What does the story of the black hen teach. Moral lessons of life

Here it is, the only fairy tale of my childhood that seemed creepy to me. But I grew up in the company of Andersen, with his “Red Shoes” and the Brothers Grimm, in which, for example, one boy cuts the chest’s neck (“and the head flew off and fell between red apples”)
But punishing angels and evil stepmothers are somewhere out there, far away. Another thing is black chicken. Why shouldn't she really crawl out from under her grandmother's bed? Moreover, it is winter, twilight and you are alone in the house.
What is there! When I think about St. Petersburg, the first thing that pops up in my head is: a house, twilight, portraits with leaflets on the walls, dark gaps in doors, and Chernushka. Couples from Somov's paintings and Blok's Pierrots with Colombina fit perfectly into this space. Stop. I feel like I'm writing a memoir..

About the book.
It turns out that I forgot everything except for the general plot. And there, after all, there are trees made of multi-colored moss, and paths made of precious stones, and a menagerie and hunting - it looks like Hoffmann, but not so rationally. The realistic part is no worse. Boarding house, teachers, dormitories… And the baroque board fence? And the old Dutch women who spoke with Peter? And their gray parrot with a red tail? I would read and read.
There are different theories regarding the meaning of this tale. Some speak of the debunking of the ideals of romanticism; others that Alyosha's night journey to the underground inhabitants is an encrypted description of a Masonic ritual. Or, it's just a story about the importance of being diligent, humble, and keeping your word.
Of course, by today's standards, Pogorelsky delivers these moral lessons, too bluntly. But it is clear that the author speaks from a pure heart, and much can be forgiven for sincerity.

There are two adaptations: an animation from 1975 and a film from 1980.
First, a cartoon that I did not like at all.
It is puppet-like, designed in white and blue colors, and the plot unfolds in an extremely conditional space. With a boarding house against the backdrop of white sails and Chernushka walking around the deserted square. And there is no cook at all. Chernushka wanted to grab predatory bird. But these digressions could be attributed to the author's vision and forgiven if it were not for pathos and moralizing. Just one example: in a fairy tale, Alyosha expresses a desire to always know a lesson, embarrassed in the face of the underground king and unable to think of anything else. Here, Chernushka takes him to the garden where the seeds of Kindness, Wisdom and Health grow. But Alyosha only thinks how not to study. And I understand it. What normal child would dream of wisdom?
Further, our hero, who was before that an angel, who studied the basics of sciences and arts all day long (so it’s not clear why he needs a grain) at once turns into a petty hooligan and even begins to spit. The ending is like a book, but it seems to have a hint of Meaning, although it would seem that there are some subtexts there ..

The film is too authorial to be considered a film adaptation. Too many things have been added. The hardships of official life, punishment and homesickness come to the fore. Helplessness and powerlessness. The boy in the title role is so glorious that it is impossible not to empathize. And the director pumps and pumps everything. I would rate the film much higher, because the acting is very good and the atmosphere (although it doesn't smell like Pogorelsky), but it's very hard to watch. Bergman did not load me like that, honestly. And this pretentiousness. Shooting and how and on what they emphasized ... there is some kind of snobbery in this, like: “look, we are creating Art, and not filming stupid fairy tales.” I don't like this.

Total: A fairy tale, excellent, but the film adaptations are very tricky and not about that.

Forty years ago The story was written in 1829. in St. Petersburg on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First line, Vasilyevsky Island- a district in St. Petersburg, a line - the name of each street on Vasilyevsky Island. once upon a time there was a keeper of a men's boarding house, Pension - a school with a hostel for students. which is probably still fresh in the memory of many, although the house where the boarding house was located has long since given way to another, not at all similar to the former one. At that time, our Petersburg was already famous throughout Europe for its beauty, although it was still far from what it is now. At that time, there were no cheerful shady alleys on the avenues of Vasilyevsky Island: wooden scaffolding, often knocked together from rotten boards, took the place of today's beautiful sidewalks. St. Isaac's Bridge, narrow and uneven at that time, presented a completely different view than it is now; and St. Isaac's Square itself was not like that at all. Then the monument to Peter the Great was separated from St. Isaac's Square by a ditch; The Admiralty was not planted with trees; Façade - the front side of a building.- in a word, Petersburg then was not what it is now. Cities have, by the way, the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age ... However, that is not the point now. Another time and on another occasion, perhaps, I will talk with you at greater length about the changes that have taken place in St. Petersburg during my century, but now let us turn again to the boarding house, which forty years ago was located on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First Line.

The house, which you now - as I already told you - will not find, was about two floors, covered with Dutch tiles. The porch through which they entered it was wooden and jutted out onto the street. From the passage a rather steep staircase led to the upper dwelling, which consisted of eight or nine rooms, in which the owner of the boarding house lived on one side, and on the other were the classrooms. Dormitories, or children's bedrooms, were located on the lower floor, right side the canopy, and on the left lived two old Dutch women, each of whom was over a hundred years old and who had seen Peter the Great with their own eyes and even talked to him. At the present time, it is unlikely that in the whole of Russia you will meet a person who would have seen Peter the Great; the time will come when our traces will be wiped off the face of the earth! Everything passes, everything disappears in our mortal world... but that is not the point now.

Among the thirty or forty children who studied at that boarding school, there was one boy named Alyosha, who was then no more than 9 or 10 years old. His parents, who lived far, far from St. Petersburg, brought him to the capital two years before, sent him to a boarding school and returned home, paying the teacher the agreed fee for several years in advance. Alyosha was a smart, sweet boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him. However, despite that, he was often bored in the boarding house, and sometimes even sad. especially Especially (an old word) - especially. at first he could not get used to the idea that he was separated from his relatives. But then, little by little, he began to get used to his position, and there were even moments when, playing with his comrades, he thought that it was much more fun in a boarding school than in his parents' house. In general, the days of training passed quickly and pleasantly for him, but when Saturday came and all his comrades hurried home to their relatives, then Alyosha bitterly felt his loneliness. On Sundays and holidays, he was alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books, which the teacher allowed him to borrow from his small library. The teacher was a German by birth, at that time the fashion for chivalric novels and fairy tales dominated in German literature, and this library for the most part consisted of books of this kind.

So, Alyosha, being still at the age of ten, already knew by heart the deeds of the most glorious knights, at least as they were described in the novels. His favorite pastime on long winter evenings, on Sundays and other holidays, was mentally transported to the old, bygone centuries ... Especially at a vacant time, Vacant time, or vacations, - holidays. as, for example, about Christmas or on the bright Sunday of Christ - when he was separated from his comrades for a long time, when he often spent whole days sitting in solitude - his youthful imagination wandered through knight's castles, through terrible ruins or through dark, dense forests.

I forgot to tell you that a rather spacious courtyard belonged to this house, separated from the alley by a wooden fence made of baroque planks. Baroque boards- boards from which barges are made - river boats. The gate and gate that led into the lane were always locked, and therefore Alyosha never managed to visit this lane, which greatly aroused his curiosity. Whenever they allowed him to play in the yard during rest hours, his first movement was to run up to the fence. Here he stood on tiptoe and stared intently into the round holes with which the fence was littered. Alyosha did not know that these holes came from the wooden nails with which the barges had previously been knocked together, and it seemed to him that some kind sorceress had purposely drilled these holes for him. He kept expecting that someday this sorceress would appear in the alley and give him a toy, or a talisman, through a hole, A talisman is an object that, as some people thought, brings happiness, keeps from troubles. or a letter from papa or mama, from whom he had not received any news for a long time. But, to his extreme regret, no one even looked like a sorceress.

Alyosha's other occupation was to feed the hens, who lived near the fence in a house specially built for them and played and ran around in the yard all day. Alyosha got to know them very briefly, knew everyone by name, broke up their fights, and the bully punished them by sometimes not giving them anything for several days in a row from the crumbs, which he always collected from the tablecloth after lunch and dinner. Among the hens, he especially loved the black crested one, called Chernushka. Chernushka was more affectionate towards him than the others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha brought the best pieces to her. She was of a quiet disposition; she rarely walked with others and seemed to love Alyosha more than her friends.

One day (it was during vacations, between the New Year and Epiphany - the day was beautiful and unusually warm, no more than three or four degrees below zero) Alyosha was allowed to play in the yard. That day the teacher and his wife were in great trouble. They gave dinner to the director of the schools, and even the day before, from morning until late in the evening, everywhere in the house they washed the floors, dusted and waxed mahogany tables and chests of drawers. The teacher himself went to buy provisions for the table: white Arkhangelsk veal, a huge ham and Kiev jam from Milyutin's shops. Alyosha also contributed to the preparations to the best of his ability: he was forced to cut out a beautiful net for a ham from white paper and decorate six specially bought wax candles with paper carvings. On the appointed day, in the morning, a hairdresser appeared and showed his art on curls, a toupee and a long braid. Buckle, toupee and long braid - an old men's hairstyle. teachers. Then he set to work on his wife, pomaded and powdered her curls and chignon Chignon - a woman's hairstyle, usually from someone else's hair. and perched on her head a whole greenhouse Greenhouse - a warm room for artificial cultivation of plants. Here: lots of flowers. of different colors, between which shone skillfully placed two diamond rings, once presented to her husband by her parents of students. At the end of the headdress, she threw on an old, worn-out coat Salop - an old women's outer dress. and went off to take care of the housework, observing at the same time strictly so that somehow her hair did not deteriorate; and for this she herself did not enter the kitchen, but gave orders to her cook, standing in the doorway. In necessary cases, she sent her husband there, whose hair was not so high.

In the course of all these worries, our Alyosha was completely forgotten, and he took advantage of this to play in the yard in the open. As was his custom, he went first to the wooden fence and looked for a long time through the hole; but even that day almost no one passed along the alley, and with a sigh he turned to his amiable hens. Before he had time to sit down on a log and just began to beckon them to him, when he suddenly saw a cook with a large knife beside him. Alyosha never liked this cook - an angry and quarrelsome little chick. But since he noticed that she was the reason that from time to time the number of his hens decreased, he began to love her even less. When one day he accidentally saw in the kitchen one pretty cockerel, very beloved by him, hung by the legs with his throat cut, he had horror and disgust for her. Seeing her now with a knife, he immediately guessed what it meant, and feeling with sorrow that he was unable to help his friends, he jumped up and ran far away.

Alyosha, Alyosha! Help me catch a chicken! the cook shouted, but Alyosha began to run even faster, hid by the fence behind the chicken coop and did not notice how tears rolled out of his eyes one after another and fell to the ground.

For a long time he stood at the chicken coop, and his heart was beating strongly, while the cook ran around the yard - she beckoned the chickens: “Chick, chick, chick!” - she scolded them in Chukhonian.

Suddenly Alyosha's heart beat even faster: he heard the voice of his beloved Chernushka! She cackled in the most desperate way, and it seemed to him that she was crying:

Where, where, where, where!

Alyosha, save Chernukha!

Kuduhu, kuduhu,

Black, Black, Black!

Alyosha could not remain in his place any longer. Sobbing loudly, he ran to the cook and threw himself on her neck at the very moment when she had already caught Chernushka by the wing.

Dear, dear Trinushka! he cried, bursting into tears. - Please don't touch my Chernukha!

Alyosha threw himself on the cook's neck so unexpectedly that she let go of Chernushka, who, taking advantage of this, flew up in fear to the roof of the shed and continued to cackle there. But now Alyosha could hear her teasing the cook and shouting:

Where, where, where, where!

You didn't catch Chernukha!

Kuduhu, kuduhu!

Black, Black, Black!

Meanwhile the cook was beside herself with vexation.

Rummal go! she shouted. - That's it, I'll fall cassainu and plow. Shorn kuris must be rehabilitated ... He is lazy ... He does not make eggs, he does not sit on the syplatka.

