This story happened in a small courtyard surrounded by multi-storey apartment buildings. In the centre of the courtyard, a children's playground was set up, where all the children living on this street and even on the neighbouring street loved to play.
The street was always noisy, as the local children loved their courtyard. There was so much here: carousels, slides, plenty of ladders, even a small football field where the boys kicked a ball around.
But there was one thing that upset everyone – the swings, which the children loved most of all, were just one.
And as you know, for children, swinging on the swings is the best thing you can do outside. So everyone tried to grab the swings first and stay on them as long as possible. For this reason, quarrels between children often arose. And those who were older would occupy the swings first and wouldn't let the younger ones have a go. So instead of joy, the swings brought nothing but disappointment.
Once there was even a serious quarrel between children, where one boy hit another over the right to occupy the swings first. Then the parents came out for a meeting in the courtyard and, after consulting with each other, decided to remove the swings from the playground altogether.
These swings bring nothing but trouble all the time, children argue over them. It's better if they're not here at all. And so it was decided.
The children found out about this and most of them were upset by the decision. The older boys suggested that they should take turns on the swings, and they even found and attached sand timers to the swing frame somewhere, which measured exactly five minutes.
And so it went. Before sitting on the swings, the timer would be turned over. A child would swing until the last grain of sand in the timer fell. And during that time, a huge queue of those wanting to swing on the swings would build up.
The children even chose a timekeeper who was supposed to make sure that no one swung for longer than the allotted time. And whoever had swung had to give their place to the next person in the queue.
In this way, all the arguments died down, everyone got a chance to swing, because nothing better could be thought of.
But a boy named Pasha was terribly unhappy with these rules. So he asked his parents to take him to the village to his grandmother and grandfather and build him swings there. After all, then he could swing as much as he wanted.
Dad bought the necessary construction from the shop, and when the weekend came, he and Pavlik went to the village.
Dad and Grandpa tinkered all day and they made a reliable and sturdy construction, which made Pasha very happy. Now he has his own personal swings and no one will stand nearby with a timer and count out five minutes.
Pavlik stayed in the village, he swung every day from morning to evening. But after a few days, Pasha began to feel sad, something was missing. Only old people lived in the village, there was no one to play with here at all. Even the swings stopped being fun. He missed his friends.
Grandma and Grandpa even began to worry that their grandson was ill.
The following weekend, his parents came to the village. Pasha met them with great joy, he began to ask them to take him back to the city. After all, his friends were there in the courtyard, with whom it was always so interesting and fun to play. You could talk to them, even ride on the carousel while waiting for your turn on the swings.
Finally, his parents took Pavlik back to the city. As they were driving up to their house, Pasha saw Kostya and Dima through the window. He jumped out of the car, ran across the whole courtyard to his friends and hugged them.
The boys were also happy to see Pavlik, because they thought he was ill and had missed him very much.
I was in the village, but I realised that I missed you there!
Pasha said to the boys.
Come on, let's go and play football!
You did the right thing!
Kostya answered Pavlik.
We missed you too!
Pasha couldn't believe his eyes when he looked towards the playground, where instead of one swing, there were now six. The children were playing peacefully, no one was arguing. There were now enough swings for everyone, and there were even some free ones.
The friends raced each other to the swings, each took theirs and started swinging. They chatted merrily, discussed a lot, even remembered how they used to queue for the swings, and it made them laugh.
Pasha invited Kostik and Dima to his birthday party at his place in the village, he realised that playing, running around and even swinging on the swings, even if it was taking turns, was more pleasant with friends and he was very happy about it.
