"Lev Kassil. The black book and Schwambrania (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

PART ONE


THE BLACK BOOK


A LAND OF VOLCANIC ORIGIN


DISCOVERY


On the evening of October 11, 1492, the 68th day of his voyage,
Christopher Columbus noticed a moving light on the horizon. Columbus
followed the light and discovered America.
On the evening of February 8, 1914, my brother and I, having been
punished, were sitting in the corner. After twelve minutes of this he was
pardoned, as being the younger, but refused to leave me until my sentence
was up and so stayed put. For a while we were engrossed in picking our
noses. On the 4th minute, when we tired of this, we discovered Schwambrania.

THE LOST QUEEN, OR THE MYSTERY OF THE SEASHELL GROTTO


The disappearance of the queen brought everything to a head. This
happened in broad daylight, and the light of day dimmed. It was Papa's
queen, and that was what made everything so terrible. Papa was a great chess
fan, and everyone knows what an important figure the queen is on the
chessboard.
The lost queen was part of a new set made to order especially for Papa,
who was very proud of it.
We were not to touch the figures for anything, yet it was impossible to
keep our hands off them.
The lovely lacquered pieces fired our imaginations, prompting us to
invent any number of exciting games for them. Thus, the pawns could either
be soldiers or tenpins. There were small circles of felt pasted on their
round soles, and so they slid around like floor polishers. The rooks were
good wine glasses, while the kings could either be samovars or generals. The
round knobs that crowned the bishops were like light bulbs. We could harness
a pair of black and a pair of white horses to cardboard cabs and line them
up to wait for fares, or else we could arrange them so that they formed a
merry-go-round. However, the queens were the best of all. One queen was a
blonde and the other was a brunette. Either one could be a Christmas tree, a
cabby, a Chinese pagoda, a flower pot on a stand or a priest. Indeed, it was
impossible to keep our hands off them.
On that memorable day the white cabby-queen's black horse was taking
the black priest-queen to see the black general-king. He received the
priest-queen most nobly. He set the white samovar-king on the table, told
the pawns to polish the chequered parquet floor and turned on the electric