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Russian prose literary fairy tale of the first half of the 19th century

Plan:

1. A. Pogorelsky’s fairy tale “The Black Hen, or Underground inhabitants" Problems, ideological meaning, plot, image of the main character, originality of style, genre specificity.

2. The main aspects of V.F.’s creativity Odoevsky.

3. Further development literary fairy tale in Russia

Literature

1. Mineralova I.G. Children's literature. - M., 2002, p. 60 - 61, 72 - 76, 92-96

2. Sharov A. Wizards come to people. - M., 1979

Romantic writers discovered the fairy tale genre for “high” literature. In parallel with this, in the era of romanticism, childhood was discovered as a unique, inimitable world, the depth and value of which attracts adults.

The researcher of Russian romanticism N. Verkovsky wrote that romanticism established the cult of the child and the cult of childhood. In search of the ideal of romance, they turned to an unclouded child's view of the world, contrasting it with the sometimes selfish, crudely material world of adults. The world of childhood and the world of fairy tales are ideally combined in the work of A. Pogorelsky. His magical story “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” became classic work, originally addressed to young readers.

Anthony Pogorelsky is the pseudonym of Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky, the son of the noble Catherine’s nobleman A.K. Razumovsky. As a child, A. Perovsky received a varied education at home, then graduated from Moscow University in just over two years. He left the university with the title of Doctor of Philosophy and Literary Sciences, received for his lectures in the natural sciences. During the War of 1812, Perovsky was a military officer, participated in the battles of Dresden, Kulm, and served in Saxony. Here he met the famous German musician and romantic writer T. Amadeus Hoffmann. Communication with Hoffmann left an imprint on the nature of Perovsky’s work.

The ironic pseudonym “Antony Pogorelsky” is associated with the name of the writer’s estate Pogoreltsy in the Chernigov province and the name of St. Anthony of Pechersk, who once retired from the world to Chernigov. Antony Pogorelsky is one of the most mysterious figures in Russian literature. Friends called him the Byron of St. Petersburg: he was also smart, talented, recklessly brave, and even outwardly resembled the famous English poet.

A. Pogorelsky wrote poetry, articles about literature, in prose he largely anticipated the appearance of Gogol, and stood at the origins of the fantastic trend in Russian literature. The collection of stories “The Double, or My Evenings in Little Russia” (1828) attracted people with the mystery of either mysterious or touching stories told with a fair amount of clever irony; the novel “The Monastery” (1 part - 1830, 2 parts - 1833) was at one time noted as the first successful work about the Russian provincial nobility Finally, the magical story for children “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” (1829) for more than a hundred years has captivated children with a fairy-tale plot, without edification, convincing them of the true value of goodness, truth, honesty and hard work. Pogorelsky contributed to the development of Russian literature by contributing to the education and literary development of his nephew, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy.

"The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants" (1828).

Problems, ideological meaning. The story has the subtitle " Magic story for children". There are two lines of narration in it - real and fabulous-fantastic. Their bizarre combination determines the plot, style, and imagery of the work. Pogorelsky wrote a story for his ten-year-old nephew. He calls the main character Alyosha. Translated from Greek, Alexey means intercessor, so the dedication to his nephew happily coincided, given name literary character and its essence. But in the fairy tale there are tangible echoes not only of Alyosha Tolstoy’s childhood, but also of the author himself (also Alexei). As a child he a short time was placed in a closed boarding house, suffered from separation from home, fled from it, and broke his leg. A high wooden fence enclosing the boarding yard, living space his pupils is not only a realistic detail in “The Black Hen”, but also a symbolic sign of the author’s “memory of Childhood”.

“The gate and gate that led to 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.”

Round holes in the fence are the only connection with the outside world. The boy is lonely, and he feels this especially bitterly during the “vacant time”, when he is separated from his comrades.

A sad, poignant note permeates Pogorelsky's story. The narration is told on behalf of the author-narrator, with frequent appeals to imaginary listeners, which gives special warmth and trust. The time and place of the events that took place are specified: “Forty years ago, in St. Petersburg on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men’s boarding house...” Before the reader, Petersburg of the late 19th century appears, a boarding house, a teacher with curls, a toupee and a long braid, his wife, powdered and pomaded, with a whole greenhouse different colors on the head. Alyosha's outfit is written out in detail.

All descriptions are bright, picturesque, convex, given taking into account children's perception. It is important for the child to big picture detail, detail. Finding himself in the kingdom of the underground inhabitants, “Alyosha began to carefully examine the hall, which was very richly decorated. It seemed to him that the walls were made of marble, such as he had seen in the mineral study of the boarding house. The panels and doors were pure gold. At the end of the hall, under a green canopy, on an elevated place, there were armchairs made of gold. Alyosha admired this decoration, but it seemed strange to him that everything was in the very small form, as if for small dolls.”

Realistic objects, everyday details in fairy-tale episodes (tiny lit candles in silver chandeliers, nodding goal porcelain Chinese dolls, twenty little knights in gold armor, with crimson feathers on their hats) bring the two levels of narration together, making it natural Alyosha's transition from the real world to the magical and fantastic one.

Everything that happened to the hero makes the reader think about many serious questions. How to feel about success? How not to be proud of unexpected great luck? What can happen if you don't listen to the voice of conscience? What is fidelity to one's word? Is it easy to overcome the bad in yourself? After all, “vices usually enter through the door and exit through a crack.” The author poses a complex of moral problems without condescension to either the hero’s age or the reader’s age. A child’s life is not a toy version of an adult: everything in life happens once and in earnest.

Is The Black Hen didactic? The educational pathos is obvious. If we ignore the artistic fabric of the story, it can be expressed in words: be honest, hardworking, modest. But Pogorelsky managed to put the educational idea into such a romantically elevated and at the same time life-convincing, truly magical-fairy-tale form that the child reader perceives moral lesson heart.

The plot of the story. The serious problems of Pogorelsky's story are easily absorbed by children thanks to the fascinating fairy-tale plot and very successful central image the hero is the reader's peer.

Analysis of the plot of the story convinces that in terms of genre the work is not so unambiguous, which additionally imparts artistic completeness and pedagogical depth to its content.

