Current page: 1 (book has 18 pages total) [available reading passage: 5 pages]
Kir Bulychev
A Million Adventures
Part I
New labors of Hercules
Chapter 1
Augean laboratory
The spring morning began peacefully, but ended in a big scandal.
Arkasha came first, as always. He hurried to the plot where he grew sentient flowers. All plants can feel, but try to understand their feelings.
At the sight of Arkasha, the flowers nodded their heads; they opened the petals, moved the leaves and feigned joy. Arkasha connected the hose and began to water his pets with warm vitamin water.
Then Javad came. He fed the animals in the cages and released the Pithecanthropus Hercules, who immediately rushed to the house where three dogs were spending the night - Polkan, Ruslan and Sultan, who, oddly enough, were sisters. The dogs worked for geologists in the summer and searched for ore and fossil bones deep underground by smell. But the season had not yet begun, so the sisters were on vacation and were friends with Hercules. And he skillfully used this friendship and had breakfast twice – at his place and at the dogs’.
The twins Masha and Natasha came running, thin, big-eyed, with identical abrasions on their knees. They are so similar that you can’t tell them apart, but in fact they are completely different. different people. Masha is serious and assures that she only loves science. And Natasha is terribly frivolous and loves not so much science as animals and dancing. At the sight of Masha and Natasha, the dolphins Grishka and Medea leaned out of the pool up to their waists - they had missed each other overnight.
Alisa Selezneva was late. She went to Space center arrange an excursion to the planet Penelope. But Alice was told that it was unknown whether there would be places, and she was asked to come in a month. Alice was upset; she didn’t even notice how Hercules approached with his hand outstretched. Either he wanted to say hello, or he was hoping for a treat.
Alice disappeared into a low laboratory building to leave her bag there and change clothes, and when she came out, she angrily declared:
– This is not a laboratory, but the Augean stables!
Hercules, who was waiting for her at the entrance, did not answer anything because he had never read Greek myths, and besides, he knew only edible words. No matter how much he was taught, he did not go beyond the words “banana”, “apple”, “milk”, “sugar”.
But Mashenka Belaya heard Alice’s exclamation.
“Of course,” she said. - Pashka Geraskin sat there yesterday before late at night, but didn’t bother to clean up after myself.
“And here he is,” said Natasha Belaya. - Easy to remember.
Pashka Geraskin slowly walked towards the station along the coconut alley and read a book as he walked. On the cover it was written in large letters: “Myths Ancient Greece».
“Pay attention,” Mashenka Belaya said sarcastically. “This young man wants to know how the Augean stables are cleaned.”
Pashka heard, stopped, laid the page with his finger and said:
– I can tell you that Hercules means “performing feats due to the persecution of Hera.” By the way, Hera is the wife of Zeus.
Pithecanthropus Hercules heard his name and said:
- Give me a banana.
Pashka looked at him thoughtfully and said:
- No, you won’t accomplish any feats. Didn't grow taller.
“Listen, Pashka,” said Alice gloomily. – What did you do in the laboratory? You might think that no one had cleaned it there for thirty years.
“When I have ideas,” Pashka answered, “I don’t pay attention to the little things in life.”
“And we are converting,” said Mashenka.
“Don’t make noise,” said Pashka. - I'll clean everything up. In half an hour it will be full order.
“The legend is fresh, but hard to believe,” said Arkasha. “I suggest taking the book away from Pashka while cleaning: he’ll read it and forget everything.”
After a short fight, Pashka lost his book and retired to the laboratory to lick his wounds and think about revenge.
He didn’t want to clean, it was a boring task. He went to the window. Mashenka was sitting on the edge of the pool, cards with numbers were laid out next to her. The dolphins were cramming the multiplication table. Natasha was weaving a wreath next to her from the first yellow dandelions. Javad was arguing with Alice about something, and a boring, stupid, curious giraffe, the Villain, with one horn in the middle of his forehead, towered over them.
“How did I manage to make such a mess?” – Pashka was amazed.
Scattered on the floor were crumpled sheets of paper, pieces of tape, soil samples, branches, orange peels, shavings, fragments of broken flasks, glass slides, nut shells - traces of yesterday's vigorous activity, when Pashka took possession brilliant idea create an animal without lungs and gills to live in airless space. The idea burst at about eleven o'clock, just then his mother called and demanded that he come home.
There are disadvantages, Pashka thought, to the fact that you are an enthusiast and live among enthusiasts. The guys, including Pashka, spent everything at the station free time, straight from school they hurried to their animals and plants, and on Saturday and Sunday they often sat there from morning to evening. Pashka’s mother grumbled that he had completely abandoned sports and was making mistakes in his essays. And during the holidays, the guys were going to the planet Penelope, to real, unexplored jungles - would you really refuse that?
Sighing, Pashka took a sponge and began to wipe the laboratory table, throwing unnecessary rubbish onto the floor. “It’s a pity,” he thought, “that the book of myths was taken away. Now I would like to read how Hercules cleaned the Augean stables. Maybe he was cheating?
When Javad looked into the laboratory half an hour later, Pashka had already wiped all the tables, put the flasks and microscopes in their places, put the instruments in the cabinets, but there was more garbage on the floor.
