- Summary
- Kataev
- The lonely sail is white
The work tells us the adventures of two boys that happened to them in Odessa in 1905.
From the first pages of the story we see how the children's holidays came to an end and their father was taking them home. They were sad to say goodbye to the sea, and especially Petya, who admired the mighty waves. The lines of a famous poem about a sail, written by Lermontov, came to his mind.
When the Babich family was traveling to the ship, unexpectedly for everyone, a shot was heard and some unfamiliar man jumped inside the stagecoach. No one had time to utter a word when he suddenly saw the gendarmes on the road and hid under the seat. The boys were curious about who this person was, especially since they were interested in the anchor tattoo. Vasily Petrovich was silent and made such an expression on his face that it was as if nothing suspicious had happened.
Some time passed, and the guys’ dad said that the road was clear. And then, the man, taking the hint, jumped off the step and disappeared in an unknown direction. This was probably a sailor from the battleship Potemkin, on which there had recently been an uprising, and naturally he was hiding from the authorities.
Perhaps Petya and Pavlik would not have remembered this incident, but on the ship where they were sailing, Petya noticed the same tattoo on the hand of one of the passengers. The boy began to monitor him, and a detective appeared in front of him, who was also watching this man. Suspecting danger, the stranger jumped from the ship into the water and swam. The agent wanted the passengers to help him catch the man, but everyone looked indifferent and went to their cabins.
Meanwhile, an old man and his grandson Gavrik were sailing on a boat. They noticed an exhausted sailor and helped him. Grandfather hid it in a safe place, but he himself suffered and was taken to the police station and charged with harboring a rebel. The child had to earn money himself by gambling. And Petya also became interested in this activity, but Gavrik always won. The boy lost all his savings and even borrowed from his brother, but nothing worked.
Soon there was destruction in the city. The Kogan family came to the Babichs’ house and asked to hide them. They were placed in distant rooms. And when they broke into their house, the father boldly demanded that these people get out of their home. One of the men hit him, and maybe would have killed him, but seeing the icon in the hands of the servant stopped them.
One day Gavrik appeared and asked his friend to hide the bags of cartridges. But then Pavlik discovered that his brother had robbed him and complained to his father. A scandal began, after which Petya fell ill.
Grandfather Gavrik was released, but he did not live long, as he was kept in poor conditions, which affected the deterioration of his body.
Peter, having recovered from his illness, goes to Gavrik, and they play. Suddenly he sees a runaway sailor giving a propaganda speech at a rally. He is put in prison, but his comrades help him escape. He sails away on a sailboat far out to sea.
The book teaches us to be active participants in current events, to be able to prove that we are right without fear of condemnation, and to believe that there will definitely be like-minded people on your issue.
Detailed retelling
School teacher Vasily Petrovich Bachey and his two sons were relaxing in the summer at their dacha. But the holidays were over, it was time to return to Odessa. The eldest of the boys, eight-year-old Petya, walked around the places he loved for the last time and swam in the sea.
Summer residents traveled to the port on an old stagecoach, then transferred to the Turgenev steamship. On the way, they met a detachment of guards who were looking for someone. When there were less than ten miles to the town, a sailor dressed in civilian clothes jumped into their stagecoach and climbed under the bench. From his frightened face, everyone realized that someone was chasing him. Together with the summer residents, he reached the town and left the stagecoach not far from the port.
On the ship, Petya again saw the sailor hiding in their stagecoach. Fleeing from persecution, the young man jumped into the sea and swam to the shore. The captain did not agree to stop the ship. Aunt Tatyana Ivanovna and the cook Dunya were waiting for the boys and Vasily Petrovich at home. It was late, so everyone was getting ready for bed.
Petya had a friend, his name was Gavrik. He lived with his grandfather on the seashore in a small old barn. The two of them fished and sold their catch. Gavrik also had an older brother, Terenty. Together with his wife and children, he lived in a working-class village on the outskirts of Odessa and worked in railway workshops. Gavrik was only nine years old, but he considered himself an independent person: he roamed the streets of the city freely, fought with boys, played with friends and helped his old grandfather in everything. While the steamship Turgenev was approaching the Odessa harbor, Gavrik and his grandfather were checking the nets placed near the shore. On the way back, they picked up a sailor who could barely stay afloat. Grandfather and grandson dragged him into the boat and hurried home.
