Noskov's story and I help summary. Book: Nikolai Nikolaevich Nosov “And I Help”
How much the world has changed, right before our eyes. Pioneers, scrap metal collection, polar explorer dad... And what a huge number of little things have changed! How many of today's readers will understand the phrase that says that Ninochka's grandmother taught her to fasten her bra? A baby bra is not at all what today's aunts wear. Both boys and girls wore bras. A sort of wide bib with holes for the arms, fastened at the back with three buttons. Two elastic bands were sewn to the bra, which held ribbed knitted stockings. Just in my memory, this armor-piercing clothing began to come off. How many battles did I have with my parents when I was eight years old for the right not to wear a bra? And here, here it is, preserved. Bra, stockings - and no tights.
Literature is a time machine that, albeit briefly, takes us back to the past.
Rating: 7
Great story! Children need to feel needed and useful; it is important for them to participate in the lives of adults. The mother’s reaction was correct: she did not make a scene for her daughter, but showed her the algorithm of actions - she decided to go somewhere, warn her grandmother. Mom did not spoil the wonderful mood of the girl, who did an important, useful thing, who HELPED adults and benefited them. Mothers complain that their children do not help them and grow up lazy and unhardworking. and it’s rare for a mother to remember that she yelled at her son or daughter because of a broken cup, without thanking her for the other cups that had become washed. She will not remember that the young “gardener” was not praised for planting a plant, but scolded because of dirty hands or soiled clothes. And the policeman in the story is not scary or evil, as they sometimes tell children when they want to achieve obedience. Children should know that the police will help them if they get lost or lost. They will still have time to learn another truth, an unsightly one.
Rating: 9
Yes, a lot has changed. Nowadays they don’t wear children’s bras; babies just wear tights.
As for scrap metal, no one was really interested in it, although it was possible to sell it for money, but the money was very small. At the same time, everyone had to work, but it was not easy to fire even a bitter drunkard and truant (especially a worker - a proletarian!). That's why everyone had at least some money. And only schoolchildren were involved in collecting scrap metal. It was a dirty business, and I don’t remember much enthusiasm for collecting iron waste. But they collected waste paper, brought old pieces of paper tied up in a bag to school.
Well, the picture in the book shows some really wild things - tiny Ninochka is dragging a large cast-iron pipe (in the text, “one thick, crooked pipe”), and the guys, who are not much older, are dragging a completely unmeasured number of iron pipes on a homemade stretcher. It’s unlikely that real boys would lift such a weight. And Ninochka would have screamed terribly. But somehow no one noticed this; apparently the blue dress and the red bunny were not afraid to come into contact with a cast-iron pipe, apparently broken out of the sewer.
Rating: 4
There lived a little girl named Ninochka. She was only five years old. She had a dad, a mom and an old grandmother, whom Ninochka called grandma.
Ninochka’s mother went to work every day, and Ninochka’s grandmother stayed with her. She taught Ninochka to dress, and wash, and fasten the buttons on her bra, and lace her shoes, and braid her hair, and even write letters.
Ninochka spent the whole day with her grandmother, and with her mother only the morning and evening. But Ninochka saw her dad very rarely, since he worked in the distant Arctic. He was a polar pilot and came home only when he was on vacation.
Once a week, and sometimes more often, a letter arrived from Ninochka’s dad. When mom returned from work, she read the letter out loud, and Ninochka and grandma listened. And then everyone wrote a response to dad together. The next day, mom went to work, and grandma and Ninochka took the letter to the post office.
One day, grandma and Ninochka went to the post office to send dad a letter. The weather was good and sunny. Ninochka was wearing a beautiful blue dress and a white apron with a red bunny embroidered on it. Returning from the post office, granny walked with Ninochka through the courtyards and through the vacant lot. Previously, there were small wooden houses there, but now all the residents have been moved to a new large stone house, and in this place they decided to plant trees and make a park. Now there was no park yet, and in the corner of the vacant lot lay a heap of iron rubbish that they had forgotten to take away: pieces of old iron pipes, fragments of a steam heating radiator, tangled iron wire.
Granny even stopped near this pile of iron and said:
“The pioneers don’t know where the scrap iron is.” I should tell them.
– Why do pioneers need a crowbar? – asked Ninochka.
- Well, they always run around the yards, collect scrap iron and hand it over to the state.
– Why does the state need it?
- And the state will send it to the plant. At the factory, iron will be melted and new things will be made from it.
– Who forces the pioneers to collect scrap? – asked Ninochka.
- Nobody forces you. They themselves. Children should also help adults.
– Did my dad help adults when he was little?
- Helped.
- And me, grandma, why don’t I help the adults?