– How long will you continue to dig? – Javad asked. - May I help?
“I’ll manage,” said Pashka. - Five more minutes.
He shoveled the garbage towards the middle of the room with a brush, making a mountain almost up to his waist.
Javad left, and Pashka stopped in front of the mountain and thought about how to take it out in one go.
At this moment in open window The face of Pithecanthropus Hercules appeared. At the sight of the trash, he even groaned with pleasure.
And Pashka had a happy thought.
“Come here,” he said.
Hercules immediately jumped out the window.
- I trust you with this matter great importance, - said Pashka. – If you take all this out of our Augean laboratory, you will get a banana.
Hercules thought, strained his undeveloped brain and said:
- Two bananas.
“Okay, two bananas,” Pashka agreed. “I have to run home now so that everything is clean when I arrive.”
“Bu-sde,” said the Pithecanthropus.
Pashka’s request did not surprise Hercules. It was often used in all sorts of jobs where great intelligence was not required. True, he didn’t do anything for free.
Pashka looked out the window. No one. He jumped over the window sill and ran home.
Hercules looked at the trash and scratched the back of his head. The pile was big, you couldn’t take it out at once. And Hercules was a great lazy man. He thought for a full minute about how to earn bananas without effort. And I realized.
In the clearing next to the laboratory there was a watering hose. Hercules knew how to use it, and in hot weather he lay in wait for passers-by, doused them from head to toe and hooted with joy.
He jumped out of the laboratory, turned the tap and launched a stream of water into the laboratory. The stream was not strong, and a large puddle immediately appeared on the floor in which garbage was spinning. This did not satisfy Pithecanthropus. He turned the faucet all the way and, clutching the unruly end of the hose with his paws, directed a thick stream into the dirty swamp that used to be a laboratory.
The jet hit the trash. Papers, rags, fragments, pieces of wood were carried to the far wall. The hose twitched in the hands of Hercules, and it is not surprising that the stream also washed away what was on the tables - flasks, instruments, flasks and test tubes. It’s good that the microscope survived and the cabinets didn’t break.
The laboratory door swung open due to the pressure of water, and a mighty river burst out from there, which carried a lot of things, knocked Arkasha off her feet and swirled in whirlpools around the legs of the Villain’s giraffe.
It dawned on Hercules what he had done. He threw down the hose, quickly climbed up the mango tree, picked the fruit and began to clean it, pretending that he had nothing to do with it.
Pashka returned about five minutes later, when everyone had already scolded him to their hearts' content. In the end, Natasha Belaya even felt sorry for him, because he was the most upset.
Arkasha returned him the book “Myths of Ancient Greece” and said:
– You haven’t read to the most interesting part and don’t know that our Pithecanthropus cleaned the laboratory according to an ancient recipe.
- How so? – Pashka was surprised.
– The real, ancient Hercules took the neighboring river to the Augean stables.
“It’s a complete coincidence,” said Mashenka Belaya. - With one exception: in Augean stables there were no microscopes.
Chapter 2
The appearance of Hercules
We need to tell you where the Pithecanthropus came from at the biological station.
Alisa, Arkasha, Javad and Pashka Geraskin were at the Institute of Time.
They have long wanted to get there, but temporary cabins are scheduled between scientists a year in advance, and tourists are not allowed into the past. You never know what can happen!
Fortunately, Alisa Selezneva great connections, including at this institute. She's already been there in the past.
One day a call rang at the biological station, and a curly-haired, thin young man named Richard Tempest appeared on the videophone screen.
“Suddenly a large cabin became vacant,” he said. - I agreed on everything. So one foot is there, the other is here.
Less than half an hour had passed before the biologists were already at the doors of the institute, where Richard was waiting for them.
“So,” he said, “you want to see when and how the monkey turned into a man?”
“That’s right,” Javad replied. – It is the duty of scientists to record this moment.
“Then please tell me,” Richard asked, leading the guys inside the huge building, “what date, month or at least year BC did this event take place?” By the way, tell me at what point globe this happened…
“I won’t say exactly, but approximately...” Javad thought.
- Let's start with an approximate one.
– About a million to two million years ago.
Alice and Pashka laughed, and Richard wrote down this figure very seriously, sighed and said:
- Thanks for the info. Now tell me the place of this event.
“Somewhere in Africa or South Asia,” Javad answered.
“Very accurate,” Richard said and wrote it down. “So today we are going somewhere south, a million or two million years before our era.” And if you're lucky, we'll see how the monkey turned into a man.
Richard was joking. Scientists have long been interested in this problem and have flown into the past several times, looking for ancient people. Of course, no one saw how the monkey became a man, because such a moment never happened. But we managed to find a herd of our distant ancestors - Pithecanthropus on the island of Java.
First, Richard showed the biologists the Institute of Time.
There are three halls in total with cabins for traveling back in time. As you know, you can’t get into the future, because it doesn’t exist yet. There are as many departments as there are cabins. The first is historical. The temporary workers who work there write a detailed, accurate, illustrated history of humanity.
