This story happened in a small courtyard, surrounded by multi-storey buildings. In the centre of the courtyard, a children's play area had been set up, where all the children living on this street and even 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, lots of ladders, even a small football pitch where the boys would kick a ball about.
There was just one thing that upset everyone – the swings, which the children loved most of all, were just the 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 have a longer go on them. For this reason, quarrels often broke out between the children. And those who were older would occupy the swings first and wouldn't let the younger ones have a turn. So instead of joy, the swings brought nothing but disappointment.
Once, there was even a serious row between the children, where one boy hit another over the right to use the swings first. Then the parents came out for a meeting in the courtyard and, after discussing it amongst themselves, decided to remove the swings from the play area altogether.
These swings bring nothing but trouble all the time; the children quarrel over them. It's better if they're not there 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 swings' support, which measured exactly five minutes.
And so it came to pass. 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 by that time, a huge queue of those wanting to swing had built up.
The children even chose a timekeeper who was to make sure that no one swung for longer than the allotted time. And whoever had had their turn had to give up their place to the next person in the queue.
In this way, all the arguments died down, everyone got a turn on the swings, and nothing better could have been 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 stay with his grandmother and grandfather and build him swings there. That way, he could swing as much as he wanted.
Dad bought the necessary equipment from the shop, and when the weekend came, he and Pavlik went to the village.
Dad and Grandpa spent the whole day working on it and they built a sturdy and reliable structure, which made Pasha very happy. Now he had his own personal swings and no one would stand nearby with a timer and count out five minutes.
Pavlik stayed in the village and swung every day from morning to evening. But after a few days, Pasha began to feel sad; something was missing. In the village, there were only old people, and there was no one to play with. Even the swings had stopped being fun. He missed his friends.
Grandma and Grandpa even began to worry that their grandson might be ill.
The following weekend, his parents came to the village. Pasha greeted 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, and it was always so interesting and fun to play with them. You could talk to them, even have a go on the carousel whilst waiting for your turn on the swings.
Finally, his parents took Pavlik back to the city. As they drove 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 delighted to see Pavlik, as they thought he had been ill and had missed him very much.
I was in the village, but I realised that I missed you all!
Pasha said to the boys.
Come on, let's go and play football!
You did the right thing!
Kostya replied to Pavlik.
We missed you too!
Pasha couldn't believe his eyes when he looked towards the play area, where instead of just one swing, there were now six. The children were playing peacefully, no one was quarrelling. There were now enough swings for everyone, and some were even free.
The friends raced each other to the swings, each took one and started swinging. They chatted merrily, discussed lots of things, and even remembered how they used to queue for the swings, which made them laugh.
Pasha invited Kostik and Dima to his birthday party at his place in the village. He had realised that playing, running about and even swinging on the swings, even if it was taking turns, was much nicer with friends, and he was very happy about this.
