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A new girl appears at a regular school - Lena Bessoltseva. The class does not accept the girl well, she is considered eccentric, like her grandfather, who is known throughout the town. Nikolai Vasilyevich Bessoltsev devoted his life to collecting paintings, he spends everything he earned on them and lives like a poor man. He was nicknamed "The Patcher" for his shabby clothes.

The “strange” new girl is an open and friendly child, but she is dressed no better than her grandfather. Without a hint of embarrassment, her classmates call her “Scarecrow” and openly mock her. Almost all. Dima, the favorite of teachers and girls, unlike the others, likes Lena. A tender friendship blossoms between them.

But it all ends before it even begins. The class goes to the cinema instead of a lesson. Dima “splits” under the pressure of the class teacher and confesses where the students disappeared. Schoolchildren are punished by canceling a long-planned excursion to Moscow. The guys, trying to find out who betrayed the class, blame the scarecrow for their troubles. Lena accidentally overheard a conversation between the teacher and Dima, but remains silent. She hopes that her new friend will not offend her and honestly admits his betrayal. But Dima is not ready to lose his authority.

Lena has been boycotted. The bullying is becoming more unbearable every day. In the end, the truth is revealed and the cruel classmates feel guilty. They would be happy to fix everything, but it’s too late - the Bessoltsevs are leaving the city.

Online reading of the book Scarecrow Chapter Two

Lenkin's grandfather, Nikolai Nikolaevich Bessoltsev, had already lived for several years in his own house in an old Russian town on the banks of the Oka, somewhere between Kaluga and Serpukhov.

It was a town of which there are only a few dozen left on our land. He was over eight hundred years old. Nikolai Nikolaevich knew well, highly valued and loved its history, which rose up before him as if alive when he wandered through its streets, along the steep banks of the river, through picturesque surroundings with ancient mounds overgrown with dense honeysuckle bushes and birch trees.

The town has experienced more than one disaster in its history.

Here, right above the river, on the ruins of an old settlement, there once stood a princely court, and the Russian squad fought to the death with countless hordes of khan’s warriors, armed with bows and crooked sabers, who shouted: “That Rus'! That Rus'!..” on their short, strong horses they tried to cross from the opposite bank to this one in order to defeat the squad and break through to Moscow.

And the Patriotic War of 1812 touched the town with its acute angle. Kutuzov's army then crossed it with a procession of soldiers and refugees, carts, horses, light and heavy artillery with all kinds of mortars and howitzers, with spare carriages and field forges, turning the already thin local roads into a continuous mess. And then, along these same roads, Russian soldiers with incredible, almost inhuman courage, not sparing their bellies, day and night, without rest, drove the exhausted French back, although it was not at all clear where they got their strength from. After such a long retreat, famine and epidemics.

And the reflection of the conquest of the Caucasus by the Russians touched the town - somewhere here in great sadness lived the captive Shamil and the mountaineers who accompanied him. They wandered along the narrow streets, and their crazy, yearning gaze searched in vain for a range of mountains on the horizon.

And the first imperialist storm carried away all the men from the town and returned them half crippled - armless, legless, but angry and fearless. Freedom was more valuable to them than their own lives. They brought the revolution to this quiet, small town.

Then, many years later, the Nazis came - and a wave of fires, gallows, executions and brutal devastation swept through.

But time passed, the war ended, and the town was reborn again. He stood now, as before, sweepingly and freely on several hills that approached the wide bend of the river with steep cliffs.

On one of these hills stood the house of Nikolai Nikolaevich - old, built of strong logs, completely blackened by time. Its austere, simple mezzanine with rectangular windows was intricately decorated with four balconies facing all directions.

The black house with a spacious terrace open to the winds was completely different from the cheerful, multi-colored houses of its neighbors. He stood out on this street, as if a stern gray-haired raven had fallen into a flock of canaries or bullfinches.

The Bessoltsev house had stood in the town for a long time. Maybe more than a hundred years.

During the hard years they did not burn it.

