When the boys' choir was through rehearsing Boris Sergeyevich said, "Tell me what you gave your mothers for Women's Day. We'll start with you, Dennis."

"I gave her a pincushion. It's very beautiful. It looks just like a frog. My fingers are still sore, 'cause it took me so long to make them. I kept pricking my fingers all the time. I made two."

"We all made two of them," Misha added. "One for our mothers and one for our teacher Raisa Ivanovna."

"But why'd you all make pincushions? It seems so strange,"

Boris Sergeyevich said.

"That's because we're doing pincushions in arts and crafts. We did devils, and now we're doing pincushions," Valery said.

"What kind of devils?"

"Clay devils. Volodya and Tolya do arts and crafts with us. They're in 8A. We did clay devils a whole semester. Every time we had a class they'd say, 'Go on, start making devils.' Then, while we were busy making devils, they'd play chess."

"Incredible!" Boris Sergeyevich said. "Pincushions! This bears looking into." He suddenly burst out laughing. "How many boys are there in your class, Misha?"

"Fifteen. And twenty-five girls."

"There are more women in our country than men," I said.

Boris Sergeyevich wouldn't let me continue. "That's not what I'm talking about," he said. "I'd like to have seen the expression on Raisa Ivanovna's face when she was presented with fifteen pincushions. All right, now tell me who intends to give his mother a present on May Day?"

Now it was our turn to laugh.

"You must be fooling," I said.

"Not at all. You should give your mothers presents on every holiday. That'll be acting like knights in shining armor. Do any of you know what a knight is?"

"A knight's a horseman in an iron suit," I said.

Boris Sergeyevich nodded. "Yes, those were the knights of old. When you're bigger you'll read books about them, but when people speak about a man being a knight in shining armor nowadays they mean a person who is noble, brave and kind-hearted. I think that all you boys should be as fine as knights in shining armor. Now, which of you are knights? Raise your hands."

Everyone raised his hand.

"I knew it. Good for you!"

Then we all went home. On the way Misha said. "I've got some money, and I'm going to buy my Mommy some candy."

There was nobody home when I got back. I was feeling sort of low, because now that I'd finally decided to be a knight, I didn't have any money. Misha rang the bell soon after. He was holding a nice little box of candy.

"See? I'm a knight now. Why aren't you doing anything about a present?"

"Are you a real knight, Misha?"

"Sure."

"Then lend me some money."

Misha frowned. "I spent all I had."

"What'll I do?"

"Let's look. Maybe a coin rolled off someplace. Let's look."

We searched everywhere: behind the couch and under the wardrobe, and I shook out each and every one of Mommy's shoes and even poked my finger into her box of face powder. We couldn't find a single coin.

Then Misha opened the cupboard. "Look! What's this?"

"What's which? Oh. It's two bottles of wine. Can't you see? One's purple and the other's yellow. It's for our guests. We're having company tomorrow."

"If you had company yesterday you'd have some money now."

"How?"

"The bottles. There's a deposit on every bottle."

"Why didn't you say so? Now I know what to do. Give me that big jar on the windowsill. The one the stewed fruit was in."

Misha handed me the empty jar. I opened one bottle and poured the dark purple wine into it.

"Right. It won't get spoiled in there," Misha said.

"What'll I do with this bottle?"

"Pour it in on top of that. It's all wine, so it won't make any difference."

"You're right. If one was wine and the other was gasoline, then I couldn't, but this'll be fine. Here, hold the jar." I poured the second bottle of wine into it. "Set it on the windowsill. There. And cover it with a saucer. All right. Come on, let's go!"

We ran downstairs and cashed the bottles in at the store. I got 24 kopecks for the two and bought Mommy some hard candy. I even got two kopecks change. I was feeling great, because now I was a knight, too.

As soon as Mommy and Daddy got home I said, "I'm a knight now, Mommy. Boris Sergeyevich told us all about it."

"Then tell me."

I said I was going to give her a present the next day, and she wanted to know where I'd gotten the money for it.

"I got the deposit on the bottles. And here's two kopecks change."

"That shows initiative," Daddy said.

We sat down to dinner. Then Daddy leaned back in his chair and said, "How about some stewed fruit?"

"We don't have any left," Mommy said.

Daddy winked at me and said, "Well, what's that? I've had my eye on that jar for some time." He went over to the window, lifted the saucer and took a sip right from the jar. He made a terrible face and said, "What kind of poison is this?"

"Don't worry, Daddy, it's not poison. It's your two wines."

"Which two wines?" he said and his voice got real loud.

"The purple one and the yellow one. The ones that were in the cupboard. But don't worry, they're not spoiled."

Daddy opened the cupboard door. He blinked. Then he looked at me so strangely you'd think I had spots or stripes.

"Why're you so surprised? I poured your two wines into the jar, 'cause I needed the empty bottles."

"Oh!" Mommy cried and collapsed on a chair. She was having a laughing fit. She was laughing so hard I thought she'd get sick. I didn't see what was so funny.

"Oh, so you're laughing, are you?" Daddy shouted. "If you'd like to know, this knight in shining armor will drive me mad! I think I'd better give him a good spanking to make him forget his knightly ways for good." Daddy looked like he was looking for his strap.

"Where is he?" Daddy roared. "Where's he disappeared to? Will no one tell me where young Ivanhoe is?"

I was hiding behind the bookcase. In fact, I'd been there for quite some time, just in case, because Daddy was very excited. He was still shouting.

"Did you ever hear of anyone pouring vintage muscatel into a jar and then adding beer to it?"

Mommy could hardly get the words out: "It was... He had the best of intentions.... After all ... he's a knight.... Oh ... I can't breathe!" And she kept on laughing.

Daddy paced up and down for a few minutes more. Then all of a sudden he went over to her and said, "I love the way you laugh."

Then he bent down and kissed her.

Then I came out from behind the bookcase.