- Well, you will help when you grow up a little. – the old lady laughed.
Several days passed, and grandma forgot about this whole conversation. But Ninochka did not forget anything. One day she was playing in the yard. Granny let her go for a walk alone. The guys had not yet returned from school, there was no one in the yard, and Ninochka was bored alone.
Suddenly she saw two unfamiliar boys running through the gate. One of them was wearing long trousers and a blue sailor jacket, the other was wearing a brown suit with short pants. The shoes on his feet were not black, but some kind of red, because he always forgot to clean them.
Both boys did not pay any attention to Ninochka. They began to run around the entire yard, looking into all corners and as if they were looking for something. Finally they stopped in the middle of the yard, and the one who was wearing long trousers said:
- Here you see! There is nothing.
And the one who was wearing red boots sniffed, pushed his cap to the back of his head and said:
“We’ll look in other yards, Valerik.” We'll find it somewhere.
- You'll find it here! – Valerik grumbled with annoyance.
They walked back to the gate.
- Boys! – Ninochka shouted after them.
The guys stopped near the gate.
- What do you need?
- What are you looking for?
-What do you want?
– You are probably looking for iron?
- Well, at least iron. What do you want?
– I know where there is a lot of iron.
- How do you know?
- I know.
- You do not know anything!
- No, I know.
- Well, okay, show me where it is, your iron.
- It's not here. You have to go down the street, then turn there, then turn there again, then through the passage yard, then... then...
“You’re lying, obviously,” said Valerik.
- And I’m not lying at all! “Here, follow me,” Ninochka answered and walked decisively down the street.
The guys looked at each other.
- Shall we go, Andryukha? – Valerik asked his friend.
“Well, let’s go,” Andryukha grinned.
The guys caught up with Ninochka and walked behind. They pretended that they were not walking with her, but separately, on their own. They had a mocking expression on their faces.
“Look, she walks like an adult,” Valerik said.
“He’ll still get lost,” Andryukha answered. - Tinkle with her then. We'll have to take him back home.
Ninochka reached the corner of the street and turned left. The guys obediently turned after her. At the next corner she stopped, stood undecided, then boldly walked across the road. The guys, as if on command, followed her.
“Listen,” Valerik called out to Ninochka, “is there a lot of iron there?” Maybe there is one old, broken poker?
“There’s a lot,” answered Ninochka. “You two can’t carry it away.”
- Fairy tales! – answered Valerik. - The two of us can carry as much as you want. We are strong.
Then Ninochka approached a house and stopped near the gate. She carefully examined the gate and went into the yard. The guys followed her. They reached the end of the yard, then turned back to the gate and went out into the street again.
- What are you doing? – Valerik asked in bewilderment.
“This is not the same yard,” Ninochka said embarrassedly. - I was mistaken. We need a passageway, but this is not a passageway. Probably nearby.
They went to the neighboring yard, but it also turned out to be impassable. In the next yard they suffered the same misfortune.
- So, are we just going to wander around all the yards? - Andryukha said grumpily.
Finally, the fourth yard turned out to be a passage. The guys walked through it into a narrow alley, then turned onto a wide street and walked along it. After walking a whole block, Ninochka stopped and said that they seemed to have gone in the wrong direction.
- Well, let's go in the other direction, since it's not the right one. “Why stand here,” Andrey grumbled.
They turned and went the other way; passed the alley, walked the block again.
- Well, now where to go: to the right or to the left? – asked Valerik.
“To the right,” answered Ninochka. - Or to the left...
- I'm sorry, what? – Andryukha said sternly. - Well, you’re so stupid!
Ninochka began to cry.
- I'm lost! - she said.
- Oh you! – Valerik said reproachfully. “Well, let’s go, we’ll take you home, otherwise you’ll say that we took you and left you in the middle of the street.”
Valerik took Ninochka by the hand. All three set off on their way back. Andryukha walked behind and grumbled to himself:
“We wasted so much time because of this idiot.” Without it, iron would have been found somewhere long ago!
They returned to the passage yard again. Valerik was about to turn into the gate, but then Ninochka stopped and said:
- Stop, stop! I seem to remember. This is where we need to go.
-Where is this “there”? – Andrey asked in a dissatisfied tone.
- That way. Through this passage yard, which is opposite. I remember now. My grandmother and I walked through two passage yards. First through this one, and then through this one.
- Aren’t you cheating? – asked Valerik.
- No, I don’t think I’m deceiving you.
- Look, if there is no iron, we will show you where the crayfish spend the winter.
-Where do they spend the winter?
“Then you’ll find out.” Let's go to!
The guys crossed to the other side of the alley, walked through the entrance yard and found themselves in a vacant lot.
