: A schoolboy comes to a friend dying from a serious illness to make peace with him.

The work “Boys” is the tenth book of the fourth part of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov”.

Kolya Krasotkin

Thirty-year-old widow of the provincial secretary Krasotkin lived "with her own capital" in a small clean house. The husband of this pretty, timid and tender lady died thirteen years ago. Having married at the age of eighteen, she lived in marriage for only a year, but managed to give birth to a son, Kolya, to whom she devoted “all of herself”.

Throughout childhood, the mother trembled over her son, and when the boy entered the gymnasium, "rushed to study all the sciences with him to help him and rehearse lessons with him." Kolya was started to be teased with “sissy”, but his character turned out to be strong, and he managed to defend himself.

Kolya studied well, seeing the respect of his classmates, did not exalt himself, was friendly and was able to restrain his character, especially when communicating with his elders. Kolya was proud, and even his mother managed to subordinate to her will. The widow willingly obeyed her son, but sometimes it seemed to her that the boy was "insensitive" and "loves her little." She was mistaken - Kolya loved his mother very much, but could not stand the "calf tenderness."

From time to time, Kolya liked to play pranks - to weigh and paint. Several books remained from his father in the house, and the boy "read something that he should not be allowed to read at his age." This inappropriate reading entailed more serious pranks.

One summer, a widow took her son to visit her friend, whose husband served at the railway station. There Kolya argued with the local boys that he would lie motionless under the train rushing at full speed.

These fifteen-year-olds too lifted their nose in front of him and at first did not even want to consider him comrade as "small", which was already unbearably offensive.

Kolya won the argument, but lost consciousness when the train passed him, which he admitted some time later to the frightened mother. The news of this “feat” reached the gymnasium, and after Kolya the reputation of “desperate” was finally strengthened. The boy was even about to be expelled, but teacher Dardanelov, who was in love with Madame Krasotkina, stood up for him. The grateful widow gave the teacher little hope of reciprocity, and Kolya began to respect him more, although he despised Dardanelov for his “feelings”.

Soon after this, Kolya dragged a mutt into the house, called it Chime, locked it in his room, didn’t show anyone, and earnestly taught all sorts of tricks.

Children

It was a frosty November. It was a day off. Kolya wanted to go “on one very important matter”, but he couldn’t, because everyone had left the house and he remained to look after the children — his brother and sister — whom he loved and called “bubbles”. The children belonged to the Krasotkin’s neighbor, the wife of a doctor who abandoned his family. The doctor’s servant was about to give birth, and both ladies drove her to the midwife, and Agafya, who served as Krasotkin, lingered in the bazaar.

The boy was greatly amused by the reasoning of the "bubbles" about where the children come from. Brother and sister were afraid to stay home alone, and Kolya had to entertain them - show them a toy cannon that can shoot, and force Chime to do all sorts of tricks.

Finally, Agafia returned, and Kolya left for his important business, taking with him the Chime.

Pupils

Kolya met with the eleven-year-old boy Smurov, the son of a wealthy official who was two classes younger than Krasotkin. Smurov’s parents forbade his son to hang out with Krasotkin, a “desperate rascal”, so the boys talked secretly.

Schoolchildren went to their friend Ilyusha Snegirev, who was seriously ill and did not get out of bed.Alexey Karamazov persuaded the guys to visit Ilyusha to brighten his last days.

Kolya was surprised that Karamazov was busy with the baby, when trouble in his own family - they will soon be judged for the patricide of his older brother. For Krasotkin, Alexey was a mysterious person, and the boy dreamed of meeting him.

The boys walked through the market square. Kolya announced to Smurov that he had become a socialist and a supporter of universal equality, then he spoke of an early frost, to which people were not yet accustomed.

People have a habit, in everything, even in state and political relations. Habit is the main engine.

On the way, Kolya started talking and bullying with men and merchants, declaring that he loves to "talk with the people." He even managed to make a small scandal from scratch and confuse the young bailiff.

Having approached the house of staff captain Snegirev, Kolya ordered Smurov to call Karamazov, wanting to “sniff” with him first.

