What understanding! Oh, Adam could certainly be relied on and I decided to be frank with him.
“I’d be glad (Я был бы рад) to have a pair of skates."
"Oh! Skates! Well, I don't know. You can’t skate all year round.”
That was a consideration, and I had to agree with him.
“A football would be better (Футбольный мяч был бы лучше),” he said. “But the boys will play with it; they will lose it.”
The heavy bag was killing me.
"I ... I can’t think, Adam”.
"Oh, I know what I’ll give you! It’ll please Mama.”
“Oh, thank you, Adam.” I could hardly make another step. Even in my poor clothes I felt terribly hot.
He looked at his watch. “Quick, boy. Only two minutes to go.” •
The train was at the platform. Adam jumped into a first- class carriage, took the bag and disappeared for a moment. Then he gave me through the window a big brass (медный) calendar.
"Take it,” Adam said. “Isn’t it lovely?”
“Oh, yes, thank you, Adam,” I answered in a trembling voice.
When I came home, I went upstairs to show my present to Grandfather.
“It’s not gold, is it, Grandpa?"
. “No,” he said. “If it’s from Adam, you may be sure it’s
brass.”
There was a silence. At last he turned and looked at my gloomy face.
“Do you feel like skating?”
“I’ve got no skates, Grandpa," I said with tears in my eyes.
“Don’t be so easily discouraged. We’ll see what we can do.”
He went downstairs and fetched a big wooden box full of all kinds of old things, including skates. After looking in it for about half an hour, he finally found a pair of small wooden skates. Oh, joy! We immediately went to the lake.
Grandpa fixed my skates on and began to teach me how to skate. I was happy as I moved about on the ice.
As we walked home, Grandpa asked:
"Did you enjoy skating?"
"Oh, Grandpa, it was lovely, simply wonderful!”
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