It was not confiscated during the revolution because it was protected by the name of Doctor Bessoltsev, Nikolai Nikolaevich’s father. He, like almost every doctor from the old Russian town, was a respected person here. Under the Nazis, he set up a hospital for German soldiers in the house, and at that time there were wounded Russians lying in the basement, and the doctor treated them with German medicines. For this, Doctor Bessoltsev was shot, right here, in the middle of his wide yard.

This time the house was saved by the rapid advance of the Soviet Army.

So the house stood and stood, always crowded with people, although the Bessoltsev men, as expected, went off to various wars and did not always return.

Many of them remained lying somewhere in unknown mass graves, which are scattered in sad hills everywhere in Central Russia, and in the Far East, and in Siberia, and in many other places of our land.

Before the arrival of Nikolai Nikolaevich, a lonely old woman lived in the house, one of the Bessoltsevs, whose relatives visited less and less often - no matter how offensive it was, the Bessoltsev family partially scattered throughout Russia, and partially died in the struggle for freedom. But still, the house continued to live its own life, until one day all its doors opened at once and several men silently, slowly and awkwardly carried out the coffin with the body of a wizened old woman in their arms and carried it to the local cemetery. After this, the neighbors boarded up the doors and windows of the Bessoltsev house, blocked the vents so that the house would not get damp in winter, nailed two boards on the gate with a cross and left.

For the first time, the house became deaf and blind.

This is where Nikolai Nikolaevich appeared, who had not been in the town for more than thirty years.

He had only recently buried his wife and after that he himself became seriously ill.

Nikolai Nikolaevich was not afraid of death and treated it naturally and simply, but he definitely wanted to get to his home. And this passionate desire helped him overcome the illness, get back on his feet and hit the road. Nikolai Nikolaevich dreamed of being surrounded by old walls, where on long sleepless nights strings of long-forgotten and eternally memorable faces would flash before him.

But was it worth coming back for this, to see and hear it all for a moment, and then lose it forever?

"How else?" - he thought and went to his native land.

In the terrible hours of his last illness, in this loneliness, and also in those days when he was literally dying from war wounds, when he had no strength to move his tongue, and a temporary zone of alienation appeared between him and people, Nikolai Nikolaevich’s head worked clearly and purposefully. He somehow especially acutely felt how important it was for him not to break the thin thread connecting him with the past, that is, with eternity...

For a whole year before his arrival, the house stood boarded up. It was rained on, there was snow on the roof, and no one cleared it off, so the roof, which had not been painted for a long time, was leaky and rusty in many places. And the steps of the main porch are completely rotten.

When Nikolai Nikolaevich saw his street and his house, his heart began to beat so hard that he was afraid that he would not make it. He stood for a few minutes, caught his breath, crossed the street with a firm military step, resolutely tore the cross from the gate, entered the yard, found an ax in the barn and began to use it to tear off the boards from the boarded up windows.

Furiously working with an axe, forgetting for the first time about his aching heart, he thought: the main thing is to chop off the boards, open the doors, open the windows, so that the house can live its own permanent life.

Nikolai Nikolaevich finished his work, looked around and saw that behind him, with their hands mournfully folded on their chests, stood several women discussing him, wondering which of the Bessoltsevs it could be. But they were all still so young that they could not know Nikolai Nikolaevich. Catching his gaze, the women began to smile, burning with curiosity and a desire to talk to him, but he silently nodded to everyone, took the suitcase and disappeared through the door.

Nikolai Nikolaevich did not speak to anyone, not because he was so unsociable, it was just that every vein trembled inside him when he met the house, which was for him not just a house, but his life and cradle.

From memory, the house always seemed to him large, spacious, smelling of the warm air of the stoves, hot bread, fresh milk and freshly washed floors. And even when Nikolai Nikolaevich was a little boy, he always thought that not only “real people” lived in their house, not only grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, brothers and sisters, countless uncles and aunts who came and went, but also and those that were in the paintings hanging on the walls in all five rooms.

These were women and men in homespun clothes, with calm and stern faces.

Ladies and gentlemen in fancy costumes.

Women in gold embroidered dresses with trains, sparkling tiaras in high hairstyles. Men in dazzling white, blue, green uniforms with high stand-up collars, boots with gold and silver spurs.

