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diff --git a/13417-0.txt b/13417-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa952d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/13417-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7361 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13417 *** + +THE TALES OF CHEKHOV + +VOLUME 12 + +THE COOK'S WEDDING AND OTHER STORIES + +BY + +ANTON TCHEKHOV + +Translated by CONSTANCE GARNETT + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE COOK'S WEDDING +SLEEPY +CHILDREN +THE RUNAWAY +GRISHA +OYSTERS +HOME +A CLASSICAL STUDENT +VANKA +AN INCIDENT +A DAY IN THE COUNTRY +BOYS +SHROVE TUESDAY +THE OLD HOUSE +IN PASSION WEEK +WHITEBROW +KASHTANKA +A CHAMELEON +THE DEPENDENTS +WHO WAS TO BLAME? +THE BIRD MARKET +AN ADVENTURE +THE FISH +ART +THE SWEDISH MATCH + + + + +THE COOK'S WEDDING + +GRISHA, a fat, solemn little person of seven, was standing by the +kitchen door listening and peeping through the keyhole. In the +kitchen something extraordinary, and in his opinion never seen +before, was taking place. A big, thick-set, red-haired peasant, +with a beard, and a drop of perspiration on his nose, wearing a +cabman's full coat, was sitting at the kitchen table on which they +chopped the meat and sliced the onions. He was balancing a saucer +on the five fingers of his right hand and drinking tea out of it, +and crunching sugar so loudly that it sent a shiver down Grisha's +back. Aksinya Stepanovna, the old nurse, was sitting on the dirty +stool facing him, and she, too, was drinking tea. Her face was +grave, though at the same time it beamed with a kind of triumph. +Pelageya, the cook, was busy at the stove, and was apparently trying +to hide her face. And on her face Grisha saw a regular illumination: +it was burning and shifting through every shade of colour, beginning +with a crimson purple and ending with a deathly white. She was +continually catching hold of knives, forks, bits of wood, and rags +with trembling hands, moving, grumbling to herself, making a clatter, +but in reality doing nothing. She did not once glance at the table +at which they were drinking tea, and to the questions put to her +by the nurse she gave jerky, sullen answers without turning her +face. + +"Help yourself, Danilo Semyonitch," the nurse urged him hospitably. +"Why do you keep on with tea and nothing but tea? You should have +a drop of vodka!" + +And nurse put before the visitor a bottle of vodka and a wine-glass, +while her face wore a very wily expression. + +"I never touch it. . . . No . . ." said the cabman, declining. +"Don't press me, Aksinya Stepanovna." + +"What a man! . . . A cabman and not drink! . . . A bachelor can't +get on without drinking. Help yourself!" + +The cabman looked askance at the bottle, then at nurse's wily face, +and his own face assumed an expression no less cunning, as much as +to say, "You won't catch me, you old witch!" + +"I don't drink; please excuse me. Such a weakness does not do in +our calling. A man who works at a trade may drink, for he sits at +home, but we cabmen are always in view of the public. Aren't we? +If one goes into a pothouse one finds one's horse gone; if one takes +a drop too much it is worse still; before you know where you are +you will fall asleep or slip off the box. That's where it is." + +"And how much do you make a day, Danilo Semyonitch?" + +"That's according. One day you will have a fare for three roubles, +and another day you will come back to the yard without a farthing. +The days are very different. Nowadays our business is no good. There +are lots and lots of cabmen as you know, hay is dear, and folks are +paltry nowadays and always contriving to go by tram. And yet, thank +God, I have nothing to complain of. I have plenty to eat and good +clothes to wear, and . . . we could even provide well for another. . ." +(the cabman stole a glance at Pelageya) "if it were to their +liking. . . ." + +Grisha did not hear what was said further. His mamma came to the +door and sent him to the nursery to learn his lessons. + +"Go and learn your lesson. It's not your business to listen here!" + +When Grisha reached the nursery, he put "My Own Book" in front of +him, but he did not get on with his reading. All that he had just +seen and heard aroused a multitude of questions in his mind. + +"The cook's going to be married," he thought. "Strange--I don't +understand what people get married for. Mamma was married to papa, +Cousin Verotchka to Pavel Andreyitch. But one might be married to +papa and Pavel Andreyitch after all: they have gold watch-chains +and nice suits, their boots are always polished; but to marry that +dreadful cabman with a red nose and felt boots. . . . Fi! And why +is it nurse wants poor Pelageya to be married?" + +When the visitor had gone out of the kitchen, Pelageya appeared and +began clearing away. Her agitation still persisted. Her face was +red and looked scared. She scarcely touched the floor with the +broom, and swept every corner five times over. She lingered for a +long time in the room where mamma was sitting. She was evidently +oppressed by her isolation, and she was longing to express herself, +to share her impressions with some one, to open her heart. + +"He's gone," she muttered, seeing that mamma would not begin the +conversation. + +"One can see he is a good man," said mamma, not taking her eyes off +her sewing. "Sober and steady." + +"I declare I won't marry him, mistress!" Pelageya cried suddenly, +flushing crimson. "I declare I won't!" + +"Don't be silly; you are not a child. It's a serious step; you must +think it over thoroughly, it's no use talking nonsense. Do you like +him?" + +"What an idea, mistress!" cried Pelageya, abashed. "They say such +things that . . . my goodness. . . ." + +"She should say she doesn't like him!" thought Grisha. + +"What an affected creature you are. . . . Do you like him?" + +"But he is old, mistress!" + +"Think of something else," nurse flew out at her from the next room. +"He has not reached his fortieth year; and what do you want a young +man for? Handsome is as handsome does. . . . Marry him and that's +all about it!" + +"I swear I won't," squealed Pelageya. + +"You are talking nonsense. What sort of rascal do you want? Anyone +else would have bowed down to his feet, and you declare you won't +marry him. You want to be always winking at the postmen and tutors. +That tutor that used to come to Grishenka, mistress . . . she was +never tired of making eyes at him. O-o, the shameless hussy!" + +"Have you seen this Danilo before?" mamma asked Pelageya. + +"How could I have seen him? I set eyes on him to-day for the first +time. Aksinya picked him up and brought him along . . . the accursed +devil. . . . And where has he come from for my undoing!" + +At dinner, when Pelageya was handing the dishes, everyone looked +into her face and teased her about the cabman. She turned fearfully +red, and went off into a forced giggle. + +"It must be shameful to get married," thought Grisha. "Terribly +shameful." + +All the dishes were too salt, and blood oozed from the half-raw +chickens, and, to cap it all, plates and knives kept dropping out +of Pelageya's hands during dinner, as though from a shelf that had +given way; but no one said a word of blame to her, as they all +understood the state of her feelings. Only once papa flicked his +table-napkin angrily and said to mamma: + +"What do you want to be getting them all married for? What business +is it of yours? Let them get married of themselves if they want +to." + +After dinner, neighbouring cooks and maidservants kept flitting +into the kitchen, and there was the sound of whispering till late +evening. How they had scented out the matchmaking, God knows. When +Grisha woke in the night he heard his nurse and the cook whispering +together in the nursery. Nurse was talking persuasively, while the +cook alternately sobbed and giggled. When he fell asleep after this, +Grisha dreamed of Pelageya being carried off by Tchernomor and a +witch. + +Next day there was a calm. The life of the kitchen went on its +accustomed way as though the cabman did not exist. Only from time +to time nurse put on her new shawl, assumed a solemn and austere +air, and went off somewhere for an hour or two, obviously to conduct +negotiations. . . . Pelageya did not see the cabman, and when his +name was mentioned she flushed up and cried: + +"May he be thrice damned! As though I should be thinking of him! +Tfoo!" + +In the evening mamma went into the kitchen, while nurse and Pelageya +were zealously mincing something, and said: + +"You can marry him, of course--that's your business--but I must +tell you, Pelageya, that he cannot live here. . . . You know I don't +like to have anyone sitting in the kitchen. Mind now, remember +. . . . And I can't let you sleep out." + +"Goodness knows! What an idea, mistress!" shrieked the cook. "Why +do you keep throwing him up at me? Plague take him! He's a regular +curse, confound him! . . ." + +Glancing one Sunday morning into the kitchen, Grisha was struck +dumb with amazement. The kitchen was crammed full of people. Here +were cooks from the whole courtyard, the porter, two policemen, a +non-commissioned officer with good-conduct stripes, and the boy +Filka. . . . This Filka was generally hanging about the laundry +playing with the dogs; now he was combed and washed, and was holding +an ikon in a tinfoil setting. Pelageya was standing in the middle +of the kitchen in a new cotton dress, with a flower on her head. +Beside her stood the cabman. The happy pair were red in the face +and perspiring and blinking with embarrassment. + +"Well . . . I fancy it is time," said the non-commissioned officer, +after a prolonged silence. + +Pelageya's face worked all over and she began blubbering. . . . + +The soldier took a big loaf from the table, stood beside nurse, and +began blessing the couple. The cabman went up to the soldier, flopped +down on his knees, and gave a smacking kiss on his hand. He did the +same before nurse. Pelageya followed him mechanically, and she too +bowed down to the ground. At last the outer door was opened, there +was a whiff of white mist, and the whole party flocked noisily out +of the kitchen into the yard. + +"Poor thing, poor thing," thought Grisha, hearing the sobs of the +cook. "Where have they taken her? Why don't papa and mamma protect +her?" + +After the wedding there was singing and concertina-playing in the +laundry till late evening. Mamma was cross all the evening because +nurse smelt of vodka, and owing to the wedding there was no one to +heat the samovar. Pelageya had not come back by the time Grisha +went to bed. + +"The poor thing is crying somewhere in the dark!" he thought. "While +the cabman is saying to her 'shut up!'" + +Next morning the cook was in the kitchen again. The cabman came in +for a minute. He thanked mamma, and glancing sternly at Pelageya, +said: + +"Will you look after her, madam? Be a father and a mother to her. +And you, too, Aksinya Stepanovna, do not forsake her, see that +everything is as it should be . . . without any nonsense. . . . And +also, madam, if you would kindly advance me five roubles of her +wages. I have got to buy a new horse-collar." + +Again a problem for Grisha: Pelageya was living in freedom, doing +as she liked, and not having to account to anyone for her actions, +and all at once, for no sort of reason, a stranger turns up, who +has somehow acquired rights over her conduct and her property! +Grisha was distressed. He longed passionately, almost to tears, to +comfort this victim, as he supposed, of man's injustice. Picking +out the very biggest apple in the store-room he stole into the +kitchen, slipped it into Pelageya's hand, and darted headlong away. + + +SLEEPY + +NIGHT. Varka, the little nurse, a girl of thirteen, is rocking the +cradle in which the baby is lying, and humming hardly audibly: + + "Hush-a-bye, my baby wee, + While I sing a song for thee." + +A little green lamp is burning before the ikon; there is a string +stretched from one end of the room to the other, on which baby-clothes +and a pair of big black trousers are hanging. There is a big patch +of green on the ceiling from the ikon lamp, and the baby-clothes +and the trousers throw long shadows on the stove, on the cradle, +and on Varka. . . . When the lamp begins to flicker, the green patch +and the shadows come to life, and are set in motion, as though by +the wind. It is stuffy. There is a smell of cabbage soup, and of +the inside of a boot-shop. + +The baby's crying. For a long while he has been hoarse and exhausted +with crying; but he still goes on screaming, and there is no knowing +when he will stop. And Varka is sleepy. Her eyes are glued together, +her head droops, her neck aches. She cannot move her eyelids or her +lips, and she feels as though her face is dried and wooden, as +though her head has become as small as the head of a pin. + +"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee," she hums, "while I cook the groats for +thee. . . ." + +A cricket is churring in the stove. Through the door in the next +room the master and the apprentice Afanasy are snoring. . . . The +cradle creaks plaintively, Varka murmurs--and it all blends into +that soothing music of the night to which it is so sweet to listen, +when one is lying in bed. Now that music is merely irritating and +oppressive, because it goads her to sleep, and she must not sleep; +if Varka--God forbid!