The story begins with exposition (prehistory of events unfolding directly within the artistic time of the work).

The beginning- Alyosha’s intercession for Chernushka.

Climax (highest point tension of all problem lines), a kind of event “node” of the conflict - Alyosha’s choice in magical gardens underground inhabitants of hemp seeds , and not other grown beautiful flowers and fruits . This very choice is accompanied by seduction(it’s hard not to succumb to the temptation to easily know everything perfectly). But, having once given in to his thought, which seems harmless to others, the little man embarks on the path of first a very small, and then increasingly growing lie. So, it seems, forgetting the rules also magically comes to him. and promises. Then the kind and compassionate boy begins to express pride, an unjustified sense of superiority over others. From magic remedy- hemp seed, datura herb - this pride grows.

Moreover, the loss of a hemp seed by the hero is not yet the end; the boy is twice given a chance to get out of the current situation without moral losses, but, having found the hemp seed again, he embarks on the same disastrous path.

The denouement there will be an exposure of deception, “betrayal” of the underground inhabitants, and their departure is already an epilogue (events that are sure to follow, and no one can change them). Lyrically, the denouement is Alyosha’s repentance, a bitter, irreparable feeling of loss, pity for the heroes with whom he must part, and nothing can be changed either in his own actions or in the actions of others. The event side is the reason for the beginning of the “work of the soul.”

Intuitively, the reader comes to a conclusion, albeit not verbally formulated: pride and arrogance are overcome by remorse, repentance, complicity, compassion, pity for others. Moral conclusions sound aphoristic: “The lost are corrected by people, the wicked are corrected by angels, and the proud are corrected by the Lord GOD himself.”(St. John Climacus)

The image of the main character

The image of Alyosha, a nine-year-old pupil of an old St. Petersburg boarding school, was developed by the writer with special attention to his inner life. For the first time in a Russian children's book, a living boy appeared here, every spiritual movement which speaks of the author's deep knowledge of child psychology. Alyosha is endowed with features characteristic of a child of his age. He is emotional, impressionable, observant, inquisitive; reading ancient chivalric novels (the typical reading repertoire of an 18th-century boy) developed his naturally rich imagination. He is kind, brave, sympathetic. And at the same time, nothing childish is alien to him. He is playful, restless, easily succumbed to the temptation to not learn a boring lesson, to play cunning, to hide his childhood secrets from adults.

Like most children, fairy tales and reality are fused together in his mind. In the real world, the boy clearly sees traces of the miraculous, elusive for adults, and he himself continuously, every minute, Everyday life creates a fairy tale. So it seems to him that the holes in the fence, knocked together from old boards, were turned by a sorceress, and, of course, there is nothing surprising if she brings news from home or a toy. An ordinary chicken, fleeing the persecution of the cook, suddenly can easily speak and ask for help. That’s why magic knights, coming to life porcelain dolls, and the mysterious underground kingdom with his peaceful and kind people, and possessing magical power grain, and other fairy tale miracles with all rights and laws.

How easily a fairy tale invades the life of Pogorelsky’s hero, so freely, in turn, the techniques of realistic writing are introduced into the story of the mysterious: accuracy in the description of everyday details and elements of psychological analysis unusual for a fairy tale.

The details of everyday life in the fairy-tale episodes of the story seem to have been suggested to the artist by a child, filled with naive faith in the reality of everything wonderful. Tiny lit candles in silver candlesticks, the size of Alyosha’s little finger, appear on the chairs, washstand and on the floor of the dark room, the chicken Chernushka comes for Alyosha; a large couch made of Dutch tiles, on which people and animals are painted in blue glaze, is encountered on their way to the underworld. They also see antique beds with white muslin canopies. It is easy to see that all these objects did not come into the story from the unknown. magical land, but from an ordinary St. Petersburg mansion of the 18th century. Thus, the writer and the hero, as it were, “revive” the fairy tale, convincing the reader of the authenticity of the plot’s fiction.

The further Alyosha and Chernushka go into mysterious world underground inhabitants, the less historical and everyday flavor becomes in the text. But the clarity of a child’s vision, children’s vigilance and concreteness of ideas remain: twenty knights in golden armor, with crimson feathers on their armor, quietly marching in pairs into the hall, twenty little pages in crimson dresses carrying the royal robe. The clothes of the courtiers, the decoration of the palace chambers - everything was painted by Pogorelsky with a thoroughness that captivates a child, creating the illusion of “realness”, which he values ​​so much both in games and in fairy tales.

Almost all the events of a fairy tale can be explained, say, by the hero’s tendency to daydream, to fantasize. He loves chivalric romances and is often ready to see the ordinary in a fantastic light. The director of the schools, for whose reception the boarding house is excitedly preparing, in his imagination appears as “a famous knight in shiny armor and a helmet with shiny feathers,” but, to his surprise, instead of a “feathered helmet,” Alyosha sees “ just a small bald head, whitely powdered, the only decoration of which... was a small bun.” But the author does not seek to destroy the fragile balance between fairy tales and life; he leaves unsaid, for example, why Chernushka, being a minister, appears in the form of a chicken and what connection the underground inhabitants have with the old Dutch women.

A developed imagination, the ability to dream, fantasize constitute the wealth of the personality of a growing person. That's why he's so charming main character stories. This is the first living, non-schematic image of a child, a boy in children's literature. Alyosha, like any ten-year-old child, is inquisitive, active, and impressionable. His kindness and responsiveness manifested itself in saving his beloved chicken Chernushka, which served as the beginning fairy tale plot. It was decisive and a brave deed: a little boy threw himself on the neck of the cook, who inspired him with “horror and disgust” with her cruelty (the cook at that moment, with a knife in her hands, grabbed Chernushka by the wing). Alyosha, without hesitation, parted with his precious imperial gift from his kind grandmother. To the author of a sentimental children's story this episode would be quite enough to reward the hero a hundredfold for kind heart. But Pogorelsky paints a living boy, childishly spontaneous, playful, unable to resist the temptation of idleness and vanity.