The guys ended up in a gallery where voluminous color photographs hung famous people of the past. There were portraits of Homer, Joan of Arc, young Leonardo da Vinci and old Leonardo da Vinci, the leader of the Huns Attila and even Ilya Muromets, who turned out to be a young blue-eyed mustache. There were also thousands of pictures taken during the most different eras. For example, a bird's eye view of the city of Babylon, burning Rome set on fire by Nero, and even a village that once stood on the site of Moscow...
Pashka Geraskin, suffering from envy, whispered to Alice:
– I think I’ll leave biologists and become historians. They live very interesting lives.
“And I will never change biology,” Javad replied. – Historians only explain what happened, and we, biologists, change the world.
“It’s an empty argument,” Richard remarked, opening the door to the next room. – We all change the world, including historians. Our world has not existed for the first time and will not be the last. And when we learn new things about the past, we change not only the past, but also the present. It's clear?
They stopped in front of a large, three-meter portrait: a young beautiful woman with a curly-haired boy in his arms. The boy was upset about something and was about to burst into tears.
- Who is this? - asked Alice.
– Unique photo, said Richard. “Our guys have been hunting for him for a year. Little Pushkin in his mother's arms.
- Wow! – Pashka gasped, entering the next room.
Here temporary historians stored their equipment: clothes, shoes, weapons, jewelry. Nearby were wardrobes with caftans and musketeer cloaks, boots and Roman sandals stood in formation, hats with feathers and green turbans with rubies and diamonds were piled up. Knights' armor lined up against the wall.
– Is this all real? – Pashka asked.
Nobody answered him. And it’s so clear that everything here comes from there. When a temporary worker goes into the past, he studies the language and customs of “his” time more carefully than the ancient spies. After special commission checks if he is ready. If not, no one will let him go. Pashka’s legs were rooted to the floor—it was beyond his strength to leave here. Richard had to lead Pashka out of the hall by the hand.
The next floor of the institute was occupied by the research department. The most specialists work here various sciences. The past can provide answers to problems that cannot be solved today. Geologists travel back a billion years to find out how people moved earth's continents and how deep the primordial oceans were, botanists are bringing extinct plants from the past to use them in agriculture, astronomers are going to look with their own eyes at solar eclipse which happened three thousand years ago in South India...
But the third department of the institute, where Richard did not take the guys, only told about it, seemed to Alice the most interesting. It was called: “Department for Correcting Historical Errors and Injustices.”
Entrance there is closed to outsiders, because temporary workers are engaged in such delicate and risky operations that any mistake can cost the entire Earth dearly.
“For example,” said Richard, “everyone knows that the writer Gogol burned the second volume of his novel.” Dead Souls" But any of us can read it.
“I have it at home,” said Pashka.
- Nothing surprising. And this is what happened: a temporary worker from the third department penetrated into the past, on the day when Gogol was about to burn his novel, and at the last moment managed to quietly replace it with a stack of blank paper. The course of history was not disrupted, but we, Gogol’s descendants, saw this novel.
- Well, what else? - asked Alice.
- More? Do you know about Library of Alexandria?
“I heard,” said Arkasha. “It was in Egypt, in Alexandria, and burned down when Julius Caesar came there.
“Many thousands of papyri were lost in this huge library. And recently our institute decided to save this library. We managed to rescue three thousand eight hundred manuscripts from the burning building. Many times temporary workers went there, into the fire and smoke, returned scorched, half-suffocated, wounded, but immediately, having handed over the spoils, they hurried back...
– And the library of Ivan the Terrible? – Javad asked. – Has she been found yet?
“They’ll definitely find it,” said Richard. “She’s not going anywhere.” Okay, it’s time for us to go back in time ourselves.
We had to wait a few minutes in the research department hall. The cabin was still occupied; they were waiting for the physicists who had observed the fall of the Tunguska meteorite to return from the past.
Meanwhile, Richard showed the guests an experimental temporary screen. It hangs horizontally above the table. Everything that falls under it begins to move back in time. But not like in a cockpit, where a person can fly for a million years and not change at all. If you put a butterfly under the screen, after a while it will turn into a pupa, then into a caterpillar. If you put a rag down, it will turn into the tablecloth it once was. And if you put a piece of paper with erased letters, you will soon be able to see what was written on it before. This device was made at the request of restorers of old paintings and manuscripts, but it will probably be useful in other places.
The siren sounded - the physicists were returning.
The guys rushed into the hall so as not to miss this moment.
The cabin door opened and two people came out. They were dressed strangely - in quilted jackets and high boots.
One of the operators asked:
- Well? Have you seen it?
“We saw,” one of those who came answered tiredly, taking off his cap and wiping sweat from his forehead. – The comet nucleus, as I said.
“We’ll argue about this later,” answered the second one, throwing off the green backpack from his shoulders and carefully placing it on the floor. – Here are all the films, recordings and samples. But first I dream of taking a bath and forgetting about mosquitoes.
Before the physicists had time to leave the hall, a small, fragile woman ran up to the guys.
“Hurry,” she said. - Otherwise the astronomers will kick us out. They've been waiting for the cabin since yesterday morning. Richard, take them to the disinfection chamber. Give them masks and have them be here in five minutes. I'll type the code for now. Java, a million - twelve according to Petrov Curve, right?