The portrait of the famous General Raevsky, in a ceremonial uniform, with numerous orders, hung in the most prominent place.

And this feeling that the “people from the pictures” actually lived in their house never left him, even when he became an adult, although it may be strange.

It is difficult to explain why this happened, but, being in the most difficult alterations, in the death throes, in the hard bloody work of war, he, remembering the house, thought not only about his relatives who inhabited it, but also about “the people from the pictures”, whom he never knew.

The fact is that Nikolai Nikolaevich’s great-great-grandfather was an artist, and his father, Doctor Bessoltsev, gave many years of his life to collect his paintings. And as long as Nikolai Nikolaevich could remember, these paintings always occupied the main place in their home.

Nikolai Nikolaevich opened the door with some apprehension. Suddenly something irreparably changed there. And he turned out to be right - the walls of the house were empty, all the paintings had disappeared!

The house smelled damp and musty. There were cobwebs on the ceiling and in the corners. Numerous spiders and spiders, not paying attention to him, continued their painstaking, skillful work.

A field mouse, having found shelter in an abandoned house, like a circus tightrope walker, merrily ran several times along the wire that remained on the window from the curtains.

The furniture was moved from its usual places and covered with old covers.

Fear and horror took possession of Nikolai Nikolaevich to an extreme degree - just think, the paintings disappeared! He tried to take a step, but slipped and could barely stand - the floor was covered with a thin layer of light frost. Then he slid further, as if on skis, leaving long tracks throughout the house.

Another room!

More!

Further!

Further!..

There were no pictures anywhere!

And only then Nikolai Nikolaevich remembered: his sister wrote to him in one of her last letters that she had taken all the paintings, wrapped them in burlap and put them on the mezzanine in the driest room.

Nikolai Nikolaevich, restraining himself, entered this room, climbed onto the mezzanine and with trembling hands began to pull out one painting after another, fearing that they were dead, frozen or damp.

But a miracle happened - the paintings were alive.

He thought with great tenderness about his sister, imagining how she took down the paintings and hid them to preserve them. How she, weak and withered over the years, carefully packed each painting. Apparently, she worked all day long for months, and pricked her arms all over with a needle while she was sewing up the rough burlap. Once she fell from her bunk - and she wrote to him about that too - she lay down and packed again until she finished her last work in her life.

Now that the paintings had been found, Nikolai Nikolaevich took up the house. The first thing he did was flood the stoves, and when the windows fogged up, he opened them wide so that the dampness could escape from the house. And he kept adding more and more wood to the stove, mesmerized by the flames and the roar of the fire. Then he washed the walls, brought a stepladder, reached the ceilings and, finally, changing the water several times, carefully scraped the floors, floorboard by floorboard.

Gradually, with his whole being, Nikolai Nikolaevich felt the warmth of his native stoves and the familiar smell of his home - it joyfully made his head spin.

For the first time in recent years, Nikolai Nikolaevich sighed with relief and bliss.

That's when he took the covers off the furniture and arranged it. And finally I hung the pictures... Each one in its place.

Nikolai Nikolaevich looked around, thought about what else to do, and suddenly realized that he most wanted to sit in his father’s old chair, which was called by the magic word “Voltaire”. As a child, he was not allowed to do this, but how he wanted to climb on it with his legs!..

Nikolai Nikolaevich slowly sank into the chair, leaned back on the soft back, leaned his elbows on the armrests and sat there for an unknown amount of time. Maybe an hour, or maybe three, or maybe the rest of the day and all night...

The house came to life, spoke, sang, sobbed... Many people entered the room and surrounded Nikolai Nikolaevich with a ring.

Nikolai Nikolaevich thought about different things, but each time he returned to his secret dream. He thought that when he died, his son and his family would settle here.

And I saw with my own eyes how my son entered the house. And, of course, invisible particles of the past will pierce and warm his body, pulsate with blood, and he will never be able to forget his home. Even if he goes on one of his expeditions, where he will look for the rarest flowers, climbing high into the mountains and risking falling into the abyss, only to look at a barely noticeable pale blue flower on a thin stem that grows on the very edge of a sheer cliff.

