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Three piglets in business. The big game
Marina Korsakova
Everyone knows that the three little piglets got rid of the wolf and lived happily in their wonderful house. But do you know that the story continues? The Junior piglet convinces the brothers to try themselves in the construction business. The team is gathering. Someone in a black cloak comes and turns out to be a tricky competitor. Looks like the little piglets are close to losing the house of their own… Read the exciting and instructive story from Marina Korsakova!
Three piglets in business. The big game
Marina Korsakova
© Marina Korsakova, 2024
ISBN 978-5-0064-0140-2
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Preface for parents
On the one hand, this is a book for pleasure. It’s full of apple pies, sweet cinnamon pears, mushroom soups and all that tasty stuff… maybe, there are even too many carbs in this book, you know!
On the other hand, this is a book for learning. It covers planning and controlling, explains how to resolve the conflicts and what types of people there are (excuse me, not “people”, of course – Piglets, Ferrets and Hedgehogs).
This is a book for children, but like any good children’s book, it is for adults.
For adults who are undertaking home renovation, for adults who are planning to start their own business, for adults who are raising a child. The book leaves us the important messages like “when you build a house for others, don’t forget to ask them about what they want.” Or gives us crafty ideas like making the “worry book” for managing the risks.
It reminds that people who at first glance seem to be useless, can happen to be very important one day, because different people bring different benefits to the great ideas.
It gives the example of how you can empower yourself when you have no strength to move on.
It teaches to act properly, being mistaken: realize, apologize and make better.
In short, this is a book for children whom their parents want to become the successful grown-ups. Successful at work and in human relationship. Also, this book is good for adults who want to grow up a little themselves.
⠀
Anastasia Rubtsova,
the psychotherapist
and the mom.
Preface
Hey, sis! I’m writing you from a faraway land.
As you know I was destined for a cruel death because of this treacherous plan of the three villains. I fell into a cunningly set-up cauldron of boiling water.
However, I escaped! I left my home forest. But these three are sleeping peacefully in their little beds, baking pies, drinking cocoa, and I… My life is anxious and difficult.
Dear sis, they should pay for what they’ve done to me! I was so close to my goal.
You have always been the most trickish, smartest of us, and now it is you I ask to destroy the last, third house.
Best friendly regards,
Your unhappy brother.
Sender’s address: La Boca,
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Chapter 1.
The Adventure Begins
Tea with apricot jam. – New dream. – Who is to roll in yellow leaves? – The medal above the bed. – End of the piggy bank.
“It’s good we got rid of Wolf, though!” Major said and turned the firewood in the fireplace. It was warm during the day in early September, but the evenings were getting colder.
“That’s right,” Middle said, stirring apricot jam into his tea.
The tea made of some forest currant and sage leaves was good itself, but the jam made it especially fragrant.
Junior thought the same, and twirled his tail as a sign of agreeing with his brothers. But he had a thought, which he dared to say for the first time:
“What are we going to do now?”
“Drink tea,” Middle said. “And bake pies. Tomorrow we’ll make rolls…”
There were a lot of apricots this year, and Middle was concerned about their proper use. He thought it was right to use everything wisely. He was very organized and had some big plans: cakes, jams, pastille, apricot marshmallows…
“No,” Junior said. “What are we going to do in general? What is our plan? We’ve run away from Wolf. We’ve protected the small house. We have fun, we go for walks… We have collected herbarium. But… I want my own room!”
The big brothers’ snouts widened in surprise.
“Should we build another small house?” Junior asked. “Or even two. Or not a small house, but a big one? There are many animals in the forest. Wolf might come back. And anyway, it’s not about Wolf… It’s about adventure!”
The big brothers’ snouts stretched forward.
“I was thinking,” Junior continued. “Why do we live in such an… ordinary house? Here is only one room and it’s not very pretty… Why don’t we build a new house? With a library, a music studio and a winter garden?”
The big brothers’ snouts stretched forward so much that they looked like the trunks of little pink elephants. Major was the first to cope with the surprise and, with a loud sneeze, pulled his snout back in.