In a few minutes, the guys were cleared of all germs - it’s impossible to bring some microscopic gift from the twenty-first century back into the past - they were given protective masks with a filter, and before they had time to come to their senses, they found themselves in a cabin, which immediately hummed and the lights began to blink. , preparing for the million-year leap.
The flight itself to primeval Java took a moment. But the feeling was unpleasant, especially if you are traveling for the first time. It’s as if you’re falling into an endless abyss and you’re being spun around so that it’s unclear where is up and where is down...
The cabin stood on top of a low hill overgrown with grass and small bushes above a winding river.
Richard opened the door and the guys poured out of the cabin like peas. The smell of hot, humid, fragrant air hit their faces.
– Don’t go anywhere without my permission! - Richard ordered. - Is it dangerous.
“Well,” said Pashka, “it’s not bad here.” You can stay.
A large fly flew up to Pashka and tried to sit on him.
“Don’t pester me,” Pashka told her. - Maybe you're a biter.
- And probably poisonous! - Alice remarked.
Pashka took a step back. The fly is behind him. Pashka walked away a few steps, the fly not far behind. Pashka jumped back... but then Richard said:
- Quiet. Otherwise I won’t take children anymore. I believed you that you are real scientists...
“Look,” said Javad. - By the river…
And then they saw Pithecanthropus.
Human ancestors turned out to be chimpanzee-like monkeys, the size of a ten-year-old child. From the hill one could see how some of them moved from place to place on their hind limbs, without touching the ground with their hands, and one large Pithecanthropus, probably the leader, held a thick stick in his hand.
“Look,” Javad whispered, “a child.”
One of the Pithecanthropus, smaller than the others, turned his head in their direction, put his hand to his eyes so that the sun would not interfere, and tried to see who was visiting there. His mother slapped the teenager on the head and he began to cry.
-Can I come closer? - asked Alice.
“No way,” said Richard. “We have been looking for this herd for almost two years. And if it changes its location, you will have to look for it again. Look!
A huge striped tiger with fangs so large that they looked like sabers suddenly jumped out from behind the trees. The tiger pressed himself to the ground for a second and jumped.
With a squeal, the Pithecanthropus scattered. Only the leader of the herd tried to cover the rest with himself by raising a stick.
The tiger missed - the leader managed to jump away and fly up a tree. The predator looked around, looking for its next victim.
She turned out to be a teenage Pithecanthropus who did not think to climb a tree, but ran along the open hillside. The tiger rushed after him.
- Into the cabin! – Richard shouted, grabbing the hand of Alice, who stood closest to him.
Alice didn’t have time to figure out how she ended up in the cabin.
Javad and Arkasha squeezed in behind her.
- Pashka! - Richard shouted. - Don't go crazy!
Through the transparent wall of the cabin it was visible that Pashka was running towards the screeching Pithecanthropus, and a saber-toothed tiger was jumping towards them.
Pashka managed to catch the fugitive at the moment when the tiger was ready to close its fangs, and Richard saved them, snatching a pistol and putting a sleeping bullet into the tiger’s muzzle.
The tiger fell to the ground, paws up, and began to snore.
Pashka, hugging the Pithecanthropus, squeezed into the cabin, Richard followed them.
And then Richard realized that there were more passengers.
“You’re crazy,” he said indignantly. “Release the animal now.”
But the animal apparently realized what was threatening him, and clung to Pashka so tightly that it was impossible to tear him away. Moreover, the Pithecanthropus squealed as if Richard wanted to kill him.
The cabin door slowly closed.
- Yes, you understand that with extra load Can we not get home at all? – Richard tried to tear the pithecanthropus away from Pashka.
“It’s too late,” said Arkasha.
And he was right, because the lights in the cabin dimmed and it started again rapid fall. The cabin rushed through time...
Door opened. They were in a familiar laboratory. The little woman who was in charge of the flight said indignantly:
– This is completely unacceptable. You have collected so many trophies that it has become a terrible overload. I can’t imagine how they managed to get you out... Ah!
A frightened Pithecanthropus jumped out of the cabin, who immediately climbed onto the table, bristled, bared his teeth, showing that he would not surrender to his enemies easily.
“Wow,” said one of the operators. - Well, you'll get a kick out of it, Richard, from the director. You can’t take living beings from the past. Have you forgotten?
“If we hadn’t taken him,” said Richard, “the tiger would have devoured him... But what to do with him?” Send it back? And the herd had already run away.
Then Pashka came out of the cabin, the young Pithecanthropus squealed, rushed to him and hugged him like a lost brother. And it was not possible to separate Pashka from the Pithecanthropus.
So at the biological station on Gogolevsky Boulevard a new inhabitant appeared, who was dubbed Hercules and they began to wait for him to turn into a man.
But Hercules is in no hurry. He is satisfied with the share of Pithecanthropus.
“A Million Adventures” is a book for children written by Kir Bulychev. The writer's language is as simple as it is rich, so the book is easy to read and with great interest. It includes four stories about the girl Alisa Selezneva, familiar to readers from the author’s previous works. Here Alice has become more mature, although her passion for adventure has not subsided at all. She got good friend Pashka is as much an adventurer as the girl herself. Together they made a wonderful tandem.
