Skameikin! - the guys shouted.

- Quiet! What a noise! Don't you know how to choose? Anyone who wants to speak must raise their hand.

We began to choose in an organized manner and chose Gleb Skameikin as headman, and Shura Malikov as assistant.

- Eh, Maleev, Maleev! - said Olga Nikolaevna. “It’s clear that you haven’t even picked up a book over the summer!”

This is my last name Maleev. When Olga Nikolaevna is angry, she always calls me by my last name, and when she is not angry, she simply calls me Vitya.

I noticed that for some reason it is always more difficult to study at the beginning of the year. The lessons seem long, as if someone is deliberately dragging them out. If I were the main boss of schools, I would do something so that classes would not start immediately, but gradually, so that the children would gradually get out of the habit of going out for walks and gradually get used to the lessons. For example, it could be done so that in the first week there is only one lesson, in the second week - two lessons, in the third - three, and so on. Or it could also be done so that in the first week there are only easy lessons, for example physical education, in the second week you can add singing to physical education, in the third week you can add Russian, and so on until it comes to arithmetic. Maybe someone will think that I'm lazy and don't like studying at all, but that's not true. I really like to study, but it’s difficult for me to start working right away: I’d be walking and walking, and then suddenly the car stops - let’s study.

In the third lesson we had geography. I thought that geography was some very difficult subject, like arithmetic, but it turned out that it was quite easy. Geography is the science of the Earth on which we all live; about what mountains and rivers, what seas and oceans are on Earth. I used to think that our Earth was flat, like a pancake, but Olga Nikolaevna said that the Earth is not flat at all, but round, like a ball. I had heard about this before, but I thought that these were perhaps fairy tales or some kind of fiction. But now we know for sure that these are not fairy tales. Science has established that our Earth is a huge, huge ball, and people live around this ball. It turns out that the Earth attracts all people and animals and everything that is on it, so the people who live below do not fall anywhere. And here’s another interesting thing: those people who live below walk upside down, that is, upside down, but they themselves don’t notice it and imagine that they are walking correctly. If they lower their heads down and look at their feet, they will see the ground on which they are standing, and if they lift their heads up, they will see the sky above them. That's why it seems to them that they are walking correctly.

We had a little fun in geography, and an interesting incident happened in the last lesson. The bell had already rung and Olga Nikolaevna came to the class, when suddenly the door opened and a completely unfamiliar student appeared on the threshold. He stood hesitantly near the door, then bowed to Olga Nikolaevna and said:

- Hello!

“Hello,” Olga Nikolaevna answered. - What do you want to say?

- Nothing.

- Why did you come if you don’t want to say anything?

- So simple.

- I don’t understand you!

- I came to study. This is fourth grade, isn't it?

- That’s what I need on the fourth.

- So you must be a newbie?

- Newbie.

Olga Nikolaevna looked at the magazine:

– Your last name is Shishkin?

- Shishkin, and his name is Kostya.

- Why did you, Kostya Shishkin, come so late? Don't you know that you have to go to school in the morning?

- I came in the morning. I was just late for my first lesson.

- For the first lesson? And now it’s the fourth. Where have you been for two lessons?

– I was there... in the fifth grade.

- Why did you end up in fifth grade?

“I came to school, I heard the bell ring, the kids were running to class in a crowd... Well, I followed them, and so I ended up in the fifth grade. At recess, the guys ask: “Are you new?” I say: “Newbie.” They didn’t tell me anything, and it wasn’t until the next lesson that I realized that I was in the wrong class. Here.

“Sit down and don’t end up in someone else’s class again,” said Olga Nikolaevna.

Shishkin came up to my desk and sat down next to me, because I was sitting alone and the seat was free.

Throughout the lesson, the guys looked back at him and chuckled quietly. But Shishkin did not pay attention to this and pretended that nothing funny had happened to him. His lower lip protruded slightly forward, and his nose somehow turned up on its own. This gave him a kind of contemptuous look, as if he was proud of something.

After lessons, the guys surrounded him from all sides.

- How did you get into fifth grade? Didn't the teacher check the kids? – asked Slava Vedernikov.

– Maybe she checked it during the first lesson, but I came to the second lesson.

- Why didn’t she notice that a new student appeared in the second lesson?

“And in the second lesson there was a different teacher,” Shishkin answered. “It’s not like it was in the fourth grade.” There is a different teacher for every lesson, and until the teachers know the children, there is confusion.

