100 Stories About Alyosha and his Friends

“A castle is a big and beautiful house where King and Queen live,” Moc and Happy Hop answer together.

Timoshka comes to his friends.

“What are you doing?” he asks Alyosha.

“He is building a castle,” Moc and Happy Hop answer together.

“What is a castle?” Timoshka asks.

“A castle is a big and beautiful house where King and Queen live,” Bertha, Moc and Happy Hop answer together.

“And they live there with many people, cats, dogs, mice and hamsters,” Moc says.

At this moment Mother calls Alyosha to have breakfast.

CHAPTER 19. WHY IS HAPPY HOP SAD?

When Alyosha returns all his friends are sitting around the sandbox and waiting for him.

Alyosha has got a big box in his hands.

“What have you got in the box?” Bertha asks.

Alyosha opens the box and his friends see many small figures there.

They are interested. “What’s this?” they ask.

Alyosha takes a figure of a man. “This is King,” he says.

Then he takes a figure of a woman. “This is Queen,” he says.

“And where is the cat?” Timoshka asks.

“I have got many cats here,” and Alyosha takes out several different cats. The cats are white, black, grey and red.

“One, two, three, four, five, six,” Timoshka counts. “Oh, we have got six cats!”

“And dogs, have you got many dogs too?” Bertha looks into the box.

Alyosha takes out several different dogs. They are big and small, black, white and brown.

“How many dogs have we got?” asks Bertha.

“Try to count,” Alyosha says.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,” Bertha counts. “We have got seven dogs.”

“I want to see mice,” Moc says, “have you got mice too? Many mice?”

“Not many,” Alyosha says, “try to count the mice,” and he takes several mice out of the box. The mice are small and grey.

“One, two, three, four, five,” Moc counts, “no, not many.”

Happy Hop doesn’t ask anything. He is sitting on the sand very, very sad.

“Happy Hop, why don’t you ask about hamsters?” Alyosha asks. “And why are you so sad?”

“Because I cannot count,” Happy Hop says. “You all can count and I cannot.”

CHAPTER 20. HAPPY HOP LEARNS TO COUNT

“Cannot you count at all?” Moc asks. “Alyosha, let’s teach him to count!”

“Yes, Alyosha, let’s teach him to count!” all the friends say.

“Ok,” Alyosha says, “Look,” and he puts one figure on the sand, “this is one.”

“One,” Happy Hop repeats.

Alyosha puts one more figure. “This is two.”

“Two,” Happy Hop repeats.

Then Alyosha puts more figures on the sand and counts, “three, four, five.”

“Three, four, five,” Happy Hop repeats.

Alyosha puts five more figures on the sand and says, “Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”

Happy Hop repeats.

“And now let’s count hamsters,” Alyosha says, “I have got several hamsters in the box, let’s count them.”

He puts all the hamsters on the sand and Happy Hop begins to count, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”

“You have got ten hamsters,” he says.

“Yes,” Alyosha says, “I have got ten hamsters. Now you can count.”

“Wow!” Happy Hop cries, “Now I can count!”

He begins to jump, high, high, very high. Because he is happy.

CHAPTER 21. TIMOSHKA DOESN’T WANT TO WORK

Alyosha and his friends continue to build the castle. Dad comes to them.

“What are you doing?” he asks.