Bug

Kolya was anxiously waiting for Karamazov - “there was something in all the stories he heard about Alyosha that was sympathetic and attracting.” The boy decided not to face the dirt, show his independence, but was afraid that because of his short stature, Karamazov would not accept him as an equal.

Alyosha was glad to see Kolya. In delirium, Ilyusha often recalled a friend and suffered very much that he did not come. Kolya told Karamazov how they met. Krasotkin noticed Ilyusha when he went to the preparatory class. Classmates teased a weak boy, but he did not obey and tried to fight back. This rebellious pride pleased Kolya, and he took Ilyusha under his protection.

Soon, Krasotkin noticed that the boy was too attached to him. Being an enemy of “all kinds of calf tenderness,” Kolya began to treat Ilyusha more and more coldly, in order to “foster the character” of the baby.

Once, Kolya found out that the footman Karamazov taught Ilyusha a “brutal joke” - to wrap a pin in a bread crumb and feed this “treat” to a hungry dog. The pin was swallowed by a homeless bug. Ilyusha was sure that the dog died, and suffered very much. Kolya decided to use Ilyushin's remorse and, for educational purposes, declared that he was no longer talking to him.

Kolya intended to “forgive” Ilyusha a few days later, but classmates, seeing that he had lost his elder’s protection, again began to call Ilyusha’s father “washcloth”. During one of these “battles” the baby was severely beaten. Kolya, who was present at the same time, wanted to intercede for him, but Ilyusha thought that his former friend and patron was also laughing at him, and he poked Krasotkin in his hip with a penknife. On the same day, to the limit, excited Ilyusha bit Alyosha's finger. Then the baby lay down. Kolya was very sorry that he still hadn’t come to visit him, but he had his own reasons.

Ilyusha decided that God punished him with an illness for the murder of a bug. Snegiryov and the boys searched the whole city, but the dog was never found. Everyone hoped that Kolya would find the bug, but he said that he was not going to do it.

Before entering Ilyusha, Kolya asked Karamazov what the boy’s father was, captain Snegirev. In the city he was considered a buffoon.

There are people who are deeply sensitive, but somehow crushed. Their joking is like a malicious irony on those to whom they dare not tell the truth from long-term humiliating shyness before them.

Snegiryov adored his son. Alyosha was afraid that after the death of Ilyusha Snegiryov would lose his mind or “take his life” from grief.

Proud Kohl was afraid that the guys told fables about him to Karamazov. For example, they said that at breaks he plays with the kids in the "Cossack robbers." But Alyosha did not see anything wrong with that, considering the game "an emerging need for art in a young soul." Calm Kohl promised to show Ilyusha a certain "performance".

Ilyushin’s bed

The tight and poor room of the Snegirevs was full of children from the gymnasium.Alexey unobtrusively, one by one, brought them together with Ilya, hoping to alleviate the boy’s suffering. He could not approach only the independent Krasotkin, who told Smurov sent to him that he had “his own calculation”, and he himself knew when to go to the patient.

Ilyusha lay in bed under the images, sitting next to his legless sister and “crazy mother” - a half-crazy woman, whose behavior resembled a child. Since Ilyusha got sick, the head-captain has almost stopped drinking and even mama has become silent and thoughtful.

Snegirev in every possible way tried to amuse his son. Occasionally he ran out into the canopy and "began to sob with some kind of flood, shaking weeping." Both Snegiryov and mommy rejoiced when their home was filled with children's laughter.

Recently, the wealthy merchant Katerina Ivanovna began to help the Snegirev family. She gave money and paid for the doctor’s regular visits, and the staff captain “forgot his former ambition and humbly accepted alms.” So today they were expecting the famous doctor from Moscow, whom Katerina Ivanovna asked to see Ilyusha.

Kolya was amazed at how Ilyusha changed in just two months.

He could not imagine that he would see such a thin and yellowed face, so burning in feverish heat and as if terribly enlarged eyes, such thin hands.