--should fall asleep, her master and +mistress would beat her. + +The lamp flickers. The patch of green and the shadows are set in +motion, forcing themselves on Varka's fixed, half-open eyes, and +in her half slumbering brain are fashioned into misty visions. She +sees dark clouds chasing one another over the sky, and screaming +like the baby. But then the wind blows, the clouds are gone, and +Varka sees a broad high road covered with liquid mud; along the +high road stretch files of wagons, while people with wallets on +their backs are trudging along and shadows flit backwards and +forwards; on both sides she can see forests through the cold harsh +mist. All at once the people with their wallets and their shadows +fall on the ground in the liquid mud. "What is that for?" Varka +asks. "To sleep, to sleep!" they answer her. And they fall sound +asleep, and sleep sweetly, while crows and magpies sit on the +telegraph wires, scream like the baby, and try to wake them. + +"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee, and I will sing a song to thee," murmurs +Varka, and now she sees herself in a dark stuffy hut. + +Her dead father, Yefim Stepanov, is tossing from side to side on +the floor. She does not see him, but she hears him moaning and +rolling on the floor from pain. "His guts have burst," as he says; +the pain is so violent that he cannot utter a single word, and can +only draw in his breath and clack his teeth like the rattling of a +drum: + +"Boo--boo--boo--boo. . . ." + +Her mother, Pelageya, has run to the master's house to say that +Yefim is dying. She has been gone a long time, and ought to be back. +Varka lies awake on the stove, and hears her father's "boo--boo--boo." +And then she hears someone has driven up to the hut. It is a young +doctor from the town, who has been sent from the big house where +he is staying on a visit. The doctor comes into the hut; he cannot +be seen in the darkness, but he can be heard coughing and rattling +the door. + +"Light a candle," he says. + +"Boo--boo--boo," answers Yefim. + +Pelageya rushes to the stove and begins looking for the broken pot +with the matches. A minute passes in silence. The doctor, feeling +in his pocket, lights a match. + +"In a minute, sir, in a minute," says Pelageya. She rushes out of +the hut, and soon afterwards comes back with a bit of candle. + +Yefim's cheeks are rosy and his eyes are shining, and there is a +peculiar keenness in his glance, as though he were seeing right +through the hut and the doctor. + +"Come, what is it? What are you thinking about?" says the doctor, +bending down to him. "Aha! have you had this long?" + +"What? Dying, your honour, my hour has come. . . . I am not to stay +among the living." + +"Don't talk nonsense! We will cure you!" + +"That's as you please, your honour, we humbly thank you, only we +understand. . . . Since death has come, there it is." + +The doctor spends a quarter of an hour over Yefim, then he gets up +and says: + +"I can do nothing. You must go into the hospital, there they will +operate on you. Go at once . . . You must go! It's rather late, +they will all be asleep in the hospital, but that doesn't matter, +I will give you a note. Do you hear?" + +"Kind sir, but what can he go in?" says Pelageya. "We have no horse." + +"Never mind. I'll ask your master, he'll let you have a horse." + +The doctor goes away, the candle goes out, and again there is the +sound of "boo--boo--boo." Half an hour later someone drives up to +the hut. A cart has been sent to take Yefim to the hospital. He +gets ready and goes. . . . + +But now it is a clear bright morning. Pelageya is not at home; she +has gone to the hospital to find what is being done to Yefim. +Somewhere there is a baby crying, and Varka hears someone singing +with her own voice: + +"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee, I will sing a song to thee." + +Pelageya comes back; she crosses herself and whispers: + +"They put him to rights in the night, but towards morning he gave +up his soul to God. . . . The Kingdom of Heaven be his and peace +everlasting. . . . They say he was taken too late. . . . He ought +to have gone sooner. . . ." + +Varka goes out into the road and cries there, but all at once someone +hits her on the back of her head so hard that her forehead knocks +against a birch tree. She raises her eyes, and sees facing her, her +master, the shoemaker. + +"What are you about, you scabby slut?" he says. "The child is crying, +and you are asleep!" + +He gives her a sharp slap behind the ear, and she shakes her head, +rocks the cradle, and murmurs her song. The green patch and the +shadows from the trousers and the baby-clothes move up and down, +nod to her, and soon take possession of her brain again. Again she +sees the high road covered with liquid mud. The people with wallets +on their backs and the shadows have lain down and are fast asleep. +Looking at them, Varka has a passionate longing for sleep; she would +lie down with enjoyment, but her mother Pelageya is walking beside +her, hurrying her on. They are hastening together to the town to +find situations. + +"Give alms, for Christ's sake!" her mother begs of the people they +meet. "Show us the Divine Mercy, kind-hearted gentlefolk!" + +"Give the baby here!" a familiar voice answers. "Give the baby +here!" the same voice repeats, this time harshly and angrily. "Are +you asleep, you wretched girl?" + +Varka jumps up, and looking round grasps what is the matter: there +is no high road, no Pelageya, no people meeting them, there is only +her mistress, who has come to feed the baby, and is standing in the +middle of the room. While the stout, broad-shouldered woman nurses +the child and soothes it, Varka stands looking at her and waiting +till she has done. And outside the windows the air is already turning +blue, the shadows and the green patch on the ceiling are visibly +growing pale, it will soon be morning. + +"Take him," says her mistress, buttoning up her chemise over her +bosom; "he is crying. He must be bewitched." + +Varka takes the baby, puts him in the cradle and begins rocking it +again. The green patch and the shadows gradually disappear, and now +there is nothing to force itself on her eyes and cloud her brain. +But she is as sleepy as before, fearfully sleepy! Varka lays her +head on the edge of the cradle, and rocks her whole body to overcome +her sleepiness, but yet her eyes are glued together, and her head +is heavy. + +"Varka, heat the stove!" she hears the master's voice through the +door. + +So it is time to get up and set to work. Varka leaves the cradle, +and runs to the shed for firewood. She is glad. When one moves and +runs about, one is not so sleepy as when one is sitting down. She +brings the wood, heats the stove, and feels that her wooden face +is getting supple again, and that her thoughts are growing clearer. + +"Varka, set the samovar!" shouts her mistress. + +Varka splits a piece of wood, but has scarcely time to light the +splinters and put them in the samovar, when she hears a fresh order: + +"Varka, clean the master's goloshes!" + +She sits down on the floor, cleans the goloshes, and thinks how +nice it would be to put her head into a big deep golosh, and have +a little nap in it. . . . And all at once the golosh grows, swells, +fills up the whole room. Varka drops the brush, but at once shakes +her head, opens her eyes wide, and tries to look at things so that +they may not grow big and move before her eyes. + +"Varka, wash the steps outside; I am ashamed for the customers to +see them!" + +Varka washes the steps, sweeps and dusts the rooms, then heats +another stove and runs to the shop. There is a great deal of work: +she hasn't one minute free. + +But nothing is so hard as standing in the same place at the kitchen +table peeling potatoes. Her head droops over the table, the potatoes +dance before her eyes, the knife tumbles out of her hand while her +fat, angry mistress is moving about near her with her sleeves tucked +up, talking so loud that it makes a ringing in Varka's ears. It is +agonising, too, to wait at dinner, to wash, to sew, there are minutes +when she longs to flop on to the floor regardless of everything, +and to sleep. + +The day passes. Seeing the windows getting dark, Varka presses her +temples that feel as though they were made of wood, and smiles, +though she does not know why. The dusk of evening caresses her eyes +that will hardly keep open, and promises her sound sleep soon. In +the evening visitors come. + +"Varka, set the samovar!" shouts her mistress. The samovar is a +little one, and before the visitors have drunk all the tea they +want, she has to heat it five times. After tea Varka stands for a +whole hour on the same spot, looking at the visitors, and waiting +for orders. + +"Varka, run and buy three bottles of beer!" + +She starts off, and tries to run as quickly as she can, to drive +away sleep. + +"Varka, fetch some vodka! Varka, where's the corkscrew? Varka, clean +a herring!" + +But now, at last, the visitors have gone; the lights are put out, +the master and mistress go to bed. + +"Varka, rock the baby!" she hears the last order. + +The cricket churrs in the stove; the green patch on the ceiling and +the shadows from the trousers and the baby-clothes force themselves +on Varka's half-opened eyes again, wink at her and cloud her mind. + +"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee," she murmurs, "and I will sing a song to +thee." + +And the baby screams, and is worn out with screaming. Again Varka +sees the muddy high road, the people with wallets, her mother +Pelageya, her father Yefim. She understands everything, she recognises +everyone, but through her half sleep she cannot understand the force +which binds her, hand and foot, weighs upon her, and prevents her +from living. She looks round, searches for that force that she may +escape from it, but she cannot find it. At last, tired to death, +she does her very utmost, strains her eyes, looks up at the flickering +green patch, and listening to the screaming, finds the foe who will +not let her live. + +That foe is the baby. + +She laughs. It seems strange to her that she has failed to grasp +such a simple thing before. The green patch, the shadows, and the +cricket seem to laugh and wonder too. + +The hallucination takes possession of Varka. She gets up from her +stool, and with a broad smile on her face and wide unblinking eyes, +she walks up and down the room. She feels pleased and tickled at +the thought that she will be rid directly of the baby that binds +her hand and foot. . . . Kill the baby and then sleep, sleep, +sleep. . . . + +Laughing and winking and shaking her fingers at the green patch, +Varka steals up to the cradle and bends over the baby. When she has +strangled him, she quickly lies down on the floor, laughs with +delight that she can sleep, and in a minute is sleeping as sound +as the dead. + + +CHILDREN + +PAPA and mamma and Aunt Nadya are not at home. They have gone to a +christening party at the house of that old officer who rides on a +little grey horse. While waiting for them to come home, Grisha, +Anya, Alyosha, Sonya, and the cook's son, Andrey, are sitting at +the table in the dining-room, playing at loto. To tell the truth, +it is bedtime, but how can one go to sleep without hearing from +mamma what the baby was like at the christening, and what they had +for supper? The table, lighted by a hanging lamp, is dotted with +numbers, nutshells, scraps of paper, and little bits of glass. Two +cards lie in front of each player, and a heap of bits of glass for +covering the numbers. In the middle of the table is a white saucer +with five kopecks in it. Beside the saucer, a half-eaten apple, a +pair of scissors, and a plate on which they have been told to put +their nutshells. The children are playing for money. The stake is +a kopeck. The rule is: if anyone cheats, he is turned out at once. +There is no one in the dining-room but the players, and nurse, +Agafya Ivanovna, is in the kitchen, showing the cook how to cut a +pattern, while their elder brother, Vasya, a schoolboy in the fifth +class, is lying on the sofa in the drawing-room, feeling bored. + +They are playing with zest. The greatest excitement is expressed +on the face of Grisha. He is a small boy of nine, with a head cropped +so that the bare skin shows through, chubby cheeks, and thick lips +like a negro's. He is already in the preparatory class, and so is +regarded as grown up, and the cleverest. He is playing entirely for +the sake of the money. If there had been no kopecks in the saucer, +he would have been asleep long ago. His brown eyes stray uneasily +and jealously over the other players' cards. The fear that he may +not win, envy, and the financial combinations of which his cropped +head is full, will not let him sit still and concentrate his mind. +He fidgets as though he were sitting on thorns. When he wins, he +snatches up the money greedily, and instantly puts it in his pocket. +His sister, Anya, a girl of eight, with a sharp chin and clever +shining eyes, is also afraid that someone else may win. She flushes +and turns pale, and watches the players keenly. The kopecks do not +interest her. Success in the game is for her a question of vanity. +The other sister, Sonya, a child of six with a curly head, and a +complexion such as is seen only in very healthy children, expensive +dolls, and the faces on bonbon boxes, is playing loto for the process +of the game itself. There is bliss all over her face. Whoever wins, +she laughs and claps her hands. Alyosha, a chubby, spherical little +figure, gasps, breathes hard through his nose, and stares open-eyed +at the cards. He is moved neither by covetousness nor vanity. So +long as he is not driven out of the room, or sent to bed, he is +thankful. He looks phlegmatic, but at heart he is rather a little +beast. He is not there so much for the sake of the loto, as for the +sake of the misunderstandings which are inevitable in the game. He +is greatly delighted if one hits another, or calls him names. He +ought to have run off somewhere long ago, but he won't leave the +table for a minute, for fear they should steal his counters or his +kopecks. As he can only count the units and numbers which end in +nought, Anya covers his numbers for him. The fifth player, the +cook's son, Andrey, a dark-skinned and sickly looking boy in a +cotton shirt, with a copper cross on his breast, stands motionless, +looking dreamily at the numbers. He takes no interest in winning, +or in the success of the others, because he is entirely engrossed +by the arithmetic of the game, and its far from complex theory; +"How many numbers there are in the world," he is thinking, "and how +is it they don't get mixed up?" + +They all shout out the numbers in turn, except Sonya and Alyosha. +To vary the monotony, they have invented in the course of time a +number of synonyms and comic nicknames. Seven, for instance, is +called the "ovenrake," eleven the "sticks," seventy-seven "Semyon +Semyonitch," ninety "grandfather," and so on. The game is going +merrily. + +"Thirty-two," cries Grisha, drawing the little yellow cylinders out +of his father's cap. "Seventeen! Ovenrake! Twenty-eight! Lay them +straight. . . ." + +Anya sees that Andrey has let twenty-eight slip. At any other time +she would have pointed it out to him, but now when her vanity lies +in the saucer with the kopecks, she is triumphant. + +"Twenty-three!" Grisha goes on, "Semyon Semyonitch! Nine!" + +"A beetle, a beetle," cries Sonya, pointing to a beetle running +across the table. "Aie!" + +"Don't kill it," says Alyosha, in his deep bass, "perhaps it's got +children . . . ." + +Sonya follows the black beetle with her eyes and wonders about its +children: what tiny little beetles they must be! + +"Forty-three! One!" Grisha goes on, unhappy at the thought that +Anya has already made two fours. "Six!" + +"Game! I have got the game!" cries Sonya, rolling her eyes coquettishly +and giggling. + +The players' countenances lengthen. + +"Must make sure!" says Grisha, looking with hatred at Sonya. + +Exercising his rights as a big boy, and the cleverest, Grisha takes +upon himself to decide. What he wants, that they do. Sonya's reckoning +is slowly and carefully verified, and to the great regret of her +fellow players, it appears that she has not cheated. Another game +is begun. + +"I did see something yesterday!" says Anya, as though to herself. +"Filipp Filippitch turned his eyelids inside out somehow and his +eyes looked red and dreadful, like an evil spirit's." + +"I saw it too," says Grisha. "Eight! And a boy at our school can +move his ears. Twenty-seven!" + +Andrey looks up at Grisha, meditates, and says: + +"I can move my ears too. . . ." + +"Well then, move them." + +Andrey moves his eyes, his lips, and his fingers, and fancies that +his ears are moving too. Everyone laughs. + +"He is a horrid man, that Filipp Filippitch," sighs Sonya. "He came +into our nursery yesterday, and I had nothing on but my chemise +. . . And I felt so improper!" + +"Game!" Grisha cries suddenly, snatching the money from the saucer. +"I've got the game! You can look and see if you like." + +The cook's son looks up and turns pale. + +"Then I can't go on playing any more," he whispers. + +"Why not?" + +"Because . . . because I have got no more money." + +"You can't play without money," says Grisha. + +Andrey ransacks his pockets once more to make sure. Finding nothing +in them but crumbs and a bitten pencil, he drops the corners of his +mouth and begins blinking miserably. He is on the point of +crying. . . . + +"I'll put it down for you!" says Sonya, unable to endure his look +of agony. "Only mind you must pay me back afterwards." + +The money is brought and the game goes on. + +"I believe they are ringing somewhere," says Anya, opening her eyes +wide. + +They all leave off playing and gaze open-mouthed at the dark window. +The reflection of the lamp glimmers in the darkness. + +"It was your fancy." + +"At night they only ring in the cemetery," says Andrey. + +"And what do they ring there for?" + +"To prevent robbers from breaking into the church. They are afraid +of the bells." + +"And what do robbers break into the church for?" asks Sonya. + +"Everyone knows what for: to kill the watchmen." + +A minute passes in silence. They all look at one another, shudder, +and go on playing. This time Andrey wins. + +"He has cheated," Alyosha booms out, apropos of nothing. + +"What a lie, I haven't cheated." + +Andrey turns pale, his mouth works, and he gives Alyosha a slap on +the head! Alyosha glares angrily, jumps up, and with one knee on +the table, slaps Andrey on the cheek! Each gives the other a second +blow, and both howl. Sonya, feeling such horrors too much for her, +begins crying too, and the dining-room resounds with lamentations +on various notes. But do not imagine that that is the end of the +game. Before five minutes are over, the children are laughing and +talking peaceably again. Their faces are tear-stained, but that +does not prevent them from smiling; Alyosha is positively blissful, +there has been a squabble! + +Vasya, the fifth form schoolboy, walks into the dining-room. He +looks sleepy and disillusioned. + +"This is revolting!" he thinks, seeing Grisha feel in his pockets +in which the kopecks are jingling. "How can they give children +money? And how can they let them play games of chance? A nice way +to bring them up, I must say! It's revolting!" + +But the children's play is so tempting that he feels an inclination +to join them and to try his luck. + +"Wait a minute and I'll sit down to a game," he says. + +"Put down a kopeck!" + +"In a minute," he says, fumbling in his pockets. "I haven't a kopeck, +but here is a rouble. I'll stake a rouble." + +"No, no, no. . . . You must put down a kopeck." + +"You stupids. A rouble is worth more than a kopeck anyway," the +schoolboy explains. "Whoever wins can give me change." + +"No, please! Go away!" + +The fifth form schoolboy shrugs his shoulders, and goes into the +kitchen to get change from the servants. It appears there is not a +single kopeck in the kitchen. + +"In that case, you give me change," he urges Grisha, coming back +from the kitchen. "I'll pay you for the change. Won't you? Come, +give me ten kopecks for a rouble." + +Grisha looks suspiciously at Vasya, wondering whether it isn't some +trick, a swindle. + +"I won't," he says, holding his pockets. + +Vasya begins to get cross, and abuses them, calling them idiots and +blockheads. + +"I'll put down a stake for you, Vasya!" says Sonya. "Sit down." He +sits down and lays two cards before him. Anya begins counting the +numbers. + +"I've dropped a kopeck!" Grisha announces suddenly, in an agitated +voice. "Wait!" + +He takes the lamp, and creeps under the table to look for the kopeck. +They clutch at nutshells and all sorts of nastiness, knock their +heads together, but do not find the kopeck. They begin looking +again, and look till Vasya takes the lamp out of Grisha's hands and +puts it in its place. Grisha goes on looking in the dark. But at +last the kopeck is found. The players sit down at the table and +mean to go on playing. + +"Sonya is asleep!" Alyosha announces. + +Sonya, with her curly head lying on her arms, is in a sweet, sound, +tranquil sleep, as though she had been asleep for an hour. She has +fallen asleep by accident, while the others were looking for the +kopeck. + +"Come along, lie on mamma's bed!" says Anya, leading her away from +the table. "Come along!" + +They all troop out with her, and five minutes later mamma's bed +presents a curious spectacle. Sonya is asleep. Alyosha is snoring +beside her. With their heads to the others' feet, sleep Grisha and +Anya. The cook's son, Andrey too, has managed to snuggle in beside +them. Near them lie the kopecks, that have lost their power till +the next game. Good-night! + + +THE RUNAWAY + +IT had been a long business. At first Pashka had walked with his +mother in the rain, at one time across a mown field, then by forest +paths, where the yellow leaves stuck to his boots; he had walked +until it was daylight. Then he had stood for two hours in the dark +passage, waiting for the door to open. It was not so cold and damp +in the passage as in the yard, but with the high wind spurts of +rain flew in even there. When the passage gradually became packed +with people Pashka, squeezed among them, leaned his face against +somebody's sheepskin which smelt strongly of salt fish, and sank +into a doze. But at last the bolt clicked, the door flew open, and +Pashka and his mother went into the waiting-room. All the patients +sat on benches without stirring or speaking. Pashka looked round +at them, and he too was silent, though he was seeing a great deal +that was strange and funny. Only once, when a lad came into the +waiting-room hopping on one leg, Pashka longed to hop too; he nudged +his mother's elbow, giggled in his sleeve, and said: "Look, mammy, +a sparrow." + +"Hush, child, hush!" said his mother. + +A sleepy-looking hospital assistant appeared at the little window. + +"Come and be registered!" he boomed out. + +All of them, including the funny lad who hopped, filed up to the +window. The assistant asked each one his name, and his father's +name, where he lived, how long he had been ill, and so on. From his +mother's answers, Pashka learned that his name was not Pashka, but +Pavel Galaktionov, that he was seven years old, that he could not +read or write, and that he had been ill ever since Easter. + +Soon after the registration, he had to stand up for a little while; +the doctor in a white apron, with a towel round his waist, walked +across the waiting-room. As he passed by the boy who hopped, he +shrugged his shoulders, and said in a sing-song tenor: + +"Well, you are an idiot! Aren't you an idiot? I told you to come +on Monday, and you come on Friday. It's nothing to me if you don't +come at all, but you know, you idiot, your leg will be done for!" + +The lad made a pitiful face, as though he were going to beg for +alms, blinked, and said: + +"Kindly do something for me, Ivan Mikolaitch!" + +"It's no use saying 'Ivan Mikolaitch,'" the doctor mimicked him. +"You were told to come on Monday, and you ought to obey. You are +an idiot, and that is all about it." + +The doctor began seeing the patients. He sat in his little room, +and called up the patients in turn. Sounds were continually coming +from the little room, piercing wails, a child's crying, or the +doctor's angry words: + +"Come, why are you bawling? Am I murdering you, or what? Sit quiet!" + +Pashka's turn came. + +"Pavel Galaktionov!" shouted the doctor. + +His mother was aghast, as though she had not expected this summons, +and taking Pashka by the hand, she led him into the room. + +The doctor was sitting at the table, mechanically tapping on a thick +book with a little hammer. + +"What's wrong?" he asked, without looking at them. + +"The little lad has an ulcer on his elbow, sir," answered his mother, +and her face assumed an expression as though she really were terribly +grieved at Pashka's ulcer. + +"Undress him!" + +Pashka, panting, unwound the kerchief from his neck, then wiped his +nose on his sleeve, and began deliberately pulling off his sheepskin. + +"Woman, you have not come here on a visit!" said the doctor angrily. +"Why are you dawdling? You are not the only one here." + +Pashka hurriedly flung the sheepskin on the floor, and with his +mother's help took off his shirt. . . The doctor looked at him +lazily, and patted him on his bare stomach. + +"You have grown quite a respectable corporation, brother Pashka," +he said, and heaved a sigh. "Come, show me your elbow." + +Pashka looked sideways at the basin full of bloodstained slops, +looked at the doctor's apron, and began to cry. + +"May-ay!" the doctor mimicked him. "Nearly old enough to be married, +spoilt boy, and here he is blubbering! For shame!" + +Pashka, trying not to cry, looked at his mother, and in that look +could be read the entreaty: "Don't tell them at home that I cried +at the hospital." + +The doctor examined his elbow, pressed it, heaved a sigh, clicked +with his lips, then pressed it again. + +"You ought to be beaten, woman, but there is no one to do it," he +said. "Why didn't you bring him before? Why, the whole arm is done +for. Look, foolish woman. You see, the joint is diseased!" + +"You know best, kind sir . . ." sighed the woman. + +"Kind sir. . . . She's let the boy's arm rot, and now it is 'kind +sir.' What kind of workman will he be without an arm? You'll be +nursing him and looking after him for ages. I bet if you had had a +pimple on your nose, you'd have run to the hospital quick enough, +but you have left your boy to rot for six months. You are all like +that." + +The doctor lighted a cigarette. While the cigarette smoked, he +scolded the woman, and shook his head in time to the song he was +humming inwardly, while he thought of something else. Pashka stood +naked before him, listening and looking at the smoke. When the +cigarette went out, the doctor started, and said in a lower tone: + +"Well, listen, woman. You can do nothing with ointments and drops +in this case. You must leave him in the hospital." + +"If necessary, sir, why not? + +"We must operate on him. You stop with me, Pashka," said the doctor, +slapping Pashka on the shoulder. "Let mother go home, and you and +I will stop here, old man. It's nice with me, old boy, it's first-rate +here. I'll tell you what we'll do, Pashka, we will go catching +finches together. I will show you a fox! We will go visiting together! +Shall we? And mother will come for you tomorrow! Eh?" + +Pashka looked inquiringly at his mother. + +"You stay, child!" she said. + +"He'll stay, he'll stay!" cried the doctor gleefully. "And there +is no need to discuss it. I'll show him a live fox! We will go to +the fair together to buy candy! Marya Denisovna, take him upstairs!" + +The doctor, apparently a light-hearted and friendly fellow, seemed +glad to have company; Pashka wanted to oblige him, especially as +he had never in his life been to a fair, and would have been glad +to have a look at a live fox, but how could he do without his mother? + +After a little reflection he decided to ask the doctor to let his +mother stay in the hospital too, but before he had time to open his +mouth the lady assistant was already taking him upstairs. He walked +up and looked about him with his mouth open. The staircase, the +floors, and the doorposts--everything huge, straight, and bright-were +painted a splendid yellow colour, and had a delicious smell of +Lenten oil. On all sides lamps were hanging, strips of carpet +stretched along the floor, copper taps stuck out on the walls. But +best of all Pashka liked the bedstead upon which he was made to sit +down, and the grey woollen coverlet. He touched the pillows and the +coverlet with his hands, looked round the ward, and made up his +mind that it was very nice at the doctor's. + +The ward was not a large one, it consisted of only three beds. One +bed stood empty, the second was occupied by Pashka, and on the third +sat an old man with sour eyes, who kept coughing and spitting into +a mug. From Pashka's bed part of another ward could be seen with +two beds; on one a very pale wasted-looking man with an india-rubber +bottle on his head was asleep; on the other a peasant with his head +tied up, looking very like a woman, was sitting with his arms spread +out. + +After making Pashka sit down, the assistant went out and came back +a little later with a bundle of clothes under her arm. + +"These are for you," she said, "put them on." + +Pashka undressed and, not without satisfaction began attiring himself +in his new array. When he had put on the shirt, the drawers, and +the little grey dressing-gown, he looked at himself complacently, +and thought that it would not be bad to walk through the village +in that costume. His imagination pictured his mother's sending him +to the kitchen garden by the river to gather cabbage leaves for the +little pig; he saw himself walking along, while the boys and girls +surrounded him and looked with envy at his little dressing-gown. + +A nurse came into the ward, bringing two tin bowls, two spoons, and +two pieces of bread. One bowl she set before the old man, the other +before Pashka. + +"Eat!" she said. + +Looking into his bowl, Pashka saw some rich cabbage soup, and in +the soup a piece of meat, and thought again that it was very nice +at the doctor's, and that the doctor was not nearly so cross as he +had seemed at first. He spent a long time swallowing the soup, +licking the spoon after each mouthful, then when there was nothing +left in the bowl but the meat he stole a look at the old man, and +felt envious that he was still eating the soup. With a sigh Pashka +attacked the meat, trying to make it last as long as possible, but +his efforts were fruitless; the meat, too, quickly vanished. There +was nothing left but the piece of bread. Plain bread without anything +on it was not appetising, but there was no help for it. Pashka +thought a little, and ate the bread. At that moment the nurse came +in with another bowl. This time there was roast meat with potatoes +in the bowl. + +"And where is the bread?" asked the nurse. + +Instead of answering, Pashka puffed out his cheeks, and blew out +the air. + +"Why did you gobble it all up?" said the nurse reproachfully. "What +are you going to eat your meat with?" + +She went and fetched another piece of bread. Pashka had never eaten +roast meat in his life, and trying it now found it very nice. It +vanished quickly, and then he had a piece of bread left bigger than +the first. When the old man had finished his dinner, he put away +the remains of his bread in a little table. Pashka meant to do the +same, but on second thoughts ate his piece. + +When he had finished he went for a walk. In the next ward, besides +the two he had seen from the door, there were four other people. +Of these only one drew his attention. This was a tall, extremely +emaciated peasant with a morose-looking, hairy face. He was sitting +on the bed, nodding his head and swinging his right arm all the +time like a pendulum. Pashka could not take his eyes off him for a +long time. At first the man's regular pendulum-like movements seemed +to him curious, and he thought they were done for the general +amusement, but when he looked into the man's face he felt frightened, +and realised that he was terribly ill. Going into a third ward he +saw two peasants with dark red faces as though they were smeared +with clay. They were sitting motionless on their beds, and with +their strange faces, in which it was hard to distinguish their +features, they looked like heathen idols. + +"Auntie, why do they look like that?" Pashka asked the nurse. + +"They have got smallpox, little lad." + +Going back to his own ward, Pashka sat down on his bed and began +waiting for the doctor to come and take him to catch finches, or +to go to the fair. But the doctor did not come. He got a passing +glimpse of a hospital assistant at the door of the next ward. He +bent over the patient on whose head lay a bag of ice, and cried: +"Mihailo!" + +But the sleeping man did not stir. The assistant made a gesture and +went away. Pashka scrutinised the old man, his next neighbour. The +old man coughed without ceasing and spat into a mug. His cough had +a long-drawn-out, creaking sound. + +Pashka liked one peculiarity about him; when he drew the air in as +he coughed, something in his chest whistled and sang on different +notes. + +"Grandfather, what is it whistles in you?" Pashka asked. + +The old man made no answer. Pashka waited a little and asked: + +"Grandfather, where is the fox?" + +"What fox?" + +"The live one." + +"Where should it be? In the forest!" + +A long time passed, but the doctor still did not appear. The nurse +brought in tea, and scolded Pashka for not having saved any bread +for his tea; the assistant came once more and set to work to wake +Mihailo. It turned blue outside the windows, the wards were lighted +up, but the doctor did not appear. It was too late now to go to the +fair and catch finches; Pashka stretched himself on his bed and +began thinking. He remembered the candy promised him by the doctor, +the face and voice of his mother, the darkness in his hut at home, +the stove, peevish granny Yegorovna . . . and he suddenly felt sad +and dreary. He remembered that his mother was coming for him next +day, smiled, and shut his eyes. + +He was awakened by a rustling. In the next ward someone was stepping +about and speaking in a whisper. Three figures were moving about +Mihailo's bed in the dim light of the night-light and the ikon lamp. + +"Shall we take him, bed and all, or without?" asked one of them. + +"Without. You won't get through the door with the bed." + +"He's died at the wrong time, the Kingdom of Heaven be his!" + +One took Mihailo by his shoulders, another by his legs and lifted +him up: Mihailo's arms and the skirt of his dressing-gown hung +limply to the ground. A third--it was the peasant who looked like +a woman--crossed himself, and all three tramping clumsily with +their feet and stepping on Mihailo's skirts, went out of the ward. + +There came the whistle and humming on different notes from the chest +of the old man who was asleep. Pashka listened, peeped at the dark +windows, and jumped out of bed in terror. + +"Ma-a-mka!" he moaned in a deep bass. + +And without waiting for an answer, he rushed into the next ward. +There the darkness was dimly lighted up by a night-light and the +ikon lamp; the patients, upset by the death of Mihailo, were sitting +on their bedsteads: their dishevelled figures, mixed up with the +shadows, looked broader, taller, and seemed to be growing bigger +and bigger; on the furthest bedstead in the corner, where it was +darkest, there sat the peasant moving his head and his hand. + +Pashka, without noticing the doors, rushed into the smallpox ward, +from there into the corridor, from the corridor he flew into a big +room where monsters, with long hair and the faces of old women, +were lying and sitting on the beds. Running through the women's +wing he found himself again in the corridor, saw the banisters of +the staircase he knew already, and ran downstairs. There he recognised +the waiting-room in which he had sat that morning, and began looking +for the door into the open air. + +The latch creaked, there was a whiff of cold wind, and Pashka, +stumbling, ran out into the yard. He had only one thought--to +run, to run! He did not know the way, but felt convinced that if +he ran he would be sure to find himself at home with his mother. +The sky was overcast, but there was a moon behind the clouds. Pashka +ran from the steps straight forward, went round the barn and stumbled +into some thick bushes; after stopping for a minute and thinking, +he dashed back again to the hospital, ran round it, and stopped +again undecided; behind the hospital there were white crosses. + +"Ma-a-mka!" he cried, and dashed back. + +Running by the dark sinister buildings, he saw one lighted window. + +The bright red patch looked dreadful in the darkness, but Pashka, +frantic with terror, not knowing where to run, turned towards it. +Beside the window was a porch with steps, and a front door with a +white board on it; Pashka ran up the steps, looked in at the window, +and was at once possessed by intense overwhelming joy. Through the +window he saw the merry affable doctor sitting at the table reading +a book. Laughing with happiness, Pashka stretched out his hands to +the person he knew and tried to call out, but some unseen force +choked him and struck at his legs; he staggered and fell down on +the steps unconscious. + +When he came to himself it was daylight, and a voice he knew very +well, that had promised him a fair, finches, and a fox, was saying +beside him: + +"Well, you are an idiot, Pashka! Aren't you an idiot? You ought to +be beaten, but there's no one to do it." + + +GRISHA + +GRISHA, a chubby little boy, born two years and eight months ago, +is walking on the boulevard with his nurse. He is wearing a long, +wadded pelisse, a scarf, a big cap with a fluffy pom-pom, and warm +over-boots. He feels hot and stifled, and now, too, the rollicking +April sunshine is beating straight in his face, and making his +eyelids tingle. + +The whole of his clumsy, timidly and uncertainly stepping little +figure expresses the utmost bewilderment. + +Hitherto Grisha has known only a rectangular world, where in one +corner stands his bed, in the other nurse's trunk, in the third a +chair, while in the fourth there is a little lamp burning. If one +looks under the bed, one sees a doll with a broken arm and a drum; +and behind nurse's trunk, there are a great many things of all +sorts: cotton reels, boxes without lids, and a broken Jack-a-dandy. +In that world, besides nurse and Grisha, there are often mamma and +the cat. Mamma is like a doll, and puss is like papa's fur-coat, +only the coat hasn't got eyes and a tail. From the world which is +called the nursery a door leads to a great expanse where they have +dinner and tea. There stands Grisha's chair on high legs, and on +the wall hangs a clock which exists to swing its pendulum and chime. +From the dining-room, one can go into a room where there are red +arm-chairs. Here, there is a dark patch on the carpet, concerning +which fingers are still shaken at Grisha. Beyond that room is still +another, to which one is not admitted, and where one sees glimpses +of papa--an extremely enigmatical person! Nurse and mamma are +comprehensible: they dress Grisha, feed him, and put him to bed, +but what papa exists for is unknown. There is another enigmatical +person, auntie, who presented Grisha with a drum. She appears and +disappears. Where does she disappear to? Grisha has more than once +looked under the bed, behind the trunk, and under the sofa, but she +was not there. + +In this new world, where the sun hurts one's eyes, there are so +many papas and mammas and aunties, that there is no knowing to whom +to run. But what is stranger and more absurd than anything is the +horses. Grisha gazes at their moving legs, and can make nothing of +it. He looks at his nurse for her to solve the mystery, but she +does not speak. + +All at once he hears a fearful tramping. . . . A crowd of soldiers, +with red faces and bath brooms under their arms, move in step along +the boulevard straight upon him. Grisha turns cold all over with +terror, and looks inquiringly at nurse to know whether it is +dangerous. But nurse neither weeps nor runs away, so there is no +danger. Grisha looks after the soldiers, and begins to move his +feet in step with them himself. + +Two big cats with long faces run after each other across the +boulevard, with their tongues out, and their tails in the air. +Grisha thinks that he must run too, and runs after the cats. + +"Stop!" cries nurse, seizing him roughly by the shoulder. "Where +are you off to? Haven't you been told not to be naughty?" + +Here there is a nurse sitting holding a tray of oranges. Grisha +passes by her, and, without saying anything, takes an orange. + +"What