“Actually, that kind of makes sense,” he said thoughtfully, addressing no one. Ever since the piglets started living without their parents, Major felt responsible for his brothers. “If we build a nice new house for the animals, we will do the right thing and earn lots of coins.”
“Why?” Middle asked cautiously. Sometimes he thought that the older and younger brother understood each other much better, despite the age difference.
“To do another right thing later!” Junior cheerfully replied. ‘We’ll build a house, earn some coins, use those coins to build more houses, then a pastry-shop. There will be a whole city! Come on,” Junior tugged at the middle piglet’s tail. “It’ll be so interesting!”
“Interesting?!” the piglet was outraged. “How exactly are we going to do that?… We have to draw a blueprint. Then dig a big hole, make a foundation. Build the walls… and the roof. Plaster, paint, flooring. And everything else you’ve just mentioned… a winter garden! It’s not a simple house like ours. And this one, I’m sorry to say, we only built it on the third attempt.”
Junior blushed and Major smiled.
“It is much more complicated to build a big new house!” Middle finished his thought.
“Wait a minute,” Major said. “No one is saying that it is not harder. But that’s why it’s so interesting! First, we do something wrong… How could we not? We do it once, we do it twice and we learn! But imagine: we will build such a great house, which was never built in the forest before!” the piglet got even more excited. “The best and the strongest one. And the most beautiful. So that all the animals would admire it and be proud of us! And then the piglets will go down in history as the best builders!”
Middle shrugged his shoulders and poured tea into large clay mugs.
“Don’t you want it?” Major continued. “And we’ll have lots of coins, not just one piggy bank, but ten! You can buy anything you want: all the paints, books, bicycles! A big stove and the best jam pots!”
“I’m not sure,” Middle thoughtfully said. “I have everything.”
Putting on his rubber boots, he left the house. He had to prune the rose bushes.
* * *
In fact, the heroic three piglets who rid the forest of Wolf were not the only piglets in the forest. Not everyone knows, but… there were three more piglets! They lived in the Railway Neighborhood, a spruce forest not far from the station. Unlike the already known to us pink piglets, the other three piglets were grey and with some small stripes on their backs. That’s why they were called the Striped.
The sky was gloomy and the air smelled thickly of mushrooms after the rain. As walking along the bridge over the river, Middle heard a loud whistle. The striped piglets came strolling towards him.
“Hi, bro!” the elder Striped said. They were all the same height, but the older one wore a jaunty cap.
“Hi,” Middle politely said. Despite the fact that in the forest they were afraid of the desperate striped piglets, the pink piglets considered them their cousins and got along well with them.
“How are you?” the Striped in a cap asked, spitting out an acorn crust. “What’s new?”
“We’re thinking of building a house.”
“Why?” the striped piglets were surprised. “You already have a house.”
“Yeah,” Middle said. “But we want a big house. With a winter garden. So that other animals can live there. The business. Wanna join?”
“Nah,” the elder Striped answered. “We have a lot to do. You know… Fishing, eating acorns. Then the leaves will be yellow, we’ll have to roll in them. Also… There’s a lot of responsibility. And winter’s coming soon.”
“Sure,” Middle agreed. The responsibility worried him a lot. So many things could go wrong: not enough timbers, the roof could cave in… The tools, the boards, the bricks! Middle thought that it would be better to make jam in peace, and, after all, to roll around in yellow leaves, but for some reason he didn’t want to agree with the striped piglets right now.
“There is a guy on the block,” another striped piglet without a cap spat. “He also decided to do this… Business thing! He set up a shop with all sorts of things! And guess what? He spent all the piggy bank money and went broke! Nah, business isn’t our thing. We’ll find an easy job somewhere… A part-time, for example.”
“Thus, bro,” the third Striped summed up. “You do your thing. And we’ll do ours. Ciao!”
The elder Striped lifted his cap, and these three disappeared into the bushes.