Then she wanted to run to the teacher, but Alyosha did not let her go. He clung to the skirts of her dress and begged so touchingly that she stopped.

Darling, Trinushka! he said. - You are so pretty, clean, kind ... Please leave my Nigella! Look what I'll give you if you're kind!

Alyosha took an imperial from his pocket, Imperial is a gold coin. that made up all his estate, Estate - here: condition, savings. who took better care of his eyes, because it was a gift from his kind grandmother. The cook glanced at the gold coin, scanned the windows of the house to make sure no one could see them, and held out her hand for the imperial. Alyosha was very, very sorry for the imperial, but he remembered Chernushka - and firmly gave the precious gift.

Thus Chernushka was saved from a cruel and inevitable death.

As soon as the cook retired to the house, Chernushka flew off the roof and ran up to Alyosha. She seemed to know that he was her deliverer: she circled around him, flapped her wings and cackled in a cheerful voice. All morning she followed him around the yard like a dog, and it seemed as if she wanted to tell him something, but she could not. At least he couldn't make out her clucking.

About two hours before dinner, guests began to gather. Alyosha was called upstairs, they put on him a shirt with a round collar and cambric cuffs with small folds, white trousers and a wide blue silk sash. His long blond hair, which hung almost to his waist, was carefully combed, divided into two even parts and shifted in front - on both sides of his chest. So dressed up then children. Then they taught him how he should shuffle his foot when the director entered the room, and what he should answer if any questions were put to him. At another time, Alyosha would have been very glad to see the director, whom he had long wanted to see, because, judging by the respect with which his teacher and teacher spoke of him, he imagined that it must be some famous knight in brilliant armor and in helmet with large feathers. But this time, this curiosity gave way to the thought that occupied him exclusively then: about the black hen. He kept imagining how the cook ran after her with a knife, and how Chernushka cackled in different voices. Moreover, he was very annoyed that he could not make out what she wanted to tell him, and he was so drawn to the chicken coop ... But there was nothing to do: he had to wait until dinner was over!

Finally the director arrived. His arrival was announced by the teacher, who had been sitting at the window for a long time, looking intently in the direction from which they were waiting for him.

Everything began to move: the teacher rushed headlong out of the door to meet him below, at the porch; the guests rose from their seats. And even Alyosha forgot about his chicken for a minute and went to the window to see how the knight would get down from the zealous Zealous - lively, lively. horse. But he did not manage to see him: the director had already managed to enter the house. At the porch, instead of a zealous horse, stood an ordinary cab sleigh. Alyosha was very surprised by this. “If I were a knight,” he thought, “then I would never ride a cab, but always on horseback!”

Meanwhile all the doors were thrown wide open; and the teacher started to squat Started squatting.- In the old days, greeting and saying goodbye, women curtsied - a special bow with a squat. in anticipation of such an honorable guest, who soon afterwards appeared. At first it was impossible to see him behind the fat teacher who was standing at the very door; but when she, having finished her long greeting, sat down lower than usual, Alyosha, to extreme surprise, saw from behind her ... not a feathered helmet, but just a small bald head, white powdered, the only decoration of which, as Alyosha noticed later, was a small bun ! When he entered the drawing room, Alyosha was even more surprised to see that, despite the simple gray tailcoat that the director wore instead of shiny armor, everyone treated him with unusual respect.

However, however strange all this seemed to Alyosha, however pleased he might have been at another time with the unusual decoration of the table, on this day he did not pay much attention to it. The morning incident with Chernushka kept wandering in his head. Dessert was served: various kinds of jams, apples, bergamots, dates, wine berries Bergamots are a type of pear. Dates are the fruit of the date palm. Wine berries, or figs, are the dried fruits of a fig tree. And walnuts; but here, too, he did not for one moment cease to think of his little hen. And as soon as they got up from the table, he, with a heart trembling with fear and hope, approached the teacher and asked if he could go and play in the yard.

Come on, - the teacher answered, - just don’t be there for long, it will soon become dark.

Alyosha hurriedly put on his red bekesha Bekesha - a warm coat with ruffles at the waist. on squirrel fur and a green velvet cap with a sable band and ran to the fence. When he arrived there, the hens had already begun to gather for the night and, sleepy, were not very happy with the brought crumbs. Only Chernushka did not seem to feel the desire to sleep: she merrily ran up to him, flapped her wings and began to cackle again. Alyosha played with her for a long time; Finally, when it became dark and it was time to go home, he himself closed the chicken coop, making sure in advance that his dear hen sat on the pole. When he came out of the chicken coop, it seemed to him that Chernushka's eyes glowed in the dark like little stars, and that she was saying to him quietly:

Alyosha, Alyosha! Stay with me!

Alyosha returned to the house and spent the whole evening alone in the classrooms, while at the other half hour until eleven the guests stayed and played whist on several tables. Before they parted, Alyosha went to the lower floor, into the bedroom, undressed, got into bed and put out the fire. For a long time he could not sleep. Finally, sleep overcame him, and he had just managed to talk to Chernushka in a dream, when, unfortunately, he was awakened by the noise of departing guests.

A little later, the teacher, who had seen off the director with a candle, entered his room, looked to see if everything was in order, and went out, locking the door with a key.

It was a monthly night, and through the shutters, which were not tightly closed, a pale ray of the moon fell into the room. Alyosha lay with his eyes open and listened for a long time to how, in the upper dwelling, above his head, they went from room to room and put chairs and tables in order.

Finally, everything calmed down. He glanced at the bed next to him, slightly illuminated by the moonlight, and noticed that the white sheet, hanging almost to the floor, moved easily. He began to look more closely: he heard something scratching under the bed, and a little later it seemed that someone was calling him in a low voice:

Alyosha, Alyosha!

Alyosha was scared! He was alone in the room, and it immediately occurred to him that there must be a thief under the bed. But then, judging that the thief would not have called him by name, he cheered up somewhat, although his heart trembled.

He sat up a little in bed and saw even more clearly that the sheet was moving, even more clearly heard someone say:

Alyosha, Alyosha!

Suddenly the white sheet lifted up, and from under it came out ... a black chicken!

Oh! It's you, Chernushka! Alyosha exclaimed involuntarily. - How did you get here?

Nigella flapped her wings, flew up to him on the bed and said in a human voice:

It's me, Alyosha! You are not afraid of me, are you?

Why should I be afraid of you? he answered. - I love you; only it is strange to me that you speak so well: I did not know at all that you could speak!

If you're not afraid of me," continued the hen, "then follow me: I'll show you something pretty. Get dressed soon!

What you, Chernushka, ridiculous! Alyosha said. - How can I dress in the dark? I can’t find my dress now, I can’t even see you!

I will try to help this, - said the hen.

Then she cackled in a strange voice, and suddenly from somewhere came small candles in silver chandeliers, Shandal - candlestick. no more than a little finger with Alyoshin. These shackles ended up on the floor, on the chairs, on the windows, even on the washstand, and the room became so light, so light, as if by day. Alyosha began to dress, and the hen gave him a dress, and in this way he was soon completely dressed.

When Alyosha was ready, Chernushka cackled again, and all the candles disappeared.

Follow me! she told him.

And he boldly followed her. It was as if rays came out of her eyes, which illuminated everything around them, although not as brightly as small candles. They went through the front.

The door is locked with a key,” Alyosha said.

But the hen did not answer him: she flapped her wings, and the door opened of itself ... Then, passing through the passage, they turned to the rooms where the hundred-year-old old Dutch women lived. Alyosha had never visited them, but he had heard that their rooms were decorated in the old fashioned way, that one of them had a big gray parrot, and the other had a gray cat, very smart, that could jump through a hoop and give a paw. He had long wanted to see all this, and therefore he was very glad when the hen flapped her wings again, and the door to the old woman's chambers opened.

In the first room Alyosha saw all kinds of antique furniture: carved chairs, armchairs, tables and chests of drawers. The large couch was made of Dutch tiles, on which they were painted with blue ant Murava - a thin layer of liquid colored glass, which is used to cover tiles (clay tiles) and earthenware. people and animals. Alyosha wanted to stop to examine the furniture, and especially the figures on the couch, but Chernushka would not let him.

They entered the second room, and then Alyosha was delighted! In a beautiful golden cage sat a large gray parrot with a red tail. Alyosha immediately wanted to run up to him. Blackie didn't let him in again.

Don't touch anything here, she said. - Beware of waking the old ladies!

It was only then that Alyosha noticed that next to the parrot was a bed with white muslin curtains, through which he could make out an old woman lying with her eyes closed; she looked like wax to him. In another corner stood a bed exactly the same, where another old woman slept, and next to her sat a gray cat, washing herself with her front paws. Passing by her, Alyosha could not resist asking her for paws ... Suddenly she mewed loudly, the parrot puffed up and began to shout loudly: “Fool! fool!" At that very moment it was visible through the muslin curtains that the old women had risen in bed. Chernushka hurried away, and Alyosha ran after her, the door behind them slammed hard ... And for a long time it was heard how the parrot shouted: “Fool! fool!"

Aren `t you ashamed! - said Chernushka, when they left the old women's rooms. You must have awakened the knights...

What knights? Alyosha asked.

You will see, - answered the hen. - Do not be afraid, however, nothing, follow me boldly.

They went down the stairs, as if into a cellar, and walked for a long, long time along various passages and corridors, which Alyosha had never seen before. Sometimes these corridors were so low and narrow that Alyosha was forced to bend down. Suddenly they entered the hall, lit by three large crystal chandeliers. The hall had no windows, and on both sides hung on the walls knights in shining armor, with large feathers on their helmets, with spears and shields in iron hands.

Chernushka walked on tiptoe in front and Alyosha ordered to follow her quietly, quietly ...

At the end of the hall was a large door of light yellow copper. As soon as they approached her, two knights jumped off the walls, hit their shields with spears and rushed at the black hen.

Blackie raised her crest, spread her wings and suddenly became big, big, taller than the knights, and began to fight with them!

The knights strongly attacked her, and she defended herself with her wings and nose. Alyosha became frightened, his heart fluttered violently, and he fainted.

When he came to his senses again, the sun shone through the shutters on the room, and he lay in his bed. Neither Chernushka nor the knights were in sight. Alyosha could not come to his senses for a long time. He did not understand what had happened to him at night: did he see everything in a dream, or did it really happen? He dressed and went upstairs, but he couldn't get out of his head what he had seen the previous night. He looked forward impatiently to the moment when he would be able to go and play in the yard, but all that day, as if on purpose, it snowed heavily, and it was impossible even to think of leaving the house.

At dinner, the teacher, between other conversations, announced to her husband that the black hen had hidden herself in some unknown place.

However, - she added, - the trouble is not great, even if she disappeared: she was assigned to the kitchen a long time ago. Imagine, darling, that since she was in our house, she has not laid a single testicle.

Alyosha almost burst into tears, although it occurred to him that it would be better for her not to be found anywhere than for her to end up in the kitchen.

After dinner Alyosha was again left alone in the classrooms. He constantly thought about what had happened the previous night, and could not console himself in any way at the loss of the dear Chernushka. Sometimes it seemed to him that he must certainly see her the next night, despite the fact that she had disappeared from the chicken coop. But then it seemed to him that this was an unrealizable business, and he again plunged into sadness.

It was time to go to bed, and Alyosha eagerly undressed and got into bed. Before he had time to look at the next bed, again illuminated by a quiet moonlight, a white sheet stirred, exactly as it had the day before ... Again he heard a voice calling him: "Alyosha, Alyosha!" - and a little later Blackie came out from under the bed and flew up to him on the bed.

Oh, hello, Chernushka! he exclaimed, overjoyed. I was afraid that I would never see you again. Are you well?

Healthy, - answered the hen, - but she almost fell ill by your grace.

How is it, Chernushka? Alyosha asked, frightened.