Crouching at the bedside of a friend, Kolya mercilessly reminded him of the dead Bug, not noticing that Alyosha was shaking his head negatively. Then Smurov opened the door, Kolya whistled, and Chime ran into the room, in which Ilyusha recognized the Bug.

Kolya told how he had been looking for a dog for several days, and then he locked it in himself and taught him various tricks. That is why he did not come to Ilyusha for so long. Krasotkin did not understand how such a shock could have killed a sick boy, otherwise he would not have thrown out “such a thing”. Probably, only Alexei understood that it was dangerous to worry the patient, everyone else was glad that the bug was alive.

Kolya forced the chime to show all the learned tricks, and then handed Ilyusha a cannon and a book, which he traded specially for a friend from a classmate. Mamma liked the gun very much, and Ilyusha generously gave her a toy. Then Kolya told the patient all the news, including the story that had recently happened to him.

Walking along the market square, Kolya saw a herd of geese and knocked out one stupid guy to check whether the cart’s wheel would cut the goose neck. The goose, of course, died, and the instigators got to the justice of the peace. He decided that the goose would go to the guy who paid the ruble to the owner of the bird. The judge released Kolya, threatening to report to the authorities of the gymnasium.

An important Moscow doctor arrived, and the guests had to leave the room for a while.

Early development

Krasotkin got the opportunity to talk with Alexei Karamazov in private, in the hallway. Trying to seem adult and educated, the boy laid out his thoughts to him about God, Voltaire, Belinsky, socialism, medicine, a woman's place in modern society, and other things. The thirteen-year-old Kolya believed that God was needed “for world order,” Voltaire did not believe in God, but “loved humanity,” Christ, if he had lived now, would certainly have joined the revolutionaries, and “a woman is a subordinate being and must obey.”

After listening to Kolya very seriously, Alyosha was amazed at his early development. It turned out that neither Voltaire with Belinsky nor the “forbidden literature”, except for the only issue of the magazine “Bell,” Krasotkin did not really read, but he had a firm opinion about everything. In his head was a real “mess” of something unread, read too early and not completely understood.

Alyosha became sad that this young man, who had not yet begun to live, was already perverted by “all this rude nonsense” and too proud, however, like all Russian gymnasium students, whose main property is “no knowledge and selfless conceit”.

Show you ‹...› to the Russian schoolchild a map of the starry sky, about which he until then had no idea, and tomorrow he will return this map to you corrected.

Alyosha believed that Kolya would be corrected by communication with people like the Snegirevs. Kolya told Karamazov how sometimes his painful pride tormented him. Sometimes it seems to the boy that the whole world is laughing at him, and in response he himself begins to torment others, especially his mother.

Alyosha noted that “the devil was embodied in this vanity and climbed into the whole generation”, and advised Kolya not to be like everyone else, especially since he is still capable of self-condemnation. He foresaw for Kolya a difficult but blessed life. Krasotkin was delighted with Karamazov, especially because he was talking to him as an equal, and hoped for a long friendship.

Ilyusha

While Kolya and Karamazov were talking, the metropolitan doctor examined Ilyusha, his sister, mother, and went out into the canopy. Krasotkin heard the doctor say that now nothing depends on him, but Ilyusha’s life can be extended if he is taken to Italy for at least a year. Not at all embarrassed by the poverty surrounding him, the doctor advised Snegirev to take his daughter to the Caucasus, and his wife to a psychiatric clinic in Paris.

Kolya was so angry at the speech of an arrogant doctor that he spoke roughly to him and called him a “doctor”. Alyosha had to shout at Krasotkin. The doctor stomped in anger and left, and the staff captain "shook from silent sobs."

Clutching his head with both fists, he began to sob, somehow screaming ridiculously, fastening himself with all his might, however, so that they would not hear his screaming in the hut.

Ilyusha guessed what sentence the doctor had handed down to him. After his death, he asked his father to take another boy for himself, and Kolya to come to his grave with Chime. Then the dying boy hugged Kolya and his father tightly.

Unable to stand, Krasotkin hurriedly said goodbye, jumped out into the canopy and burst into tears. Alyosha, who found him there, took a promise from the boy to come to Ilyusha as often as possible.