The next day, leaving the sick sailor in the care of his grandfather, Gavrik went to Terenty for help and advice. Petya, whom Gavrik met on the street, went with him. While he was talking with his brother, Petya met Terenty’s daughter. He liked the girl and they played together for a long time. Gavrik told his brother about the sailor they saved. The young man’s name was Rodion Zhukov, Petya told him about this. He heard and remembered this name on the day the detective tried to arrest him. The brothers immediately guessed that Zhukov served on the rebel Potemkin.
At night, Terenty and his friend came to his grandfather to take the sailor with them. But they were tracked down. Surely all three would have been captured, but Gavrik noticed the policemen and warned his brother. Terenty and his companions managed to hide in the catacombs. An angry bailiff beat Gavrik's grandfather and ordered him to be taken to the police. The boy ran for a long time after the droshky in which his grandfather was being taken away, and only caught up with them at the gate of the site. The policemen did not let him go further.
Petya knew nothing about his friend’s misfortune. Together with his aunt, he was preparing for the entrance exams to the gymnasium. The tests were successful, and the boy was accepted into the preparatory class. When Petya was running down the street and showing everyone his new cap, he met Gavrik. From a friend, Petya learned about the arrest of his grandfather. He took several lumps of sugar and half a loaf of bread from the house and, together with Gavrik, went to the police station. There the boys saw people who had come to see their arrested relatives. Gavrik returned quickly, he was upset. It turns out that the police beat my grandfather every day. Gavrik said goodbye to Petya and went to his brother.
Classes began at the gymnasium, so Petya rarely remembered his friend. Gavrik lived with Terenty, but tried to help him, since the railway workers were on strike again. The boy took on any job: he helped the cooks carry their purchases home, and carried out small errands for cab drivers. Later I learned to play ears, which were made from uniform buttons. Sometimes Gavrik, on his brother’s instructions, would deliver packages to the specified address. He did not know what was in these packages, but he understood the seriousness of the assignment.
One night Petya heard his father’s conversation with Tatyana Ivanovna. Aunt was loudly indignant at the policies of the tsarist government. She said that every honest person should go out into the street and loudly protest against the power of incompetent rulers and generals. Lying in a warm bed, Petya realized that life was not as easy and happy as he imagined it to be.
On the way to the gymnasium, Petya found an old patch. Returning from class, he saw Gavrik in the yard. He played an unfamiliar game with the local kids. Petya also wanted to learn, but for this he needed ears. With his own money, he bought several pieces from Gavrik. The game captivated Petya so much that he took all the money from his brother Pavlik’s piggy bank and tore the buttons off his father’s uniform. But this time he lost too. Petya was never able to recoup his debt; he had to work off his debt. Together with Gavrik he carried heavy bags in his backpack. They had so-called ears, as Gavrik told him. Later Petya realized what was in these bags.
Due to the unrest in the city, classes at the gymnasium were canceled, so the boys carried the bags all day to their destination. The rebel workers were eagerly awaiting them, among them were Terenty and his comrades. There were battles in the streets, crowds of angry people smashed the houses and shops of Jews. On one of these winter days, Petya’s father saved his neighbors from a pogrom.
Pavlik turned four at Christmas. The little guests were having fun around the Christmas tree, and Petya was sitting in his room and looking out the window. In the evening Gavrik came, the cook Dunya told him about it. He asked to keep the bags of cartridges that remained with him and secretly said that his brother and his friends had survived that altercation and were hiding in the catacombs. After he left, Petya did not have time to hide the bags. An angry father came into the room with a ruined uniform. A minute later, Pavlik’s loud crying was heard from the next room; he discovered that money was missing from the piggy bank. The father realized that Petya was playing for money. He found little bags in his son’s backpack, mistaking them for ears, and threw them into the oven. No one was injured from the explosion, only the frightened Petya fainted.