You are a good boy, - continued the hen, - but at the same time you are windy and never obey from the first word, and this is not good! Yesterday I told you not to touch anything in the old ladies' rooms, despite the fact that you couldn't resist asking the cat for a paw. The cat woke up the parrot, the parrot of the old women, the old women of the knights - and I could hardly cope with them!

I'm sorry, dear Chernushka, I won't go ahead! Please take me there again today; you will see that I will be obedient.

Well, - said the hen, - we'll see!

The hen clucked like the day before, and the same small candles appeared in the same silver chandeliers. Alyosha dressed again and went after the hen. Again they entered the chambers of the old women, but this time he did not touch anything.

When they passed through the first room, it seemed to him that the people and animals painted on the couch were making various funny grimaces and beckoning him to them; but he deliberately turned his back on them. In the second room, the old Dutch women, just as the day before, lay in their beds, as if they were made of wax; the parrot looked at Alyosha and blinked his eyes, the gray cat again washed her face with her paws. On the dressing table in front of the mirror Alyosha saw two porcelain Chinese dolls, which he had not noticed the day before. They nodded their heads to him, but he remembered Chernushka's order and passed without stopping, but he could not resist bowing to them in passing. The dolls immediately jumped off the table and ran after him, still nodding their heads. He almost stopped - they seemed so funny to him, but Chernushka looked at him with an angry look, and he came to his senses. The pupae escorted them to the door, and seeing that Alyosha was not looking at them, they returned to their places,

Again they went down the stairs, walked along the passages and corridors and came to the same hall, lit by three crystal chandeliers. The same knights hung on the walls, and again, when they approached the door of yellow copper, two knights came down from the wall and blocked their way. It seemed, however, that they were not as angry as the day before; they could hardly drag their legs like autumn flies, and it was clear that they were holding their spears through force ...

Nigella grew big and fluffed up; but as soon as she hit them with her wings, they fell apart - and Alyosha saw that they were empty armor! The brass door opened of its own accord, and they went on.

A little later they entered another hall, spacious but low, so that Alyosha could reach the ceiling with his hand. This hall was lit by the same small candles that he had seen in his room, but the chandeliers were not silver, but gold.

Here Chernushka left Alyosha.

Stay here for a while, she told him, I'll be right back. Today you were smart, although you acted carelessly, bowing to porcelain dolls. If you had not bowed to them, the knights would have remained on the wall. However, today you did not wake up the old women, and therefore the knights had no strength. - After this Chernushka left the hall.

Left alone, Alyosha attentively began to examine the room, which was very richly decorated. It seemed to him that the walls were made of Labrador, such as he had seen in the mineral room in the boarding house; the panels and doors were of pure gold. At the end of the hall, under a green canopy, on an elevated place, there were chairs made of gold. Alyosha admired this decoration very much, but it seemed strange to him that everything was in the smallest form, as if for small dolls.

While he was examining everything with curiosity, a side door, which he had not noticed before, opened, and a multitude of little people entered, no more than half a yard tall, in smart colorful dresses. Their appearance was important: some of them looked like soldiers, others - civil officials. They all wore round, feathered hats like Spanish hats. They did not notice Alyosha, walked decorously around the rooms, and spoke loudly to each other, but he could not understand what they were saying.

He looked at them for a long time in silence and just wanted to go up to one of them and ask how the big door at the end of the hall opened ... everyone fell silent, stood in two rows against the walls and took off their hats.

In an instant the room became still brighter, all the small candles lit up even brighter, and Alyosha saw twenty little knights in gold armor, with crimson feathers on their helmets, entering in pairs in a quiet march. Then, in deep silence, they stood on either side of the chairs. A little later, a man entered the hall with a majestic posture, on his head with a crown shining with precious stones. He wore a light green robe, Mantle - wide long clothes in the form of a raincoat, to the ground. lined with mouse fur, with a long train carried by twenty little pages A page is a noble boy who serves noble people or the king. in crimson dresses.

Alyosha guessed at once that it must be the king. He bowed low to him. The king answered his bow very affectionately and sat down in golden armchairs. Then he ordered something to one of the knights standing near, who, approaching Alyosha, announced to him that he approached the chairs. Alyosha obeyed.

I have long known, said the king, that you are a good boy; but on the third day you did a great service to my people and for that you deserve a reward. My chief minister informed me that you saved him from an inevitable and cruel death.

When? Alyosha asked in surprise.

The third day in the yard, - answered the king. "Here's the one who owes you his life."

Alyosha glanced at the one pointed out by the king, and then only noticed that between the courtiers stood a small man dressed all in black. On his head he had a special kind of crimson cap, with teeth on top, put on a little to one side, and around his neck a white handkerchief, very starched, which made it look a little bluish. He smiled tenderly, looking at Alyosha, to whom his face seemed familiar, although he could not remember where he had seen it.

No matter how flattering Alyosha was that such a noble deed was attributed to him, he loved the truth and therefore, bowing low, said:

Lord King! I can't take personally what I've never done. On the third day, I had the good fortune to save from death not your minister, but our black hen, which the cook did not like because she did not lay a single egg ...

What are you saying! interrupted the king in anger. - My minister is not a chicken, but an honored official!

Here the minister came closer, and Alyosha saw that it was indeed his dear Chernushka. He was very happy and asked the king for an apology, although he could not understand what it meant.

Tell me what do you want? continued the king. If I can, I will certainly fulfill your request.

Speak boldly, Alyosha! the minister whispered in his ear.

Alyosha thought about it and did not know what to wish for. If they had given him more time, he might have thought of something good; but as it seemed impolite to him to keep the king waiting, he hastened to reply.

I would like, - he said, - that, without studying, I would always know my lesson, no matter what I was asked.

I didn't think you were such a lazy person," replied the king, shaking his head. - But there is nothing to do, I must fulfill my promise.

He waved his hand, and the page brought up a golden dish, on which lay one hemp seed.

Take this seed, said the king. “As long as you have it, you will always know your lesson, no matter what you are given, with the condition, however, that you, under no pretext, say a single word to anyone about what you have seen here or will see in the future. The slightest indiscretion will forever deprive you of our favors, and will cause us a lot of trouble and trouble.

Alyosha took the hemp seed, wrapped it in paper and put it in his pocket, promising to be silent and modest. The king after that got up from his chair and left the hall in the same order, first ordering the minister to treat Alyosha as best as possible.

As soon as the king left, all the courtiers surrounded Alyosha and began to caress him in every possible way, expressing their gratitude for the fact that he had saved the minister. They all offered their services to him: some asked if he would like to take a walk in the garden or see the royal menagerie, others invited him to hunt. Alyosha did not know what to decide; finally, the minister announced that he himself would show the underground curiosities to the dear guest.

First he led him into a garden arranged in the English style. The paths were littered with large multicolored pebbles, reflecting the light from countless small lamps with which the trees were hung. Alyosha liked this shine extremely.

These stones, - said the minister, - you call them precious. These are all diamonds, yachts, emeralds and amethysts.

Oh, if only our paths were strewn with this! Alyosha exclaimed.

Then they would be of little value to you as they are here, - answered the minister.

The trees also seemed to Alyosha remarkably beautiful, although, moreover, very strange. They were of different colors: red, green, brown, white, blue and purple. When he looked at them with attention, he saw that they were nothing but various kinds of moss, only taller and thicker than usual. The minister told him that this moss was ordered by the king for a lot of money from distant countries and from the very depths of the globe.

From the garden they went to the menagerie. There they showed Alyosha wild animals, which were tied on golden chains. Peering more closely, he saw to his surprise that these wild beasts were nothing but large rats, moles, ferrets, and similar beasts living in the ground and under floors. This seemed very funny to him, but out of courtesy he did not say a word.

Returning to the rooms after a walk, Alyosha found a set table in the large hall, on which various kinds of sweets, pies, pastes and fruits were arranged. The dishes were all of pure gold, and the bottles and glasses were carved from solid diamonds, yahonts and emeralds.

Eat whatever you like, - said the minister, - you are not allowed to take anything with you.

Alyosha dined very well that day, and therefore he did not feel like eating at all.

You promised to take me hunting with you,” he said.

Very well, said the Minister. - I think the horses are already saddled.

Then he whistled, and grooms entered, leading sticks in reins, whose knobs were carved and represented horse heads. The minister jumped on his horse with great agility. Alyosha was let down much more than the others.

Take care, - said the minister, - that the horse does not throw you off: it is not one of the most meek.

Alyosha inwardly laughed at this, but when he took the stick between his legs, he saw that the minister's advice was not useless. The stick began to dodge and play around under him, like a real horse, and he could hardly sit up.

Meanwhile, the horns sounded, and the hunters began to gallop at full speed through various passages and corridors. For a long time they galloped like this, and Alyosha did not lag behind them, although he could hardly restrain his mad stick ...

Suddenly, from one side corridor jumped out several rats, such big ones as Alyosha had never seen; they wanted to run past; but when the minister ordered them to be surrounded, they stopped and began to defend themselves bravely. Despite, however, they were defeated by the courage and skill of the hunters. Eight rats lay down on the spot, three fled, and one, rather seriously wounded, the minister ordered to be cured and taken to the menagerie.

At the end of the hunt, Alyosha was so tired that his eyes closed involuntarily. For all that, he wanted to talk about a lot with Chernushka, and he asked permission to return to the hall from which they had left to hunt. The Minister agreed to this.

They rode back at a great trot, and upon their arrival in the hall, gave the horses to the grooms, bowed to the courtiers and hunters, and sat opposite each other on the chairs they had brought.

Tell me, please, - began Alyosha, - why did you kill the poor rats that do not bother you and live so far from your home?

If we had not exterminated them, - said the minister, - they would soon have driven us out of our rooms and would have destroyed all our food supplies. In addition, mouse and rat furs are highly priced because of their lightness and softness. Some noble persons are allowed to use them with us.

Yes, tell me, please, who are you? Alyosha continued.

Have you never heard that our people live underground? - answered the minister. - True, not many people manage to see us, but there were examples, especially in the old days, that we went out into the world and showed ourselves to people. Now this rarely happens, because people have become very immodest. And we have a law that if the one to whom we showed ourselves does not keep this a secret, then we are forced to immediately leave our place of residence and go far, far, to other countries. You can easily imagine that our king would not be happy to leave all the local establishments and move with a whole people to unknown lands. And so I earnestly ask you to be as modest as possible; for otherwise you will make us all unhappy, and especially me. Out of gratitude, I begged the king to call you here; but he will never forgive me if, due to your indiscretion, we are forced to leave this region ...

I give you my word of honor that I will never talk about you with anyone, - Alyosha interrupted him. - I now remembered that I read in one book about dwarves who live underground. They write that in a certain city a shoemaker became very rich in a very short time, so that no one understood where his wealth came from. Finally, they somehow found out that he sewed boots and shoes for the dwarves, who paid him very dearly for it.

Perhaps that is true, - answered the minister.

But,” Alyosha said to him, “explain to me, dear Chernushka, why, being a minister, you appear in the world in the form of a chicken and what connection do you have with old Dutch women?

Chernushka, wishing to satisfy his curiosity, began to tell him many things in detail, but at the very beginning of her story Alyosha's eyes closed, and he fell sound asleep. When he woke up the next morning, he lay in his bed. For a long time he could not come to his senses and did not know what to do ...

Blackie and minister, king and knights, Dutch women and rats - all this was mixed up in his head, and he forcibly put everything he had seen last night in order. Remembering that the king had given him a hemp seed, he hurriedly rushed to his dress and indeed found in his pocket a piece of paper in which a hemp seed was wrapped. “We'll see,” he thought, “whether the king will keep his word! Classes start tomorrow, and I haven’t had time to learn all my lessons yet.”

The history lesson especially bothered him: he was asked to memorize a few pages from Shrek's world history, and he did not know a single word yet!