are you doing that for?" cries the companion of his travels, +slapping his hand and snatching away the orange. "Silly!" + +Now Grisha would have liked to pick up a bit of glass that was lying +at his feet and gleaming like a lamp, but he is afraid that his +hand will be slapped again. + +"My respects to you!" Grisha hears suddenly, almost above his ear, +a loud thick voice, and he sees a tall man with bright buttons. + +To his great delight, this man gives nurse his hand, stops, and +begins talking to her. The brightness of the sun, the noise of the +carriages, the horses, the bright buttons are all so impressively +new and not dreadful, that Grisha's soul is filled with a feeling +of enjoyment and he begins to laugh. + +"Come along! Come along!" he cries to the man with the bright +buttons, tugging at his coattails. + +"Come along where?" asks the man. + +"Come along!" Grisha insists. + +He wants to say that it would be just as well to take with them +papa, mamma, and the cat, but his tongue does not say what he wants +to. + +A little later, nurse turns out of the boulevard, and leads Grisha +into a big courtyard where there is still snow; and the man with +the bright buttons comes with them too. They carefully avoid the +lumps of snow and the puddles, then, by a dark and dirty staircase, +they go into a room. Here there is a great deal of smoke, there is +a smell of roast meat, and a woman is standing by the stove frying +cutlets. The cook and the nurse kiss each other, and sit down on +the bench together with the man, and begin talking in a low voice. +Grisha, wrapped up as he is, feels insufferably hot and stifled. + +"Why is this?" he wonders, looking about him. + +He sees the dark ceiling, the oven fork with two horns, the stove +which looks like a great black hole. + +"Mam-ma," he drawls. + +"Come, come, come!" cries the nurse. "Wait a bit!" + +The cook puts a bottle on the table, two wine-glasses, and a pie. +The two women and the man with the bright buttons clink glasses and +empty them several times, and, the man puts his arm round first the +cook and then the nurse. And then all three begin singing in an +undertone. + +Grisha stretches out his hand towards the pie, and they give him a +piece of it. He eats it and watches nurse drinking. . . . He wants +to drink too. + +"Give me some, nurse!" he begs. + +The cook gives him a sip out of her glass. He rolls his eyes, blinks, +coughs, and waves his hands for a long time afterwards, while the +cook looks at him and laughs. + +When he gets home Grisha begins to tell mamma, the walls, and the +bed where he has been, and what he has seen. He talks not so much +with his tongue, as with his face and his hands. He shows how the +sun shines, how the horses run, how the terrible stove looks, and +how the cook drinks. . . . + +In the evening he cannot get to sleep. The soldiers with the brooms, +the big cats, the horses, the bit of glass, the tray of oranges, +the bright buttons, all gathered together, weigh on his brain. He +tosses from side to side, babbles, and, at last, unable to endure +his excitement, begins crying. + +"You are feverish," says mamma, putting her open hand on his forehead. +"What can have caused it? + +"Stove!" wails Grisha. "Go away, stove!" + +"He must have eaten too much . . ." mamma decides. + +And Grisha, shattered by the impressions of the new life he has +just experienced, receives a spoonful of castor-oil from mamma. + + +OYSTERS + +I NEED no great effort of memory to recall, in every detail, the +rainy autumn evening when I stood with my father in one of the more +frequented streets of Moscow, and felt that I was gradually being +overcome by a strange illness. I had no pain at all, but my legs +were giving way under me, the words stuck in my throat, my head +slipped weakly on one side . . . It seemed as though, in a moment, +I must fall down and lose consciousness. + +If I had been taken into a hospital at that minute, the doctors +would have had to write over my bed: _Fames_, a disease which is +not in the manuals of medicine. + +Beside me on the pavement stood my father in a shabby summer overcoat +and a serge cap, from which a bit of white wadding was sticking +out. On his feet he had big heavy goloshes. Afraid, vain man, that +people would see that his feet were bare under his goloshes, he had +drawn the tops of some old boots up round the calves of his legs. + +This poor, foolish, queer creature, whom I loved the more warmly +the more ragged and dirty his smart summer overcoat became, had +come to Moscow, five months before, to look for a job as copying-clerk. +For those five months he had been trudging about Moscow looking for +work, and it was only on that day that he had brought himself to +go into the street to beg for alms. + +Before us was a big house of three storeys, adorned with a blue +signboard with the word "Restaurant" on it. My head was drooping +feebly backwards and on one side, and I could not help looking +upwards at the lighted windows of the restaurant. Human figures +were flitting about at the windows. I could see the right side of +the orchestrion, two oleographs, hanging lamps . . . . Staring into +one window, I saw a patch of white. The patch was motionless, and +its rectangular outlines stood out sharply against the dark, brown +background. I looked intently and made out of the patch a white +placard on the wall. Something was written on it, but what it was, +I could not see. . . + +For half an hour I kept my eyes on the placard. Its white attracted +my eyes, and, as it were, hypnotised my brain. I tried to read it, +but my efforts were in vain. + +At last the strange disease got the upper hand. + +The rumble of the carriages began to seem like thunder, in the +stench of the street I distinguished a thousand smells. The restaurant +lights and the lamps dazzled my eyes like lightning. My five senses +were overstrained and sensitive beyond the normal. I began to see +what I had not seen before. + +"Oysters . . ." I made out on the placard. + +A strange word! I had lived in the world eight years and three +months, but had never come across that word. What did it mean? +Surely it was not the name of the restaurant-keeper? But signboards +with names on them always hang outside, not on the walls indoors! + +"Papa, what does 'oysters' mean?" I asked in a husky voice, making +an effort to turn my face towards my father. + +My father did not hear. He was keeping a watch on the movements of +the crowd, and following every passer-by with his eyes. . . . From +his eyes I saw that he wanted to say something to the passers-by, +but the fatal word hung like a heavy weight on his trembling lips +and could not be flung off. He even took a step after one passer-by +and touched him on the sleeve, but when he turned round, he said, +"I beg your pardon," was overcome with confusion, and staggered +back. + +"Papa, what does 'oysters' mean?" I repeated. + +"It is an animal . . . that lives in the sea." + +I instantly pictured to myself this unknown marine animal. . . . I +thought it must be something midway between a fish and a crab. As +it was from the sea they made of it, of course, a very nice hot +fish soup with savoury pepper and laurel leaves, or broth with +vinegar and fricassee of fish and cabbage, or crayfish sauce, or +served it cold with horse-radish. . . . I vividly imagined it being +brought from the market, quickly cleaned, quickly put in the pot, +quickly, quickly, for everyone was hungry . . . awfully hungry! +From the kitchen rose the smell of hot fish and crayfish soup. + +I felt that this smell was tickling my palate and nostrils, that +it was gradually taking possession of my whole body. . . . The +restaurant, my father, the white placard, my sleeves were all +smelling of it, smelling so strongly that I began to chew. I moved +my jaws and swallowed as though I really had a piece of this marine +animal in my mouth . . . + +My legs gave way from the blissful sensation I was feeling, and I +clutched at my father's arm to keep myself from falling, and leant +against his wet summer overcoat. My father was trembling and +shivering. He was cold . . . + +"Papa, are oysters a Lenten dish?" I asked. + +"They are eaten alive . . ." said my father. "They are in shells +like tortoises, but . . . in two halves." + +The delicious smell instantly left off affecting me, and the illusion +vanished. . . . Now I understood it all! + +"How nasty," I whispered, "how nasty!" + +So that's what "oysters" meant! I imagined to myself a creature +like a frog. A frog sitting in a shell, peeping out from it with +big, glittering eyes, and moving its revolting jaws. I imagined +this creature in a shell with claws, glittering eyes, and a slimy +skin, being brought from the market. . . . The children would all +hide while the cook, frowning with an air of disgust, would take +the creature by its claw, put it on a plate, and carry it into the +dining-room. The grown-ups would take it and eat it, eat it alive +with its eyes, its teeth, its legs! While it squeaked and tried to +bite their lips. . . . + +I frowned, but . . . but why did my teeth move as though I were +munching? The creature was loathsome, disgusting, terrible, but I +ate it, ate it greedily, afraid of distinguishing its taste or +smell. As soon as I had eaten one, I saw the glittering eyes of a +second, a third . . . I ate them too. . . . At last I ate the +table-napkin, the plate, my father's goloshes, the white placard +. . . I ate everything that caught my eye, because I felt that nothing +but eating would take away my illness. The oysters had a terrible +look in their eyes and were loathsome. I shuddered at the thought +of them, but I wanted to eat! To eat! + +"Oysters! Give me some oysters!" was the cry that broke from me and +I stretched out my hand. + +"Help us, gentlemen!" I heard at that moment my father say, in a +hollow and shaking voice. "I am ashamed to ask but--my God!--I +can bear no more!" + +"Oysters!" I cried, pulling my father by the skirts of his coat. + +"Do you mean to say you eat oysters? A little chap like you!" I +heard laughter close to me. + +Two gentlemen in top hats were standing before us, looking into my +face and laughing. + +"Do you really eat oysters, youngster? That's interesting! How do +you eat them?" + +I remember that a strong hand dragged me into the lighted restaurant. +A minute later there was a crowd round me, watching me with curiosity +and amusement. I sat at a table and ate something slimy, salt with +a flavour of dampness and mouldiness. I ate greedily without chewing, +without looking and trying to discover what I was eating. I fancied +that if I opened my eyes I should see glittering eyes, claws, and +sharp teeth. + +All at once I began biting something hard, there was a sound of a +scrunching. + +"Ha, ha! He is eating the shells," laughed the crowd. "Little silly, +do you suppose you can eat that?" + +After that I remember a terrible thirst. I was lying in my bed, and +could not sleep for heartburn and the strange taste in my parched +mouth. My father was walking up and down, gesticulating with his +hands. + +"I believe I have caught cold," he was muttering. "I've a feeling +in my head as though someone were sitting on it. . . . Perhaps it +is because I have not . . . er . . . eaten anything to-day. . . . +I really am a queer, stupid creature. . . . I saw those gentlemen +pay ten roubles for the oysters. Why didn't I go up to them and ask +them . . . to lend me something? They would have given something." + +Towards morning, I fell asleep and dreamt of a frog sitting in a +shell, moving its eyes. At midday I was awakened by thirst, and +looked for my father: he was still walking up and down and +gesticulating. + + +HOME + +"SOMEONE came from the Grigoryevs' to fetch a book, but I said you +were not at home. The postman brought the newspaper and two letters. +By the way, Yevgeny Petrovitch, I should like to ask you to speak +to Seryozha. To-day, and the day before yesterday, I have noticed +that he is smoking. When I began to expostulate with him, he put +his fingers in his ears as usual, and sang loudly to drown my voice." + +Yevgeny Petrovitch Bykovsky, the prosecutor of the circuit court, +who had just come back from a session and was taking off his gloves +in his study, looked at the governess as she made her report, and +laughed. + +"Seryozha smoking . . ." he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I can +picture the little cherub with a cigarette in his mouth! Why, how +old is he?" + +"Seven. You think it is not important, but at his age smoking is a +bad and pernicious habit, and bad habits ought to be eradicated in +the beginning." + +"Perfectly true. And where does he get the tobacco?" + +"He takes it from the drawer in your table." + +"Yes? In that case, send him to me." + +When the governess had gone out, Bykovsky sat down in an arm-chair +before his writing-table, shut his eyes, and fell to thinking. He +pictured his Seryozha with a huge cigar, a yard long, in the midst +of clouds of tobacco smoke, and this caricature made him smile; at +the same time, the grave, troubled face of the governess called up +memories of the long past, half-forgotten time when smoking aroused +in his teachers and parents a strange, not quite intelligible horror. +It really was horror. Children were mercilessly flogged and expelled +from school, and their lives were made a misery on account of +smoking, though not a single teacher or father knew exactly what +was the harm or sinfulness of smoking. Even very intelligent people +did not scruple to wage war on a vice which they did not understand. +Yevgeny Petrovitch remembered the head-master of the