“It was only with you that there was confusion, but in general there is no confusion,” said Gleb Skameikin. - Everyone should know which class they need to go to.

– What if I’m a beginner? - says Shishkin.

- Newbie, don’t be late. And then, don’t you have a tongue? I could ask.

- When to ask? I see the guys running, and I follow them.

– You could have ended up in tenth grade!

- No, I wouldn’t get into the tenth. I would have guessed it right away: the guys there are great,” Shishkin smiled.

I took my books and went home. Olga Nikolaevna met me in the corridor

- Well, Vitya, how do you think about studying this year? – she asked. “It’s time for you, my friend, to get down to business properly.” You need to work harder on your arithmetic, it's been failing you since last year. And it’s a shame not to know the multiplication tables. After all, they take it in the second grade.

- Yes, I know, Olga Nikolaevna. I just forgot a little about the end!

– You need to know the entire table from start to finish. Without this, it is impossible to study in the fourth grade. Learn it by tomorrow, I'll check it.

Chapter two

All girls imagine that they are very smart. I don’t know why they have such a big imagination!

My younger sister Lika has moved to third grade and now thinks that she doesn’t have to listen to me at all, as if I’m not her older brother at all and I don’t have any authority. How many times have I told her not to sit down for her homework as soon as she gets home from school? This is very harmful! While you are studying at school, the brain in your head gets tired and you first need to give it a rest for two, one and a half hours, and then you can sit down to study. But tell Lika or not, she doesn’t want to listen to anything.

And now: I came home, and she, too, had already returned from school, laid out books on the table and was studying.

I speak:

- What are you doing, my dear? Don't you know that after school you need to give your brain a rest?

“I know that,” he says, “but it’s more convenient for me.” I’ll do my homework right away, and then I’m free: I want to go for a walk, I want to do what I want.

“What a mess,” I say, “you’re stupid!” I didn’t tell you enough last year! What can I do if you don't want to listen to your older brother? When you grow up to be a dumbass, then you will know!

- What can I do? - she said. “I can’t sit still for a minute until I get things done.”

– As if it couldn’t be done later! – I answered. – You need to have endurance.

- No, it’s better I’ll do it first and be calm. After all, our lessons are easy. Not like you, in fourth grade.

“Yes,” I say, “ours is not like yours.” Once you get to fourth grade, then you’ll find out where crayfish spend the winter.

– What did you have to do today? – she asked.

“It’s none of your business,” I replied. “You won’t understand anything anyway, so there’s no point in telling you.”

I couldn’t tell her that I had to repeat the multiplication tables! After all, they take it in the second grade.

I decided to tackle my studies properly from the very beginning and immediately started repeating the multiplication tables. Of course, I repeated it to myself so that Lika wouldn’t hear, but she soon finished her lessons and ran off to play with her friends. Then I began to learn the table properly, out loud, and learned it in such a way that even if you wake me up at night and ask me how much seven is seven or eight is nine, I will answer without hesitation.

But the next day Olga Nikolaevna called me and checked how I had learned the multiplication table.

“You see,” she said, “when you want, you can study properly!” I know that you have abilities.

Everything would have been fine if Olga Nikolaevna had only asked me for the table, but she also wanted me to solve the problem on the board. This, of course, ruined the whole thing.

I went to the board, and Olga Nikolaevna dictated a problem about some carpenters who were building a house. I wrote down the problem on the board with chalk and began to think. But this, of course, is just what they say that I began to think. The problem was so difficult that I still would not have solved it. I only purposely wrinkled my forehead so that Olga Nikolaevna would see that I was thinking, and I began to sneak glances at the guys so that they would tell me. But it is very difficult to give hints to someone standing at the board, and all the guys were silent.

- Well, how are you going to solve the problem? – Olga Nikolaevna asked. – What will be the first question?

I only wrinkled my forehead more and, turning half-turn to the guys, blinked one eye as hard as I could. The guys realized that my business was bad and began to give me advice.

- Hush, guys, don’t give me any hints! “I’ll help him myself if necessary,” said Olga Nikolaevna.

She began to explain the problem to me and told me how to do the first question. Although I didn’t understand anything, I still solved the first question on the board.

“That’s right,” said Olga Nikolaevna. – Now what will be the second question?

I thought again and blinked my eyes at the guys. The guys began to give hints again.

- Quiet! I can hear everything, but you’re only disturbing him! – Olga Nikolaevna said and began to explain the second question to me.