Monday came, boarders arrived, and classes began. From ten o'clock to twelve o'clock the landlord himself taught history. Alyosha's heart was beating strongly... While it was his turn, he felt several times the piece of paper with the hemp seed lying in his pocket... Finally he was called. With trepidation, he approached the teacher, opened his mouth, not yet knowing what to say, and - unmistakably, without stopping, said the given. The teacher praised him very much; however, Alyosha did not accept his praise with the pleasure that he had previously felt in such cases. An inner voice told him that he did not deserve this praise, because this lesson did not cost him any work.

For several weeks the teachers could not praise Alyosha. He knew all the lessons, without exception, perfectly, all the translations from one language to another were without errors, so that one could not be surprised at his extraordinary success. Alyosha was inwardly ashamed of these praises: he was ashamed that they set him up as an example to his comrades, when he did not deserve it at all.

During this time, Chernushka did not come to him, despite the fact that Alyosha, especially in the first weeks after receiving the hemp seed, did not miss almost a single day without calling her when he went to bed. At first he was very sad about it, but then he calmed down with the thought that she was probably busy with important business in her rank. Subsequently, the praises with which everyone showered him, so occupied him that he rarely thought about her.

Meanwhile, the rumor about his extraordinary abilities soon spread throughout the whole of St. Petersburg. The director of the schools himself came several times to the boarding school and admired Alyosha. The teacher carried him in his arms, because through him the boarding house entered into glory. Parents came from all over the city and molested him so that he would take their children to himself, in the hope that they would be the same scientists as Alyosha.

Soon the boarding house was so full that there was no room for new boarders, and the teacher and the teacher began to think about renting a house, much more spacious than the one in which they lived.

Alyosha, as I said above, at first was ashamed of praises, feeling that he did not deserve them at all, but little by little he began to get used to them, and finally his pride reached the point that he accepted, without blushing, the praises that he was showered with. . He began to think a lot about himself, put on airs in front of other boys and imagined that he was much better and smarter than all of them. Alyosha's temperament from this completely deteriorated: from a kind, sweet and modest boy, he became proud and disobedient. His conscience often reproached him for this, and an inner voice told him: “Alyosha, don’t be proud! Do not ascribe to yourself that which does not belong to you; thank fate for giving you advantages against other children, but do not think that you are better than them. If you do not correct yourself, then no one will love you, and then, with all your learning, you will be the most unfortunate child!”

Sometimes he took the intention to improve, but, unfortunately, pride was so strong in him that it drowned out the voice of conscience, and he grew worse day by day, and day by day his comrades loved him less.

Moreover, Alyosha became a terrible rascal. Having no need to repeat the lessons that were assigned to him, at the time when other children were preparing for classes, he was engaged in pranks, and this idleness spoiled his temper even more.

Finally, everyone was so fed up with his bad temper that the teacher seriously began to think about the means for correcting such a bad boy and for this he gave him lessons twice and three times more than others; but that didn't help at all. Alyosha did not study at all, but nevertheless he knew the lesson from beginning to end, without the slightest mistake.

One day the teacher, not knowing what to do with him, asked him to memorize twenty pages by the next morning and hoped that he would at least be quieter that day.

Where! Our Alyosha did not even think about the lesson! That day he purposely played more naughty than usual, and the teacher threatened him in vain with punishment if he did not know the lesson the next morning. Alyosha inwardly laughed at these threats, being sure that the hemp seed would certainly help him.

The next day, at the appointed hour, the teacher picked up the book from which the lesson was given to Alyosha, called him to him and ordered him to say the assignment. All the children turned their attention to Alyosha with curiosity, and the teacher himself did not know what to think when Alyosha, despite the fact that he had not repeated the lesson at all the day before, boldly got up from the bench and went up to him. Alyosha had no doubt that this time too he would succeed in demonstrating his extraordinary ability; he opened his mouth ... and could not utter a word!

Why are you silent? the teacher told him. - Speak lesson.

Alyosha blushed, then turned pale, blushed again, began to wrinkle his hands, tears welled up in his eyes from fear ... All in vain! He could not utter a single word, because, hoping for a hemp seed, he did not even look at the book.

What does this mean, Alyosha? the teacher shouted. - Why don't you want to talk?

Alyosha himself did not know what to attribute such strangeness to, put his hand into his pocket to feel the seed ... But how to describe his despair when he did not find it! Tears flowed like hail from his eyes ... He wept bitterly, and yet he could not say a word.

Meanwhile, the teacher was losing patience. Accustomed to the fact that Alyosha always answered accurately and without stammering, he considered it impossible that Alyosha did not know at least the beginning of the lesson, and therefore attributed the silence to his obstinacy.

Go to the bedroom, he said, and stay there until you know the lesson perfectly.

They took Alyosha to the lower floor, gave him a book, and locked the door with a key.

As soon as he was left alone, he began to look everywhere for a hemp seed. He fumbled for a long time in his pockets, crawled on the floor, looked under the bed, sorted out the blanket, pillow, sheets - all in vain! Nowhere was there a trace of the kind grain! He tried to remember where he might have lost it, and finally became convinced that he had dropped it some day before, while playing in the yard. But how to find it? He was locked in a room, and even if they had been allowed to go out into the yard, this would probably have served nothing, for he knew that chickens were tasty for hemp and its grain, it’s true that one of them managed to peck ! Desperate to find him, he decided to call Chernushka to his aid.

Dear Chernushka! he said. Dear minister! Please come to me and give me another seed! I'll be more careful in the future...

But no one answered his requests, and he finally sat down on a chair and again began to weep bitterly.

Meanwhile it was time for dinner; The door opened and the teacher entered.

Do you know the lesson now? he asked Alyosha.

Alyosha, sobbing loudly, was forced to say that he did not know.

Well, stay here until you learn! - said the teacher, ordered to give him a glass of water and a piece of rye bread and left him alone again.

Alyosha began to repeat by heart, but nothing entered his head. He had long lost the habit of studying, and how to get twenty printed pages out of it! No matter how much he worked, no matter how much he strained his memory, but when evening came, he did not know more than two or three pages, and even that was bad. When it was time for the other children to go to bed, all his comrades rushed into the room at once, and the teacher came with them again.

Alyosha, do you know the lesson? - he asked. And poor Alyosha answered through tears:

I only know two pages.

So, apparently, tomorrow you will have to sit here on bread and water, - said the teacher, wished the other children a good sleep and left.

Alyosha stayed with his comrades. Then, when he was a kind and modest child, everyone loved him, and if he happened to be punished, then everyone pitied him, and this served him as a consolation. But now no one paid any attention to him: everyone looked at him with contempt and did not say a word to him.

He decided himself to start a conversation with one boy, with whom he had been very friendly in the old days, but he turned away from him without answering. Alyosha turned to another, but the other did not want to talk to him either, and even pushed him away from him when he spoke to him again. Here the unfortunate Alyosha felt that he deserved such treatment from his comrades. Shedding tears, he lay down in his bed, but could not sleep at all.

For a long time he lay in this way and with sorrow recalled the past happy days. All the children already enjoyed a sweet dream, only he could fall asleep! “And Chernushka left me,” Alyosha thought, and tears again flowed from his eyes.

Suddenly… the sheet next to the bed moved like it did on the first day that the black hen appeared to him. His heart began to beat faster... He wanted Chernushka to come out from under the bed again, but he did not dare to hope that his wish would come true.

Chernushka, Chernushka! he finally said in an undertone.

The sheet lifted, and a black hen flew up onto the bed next to him.

Ah, Chernushka! - said Alyosha beside himself with joy. I didn't dare to hope to see you. Haven't you forgotten me?

No, - she answered, - I cannot forget the service you rendered, although the Alyosha who saved me from death is not at all like the one I now see in front of me. You were a kind boy then, modest and courteous, and everyone loved you, but now... I don't recognize you!

Alyosha wept bitterly, and Chernushka continued to give him instructions. She talked to him for a long time and with tears begged him to reform. Finally, when daylight was already beginning to appear, the hen said to him:

Now I must leave you, Alyosha! Here is the hemp seed you dropped in the yard. In vain did you think that you had lost it irretrievably. Our king is too generous to deprive you of it for your imprudence. Remember, however, that you gave your word of honor to keep secret everything that you know about us ... Alyosha, do not add even worse to your current bad qualities - ingratitude!

Alyosha delightedly took his kind seed from the paws of a hen and promised to use all his strength to improve!

You will see, dear Chernushka, - he said, - that today I will be completely different.

Do not think, - answered Chernushka, - that it is so easy to correct vices when they have already taken over us. Vices usually enter through a door and exit through a crack, and therefore, if you want to correct yourself, you must constantly and strictly look after yourself. But goodbye, it's time for us to part!

Alyosha, left alone, began to examine his grain and could not stop admiring it. Now he was completely calm about the lesson, and yesterday's grief did not leave any traces in him. He thought with joy how everyone would be surprised when he unmistakably recited twenty pages - and the thought that he would again gain the upper hand over his comrades who did not want to talk to him caressed his vanity. Although he did not forget about correcting himself, he thought that it could not be as difficult as Chernushka said. “As if it doesn’t depend on me to improve! he thought. - One has only to want, and everyone will love me again ... "

Alas, poor Alyosha did not know that in order to correct himself, it is necessary to begin by putting aside pride and excessive self-confidence.

When the children gathered in the classes in the morning, Alyosha was called up. He went with a cheerful and triumphant air.

Do you know your lesson? the teacher asked, looking at him sternly.

I know, - Alyosha answered boldly.

He began to speak and spoke all twenty pages without the slightest mistake and stop. The teacher was beside himself with surprise, and Alyosha looked proudly at his comrades!

Alyoshin's proud appearance did not disappear from the teacher's eyes.

You know your lesson, - he said to him, - it's true, but why didn't you want to say it yesterday?

I didn’t know him yesterday,” Alyosha answered.

It can not be! interrupted his teacher. “Yesterday evening you told me that you knew only two pages, and even that was bad, but now you said all twenty without error!” When did you learn it?

I learned it this morning!

But then suddenly all the children, upset by his arrogance, shouted in one voice:

He's not telling the truth, he didn't pick up any books this morning!

Alyosha shuddered, lowered his eyes to the ground, and did not say a word.

Answer! - continued the teacher. - When did you learn your lesson?

But Alyosha did not break the silence: he was so struck by this unexpected question and the hostility shown to him by all his comrades that he could not come to his senses.

Meanwhile, the teacher, believing that he did not want to say the lesson the day before out of obstinacy, considered it necessary to severely punish him.

The more naturally you have abilities and talents,” he said to Alyosha, “the more modest and obedient you should be. God did not give you a mind for that, so that you use it for evil. You deserve punishment for yesterday's stubbornness, and today you have increased your guilt by lying. Lord! continued the teacher, turning to the boarders. - I forbid all of you to speak with Alyosha until he is completely corrected. And since this is probably a small punishment for him, then order the rod to be brought.

They brought rods ... Alyosha was in despair! For the first time since the boarding school existed, they were punished with rods, and who was Alyosha, who thought so much about himself, who considered himself better and smarter than everyone! What a shame!..

He, sobbing, rushed to the teacher and promised to completely improve ...

You should have thought about it before, - was his answer.

Alyosha's tears and repentance touched his comrades, and they began to ask for him. And Alyosha, feeling that he did not deserve their compassion, began to cry even more bitterly.

Finally, the teacher was brought to pity.

Good! - he said. - I will forgive you for the sake of the request of your comrades, but so that you confess your guilt in front of everyone and announce when you have learned the assigned lesson.

Alyosha completely lost his head: he forgot the promise given to the underground king and his minister, and began to talk about the black hen, about knights, about little people ...

The teacher did not let him finish.

How! he exclaimed in anger. - Instead of repenting of your bad behavior, you still took it into your head to fool me by telling a fairy tale about a black chicken? .. This is too much. No, children, you see for yourself that it is impossible not to punish him!