After this incident, the boy became seriously ill. Only towards the end of winter was he allowed to go outside. Then the city noisily celebrated Easter. Petya missed his friend and decided to visit him. Terenty’s friendly family settled down in a small barn. They fished together, Petya often helped them. After the death of his grandfather, Gavrik considered himself responsible for his brother’s family. Terenty was still hiding from the police, sometimes visiting his family at night. After the May Day rally, Rodion Zhukov was captured by the police; his comrades decided to arrange his escape.
At the end of May, Petya, his father and Tatyana Ivanovna began preparing to leave for the dacha. On one of these days, Gavrik appeared in the yard and invited his friend to go to sea with him on a sailing boat. Terenty’s daughter was also released with them. They reached the appointed place and began to wait. Soon Terenty appeared with a sailor, whom his comrades were able to pull out of prison.
The children and Terenty remained on the shore, and the boat set off under sail on a long journey - to Romania. Soon the sailor was no longer visible in it, only the sail was white in the distance.
The story teaches you to believe in friendship, take responsibility for the assigned task, and honestly admit your mistakes.
You can use this text for a reader's diary
Summary: A lonely sail turns white
The lonely sail is white
The summer season was over, and Vasily Petrovich Bachey and his sons Petya and Pavlik were returning to Odessa.
Petya looked around for the last time at the endless expanse of sea glowing with gentle blue. The lines came to mind: “A lonely sail is white / In the fog of the blue sea...”
And yet, for a nine-year-old boy, the main charm of the sea was not its picturesqueness, but its original mystery: a phosphorescent glow, the hidden life of the depths, the eternal movement of the waves... The vision of a mutinous battleship, which appeared several times on the horizon, was also full of mystery.
But farewell to the sea is over. All three sat down on the benches, and the stagecoach set off. When there were ten miles left before Ackerman and there were already continuous vineyards on both sides of the road, the passengers heard a rifle shot, and a minute later the back door of the stagecoach opened and a stocky man froze on the step. But then a horse patrol appeared ahead, and he quickly dived under the bench. Petya managed to notice the red navy boots and the anchor tattooed on his arm, like dad, he pretended that nothing had happened and turned away. Half an hour later, dad broke the silence: “It seems we’re approaching... There’s not a soul on the road.” There was a rustling sound, and then the door slammed...
On the steamship "Turgenev", Petya, not finding suitable peers for acquaintance, began to observe the strange mustachioed passenger. The mustachioed man was clearly looking for someone and finally stopped in front of a man sleeping on the deck and covering his face with a cap. Petya was dumbfounded: his trouser legs had ridden up, revealing the redness of his naval boots, which two hours ago had been peeking out from under the stagecoach bench.
When they passed Langeron, the mustachioed man approached the sleeping man and took him by the sleeve: “Rodion Zhukov?” But he pushed the mustachioed man away, jumped on board and jumped into the water.
... It was getting dark when Gavrik and grandfather chose a line and leaned on the oars. Just recently the steamship Turgenev passed by. This means it’s already about eight and we need to hurry up. Suddenly someone's hands grabbed the stern of the scow. When the grandfather and grandson dragged the swimmer into the boat, he was almost fainting and barely said: “Don’t show me to people. I'm a sailor."
The next morning Gavrik went to see Terenty, his elder brother. They were clearly looking for the sailor. Near the shooting range at a small coastal fair, a mustachioed gentleman in a bowler hat asked Joseph Karlovich if he had noticed anything suspicious last night. Having learned that Gavrik lived nearby, the mustachioed man began to question him, but managed to achieve little. The boy, at nine years old, was reasonable and careful.
On the way to Near Mills, Gavrik met Petya and invited him to visit his brother. Petya was strictly forbidden to be away so far and for so long, but he had not seen Gavrik all summer, and besides, he really wanted to talk about the incident on the Turgenev.
