: Fifteen-year-old fatherless guy grows up a loafer. A man who has arrived from the city is taken for his upbringing, helps him realize himself and makes him think about the future.

Gribovo, a high mushroom-shaped hill, is the only place on the Cheremshanka River where there are no mosquitoes. It was here that they built a hut for collective farmers working on haymaking. In the morning, the pigs left to work, and Volodka Frolov, a guy of about fifteen, with his dog Pukha remained on the farm. Volodka was fatherless, so he was not forced to work - he was sorry.

With his duties - to look after the horses, boil a kettle, chop wood - Volodka coped in passing. The rest of the time he spent by the river, fishing and spying on bathing girls - housewives and activists who came to help the Kosets. He especially liked to look at Nyura the accountant.

That day, the car with the girls did not stop at the river, and Volodka decided to catch up with her. Riding a horse, he caught up with a truck. The women and girls sitting in it laughed at Volodka, and he "began to desperately work with a whip, trying to get to some kind of scum." Nyura, laughing the loudest, hid behind her friends. Volodka managed to get to her at the last bend, pulled the girl with a lash so that she suffocated from pain, and got caught up with her goods.

Returning to the hut in the evening, Volodka found there not only the scouts and the foreman Nikita, but also Kuzma Antipin. Volodka didn’t particularly respect this man who resignedly took on the hardest work, and even despised him a little "for everyday simplicity, for his inability to cheat." The guy was not afraid of Nikita, but he did not want to disgrace himself before Kuzma.

Volodka galloped up to the hut “a kind of devil who couldn't care less”, and a flurry of swearing fell upon him for not fulfilling his duties. Volodka was particularly annoyed that they put Kolka as an example, who was a year older than him, but already worked on an equal basis with everyone. Kuzma did not say anything, he only ordered the horses to be taken away and the most obstinate filly to be tied.

A little later, having supper by the fire, workers began to scoff at Pooh, who was too small for a hunting dog. Sick, adjusting to the foreman, and Kolka. They scoffed at faithful Pooh every evening, but Volodka could not get used to it and was constantly offended. He fed the dog properly and waited for her to grow up, but Pooh did not grow, and Nikita claimed that she was already adult.

Little dog to old age puppy.

Waking up in the morning, the workers were waiting for Volodka to drive the horses, but after breakfast they found out that he was gone. Kuzma was the most nervous - he had to go to Shopotki, where he had never traveled with a mechanical mower. Kolka, sent for the horses, said that they were not there either - apparently Volodka did not bother to tie them.

Then gunshots were heard, and then Volodka himself appeared. In his hand, he proudly held the squirrel killed with the help of Fluff. This squirrel and Kuzma whipped him in the face. Everyone began to sympathize with fatherlessness, but Volodka equally hated both sympathizers and the offender.

For some time Volodka lay in a hut, swallowing tears and sometimes falling asleep - a sleepless night affected. He went out when Kolka drove the horses. Kolka was supposed to go to Shopotki with Kuzma, but when he saw Volodka lurking in the hallway, he offered to take him. Volodka expected that Kuzma would take this proposal as a cruel joke, but he unexpectedly agreed and told the disgruntled guy to pack up.

Throughout the long road to Shopotki Volodka rode silently on horseback, looking with hatred at Kuzma's broad back, riding ahead in a mower, and writing plans for a terrible revenge. The guy was indignant at his equanimity - "traveled to a person in the face - and rejoice." But Volodka was chasing the squirrel all night, and in the morning he was in a hurry to the hut only for the sake of Kuzma.

Having hardly got over the swampy Cheremshanka, Volodka and Kuzma drove to the old, folded hut, hastily upgraded it, and settled down for the night. Volodka was sad in this wilderness, and the accountant in a red bathing suit was remembered. Kuzma donated millet porridge cooked for dinner not only to Volodya, but also to Pooh, although it was customary to eat his own on Gribovo. Volodka expected that, “feeding” him, Kuzma would begin to apologize, but he did not say a word.

Grass grew on promontories protruding into the river. Volodka was able to control the mower, although Kolka was rarely able to break through to it. Learning about this, Kuzma entrusted the guy with a simple mechanism, and meanwhile he cleaned the neighboring capes from garbage.