Thus, gradually, with the help of Olga Nikolaevna and with the help of the guys, I finally solved the problem.

– Now do you understand how to solve such problems? – Olga Nikolaevna asked.

“Got it,” I replied.

In fact, of course, I didn’t understand anything at all, but I was ashamed to admit that I was so stupid, and besides, I was afraid that Olga Nikolaevna would give me a bad mark if I said that I didn’t understand. I sat down, wrote the problem down in a notebook, and decided to think about it properly at home.

After the lesson I tell the guys:

– What are you suggesting so that Olga Nikolaevna hears everything? Yelling at the whole class! Is that what they suggest?

- How can you tell me when you’re standing near the board! – says Vasya Erokhin. - Now, if they called you from your place...

- “Get off, get off”! Slowly we need to.

“I told you slowly at first, but you stand there and don’t hear anything.”

“So you were probably whispering under your breath,” I say.

- Here you go! You feel bad both loudly and quietly! You won’t understand what you need!

“There’s no need at all,” said Vanya Pakhomov. – You have to think for yourself, and not listen to a hint.

– Why should I bother myself if I still don’t understand anything about these tasks? - I say.

“That’s why you don’t understand, because you don’t want to think,” said Gleb Skameikin. – You hope for a hint, but you don’t learn. I personally won’t advise anyone else. There needs to be order in the classroom, but this is harmful.

“They’ll find you without you, they’ll tell you,” I say.

“But I’ll still struggle with the hint,” says Gleb.

- Well, don’t worry about it! – I answered.

– Why “wonder”? I'm the class leader! I will ensure that there is no hint.

“And there’s nothing,” I say, “to imagine if you’ve been elected headman!” Today you are the headman, and tomorrow I am the headman.

- Well, when will you be chosen, but you haven’t been chosen yet. Then the other guys intervened and began to argue whether they should be prompted or not. But we never got anywhere. Dima Balakirev came running. He learned that in the summer, in the vacant lot behind the school, the older boys had built a football field. We decided to come after lunch and play football. After lunch, we gathered on the football field, split into two teams to play according to all the rules, but then there was a dispute in our team about who should be the goalkeeper. Nobody wanted to stand at the gate. Everyone wanted to run all over the field and score goals. Everyone said that I should be the goalkeeper, but I wanted to be the center of attack or at least a midfielder. Luckily for me, Shishkin agreed to become a goalkeeper. He took off his jacket, stood at the goal, and the game began.

At first the advantage was on the side of the opponents. They attacked our gates all the time. Our whole team got mixed up. We rushed around the field uselessly and only got in each other's way. Luckily for us, Shishkin turned out to be a wonderful goalkeeper. He jumped like a cat or some kind of panther, and did not miss a single ball into our goal. Finally we managed to take possession of the ball and we drove it towards the enemy goal. One of our team shot at goal, and the score turned out to be 1:0 in our favor. We were delighted and began to press on the enemy gate with renewed vigor. Soon we managed to score another goal, and the score was 2:0 in our favor. Then for some reason the game switched to our half of the field again. They began to press us again, and we could not get the ball away from our goal. Then Shishkin grabbed the ball with his hands and rushed with it straight to the opponent’s goal. There he put the ball on the ground and was about to score a goal, but then Igor Grachev deftly won the ball back from him, passed it to Slava Vedernikov, Slava Vedernikov to Vanya Pakhomov, and before we had time to look back, the ball was already in our goal. The score became 2:1. Shishkin ran as fast as he could to his place, but while he was running, they scored a goal again, and the score became 2:2. We began to scold Shishkin in every possible way for leaving his goal, but he made excuses and said that now he would play by all the rules. But nothing came of these promises. He kept jumping out of the gate, and just at that time we scored goals. The game continued until late in the evening. We scored sixteen goals and they scored twenty-one against us. We wanted to play some more, but it got so dark that the ball couldn’t be seen, and we had to go home. On the way, everyone just said that we lost because of Shishkin, because he kept jumping out of the gate.

“You, Shishkin, are a wonderful goalkeeper,” said Yura Kasatkin. – If you stood at the goal regularly, our team would be invincible.

“I can’t stand still,” Shishkin answered. – I love playing basketball, because everyone can run all over the field and there is no goalkeeper, and besides, everyone can grab the ball with their hands. Let's organize a basketball team.

Shishkin began to talk about how to play basketball, and, according to him, this game was no worse than football.

