Nikolai Nikolaevich Nosov

Adventures of Dunno and his friends

Chapter first

Shorties from Flower City

In one fabulous city lived short men. They were called shorties because they were very small. Each shorty was the size of a small cucumber. They were very nice in the city. Flowers grew around each house: daisies, daisies, dandelions. There, even the streets were called the names of flowers: Kolokolchikov Street, Daisy Alley, Vasilkov Boulevard. And the city itself was called the Flower City. He stood on the bank of a stream. This creek was called Cucumber River by the shorty, because there were many cucumbers growing along the banks of the creek.

Beyond the river was a forest. The short men made boats from birch bark, swam across the river and went into the forest for berries, mushrooms, and nuts. It was difficult to pick berries, because the shorties were tiny, and for nuts you had to climb a tall bush and even drag a saw with you. Not a single short man could pick a nut with his hands - they had to be cut with a saw. Mushrooms were also cut with a saw. They cut the mushroom down to the very root, then saw it into pieces and drag it home in pieces.

The shorties were not the same: some of them were called babies, while others were called babies. The little ones always went either in long slacks, or in short pants with a shoulder strap, and the little ones liked to wear dresses made of colorful, bright matter. The little ones did not like to mess with their hairstyles, and therefore their hair was short, and the little ones had long hair, almost to the waist. The little ones were very fond of doing various beautiful hairstyles, they braided their hair into long braids and braided ribbons into the braids, and wore bows on their heads. Many babies were very proud that they were babies, and almost did not make friends with babies at all. And the little ones were proud that they were little ones, and also did not want to be friends with the little ones. If some little girl met a baby on the street, then, seeing him from afar, she immediately crossed to the other side of the street. And she did it well, because among the kids there were often those who could not calmly pass by the baby, but they would definitely say something offensive to her, even push her or, even worse, pull her braid. Of course, not all the kids were like that, but they didn’t have it written on their foreheads, so the little ones thought it was better to cross to the other side of the street in advance and not come across. For this, many kids called babies imaginary - they will come up with such a word! - and many babies called the kids bullies and other offensive nicknames.

Some readers will immediately say that all this is probably fiction, that there are no such babies in life. But no one says that they exist in real life. In life - this is one thing, but in a fabulous city - quite another. Everything happens in a fairytale city.

In one house on Kolokolchikov Street there lived sixteen short babies. The most important of them was a short baby named Znayka. He was nicknamed Znaika because he knew a lot. And he knew a lot because he read different books. These books lay on his table, and under the table, and on the bed, and under the bed. There was no place in his room where there were no books. From reading books, Znayka became very smart. Therefore, everyone obeyed him and loved him very much. He always dressed in a black suit, and when he sat down at the table, put glasses on his nose and began to read some book, he completely looked like a professor.

In the same house lived the famous doctor Pilyulkin, who treated shorties for all diseases. He always walked in a white coat, and on his head he wore a white cap with a tassel. The famous mechanic Vintik also lived here with his assistant Shpuntik; lived Sakharin Sakharinich Syropchik, who became famous for the fact that he was very fond of sparkling water with syrup. He was very polite. He liked it when he was called by his first and patronymic, and did not like it when someone called him simply Syrupchik. The hunter Pulka also lived in this house. He had a small dog, Bulka, and he also had a gun that fired corks. There lived the artist Tube, the musician Guslya and other kids: Toropyzhka, Grumpy, Silent, Donut, Rasteryayka, two brothers - Avoska and Neboska. But the most famous among them was a baby named Dunno. They called him Dunno because he didn't know anything.

This Dunno wore a bright blue hat, yellow canary trousers, and an orange shirt with a green tie. He generally liked bright colors. Dressed up as such a parrot, Dunno wandered around the city for days on end, composing various fables and telling everyone. In addition, he constantly offended the little ones. Therefore, the little ones, seeing his orange shirt from afar, immediately turned in the opposite direction and hid at home. Dunno had a friend named Gunka, who lived on Daisy Street. Dunno could chat with Gunka for hours. They quarreled with each other twenty times a day and made up twenty times a day.

In particular Dunno became famous after one story.

One day he was walking around the city and wandered into a field. There was not a soul around. At this time, the cockchafer was flying. He blindly ran into Dunno and hit him on the back of the head. Dunno rolled head over heels to the ground. The beetle immediately flew away and disappeared into the distance. Dunno jumped up, began to look around and see who hit him. But there was no one around.

“Who hit me? thought Dunno. “Maybe something fell from above?”

He lifted his head and looked up, but there was nothing above either. Only the sun shone brightly over Dunno's head.

“It means that something fell on me from the sun,” Dunno decided. “Probably a piece came off the sun and hit me on the head.”

He went home and met a friend, whose name was Steklyashkin.

This Steklyashkin was a famous astronomer. He knew how to make magnifying glasses out of fragments of broken bottles. When he looked through magnifying glasses at various objects, the objects seemed larger. From several such magnifying glasses, Steklyashkin made a large telescope through which one could look at the moon and the stars. Thus he became an astronomer.

Listen, Steklyashkin, Dunno told him. - You understand what kind of story came out: a piece came off the sun and hit me on the head.

What you. Dunno! Steklyashkin laughed. - If a piece came off the sun, it would crush you into a cake. The sun is very big. It is larger than our entire Earth.