In Moscow, at the station for young biologists, Alice meets Hercules. He is a Pithecanthropus who was brought to Moscow from the past. He performs unique feats and participates in Alice's experiments, which sometimes lead to very interesting consequences.
On planet Penelope, Alice's class is on a field trip. Pashka manages to get into the Middle Ages and become a real knight. There he will make a splash, believing that there is no place for slavery in the world, and that witches should not be burned at the stake. Alice will become a princess who will try with all her might to bring her friend home.
On the planet itself, the guys will have to face considerable difficulties. The planet has a mind of its own and rebels against those who are responsible for disasters. The problem is that it doesn't differentiate between good and bad.
Having arrived on another planet, friends find themselves in quarantine. They are informed about the spread of the epidemic. But it soon becomes clear that all this is the work of pirates, with whom they now face a serious struggle.
On our website you can download the book “A Million Adventures” by Kir Bulychev for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book in the online store.
The spring morning began peacefully, but ended in a big scandal.
Arkasha came first, as always. He hurried to the plot where he grew sentient flowers. All plants can feel, but try to understand their feelings.
At the sight of Arkasha, the flowers nodded their heads; they opened the petals, moved the leaves and feigned joy. Arkasha connected the hose and began to water his pets with warm vitamin water.
Then Javad came. He fed the animals in the cages and released the Pithecanthropus Hercules, who immediately rushed to the house where three dogs were spending the night - Polkan, Ruslan and Sultan, who, oddly enough, were sisters. The dogs worked for geologists in the summer and searched for ore and fossil bones deep underground by smell. But the season had not yet begun, so the sisters were on vacation and were friends with Hercules. And he skillfully used this friendship and had breakfast twice – at his place and at the dogs’.
The twins Masha and Natasha came running, thin, big-eyed, with identical abrasions on their knees. They are so similar that you can’t tell them apart, but in fact they are completely different people. Masha is serious and assures that she only loves science. And Natasha is terribly frivolous and loves not so much science as animals and dancing. At the sight of Masha and Natasha, the dolphins Grishka and Medea leaned out of the pool up to their waists - they had missed each other overnight.
Alisa Selezneva was late. She went to the Space Center to arrange an excursion to the planet Penelope. But Alice was told that it was unknown whether there would be places, and she was asked to come in a month. Alice was upset; she didn’t even notice how Hercules approached with his hand outstretched. Either he wanted to say hello, or he was hoping for a treat.
Alice disappeared into a low laboratory building to leave her bag there and change clothes, and when she came out, she angrily declared:
– This is not a laboratory, but the Augean stables!
Hercules, who was waiting for her at the entrance, did not answer anything, because he had never read Greek myths, and besides, he knew only edible words. No matter how much he was taught, he did not go beyond the words “banana”, “apple”, “milk”, “sugar”.
But Mashenka Belaya heard Alice’s exclamation.
“Of course,” she said. “Pashka Geraskin sat there until late at night yesterday, but didn’t bother to clean up after himself.
“And here he is,” said Natasha Belaya. - Easy to remember.
Pashka Geraskin slowly walked towards the station along the coconut alley and read a book as he walked. On the cover it was written in large letters: “Myths of Ancient Greece.”
“Pay attention,” Mashenka Belaya said sarcastically. “This young man wants to know how the Augean stables are cleaned.”
Pashka heard, stopped, laid the page with his finger and said:
– I can tell you that Hercules means “performing feats due to the persecution of Hera.” By the way, Hera is the wife of Zeus.
Pithecanthropus Hercules heard his name and said:
- Give me a banana.
Pashka looked at him thoughtfully and said:
- No, you won’t accomplish any feats. Didn't grow taller.
“Listen, Pashka,” said Alice gloomily. – What did you do in the laboratory? You might think that no one had cleaned it there for thirty years.
“When I have ideas,” Pashka answered, “I don’t pay attention to the little things in life.”
“And we are converting,” said Mashenka.
“Don’t make noise,” said Pashka. - I'll clean everything up. In half an hour everything will be in order.
“The legend is fresh, but hard to believe,” said Arkasha. “I suggest taking the book away from Pashka while cleaning: he’ll read it and forget everything.”
After a short fight, Pashka lost his book and retired to the laboratory to lick his wounds and think about revenge.
He didn’t want to clean, it was a boring task. He went to the window. Mashenka was sitting on the edge of the pool, cards with numbers were laid out next to her. The dolphins were cramming the multiplication table. Next to her, Natasha was weaving a wreath of the first yellow dandelions. Javad was arguing with Alice about something, and a boring, stupid, curious giraffe, the Villain, with one horn in the middle of his forehead, towered over them.
“How did I manage to make such a mess?” – Pashka was amazed.
Scattered on the floor were crumpled sheets of paper, scraps of tapes, soil samples, branches, orange peels, shavings, fragments of broken flasks, slides, nut shells - traces of yesterday's hectic activity, when Pashka was seized by the brilliant idea of creating an animal without lungs and gills for life in airless space. The idea burst at about eleven o'clock, just then his mother called and demanded that he come home.