Alyosha takes the first step towards his troubles unintentionally. At the king’s tempting offer to name his wish, Alyosha “hastened to answer” and said the first thing that could come to mind for almost every schoolchild: “I would like that, without studying, I would always know my lesson, no matter what I was given.”

The denouement of the story - the scene of Chernushka's farewell to Alyosha, the noise of the small people leaving their kingdom, Alyosha's despair at the irreparability of his rash act - is perceived by the reader as an emotional shock. For the first time, perhaps in his life, he and the hero are experiencing the drama of betrayal. Without exaggeration, one can speak of catharsis - the elevation of the enlightened soul of the young reader, who succumbed to the magic of Pogorelsky's fairy tale.

Style Features

The originality of the thinking of the child, the hero of the story, through whose eyes many of the events of the story were seen, prompted the writer to select visual arts. Therefore, every line of “The Black Hen” resonates with readers who are the hero’s peers.

The writer, inventive in fantastic fiction, is attentive to the careful recreation of genuine life. The landscapes of old St. Petersburg, full of details, as if copied from life, more precisely, of one of its oldest streets - the First Line of Vasilyevsky Island, with its wooden sidewalks, small mansions covered with Dutch tiles, and spacious courtyards fenced with baroque boards. Pogorelsky described in detail and carefully Alyosha’s clothes, the decoration of the festive table, and the complex hairstyle of the teacher’s wife, made in the fashion of that time, and many other details of everyday life in St. Petersburg in the 18th century.

The everyday scenes of the story are marked by the author's slightly mocking smile. This is exactly how the pages depicting the funny bustle in the teacher’s house before the principal’s arrival were made.

The vocabulary and style of the story are extremely interesting. The style of “Black Chicken” is free and varied. In an effort to make the story entertaining for a child, Pogorelsky does not allow simplification, does not strive for such accessibility, which is achieved by impoverishing the text. When encountering thoughts and images in a work that are complex and not fully understandable, the child assimilates their context in a generalized way, not being able to approach them analytically. But mastering a text that requires certain mental efforts from the reader, designed “for growth,” is always more fruitful than easy reading.

"Black Hen" is easy to understand and modern reader. There is practically no archaic vocabulary or outdated figures of speech here. And at the same time, the story is structured stylistically diverse. There is an epic leisurely exposition, an emotional story about the rescue of Chernushka, about miraculous incidents associated with underground inhabitants. Often the author resorts to lively, relaxed dialogue.

In the style of the story, a significant role belongs to the writer’s reproduction of children’s thoughts and speech. Pogorelsky was one of the first to pay attention to its specificity and use it as a means of artistic representation. “If I were a knight,” Alyosha reflects, “I would never drive a cab.” Or: “She (the old Dutch woman) seemed to him (Alyosha) like wax.” So children's intonation is used by Pogorelsky for speech characteristics hero, and in the author's speech. Stylistic diversity, bold appeal to lexical layers of varying degrees of complexity and at the same time attention to the peculiarities of perception of the child reader made Pogorelsky's story a classic children's book.

The book includes two famous stories “ Black chicken, or Underground Inhabitants" and "Lafertov's Poppy Plant". For middle school age.

A series: School library (Children's literature)

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by liters company.

BLACK CHICKEN, or UNDERGROUND RESIDENTS

About forty years ago*, in St. Petersburg on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First Line*, there lived the owner of a men's boarding house*, which is still probably in the fresh memory of many, although the house where the boarding house was located , has long given way to another, not at all similar to the previous one. At that time, our St. 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 Vasilievsky Island: wooden stages, often knocked together from rotten boards, took the place of today’s beautiful sidewalks. Isaac's Bridge*, narrow and uneven at that time, had a completely different appearance than it does 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 lined with trees, the Horse Guards Manege* did not decorate the square with the beautiful façade it now has - in a word, the Petersburg of that time was not the same as it is today. Cities have, by the way, the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age... However, that’s not what we’re talking about now. Another time and on another occasion, perhaps I will talk to you at greater length about the changes that have taken place in St. Petersburg during my century, but now let’s turn again to the boarding house, which about forty years ago was located on Vasilievsky 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 along which one entered it was wooden and overlooked the street. From the vestibule a rather steep staircase led to the upper housing, which consisted of eight or nine rooms, in which the keeper of the boarding house lived on one side, and classrooms on the other. The dormitories, or children's sleeping rooms, were located on the lower floor, on the right side of the entryway, and on the left lived two old Dutch women, each of whom was more than a hundred years old and who saw Peter the Great with their own eyes and even spoke to him. Nowadays, it is unlikely that in all of Russia you will meet a person who has seen Peter the Great; the time will come when our traces will be erased from the face of the earth! Everything passes, everything disappears in our mortal world... but that’s not what we’re talking about now.

Among the thirty or forty children studying 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, had brought him to the capital two years before, sent him to a boarding school and returned home, paying the teacher the agreed upon fee several years in advance. Alyosha was a smart, cute boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him. However, despite this, he was often bored at the boarding house, and sometimes even sad. Especially* at first he could not get used to the idea that he was separated from his family. But then, little by little, he began to get used to his situation, and there were even moments when, playing with his friends, he thought that it was much more fun in the boarding house than in parental home. 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 left alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books that the teacher allowed him to take from his small library. The teacher was a German by birth, at that time in German literature the fashion for chivalric novels and fairy tales prevailed, and this library mostly consisted of books of this kind.

So, Alyosha, while still ten years old, already knew by heart the deeds of the most glorious knights, according to at least just as they were described in the novels. His favorite pastime during long periods of time winter evenings, on Sundays and others holidays was to be mentally transported to ancient, long-past centuries... Especially during vacant times*, such as about Christmas or Easter Sunday, - when he was separated for a long time from his comrades, when he often sat for whole days in solitude - his youthful imagination wandered through knights' castles, through terrible ruins or through 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 gate and gate that led to the alley were always locked, and therefore Alyosha never had the opportunity 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 looked intently into the round holes with which the fence was dotted. Alyosha did not know that these holes came from the wooden nails with which the barges had previously been nailed together, and it seemed to him that some kind sorceress had drilled these holes on purpose for him. He kept expecting that someday this sorceress would appear in the alley and through a hole would give him a toy, or a talisman*, or a letter from daddy or mummy, from whom he had not received any news for a long time. But, to his extreme regret, no one even resembling the sorceress appeared.