- Here it is, iron! Here it is! - Ninochka screamed.
Andrei and Valerik rushed as fast as they could to the pile of scrap iron. Ninochka ran after them, skipping and joyfully repeating:
- You see! I told you. Was I telling the truth?
- Well done! – Valerik praised her. -You spoke the truth. What is your name?
- Ninochka. And you?
– I’m Valerik, and here’s his – Andryukha.
“You shouldn’t say Andryukha, you should say Andryusha,” Ninochka corrected.
“It’s okay, he’s not offended,” Valerik waved his hand.
The guys began to disassemble rusty pipes and debris from the radiator. The iron was half covered with earth, and pulling it out was not so easy.
“And there really is a lot of iron here,” said Valerik. - How do we get him?
- Nothing. Let’s tie two pipes together with wire and we’ll get a stretcher,” Andrei came up with.
The guys began to make a stretcher. Andrey worked diligently. He sniffed all the time and ran his fist over it.
“And you don’t need to do that with your nose, Andryusha,” Ninochka said instructively.
- Look! Why else is this?
- Grandma doesn’t order.
– She understands a lot, your grandmother!
– Grandma understands everything, because she is the eldest. Here's a better handkerchief for you.
Ninochka took out a neatly folded handkerchief, white as a snowflake, from her pocket. Andryukha took it, looked at it silently for a while, then handed it back:
“Take it, otherwise I’ll smear it on you with my nose.”
He took a handkerchief from his pocket—though not as snow-white as Ninochka’s—and blew his nose.
- You see how good it is! - said Ninochka.
– What’s even better! - Andryukha answered and made such a face that Ninochka could not help but laugh.
When the stretcher was ready, the guys loaded the iron onto it, and only one thick, crooked pipe did not fit.
“It’s okay, it will be possible to capture it later if necessary,” said Valerik.
- Why then? – Ninochka answered. - I will help you.
- And that’s true! – Andryukha picked up. - Come with us to school, it’s not far from here. And then we'll take you home.
The guys took the stretcher and dragged the iron to the school, and Ninochka put the crooked pipe on her shoulder and walked after them.
A whole hour has passed since grandma let Ninochka go for a walk.
“My dragonfly took a walk today,” said Granny, when she remembered that Ninochka had been walking for a long time. - As if she wouldn’t run somewhere without me.
The old woman threw a scarf over her shoulders and went out into the yard. There were a lot of guys in the yard. They were playing tag.
- Guys, have you seen Ninochka? - Grandma asked.
But the guys were so busy playing that they didn’t hear her question.
At this time, the boy Vasya was running past. He was all red from running around; the hair on my head was tousled.
- Vasya, have you seen Ninochka?
“But she’s not here,” said Vasya.
- How - no? - Granny was surprised. “She went into the yard about an hour ago.”
“No, grandma, we’ve been playing here for a long time, but we haven’t seen her,” said the girl Svetlana. - Guys! - she screamed. - Ninochka is lost!
Everyone immediately left the game and crowded around the old woman.
- Maybe she went outside? - said Vasya.
Several guys rushed out into the street and immediately returned back.
“She’s not there,” they said.
“She probably went to one of the neighbors,” someone said. - Grandma, ask your neighbors.
Granny went to the neighbors' apartments, and the guys followed her tail. Then they began to run through all the barns and climb into attics. They even went down to the basement. Ninotchka was nowhere to be found. Granny followed them and said:
- Oh, Ninochka, Ninochka! Well, catch me! I'll show you how to scare your grandma!
“Or maybe she ran into someone else’s yard somewhere?” - the guys said. - Well, let's run through the yards! Don't go, grandma. As soon as we find it, we will tell you right away. Go home, rest.
- What a vacation this is!
The old woman sighed sadly and returned home. A neighbor immediately looked in:
– Ninochka wasn’t found?
- And you should go to the police. Suddenly she is there.
- Oh, that's right! And that's right! - Grandma said. - And I, stupid, am sitting here...
She left the house. The guys met her at the gate.
“We, grandma, searched all the yards on this side of the street!” - they shouted. - Now let's go on the other side. Don't worry, we'll find you.
- Look, look, dears! Thank you! Thank you so much! Oh, I'm stupid, old! I didn't notice! Ah!.. I won’t even punish her. I won’t say anything at all, if only I could find it!
-Where are you going, grandma?
- I'm going to the police, kids, to the police.
She walked down the street and kept looking around. Finally I got to the police station and found the children's room. There was a policeman on duty there.
- Son, don’t you have my girl here? “My granddaughter is lost,” said the granny.