Already at dusk, Terenty brought a frail young man in pince-nez to his grandfather’s hut. Ilya Borisovich confirmed that he saw Rodion Zhukov at the coffin of the Potemkin resident Vakulinchuk, and handed the sailor a bundle of clothes. Gavrik went to see if everything was calm. Around the corner, the boy was grabbed by a man with a mustache he already knew. Gavrik screamed. “Be quiet, I’ll kill you!” — the spy pulled him by the ear. Three shadows darted from the hut to the cliff, a shot rang out... Enraged by the failure, the gendarmes interrogated the grandfather and took him to the police station.
Gavrik moved to Terenty, carried parcels for his grandfather, and was very worried when he learned that his grandfather was being beaten every day. The depot where his brother worked was on strike, and Gavrik tried to earn money as best he could. Playing ears brought in a good income.
Petya also became interested in abalone, but he was too passionate, impatient and lost even what he borrowed. The desire to win back, disastrous for any player, pulled him into the abyss. He tore out the buttons of his father’s uniform along with the meat and went so far as to first take the change left by the cook Dunya from the buffet, and then stole the money he was collecting for a bicycle from Pavlik’s piggy bank. But he lost that too, so one day Gavrik announced that he didn’t want to wait any longer and that Petya was going into slavery until he got even.
Meanwhile, several blocks in the city were cordoned off by troops, and shooting was heard. One day Gavrik told Petya to bring his schoolbag and don’t forget to take his high school card. He loaded the backpack with heavy bags of ears, and they went to areas cordoned off by soldiers. Then they took the ears on Malaya Arnautskaya, from the owner of the shooting range, Joseph Karlovich, and made their way through the courtyards to a house with a echoing courtyard-well. When Gavrik whistled, a man came down and took away the “goods.” Petya now understood well what kind of ears they were.
He had to make the last flight alone: a man with a mustache, memorable to both boys, was walking around the cordon. In the familiar courtyard-well, in response to his desperate cry (he never learned to whistle), a man looked out and called him up. It was a runaway Potemkin sailor, although now his beard and mustache made it difficult to recognize him. Terenty entered the kitchen: “We still can’t resist. We'll go across the rooftops. They’re putting a gun there.”
At home, new challenges awaited the boy. There were pogroms in the city. The Kogan family came to ask for asylum, and the Bacheys hid them in the back rooms. When a crowd of rioters entered the entrance, dad met them: “Who gave you the right...” They grabbed him, hit him, and if not for the appearance of Dunya with the icon in her hands, things would have taken a bad turn.
Gavrik showed up on New Year’s Eve: “Shoo it, and we’ll be even.” He handed over four familiar heavy bags. Petya barely had time to hide them in his satchel when dad burst into the nursery with a mutilated uniform, followed by Pavlik with a roar: Petka robbed him!
Dad's face changed: he knows what's going on. The son plays gambling, these, what’s-the-name, pigs, ears... Breaking out the backpack, he took out the bags and threw them into the flaming stove. Petya shouted: “Tick!” - and fainted.
He was ill all winter and only after Easter went to Gavrik. Grandfather died, the family of the hiding Terenty now lived in a shack. Petya was delighted and invited to the May Day. It was a great day. The friends sat down on the oars, Terenty sat at the stern. At the Small Fountain, a gentleman in a blue suit, cream trousers, green socks and white shoes jumped into the scow. A straw boater hat, a cane, and gloves completed his outfit. It was a sailor. He looked back at the shore and winked at the rowers. Far out at sea, fishermen had already gathered to listen to Potemkin’s speech.
After May Day, the boys, after circling for about two hours, dropped Rodion Zhukov off on Lanzheron, where he immediately mixed with the crowd.
A week later, Gavrik called Petya out to sea again, already under sail. We quickly reached the Big Fountain. There Gavrik ordered Petya to climb up the cliff and, as the carriage appeared, wave his handkerchief. The sailor was arrested, but the committee prepared to blow up the prison wall so that Rodion could escape while walking. He will leave for Romania on a scow under sail.
...Long minutes of waiting, and then a cab appeared at the end of the alley. Petya waved his handkerchief and saw Gavrik perk up below.
Terenty and the sailor ran to the scow. A minute later the sail was filled with wind, and a little later it began to shrink as it moved away, but remained white for a long time on the blue expanse of the sea.
