Читать книгу The Three piglets in business. The big game - Марина Корсакова - Страница 4

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Tea with apricot jam. – New dream. – Who is to roll in yellow leaves? – The medal above the bed. – The end of the piggy bank.

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“It’s good we got rid of Wolf, though!” Biggie said and turned the logs in the fireplace. The days in early September were still warm, but the evenings were getting colder.

“That’s right,” Middle said, stirring apricot jam into his tea.

The currant and sage tea leaves was good by itself, but the jam made it especially fragrant.

Junior thought the same, and twirled his tail in agreement. But he had a thought, which he dared to say out loud for the first time:

“What are we going to do now?”

“Drink tea,” Middle said. “Bake pies. Tomorrow we’ll make rolls…”

There were a lot of apricots this year, and Middle was concerned about using them all up. He believed in using everything wisely. He was very organized and had big plans: cakes, jams, marmalades, apricot marshmallows…

“No,” Junior said. “What are we going to do in general? What’s our plan? We’ve run away from Wolf. We’ve protected the small house. We’re having fun, we go for walks… We’ve created a collection of dried plants. But… I want my own room!”

The big brothers’ snouts widened in surprise.

“Should we build another small house?” Junior asked. “Or even two. Or not a small house, but a big one? There are many animals in the forest. Wolf might come back. And anyway, it’s not about Wolf… It’s about adventure!”

The big brothers’ snouts stretched forward.

“I’ve been thinking,” Junior continued. “Why do we live in such an… ordinary house? We have only one room and it’s not very pretty… Why don’t we build a new house? With a library, a music studio and a winter garden?”

The big brothers’ snouts stretched forward even more, now resembling little elephant trunks. Biggie was the first to get over the surprise and, with a loud sneeze, pulled his snout back in.

“Actually, that kind of makes sense,” he said thoughtfully, addressing no one in particular. Ever since the piglets started living without their parents, Biggie felt responsible for his brothers. “If we build a nice new house for the animals, we will not only do the right thing, but also earn a lot of coins.”

“Why?” Middle asked cautiously. Sometimes he thought that his eldest and youngest brothers had a much better connection between them, despite the age difference.

“So that after we can do another right thing!” replied Junior enthusiastically. ‘We’ll build a house, earn some coins, use those coins to build more houses, then a bakery. There will be a whole city! Come on,” Junior tugged at the Middle’s tail. “It’ll be so fascinating!”

“Fascinating?!” the Middle was annoyed. “How exactly are we going to do that?… We will have to draw a blueprint. Then dig a big hole for the foundation. Build the walls… and the roof. Take care of plaster, paint, flooring. And all these other ideas of yours… a winter garden! It’s not a simple house like ours. And even our house, forgive me for saying, we only managed to build on the third attempt.”

Junior blushed and Biggie smiled.

“Building a new house is much much more complicated!” Middle finished his thought.

“Wait a minute,” Biggie said. “No one is saying that it’s easy. But that what makes it so interesting! At first, we’re bound to make mistakes, how could we not? We do it once, we do it twice and that’s how we learn! But imagine: we will build a great house, one that has been never built in the forest before!” The piglet got even more excited. “The best and strongest one. And the most beautiful. All the animals will admire it and be proud of us! And then the piglets will go down in history as the best builders!”

Middle shrugged his shoulders and poured tea into large clay mugs.

“Don’t you want it?” Biggie continued. “And we’ll earn lots of coins, to fill not just one piggy bank, but ten! You will be able to buy anything you want: all the paints, books, bicycles! A big stove and the best jam pots!”

“I’m not sure,” said Middle thoughtfully. “I have everything I need.”

He put his rubber boots on and stepped out of the house. He had to prune the rose bushes.

Not everyone knows that the heroic three piglets who rid the forest of Wolf were not the only piglets living in the forest. In fact, there were three more piglets! They lived in the Railway Neighborhood, a spruce forest not far from the station. Unlike our piglets, the other three piglets were grey with subtle stripes on their backs. That’s why they were called the Striped.

That day the sky was gloomy and the air smelled of mushrooms as it does after the rain. As he was walking along the bridge over the river, Middle heard a loud whistle. The Striped piglets were swaggering towards him.

“Hi, bro!” the eldest Striped said. They were all the same height, but the eldest wore a jaunty cap.

“Hello,” replied Middle politely. Other forest inhabitants were quite afraid of the Striped, but The Pink piglets considered them cousins and got along well with them.

