K. G. Paustovsky: «Барсучий нос» and «Кот-ворюга»

Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky (1892–1968) was born in 1892 in Moscow into a railway employee’s family; from childhood he had to earn his bread himself. He began writing early; in his words, his writer’s life began with the wish to know everything, see everything and travel. His first story was printed in 1911. His works – «Повесть о лесах», «Корзина с еловыми шишками», «Прощание с летом», «Жёлтый свет», «Подарок» – show love for the native land, people, nature and animals. In «Барсучий нос» it is autumn, a campfire by a lake. A young badger comes to the smell of frying potatoes and burns his nose. In the morning a nine-year-old boy shows the author the badger cooling his nose in a rotten stump. A year later the author meets a badger with a scar on his nose. In «Кот-ворюга» friends try to catch a ginger cat, a thief. Lyonka catches him, they feed him well, and the cat stops stealing.