high school, +a very cultured and good-natured old man, who was so appalled when +he found a high-school boy with a cigarette in his mouth that he +turned pale, immediately summoned an emergency committee of the +teachers, and sentenced the sinner to expulsion. This was probably +a law of social life: the less an evil was understood, the more +fiercely and coarsely it was attacked. + +The prosecutor remembered two or three boys who had been expelled +and their subsequent life, and could not help thinking that very +often the punishment did a great deal more harm than the crime +itself. The living organism has the power of rapidly adapting itself, +growing accustomed and inured to any atmosphere whatever, otherwise +man would be bound to feel at every moment what an irrational basis +there often is underlying his rational activity, and how little of +established truth and certainty there is even in work so responsible +and so terrible in its effects as that of the teacher, of the lawyer, +of the writer. . . . + +And such light and discursive thoughts as visit the brain only when +it is weary and resting began straying through Yevgeny Petrovitch's +head; there is no telling whence and why they come, they do not +remain long in the mind, but seem to glide over its surface without +sinking deeply into it. For people who are forced for whole hours, +and even days, to think by routine in one direction, such free +private thinking affords a kind of comfort, an agreeable solace. + +It was between eight and nine o'clock in the evening. Overhead, on +the second storey, someone was walking up and down, and on the floor +above that four hands were playing scales. The pacing of the man +overhead who, to judge from his nervous step, was thinking of +something harassing, or was suffering from toothache, and the +monotonous scales gave the stillness of the evening a drowsiness +that disposed to lazy reveries. In the nursery, two rooms away, the +governess and Seryozha were talking. + +"Pa-pa has come!" carolled the child. "Papa has co-ome. Pa! Pa! +Pa!" + +"_Votre père vous appelle, allez vite!_" cried the governess, shrill +as a frightened bird. "I am speaking to you!" + +"What am I to say to him, though?" Yevgeny Petrovitch wondered. + +But before he had time to think of anything whatever his son Seryozha, +a boy of seven, walked into the study. + +He was a child whose sex could only have been guessed from his +dress: weakly, white-faced, and fragile. He was limp like a hot-house +plant, and everything about him seemed extraordinarily soft and +tender: his movements, his curly hair, the look in his eyes, his +velvet jacket. + +"Good evening, papa!" he said, in a soft voice, clambering on to +his father's knee and giving him a rapid kiss on his neck. "Did you +send for me?" + +"Excuse me, Sergey Yevgenitch," answered the prosecutor, removing +him from his knee. "Before kissing we must have a talk, and a serious +talk . . . I am angry with you, and don't love you any more. I tell +you, my boy, I don't love you, and you are no son of mine. . . ." + +Seryozha looked intently at his father, then shifted his eyes to +the table, and shrugged his shoulders. + +"What have I done to you?" he asked in perplexity, blinking. "I +haven't been in your study all day, and I haven't touched anything." + +"Natalya Semyonovna has just been complaining to me that you have +been smoking. . . . Is it true? Have you been smoking?" + +"Yes, I did smoke once. . . . That's true. . . ." + +"Now you see you are lying as well," said the prosecutor, frowning +to disguise a smile. "Natalya Semyonovna has seen you smoking twice. +So you see you have been detected in three misdeeds: smoking, taking +someone else's tobacco, and lying. Three faults." + +"Oh yes," Seryozha recollected, and his eyes smiled. "That's true, +that's true; I smoked twice: to-day and before." + +"So you see it was not once, but twice. . . . I am very, very much +displeased with you! You used to be a good boy, but now I see you +are spoilt and have become a bad one." + +Yevgeny Petrovitch smoothed down Seryozha's collar and thought: + +"What more am I to say to him!" + +"Yes, it's not right," he continued. "I did not expect it of you. +In the first place, you ought not to take tobacco that does not +belong to you. Every person has only the right to make use of his +own property; if he takes anyone else's . . . he is a bad man!" ("I +am not saying the right thing!" thought Yevgeny Petrovitch.) "For +instance, Natalya Semyonovna has a box with her clothes in it. +That's her box, and we--that is, you and I--dare not touch it, +as it is not ours. That's right, isn't it? You've got toy horses +and pictures. . . . I don't take them, do I? Perhaps I might like +to take them, but . . . they are not mine, but yours!" + +"Take them if you like!" said Seryozha, raising his eyebrows. "Please +don't hesitate, papa, take them! That yellow dog on your table is +mine, but I don't mind. . . . Let it stay." + +"You don't understand me," said Bykovsky. "You have given me the +dog, it is mine now and I can do what I like with it; but I didn't +give you the tobacco! The tobacco is mine." ("I am not explaining +properly!" thought the prosecutor. "It's wrong! Quite wrong!") "If +I want to smoke someone else's tobacco, I must first of all ask his +permission. . . ." + +Languidly linking one phrase on to another and imitating the language +of the nursery, Bykovsky tried to explain to his son the meaning +of property. Seryozha gazed at his chest and listened attentively +(he liked talking to his father in the evening), then he leaned his +elbow on the edge of the table and began screwing up his short-sighted +eyes at the papers and the inkstand. His eyes strayed over the table +and rested on the gum-bottle. + +"Papa, what is gum made of?" he asked suddenly, putting the bottle +to his eyes. + +Bykovsky took the bottle out of his hands and set it in its place +and went on: + +"Secondly, you smoke. . . . That's very bad. Though I smoke it does +not follow that you may. I smoke and know that it is stupid, I blame +myself and don't like myself for it." ("A clever teacher, I am!" +he thought.) "Tobacco is very bad for the health, and anyone who +smokes dies earlier than he should. It's particularly bad for boys +like you to smoke. Your chest is weak, you haven't reached your +full strength yet, and smoking leads to consumption and other illness +in weak people. Uncle Ignat died of consumption, you know. If he +hadn't smoked, perhaps he would have lived till now." + +Seryozha looked pensively at the lamp, touched the lamp-shade with +his finger, and heaved a sigh. + +"Uncle Ignat played the violin splendidly!" he said. "His violin +is at the Grigoryevs' now." + +Seryozha leaned his elbows on the edge of the table again, and sank +into thought. His white face wore a fixed expression, as though he +were listening or following a train of thought of his own; distress +and something like fear came into his big staring eyes. He was most +likely thinking now of death, which had so lately carried off his +mother and Uncle Ignat. Death carries mothers and uncles off to the +other world, while their children and violins remain upon the earth. +The dead live somewhere in the sky beside the stars, and look down +from there upon the earth. Can they endure the parting? + +"What am I to say to him?" thought Yevgeny Petrovitch. "He's not +listening to me. Obviously he does not regard either his misdoings +or my arguments as serious. How am I to drive it home?" + +The prosecutor got up and walked about the study. + +"Formerly, in my time, these questions were very simply settled," +he reflected. "Every urchin who was caught smoking was thrashed. +The cowardly and faint-hearted did actually give up smoking, any +who were somewhat more plucky and intelligent, after the thrashing +took to carrying tobacco in the legs of their boots, and smoking +in the barn. When they were caught in the barn and thrashed again, +they would go away to smoke by the river . . . and so on, till the +boy grew up. My mother used to give me money and sweets not to +smoke. Now that method is looked upon as worthless and immoral. The +modern teacher, taking his stand on logic, tries to make the child +form good principles, not from fear, nor from desire for distinction +or reward, but consciously." + +While he was walking about, thinking, Seryozha climbed up with his +legs on a chair sideways to the table, and began drawing. That he +might not spoil official paper nor touch the ink, a heap of +half-sheets, cut on purpose for him, lay on the table together with +a blue pencil. + +"Cook was chopping up cabbage to-day and she cut her finger," he +said, drawing a little house and moving his eyebrows. "She gave +such a scream that we were all frightened and ran into the kitchen. +Stupid thing! Natalya Semyonovna told her to dip her finger in cold +water, but she sucked it . . . And how could she put a dirty finger +in her mouth! That's not proper, you know, papa!" + +Then he went on to describe how, while they were having dinner, a +man with a hurdy-gurdy had come into the yard with a little girl, +who had danced and sung to the music. + +"He has his own train of thought!" thought the prosecutor. "He has +a little world of his own in his head, and he has his own ideas of +what is important and unimportant. To gain possession of his +attention, it's not enough to imitate his language, one must also +be able to think in the way he does. He would understand me perfectly +if I really were sorry for the loss of the tobacco, if I felt injured +and cried. . . . That's why no one can take the place of a mother +in bringing up a child, because she can feel, cry, and laugh together +with the child. One can do nothing by logic and morality. What more +shall I say to him? What?" + +And it struck Yevgeny Petrovitch as strange and absurd that he, an +experienced advocate, who spent half his life in the practice of +reducing people to silence, forestalling what they had to say, and +punishing them, was completely at a loss and did not know what to +say to the boy. + +"I say, give me your word of honour that you won't smoke again," +he said. + +"Word of hon-nour!" carolled Seryozha, pressing hard on the pencil +and bending over the drawing. "Word of hon-nour!" + +"Does he know what is meant by word of honour?" Bykovsky asked +himself. "No, I am a poor teacher of morality! If some schoolmaster +or one of our legal fellows could peep into my brain at this moment +he would call me a poor stick, and would very likely suspect me of +unnecessary subtlety. . . . But in school and in court, of course, +all these wretched questions are far more simply settled than at +home; here one has to do with people whom one loves beyond everything, +and love is exacting and complicates the question. If this boy were +not my son, but my pupil, or a prisoner on his trial, I should not +be so cowardly, and my thoughts would not be racing all over the +place!" + +Yevgeny Petrovitch sat down to the table and pulled one of Seryozha's +drawings to him. In it there was a house with a crooked roof, and +smoke which came out of the chimney like a flash of lightning in +zigzags up to the very edge of the paper; beside the house stood a +soldier with dots for eyes and a bayonet that looked like the figure +4. + +"A man can't be taller than a house," said the prosecutor. + +Seryozha got on his knee, and moved about for some time to get +comfortably settled there. + +"No, papa!" he said, looking at his drawing. "If you were to draw +the soldier small you would not see his eyes." + +Ought he to argue with him? From daily observation of his son the +prosecutor had become convinced that children, like savages, have +their own artistic standpoints and requirements peculiar to them, +beyond the grasp of grown-up people. Had he been attentively observed, +Seryozha might have struck a grown-up person as abnormal. He thought +it possible and reasonable to draw men taller than houses, and to +represent in pencil, not only objects, but even his sensations. +Thus he would depict the sounds of an orchestra in the form of smoke +like spherical blurs, a whistle in the form of a spiral thread. . . . +To his mind sound was closely connected with form and colour, +so that when he painted letters he invariably painted the letter L +yellow, M red, A black, and so on. + +Abandoning his drawing, Seryozha shifted about once more, got into +a comfortable attitude, and busied himself with his father's beard. +First he carefully smoothed it, then he parted it and began combing +it into the shape of whiskers. + +"Now you are like Ivan Stepanovitch," he said, "and in a minute you +will be like our porter. Papa, why is it porters stand by doors? +Is it to prevent thieves getting in?" + +The prosecutor felt the child's breathing on his face, he was +continually touching his hair with his cheek, and there was a warm +soft feeling in his soul, as soft as though not only his hands but +his whole soul were lying on the velvet of Seryozha's jacket. + +He looked at the boy's big dark eyes, and it seemed to him as though +from those wide pupils there looked out at him his mother and his +wife and everything that he had ever loved. + +"To think of thrashing him . . ." he mused. "A nice task to devise +a punishment for him! How can we undertake to bring up the young? +In old days people were simpler and thought less, and so settled +problems boldly. But we think too much, we are eaten up by logic +. . . . The more developed a man is, the more he reflects and gives +himself up to subtleties, the more undecided and scrupulous he +becomes, and the more timidity he shows in taking