“Today we haven’t found any of the kids yet,” the policeman answered. – But you, citizen, don’t worry. Your girl will be found.
He sat the old woman down on a chair and opened a large thick notebook that was lying on the table.
– How old is your girl? – he asked and began to write down. – What’s your name, where does he live?
I wrote down everything: first and last name, and that Ninochka was wearing a blue dress and a white apron with a red bunny. This will make it easier to search. Then he asked if there was a telephone at home and wrote down the number.
“So, grandma,” he finally said, “go home now and don’t worry.” Maybe your Ninochka is already waiting for you at home, but if not, we’ll quickly find her for you.
The old woman calmed down a little and set off on her way back. But the closer she got to the house, the more her anxiety grew. She stopped at the gate of the house. Vasya ran up to her. The hair on his head was even more disheveled, and beads of sweat glistened on his face.
“Ninochka’s mother has come,” he announced with a frightened look.
- And Ninochka?
– She hasn’t been found yet.
Grandmother leaned against the gate. Her legs became weak. She didn’t know how she would tell Ninochka’s mother that Ninochka was lost. She wanted to ask Vasya something else, but suddenly she saw two boys on the sidewalk. They walked quickly down the street, and a little girl scurried between them. Both boys held her hands, and every now and then she tucked her legs under her and, hanging in the arms of the boys, squealed with pleasure. The boys laughed along with her. Now they had already come close, and the grandmother saw on the girl’s blue dress a white apron with a red bunny.
- But this is Ninochka! - Grandma was delighted. - What happiness!
- Grandma! – Ninochka screamed and rushed to her.
Grandma grabbed Ninochka in her arms and began kissing her. And Andrei and Valerik stopped nearby and looked at them.
- Thank you, boys. Where did you find it? - asked the old lady.
- Whom? – Valerik asked in bewilderment.
- Yes, here she is, Ninochka.
- Oh, Ninochka! Listen, Andryukha, don’t you remember where we found Ninochka?
Andryukha sniffed as usual, looked around and said:
– Where?.. Yes, right here, in this very yard. This is where we found her. And from here we went for iron.
- Well, thanks, kids! Thank you so much! - the grandmother repeated.
She lowered Ninochka to the ground and, holding her hand tightly, led her home. Ninochka’s mother met them in the corridor. She put on her hat as she walked. Her face was worried.
-What's going on here? – she asked. – Just got a phone call from the police. They asked if Ninochka had returned. Where did she go?
“Nothing, nothing,” her grandmother reassured her. “Ninochka was lost, but now she’s found.”
“No, granny, I’m not lost at all,” said Ninochka. – I went with the boys to show where the iron was.
– What other iron?
Ninochka began to talk about her adventures. Grandma just gasped as she listened to her story.
- Look what they can’t come up with! - she said. - They needed iron for some reason.
- Well, granny, you yourself said that children should help adults. Dad also helped when he was little. So I'm helping.
“You did well to help the pioneers,” Ninochka’s mother said. “But first I had to ask my grandmother.” Grandma was worried.
– You don’t feel sorry for your granny at all! – the old woman nodded her head.
- I feel sorry for you, grandma! Now I will always be asked. And you and I will find iron somewhere else. Lots of iron! Is it true?
That day all there was talk about was this iron. And in the evening everyone sat at the table again. Granny and mom wrote a letter to dad. And Ninochka drew a picture. She drew a small arctic village covered with snow: just a few houses on the banks of a frozen river. Residents of the village have gathered on a hillock and are waiting for the plane. And the plane is already visible in the sky in the distance. He brings people the things they need: sugar for some, flour for others, medicine for others, and toys for children. Below, Ninochka drew herself with a thick iron pipe in her hands and signed in large block letters: “And I help.”
- That's wonderful! - Granny was delighted. “We will send this picture in a letter to dad, and dad will know how good his daughter is.”
Page 1 of 4
There lived a little girl named Ninochka. She was only five years old. She had a dad, a mom and an old grandmother, whom Ninochka called grandma.
Ninochka’s mother went to work every day, and Ninochka’s grandmother stayed with her. She taught Ninochka to dress, and wash, and fasten the buttons on her bra, and lace her shoes, and braid her hair, and even write letters.
Ninochka spent the whole day with her grandmother, and with her mother only the morning and evening. But Ninochka saw her dad very rarely, since he worked in the distant Arctic. He was a polar pilot and came home only when he was on vacation.
Once a week, and sometimes more often, a letter arrived from Ninochka’s dad. When mom returned from work, she read the letter out loud, and Ninochka and grandma listened. And then everyone wrote a response to dad together. The next day, mom went to work, and grandma and Ninochka took the letter to the post office.