There are disadvantages, Pashka thought, to the fact that you are an enthusiast and live among enthusiasts. The guys, including Pashka, spent all their free time at the station, rushing straight from school to their animals and plants, and on Saturday and Sunday they often sat there from morning to evening. Pashka’s mother grumbled that he had completely abandoned sports and was making mistakes in his essays. And during the holidays, the guys were going to the planet Penelope, to real, unexplored jungles - would you really refuse that?
Sighing, Pashka took a sponge and began to wipe the laboratory table, throwing unnecessary rubbish onto the floor. “It’s a pity,” he thought, “that the book of myths was taken away. Now I would like to read how Hercules cleaned the Augean stables. Maybe he was cheating?
When Javad looked into the laboratory half an hour later, Pashka had already wiped all the tables, put the flasks and microscopes in their places, put the instruments in the cabinets, but there was more garbage on the floor.
– How long will you continue to dig? – Javad asked. - May I help?
“I’ll manage,” said Pashka. - Five more minutes.
He shoveled the garbage towards the middle of the room with a brush, making a mountain almost up to his waist.
Javad left, and Pashka stopped in front of the mountain and thought about how to take it out in one go.
At that moment, the face of Pithecanthropus Hercules appeared in the open window. At the sight of the trash, he even groaned with pleasure.
And Pashka had a happy thought.
“Come here,” he said.
Hercules immediately jumped out the window.
“I entrust you with a matter of great importance,” said Pashka. – If you take all this out of our Augean laboratory, you will get a banana.
Hercules thought, strained his undeveloped brain and said:
- Two bananas.
“Okay, two bananas,” Pashka agreed. “I have to run home now so that everything is clean when I arrive.”
“Bu-sde,” said the Pithecanthropus.
Pashka’s request did not surprise Hercules. It was often used in all sorts of jobs where great intelligence was not required. True, he didn’t do anything for free.
Pashka looked out the window. No one. He jumped over the window sill and ran home.
Hercules looked at the trash and scratched the back of his head. The pile was big, you couldn’t take it out at once. And Hercules was a great lazy man. He thought for a full minute about how to earn bananas without effort. And I realized.
In the clearing next to the laboratory there was a watering hose. Hercules knew how to use it, and in hot weather he lay in wait for passers-by, doused them from head to toe and hooted with joy.
He jumped out of the laboratory, turned the tap and launched a stream of water into the laboratory. The stream was not strong, and a large puddle immediately appeared on the floor in which garbage was spinning. This did not satisfy Pithecanthropus. He turned the faucet all the way and, clutching the unruly end of the hose with his paws, directed a thick stream into the dirty swamp that used to be a laboratory.
The jet hit the trash. Papers, rags, fragments, pieces of wood were carried to the far wall. The hose twitched in the hands of Hercules, and it is not surprising that the stream also washed away what was on the tables - flasks, instruments, flasks and test tubes. It’s good that the microscope survived and the cabinets didn’t break.
The laboratory door swung open due to the pressure of water, and a mighty river burst out from there, which carried a lot of things, knocked Arkasha off her feet and swirled in whirlpools around the legs of the Villain’s giraffe.
It dawned on Hercules what he had done. He threw down the hose, quickly climbed up the mango tree, picked the fruit and began to clean it, pretending that he had nothing to do with it.
Kir Bulychev
A Million Adventures
A Million Adventures
New labors of Hercules
Augean laboratory
The spring morning began peacefully, but ended in a big scandal.
Arkasha came first, as always. He hurried to the plot where he grew sentient flowers. All plants can feel, but try to understand their feelings.
At the sight of Arkasha, the flowers nodded their heads; they opened the petals, moved the leaves and feigned joy. Arkasha connected the hose and began to water his pets with warm vitamin water.
Then Javad came. He fed the animals in the cages and released the Pithecanthropus Hercules, who immediately rushed to the house where three dogs were spending the night - Polkan, Ruslan and Sultan, who, oddly enough, were sisters. The dogs worked for geologists in the summer and searched for ore and fossil bones deep underground by smell. But the season had not yet begun, so the sisters were on vacation and were friends with Hercules. And he skillfully used this friendship and had breakfast twice - at his place and at the dogs'.
The twins Masha and Natasha came running, thin, big-eyed, with identical abrasions on their knees. They are so similar that you can’t tell them apart, but in fact they are completely different people. Masha is serious and assures that she only loves science. And Natasha is terribly frivolous and loves not so much science as animals and dancing. At the sight of Masha and Natasha, the dolphins Grishka and Medea leaned out of the pool up to their waists - they had missed each other overnight.
Alisa Selezneva was late. She went to the Space Center to arrange an excursion to the planet Penelope. But Alice was told that it was unknown whether there would be places, and she was asked to come in a month. Alice was upset; she didn’t even notice how Hercules approached with his hand outstretched. Either he wanted to say hello, or he was hoping for a treat.
Alice disappeared into a low laboratory building to leave her bag there and change clothes, and when she came out, she angrily declared:
This is not a laboratory, but an Augean stables!
Hercules, who was waiting for her at the entrance, did not answer anything, because he had never read Greek myths, and besides, he knew only edible words. No matter how much he was taught, he did not go beyond the words “banana”, “apple”, “milk”, “sugar”.
