Volodya came home with a friend. Mother and aunt rushed to hug and kiss him. The whole family was delighted, even Milord, a huge black dog.

Volodya introduced his friend Chechevitsyna. He said that he had brought him to stay.

A little later, Volodya and his friend Chechevitsyn, stunned by the noisy meeting, sat at the table and drank tea. The room was warm.

Three sisters Volodya, Katya, Sonya and Masha - the oldest of them was eleven years old - were sitting at the table and did not take their eyes off the new acquaintance. Chechevitsyn was the same age and height as Volodya, but not so plump and white, and thin, dark-skinned, covered with freckles. His hair was bristly, his eyes were narrow, his lips were thick, he was generally very ugly, and if he didn’t have a gymnasium jacket on him, then by appearance he could be mistaken for a cook son. He was gloomy, was silent all the time and never smiled. The girls immediately realized that this must be a very smart and learned person.

The girls noticed that Volodya, always cheerful and talkative, this time spoke little, did not smile at all, and as if he was not even glad that he had arrived home. He was also busy with some thoughts, and judging by the views that he occasionally exchanged with his friend Chechevitsyn, the boys had common thoughts.

After tea, everyone went to the nursery. Father and girls sat at the table and took up work, which was interrupted by the arrival of the boys. They made flowers and fringe for the Christmas tree from colored paper. In his previous visits, Volodya also made preparations for the Christmas tree or ran to the yard to see how the coachman and shepherd made the snow mountain, but now he and Chechevitsyn did not pay any attention to the colored paper and never even visited the stable, but sat down by the window and began to whisper about something; then they both opened a geographical atlas together and began to examine some kind of map.

Chechevitsyn’s completely incomprehensible words and the fact that he was constantly whispering with Volodya, and that Volodya was not playing, but was thinking about something — all this was strange. And both older girls, Katya and Sonya, began to vigilantly watch the boys. In the evening, when the boys went to bed, the girls crept up to the door and overheard their conversation. The boys were about to flee somewhere to America to get gold; they had everything ready for the road: a gun, two knives, crackers, a magnifying glass for making fire, a compass and four rubles of money. Chechevitsyn called himself thus: "Montigomo Hawkclaw", and Volodya - "my pale-faced brother."

Early in the morning on Christmas Eve, Katya and Sonya quietly got up from their beds and went to see how the boys would flee to America. Volodya doubted, but still went.

The next day, the officer came, they wrote some paper in the dining room. Mother cried. But the sledge stopped at the porch, and steam fell from the three white horses.

It turned out that the boys were detained in the city, in the Gostiny Dvor (there they walked and all asked where gunpowder was sold). Volodya, as he entered the front, sobbed and rushed to his mother’s neck. Dad took Volodya and Chechevitsyn to his office and talked with them for a long time.

They sent a telegram, and the next day the lady, the mother of Chechevitsyna, arrived and took her son away. When Chechevitsyn was leaving, his face was stern, arrogant, and, saying goodbye to the girls, he did not say a single word; he just took a notebook from Katya and wrote in memory: "Montigomo Hawkclaw."