And poor Alyosha was whipped!

With bowed head, with a torn heart, Alyosha went to the lower floor, to the bedrooms. He was like a dead man… shame and remorse filled his soul! When, after a few hours, he calmed down a bit and put his hand in his pocket… there was no hemp seed in it! Alyosha wept bitterly, feeling that he had lost him irretrievably!

In the evening, when the other children came to bed, he also went to bed, but he could not fall asleep! How he repented of his bad behavior! He resolutely accepted the intention to improve, although he felt that it was impossible to return the hemp seed!

Around midnight, the sheet next to the next bed moved again ... Alyosha, who had been happy about this the day before, now closed his eyes ... he was afraid to see Chernushka! His conscience troubled him. He remembered that only yesterday evening he had so convincingly told Chernushka that he would certainly correct himself, and instead of that ... What would he say to her now?

For some time he lay with his eyes closed. He heard a rustle from the sheet being lifted ... Someone approached his bed - and a voice, a familiar voice, called him by name:

Alyosha, Alyosha!

But he was ashamed to open his eyes, and meanwhile tears rolled from them and flowed down his cheeks...

Suddenly, someone pulled the blanket. Alyosha involuntarily glanced: Chernushka was standing in front of him - not in the form of a chicken, but in a black dress, in a crimson cap with teeth and a starched white neckerchief, exactly as he had seen her in the underground hall.

Alyosha! - said the minister. - I see that you are not sleeping ... Farewell! I came to say goodbye to you, we will not see each other again!

Alyosha sobbed loudly.

Goodbye! he exclaimed. - Goodbye! And if you can, forgive me! I know that I am guilty before you; but I am severely punished for that!

Alyosha! the minister said through tears. - I forgive you; I cannot forget that you saved my life, and I love you all the time, although you have made me unhappy, perhaps forever!.. Farewell! I am allowed to see you for the shortest time. Even during this night, the king with his whole people must move far, far from these places! Everyone is in despair, everyone is shedding tears. We lived here for several centuries so happily, so peacefully!

Alyosha rushed to kiss the minister's little hands. Grabbing his hand, he saw something shining on it, and at the same time some unusual sound struck his hearing.

What it is? he asked in astonishment. The minister raised both hands up, and Alyosha saw that they were bound with a golden chain. He was horrified!

Your indiscretion is the reason that I am condemned to wear these chains, - said the minister with a deep sigh, - but do not cry, Alyosha! Your tears can't help me. Only you can console me in my misfortune: try to improve and be again the same kind boy as you were before. Farewell for the last time!

The minister shook Alyosha's hand and hid under the next bed.

Chernushka, Chernushka! Alyosha shouted after him, but Chernushka did not answer.

All night he could not close his eyes for a minute. An hour before dawn, he heard something rustling under the floor. He got out of bed, put his ear to the floor, and for a long time heard the sound of small wheels and the noise, as if many small people were passing by. Between this noise was also heard the wailing of women and children and the voice of Minister Chernushka, who shouted to him:

Farewell, Alyosha! Farewell forever!

The next day, in the morning, the children woke up and saw Alyosha lying unconscious on the floor. He was lifted up, put to bed, and sent for a doctor, who announced that he had a high fever.

Six weeks later, Alyosha, with the help of God, recovered, and everything that happened to him before his illness seemed to him a heavy dream. Neither the teacher nor his comrades reminded him of a word either about the black hen or about the punishment to which he had been subjected. Alyosha himself was ashamed to talk about it and tried to be obedient, kind, modest and diligent. Everyone fell in love with him again and began to caress, and he became an example for his comrades, although he could no longer memorize twenty printed pages suddenly, which, however, he was not asked.

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Lesson Objectives:

1. Reveal the ideological content of the tale through text analysis.
2. The development of monologue and dialogic speech of students.
3. The development of the mental activity of students: the ability to analyze, synthesize, generalize.
4. Development of the ability to compare different types art.
5. Development of skills of expressive reading of the text.
6. Formation of moral orientations for the recognition of true and false values.
7. Identification of the relevance of the work for modern schoolchildren.
8. Creation of psychological and pedagogical conditions for the personal growth of each student.

Methods and techniques: verbal, visual-illustrative, problematic.

Equipment:

1. A computer.
2. Projector.
3. Presentation “Moral lessons of life. Analysis of the fairy tale "The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants".
4. Animated film "Black Chicken".
5. Exhibition of students' drawings based on A. Pogorelsky's fairy tale “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants”.

Teacher's word:

1. Setting goals and objectives for students.

2. For correct answers in the lesson and additions, students will receive tokens, according to the number of which they will receive marks at the end of the lesson. A score of “5” is given for 6 or more tokens, a score of “4” for 5 tokens.

A carriage rides along the cold streets of winter Petersburg. Her passenger - a gray-haired man with surprisingly kind and somehow childish eyes - thought deeply. He thinks about the boy he is going to visit. This is his nephew, little Alyosha.

The carriage stops, and the passenger, with a slightly sad, but boyishly courageous face, thinks about how lonely his little friend is, whom his parents sent to a closed boarding house and even rarely visit. Only his uncle often visits Alyosha, because he is very attached to the boy and because he remembers well his loneliness in the same boarding school many years ago.

Who is this person?

This is Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky. The son of a nobleman, a rich and powerful Count Alexei Kirillovich Razumovsky, who owned the village of Perovo near Moscow and the village of Pogoreltsy, Sosnitsky district, Chernigov province, 53 thousand serfs. The count himself was the grandson of the registered Cossack Grigory Rozum, the son of the last Ukrainian hetman, an influential nobleman of Catherine and a prominent Russian freemason.

The son of such a man might have been a prince, but Alexei was illegitimate. Although, being in the house of his father in the position of pupils, the Perovskys received an excellent education. There is evidence that Count Alexei Kirillovich especially favored the eldest - Alexei. But he was a hot-tempered man, capable of terrible outbursts of anger. And in one of these evil moments, he sent his son to a closed boarding school.

How lonely Alyosha was in the cold government rooms! He was very homesick and one day he decided to run away from the boarding house. The memory of the escape remained for the rest of his life lameness: Alyosha fell from the fence and injured his leg.

Then Alyosha grew up. In August 1805, Alexei entered Moscow University and in October 1807 he graduated with a doctorate in philosophy and literature.

In the same 1807, he made his literary debut: he translated N.M. Karamzin's story "Poor Lisa" into German and published his translation with a dedication to his father.

For two years he led the life of a diligent official: he served in the Senate, traveled with revisions to the Russian provinces, and then, having settled in Moscow, he became a good friend of V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, V.L. Pushkin, I.A. Krylov and other writers of the "friendly artel" and one of the founders of the "Society of Lovers of Russian Literature". He was friends with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who greatly appreciated his kind soul.

The year 1812 came, and Anthony Pogorelsky fought against Napoleon as the headquarters captain of the Third Ukrainian Regiment, even his lameness did not prevent him from being a brave military officer.

He returned to St. Petersburg in 1816 and changed his military uniform to an official one - a court adviser. However, circumstances soon developed in such a way that his sister and a one and a half month old nephew were in his care, whom he took to his hereditary Little Russian estate Pogoreltsy.

Here, being engaged in gardening, supplying ship timber to the Nikolaev shipyards, acting as a trustee of the Kharkov educational district and - most of all - raising his nephew Alyosha, Perovsky composed the first fantastic stories in Russia.

First, in 1825, in the St. Petersburg magazine "News of Literature" he published - under the pseudonym "Antony Pogorelsky" - "Lafertovskaya poppy seed plant". Three years later, the book "Double, or My Evenings in Little Russia", the fairy tale "Black Hen, or Underground residents”, and then the novel “Monastyrka” will be added to the creative baggage.

The literary heritage of the writer is small, however, and it is hardly studied. His archive almost disappeared without a trace, carelessly left by the writer to the will of fate and the play of chance. In the last years of his life, having completely abandoned literary activity, indifferent to literary glory, Pogorelsky cared little about him. According to legend, the manager of his estate, a passionate gourmet, exhausted the papers of his patron for his favorite food - cutlets in papillots. ( papilotka - a paper tube worn on the legs of chickens, turkeys, game, as well as on the bones of chops when they are fried. (Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Efremova))

Pogorelsky wrote several books for adults, but one of his books was especially important for him - this is his fairy tale "The Black Hen". He wrote it for his nephew. Little Alyosha told Pogorelsky how, walking in the boarding house yard, he made friends with a chicken, how he saved her from a cook who wanted to make broth. And then this real case turned under the pen of Pogorelsky into a fairy tale, kind and wise.

In the summer of 1836, A.A. Perovsky went to Nice for the treatment of "chest disease" (ischemic heart disease) and died in Warsaw on the way there. His sister Anna and nephew Alexei were with him.

Perovsky's nephew, the one to whom the fairy tale “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” is dedicated, having matured, became a remarkable and famous writer himself. This is Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy.

- Tell us about Alyosha's life in a boarding school (word drawing or text retelling)

(“... in that boarding school there was one boy, named Alyosha, who was then no more than 9 or 10 years old. Alyosha was a smart, nice boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him. However, despite the fact that he was often bored it happened in a boarding school, and sometimes even sad ... The days of teaching passed quickly and pleasantly for him, but when Saturday came and all his comrades hurried home to their relatives, then Alyosha bitterly felt his loneliness. On Sundays and holidays he remained alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books. Alyosha already knew by heart the deeds of the most glorious knights. His favorite pastime on long winter evenings, on Sundays and other holidays, was mentally transported to ancient, bygone centuries ... Alyosha's other occupation was to feed chickens who lived near the fence. Among the hens, he was especially fond of the black crested one, called Chernushka. Chernushka was more affectionate towards him than others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha was the best he brought pieces to her”, pp. 46-49).

- Watch a fragment of the animated film and try to determine if there is a difference in the image of saving Chernushka by Antony Pogorelsky and the creators of the cartoon.

(The difference is that Antony Pogorelsky in the fairy tale shows how Alyosha asks the cook Trinushka not to cut the chicken. In the cartoon, the rescue scene is presented differently: a kite suddenly swoops in, Alyosha boldly rushes at him with a stick and beats off Chernushka).

- Why do you think Chernushka decided to tell Alyosha her secret?

(Alyosha was a kind boy. Chernushka wanted to thank the boy for saving her life. Chernushka probably wanted to make Alyosha's life more interesting and informative).

- Watch a fragment of an animated film. What interesting trees grew in the fairy garden?

(There were trees whose fruits could make a person wise; seeds of goodness ripened on another tree; a tree of health grew).

- Watch a fragment of an animated film. What changed in Alyosha himself, around him, when he received a hemp seed?

(“He approached the teacher with trepidation, opened his mouth, still not knowing what to say, and - unmistakably, without stopping, said the assignment. For several weeks, the teachers could not praise Alyosha. He knew all the lessons without exception, all the translations from one language to another were without mistakes, so that they could not be surprised at his extraordinary success. He began to think a lot, put on airs in front of other boys and imagined that he was much better and smarter than all of them. Alyosha's temperament completely deteriorated from this: from a kind, sweet and a modest boy, he became proud and disobedient. Alyosha became a terrible naughty. Not having the need to repeat the lessons that were assigned to him, he, at the time when the other children were preparing for classes, engaged in pranks, and this idleness spoiled his temper even more. Then, when he was a kind and modest child, everyone loved him, and if he happened to be punished, then everyone regretted him, and this served him as a consolation. they looked at him and did not say a word to him. Page 75-80)

- Why didn’t Alyosha get pleasure from praise for excellent answers at the beginning?

