In almost every swamp lies untold wealth. All blades of grass and grass blades growing there are saturated with the sun, saturate with their heat and light. Dying, plants do not rot, as in the earth. The swamp carefully preserves them, accumulating powerful layers of peat saturated with solar energy. Therefore, the swamp is called the "pantry of the sun." We are looking for such storerooms, geologists. This story happened at the end of the war, in a village near the Bludov swamp, in the Pereslavl-Zalessky district.
A brother and sister lived in the house next door to us. The twelve-year-old girl was called Nastya, and her ten-year-old brother was Mitrash. Children have recently become orphaned - "their mother died of illness, their father died in World War II." The children were very cute. "Nastya was like a Golden Hen on high legs" with a face strewn with golden freckles. Mitrash was short, dense, stubborn and strong. The neighbors called him "a little man in a pouch." At first they were helped by the whole village, and then the children themselves learned how to manage the household and were very independent.
One spring, the children decided to go for cranberries. Usually this berry is picked in the fall, but after lying in the winter under the snow, it becomes tastier and healthier. Mitrash took his father’s gun and compass, Nastya - a huge basket and food. Father used to tell them that in the Fornication swamp, near Blind Elani, there is an unspoiled clearing strewn with berry. The children went there.
They came out dark. Birds have not sung yet, only across the river was heard the howl of the Gray Landowner - the worst wolf in the area. The children approached the fork when the sun had already risen. Then they got into a dispute. Mitrasha wanted to follow the compass to the north, as his father said, only the north path was unpretentious, slightly noticeable. Nastya wanted to go on a hiking trail. The children had a fight, and each turned on his own path.
Meanwhile, nearby Grass, the dog of the forester Antipych woke up. The forester died, and his faithful dog remained to live under the remnants of the house. The grass was sad without a host. She howled, and the Gray Landlord heard this howl. In the hungry spring days, he ate mainly dogs, and now he ran to the Howl of Grass. However, the howl soon stopped - the dog drove the hare. During the chase, she smelled the smell of little people, one of whom was carrying bread. On this trail, Grass ran.
Meanwhile, the compass led Mitrash directly to Blind Elani. Here, a barely noticeable path made a detour, and the boy decided to cut it straight. Ahead lay an even and clean clearing. Mithrasa did not know that this was a disastrous swamp. The boy walked more than half when she started sucking him. In an instant, he fell to the waist. Mitrash could only lie down on his gun and freeze. Suddenly, the boy heard his sister call to him. He answered, but the wind carried his scream to the other side, and Nastya did not hear.
All this time, the girl walked along the trampled path, which also led to Blind Elani, only bypassing. At the end of the trail, she stumbled upon the same cranberry place, and began to pick berries, forgetting everything. She remembered her brother only in the evening — food remained with her, and Mitrasha walked hungry. Looking around, the girl saw Grass, which was brought to her by the smell of edible. Nastya remembered the dog of Antipych. The girl cried from anxiety for her brother, and Grass tried to console her. She howled, and Gray Manor hurried to the sound. Suddenly, the dog again smelled the hare, rushed after him, ran out into the Blind Yelan and saw another little man there.
Mitrashka, completely frozen in a cold bog. I saw a dog. This was his last chance to escape. In an affectionate voice, he lured Grass. When the light dog came very close, Mitrasha firmly grabbed her hind legs, and Grass pulled the boy out of the quagmire.
The boy was hungry. He decided to shoot a hare, which was driven by a smart dog to him. He loaded his gun, made himself, and suddenly very close by he saw a wolf face. Mitrash shot almost point blank and ended the long life of the Gray Landlord. The shot was heard by Nastya. Brother and sister spent the night in a swamp, and in the morning returned home with a heavy basket and a story about a wolf. Those who believed Mitrash went to Yelan and brought a dead wolf. Since then, the boy has become a hero. By the end of the war, he was no longer called a “little man in a pouch,” as he grew up. Nastya reproached herself for greed for cranberries for a long time and gave all the useful berries to the children evacuated from Leningrad.