Alyosha’s other occupation was to feed the chickens, 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 from the crumbs for several days in a row, 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 to him than others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha brought her the best pieces. 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 the holidays, between 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 lunch to the director of the schools, and the day before, from morning until late evening, they washed the floors everywhere in the house, wiped the dust and waxed the 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 the Milyutin 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 with paper carvings the specially purchased six wax candles. On the appointed day, the hairdresser appeared in the morning and showed his art on the teacher’s curls, toupee* and long braid. Then he set to work on his wife, pomaded and powdered her curls and chignon, and piled a whole greenhouse of different flowers* on her head, between which sparkled skillfully placed two diamond rings, once given to her husband by her students’ parents. After finishing her headdress, she threw on an old, worn-out cloak* and went to work around the house, watching strictly so that her hair would not somehow get damaged; and for this reason she herself did not enter the kitchen, but gave orders to her cook standing in the doorway. When necessary, she sent her husband there, whose hair was not so high.

During all these worries, our Alyosha was completely forgotten, and he took advantage of this to play in the open space in the yard. As was his custom, he first approached the plank fence and looked through the hole for a long time; but even on this day almost no one passed along the alley, and with a sigh he turned to his kind chickens. Before he had time to sit down on the log and had just begun to beckon them to him, he suddenly saw a cook next to him with a large knife. Alyosha never liked this cook - an angry and scolding little girl*. But since he noticed that she was the reason that the number of his chickens was decreasing from time to time, he began to love her even less. When one day he accidentally saw in the kitchen a pretty, very beloved cockerel, hanging by the legs with its throat cut, he felt 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! - 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.

He stood by the chicken coop for quite a long time, and his heart was beating strongly, while the cook ran around the yard, beckoning to the chickens: “Chick, chick, chick!” - she scolded them in Chukhon.

Suddenly Alyosha’s heart began to 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 shouting:

Where, where, where, where!

Alyosha, save Chernukha!

Kuduhu, kuduhu,

Chernukha, Chernukha!

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 she caught Chernushka by the wing.

- Dear, dear Trinushka! – he cried, shedding tears. – Please don’t touch my Chernukha!

Alyosha so suddenly threw himself on the cook’s neck that she lost Chernushka from her hands, who, taking advantage of this, flew out of fear onto the roof of the barn and there continued to cackle. But Alyosha now heard as if she were teasing the cook and shouting:

Where, where, where, where!

You didn't catch Chernukha!

Kuduhu, kuduhu!

Chernukha, Chernukha!

Meanwhile, the cook was beside herself with annoyance.

“Rummal sing!” she shouted. “That’s it, I’ll fall to the cassai and plow.” Shorna kuris nada cut... He's lazy... He doesn't do anything, he doesn't sit down.

Then she wanted to run to the teacher, but Alyosha did not let her in. He clung to the hem of her dress and began to beg so tenderly 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 his entire estate*, which he treasured more than his own eyes, because it was a gift from his kind grandmother. The cook looked at the gold coin, glanced around the windows of the house to make sure that no one saw them, and extended 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 cruel and inevitable death.

As soon as the cook retired into the house, Chernushka flew off the roof and ran up to Alyosha. She seemed to know that he was her savior - she circled around him, flapping her wings and clucking 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 couldn’t. At least he couldn't make out her cackling sounds.

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

Finally the director arrived. His arrival was announced by the teacher, who had been sitting by the window for a long time, looking intently in the direction from which they were waiting for him. Everything was in motion: the teacher rushed headlong out of the door to meet him below, at the porch; the guests rose from their places. And even Alyosha forgot about his chicken for a minute and went to the window to watch the knight get off his zealous horse. But he was unable to see him: the director had already entered the house. At the porch, instead of a zealous horse, there stood an ordinary carriage sleigh. Alyosha was very surprised by this. “If I were a knight,” he thought, “then I would never drive a cab, but always on horseback!”

Meanwhile, all the doors were opened wide; and the teacher began to curtsy* in anticipation of such an honorable guest, who soon appeared. At first it was impossible to see him behind the fat teacher who stood right in the doorway; 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, whitely powdered, the only decoration of which, as Alyosha later noticed, was a small bun ! When he entered the living 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.

No matter how strange all this seemed to Alyosha, no matter how much at another time he would have been delighted by the unusual decoration of the table, on that day he did not pay much attention to it. The morning incident with Chernushka kept wandering through his head. Dessert was served: various kinds of preserves, apples, bergamots*, dates, wine berries* and walnuts; but even here he never stopped thinking about his chicken for a single moment. And they had just gotten up from the table when, with his heart trembling with fear and hope, he approached the teacher and asked if he could go play in the yard.

“Come,” answered the teacher, “just don’t stay there for long: it will soon become dark.”

Alyosha hastily put on his red cap with squirrel fur* and a green velvet cap with a sable band and ran to the fence. When he arrived there, the chickens had already begun to gather for the night and, sleepy, were not very happy about the crumbs he had brought. Only Chernushka seemed to have no desire to sleep: she ran up to him cheerfully, 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 chicken sat on the pole. When he left the chicken coop, it seemed to him that Chernushka’s eyes glowed in the dark like stars, and that she quietly said to him:

- Alyosha, Alyosha! Stay with me!

Alyosha returned to the house and sat alone in the room all evening. classrooms, meanwhile, at the other half hour until eleven, the guests stayed and played whist at several tables. Before they parted, Alyosha went to the lower floor, to the bedroom, undressed, went to bed and put out the fire. For a long time he could not fall asleep. Finally, sleep overcame him, and he had just managed to talk with Chernushka in his sleep when, unfortunately, he was awakened by the noise of the guests leaving. A little later, the teacher, who was seeing off the director with a candle, entered his room, looked to see if everything was in order, and went out, locking the door with the key.

End of introductory fragment.