“We need to talk to our physical education teacher,” said Yura. “Maybe he can help us set up a basketball court.”

When we approached the square, where we had to turn onto our street, Shishkin suddenly stopped and shouted:

- Fathers! I forgot my jacket on the football field!

He turned and ran back. He was an amazing man! Some kind of misunderstanding always happened to him. There are such people in the world!

I returned home at nine o'clock. Mom began to scold me for staying out so late, but I said that it was not too late, because now it was autumn, and in autumn it always gets dark earlier than in summer, and if it were summer, no one would think that it’s already late, because in the summer the days are much longer, and at this time it would still be light, and everyone would think that it’s still early.

Mom said that I always have some excuses and told me to do my homework. Of course, I sat down to my lessons. That is, I didn’t start studying right away, because I was very tired from football and I wanted to rest a little.

- Why don’t you do your homework? – asked Lika. – After all, your brain has probably rested a long time ago.

– I myself know how much rest my brain needs! – I answered.

Now I could no longer immediately sit down to my lessons without Lika imagining that it was she who forced me to study. Therefore, I decided to rest a little more and began to talk about Shishkin, what a bungler he was and how he forgot his jacket on the football field. Soon dad came home from work and started telling me that their plant had received an order to produce new machines for the Kuibyshev hydroelectric complex, and again I couldn’t do my homework because I was interested in listening.

My dad works at a steel mill as a model maker. He makes models. Nobody probably knows what a model is, but I know. To cast any part for a car from steel, you always need to first make the same part from wood, and such a wooden part is called a model. What is the model for? Here's why: they'll take the model, put it in a flask, that is, in something like an iron box, only an abyss, then they'll pour earth into the flask, and when the model is taken out, a depression in the shape of the model is created in the ground. Molten metal is poured into this recess, and when the metal hardens, you will get a part exactly the same in shape as the model. When an order for new parts comes to the plant, engineers draw drawings, and model makers make models based on these drawings. Of course, the model maker must be very smart, because from a simple drawing he must understand what kind of model needs to be made, and if he makes the model poorly, then parts cannot be cast from it. My dad is a very good model maker. He even came up with an electric jigsaw to cut out various small parts from wood. And now he invents a sanding device for polishing wooden models. Previously, models were polished by hand, but when dad makes such a device, all model makers will polish models with this device. When dad comes home from work, he always first rests a little, and then sits down with the drawings for his device or reads books to find out how to do something, because it’s not such a simple thing to come up with a grinding device yourself.

Dad had dinner and sat down to his drawings, and I sat down to do my homework. I learned geography first because it is the easiest. After geography, I took up the Russian language. In the Russian language, it was necessary to copy the exercise and emphasize the words root, prefix and ending. The root is one line, the prefix is two, and the ending is three. Then I learned English and took up arithmetic. The house was given such a bad task that I could not figure out how to solve it. I sat for a whole hour, staring at the problem book and straining my brain with all my might, but nothing came of it. In addition, I really wanted to sleep. My eyes stung, as if someone had poured sand into them.

“It’s enough for you to sit,” said mom, “it’s time to go to bed.” Your eyes are already closing by themselves, and you’re still sitting!

– Why am I coming to school tomorrow with an unfinished task? – I downloaded.

“We need to study during the day,” my mother answered. – There’s no point in learning to sit up at night! Such activities will be of no use. You still don’t understand anything anymore.

“Let him sit,” said dad. “He’ll know next time how to put off homework at night.”

And so I sat and re-read the problem until the letters in the problem book began to nod, and bow, and hide behind each other, as if they were playing blind man’s buff. I rubbed my eyes and began to re-read the problem again, but the letters did not calm down, and for some reason even began to jump up and down, as if they were starting a game of leapfrog.

- Well, what’s not working out for you? - Mom asked.

“Well,” I say, “the problem turned out to be kind of nasty.”

– There are no bad tasks. These students can be bad.

Mom read the problem and began to explain, but for some reason I couldn’t understand anything.

– Didn’t they explain to you at school how to do such tasks? - Dad asked.

“No,” I say, “they didn’t explain.”

- Marvelous! When I was studying, the teacher always explained it to us first in class, and then gave it homework.

The author of the work is Vitya Maleev at school. Audio story by Vitya Maleev at school and at home listen online

Vitya Maleev at school and at home (Chapter 1)

Nikolay Nosov Vitya Maleev at school and at home

Chapter first

Chapter two

Nikolay Nosov
Vitya Maleev at school and at home