No, Nikolai Nikolayevich just understood: life must be risked, otherwise what kind of life is this, this is some kind of senseless sleeping and overeating. But still he dreamed that his son would return home or return to leave again, as the other Bessoltsevs did in different years for various reasons.

When he woke up, the rays of the sun swirled like a rainbow cloud in the house and fell on the portrait of General Raevsky. And then Nikolai Nikolaevich remembered how, as a child, he caught the first rays of the sun in the same picture, and laughed sadly and cheerfully, thinking that life had passed irrevocably.

Nikolai Nikolaevich went out onto the porch and saw that the sun illuminated the balcony, which faced east, and moved to make another ring around the house.

He took an ax, found a plane and a saw, and selected several boards to repair the porch. It had been a long time since he had done this, although it was clear that this work was firmly in his hands. He did everything not very deftly, but with great desire - he liked to hold an ordinary board, liked to slide a plane along it, and the city bustle of many recent years invisibly disappeared from his consciousness.

The house will thank him for this, thought Nikolai Nikolaevich, and he will thank the house.

Then Nikolai Nikolaevich climbed onto the roof, and a sheet of iron, raised by the wind, hit him on the back so hard that he almost knocked him off the roof - he miraculously held on...

It was here that he first felt acute hunger, the kind he only experienced in his youth, when he could lose consciousness from hunger. And no wonder. Nikolai Nikolaevich did not know how much time had passed, how he arrived, did not remember what he ate and whether he went to bed. He worked around the house and did not notice the passing of the short winter days. He did not distinguish early morning from late evening.

Nikolai Nikolaevich went to the market, bought sauerkraut, potatoes, dry black mushrooms and cooked sour mushroom soup. I ate two plates and went to bed.

He got up, still not feeling the time, ate the cabbage soup again, laughed loudly, catching himself thinking that he recognized his father’s laughter in the intonations of his laughter, and for some reason went to bed again...

Several years have passed since then, and Nikolai Nikolaevich forgot about his illnesses. He lived and lived and felt that he had become hardy, like a strong old tree well watered by spring rain.

Every now and then he was seen, beyond his age, rapidly running through the crooked streets of the town, first in one direction, then in the other, apparently without any business, although sometimes he carried something wrapped in cloth - then his face glowed with inspiration and looked younger.

Those who were considered knowledgeable gossiped that he was looking for some paintings. He spends a lot of money on them, and the rest, without a trace, he gives for firewood. And it drowns - just think! - all the ovens every day, and in cold weather, twice, so that these paintings of his do not get damp. And for some reason always at night, turning on the lights in all the rooms.

How much of his money was wasted: in light smoke through chimneys into the sky, in the bright light of electricity into the night, and most importantly, on new paintings - he didn’t have enough of his own!

That's why the goal is like a falcon.

In the town they treated Nikolai Nikolaevich with wary attention.

The way he lived was incomprehensible and inaccessible to the townspeople, but was respected by many. And, by the way, people got used to the fact that the Bessoltsevs’ house glowed at night and became a kind of beacon in the town, a landmark for belated travelers returning home from afar in the dark.

At night the house was like a candle in an impenetrable darkness.

The neighbors might have thought about Nikolai Nikolaevich that he was terribly lonely and therefore unhappy. He always wandered around the town alone, in his unfailing cap, which he wore pulled low on his forehead, and in a shabby coat with large, neat patches on the elbows.

For this, the children teased him as a “patcher,” but it seems he didn’t even notice them. Rarely, rarely, he suddenly looked back and looked after them with undisguised surprise. Then they quickly ran away from him, although he never cursed or chased after them.

If they entered into idle conversations with him, he answered in monosyllables and quickly walked away, ruffling himself like a bird in the cold.

But one day Nikolai Nikolaevich appeared on the streets of the town not alone. He walked accompanied by a girl of about twelve, looking unusually important and proud, unlike himself. He stopped with everyone he met and uttered the same phrase, pointing to the girl:

“And this is Lena...” And, after an impressive pause, he added: “My granddaughter.” Well, it was as if next to him was not a girl, but some world-famous figure.