* * *

The given introductory fragment of the book Black chicken, or Underground inhabitants (collection) (Antony Pogorelsky, 1825,1829) provided by our book partner -

Title: Black chicken, or Underground inhabitants

About the book “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” by Antony Pogorelsky

Alexey Perovsky (1787-1836) – Russian writer, honorary member Russian Academy, who took the name Antony Pogorelsky as a pseudonym. For the first time I tried myself as an author when publishing three lectures on botany, which were published in a separate brochure. After that, he organized a union of lovers of Russian literature, and often personally took part in organizing literary evenings.

During the war of 1914-1918. Perovsky went to the front and showed extraordinary courage in battle. And at the end of hostilities, he left the service and settled in the village of Pogoreltsy, which he inherited after the death of his father. It was the name of the village that served as the idea for the writer’s pseudonym - Antony Pogorelsky.

The author wrote the fairy tale “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” for his beloved nephew Alyosha Tolstoy, who later also became a writer. Antony Pogorelsky felt extraordinary affection for the boy and devoted a lot of time to his upbringing.

The work “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” traces autobiographical moments in the life of the writer himself, and the name of the main character coincides with his name.
Pogorelsky's fairy tale became the first author's children's work in Russian. “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants”, unlike folk stories, contains specifics - the author reflects in detail the realities of that time.

The main character of the fairy tale is a kind and obedient boy Alyosha. He lives in one of the children's boarding houses in St. Petersburg, studies well and reads a lot. Alyosha's parents rarely visit him and don't even take him away for the holidays, so the boy escapes boredom by reading science fiction stories. But soon in real life miracles begin to happen to the boy.

One day he saved a black chicken from the yard from the cook, who was going to cook dinner from it. The boy parted with the gold coin given to him by his grandmother in order to protect Chernushka. That same night he was woken up by the same chicken, which turned out to be magical. She accompanied Alyosha to the land of the Dungeon, where he received an unusual gift from the king - a small grain capable of fulfilling any desire. From that moment on, the kind and sympathetic Alyosha turned into an angry and arrogant rude man, since he had the opportunity to get everything from life without putting any effort into it. Because of his behavior, the boy lost all his friends, Chernushka and the inhabitants of the Dungeon also condemned him. But at the end of the story “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants,” the main character managed to realize his mistakes and correct the situation.

On our website about books you can download the site for free without registration or read online book“The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” by Antony Pogorelsky in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and real pleasure from reading. Buy full version you can from our partner. Also, here you will find last news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginning writers there is a separate section with useful tips and recommendations, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at literary crafts.

Quotes from the book “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” by Antony Pogorelsky

“Don’t think,” answered Chernushka, “that it is so easy to recover from vices when they have already taken over us. Vices usually enter through the door and exit through a crack, and therefore, if you want to improve, you must constantly and strictly look after yourself.

The more natural abilities and gifts you have,<...>the more humble and obedient you should be. God did not give you a mind so that you could use it for evil.

Cities, by the way, have the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age...

... to correct yourself, you need to start by putting aside pride and excessive arrogance.

Download for free the book “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” by Antony Pogorelsky

(Fragment)

Anthony Pogorelsky

Black chicken, or Underground inhabitants

About forty years ago, in St. Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men's boarding house, which to this day, probably, remains in the fresh memory of many, although the house where the boarding house was located has long been gave way to another, not at all similar to the previous one. At that time, our St. 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 stages, often knocked together from rotten boards, took the place of today’s beautiful sidewalks. Isaac's Bridge, narrow and uneven at that time, presented a completely different appearance than it does 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 surrounded by trees, the Horse Guards Manege did not decorate the square with the beautiful façade it now has - in a word, the Petersburg of that time was not the same as it is now. Cities have, by the way, the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age... However, that’s not what we’re talking about now. Another time and on another occasion, perhaps I will talk to you at greater length about the changes that have taken place in St. Petersburg during my century, but now let’s turn again to the boarding house, which about forty years ago was located on Vasilievsky 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 along which one entered it was wooden and overlooked the street. From the vestibule, a rather steep staircase led to the upper housing, which consisted of eight or nine rooms, in which the keeper of the boarding house lived on one side, and classrooms on the other. The dormitories, or children's sleeping rooms, were located on the lower floor, on the right side of the entryway, and on the left lived two old Dutch women, each of whom was more than a hundred years old and who saw Peter the Great with their own eyes and even spoke to him. Nowadays, it is unlikely that in all of Russia you will meet a person who has seen Peter the Great; the time will come when our traces will be erased from the face of the earth! Everything passes, everything disappears in our mortal world... but that’s not what we’re talking about now.

Among the thirty or forty children studying 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, had 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, cute boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him. However, despite this, he was often bored at the boarding house, and sometimes even sad. Especially at first, he could not get used to the idea that he was separated from his family. But then, little by little, he began to get used to his situation, and there were even moments when, playing with his friends, he thought that it was much more fun in the boarding house 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 left alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books that the teacher allowed him to take 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 mostly consisted of books of this kind.

So, Alyosha, while still ten years old, 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 to mentally transport himself to ancient, long-past centuries... Especially during vacant times, such as Christmas or Easter Sunday, when he was separated for a long time from his comrades When he often sat for whole days in solitude, his young imagination wandered through knightly castles, through terrible ruins or through 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 gate and gate that led to the alley were always locked, and therefore Alyosha never had the opportunity 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 looked intently into the round holes with which the fence was dotted. 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 drilled these holes on purpose for him. He kept expecting that someday this sorceress would appear in the alley and through the hole would give him a toy, or a talisman, or a letter from daddy or mummy, from whom he had not received any news for a long time. But, to his extreme regret, no one even resembling the sorceress appeared.

Alyosha’s other occupation was to feed the chickens, 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 from the crumbs for several days in a row, which he always collected from the tablecloth after lunch and dinner. Among the chickens, he especially loved the black crested one, called Chernushka. Chernushka was more affectionate to him than others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha brought her the best pieces. 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 the vacation, between 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 lunch to the director of the schools, and even the day before, from morning until late evening, they washed the floors everywhere in the house, wiped the dust and waxed the 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 the Milyutin shops. Alyosha also contributed to the preparations to the best of his ability: he was forced to cut out a beautiful mesh for a ham from white paper and decorate six wax candles that had been specially purchased with paper carvings. On the appointed day, the hairdresser appeared in the morning and showed his art on the teacher’s curls, toupee and long braid. Then he set to work on his wife, pomaded and powdered her curls and chignon, and piled a whole greenhouse of different flowers on her head, between which sparkled skillfully placed two diamond rings, once given to her husband by her students’ parents. After finishing the headdress, she threw on an old, worn-out robe and went to work on the housework, watching strictly so that her hair did not get damaged in any way; and for this reason 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.