(“An inner voice told him that he did not deserve this praise, because this lesson did not cost him any trouble. Alyosha was inwardly ashamed of these praises: he was ashamed that they set him up as an example to his comrades, while he did not deserve it at all. Conscience she often reproached him for this, and an inner voice told him: "Alyosha, don't be proud! Don't ascribe to yourself what doesn't belong to you; thank fate for giving you benefits against other children, but don't think that you are better If you do not correct yourself, then no one will love you, and then, with all your learning, you will be the most unfortunate child!” P. 75-76)

- What advice does Chernushka give to Alyosha until the boy has completely lost himself?

(“Do not think that it is so easy to correct oneself from vices when they have taken over us. Vices usually enter through the door and go out through the crack, and therefore, if you want to correct yourself, you must constantly and strictly look after yourself.” P. 81 )

- Do Chernushka's advice match the teacher's conclusions?

(Yes. Both Chernushka and the teacher agree that idleness corrupts a person, labor is a condition for a person’s moral beauty. “The more abilities and talents you have by nature, the more modest and obedient you should be. Not for this God gave you mind, so that you use it for evil.” P. 84)

Why did Alyosha betray Chernushka?

(He was afraid of punishment). Watching a fragment of an animated film.

The story ends tragically. The inhabitants of the underground kingdom left, Alyosha is punished for betrayal. Watch a fragment of the animated film. Does Chernushka believe that Alyosha will improve?

(Yes. Only a believer can say this: “I forgive you; I can’t forget that you saved my life, and I still love you ... One thing you can console me in my misfortune: try to improve and be again the same kind boy as you were before". pp. 86-88)

Has Alyosha recovered?

(Yes. He “tried to be obedient, kind, modest and diligent. Everyone loved him again and began to caress, and he became an example for his comrades.” P. 88)

- Conclusions. Notebook entry.

The book reminds us of the main thing: we are all pure and noble in our souls, but we must educate the Good in ourselves. To be able to be grateful, responsible, earn the love and respect of others - all this requires effort. Otherwise, there is no way, and trouble can threaten not only us, but also those whom we love and who trust us. A real Miracle can happen only once, and you have to be worthy of it...

Moral lessons of life

• You can not put yourself above other people, even if you know a lot and can do it.
• It is necessary to develop modesty, diligence, diligence, a sense of duty, honesty, respect for people, kindness.
• You have to be strict with yourself.

Guys, imagine that you are in the fairy-tale world of the underworld. And the king offers you a reward for saving Chernushka. What Alyosha asked you already know. What would you ask?

Student responses:

I would ask for a grain of health, because this health is the most important thing. (3 persons).

I would ask that it never be winter.

I would ask Chernushka to be honest, not to lie to other people, to study well.

1. Fill in the table “True and False Values ​​of Life”

(The task should be completed approximately as follows:

2. Compose your own version of the continuation of the fairy tale “What could happen next?

Alyosha became a sweet, modest boy. And then one day the garden appeared again, the underground inhabitants returned. Upon learning of this, Alyosha immediately ran to look for Chernushka. He found her. He was so happy that he even cried and said: “I thought I would never see you!” To which Chernushka replied: “Well, what are you, I’m back, don’t cry!” This is how this instructive story about the boy Alyosha ended. (Malygina Svetlana).

- ... A few years later, Alyosha's parents came. For exemplary behavior, his parents took him on a trip to different countries. Of course, no one told the parents about this story. Then Alyosha grew up, entered a famous university, studied only perfectly well. His parents were happy for him. (Koval Oksana).

9. Evaluation of student work.

Literature:

1. Children's fairy tale magazine "Read it," article "Author of" Black Hen "Anthony Pogorelsky (1787-1836). 2000. http://www.coffee.ru
2. Korop V. Anthony Pogorelsky (1787-1836). http://www.malpertuis.ru/pogorelsky_bio.htm
3. Malaya S. Anthony Pogorelsky. http://www.pogorelskiy.org.ru
4. Pogorelsky A. Black chicken, or underground inhabitants. Moscow: Rosman. 1999. S. 45-90.

Pogorelsky Anthony, the fairy tale "The Black Hen or the Underground Inhabitants"

The main characters of the fairy tale "Black Hen" and their characteristics

1. Alyosha, a 10-year-old boy, is a kind and compassionate, cheerful comrade. but having received a magic seed, he becomes proud, arrogant. mischievous. Alyosha betrays the trust of the underground inhabitants and is tormented by shame. He's on the mend again.
2. Chernushka, at the same time a chicken and a minister. Kind, gentle, fair, grateful. At the same time, he is a wise and attentive politician. Punished for Alyosha's misdeed.
3. The teacher believed that Alyosha was deceiving him and flogged the boy with rods. However, it was the norm back then.

1. Old boarding house in St. Petersburg
2. Boy Alyosha and his Chernushka
3. Saving Chernushka, golden imperial
4. Director is not a knight
5. Chernushka's first visit
6. Alyosha's carelessness and the black knights
7. Chernushka's second visit
8. Underworld
9. King
10. hemp seed
11. Garden and menagerie
12. Rat hunting
13. Alyosha's character is changing
14. seed loss
15. The return of the seed and the censure of Chernushka
16. Betrayal and spanking
17. Farewell to Chernushka
18. Illness and recovery.

1. Alyosha saves the chicken Chernushka from the cook, and the cook calls him in gratitude
2. The first time the knights do not let them pass, but on the second night Alyosha finds himself in the underworld
3. The king thanks Alyosha for saving the minister and gives a hemp seed
4. Alyosha sees the wonders of the underworld and takes part in the rat hunt
5. Alyosha becomes disobedient, proud, and his comrades stop loving him, and the teacher threatens to flog him.
6. Alyosha tells about the underground inhabitants and they are forced to go to distant lands, Alyosha gets sick, recovers and corrects himself.

What does the fairy tale "Black Hen" teach
There are many lessons hidden in this tale. First of all, about the fact that you need to be honest, kind, diligent, so that your comrades love you. You must be able to keep your word and not let down those who trusted you. You have to be able to endure pain, but do not become a traitor. You can't be angry, proud, arrogant, you can't boast of your superiority.

Review of the fairy tale "Black Hen"
This is a very beautiful and instructive story about the boy Alyosha, who was kind and sweet, but became angry and proud, having received a magical opportunity not to learn lessons. The boy made a wrong wish, and his fulfillment harmed both Alyosha himself and the underground inhabitants. But nevertheless, I sympathized with Alyosha and sincerely rejoiced when he corrected himself. Of course, it is a pity that Chernushka and his comrades left Petersburg, but I believe that they found an equally good place in another city.

Proverbs to the fairy tale "Black Hen"
Having given the word, hold on, and not having given it, be strong.
From the word salvation, from the word and death.
Debt good turn deserves another.

Summary, brief retelling fairy tales "Black Hen"
There was an old boarding school in St. Petersburg in which 30-40 boys studied, including ten-year-old Alyosha. Alyosha was brought to the boarding school by his parents from afar and paid for several years in advance.
Alyosha was loved in the boarding school, he was a sweet and obedient boy. Only on Saturdays did he really miss when his comrades were taken apart by their parents.
Alyosha loved to stand by the fence and look through the holes into the street, waiting for the sorceress. The boy also loved to feed the chickens, and especially among them he loved Chernushka.
Once, during the New Year holidays, Alyosha saw how the cook caught Chernushka, and in tears he rushed to her, begging her to leave Chernushka. Nigella escaped from the hands of the cook and Alyosha gave her the imperial so that she would not tell the teacher anything.
At this time, the director arrives and Alyosha thinks to see the knight, but he sees a bald old man.
All day Alyosha plays with Chernushka, and then goes to bed. Suddenly the boy heard someone call his name, and Nigella came out from under the sheet.
Chernushka turned to Alyosha in a human voice and called the boy to follow her. Chernushka told Alyosha not to touch anything, but he wanted to take the cat by the paw. She meowed, woke up the parrot, the parrot screamed loudly. Blackie said that it must have woken up the knights.
They went down to the great hall and two knights attacked Chernushka. Alyosha was frightened and came to his senses in his bed.
The next evening, Chernushka again came to Alyosha. Alyosha did not touch anything along the way, and Chernushka led him into a low hall. Little men came out of the side door, followed by the knights, and finally the king.
The king thanked Alyosha for saving the minister, and the boy was surprised to recognize Chernushka in the minister.
The king asks Alyosha to make a wish and the boy wishes him to know all the lessons that have been given.
The king gave Alyosha a hemp seed, but warned him to keep quiet about everything he saw.
After the king left, the minister began to show Alyosha the underworld. There were gems everywhere. They toured a garden of moss trees and a menagerie of rats and moles.
Then they went hunting. Alyosha sat on a stick with a horse's head and everyone galloped along the passages. The hunters rounded up a few rats.
After the hunt, the boy asked about who the underground inhabitants were. Chernushka said that they used to go upstairs, but have been hiding from people for a long time. And if people find out about them, they will have to go to distant lands.
Alyosha woke up in his bed.
After that, he began to easily answer all the lessons, using the help of hemp seeds. Alyosha gradually began to get used to praise, became proud and disobedient. Alyosha began to play pranks a lot. Once the teacher asked him to learn 20 pages, Alyosha opened his mouth, but did not say a word. Alyosha lost the seed and for a long time desperately searched for it, calling for Chernushka's help.
Alyosha was left on bread and water, because he could not learn the text. At night, Chernushka came to him, gave him a seed and said that she did not recognize the boy.
Alyosha boldly went to the lesson and answered all 20 pages. The teacher was surprised and demanded to tell how Alyosha managed to learn everything. One of the students said that Alyosha did not pick up a book. The teacher decided that Alyosha was deceiving him and punished him. They brought rods and Alyosha, beside himself with fear, began to talk about the underground inhabitants. The teacher decided that the boy was cheating and became furious. Alyosha was flogged.
Alyosha no longer had a seed. In the evening Chernushka came, reproached the boy, forgave him and said that he must go with the people to distant lands. Blackie's hands were chained.
In the morning Alyosha was found in a high fever. When the boy recovered, he again became quiet and kind, obedient and diligent. His friends loved him again.

Drawings and illustrations for the fairy tale "The Black Hen"

© Design. LLC "Publishing house" E ", 2016

* * *

Anthony Pogorelsky
Black hen, or Underground inhabitants

About forty years ago in St. Petersburg, on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men's boarding house, who still, probably, remains in fresh memory for many, although the house where the boarding house was located was long ago. has already given way to another, not in the least similar to the former. At that time, our Petersburg was already famous throughout Europe for its beauty, although it was still far from what it is now. At that time, there were no cheerful shady alleys on the avenues of Vasilevsky Island: wooden scaffolding, often knocked together from rotten boards, took the place of today's beautiful sidewalks. St. Isaac's Bridge, narrow and uneven at that time, presented a completely different view than it is now; and St. Isaac's Square itself was not like that at all. Then the monument to Peter the Great was separated from St. Isaac's Church by a ditch; The Admiralty was not lined with trees; The Horse Guards Manege did not adorn the square with its beautiful present facade - in a word, Petersburg then was not what it is now. Cities have, by the way, the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age ... However, that is not the point now. Another time and on another occasion, perhaps, I will talk with you at greater length about the changes that have taken place in St. Petersburg during my century - now let us turn again to the boarding house, which forty years ago was located on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First Line.

The house, which now - as I already told you - you will not find, was about two floors, covered with Dutch tiles. The porch through which it was entered was wooden and jutted out onto the street... From the passage a rather steep staircase led to the upper dwelling, which consisted of eight or nine rooms, in which the landlord lived on one side, and classrooms on the other. Dormitories, or children's bedrooms, were on the lower floor, on the right side of the passage, and on the left lived two old women, Dutch women, each of whom was over a hundred years old and who saw Peter the Great with their own eyes and even talked to him ...

