This story happened in a small courtyard surrounded by multi-story apartment buildings. In the center of the courtyard, a children's playground was set up, where all the children living on this street and even on the neighboring street loved to play.
The street was always noisy because the local children loved their courtyard. There was so much here: carousels, slides, many ladders, even a small soccer field where the boys kicked a ball around.
But there was one thing that upset everyone—the swings, which children loved more than anything else, were just one.
And as you know, for children, swinging on swings is the best thing you can do outside. So everyone tried to grab the swings first and ride them as long as possible. For this reason, quarrels often broke out among the children. And the older ones would occupy the swings first and wouldn't let the younger ones swing. So instead of joy, the swings brought only disappointment.
Once, there was even a serious fight between children over who would get to the swings first—one boy hit another. Then the parents came out for a meeting in the courtyard and, after discussing it among themselves, decided to remove the swings from the playground altogether.
These swings bring nothing but trouble all the time; children fight over them. It's better if they're just gone. And so they 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 swinging, and they even found and attached sand timers to the swing frame that measured exactly five minutes.
And so it went. Before sitting on the swings, the timer would be flipped. A child would swing until the last grain of sand fell in the timer. And during that time, a huge line of those wanting to swing would form.
The children even chose a timekeeper who had to make sure that no one swung longer than the allotted time. And whoever had swung had to give their place to the next person in line.
In this way, all disputes quieted 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 structure at the store, and when the weekend came, he and Pavlik went to the village.
Dad and Grandpa worked all day and created a reliable and sturdy structure, which made Pasha very happy. Now he had his own personal swings and no one would stand nearby with a timer and count five minutes.
Pavlik stayed in the village, swinging 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, and there was no one to play with here. Even the swings stopped bringing him joy. He missed his friends.
Grandpa and Grandma even began to worry that their grandson might be sick.
The following weekend, his parents came to the village. Pasha greeted them with great joy; he began asking 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 with them, even ride the carousel while 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 entire courtyard to his friends, and hugged them.
The boys were also happy to see Pavlik, because they thought he was sick and had missed him very much.
I was in the village, but I realized that I missed you there!
Pasha said to the boys.
Come on, let's play ball!
You did the right thing!
Kostya answered Pavlik.
We missed you too!
Pasha couldn't believe his eyes when he looked toward the playground, where instead of one swing, there were now six swings. The children were playing peacefully; no one was fighting. There were now enough swings for everyone, and some were even free.
The friends ran to the swings to see who could get there first, each took theirs and began to swing. They chatted happily, discussed many things, even remembered how they used to stand in line for the swings, and this made them laugh.
Pasha invited Kostik and Dima to his birthday party at his place in the village. He understood that playing, running around, and even swinging on swings, even if it was taking turns, was more pleasant with friends, and he was very happy about this.