One day, grandma and Ninochka went to the post office to send dad a letter. The weather was good and sunny. Ninochka was wearing a beautiful blue dress and a white apron with a red bunny embroidered on it. Returning from the post office, granny walked with Ninochka through the courtyards and through the vacant lot. Previously, there were small wooden houses there, but now all the residents have been moved to a new large stone house, and in this place they decided to plant trees and make a park. Now there was no park yet, and in the corner of the vacant lot lay a heap of iron rubbish that they had forgotten to take away: pieces of old iron pipes, fragments of a steam heating radiator, tangled iron wire.
Granny even stopped near this pile of iron and said:
“The pioneers don’t know where the scrap iron is.” I should tell them.
– Why do pioneers need a crowbar? – asked Ninochka.
- Well, they always run around the yards, collect scrap iron and hand it over to the state.
– Why does the state need it?
- And the state will send it to the plant. At the factory, iron will be melted and new things will be made from it.
– Who forces the pioneers to collect scrap? – asked Ninochka.
- Nobody forces you. They themselves. Children should also help adults.
– Did my dad help adults when he was little?
- Helped.
- And me, grandma, why don’t I help the adults?
- Well, you will help when you grow up a little. – the old lady laughed.
Several days passed, and grandma forgot about this whole conversation. But Ninochka did not forget anything. One day she was playing in the yard. Granny let her go for a walk alone. The guys had not yet returned from school, there was no one in the yard, and Ninochka was bored alone.
Suddenly she saw two unfamiliar boys running through the gate. One of them was wearing long trousers and a blue sailor jacket, the other was wearing a brown suit with short pants. The shoes on his feet were not black, but some kind of red, because he always forgot to clean them.
Both boys did not pay any attention to Ninochka. They began to run around the entire yard, looking into all corners and as if they were looking for something. Finally they stopped in the middle of the yard, and the one who was wearing long trousers said:
- Here you see! There is nothing.
And the one who was wearing red boots sniffed, pushed his cap to the back of his head and said:
“We’ll look in other yards, Valerik.” We'll find it somewhere.
- You'll find it here! – Valerik grumbled with annoyance.
They walked back to the gate.
- Boys! – Ninochka shouted after them.
The guys stopped near the gate.
- What do you need?
- What are you looking for?
-What do you want?
– You are probably looking for iron?
- Well, at least iron. What do you want?
– I know where there is a lot of iron.
- How do you know?
- I know.
- You do not know anything!
- No, I know.
- Well, okay, show me where it is, your iron.
- It's not here. You have to go down the street, then turn there, then turn there again, then through the passage yard, then... then...
Dear parents, it is very useful to read the fairy tale “And I Help” by N. N. Nosov to children before bed, so that the good ending of the fairy tale makes them happy and calm and they fall asleep. Every time you read this or that epic, you feel the incredible love with which the images of the environment are described. The main character always wins not through deceit and cunning, but through kindness, kindness and love - this is the most important quality of children's characters. The text, written in the last millennium, combines surprisingly easily and naturally with our modern times; its relevance has not diminished at all. The plot is simple and as old as the world, but each new generation finds in it something relevant and useful. Reading such creations in the evening, the pictures of what is happening become more vivid and rich, filled with a new range of colors and sounds. Devotion, friendship and self-sacrifice and other positive feelings overcome all that oppose them: anger, deceit, lies and hypocrisy. The fairy tale “And I Help” by N. N. Nosov is certainly useful to read for free online; it will instill in your child only good and useful qualities and concepts.
There lived a little girl named Ninochka. She was only five years old. She had a dad, a mom and an old grandmother, whom Ninochka called grandma.
Ninochka’s mother went to work every day, and Ninochka’s grandmother stayed with her. She taught Ninochka to dress, and wash, and fasten the buttons on her bra, and lace her shoes, and braid her hair, and even write letters.
Ninochka spent the whole day with her grandmother, and with her mother only the morning and evening. But Ninochka saw her dad very rarely, since he worked in the distant Arctic. He was a polar pilot and came home only when he was on vacation.
Once a week, and sometimes more often, a letter arrived from Ninochka’s dad. When mom returned from work, she read the letter out loud, and Ninochka and grandma listened. And then everyone wrote a response to dad together. The next day, mom went to work, and grandma and Ninochka took the letter to the post office.
One day, grandma and Ninochka went to the post office to send dad a letter. The weather was good and sunny. Ninochka was wearing a beautiful blue dress and a white apron with a red bunny embroidered on it. Returning from the post office, granny walked with Ninochka through the courtyards and through the vacant lot. Previously, there were small wooden houses there, but now all the residents have been moved to a new large stone house, and in this place they decided to plant trees and make a park. Now there was no park yet, and in the corner of the vacant lot lay a heap of iron rubbish that they had forgotten to take away: pieces of old iron pipes, fragments of a steam heating radiator, tangled iron wire.