Among the thirty or forty children who studied at that boarding school, there was one boy named Alyosha, who was then no more than nine or ten years old. His parents, who lived far, far from St. Petersburg, had brought him to the capital two years before, sent him to a boarding school, and returned home, having paid the teacher the agreed fee for several years in advance. Alyosha was a smart little boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him. However, despite that, he was often bored in the boarding house, and sometimes even sad. Especially at first he could not get used to the idea that he was separated from his relatives. But then, little by little, he began to get used to his position, and there were even moments when, playing with his comrades, he thought that it was much more fun in a boarding school than in his parents' house.

In general, the days of study passed quickly and pleasantly for him; but when Saturday came and all his comrades hurried home to their relatives, then Alyosha bitterly felt his loneliness. On Sundays and holidays, he was alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books, which the teacher allowed him to borrow from his small library. The teacher was a German by birth, and at that time the fashion for chivalric novels and fairy tales dominated in German literature, and the library that our Alyosha used, for the most part, consisted of books of this kind.

So, Alyosha, still at the age of ten, already knew by heart the deeds of the most glorious knights, at least as they were described in the novels. His favorite occupation on long winter evenings, on Sundays and other holidays, was to mentally be transported to ancient, bygone centuries ... Especially at a vacant time, when he was separated from his comrades for a long time, when he often spent whole days sitting in solitude, his young wandered through the knight's castles, through the terrible ruins or through the dark, dense forests.

I forgot to tell you that this house had a fairly spacious courtyard, separated from the alley by a wooden fence made of baroque planks. The gates and gates that led into the alley were always locked, and therefore Alyosha never managed to visit this alley, which greatly aroused his curiosity. Whenever they allowed him to play in the yard during rest hours, his first movement was to run up to the fence. Here he stood on tiptoe and stared intently into the round holes with which the fence was littered. Alyosha did not know that these holes came from the wooden nails with which the barges had previously been hammered together, and it seemed to him that some kind sorceress had chiseled these holes on purpose for him. He kept expecting that someday this sorceress would appear in the lane and give him a toy through a hole, or a talisman, or a letter from papa or mama, from whom he had not received any news for a long time. But, to his extreme regret, no one even looked like a sorceress.

Alyosha's other occupation was to feed the hens, who lived near the fence in a house specially built for them and played and ran around in the yard all day long. Alyosha got to know them very briefly, knew everyone by name, broke up their fights, and the bully punished them by sometimes not giving them anything for several days in a row from the crumbs, which he always collected from the tablecloth after lunch and dinner. Among the hens, he was especially fond of one black crested, named Chernushka. Chernushka was more affectionate towards him than the others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha brought the best pieces to her. She was of a quiet disposition; she rarely walked with others and seemed to love Alyosha more than her friends.

One day (this was during the winter holidays - the day was beautiful and unusually warm, no more than three or four degrees below zero) Alyosha was allowed to play in the yard. That day the teacher and his wife were in great trouble. They gave dinner to the director of the schools, and even the day before, from morning until late in the evening, everywhere in the house they washed the floors, dusted and waxed mahogany tables and chests of drawers. The teacher himself went to buy provisions for the table: Arkhangelsk white veal, a huge ham and Kiev jam. Alyosha also contributed to the preparations to the best of his ability: he was forced to cut out a beautiful net for a ham from white paper and decorate six specially bought wax candles with paper carvings. On the appointed day, the hairdresser appeared early in the morning and showed his skill on the teacher's curls, toupee and long plait. Then he set to work on his wife, pomaded and powdered her curls and chignon, and piled on her head a whole conservatory of different colors, between which two brilliant rings shone skillfully placed, once presented to her husband by the parents of the students. At the end of her headdress, she threw on an old, worn-out cloak and went off to take care of the housework, observing strictly, moreover, so that her hairdo would somehow not deteriorate; and for this she herself did not enter the kitchen, but gave orders to her cook, standing in the doorway. In necessary cases, she sent her husband there, whose hair was not so high.

In the course of all these worries, our Alyosha was completely forgotten, and he took advantage of this to play in the yard in the open. As was his custom, he went first to the wooden fence and looked for a long time through the hole; but even that day almost no one passed along the alley, and with a sigh he turned to his amiable hens. Before he had time to sit down on a log and had just begun to beckon them to him, when he suddenly saw a cook with a large knife beside him. Alyosha never liked this cook - angry and quarrelsome. But since he noticed that she was the reason that from time to time the number of his hens decreased, he began to love her even less. When one day he accidentally saw in the kitchen one pretty cockerel, very beloved by him, hung by the legs with his throat cut, he had horror and disgust for her. Seeing her now with a knife, he immediately guessed what it meant, and feeling with sorrow that he was unable to help his friends, he jumped up and ran far away.

Alyosha, Alyosha, help me catch the chicken! shouted the cook.

But Alyosha began to run even faster, hid himself by the fence behind the chicken coop and did not notice how tears rolled out of his eyes one after another and fell to the ground.

For a long time he stood by the chicken coop, and his heart was beating violently, while the cook ran around the yard - now beckoning the hens: “Chick, chick, chick!”, then scolding them.

Suddenly Alyosha's heart beat even faster: he heard the voice of his beloved Chernushka! She cackled in the most desperate way, and it seemed to him that she was crying:

Where x, where x, where hu!
Alyosha, save Chernukha!
Kudu hu, kudu hu
Black, Black, Black!

Alyosha could not remain in his place any longer. Sobbing loudly, he ran to the cook and threw himself on her neck at the very moment when she had already caught Chernushka by the wing.

- Dear, dear Trinushka! he cried, shedding tears, “please don’t touch my Chernukha!”

Alyosha suddenly threw himself on the cook's neck, and she let go of Chernushka, who, taking advantage of this, flew up on the roof of the barn in fear and continued to cackle.

But now Alyosha could hear her teasing the cook and shouting:

Where x, where x, where hu!
You didn't catch Chernukha!
Kudu hu, kudu hu
Black, Black, Black!

Meanwhile the cook was beside herself with vexation and wanted to run to the teacher, but Alyosha would not let her. He clung to the skirts of her dress and begged so touchingly that she stopped.

- Darling, Trinushka! - he said, - you are so pretty, clean, kind ... Please leave my Chernushka! Look what I'll give you if you're kind.

Alyosha took out of his pocket an imperial, which made up all his estate, which he protected more than his own eyes, because it was a gift from his kind grandmother ... behind the imperial. Alyosha was very, very sorry for the imperial, but he remembered Chernushka and firmly handed over the precious gift.

Thus Chernushka was saved from a cruel and inevitable death.

As soon as the cook retired to the house, Chernushka flew off the roof and ran up to Alyosha. She seemed to know that he was her deliverer: she circled around him, flapped her wings and cackled in a cheerful voice. All morning she followed him around the yard like a dog, and it seemed as if she wanted to say something to him, but she could not. At least he couldn't make out her clucking.

About two hours before dinner, guests began to gather. They called Alyosha upstairs, put on him a shirt with a round collar and finely pleated cambric cuffs, white trousers, and a wide blue silk sash. His long blond hair, which hung almost to his waist, was carefully combed, divided into two even parts and shifted in front on both sides of his chest.

So dressed up then children. Then they taught him how he should shuffle his foot when the director entered the room, and what he should answer if any questions were put to him.

At another time, Alyosha would have been very glad to see the director, whom he had long wanted to see, because, judging by the reverence with which his teacher and teacher spoke of him, he imagined that it must be some famous knight in brilliant armor and in helmet with large feathers. But this time this curiosity gave way to the thought that occupied him exclusively then: about the black hen. He kept imagining how the cook ran after her with a knife, and how Chernushka cackled in different voices. Moreover, he was very annoyed that he could not make out what she wanted to tell him, and he was so drawn to the chicken coop ... But there was nothing to do: he had to wait until dinner was over!

Finally the director arrived. His arrival was announced by the teacher, who had been sitting at the window for a long time, looking intently in the direction from which they were waiting for him.

Everything began to move: the teacher rushed headlong out of the door to meet him below, at the porch; the guests got up from their places, and even Alyosha forgot about his chicken for a moment and went to the window to watch the knight dismount from his zealous horse. But he did not manage to see him, for he had already managed to enter the house. At the porch, instead of a zealous horse, stood an ordinary cab sleigh. Alyosha was very surprised by this! “If I were a knight,” he thought, “I would never ride a cab, but always on horseback!”

In the meantime, all the doors were thrown wide open, and the teacher began to squat in anticipation of such an honorable guest, who soon afterwards appeared. At first it was impossible to see him behind the fat teacher who was standing at the very door; but when she, having finished her long greeting, sat down lower than usual, Alyosha, to extreme surprise, saw from behind her ... not a feathered helmet, but simply a small bald head, white powdered, the only ornament of which, as Alyosha later noticed, was a small beam! When he entered the drawing room, Alyosha was even more surprised to see that, despite the simple gray tailcoat that the director wore instead of shiny armor, everyone treated him with unusual respect.

However, however strange all this seemed to Alyosha, however pleased he might have been at another time with the unusual decoration of the table, on this day he did not pay much attention to it. The morning incident with Chernushka kept wandering in his head. Dessert was served: various kinds of jams, apples, bergamots, dates, wine berries and walnuts; but here, too, he did not for one moment cease to think of his little hen. And as soon as they got up from the table, he, with a heart trembling with fear and hope, approached the teacher and asked if he could go and play in the yard.

“Go on,” answered the teacher, “but don’t be there for long: it will soon become dark.”

Alyosha hurriedly put on his red bekesha with squirrel fur and a green velvet cap with a sable band around it and ran to the fence. When he arrived there, the hens had already begun to gather for the night and, sleepy, were not very happy with the crumbs they had brought. Only Chernushka did not seem to feel the desire to sleep: she merrily ran up to him, flapped her wings and began to cackle again. Alyosha played with her for a long time; Finally, when it got dark and it was time to go home, he himself closed the chicken coop, making sure in advance that his dear hen sat on the pole. When he came out of the chicken coop, it seemed to him that Chernushka's eyes glowed in the dark like stars, and that she was saying to him quietly:

- Alyosha, Alyosha! Stay with me!

Alyosha returned to the house and spent the whole evening sitting alone in the classrooms, while at the other half hour until eleven the guests stayed. Before they parted, Alyosha went downstairs to the bedroom, undressed, got into bed and put out the fire. For a long time he could not sleep. Finally, sleep overcame him, and he had just had time to talk to Chernushka in a dream, when, unfortunately, he was awakened by the noise of departing guests.

A little later, the teacher, who had seen off the director with a candle, entered his room, looked to see if everything was in order, and went out, locking the door with a key.

It was a monthly night, and through the shutters, which were not tightly closed, a pale ray of the moon fell into the room. Alyosha lay with his eyes open and listened for a long time to how, in the upper dwelling, above his head, they went from room to room and put chairs and tables in order.

Finally, everything calmed down ... He looked at the bed standing next to him, slightly illuminated by the moonlight, and noticed that the white sheet, hanging almost to the floor, moved easily. He began to peer more closely ... he heard something scratching under the bed, and a little later it seemed that someone was calling him in a low voice:

- Alyosha, Alyosha!

Alyosha was frightened ... He was alone in the room, and it immediately occurred to him that there must be a thief under the bed. But then, judging that the thief would not have called him by name, he cheered up a little, although his heart trembled.

He sat up a little in bed and saw even more clearly that the sheet was moving ... even more clearly he heard someone say:

- Alyosha, Alyosha!

Suddenly the white sheet lifted up, and from under it came out ... a black chicken!

– Ah! It's you, Chernushka! Alyosha exclaimed involuntarily. – How did you get here?

Nigella flapped her wings, flew up to him on the bed and said in a human voice:

It's me, Alyosha! You are not afraid of me, are you?

Why should I be afraid of you? he answered. - I love you; only it is strange to me that you speak so well: I did not know at all that you could speak!

“If you are not afraid of me,” the hen continued, “then follow me.” Get dressed soon!