And his granddaughter, Lenka, was desperately embarrassed every time and didn’t know where to go.

She was a gangly teenager, still a calf with long legs, with equally long, awkward arms. Her shoulder blades stuck out like wings on her back. The moving face was adorned with a large mouth, from which a friendly smile almost never left. And the hair was braided into two tight cords.

On the very first day of her appearance in the town, Lenka appeared a hundred times on each of the four balconies and looked with curiosity at all four directions of the world. She was equally interested in the north, and the south, and the east, and the west.

Nikolai Nikolaevich’s life did not change much after Lenka’s arrival. True, now Lenka ran to the store for cottage cheese and milk, and he himself occasionally bought meat at the market, something he had never seen before.

In the fall, Lenka entered sixth grade.

It was then that this story happened, which forever made the Bessoltsevs - Nikolai Nikolaevich and Lenka - famous people. The echo of these events, like the ringing of a bell, hovered over the town for a long time, echoing differently in the lives of those people who were involved in them.

Main characters and their characteristics:

The heroes of the story are students of the sixth grade “A” in an ordinary high school in the 80s. Each of them already has a character, each has their own opinion, views on the world around them and a unique destiny:

Lena Bessoltseva is the main character of the story “Scarecrow”. An open-minded, trusting and kind girl. She's new in class. Lena tries to adapt to the team, but not being able to fully stand up for herself, she laughs at jokes about herself along with the offenders and thus loses the chance to earn the respect of the guys.
Mironova or Iron Button is a girl leader with the character of a fighter. A principled, embittered, power-hungry heroine. She is constantly busy searching for justice, but her justice is more of a “personal opinion” than the truth. He lives by the motto: “I see the goal, I see no obstacles.”
Dima Somov is the son of a wealthy family. Good looking, loved by teachers, girls' dream. Dima poses as a noble defender of the new girl for some time, but being a cowardly coward, he will quickly show himself in all his glory.
Vasiliev is one of Lena’s classmates. He did not take part in the bullying of the girl, but he could not stand up for her due to his weak character.
Shmakova is the main beauty in the class. Likes to surround himself with fans. In my soul I am empty and uninteresting.
Popov is the “henpecked” and “slave” of the spoiled Shmakova, ready to do anything for her.
Valya is a selfish and ruthless boy. He catches stray dogs and sells them to a slaughterhouse in exchange for money. He is not afraid of anything at the expense of his older brother. The main value is money.
Marina is a girl from a single-parent family. Misses his father and has conflicts with his mother. He takes out his melancholy on the people around him.

Scarecrow - Zheleznikov Vladimir Karpovich

Vladimir Zheleznikov

SCARECROW

Chapter first

Lenka rushed through the narrow, bizarrely humpbacked streets of the town, not noticing anything on her way.

Past one-story houses with lace curtains on the windows and high crosses of television antennas - up!..

Past long fences and gates, with cats on their eaves and angry dogs at the gates - down!..

The jacket was wide open, there was despair in the eyes, an almost inaudible whisper flew from the lips:

- Grandfather!.. Darling!.. Let's leave! Let's leave! Let's leave!.. - She sobbed as she walked. - Forever!.. From evil people!.. Let them gnaw each other!.. Wolves!.. Jackals!.. Foxes!.. Grandfather!..

- That's crazy! - the people she knocked down shouted after her. - Flies like a motorcycle!

Lenka ran up the street in one breath, as if she was taking a running start to fly into the sky. She really would like to immediately fly over this town - and away from here, away! Somewhere where joy and peace awaited her.

Then she quickly rolled down, as if she wanted to blow her head off. She really was ready for some desperate act, not sparing herself.

Just think what they did to her! And for what?!

Chapter two

Lenkin's grandfather, Nikolai Nikolaevich Bessoltsev, had already lived for several years in his own house in an old Russian town on the banks of the Oka, somewhere between Kaluga and Serpukhov.

The town has experienced more than one disaster in its history.