Granny even stopped near this pile of iron and said:
“The pioneers don’t know where the scrap iron is.” I should tell them.
— Why do pioneers need a crowbar? - asked Ninochka.
- Well, they always run around the yards, collect scrap iron and hand it over to the state.
— Why does the state need it?
— And the state will send it to the plant. At the factory, iron will be melted and new things will be made from it.
—Who forces the pioneers to collect scrap? - asked Ninochka.
- Nobody forces you. They themselves. Children should also help adults.
— Did my dad help adults when he was little?
- Helped.
- And me, grandma, why don’t I help the adults?
- Well, you will help when you grow up a little. - the old lady laughed.
Several days passed, and grandma forgot about this whole conversation. But Ninochka did not forget anything. One day she was playing in the yard. Granny let her go for a walk alone. The guys had not yet returned from school, there was no one in the yard, and Ninochka was bored alone.
Suddenly she saw two unfamiliar boys running through the gate. One of them was wearing long trousers and a blue sailor jacket, the other was wearing a brown suit with short pants. The shoes on his feet were not black, but some kind of red, because he always forgot to clean them.
Both boys did not pay any attention to Ninochka. They began to run around the entire yard, looking into all corners and as if they were looking for something. Finally they stopped in the middle of the yard, and the one who was wearing long trousers said:
- Here you see! There is nothing.
And the one who was wearing red boots sniffed, pushed his cap to the back of his head and said:
- Let's look in other yards, Valerik. We'll find it somewhere.
- You'll find it here! - Valerik grumbled with annoyance.
They walked back to the gate.
- Boys! - Ninochka shouted after them.
The guys stopped near the gate.
- What do you need?
- What are you looking for?
- What do you want?
- You are probably looking for iron?
- Well, at least iron. What do you want?
- I know where there is a lot of iron.
- How do you know?
- I know.
- You do not know anything!
- No, I know.
“Okay, show me where it is, your iron.”
- It's not here. You have to go down the street, then turn there, then turn there again, then through the passage yard, then... then...
“You’re lying, obviously,” said Valerik.
- And I’m not lying at all! “Here, follow me,” Ninochka answered and walked decisively down the street.
The guys looked at each other.
- Shall we go, Andryukha? - Valerik asked his friend.
“Well, let’s go,” Andryukha grinned.
The guys caught up with Ninochka and walked behind. They pretended that they were not walking with her, but separately, on their own. They had a mocking expression on their faces.
“Look, she walks like an adult,” Valerik said.
“He’ll still get lost,” Andryukha answered. - Tinkle with her then. We'll have to take him back home.
Ninochka reached the corner of the street and turned left. The guys obediently turned after her. At the next corner she stopped, stood undecided, then boldly walked across the road. The guys, as if on command, followed her.
“Listen,” Valerik called out to Ninochka, “is there a lot of iron there?” Maybe there is one old, broken poker?
“There’s a lot,” answered Ninochka. “You two can’t carry it away.”
- Fairy tales! - answered Valerik. “The two of us can carry as much as you want.” We are strong.
Then Ninochka approached a house and stopped near the gate. She carefully examined the gate and went into the yard. The guys followed her. They reached the end of the yard, then turned back to the gate and went out into the street again.
- What are you doing? — Valerik asked in bewilderment.
“This is not the same yard,” Ninochka said embarrassedly. - I was mistaken. We need a passageway, but this is not a passageway. Probably nearby.
They went to the neighboring yard, but it also turned out to be impassable. In the next yard they suffered the same misfortune.
- So, are we just going to wander around all the yards? - Andryukha said grumpily.
Finally, the fourth yard turned out to be a passage. The guys walked through it into a narrow alley, then turned onto a wide street and walked along it. After walking a whole block, Ninochka stopped and said that they seemed to have gone in the wrong direction.
- Well, let's go in the other direction, since it's not the right one. “Why stand here,” Andrey grumbled.
They turned and went the other way; passed the alley, walked the block again.
- Well, now where to go: to the right or to the left? - asked Valerik.
“To the right,” answered Ninochka. - Or to the left...
- I'm sorry, what? - Andryukha said sternly. - Well, you’re so stupid!
Ninochka began to cry.
- I'm lost! - she said.
- Oh you! - Valerik said reproachfully. “Well, let’s go, we’ll take you home, otherwise you’ll say that we took you and left you in the middle of the street.”
