But the crumb, by some miracle, skillfully climbed to the very crests of ice drifts, slid off of them, and jumped again from one sheet of ice to another. Silence reigned on the shore. Boys froze with open mouths and wide eyes. Elders were worried and carefully watched every movement of the "varmint". If he got stuck for a while, everyone became really worried, and some people started shouting all kinds of advice.
"Turn to the right, jump to the right, son of a bitch!"
"How — to the right?" The other one gets mad at the advisor. "Don't you see, there's water there; let him wait till another ice floe comes close... Don't move, stay where you are!"
Fortunately Fedko couldn't hear any of their advice and happily reached the opposite shore. Boys started to squeak from happiness, fight, and throw stones at ice. Adults sighed from relief and berated Fedko-brigand, shaking their heads. But in their berating was no anger or chagrin. A dexterous boy, what to say. And how did he, a whelp, do that, eh?
From the other side, Fedya waved his beanie on the stick. That shore was empty, because one couldn't get there from the streets — there were someone's walls and wattle fences.
"But how will he come back? Can it be that he will be on the ice again?"
"And so it is; he is on the ice again!"
It was really so; Fedko jumped on the ice floe, then on the second one, everyone quieted down again watching the foolhardy guy. No one shouted advice anymore, and no one berated; they just didn't take their eyes off a tiny crumb who climbed, ran among gray frightful ice sheets, jumped, and fussed. It was such a small crumb, but how deftly and fearlessly it overcame huge pieces of ice that came on cracking as if they intended to crush the impudent living creature. And how this creation was stomping that gray pile of ice, even waving sometimes his tiny stick.
"Well, what a varmint!" someone sighed when Fedko overcame a difficult place. And the "varmint" was closer and closer. He was not far away. You could see his naughty eyes that were looking arduously for a new place where he could go next. He had found it. He leaned on the stick. The stick bounced. He hit the ice and leaned on it again. It was fixed more or less securely. A split second! — he's on another ice floe. A sinewy darn kid that jumped like a cat. And now the boy was already on the shore. Happy screams all around, squeaks of his friends. What a fine fellow, wasn't he? That's how it must be!
"Well, it's your luck that you're so dexterous!" Adults shook their heads. But they weren't berating and didn't feel angry at all, "what would they say to such a yob!" Tolya choked as he watched Fedko clamber over the ice floes. His eyes lit up, his heart beating fast and wild. There was nothing scary there, on those ice floats. But how interesting it was; what a spree! It would be so nice to go there himself. He just had to take his galoshes off; it's hard to run in such shoes. It wasn't difficult at all. He'd just take Fedko's stick, poke it in ice, and jump. What a big deal!
And when Fedko stepped ashore again, the boys surrounded him and looked at him with joy and delight like they'd look at a hero. Tolya felt that he could cross the river too, but he not only could; he'd go and do that! And he, without saying anything to anyone, quickly threw off the galoshes, dropped the knapsack from his shoulders to the ground, and went to Fedko.
"Give me your stick!" he said.
"What for?"
"I want to go to the other side too."
"Where??"
"To the other side."
Spirka and Styopka just snorted. But Fedko didn't laugh.
"But if you fall into the water?"
"Don't worry, I won't. Give it to me!"
"Don't do it better, Tolka... You can't."
"Gee! Not only you can. So give me the stick. What, do you feel sorry to give me your stick?" "Okay, take it..." Fedko shrugged. "But be careful..."
Tolya took the stick and went closer to the river.
"And who again? Where? Why? Who?" People screamed suddenly when they saw Tolya on ice. But Tolya, just like Fedko, rushed forward and jumped onto the second ice floe. At that time, a whole pile of ice moved in and cut Tolya off from the shore. Tolya found himself alone among terrible, cold and huge pieces of ice that moved, crashed into each other, and whirled.
People on the shore were yelling something and running around. Tolya got confused: he wanted to run back but couldn't: ahead of him was a whole strip of water. And behind him, a huge ice rock was moving. It seemed to be willing to crash the sheet on which he was purposely standing, and it was catching up with him.
Tolya got so scared. His arms felt somehow very cold, and his legs became weak and skidded on the ice. He wanted just to fall on the ice, lean against it with his whole body, and scream to call for help. But he was afraid to do it, so he just stood and cried. Those ones who stood ashore were worried; they screamed, discussed how to save Tolya, and didn't know what to do because everyone was suggesting his own advice. All the crowd was going along with the ice floe on which Tolya was standing and crying. They yelled, waved their hands, sent someone to go somewhere.