But Mashenka Belaya heard Alice’s exclamation.
Of course,” she said. - Pashka Geraskin sat there until late at night yesterday, but didn’t bother to clean up after himself.
“And here he is,” said Natasha Belaya. - Easy to remember.
Pashka Geraskin slowly walked towards the station along the coconut alley and read a book as he walked. On the cover it was written in large letters:
"Myths of Ancient Greece".
Pay attention,” Mashenka Belaya said sarcastically. - This young man wants to know how the Augean stables are cleaned.
Pashka heard, stopped, laid the page with his finger and said:
I can tell you that Hercules means “performing feats due to the persecution of Hera.” By the way, Hera is the wife of Zeus.
Pithecanthropus Hercules heard his name and said:
Give me a banana.
Pashka looked at him thoughtfully and said:
No, you won’t accomplish any feats. Didn't grow taller.
Listen, Pashka,” said Alice gloomily. - What did you do in the laboratory? You might think that no one had cleaned it there for thirty years.
“When I have ideas,” Pashka answered, “I don’t pay attention to the little things in life.”
“And we are converting,” said Mashenka.
Don’t make noise,” said Pashka. - I'll clean everything up. In half an hour everything will be in order.
The legend is fresh, but hard to believe,” said Arkasha. “I suggest taking away Pashka’s book while cleaning: he’ll read it and forget everything.”
After a short fight, Pashka lost his book and retired to the laboratory to lick his wounds and think about revenge.
He didn’t want to clean, it was a boring task. He went to the window. Mashenka was sitting on the edge of the pool, cards with numbers were laid out next to her. The dolphins were cramming the multiplication table. Next to her, Natasha was weaving a wreath of the first yellow dandelions. Javad was arguing with Alice about something, and a boring, stupid, curious giraffe, the Villain, with one horn in the middle of his forehead, towered over them.
“How did I manage to make such a mess?” - Pashka was amazed.
Scattered on the floor were crumpled sheets of paper, scraps of tapes, soil samples, branches, orange peels, shavings, fragments of broken flasks, glass slides, nut shells - traces of yesterday's hectic activity, when Pashka was seized by the brilliant idea of creating an animal without lungs and gills for life in airless space. The idea burst at about eleven o'clock, just then his mother called and demanded that he come home.
Kir Bulychev
A Million Adventures
A Million Adventures
New labors of Hercules
Augean laboratory
The spring morning began peacefully, but ended in a big scandal.
Arkasha came first, as always. He hurried to the plot where he grew sentient flowers. All plants can feel, but try to understand their feelings.
At the sight of Arkasha, the flowers nodded their heads; they opened the petals, moved the leaves and feigned joy. Arkasha connected the hose and began to water his pets with warm vitamin water.
Then Javad came. He fed the animals in the cages and released the Pithecanthropus Hercules, who immediately rushed to the house where three dogs were spending the night - Polkan, Ruslan and Sultan, who, oddly enough, were sisters. The dogs worked for geologists in the summer and searched for ore and fossil bones deep underground by smell. But the season had not yet begun, so the sisters were on vacation and were friends with Hercules. And he skillfully used this friendship and had breakfast twice - at his place and at the dogs'.
The twins Masha and Natasha came running, thin, big-eyed, with identical abrasions on their knees. They are so similar that you can’t tell them apart, but in fact they are completely different people. Masha is serious and assures that she only loves science. And Natasha is terribly frivolous and loves not so much science as animals and dancing. At the sight of Masha and Natasha, the dolphins Grishka and Medea leaned out of the pool up to their waists - they had missed each other overnight.
Alisa Selezneva was late. She went to the Space Center to arrange an excursion to the planet Penelope. But Alice was told that it was unknown whether there would be places, and she was asked to come in a month. Alice was upset; she didn’t even notice how Hercules approached with his hand outstretched. Either he wanted to say hello, or he was hoping for a treat.
Alice disappeared into a low laboratory building to leave her bag there and change clothes, and when she came out, she angrily declared:
This is not a laboratory, but an Augean stables!
Hercules, who was waiting for her at the entrance, did not answer anything, because he had never read Greek myths, and besides, he knew only edible words. No matter how much he was taught, he did not go beyond the words “banana”, “apple”, “milk”, “sugar”.
But Mashenka Belaya heard Alice’s exclamation.
Of course,” she said. - Pashka Geraskin sat there until late at night yesterday, but didn’t bother to clean up after himself.
“And here he is,” said Natasha Belaya. - Easy to remember.
Pashka Geraskin slowly walked towards the station along the coconut alley and read a book as he walked. On the cover it was written in large letters:
"Myths of Ancient Greece".
Pay attention,” Mashenka Belaya said sarcastically. - This young man wants to know how the Augean stables are cleaned.
Pashka heard, stopped, laid the page with his finger and said:
I can tell you that Hercules means “performing feats due to the persecution of Hera.” By the way, Hera is the wife of Zeus.
Pithecanthropus Hercules heard his name and said:
Give me a banana.
Pashka looked at him thoughtfully and said:
No, you won’t accomplish any feats. Didn't grow taller.