- How funny you are, Chernushka! Alyosha said. How can I dress in the dark? I can’t find my dress now, I can’t even see you!

“I’ll try to help it,” said the hen. Here she cackled in a strange voice, and suddenly from nowhere came small candles in silver chandeliers, no more than a small finger from Alyosha. These shackles ended up on the floor, on the chairs, on the windows, even on the washstand, and the room became so light, so light, as if by day. Alyosha began to dress, and the hen gave him a dress, and in this way he was soon completely dressed.

When Alyosha was ready, Chernushka cackled again, and all the candles disappeared.

- Follow me! she told him.

And he boldly followed her. It was as if rays came out of her eyes, which illuminated everything around them, although not as brightly as small candles. They went through the front.

“The door is locked with a key,” Alyosha said.

But the hen did not answer him: she flapped her wings, and the door opened of its own accord. Then, passing through the passage, they turned to the rooms where the hundred-year old Dutch women lived. Alyosha had never visited them, but he had heard that their rooms were decorated in the old fashioned way, that one of them had a big gray parrot, and the other had a gray cat, very smart, that could jump through a hoop and give a paw. He had long wanted to see all this, so he was very happy when the hen flapped her wings again and the door to the old women's chambers opened.

In the first room Alyosha saw all sorts of antique furniture: carved chairs, armchairs, tables and chests of drawers. The large couch was made of Dutch tiles, on which people and animals were painted in blue ant. Alyosha wanted to stop to examine the furniture, and especially the figures on the couch, but Chernushka would not let him.

They entered the second room, and then Alyosha was delighted! In a beautiful golden cage sat a large gray parrot with a red tail. Alyosha immediately wanted to run up to him. Blackie didn't let him in again.

"Don't touch anything here," she said. - Watch out for waking the old ladies!

It was only then that Alyosha noticed that next to the parrot was a bed with white muslin curtains, through which he could make out an old woman lying with her eyes closed: she seemed to him as if made of wax. In another corner stood a bed exactly the same, where another old woman slept, and next to her sat a gray cat, washing herself with her front paws. Passing by her, Alyosha could not resist asking her for her paws... Suddenly she meowed loudly, the parrot puffed up and began to shout loudly: “Fool! fool!" At that very moment it was visible through the muslin curtains that the old women had risen in bed. Chernushka hurried away, Alyosha ran after her, the door behind them slammed hard ... and for a long time the parrot could be heard shouting: “Fool! fool!"

- Aren `t you ashamed! - said Blackie, when they left the rooms of the old women. “You must have awakened the knights…

What knights? Alyosha asked.

“You will see,” replied the hen. - Do not be afraid, however, nothing, follow me boldly.

They went down the stairs, as if into a cellar, and walked for a long, long time along various passages and corridors, which Alyosha had never seen before. Sometimes these corridors were so low and narrow that Alyosha was forced to bend down. Suddenly they entered a hall lit by three large crystal chandeliers. The hall had no windows, and on both sides hung on the walls knights in shining armor, with large feathers on their helmets, with spears and shields in iron hands.

Chernushka walked forward on tiptoe and Alyosha ordered to follow her quietly, quietly.

At the end of the hall was a large door of pale yellow copper. As soon as they approached her, two knights jumped down from the walls, struck their shields with spears and rushed at the black hen. Blackie raised her crest, spread her wings... suddenly she became big, big, taller than the knights, and began to fight with them! The knights strongly attacked her, and she defended herself with her wings and nose. Alyosha felt frightened, his heart fluttered violently, and he fainted.

When he came to himself again, the sun shone through the shutters on the room, and he lay in his bed. Neither Chernushka nor the knights could be seen, Alyosha could not come to his senses for a long time. He did not understand what had happened to him at night: did he see everything in a dream, or did it really happen? He dressed and went upstairs, but he couldn't get out of his head what he had seen the previous night. He looked forward impatiently to the moment when he would be able to go out to play in the yard, but all that day, as if on purpose, it snowed heavily, and it was impossible even to think of leaving the house.

At dinner, the teacher, among other conversations, announced to her husband that the black hen had hidden herself in some unknown place.

“However,” she added, “the trouble is not great, even if she disappeared: she was assigned to the kitchen a long time ago. Imagine, darling, that since she was in our house, she has not laid a single testicle.

Alyosha almost burst into tears, although it occurred to him that it would be better for her not to be found anywhere than for her to end up in the kitchen.

After dinner Alyosha was again alone in the classrooms. He constantly thought about what had happened the previous night, and could not console himself in any way at the loss of the dear Chernushka. Sometimes it seemed to him that he must certainly see her the next night, despite the fact that she had disappeared from the chicken coop. But then it seemed to him that this was an unrealizable business, and he again plunged into sadness.

It was time to go to bed, and Alyosha eagerly undressed and got into bed. Before he had time to look at the next bed, again illuminated by the quiet moonlight, the white sheet stirred - just like the day before ... Again he heard a voice calling him: "Alyosha, Alyosha!" - and a little later Blackie came out from under the bed and flew up to him on the bed.

– Ah! Hello Chernushka! he exclaimed, overjoyed. “I was afraid that I would never see you again. Are you well?

“I’m well,” answered the hen, “but I almost fell ill due to your mercy.

- How is it, Chernushka? Alyosha asked, frightened.

“You are a good boy,” continued the hen, “but besides, you are windy and never obey from the first word, and this is not good!” Yesterday I told you not to touch anything in the old ladies' rooms, despite the fact that you could not resist asking the cat for a paw. The cat woke up the parrot, the parrot woke up the old women, the old woman woke up the knights - and I could hardly cope with them!

- I'm sorry, dear Chernushka, I won't go ahead! Please take me there again today. You will see that I will be obedient.

- Well, - said the hen, - we'll see!

The hen clucked like the day before, and the same small candles appeared in the same silver chandeliers. Alyosha got dressed again and went after the hen. Again they entered the chambers of the old women, but this time he did not touch anything.

When they passed through the first room, it seemed to him that the people and animals painted on the couch were making various funny grimaces and beckoning him towards them, but he deliberately turned away from them. In the second room, the old Dutch women, just like the day before, lay in their beds, as if they were made of wax. The parrot looked at Alyosha and batted his eyes, the gray cat again washed her face with her paws. On the cleared table in front of the mirror Alyosha saw two porcelain Chinese dolls, which he had not seen the day before. They nodded their heads at him; but he remembered Chernushka's order and passed without stopping, but he could not resist bowing to them in passing. The dolls immediately jumped off the table and ran after him, still nodding their heads. He almost stopped - they seemed so funny to him, but Chernushka looked at him with an angry look, and he came to his senses. The dolls accompanied them to the door, and seeing that Alyosha was not looking at them, they returned to their places.

Again they went down the stairs, walked along the passages and corridors and came to the same hall, lit by three crystal chandeliers. The same knights hung on the walls, and again, when they approached the door of yellow copper, two knights came down from the wall and blocked their way. It seemed, however, that they were not as angry as the day before; they could hardly drag their legs like autumn flies, and it was evident that they held their spears with great force.

Nigella became big and fluffed up. But as soon as she hit them with her wings, they fell apart, and Alyosha saw that they were empty armor! The brass door opened of its own accord, and they went on.

A little later they entered another hall, spacious but low, so that Alyosha could reach the ceiling with his hand. This hall was lit by the same small candles that he had seen in his room, but the chandeliers were not silver, but gold.

Here Chernushka left Alyosha.

"Stay here a little," she told him, "I'll be right back." Today you were smart, although you acted carelessly, bowing to porcelain dolls. If you had not bowed to them, the knights would have remained on the wall. However, today you did not wake up the old women, and therefore the knights had no strength. - After this Chernushka left the hall.

Left alone, Alyosha attentively began to examine the room, which was very richly decorated. It seemed to him that the walls were made of marble, such as he saw in the mineral room in the boarding house. The panels and doors were solid gold. At the end of the hall, under a green canopy, on an elevated place, stood armchairs of gold. Alyosha greatly admired this decoration, but it seemed strange to him that everything was in the smallest form, as if for small dolls.

While he was examining everything with curiosity, a side door, which he had not noticed before, opened, and a multitude of little people entered, no more than half a yard tall, in smart colorful dresses. Their appearance was important: some of them looked like military men, others looked like civil officials. They all wore round, feathered hats like Spanish hats. They did not notice Alyosha, walked decorously through the rooms and spoke loudly to each other, but he could not understand what they were saying.

He looked at them in silence for a long time and just wanted to go up to one of them and ask how the big door at the end of the hall opened ... Everyone fell silent, stood in two rows against the walls and took off their hats.

In an instant the room became still brighter, all the small candles burned even brighter, and Alyosha saw twenty little knights in gold armor, with crimson feathers on their helmets, entering in pairs in a quiet march. Then, in deep silence, they stood on either side of the chairs. A little later, a man with a majestic posture entered the hall, on his head with a crown shining with precious stones. He wore a light green robe lined with mouse fur, with a long train carried by twenty little pages in crimson dresses.

Alyosha guessed at once that it must be the king. He bowed low to him. The king answered his bow very affectionately and sat down in golden armchairs. Then he ordered something to one of the knights standing near him, who, going up to Alyosha, announced to him that he approached the chairs. Alyosha obeyed.

“I have long known,” said the king, “that you are a good boy; but on the third day you did a great service to my people and for that you deserve a reward. My chief minister informed me that you saved him from an inevitable and cruel death.

- When? Alyosha asked in surprise.

- The third day in the yard, - answered the king. “Here is the one who owes you his life.

Alyosha glanced at the one pointed out by the king, and then only noticed that between the courtiers stood a small man dressed all in black. On his head he had a special kind of crimson cap, with teeth on top, put on a little to one side, and around his neck a white handkerchief, very starched, which made it look a little bluish. He smiled tenderly, looking at Alyosha, to whom his face seemed familiar, although he could not remember where he had seen it.

No matter how flattering Alyosha was that such a noble deed was attributed to him, he loved the truth and therefore, bowing low, said:

- Lord King! I can't take personally what I've never done. On the third day, I had the good fortune to save from death not your minister, but our black hen, which the cook did not like because she did not lay a single egg ...

- What are you saying! the king interrupted him angrily. - My minister is not a chicken, but an honored official!

Here the Minister came closer, and Alyosha saw that it was indeed his dear Chernushka. He was very happy and asked the king for an apology, although he could not understand what it meant.

- Tell me what do you want? the king continued. If I am able, I will certainly fulfill your request.

- Speak boldly, Alyosha! the minister whispered in his ear.

Alyosha fell into thought and did not know what to wish for. If they had given him more time, he might have thought of something good; but as it seemed impolite to him to keep the king waiting, he hastened to reply.

“I would like,” he said, “that, without studying, I would always know my lesson, no matter what I was asked.

“I didn’t think you were such a lazy person,” replied the king, shaking his head. – But there is nothing to do, I must fulfill my promise.

He waved his hand, and the page brought up a golden dish, on which lay one hemp seed.

“Take this seed,” said the king. “As long as you have it, you will always know your lesson, no matter what you are given, with the condition, however, that you, under no pretext, say a single word to anyone about what you have seen here or will see in the future. The slightest indiscretion will forever deprive you of our favors, and will cause us a lot of trouble and trouble.

Alyosha took the hemp seed, wrapped it in paper and put it in his pocket, promising to be silent and modest. The king after that got up from his chair and left the hall in the same order, first ordering the minister to treat Alyosha as best as possible.

As soon as the king left, all the courtiers surrounded Alyosha and began to caress him in every possible way, expressing their gratitude for the fact that he had saved the minister. They all offered their services to him: some asked if he would like to take a walk in the garden or see the royal menagerie; others invited him to hunt. Alyosha did not know what to decide. Finally, the minister announced that he himself would show the underground curiosities to the dear guest.