Valerik took Ninochka by the hand. All three set off on their way back. Andryukha walked behind and grumbled to himself:
“We wasted so much time because of this idiot.” Without it, iron would have been found somewhere long ago!
They returned to the passage yard again. Valerik was about to turn into the gate, but then Ninochka stopped and said:
- Stop, stop! I seem to remember. This is where we need to go.
-Where is this “there”? - Andrey asked in a dissatisfied tone.
- Right there. Through this passage yard, which is opposite. I remember now. My grandmother and I walked through two passage yards. First through this one, and then through this one.
- Aren’t you cheating? - asked Valerik.
- No, I don’t think I’m deceiving you.
- Look, if there is no iron, we will show you where the crayfish spend the winter.
-Where do they spend the winter?
- Then you will find out. Let's go to!
The guys crossed to the other side of the alley, walked through the entrance yard and found themselves in a vacant lot.
- Here it is, iron! Here it is! - Ninochka screamed.
Andrei and Valerik rushed as fast as they could to the pile of scrap iron. Ninochka ran after them, skipping and joyfully repeating:
- You see! I told you. Was I telling the truth?
- Well done! - Valerik praised her. - You spoke the truth. What is your name?
- Ninochka. And you?
“I’m Valerik, and this is his Andryukha.”
“You shouldn’t say Andryukha, you should say Andryusha,” Ninochka corrected.
“It’s okay, he’s not offended,” Valerik waved his hand.
The guys began to disassemble rusty pipes and debris from the radiator. The iron was half covered with earth, and it was not so easy to pull it out.
“And there really is a lot of iron here,” said Valerik. - How do we get him?
- Nothing. Let’s tie two pipes together with wire and we’ll get a stretcher,” Andrei came up with.
The guys began to make a stretcher. Andrey worked diligently. He sniffed all the time and ran his fist over it.
“And you don’t need to do that with your nose, Andryusha,” Ninochka said instructively.
- Look! Why else?
- Grandma doesn’t order.
- She understands a lot, your grandmother!
“Grandmother understands everything, because she is the eldest. Here's a better handkerchief for you.
Ninochka took out a neatly folded handkerchief, white as a snowflake, from her pocket. Andryukha took it, looked at it silently for a while, then handed it back:
“Take it, otherwise I’ll smear it on you with my nose.”
He took a handkerchief from his pocket—though not as snow-white as Ninochka’s—and blew his nose.
- You see how good it is! - said Ninochka.
- What’s even better! - Andryukha answered and made such a face that Ninochka could not help but laugh.
When the stretcher was ready, the guys loaded the iron onto it, and only one thick, crooked pipe did not fit.
“It’s okay, it will be possible to capture her later if necessary,” said Valerik.
- Why then? - Ninochka answered. - I will help you.
- And that’s true! - Andryukha picked up. - Come with us to school, it’s not far from here. And then we'll take you home.
The guys took the stretcher and dragged the iron to the school, and Ninochka put the crooked pipe on her shoulder and walked after them.
A whole hour has passed since grandma let Ninochka go for a walk.
“My dragonfly went on a spree today,” said Granny, when she remembered that Ninochka had been out for a long time. - As if she wouldn’t run somewhere without me.
The old woman threw a scarf over her shoulders and went out into the yard. There were a lot of guys in the yard. They were playing tag.
- Guys, have you seen Ninochka? - Grandma asked.
But the guys were so busy playing that they didn’t hear her question.
At this time, the boy Vasya was running past. He was all red from running around; the hair on my head was tousled.
“Vasya, have you seen Ninochka?”
“But she’s not here,” said Vasya.
- How - no? - Granny was surprised. “She went into the yard about an hour ago.”
“No, grandma, we’ve been playing here for a long time, but we haven’t seen her,” said the girl Svetlana. - Guys! - she screamed. - Ninochka is lost!
Everyone immediately left the game and crowded around the old woman.
- Maybe she went outside? - said Vasya.
Several guys rushed out into the street and immediately returned back.
“She’s not there,” they said.
“She probably went to one of the neighbors,” someone said. - Grandma, ask your neighbors.
Granny went to the neighbors' apartments, and the guys followed her tail. Then they began to run through all the barns and climb into attics. They even went down to the basement. Ninotchka was nowhere to be found. Granny followed them and said:
- Oh, Ninochka, Ninochka! Well, catch me! I'll show you how to scare your grandma!
“Or maybe she ran into someone else’s yard somewhere?” - the guys said. - Come on, let's run through the yards! Don't go, grandma. As soon as we find it, we will tell you right away. Go home, rest.
- What a vacation this is!
The old woman sighed sadly and returned home. A neighbor immediately looked in:
— Ninochka wasn’t found?