At the same time, Tolya was floating further. He dropped the stick from his hands and blew on his red fingers, his tears pouring upon them. Some of adults tried to go on ice from another side, but the ice curved and crumbled under them. One sewer almost fell into the water.
Now, Fedko suddenly appeared, seemingly from nowhere. When Tolya got lost and everyone saw the fear on his face, Fedko had instantly disappeared. They even wanted to berate him for so much trouble for the young gentleman. But Fedko vanished like he never existed.
"Aha! He got scared, the son of a whore! A damn varmint; he taught the guy and ran away." Everyone knew that Tolya was the son of wealthy parents, the richest people in their village, and someone even ran to find his papa. And at the moment, when everyone was fussing and no one really knew how to save Tolya, Fedko appeared unexpectedly. He was holding a very long stick in his hands into which he was hammering a nail, while looking worriedly at Tolya from time to time.
Spirka and Styopka tried their best to help him.
Well, the nail is hammered, it's fixed well.
"Hey, let me go... Go out of the way!"
Everyone parted when they hear his shout. Oh just look, this varmint is again here! But he's holding a stick; he's probably going to save the young gentleman.
"Where're you going, brigand?"
"Move away!.. Get out of the way everyone!" Fedko made his way through the crowd, chose an ice floe, and jumped.
"Hold on, Tolka! I'll be there in a minute! Hold on, don't move! Stay where you are!"
When Tolya saw Fedko, he began to feel worried and wanted to run toward him, but Fedko's order made him stop. Five minutes later, Fedko was on Tolya's ice floe.
"Well, give me your hand... Come with me. Don't be scared, go boldly. Take the stick and lean on it. Well, so... Hold on... Stay there... I'll jump over, wait for me..."
"Oh, don't go!.. I'm scared..." Tolya grabbed him.
"Don't move! Oh what a silly guy... I'll jump over and push my ice floe towards you, and you'll go then... Because you yourself won't jump over..." Fedko jumped over, ran to the edge of his ice floe, and foisted the stick in a nearby pile of ice. The ice snarled and moved closer to Tolya.
"Now come here!.. Well, you see... Now go to this edge. Go boldly, don't be scared... Stand here. Stay there, don't be afraid. I'll go back and push us to the shore..."
Fedko ran to the other edge of the ice floe and was just about to push off the bottom of the river with a stick, when a sudden crack was heard under him. The fragile ice floe broke in two pieces, and Fedko disappeared in the water. Everyone froze.
But Fedko didn't become puzzled; he grabbed the ice with both his hands and tried to hold on with all his might, trying not to be swept away. But to the patch of water that was caused by this, a new ice floe was moving. Fedko was in danger. Tolya saw it and ran across the ice floe with a cry.
"Tolya! Tolya!" Fedko shouted. "Give me your stick... Give me the stick... I'll climb out."
But at that time, the ice floe came closely to the shore and Tolya flew off of it like an arrow. Styopka, Spirka, and other guys rushed to Fedko and held out a stick to him. Fedko was already turning blue and wanted to take hold of the stick, but his hand didn't obey because he couldn't move it. The boys couldn't come to him, because the ice floe was bending, and the water was bubbling and breaking the ice in several pieces again.
"Styopka, lie down on the ice sheet and move over to me," Fedko croaked.
Adults shouted something from the shore, but the boys didn't listen to them. Styopka lay down and began to sneak up on Fedko.
"Get off the ice there, whoever is left," Styopka shouted, looking around. But at this time, one of the boys handed Styopka a leash tied from a belt. Styopka threw it to Fedko..
"Take it, Fedya! Take it... Faster, Fedya, because the ice is approaching." (A note to the text: "Fedya" and "Fedko" are short forms of the name "Fedir") Fedko stretched out his hand, but again he caught hold of the ice.
"I can't..." he hissed. "My hands don't obey anymore, I'm going to fall..."
But suddenly he grabbed the leash with his teeth, filled his mouth with it, clenched his teeth tightly, and shook his head, as if saying, "Pull!". Styopka and guys and adults from the shore started to pull Fedko out.
"Hold on, Fedya; hold on some more... Eh, hold on a bit more! Bravo!"
Fedko turned completely blue from the cold, and also because he had clutched the leash with his teeth. But as soon as they pulled him out onto the ground, he rose to his feet, beginning to stomp and wave his hands very quickly. Water was pouring from him and his teeth were chattering, but he didn't care.
"That's nothing, it isn't the first time, I have already fallen through the ice this winter three times. I just need to run and get warm."
But he didn't run that day.