“How are you?” asked the Striped in a cap, spitting out acorn shells. “What’s up?”

“We’re thinking of building a house.”

“Why?” The Striped were surprised. “You already have a house.”

“Yeah,” Middle said. “But we want a big house with a winter garden. So that other animals can live there. The business. Wanna join?”

“Nah,” the eldest Striped answered. “We’ve got lots to do. You know, stuff like fishing, chewing acorns. Then when the leaves turn yellow, we’ll have to roll in them. And building… It’s too much responsibility. And winter’s coming soon.”

“Sure,” Middle agreed. The responsibility troubled him a lot. So many things could go wrong: not enough timbers, the roof could cave in… The tools, the boards, the bricks! Truth be told, Middle himself thought that it would be better to just make jam in peace, and, after all, to roll around in yellow leaves, but for some reason he didn’t want to agree with The Striped piglets right now.

“There is this guy in the hood,” another striped piglet without a cap spat. “He also wanted to do this… Business thing! He set up a shop with all sorts of stuff! And guess what? He spent all the piggy bank money and went broke! Nah, business isn’t our thing. We’ll find an easy job somewhere… A part-time, maybe.”

“Well, bro,” the third Striped summed up. “You do your thing. And we’ll do ours. Ciao!”

The eldest Striped lifted his cap, and ll three disappeared into the bushes.

Middle took a long walk, thinking about everything. The fallen leaves were rusting under his hooves. When he returned home, his brothers were already asleep wrapped in their blankets. Their shared piggy bank stood on the table among the plates and cups. It clearly has been well shaken and looked quite sad now. A notebook with some calculations and drawings laid next to the piggy bank.

Middle washed the dishes and prepared the dough for the breakfast rolls. Life seemed quiet and simple. Well, maybe they will change their minds…

The excited look on Junior’s face and the determined look on Biggie’s in the morning made it clear that yesterday’s conversation had not been forgotten. Despite Middle’s protests, the brothers had barely finished their breakfast and set the piggy bank back on the table.

“This house will be so beautiful!” Junior continued to dream. “With colorful walls! With a terrace to drink cocoa on! We’ll plant raspberry bushes around it!”

Biggie nodded in approval.

“Do you remember how you ate raspberries last year and had a stomach ache after?” remarked Middle teasingly.

Junior fell silent.

“Building a big house is extremely hard!” Middle continued. “We’ll have to hire builders! What if they don’t work hard enough? What if it rains? The walls could be destroyed! And you… you can’t do anything! Yes, you can draw your little pictures, but you’ve never decorated an entire house! What if it turns out badly and everyone laughs at you? Do you want to be embarrassed?” he continued to pressure his brother.

“No, I don’t,” Junior said. He got upset and removed the notebook from the table.

“Wait,” said Biggie. “Do you remember,” he turned to the middle piglet, “the first time you made an apple pie, and you ruined it? Half of the pie was undercooked, while the other half was burnt. And Granny Owl was yelling at you that you must have tried to poison her?” Junior giggled. “And you said that you would never ever bake again.”

Middle blushed.

“And look what wonderful pies you bake now!” Biggie continued. “And you,” he turned to his little brother. “Do you remember how afraid you were to swim in the lake? How you thought that it was too deep and that you would definitely get bitten? How we stepped into the water with you and held you… And now? Who has the medal for the best swimmer hanging over his bed?”

It was all true. Even though he panicked at first, with hard training Junior had become an excellent swimmer. Recollecting, the little brother looked after hard training. Remembering this, the little brother looked disapprovingly at Middle, who shrugged.

“We can do this,” Biggie summed up, “Never mind that we don’t know how to do it yet. We’ll hold each other! We’ll learn how to construct big walls, and how to build a winter garden… There must be books about it. We will definitely learn! Look at us!” Biggie poked at a shiny copper kettle, which had just happened to be on the table. It reflected three perky little snouts. “We’ve managed to figure out our lives,” he continued. “We bake pies, we swim in the lake, and we got rid of Wolf! Even if we don’t succeed, trying is more interesting than doing nothing and just staring at the ceiling…”

“…And more interesting than spitting acorns!” Middle suddenly blurted out.

“Exactly!” Biggie agreed.

“So, are we breaking it?” Junior squealed with delight.

Well, this time the piggy bank’s pitiful look didn’t help. Three confident hooves fell on it at once.

A mountain of coins was laying on the table.

The adventure had begun.