Here, right above the river, on the ruins of an old settlement, there once stood a princely court, and the Russian squad fought to the death with countless hordes of khan’s warriors, armed with bows and crooked sabers, who shouted: “That Rus'! That Rus'!..” - on their short, strong horses they tried to cross from the opposite bank of the river to this one in order to defeat the squad and break through to Moscow.

Then, many years later, the Nazis came - and a wave of fires, gallows, executions and brutal devastation swept through.

But time passed, the war ended, and the town was reborn again. He stood now, as before, sweepingly and freely on several hills that approached the wide bend of the river with steep cliffs.

The Bessoltsev house had stood in the town for a long time. Maybe more than a hundred years.

During the hard years they did not burn it.

This time the house was saved by the rapid advance of the Soviet Army.

So the house stood and stood, always crowded with people, although the Bessoltsev men, as expected, went off to various wars and did not always return. Many of them remained lying somewhere in unknown mass graves, which are scattered in sad hills everywhere in Central Russia, and in the Far East, and in Siberia, and in many other places of our land.

For the first time, the house became deaf and blind.

This is where Nikolai Nikolaevich appeared, who had not been in the town for more than thirty years.

He had only recently buried his wife and after that he himself became seriously ill.

But was it worth coming back for this, to see and hear it all for a moment, and then lose it forever?

"How else?" - he thought and went to his native land.

A summary of the story “Scarecrow” in detail by chapter.

Author: Vladimir Zheleznikov

Chapter 1. Meet Lena

A sixth-grader girl runs through the streets of a provincial town home to her grandfather, she mentally turns to him, begging for an urgent move.

Chapter 2. Nikolai Nikolaevich Bessoltsev - a strange collector

The author talks about the Bessoltsev family. Nikolai Nikolaevich returns to his hometown, to his old house. He is respected, but not understood in this town.

The hero is unsociable and is engaged in restoration and collecting paintings. One day he is spotted accompanied by a girl. He declares her his granddaughter Lena. In the fall, the girl goes to 6th grade.

Chapter 3. Quarrel between grandfather and granddaughter

The beginning of autumn brought only joy to Lena, but in November everything changed. She returned home in a bad mood and asked her grandfather for money for a ticket to return to her parents.

The grandfather refused, then the girl threatened to steal and sell one of his paintings. For this she received a slap in the face and ran away without explaining the essence of the problem. Grandfather went after her.

Chapter 4. Dima Somov's birthday

All the guys are going to celebrate their birthday. Everyone except Vasiliev, for which he receives a good blow and broken glasses.

Lena, whom excited classmates meet on the road, gets even more. The girl is surrounded, teased as “Scarecrow” and demanded that she leave their city. Lena's grandfather finds this scene.

He intervenes and says that it is not fair for a crowd to go against one. But Nikolai Nikolaevich faces a decisive rebuff - the Iron Button declares that he should be ashamed of his granddaughter. And why? Let her tell it herself.

The company leaves to visit Dima, the grandfather and granddaughter go home. Nothing can drown out the fun of schoolchildren - the sounds of the holiday haunt the Bessoltsevs. Lena decides to tell her grandfather about her misfortune.

Chapter 5. The story of the unlucky “new girl”

Red introduced Lena to the class at the request of the class teacher. And everything immediately went wrong. Lena smiled widely, wanting to show that she was ready for friendship with her new classmates. But the guys laughed at her and her grandfather “Patchmaker”.

Lena laughed with them, deciding that they were just very funny. The girl did not immediately understand how embittered and cruel her new “friends” were. The exception was the handsome Dima Somov. He let her sit at his desk and did not laugh with the others.

Margarita Ivanovna suggested that the class go on an excursion to Moscow during the holidays. The children were happy, they decided to earn money for the trip on their own and started a common piggy bank. The guys worked part-time in the garden, on the state farm, in the factory - all for the same purpose. Throughout the process, Lena received ridicule, but the noble Dima protected and protected her as best he could.

Once Dima saved a dog from the flayer Valka. In Lena's eyes, he finally became a hero, she kissed him and offered friendship.