- No.
- And you should go to the police. Suddenly she is there.
- Oh, that's right! And that's right! - Grandma said. - And I, stupid, am sitting here...
She left the house. The guys met her at the gate.
“We, grandma, searched all the yards on this side of the street!” - they shouted.
- Now let's go on the other side. Don't worry, we'll find you.
- Look, look, dears! Thank you! Thank you so much! Oh, I'm stupid, old! I didn't notice! Ah!.. I won’t even punish her. I won’t say anything at all, if only I could find it!
-Where are you going, grandma?
- I'm going to the police, kids, to the police.
She walked down the street and kept looking around. Finally I got to the police station and found the children's room. There was a policeman on duty there.
- Son, don’t you have my girl here? “My granddaughter is lost,” said the granny.
“Today we haven’t found any of the kids yet,” the policeman answered. - But you, citizen, don’t worry. Your girl will be found.
He sat the old woman down on a chair and opened a large thick notebook that was lying on the table.
— How old is your girl? - he asked and began to write down. - What’s your name, where does he live?
I wrote down everything: first and last name, and that Ninochka was wearing a blue dress and a white apron with a red bunny. This will make it easier to search. Then he asked if there was a telephone at home and wrote down the number.
“So, grandma,” he finally said, “go home now and don’t worry.” Maybe your Ninochka is already waiting for you at home, but if not, we’ll quickly find her for you.
The old woman calmed down a little and set off on her way back. But the closer she got to the house, the more her anxiety grew. She stopped at the gate of the house. Vasya ran up to her. The hair on his head was even more disheveled, and beads of sweat glistened on his face.
“Ninochka’s mother has come,” he announced with a frightened look.
- And Ninochka?
- She hasn't been found yet.
Grandmother leaned against the gate. Her legs became weak. She didn’t know how she would tell Ninochka’s mother that Ninochka was lost. She wanted to ask Vasya something else, but suddenly she saw two boys on the sidewalk. They walked quickly down the street, and a little girl scurried between them. Both boys held her hands, and every now and then she tucked her legs under her and, hanging in the arms of the boys, squealed with pleasure. The boys laughed along with her. Now they had already come close, and the grandmother saw on the girl’s blue dress a white apron with a red bunny.
- But this is Ninochka! - Grandma was happy. - What happiness!
- Grandma! - Ninochka screamed and rushed to her.
Grandmother grabbed Ninochka in her arms and began kissing her. And Andrei and Valerik stopped nearby and looked at them.
- Thank you, boys. Where did you find her? - asked the old lady.
- Whom? — Valerik asked in bewilderment.
- Yes, here she is, Ninochka.
- Oh, Ninochka! Listen, Andryukha, don’t you remember where we found Ninochka?
Andryukha sniffed as usual, looked around and said:
- Where?.. Yes, right here, in this very yard. This is where we found her. And from here we went for iron.
- Well, thanks, kids! Thank you so much! - the grandmother repeated.
She lowered Ninochka to the ground and, holding her hand tightly, led her home. Ninochka’s mother met them in the corridor. She put on her hat as she walked. Her face was worried.
- What's going on here? she asked. — The police just called me on the phone. They asked if Ninochka had returned. Where did she go?
“Nothing, nothing,” her grandmother reassured her. “Ninochka was lost, but now she’s found.”
“No, granny, I’m not lost at all,” said Ninochka. “I went with the boys to show where the iron was.”
- What kind of iron?
Ninochka began to talk about her adventures. Grandma just gasped as she listened to her story.
- Look what they can’t come up with! - she said. “They needed iron for some reason.”
- Well, granny, you yourself said that children should help adults. Dad also helped when he was little. So I'm helping.
“You did well to help the pioneers,” Ninochka’s mother said. “But first I had to ask my grandmother.” Grandma was worried.
“You don’t feel sorry for your granny at all!” — the old woman nodded her head.
- I feel sorry for you, grandma! Now I will always be asked. And you and I will find iron somewhere else. Lots of iron! Is it true?
That day all there was talk about was this iron. And in the evening everyone sat at the table again. Granny and mom wrote a letter to dad. And Ninochka drew a picture. She drew a small arctic village covered with snow: just a few houses on the banks of a frozen river. Residents of the village have gathered on a hillock and are waiting for the plane. And the plane is already visible in the sky in the distance. He brings people the things they need: sugar for some, flour for others, medicine for others, and toys for children. Below, Ninochka drew herself with a thick iron pipe in her hands and signed in large block letters: “And I help.”
- That's wonderful! - Granny was delighted. “We will send this picture in a letter to dad, and dad will know how good his daughter is.”