Listen, Pashka,” said Alice gloomily. - What did you do in the laboratory? You might think that no one had cleaned it there for thirty years.
“When I have ideas,” Pashka answered, “I don’t pay attention to the little things in life.”
“And we are converting,” said Mashenka.
Don’t make noise,” said Pashka. - I'll clean everything up. In half an hour everything will be in order.
The legend is fresh, but hard to believe,” said Arkasha. “I suggest taking away Pashka’s book while cleaning: he’ll read it and forget everything.”
After a short fight, Pashka lost his book and retired to the laboratory to lick his wounds and think about revenge.
He didn’t want to clean, it was a boring task. He went to the window. Mashenka was sitting on the edge of the pool, cards with numbers were laid out next to her. The dolphins were cramming the multiplication table. Next to her, Natasha was weaving a wreath of the first yellow dandelions. Javad was arguing with Alice about something, and a boring, stupid, curious giraffe, the Villain, with one horn in the middle of his forehead, towered over them.
“How did I manage to make such a mess?” - Pashka was amazed.
Scattered on the floor were crumpled sheets of paper, scraps of tapes, soil samples, branches, orange peels, shavings, fragments of broken flasks, glass slides, nut shells - traces of yesterday's hectic activity, when Pashka was seized by the brilliant idea of creating an animal without lungs and gills for life in airless space. The idea burst at about eleven o'clock, just then his mother called and demanded that he come home.
There are disadvantages, Pashka thought, to the fact that you are an enthusiast and live among enthusiasts. The guys, including Pashka, spent all their free time at the station, rushing straight from school to their animals and plants, and on Saturday and Sunday they often sat there from morning to evening. Pashka’s mother grumbled that he had completely abandoned sports and was making mistakes in his essays. And during the holidays, the guys were going to the planet Penelope, to real, unexplored jungles - would you really refuse that?
Sighing, Pashka took a sponge and began to wipe the laboratory table, throwing unnecessary rubbish onto the floor. “It’s a pity,” he thought, “that the book of myths was taken away. Now I would like to read how Hercules cleaned the Augean stables. Maybe he was cheating?
When Javad looked into the laboratory half an hour later, Pashka had already wiped all the tables, put the flasks and microscopes in their places, put the instruments in the cabinets, but there was more garbage on the floor.
How much longer will you be digging? - Javad asked. - May I help?
“I’ll manage,” said Pashka. - Five more minutes.
He shoveled the garbage towards the middle of the room with a brush, making a mountain almost up to his waist.
Javad left, and Pashka stopped in front of the mountain and thought about how to take it out in one go.
At that moment, the face of Pithecanthropus Hercules appeared in the open window. At the sight of the trash, he even groaned with pleasure.
And Pashka had a happy thought.
Come here,” he said.
Hercules immediately jumped out the window.
“I trust you with a matter of great importance,” said Pashka. - If you take all this out of our Augean laboratory, you will get a banana.
Hercules thought, strained his undeveloped brain and said:
Two bananas.
“Okay, two bananas,” Pashka agreed. “I have to run home now so that everything is clean when I arrive.”
“Bu-sde,” said the Pithecanthropus.
Pashka’s request did not surprise Hercules. It was often used in all sorts of jobs where great intelligence was not required. True, he didn’t do anything for free.
Pashka looked out the window. No one. He jumped over the window sill and ran home.
Hercules looked at the trash and scratched the back of his head. The pile was big, you couldn’t take it out at once. And Hercules was a great lazy man. He thought for a full minute about how to earn bananas without effort. And I realized.
In the clearing next to the laboratory there was a watering hose. Hercules knew how to use it, and in hot weather he lay in wait for passers-by, doused them from head to toe and hooted with joy.
He jumped out of the laboratory, turned the tap and launched a stream of water into the laboratory. The stream was not strong, and a large puddle immediately appeared on the floor in which garbage was spinning. This did not satisfy Pithecanthropus. He turned the faucet all the way and, clutching the unruly end of the hose with his paws, directed a thick stream into the dirty swamp that used to be a laboratory.
The jet hit the trash. Papers, rags, fragments, pieces of wood were carried to the far wall. The hose twitched in the hands of Hercules, and it is not surprising that the stream also washed away what was on the tables - flasks, instruments, flasks and test tubes. It’s good that the microscope survived and the cabinets didn’t break.
The laboratory door swung open due to the pressure of water, and a mighty river burst out from there, which carried a lot of things, knocked Arkasha off her feet and swirled in whirlpools around the legs of the Villain’s giraffe.
It dawned on Hercules what he had done. He threw down the hose, quickly climbed up the mango tree, picked the fruit and began to clean it, pretending that he had nothing to do with it.
Pashka returned about five minutes later, when everyone had already scolded him to their hearts' content. In the end, Natasha Belaya even felt sorry for him, because he was the most upset.
Arkasha returned him the book “Myths of Ancient Greece” and said:
You haven’t read to the most interesting part and don’t know that our Pithecanthropus cleaned the laboratory according to an ancient recipe.
How so? - Pashka was surprised.
The real, ancient Hercules took the neighboring river to the Augean stables.
“It’s a complete coincidence,” said Mashenka Belaya. - With one exception: there were no microscopes in the Augean stables.