Chapter 6. Truancy

On the last day before the holidays, the children skipped class, ignoring the chalk note on the blackboard. The note was erased by Valka’s older brother. The guys ran away, but not all of them. Shmakova and Popov hid in the classroom.

They witnessed a conversation between Dima Somov and Margarita Ivanovna. The boy, under pressure from the teacher, spoke about absenteeism. Lena, who was standing outside the door, heard this too. She thought. That Dima will tell everything to the others. But her friend remained silent.

Chapter 7. Boycott

The next day, schoolchildren came to class with suitcases, but the long-awaited trip was canceled. The teacher said that the class was punished for disrupting the lesson. They decided to split the money.

Mironova organized a search for the traitor. Lena hoped that Dima would confess, but he was still silent. Somov was almost declared a traitor. Lena unexpectedly took the blame upon herself. The class boycotted the girl.

Chapter 8. Bullying

Buses with schoolchildren went to Moscow. 6 "A" remained in the yard. The class surrounded Lena and Dima. The boys ran away, fleeing from their embittered classmates. They hid in the hairdresser's.

Chapter 9. Run, Scarecrow!

At the hairdresser, Lena decided to get her hair done. Dima left without waiting for her. When the girl came out. She was again surrounded by her classmates. They spat peas at her, teased her and threatened her.

Aunt Klava's comments did not help. The guys decided. That the Scarecrow must leave the city. Vasiliev helped push the crowd, and Lena ran away. A little later, the boy admitted to Somov that he liked Lena.

Chapter 10. Betrayal

Lena managed to break away from the chase. She noticed that her pursuers surrounded Dima, and decided that he would tell the truth. She was waiting for him to come. But nothing happened.

When it got dark, there was a knock on the window. Lena opened it and a terrible bear's head appeared. The girl got very scared and slammed the window.

The grandfather came, he happily told his granddaughter about his new painting, but she did not hear him. They knocked on the window glass again. The grandfather opened the window and managed to “tear off” the bear’s head. Dima was hiding behind the mask.

Lena was sure that he was forced. That he confessed and is now in trouble himself. But she was wrong. The guys were drinking tea at Dima's house. Lena's ears heard offensive words: “Scarecrow!” and “Patcher!”

Chapter 11. Failed Confession

Lena met Dima in her yard. She hung her dress up to dry. Dima asked for forgiveness and promised to tell everything today. He kissed Lena. Valka saw this. Valka tore the dress from the rope and said that he would give it to the owner only in exchange for the bear’s head.

Lena brought the mask to Dima. Dima asked if Lena’s grandfather was aware of the events. Having learned that the Patcher did not know anything, the boy was delighted and ran to confess to the guys. Lena was afraid of the consequences and rushed after him. She hid near the barn, where the whole gang had gathered.

Dima demanded to give the dress back. Valka told about the kiss. Dima was tied up. A fight ensued. Dima tried to confess his denunciation to Mironova. The guys advanced on Dima threateningly. Lena ran into the barn and again confirmed that she was a “traitor.” The dress was thrown around in a circle, when it ended up in Dima’s hands, he did not give it to Lena, but threw it to someone else.

They put the dress on a garden scarecrow, and Dima set it on fire. Lena screamed heart-rendingly. She grabbed the burning effigy and waved it around. The guys ran away in fright.

While removing the dress from the stuffed animal, Lena burned herself. Dima wanted to touch her, but the girl recoiled from him like the plague. She walked away and hid on the river.

Chapter 12. Vacation is over

On the first day of school after the holidays, Lena came to school very late and announced that she was leaving. Vasiliev came to her home and asked if she was really a traitor?

The grandfather assured the boy that Lena had not betrayed anyone. Lena put on her burnt dress and ran away from the house. Vasiliev went after her.

Chapter 13. Exposure

Lena shaved her head at the hairdresser and came to Dima’s house. There she exposed her bald head and gave each of the guys a provocative interrogation.

Exhausted by bullying, the girl suddenly declared that she felt sorry for all her tormentors. She left. The holiday ended, the guys quarreled and went their separate ways.

