Konstantin Paustovsky is an incorrigible romantic. Any of the most trifling occupations in him is colored and plays with various shades of colors and smells. Here is a short story, “Crushed Sugar,” a brief summary of which will be given below, as if surreal in the light of the white nights.
North summer
A tireless traveler, the author arrived in the summer at midnight in the small town of Ascension. There was a fantastic moon above the lake, but its light was not required on a bright white night. Day and night mixed in this summer twilight. And birch trees have already faded.
Northern summer is unreliable and untrue. You can always expect a dirty trick from him, because winter does not seem to go away forever, and the smell of snow is felt everywhere. The soft sun shining on the lake turned its still water into a shining mirror surface.
There were blond-haired boys and a policeman on the pier. They all fished smelt fish, talking quietly.
Search overnight
The traveler did not stop at the wharf - he had to find a shelter for the night, and behind him, like a shadow, went a man with a briefcase full of boring papers, as boring as he was. A short story, “Crushed Sugar”, a summary of which is presented, will show his “ink soul”.
In the town there were only boardwalks, which gave it an inexplicable charm. Bird cherry blossomed. Near one of the log houses on the bench sat a girl with a simple little homemade doll. The author asked if they could spend the night.
The girl nodded and led the guest upstairs to the chamber, and the fat, boring man followed them. There were two in the chamber - an old woman with knitting in her hands and a thin old man. “Sleep here,” said the old woman, bowing to the waist. “You will only have to sleep on the floor.”
Conversation
A boring man with a briefcase meticulously began to interrogate the old man who he is and where he came from, and what he is doing here. The slender old man answered with dignity that he sowed bread in his youth, and now words. So continues the story "Crushed Sugar". The summary will tell you about what vileness a fat man with a briefcase will do now. As a born bureaucrat, he requested documents from an old man. When he proudly refused to show them to anyone, the fat man went after the policeman.
Conversation with a policeman
After leaving the fat man, the old woman set the samovar, lamenting that there was no sugar in the house. But on the table was laid a clean tablecloth, smelling of rye.
Still, the fat man brought the policeman all the same - he really wanted to ruin everyone's quiet evening. Read further the continuation of the story “Crushed Sugar”, a brief summary of which will now briefly tell about the conversation of the old man with the policeman.
Grandfather, in no hurry to show the documents, weaved a story-song about his grandfather, coachman - a wonderful singer. This grandfather, working on the Pskov tract, drove Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin and sang for him long Yamshchitsky songs. Several years passed, and the old coachman again met with the poet. In the middle of the night, the gendarmes woke the coachman and showed him a sled with a coffin tied with ropes. The coachman asked the gendarmes whom he would have to lead. “Pushkin,” was the short answer. Throughout the hard frosty night, the coachman sang a song to the poet and tore his voice forever in the cold. This is told by the story “Crushed Sugar”, a summary of which is presented in front of you.
This story impressed the policeman. He said that the man was singing from a pure heart, and left without asking for documents, although the old man was ready to show them. And then, through the girl, he conveyed the present - crushed sugar and bagels.
That's all the summary of "Crushed Sugar". Paustovsky wrote an amazing and instructive story about how to trust people.