action. How much +courage and self-confidence it needs, when one comes to look into +it closely, to undertake to teach, to judge, to write a thick +book. . . ." + +It struck ten. + +"Come, boy, it's bedtime," said the prosecutor. "Say good-night and +go." + +"No, papa," said Seryozha, "I will stay a little longer. Tell me +something! Tell me a story. . . ." + +"Very well, only after the story you must go to bed at once." + +Yevgeny Petrovitch on his free evenings was in the habit of telling +Seryozha stories. Like most people engaged in practical affairs, +he did not know a single poem by heart, and could not remember a +single fairy tale, so he had to improvise. As a rule he began with +the stereotyped: "In a certain country, in a certain kingdom," then +he heaped up all kinds of innocent nonsense and had no notion as +he told the beginning how the story would go on, and how it would +end. Scenes, characters, and situations were taken at random, +impromptu, and the plot and the moral came of itself as it were, +with no plan on the part of the story-teller. Seryozha was very +fond of this improvisation, and the prosecutor noticed that the +simpler and the less ingenious the plot, the stronger the impression +it made on the child. + +"Listen," he said, raising his eyes to the ceiling. "Once upon a +time, in a certain country, in a certain kingdom, there lived an +old, very old emperor with a long grey beard, and . . . and with +great grey moustaches like this. Well, he lived in a glass palace +which sparkled and glittered in the sun, like a great piece of clear +ice. The palace, my boy, stood in a huge garden, in which there +grew oranges, you know . . . bergamots, cherries . . . tulips, +roses, and lilies-of-the-valley were in flower in it, and birds of +different colours sang there. . . . Yes. . . . On the trees there +hung little glass bells, and, when the wind blew, they rang so +sweetly that one was never tired of hearing them. Glass gives a +softer, tenderer note than metals. . . . Well, what next? There +were fountains in the garden. . . . Do you remember you saw a +fountain at Auntie Sonya's summer villa? Well, there were fountains +just like that in the emperor's garden, only ever so much bigger, +and the jets of water reached to the top of the highest poplar." + +Yevgeny Petrovitch thought a moment, and went on: + +"The old emperor had an only son and heir of his kingdom--a boy +as little as you. He was a good boy. He was never naughty, he went +to bed early, he never touched anything on the table, and altogether +he was a sensible boy. He had only one fault, he used to +smoke. . . ." + +Seryozha listened attentively, and looked into his father's eyes +without blinking. The prosecutor went on, thinking: "What next?" +He spun out a long rigmarole, and ended like this: + +"The emperor's son fell ill with consumption through smoking, and +died when he was twenty. His infirm and sick old father was left +without anyone to help him. There was no one to govern the kingdom +and defend the palace. Enemies came, killed the old man, and destroyed +the palace, and now there are neither cherries, nor birds, nor +little bells in the garden. . . . That's what happened." + +This ending struck Yevgeny Petrovitch as absurd and naïve, but the +whole story made an intense impression on Seryozha. Again his eyes +were clouded by mournfulness and something like fear; for a minute +he looked pensively at the dark window, shuddered, and said, in a +sinking voice: + +"I am not going to smoke any more. . . ." + +When he had said good-night and gone away his father walked up and +down the room and smiled to himself. + +"They would tell me it was the influence of beauty, artistic form," +he meditated. "It may be so, but that's no comfort. It's not the +right way, all the same. . . . Why must morality and truth never +be offered in their crude form, but only with embellishments, +sweetened and gilded like pills? It's not normal. . . . It's +falsification . . . deception . . . tricks . . . ." + +He thought of the jurymen to whom it was absolutely necessary to +make a "speech," of the general public who absorb history only from +legends and historical novels, and of himself and how he had gathered +an understanding of life not from sermons and laws, but from fables, +novels, poems. + +"Medicine should be sweet, truth beautiful, and man has had this +foolish habit since the days of Adam . . . though, indeed, perhaps +it is all natural, and ought to be so. . . . There are many deceptions +and delusions in nature that serve a purpose." + +He set to work, but lazy, intimate thoughts still strayed through +his mind for a good while. Overhead the scales could no longer be +heard, but the inhabitant of the second storey was still pacing +from one end of the room to another. + + +A CLASSICAL STUDENT + +BEFORE setting off for his examination in Greek, Vanya kissed all +the holy images. His stomach felt as though it were upside down; +there was a chill at his heart, while the heart itself throbbed and +stood still with terror before the unknown. What would he get that +day? A three or a two? Six times he went to his mother for her +blessing, and, as he went out, asked his aunt to pray for him. On +the way to school he gave a beggar two kopecks, in the hope that +those two kopecks would atone for his ignorance, and that, please +God, he would not get the numerals with those awful forties and +eighties. + +He came back from the high school late, between four and five. He +came in, and noiselessly lay down on his bed. His thin face was +pale. There were dark rings round his red eyes. + +"Well, how did you get on? How were you marked?" asked his mother, +going to his bedside. + +Vanya blinked, twisted his mouth, and burst into tears. His mother +turned pale, let her mouth fall open, and clasped her hands. The +breeches she was mending dropped out of her hands. + +"What are you crying for? You've failed, then?" she asked. + +"I am plucked. . . . I got a two." + +"I knew it would be so! I had a presentiment of it," said his mother. +"Merciful God! How is it you have not passed? What is the reason +of it? What subject have you failed in?" + +"In Greek. . . . Mother, I . . . They asked me the future of _phero_, +and I . . . instead of saying _oisomai_ said _opsomai_. Then . . . +then there isn't an accent, if the last syllable is long, and I +. . . I got flustered. . . . I forgot that the alpha was long in it +. . . . I went and put in the accent. Then Artaxerxov told me to give +the list of the enclitic particles. . . . I did, and I accidentally +mixed in a pronoun . . . and made a mistake . . . and so he gave +me a two. . . . I am a miserable person. . . . I was working all +night. . . I've been getting up at four o'clock all this +week . . . ." + +"No, it's not you but I who am miserable, you wretched boy! It's I +that am miserable! You've worn me to a threadpaper, you Herod, you +torment, you bane of my life! I pay for you, you good-for-nothing +rubbish; I've bent my back toiling for you, I'm worried to death, +and, I may say, I am unhappy, and what do you care? How do you +work?" + +"I . . . I do work. All night. . . . You've seen it yourself." + +"I prayed to God to take me, but He won't take me, a sinful woman +. . . . You torment! Other people have children like everyone else, +and I've one only and no sense, no comfort out of him. Beat you? +I'd beat you, but where am I to find the strength? Mother of God, +where am I to find the strength?" + +The mamma hid her face in the folds of her blouse and broke into +sobs. Vanya wriggled with anguish and pressed his forehead against +the wall. The aunt came in. + +"So that's how it is. . . . Just what I expected," she said, at +once guessing what was wrong, turning pale and clasping her hands. +"I've been depressed all the morning. . . . There's trouble coming, +I thought . . . and here it's come. . . ." + +"The villain, the torment!" + +"Why are you swearing at him?" cried the aunt, nervously pulling +her coffee-coloured kerchief off her head and turning upon the +mother. "It's not his fault! It's your fault! You are to blame! Why +did you send him to that high school? You are a fine lady! You want +to be a lady? A-a-ah! I dare say, as though you'll turn into gentry! +But if you had sent him, as I told you, into business . . . to an +office, like my Kuzya . . . here is Kuzya getting five hundred a +year. . . . Five hundred roubles is worth having, isn't it? And you +are wearing yourself out, and wearing the boy out with this studying, +plague take it! He is thin, he coughs . . . just look at him! He's +thirteen, and he looks no more than ten." + +"No, Nastenka, no, my dear! I haven't thrashed him enough, the +torment! He ought to have been thrashed, that's what it is! Ugh +. . . Jesuit, Mahomet, torment!" she shook her fist at her son. "You +want a flogging, but I haven't the strength. They told me years ago +when he was little, 'Whip him, whip him!' I didn't heed them, sinful +woman as I am. And now I am suffering for it. You wait a bit! I'll +flay you! Wait a bit . . . ." + +The mamma shook her wet fist, and went weeping into her lodger's +room. The lodger, Yevtihy Kuzmitch Kuporossov, was sitting at his +table, reading "Dancing Self-taught." Yevtihy Kuzmitch was a man +of intelligence and education. He spoke through his nose, washed +with a soap the smell of which made everyone in the house sneeze, +ate meat on fast days, and was on the look-out for a bride of refined +education, and so was considered the cleverest of the lodgers. He +sang tenor. + +"My good friend," began the mamma, dissolving into tears. "If you +would have the generosity--thrash my boy for me. . . . Do me the +favour! He's failed in his examination, the nuisance of a boy! Would +you believe it, he's failed! I can't punish him, through the weakness +of my ill-health. . . . Thrash him for me, if you would be so +obliging and considerate, Yevtihy Kuzmitch! Have regard for a sick +woman!" + +Kuporossov frowned and heaved a deep sigh through his nose. He +thought a little, drummed on the table with his fingers, and sighing +once more, went to Vanya. + +"You are being taught, so to say," he began, "being educated, being +given a chance, you revolting young person! Why have you done it?" + +He talked for a long time, made a regular speech. He alluded to +science, to light, and to darkness. + +"Yes, young person." + +When he had finished his speech, he took off his belt and took Vanya +by the hand. + +"It's the only way to deal with you," he said. Vanya knelt down +submissively and thrust his head between the lodger's knees. His +prominent pink ears moved up and down against the lodger's new serge +trousers, with brown stripes on the outer seams. + +Vanya did not utter a single sound. At the family council in the +evening, it was decided to send him into business. + + +VANKA + +VANKA ZHUKOV, a boy of nine, who had been for three months apprenticed +to Alyahin the shoemaker, was sitting up on Christmas Eve. Waiting +till his master and mistress and their workmen had gone to the +midnight service, he took out of his master's cupboard a bottle of +ink and a pen with a rusty nib, and, spreading out a crumpled sheet +of paper in front of him, began writing. Before forming the first +letter he several times looked round fearfully at the door and the +windows, stole a glance at the dark ikon, on both sides of which +stretched shelves full of lasts, and heaved a broken sigh. The paper +lay on the bench while he knelt before it. + +"Dear grandfather, Konstantin Makaritch," he wrote, "I am writing +you a letter. I wish you a happy Christmas, and all blessings from +God Almighty. I have neither father nor mother, you are the only +one left me." + +Vanka raised his eyes to the dark ikon on which the light of his +candle was reflected, and vividly recalled his grandfather, Konstantin +Makaritch, who was night watchman to a family called Zhivarev. He +was a thin but extraordinarily nimble and lively little old man of +sixty-five, with an everlastingly laughing face and drunken eyes. +By day he slept in the servants' kitchen, or made jokes with the +cooks; at night, wrapped in an ample sheepskin, he walked round the +grounds and tapped with his little mallet. Old Kashtanka and Eel, +so-called on account of his dark colour and his long body like a +weasel's, followed him with hanging heads. This Eel was exceptionally +polite and affectionate, and looked with equal kindness on strangers +and his own masters, but had not a very good reputation. Under his +politeness and meekness was hidden the most Jesuitical cunning. No +one knew better how to creep up on occasion and snap at one's legs, +to slip into the store-room, or steal a hen from a peasant. His +hind legs had been nearly pulled off more than once, twice he had +been hanged, every week he was thrashed till he was half dead, but +he always revived. + +At this moment grandfather was, no doubt, standing at the gate, +screwing up his eyes at the red windows of the church, stamping +with his high felt boots, and joking with the servants. His little +mallet was hanging on his belt. He was clasping his hands, shrugging +with the cold, and, with an aged chuckle, pinching first the +housemaid, then the cook. + +"How about a pinch of snuff?" he was saying, offering the women his +snuff-box. + +The women would take a sniff and sneeze. Grandfather would be +indescribably delighted, go off into a merry chuckle, and cry: + +"Tear it off, it has frozen on!" + +They give the dogs a sniff of snuff too. Kashtanka sneezes, wriggles +her head, and walks away offended. Eel does not sneeze, from +politeness, but wags his tail. And the weather