Перевод . on saturday there was no school. all the children were free from classes.they were enjoying a quiet weekend. but things were different for tom — hehad to work. he had to paint a fence around the garden of aunt polly’s house.it was a very long was standing there with a big bucket of white paint. he looked at thefence, then at the bucket of white paint, then at the fence again. he did not wantto paint the fence! he wanted to be with his friends, to go swimming and fishing.‘my friends will laugh at me when they see me with this bucket! ’ he thought.he started to paint, but after an hour he was tired. he was sad and did notknow what to do. then he had an idea. he smiled and went on painting the fence.soon tom saw his friend ben rogers. he was walking towards tom andhe was making strange noises. ‘sssh, sssh! ’ he was saying. ‘ting-a ling! i ama steamboat on the mississippi river! ’‘sssh-sssh — i am a steamboat! ’ he didn’t really sound like a steamboat, buthe enjoyed doing it.there was a big red apple in ben’s hand. he looked at tom and said, ‘you areworking, and i am not! i am going to the river! i’m going swimming! ’‘work? ’ said tom. ‘this isn’t work. this is pleasure! ’‘do you like painting the fence? ’ asked ben. ‘yes,’ said tom, ‘i do! ’ he steppedback from the fence — there was a happy smile on his face — and painted again.ben watched him and said, ‘let me paint the fence’. ‘no,’ said tom, ‘youdon’t know how to do it. it’s a difficult job, i can’t let you do it.’ben was unhappy, he wanted to paint it so much, but tom did not let him.then he said, ‘please, let me paint! i’ll give you half of my apple.’ tom thoughtfor a minute or two and then shook his head and said ‘no.’ he stepped back fromthe fence, looked at it and smiled again.ben said, ‘i’ll give you all my apple, please, give me the brush! ’tom thought for a minute again and then said ‘ok’, took the apple andstarted eating it. ben started to paint the fence. soon ben got tired and wentaway with the noises of a steamboat again.then billy fisher with a kite in his hand came up to tom. he wanted to paintthe fence too. but tom said ‘no’ to him. ‘i’ll give you my kite,’ said billy and tomagreed. billy started to paint the fence.by the afternoon the fence was painted twice. tom had a kite, a cat, a longpiece of rope, a cake and some other wonderful things. he was happy. he wentto aunt polly and said, ‘the fence is painted, and there is no more paint.’aunt polly was very surprised and said, ‘you are a good boy, tom.’