Current page: 1 (book has 2 pages in total)

Anthony Pogorelsky
(Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky)
Black chicken, or Underground inhabitants

About forty years ago in St. Petersburg, on Vasilievsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men's boarding house, which to this day, probably, remains in the fresh memory of many, although the house where the boarding house was located has long been has already given way to another, not at all similar to the previous one. At that time, our St. 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 stages, often knocked together from rotten boards, took the place of today’s beautiful sidewalks. Isaac's Bridge, narrow and uneven at that time, presented a completely different appearance than it does 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 surrounded by trees; The Horse Guards Manege did not decorate the square with the beautiful façade it now has - in a word, the Petersburg of that time was not the same as it is now. Cities have, by the way, the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age... However, that’s not what we’re talking about now. Another time and on another occasion, perhaps I will talk to you at greater length about the changes that took place in St. Petersburg during my century - but now let’s turn again to the boarding school, which about forty years ago was located 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 along which one entered it was wooden and overlooked the street... From the entryway a rather steep staircase led to the upper housing, which consisted of eight or nine rooms, in which the owner of the boarding house lived on one side, and classrooms on the other. The dormitories, or children's bedrooms, were located on the lower floor, on the right side of the entryway, and on the left lived two old women, Dutch women, each of whom was more than a hundred years old and who saw Peter the Great with their own eyes and even spoke to him...

Among the thirty or forty children studying 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, paying the teacher the agreed upon fee several years in advance. Alyosha was a smart, cute boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him. However, despite this, he was often bored at the boarding house, and sometimes even sad. Especially at first, he could not get used to the idea that he was separated from his family. But then, little by little, he began to get used to his situation, and there were even moments when, playing with his friends, he thought that it was much more fun in the boarding house 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 left alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books that the teacher allowed him to take 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, while still ten years old, 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 to be mentally transported to ancient, long-past centuries... Especially during the vacant time, when he was separated for a long time from his comrades, when he often sat for whole days in solitude, his youthful imagination wandered through knights' castles, through terrible ruins or through 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 gate and gate that led to the alley were always locked, and therefore Alyosha never had the opportunity 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 looked intently into the round holes with which the fence was dotted. Alyosha did not know that these holes came from the wooden nails with which the barges had previously been nailed together, and it seemed to him that some kind sorceress had drilled these holes on purpose for him. He kept expecting that someday this sorceress would appear in the alley and through the hole would give him a toy, or a talisman, or a letter from daddy or mummy, from whom he had not received any news for a long time. But, to his extreme regret, no one even resembling the sorceress appeared.

Alyosha’s other occupation was to feed the chickens, 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 from the crumbs for several days in a row, which he always collected from the tablecloth after lunch and dinner. Among the chickens, he especially loved one black crested one, named Chernushka. Chernushka was more affectionate to him than others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha brought her the best pieces. 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 the winter vacation - 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 lunch to the director of the schools, and the day before, from morning until late evening, they washed the floors everywhere in the house, wiped the dust and waxed the 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. Alyosha also contributed to the preparations to the best of his ability: he was forced to cut out a beautiful mesh for a ham from white paper and decorate six wax candles that had been specially purchased with paper carvings. On the appointed day, early in the morning, the hairdresser appeared and showed his art on the teacher’s curls, toupee and long braid. Then he set to work on his wife, pomaded and powdered her curls and chignon, and piled a whole greenhouse of different flowers on her head, between which sparkled skillfully placed two diamond rings, once given to her husband by the parents of his students. After finishing the headdress, she threw on an old, worn-out robe and went to work on the housework, watching strictly so that her hair would not somehow get damaged; and for this reason she herself did not enter the kitchen, but gave orders to her cook, standing in the doorway. When necessary, she sent her husband there, whose hair was not so high.

During all these worries, our Alyosha was completely forgotten, and he took advantage of this to play in the yard in the open space. As was his custom, he first approached the plank fence and looked through the hole for a long time; but even on this day almost no one passed along the alley, and with a sigh he turned to his kind chickens. Before he had time to sit down on the log and had just begun to beckon them to him, he suddenly saw a cook next to him with a large knife. Alyosha never liked this cook - angry and scolding. But since he noticed that she was the reason that the number of his chickens was decreasing from time to time, he began to love her even less. When one day he accidentally saw in the kitchen a pretty, very beloved cockerel, hanging by the legs with its throat cut, he felt 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! - 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.

He stood by the chicken coop for quite a long time, and his heart was beating strongly, while the cook ran around the yard, either beckoning to the chickens: “Chick, chick, chick!”, or scolding them.

Suddenly Alyosha’s heart began to 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 shouting:

Where, where, where, where!
Alyosha, save Churnukha!
Kuduhu, kuduhu,
Chernukha, Chernukha!

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 she caught Chernushka by the wing.

- Dear, dear Trinushka! – he cried, shedding tears. – Please don’t touch my Chernukha!

Alyosha so suddenly threw himself on the cook’s neck that she lost Chernushka from her hands, who, taking advantage of this, flew out of fear onto the roof of the barn and there continued to cackle.

But Alyosha now heard as if she were teasing the cook and shouting:

Where, where, where, where!
You didn't catch Chernukha!
Kuduhu, kuduhu,
Chernukha, Chernukha!

Meanwhile, the cook was beside herself with frustration and wanted to run to the teacher, but Alyosha did not allow her. He clung to the hem of her dress and began to beg so tenderly 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 the imperial coin that made up his entire estate, which he treasured more than his own eyes, because it was a gift from his kind grandmother... The cook looked at the gold coin, looked around the windows of the house to make sure that no one saw them, and extended her hand behind 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 cruel and inevitable death. As soon as the cook retired into the house, Chernushka flew off the roof and ran up to Alyosha. She seemed to know that he was her savior: she circled around him, flapping her wings and clucking 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 couldn’t. At least he couldn't make out her cackling sounds.