Chapter 14. “Sorry, Scarecrow!”

In the morning, Lena will be awakened by a knock. Grandfather was boarding up the windows. He decided to leave home and city. Lena saw that her recent tormentors were chasing Dima Somov along the street, and ran after him. The guys ran to class. Dima jumped onto the windowsill and threatened to jump out the window.

Mironova again proposed a boycott, everyone was in favor, except Lena. When the girl was asked why, she replied that she would never participate in bullying.

The teacher entered the class and announced that grandfather Bessoltsev was leaving the city. He gave its residents his home and a priceless collection of paintings. Soon Nikolai Nikolaevich himself came, he donated his favorite painting to the school fund and took his granddaughter.

The painting depicted a beautiful girl Masha, reminiscent of Lena. The guys realized with shame that they had raised their filthy hands against the wrong people. “Forgive us, Scarecrow!” - they wrote on the board.

The main characters of Zheleznyakov’s story “Scarecrow”

Lena Bessoltseva

. A funny girl with teenage angularity, pigtails and a big mouth. Very sincere, direct, with high principles. She came to her grandfather in an ancient town. Classmates greeted the new girl unfriendly. Everyone laughs at her appearance and behavior that is unusual for the entire class. Lena was immediately given the nickname Scarecrow. Out of her kindness, she thought that she was welcome and laughed with everyone. However, she soon realized that she found herself in a hostile environment.

But the girl is not easy to break. She is a steadfast tin soldier in her principles. Lena will neither lie nor adjust under any circumstances. The circumstances were such that she was considered a traitor and a boycott was declared. A brutal persecution began. The girl waits for recognition from the one whose guilt she took upon herself, but in vain. After all the bullying, the betrayal of the friend for whom Lena suffered, she appears to her classmates gathered at Somov’s birthday, in a burnt dress, with a shaved head, and reveals the truth.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Bessoltsev

. Lena's grandfather, passionate about collecting paintings by an unknown artist, his grandfather. He spends most of his money on paintings and wears patched clothes. The children tease him as a “patcher.” Bessoltsev is happy about the arrival of his granddaughter, who is spiritually close to him, but, living in his own world, does not see her problems.

When Lena's dramatic situation is revealed to her grandfather, he helps her make the right decision. With wisdom and sensitivity, he guesses the essence of everyone who poisoned his granddaughter. When leaving, he leaves a portrait for the class, which depicts a girl very similar to Lena. This gesture is a reproach to cruel classmates.

Margarita Ivanovna

. Class teacher 6 "A". She is busy with the upcoming wedding and does not notice the drama in the classroom. Margarita does not enjoy authority; the students fearlessly run away from class to the movies. However, this act resulted in the cancellation of the trip to Moscow. Belatedly, the class teacher finds out about what is happening and regrets that her personal life overshadowed her class life.

Dima Somov

. The leader of the class, from a good family, smart, handsome, strives to be noble, but for him it is more important to appear than to be. He made friends with Lena, tried to protect her, but turned out to be a coward and betrayed her.

Iron Button

.
Mironova
is a leader, a strong-willed girl, with iron principles. She is ready to punish lies and betrayal without any mercy. She doesn’t understand why Lena refuses to take revenge on Somov. The roots of her intransigence are in her mother’s position: as long as everything is covered up.

History of creation and conclusions about the story.

The story "Scarecrow" is based on real events. A similar situation occurred in the fate of the author’s niece. Zheleznikov responded to injustice by first writing the play “Boycott,” and then in 1981 the reader became acquainted with the story “Scarecrow.” Just three years later, a film of the same name directed by Rolan Bykov was released.

Salvador Dali also claimed that “the most cruel creatures in the world are children.” This became the main problem in Zheleznikov’s work. The guys from my classmates mercilessly “kill” the new girl’s faith in the joys of life and their own dignity.

But only the soft, kind and pliable girl did not give in under the pressure of the whole team and, having endured all the ridicule and humiliation, declared publicly: “You must believe until the end!” Without exaggeration, this phrase can be called the main idea of the story, the idea that the author undertook to convey to his young readers.