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Adventures at the Zoo SEMION SEMIONYCH AND I stayed two days in Moscow. During that time my friend’s illness vanished as if by magic. We visited many interesting spots, but the one we were most interested in—the Moscow Zoo—we intentionally left for last. We planned to end our epic Moscow journey with this visit. Because it was Sunday there was a huge crowd, and we had to stand in line a long time to buy our tickets. The first beasts we saw turned out to be the most ordinary hares. Some sort of “specialist” was leading a big crowd of people and, having stopped in front of the hares, was explaining to the tourists the concept of animals’ protective coloration. The gray hare has fur whose color resembles the color of the fields in which he feeds and sleeps. The white hare turns white in the winter so that it is hard to see him in the forest amid the snowy bushes and tree stumps. All this has been intentionally arranged in nature so that the little hares can escape the indiscreet glances of their innumerable enemies. According to the “specialist,” almost all wild animals have protective coloration which serves either for defense or for hunting. The zoo hares turned out to be just hares, and couldn’t amaze such experienced hunters as us. “I say, what a wonder! They’re displaying a hare! We’ve carried more interesting things than that on our backs,” Semion Semionych growled. Knocking about the zoo with the tour group seemed a little boring to us, so we set off independently. We walked among the beasts and were amazed at every step: wolves, bears, pelicans with large crops—all this was real, alive, intelligent, and “did everything but talk.” But one of these animals did talk, in pure Russian. It was a big green parrot. Passing by his cage, Semion Semionych asked, “What kind of bird is that?” Unexpectedly the bird introduced itself: “Little priest, dear little priest,” it said, affably nodding its head. 49 Semion Semionych stepped back in amazement and looked around at me perplexedly. “Did you hear?” he asked me. “I heard. Well, what’s so surprising? Didn’t you know that parrots talk?” “Although I read about it in Robinson Crusoe, forgive my frankness, I didn’t believe it. Now I see that Robinson Crusoe was right.” Semion Semionych boldly entered into conversation with the parrot. “Hey, you winged creature!” my friend addressed the parrot. “Although you’re an insect, still you know how to think a little bit. Tell me, who am I?” “A fool!” the bird cried. “I beg of you not to swear! Just look who I’m hearing this from! But which of us is the bigger fool is still not clear,” my friend said indignantly. We set off further and unexpectedly found ourselves in front of the lion’s cage. Semion Semionych had heard a lot about this king of the beasts, but he had never yet had occasion to see him. My friend and I stood there for a long time. The iron grille separated two lions from each other. One was a natural lion. The other was Semion Semionych! One had a covering of yellowishbrown , the other of green check. On the head of one was a mane. On the head of the other was a “how-d’ye-do-g’bye.” But all the same, both of them were lions, both were the terror of the animal kingdom. Now they looked each other in the eye in stern silence and experienced many emotions. This wordless picture was long engraved in my memory: Semion Semionych and the lion looking at each other! The kangaroo was also favored with our attention. Semion Semionych had never even heard of this animal. But when he learned that the kangaroo has a pocket on its breast for carrying its own children, he noted significantly: “A special beast.” We passed by a fenced-off meadow. Behind the fence stood a big shaggy animal. It looked at us with an unusually proud and disdainful air, lifting its long neck high in the air. The animal was chewing something. “Llama. Do not tease,” we read on the sign. “Ooh, she’s a proud one,” Semion Semionych noted, examining the llama carefully. “But after all, it’s a beast like any other. There’s nothing interesting about it. Chew to your heart’s content, you fool,” he said...

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