About two hours before dinner, guests began to gather. Alyosha was called upstairs, they put on a shirt with a round collar and cambric cuffs with small folds, white trousers and a wide blue silk sash. His long brown hair, which hung almost to his waist, was thoroughly combed, divided into two even parts and placed in front on both sides of his chest.

This is how children were dressed up back then. Then they taught him how he should shuffle his foot when the director enters the room, and what he should answer if any questions are asked of him.

At another time, Alyosha would have been very happy about the arrival of the director, whom he had long wanted to see, because, judging by the respect with which the teacher and teacher spoke of him, he imagined that this must be some famous knight in shiny armor and helmet with large feathers. But this time this curiosity gave way to the thought that exclusively occupied him then: about the black chicken. 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 drawn to the chicken coop... But there was nothing to do: he had to wait until lunch was over!

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

Everything was in motion: 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 minute and went to the window to watch the knight get off his zealous horse. But he did not manage to see him, because he had already entered the house. At the porch, instead of a zealous horse, there stood an ordinary carriage sleigh. Alyosha was very surprised by this! “If I were a knight,” he thought, “I would never drive a cab, but always on horseback!”

Meanwhile, all the doors were opened wide, and the teacher began to curtsey in anticipation of such an honorable guest, who soon appeared. At first it was impossible to see him behind the fat teacher who stood right in the doorway; 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, whitely powdered, the only decoration of which, as Alyosha later noticed, was a small bun! When he entered the living 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.

No matter how strange all this seemed to Alyosha, no matter how much at another time he would have been delighted by the unusual decoration of the table, on that day he did not pay much attention to it. The morning incident with Chernushka kept wandering through his head. Dessert was served: various kinds of preserves, apples, bergamots, dates, wine berries and walnuts; but even here he never stopped thinking about his chicken for a single moment. And they had just gotten up from the table when, with his heart trembling with fear and hope, he approached the teacher and asked if he could go play in the yard.

“Come,” answered the teacher, “just don’t stay there for long: it will soon become dark.”

Alyosha hastily put on his red cap with squirrel fur and a green velvet cap with a sable band and ran to the fence. When he arrived there, the chickens had already begun to gather for the night and, sleepy, were not very happy about the crumbs he had brought. Only Chernushka seemed to have no desire to sleep: she ran up to him cheerfully, 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 chicken sat on the pole. When he left the chicken coop, it seemed to him that Chernushka’s eyes glowed in the dark like stars, and that she quietly said to him:

- Alyosha, Alyosha! Stay with me!

Alyosha returned to the house and sat alone in the classrooms all evening, while the guests stayed at the other half of the hour until eleven. Before they parted, Alyosha went to the lower floor, to the bedroom, undressed, went to bed and put out the fire. For a long time he could not fall asleep. Finally, sleep overcame him, and he had just managed to talk with Chernushka in his sleep when, unfortunately, he was awakened by the noise of the guests leaving.

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

It was a month's night, and through the shutters, which were not closed tightly, a pale ray of moonlight fell into the room. Alyosha was lying with with open eyes and listened for a long time as in the upper dwelling, above his head, they walked from room to room and put chairs and tables in order.

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

- Alyosha, Alyosha!

Alyosha was frightened... He was alone in the room, and the thought 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 became somewhat encouraged, although his heart was trembling.

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

- Alyosha, Alyosha!

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

- Ah! it's you, Chernushka! - Alyosha cried out involuntarily. - How did you come here?

Chernushka flapped her wings, flew up to his bed and said in a human voice:

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

- Why should I be afraid of you? - he answered. - I love you; It’s only strange for me that you speak so well: I didn’t know at all that you could speak!

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

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

“I’ll try to help,” said the chicken. Then she cackled in a strange voice, and suddenly, out of nowhere, small candles appeared in silver chandeliers, no bigger than Alyosha’s little finger. These sandals ended up on the floor, on the chairs, on the windows, even on the washstand, and the room became so light, so bright, as if it were daytime. Alyosha began to dress, and the hen handed him a dress, and thus 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 and illuminated everything around them, although not as brightly as small candles. They walked through the hall.

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

But the chicken did not answer him: she flapped her wings, and the door opened by itself. Then, passing through the entryway, they turned to the rooms where 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 large gray parrot, and the other gray cat, very smart, who can jump through a hoop and give a paw. He had long wanted to see all this, so he was very happy when the chicken flapped its wings again and the door to the old women’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 people and animals were painted in blue. Alyosha wanted to stop to examine the furniture, and especially the figures on the couch, but Chernushka did not allow him.

They entered the second room, and then Alyosha was happy! A large gray parrot with a red tail sat in a beautiful golden cage. Alyosha immediately wanted to run up to him. Chernushka again did not allow him.

“Don’t touch anything here,” she said. - Be careful not to wake up the old ladies!

Only then did Alyosha notice that next to the parrot there was a bed with white muslin curtains, through which he could make out an old woman lying with eyes closed: she seemed to him like wax. In another corner there was an identical bed where another old woman was sleeping, and next to her sat a gray cat and washed itself with its front paws. Passing by her, Alyosha could not resist asking her for her paws... Suddenly she meowed loudly, the parrot became ruffled and began to shout loudly: “Fool! fool! At that very time it was visible through the muslin curtains that the old women sat up in bed. Chernushka hurriedly left, Alyosha ran after her, the door slammed hard behind them... and for a long time the parrot could be heard shouting: “Fool! fool!

- Aren `t you ashamed! - said Chernushka when they moved away from the old women’s rooms. - You probably woke up the knights...

- Which knights? - asked Alyosha.

“You will see,” answered the chicken. - Don’t 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 that 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 illuminated by three large crystal chandeliers. The hall had no windows, and on both sides hung on the walls knights in shiny armor, with large feathers on their helmets, with spears and shields in iron hands.