And when he sat down on the mower, life again thundered, in a multicolored holiday began to play around him.

Gradually Volodka began to take an example from Kuzma - he also washed himself in the river after work. With secret pride, he noticed that he had the same blond hair as that of tall, fine Kuzma.

Mowed alternately, day and night. Kuzma was strict with Volodka, forced to clean up after himself, to wash simple utensils. Volodka was not offended, recognizing the validity of his claims. Five days later, in the evening, the sky in the west turned blue - heavy rain was gathering, and the harvesting team in Shopotki has not yet arrived. In the morning, boils jumped around Kuzma’s neck, he couldn’t turn his head, and Volodka was now working alone, wishing that no one was seeing this.

Kolka arrived in the afternoon. Talking with Kuzma down, he said that the workers would be tomorrow, and demanded to write a summary. He did not pay attention to Volodka at all, and Kuzma did not even give a hint that the guy worked along with him. When Kolka left, Kuzma called him a foul little boy, but Volodka was not pleased with these words. He suspected that Kuzma decided to record his workdays on himself.

The remaining time Volodka worked through his sleeves and even pretended to be sick. He knew that they were going to celebrate Ilyin’s day in the village, and no one would come to Shopotki. Kuzma worked alone, barely turning his swollen neck, and Volodka with longing listened to the screech of the mower and realized that what he experienced these days would never happen again.

He felt stolen, humiliated. And blind rage, despair strangled him ...

In the evening a severe thunderstorm began. Kuzma sat down to write a summary, and Volodka regretted pretending to be sick. He could take the bulletin to the chairman and take part in the celebration. Ceasing to play the patient, the guy began to saddle the horse. Kuzma understood that Volodka was deceiving him, but he didn’t hit him, but called him rubbish and drove him away. He sewed up a summary in birch bark so that Volodka would not read it.

All the way Volodka was chased by the image of Kuzma with a distorted face from anger and resentment. Even the faithful Pooh, who raised a huge capercaillie, did not distract him. Volodka believed that his life did not work out, he was even born “smuggling”. Other orphans had their fathers killed at the front, but he never had a father, only his middle name was Maksimovich.

Volodka was sure that the chairman, having read the summary, would give him a gag, and the girls and Kolka would be laughed at. The guy decided to run. Arriving at Gribovo, he packed up his things, and on the way to the village decided to open the report. To Volodkin’s amazement, Kuzma didn’t even think of cheating - he wrote only the truth in the summary, even mentioned his pretense.

Having rushed into the village in the evening, Volodka handed over the summary to the chairman, imagining how on the indicator board his name would appear on the list of mowers - now Nyura would stop laughing at him. At home Volodka was waiting for a note from her mother: she had night watch.Volodka got used to it for a long time - such “shifts” happened to her every holiday.

After drinking the “festive” glass of wine left by his mother, Volodka went to the club. The center of the celebration was Kolka with a button accordion in his hands, dressed in a chic leather jacket with shiny locks. Gramophone started, dancing began. Volodka was going to invite Nyura to the dance, but Kolka rolled up to her, and she, "beaming at once," began to coquet with him.

Unable to bear that Nyura was gracious with such a crappy type, Volodka grabbed Kolka by the shiny clasps on his jacket. The fight began, and the guy was expelled from the club. Sitting on a log near the hedge, Volodka hugged Pooh, who was not a step behind him, and cried, realizing that he was not alone in the world, and there was a "belly that loves, understands him," and he would never betray how rude he is with she was not.

The sounds of accordion still violated the morning silence, but Volodka didn’t care who Nyura was dancing with. The guy, however, did not regret the fight - he will still prove to everyone what Kolka is a scoundrel. Volodka suddenly remembered how Kuzma spoke of Kolka, and jumped to his feet — he was doing nonsense here, but forgot about Kuzma, who was waiting at Shopotki. There hay rots!

Unsuccessfully trying to push the mortally drunk brigadier Nikita, Volodka grabbed an iron club and hit a cast-iron fire bar. Cast iron "gasped heavily and rang out all over the village."