Thinking about everything, Middle walked for a long time. The leaves that were beginning to fall rustled cozily under his hooves. When he returned home, his brothers were already asleep under their blankets. Their common piggy bank was on the table among the plates and cups. It was clear from its pitiful look that it had been thoroughly shaken. A notebook laid next to the piggy bank – something was counted and drawn in it. Middle washed the dishes and kneaded the dough for baking rolls in the morning. Life seemed calm and simple. Well, maybe they would change their minds…
* * *
The excited look of Junior and the determined look of Major let Middle know that yesterday’s conversation had not been forgotten. Despite his protests, the brothers had barely finished their tea and set up the piggy bank back on the table.
“This house will be so beautiful!” Junior continued to dream. “Painted walls! We’ll drink hot cocoa on the terrace! We’ll plant raspberry bushes around it.”
Major nodded in approval.
“Do you remember you ate raspberries the year before and had a stomach ache afterward?” Middle balefully said to Junior.
Junior fell silent.
“Building a big house is extremely hard!” Middle continued. “We’ll have to hire builders! What if they don’t work hard enough? Or pouring rain will start? The walls could be destroyed! And you… you can’t do anything! Yes, you can draw little pictures, but you’ve never decorated an entire house! What if it turns out badly and everyone laughs at you? Do you want to be embarrassed?” he continued to pressure his brother.
“I don’t,” Junior said. He felt sad and removed the notebook from the table.
“Wait,” Major said to his brother. “Do you remember,” he turned to the middle piglet, “the first time you made an apple pie, and you spoilt it? Half of the pie was raw, the other half was burnt. And Granny Owl was yelling that you were going to poison her?” Junior giggled. “And you said that you would never ever touch pastry again.”
Middle got embarrassed.
“And what wonderful pies you bake now!” Major continued. “And you,” he turned to his little brother. “Do you remember how afraid you were to swim in the lake? How it seemed to you that it was deep and that you would definitely be bitten? How we got into the water with you and held you… And what now? Who has the medal for the best swimmer hanging over his bed?”
It was all true. Despite the panic, Junior had become an excellent swimmer after hard training. Remembering this, the little brother looked reproachfully at Middle and this one shrugged.
“We can do this,” Major summed up, “And it doesn’t matter that we don’t know how to do it yet. We’ll hold each other! We will learn how to build the walls of big houses, and how to make a winter garden… I guess it must be in the books. We will definitely learn! Look at us!” Major poked at a shiny copper kettle, which had just happened to be on the table. It reflected three perky little snouts. “We’ve managed to figure out our lives,” he continued. “We bake pies, we swim in the lake, and we got rid of Wolf! Even if we don’t succeed, trying is more interesting than doing nothing and just staring at the ceiling…”
“…And more interesting than spitting acorns!” Middle suddenly blurted out.
“Exactly!” Major agreed.
“So, are we breaking it?” Junior squealed with delight.
Well, this time the piggy bank’s pitiful look didn’t help. Three confident hooves fell on it at once.
A mountain of coins was laying on the table.
The adventure had begun.
Chapter 2.
The Struggle at the Walnut Glade
An announcement appears on a tree. – Someone tall in a black cloak. – Why does your tail itch? – A disappointing defeat. – An unexpected decision.
Birdsong woke up Junior. The sun was shining through the window. Having splashed cold water on his snout, the piglet looked round. If his brothers had seen him, they would have made him wash his snout properly!
Thinking a while, Junior decided to pick some wild blueberries for breakfast and left the house.
Junior knew how to find joy in every sunny day. He liked to swim, go boating on the lake or just walk around with his basket. The piglet always turned his little snout in all directions in search of interesting, tasty and beautiful things. And now, having weaved around the forest for about half an hour, Junior returned not only with ripe berries, but also with a big bouquet of wildflowers.
The piglet noticed something new on the tree near the little house. It was an announcement.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ANNOUCEMENT
We are happy to announce competition for the construction of a forest residential complex!
The one who builds the best house will be reimbursed for all expenses from the forest and will receive the title of Chief Forest Builder!