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

At the end of the hall there was a large door made of light yellow copper. As soon as they approached her, two knights jumped from the walls, struck their spears on their shields and rushed at the black chicken. Chernushka raised her crest, spread her wings... suddenly she became big, tall, taller than the knights, and began to fight with them! The knights advanced heavily on her, and she defended herself with her wings and nose. Alyosha became scared, his heart began to tremble violently, and he fainted.

When he came to his senses again, the sun was shining through the shutters into the room, and he was lying in his bed. Neither Chernushka nor the knights were visible; Alyosha could not come to his senses for a long time. He did not understand what happened to him at night: did he see everything in a dream or did it really happen? He got dressed and went upstairs, but he could not get out of his head what he had seen the previous night. He was looking forward to the moment when he could go play in the yard, but all that day, as if on purpose, it was snowing heavily, and it was impossible to even think about leaving the house.

During lunch, the teacher, among other conversations, announced to her husband that the black chicken had hidden in some unknown place.

“However,” she added, “it wouldn’t be a big problem even if she disappeared: she was assigned to the kitchen a long time ago.” Imagine, darling, that since she has been in our house, she has not laid a single egg.

Alyosha almost began to cry, although the thought 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 lunch, Alyosha was again left alone in the classrooms. He constantly thought about what had happened the previous night, and could not in any way console himself with the loss of his dear Chernushka. Sometimes it seemed to him that he would definitely see her the next night, despite the fact that she had disappeared from the hen house. But then it seemed to him that this was an impossible task, and he again plunged into sadness.

It was time to go to bed, and Alyosha impatiently undressed and went to bed. Before he had time to look at the next bed, again illuminated by a quiet moonlight, as the white sheet moved - just like the day before... Again he heard a voice calling him: “Alyosha, Alyosha!” - and a little later Chernushka came out from under the bed and flew up to his bed.

- Ah! Hello, Chernushka! – he cried beside himself with joy. “I was afraid that I would never see you.” Are you healthy?

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

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

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

“I’m sorry, dear Chernushka, I won’t go forward!” Please take me there again today. You will see that I will be obedient.

“Okay,” said the chicken, “we’ll see!”

The hen clucked as the day before, and the same small candles appeared in the same silver chandeliers. Alyosha got dressed again and went to get the chicken. Again they entered the old women's chambers, but this time he did not touch anything.

When they passed through the first room, it seemed to him that the people and animals drawn on the couch were making various funny faces and beckoning him to 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 blinked, the gray cat again washed itself with its paws. On the cleared table in front of the mirror, Alyosha saw two porcelain Chinese dolls, which he had not noticed yesterday. They nodded their heads at him; but he remembered Chernushka’s order and walked on without stopping, but he could not resist bowing to them in passing. The dolls immediately jumped off the table and ran after him, all nodding their heads. He almost stopped - they seemed so funny to him, but Chernushka looked back 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, returned to their places.

They again went down the stairs, walked along passages and corridors and came to the same hall, illuminated 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 barely dragged their feet, like autumn flies, and it was clear that they held their spears with force.

Chernushka became big and ruffled. But as soon as she hit them with her wings, they fell apart, and Alyosha saw that they were empty armor! The copper door opened of its own accord, and they moved 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 candlesticks were not silver, but gold.

Here Chernushka left Alyosha.

“Stay here a little,” she told him, “I’ll come back soon.” Today you were smart, although you acted carelessly by worshiping porcelain dolls. If you had not bowed to them, the knights would have remained on the wall. However, you didn’t wake up the old ladies today, and that’s why the knights had no strength. - After this, Chernushka left the hall.

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

While he was looking at everything with curiosity, a side door, previously unnoticed by him, opened, and many small people, no more than half an arshin tall, in elegant multi-colored dresses, entered. Their appearance was important: some looked like military men by their attire, others looked like civil officials. They all wore round hats with feathers, like the Spanish ones. They did not notice Alyosha, walked sedately through the rooms and spoke loudly to each other, but he could not understand what they were saying.

He looked at them silently for a long time and just wanted to approach one of them with a question, when a large door opened at the end of the hall... Everyone fell silent, stood against the walls in two rows and took off their hats.

In an instant, the room became even brighter, all the small candles burned even brighter, and Alyosha saw twenty little knights in golden armor, with crimson feathers on their helmets, who entered in pairs in a quiet march. Then, in deep silence, they stood on both sides of the chairs. A little later a man with a majestic posture entered the hall, on his head with a crown of shining 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 immediately guessed that it must be the king. He bowed low to him. The king responded to his bow very affectionately and sat down in the golden chairs. Then he ordered something to one of the knights standing next to him, who, approaching Alyosha, told him to approach the chairs. Alyosha obeyed.

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

- When? – Alyosha asked in surprise.

“It’s yesterday,” answered the king. - This is the one who owes his life to you.

Alyosha looked at the one the king was pointing at, and then only noticed that among the courtiers stood a small man dressed all in black. On his head he had a special kind of crimson-colored hat, with teeth at the top, put on a little to one side, and on his neck was a white scarf, very starched, which made it seem a little bluish. He smiled touchingly, looking at Alyosha, to whom his face seemed familiar, although he could not remember where he had seen him.

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

- Mister King! I can't take it personally for something I've never done. The other 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 with anger. - My minister is not a chicken, but an honored official!

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

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

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

Alyosha became thoughtful and didn’t know what to wish. If they had given him more time, he might have come up with something good; but since it seemed discourteous to him to make him wait for the king, he hastened to answer.

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

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

He waved his hand, and the page brought 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 under no pretext do you say a single word to anyone about what you saw here or will see in the future.” The slightest immodesty will deprive you of our favors forever, and will cause us a lot of trouble and trouble.

Alyosha took the hemp grain, wrapped it in a piece of paper and put it in his pocket, promising to be silent and modest. The king then got up from his chair and left the hall in the same order, first ordering the minister to treat Alyosha as best he could.

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 him their services: some asked if he wanted to take a walk in the garden or see the royal menagerie; others invited him to hunt. Alyosha didn’t know what to decide. Finally, the minister announced that he himself would show the underground rarities to his dear guest.