is glorious. The air +is still, fresh, and transparent. The night is dark, but one can +see the whole village with its white roofs and coils of smoke coming +from the chimneys, the trees silvered with hoar frost, the snowdrifts. +The whole sky spangled with gay twinkling stars, and the Milky Way +is as distinct as though it had been washed and rubbed with snow +for a holiday. . . . + +Vanka sighed, dipped his pen, and went on writing: + +"And yesterday I had a wigging. The master pulled me out into the +yard by my hair, and whacked me with a boot-stretcher because I +accidentally fell asleep while I was rocking their brat in the +cradle. And a week ago the mistress told me to clean a herring, and +I began from the tail end, and she took the herring and thrust its +head in my face. The workmen laugh at me and send me to the tavern +for vodka, and tell me to steal the master's cucumbers for them, +and the master beats me with anything that comes to hand. And there +is nothing to eat. In the morning they give me bread, for dinner, +porridge, and in the evening, bread again; but as for tea, or soup, +the master and mistress gobble it all up themselves. And I am put +to sleep in the passage, and when their wretched brat cries I get +no sleep at all, but have to rock the cradle. Dear grandfather, +show the divine mercy, take me away from here, home to the village. +It's more than I can bear. I bow down to your feet, and will pray +to God for you for ever, take me away from here or I shall die." + +Vanka's mouth worked, he rubbed his eyes with his black fist, and +gave a sob. + +"I will powder your snuff for you," he went on. "I will pray for +you, and if I do anything you can thrash me like Sidor's goat. And +if you think I've no job, then I will beg the steward for Christ's +sake to let me clean his boots, or I'll go for a shepherd-boy instead +of Fedka. Dear grandfather, it is more than I can bear, it's simply +no life at all. I wanted to run away to the village, but I have no +boots, and I am afraid of the frost. When I grow up big I will take +care of you for this, and not let anyone annoy you, and when you +die I will pray for the rest of your soul, just as for my mammy's." + +"Moscow is a big town. It's all gentlemen's houses, and there are +lots of horses, but there are no sheep, and the dogs are not spiteful. +The lads here don't go out with the star, and they don't let anyone +go into the choir, and once I saw in a shop window fishing-hooks +for sale, fitted ready with the line and for all sorts of fish, +awfully good ones, there was even one hook that would hold a +forty-pound sheat-fish. And I have seen shops where there are guns +of all sorts, after the pattern of the master's guns at home, so +that I shouldn't wonder if they are a hundred roubles each. . . . +And in the butchers' shops there are grouse and woodcocks and fish +and hares, but the shopmen don't say where they shoot them." + +"Dear grandfather, when they have the Christmas tree at the big +house, get me a gilt walnut, and put it away in the green trunk. +Ask the young lady Olga Ignatyevna, say it's for Vanka." + +Vanka gave a tremulous sigh, and again stared at the window. He +remembered how his grandfather always went into the forest to get +the Christmas tree for his master's family, and took his grandson +with him. It was a merry time! Grandfather made a noise in his +throat, the forest crackled with the frost, and looking at them +Vanka chortled too. Before chopping down the Christmas tree, +grandfather would smoke a pipe, slowly take a pinch of snuff, and +laugh at frozen Vanka. . . . The young fir trees, covered with hoar +frost, stood motionless, waiting to see which of them was to die. +Wherever one looked, a hare flew like an arrow over the snowdrifts +. . . . Grandfather could not refrain from shouting: "Hold him, hold +him . . . hold him! Ah, the bob-tailed devil!" + +When he had cut down the Christmas tree, grandfather used to drag +it to the big house, and there set to work to decorate it. . . . +The young lady, who was Vanka's favourite, Olga Ignatyevna, was the +busiest of all. When Vanka's mother Pelageya was alive, and a servant +in the big house, Olga Ignatyevna used to give him goodies, and +having nothing better to do, taught him to read and write, to count +up to a hundred, and even to dance a quadrille. When Pelageya died, +Vanka had been transferred to the servants' kitchen to be with his +grandfather, and from the kitchen to the shoemaker's in Moscow. + +"Do come, dear grandfather," Vanka went on with his letter. "For +Christ's sake, I beg you, take me away. Have pity on an unhappy +orphan like me; here everyone knocks me about, and I am fearfully +hungry; I can't tell you what misery it is, I am always crying. And +the other day the master hit me on the head with a last, so that I +fell down. My life is wretched, worse than any dog's. . . . I send +greetings to Alyona, one-eyed Yegorka, and the coachman, and don't +give my concertina to anyone. I remain, your grandson, Ivan Zhukov. +Dear grandfather, do come." + +Vanka folded the sheet of writing-paper twice, and put it into an +envelope he had bought the day before for a kopeck. . . . After +thinking a little, he dipped the pen and wrote the address: + + _To grandfather in the village._ + +Then he scratched his head, thought a little, and added: _Konstantin +Makaritch._ Glad that he had not been prevented from writing, he +put on his cap and, without putting on his little greatcoat, ran +out into the street as he was in his shirt. . . . + +The shopmen at the butcher's, whom he had questioned the day before, +told him that letters were put in post-boxes, and from the boxes +were carried about all over the earth in mailcarts with drunken +drivers and ringing bells. Vanka ran to the nearest post-box, and +thrust the precious letter in the slit. . . . + +An hour later, lulled by sweet hopes, he was sound asleep. . . . +He dreamed of the stove. On the stove was sitting his grandfather, +swinging his bare legs, and reading the letter to the cooks. . . . + +By the stove was Eel, wagging his tail. + + +AN INCIDENT + +MORNING. Brilliant sunshine is piercing through the frozen lacework +on the window-panes into the nursery. Vanya, a boy of six, with a +cropped head and a nose like a button, and his sister Nina, a short, +chubby, curly-headed girl of four, wake up and look crossly at each +other through the bars of their cots. + +"Oo-oo-oo! naughty children!" grumbles their nurse. "Good people +have had their breakfast already, while you can't get your eyes +open." + +The sunbeams frolic over the rugs, the walls, and nurse's skirts, +and seem inviting the children to join in their play, but they take +no notice. They have woken up in a bad humour. Nina pouts, makes a +grimace, and begins to whine: + +"Brea-eakfast, nurse, breakfast!" + +Vanya knits his brows and ponders what to pitch upon to howl over. +He has already begun screwing up his eyes and opening his mouth, +but at that instant the voice of mamma reaches them from the +drawing-room, saying: "Don't forget to give the cat her milk, she +has a family now!" + +The children's puckered countenances grow smooth again as they look +at each other in astonishment. Then both at once begin shouting, +jump out of their cots, and filling the air with piercing shrieks, +run barefoot, in their nightgowns, to the kitchen. + +"The cat has puppies!" they cry. "The cat has got puppies!" + +Under the bench in the kitchen there stands a small box, the one +in which Stepan brings coal when he lights the fire. The cat is +peeping out of the box. There is an expression of extreme exhaustion +on her grey face; her green eyes, with their narrow black pupils, +have a languid, sentimental look. From her face it is clear that +the only thing lacking to complete her happiness is the presence +in the box of "him," the father of her children, to whom she had +abandoned herself so recklessly! She wants to mew, and opens her +mouth wide, but nothing but a hiss comes from her throat; the +squealing of the kittens is audible. + +The children squat on their heels before the box, and, motionless, +holding their breath, gaze at the cat. . . . They are surprised, +impressed, and do not hear nurse grumbling as she pursues them. The +most genuine delight shines in the eyes of both. + +Domestic animals play a scarcely noticed but undoubtedly beneficial +part in the education and life of children. Which of us does not +remember powerful but magnanimous dogs, lazy lapdogs, birds dying +in captivity, dull-witted but haughty turkeys, mild old tabby cats, +who forgave us when we trod on their tails for fun and caused them +agonising pain? I even fancy, sometimes, that the patience, the +fidelity, the readiness to forgive, and the sincerity which are +characteristic of our domestic animals have a far stronger and more +definite effect on the mind of a child than the long exhortations +of some dry, pale Karl Karlovitch, or the misty expositions of a +governess, trying to prove to children that water is made up of +hydrogen and oxygen. + +"What little things!" says Nina, opening her eyes wide and going +off into a joyous laugh. "They are like mice!" + +"One, two, three," Vanya counts. "Three kittens. So there is one +for you, one for me, and one for somebody else, too." + +"Murrm . . . murrm . . ." purrs the mother, flattered by their +attention. "Murrm." + +After gazing at the kittens, the children take them from under the +cat, and begin squeezing them in their hands, then, not satisfied +with this, they put them in the skirts of their nightgowns, and run +into the other rooms. + +"Mamma, the cat has got pups!" they shout. + +Mamma is sitting in the drawing-room with some unknown gentleman. +Seeing the children unwashed, undressed, with their nightgowns held +up high, she is embarrassed, and looks at them severely. + +"Let your nightgowns down, disgraceful children," she says. "Go out +of the room, or I will punish you." + +But the children do not notice either mamma's threats or the presence +of a stranger. They put the kittens down on the carpet, and go off +into deafening squeals. The mother walks round them, mewing +imploringly. When, a little afterwards, the children are dragged +off to the nursery, dressed, made to say their prayers, and given +their breakfast, they are full of a passionate desire to get away +from these prosaic duties as quickly as possible, and to run to the +kitchen again. + +Their habitual pursuits and games are thrown completely into the +background. + +The kittens throw everything into the shade by making their appearance +in the world, and supply the great sensation of the day. If Nina +or Vanya had been offered forty pounds of sweets or ten thousand +kopecks for each kitten, they would have rejected such a barter +without the slightest hesitation. In spite of the heated protests +of the nurse and the cook, the children persist in sitting by the +cat's box in the kitchen, busy with the kittens till dinner-time. +Their faces are earnest and concentrated and express anxiety. They +are worried not so much by the present as by the future of the +kittens. They decide that one kitten shall remain at home with the +old cat to be a comfort to her mother, while the second shall go +to their summer villa, and the third shall live in the cellar, where +there are ever so many rats. + +"But why don't they look at us?" Nina wondered. "Their eyes are +blind like the beggars'." + +Vanya, too, is perturbed by this question. He tries to open one +kitten's eyes, and spends a long time puffing and breathing hard +over it, but his operation is unsuccessful. They are a good deal +troubled, too, by the circumstance that the kittens obstinately +refuse the milk and the meat that is offered to them. Everything +that is put before their little noses is eaten by their grey mamma. + +"Let's build the kittens little houses," Vanya suggests. "They shall +live in different houses, and the cat shall come and pay them +visits. . . ." + +Cardboard hat-boxes are put in the different corners of the kitchen +and the kittens are installed in them. But this division turns out +to be premature; the cat, still wearing an imploring and sentimental +expression on her face, goes the round of all the hat-boxes, and +carries off her children to their original position. + +"The cat's their mother," observed Vanya, "but who is their father?" + +"Yes, who is their father?" repeats Nina. + +"They must have a father." + +Vanya and Nina are a long time deciding who is to be the kittens' +father, and, in the end, their choice falls on a big dark-red horse +without a tail, which is lying in the store-cupboard under the +stairs, together with other relics of toys that have outlived their +day. They drag him up out of the store-cupboard and stand him by +the box. + +"Mind now!" they admonish him, "stand here and see they behave +themselves properly." + +All this is said and done in the gravest way, with an expression +of anxiety on their faces. Vanya and Nina refuse to recognise the +existence of any world but the box of kittens. Their joy knows no +bounds. But they have to pass through bitter, agonising moments, +too. + +Just before dinner, Vanya is sitting in his father's study, gazing +dreamily at the table. A kitten is moving about by the lamp, on +stamped note paper. Vanya is watching its movements, and thrusting +first a pencil, then a match into its little mouth. . . . All at +once, as though he has sprung out of the floor, his father is beside +the table. + +"What's this?" Vanya hears, in an angry voice. + +"It's . . . it's the kitty, papa. . . ." + +"I'll give it you; look what you have done, you naughty boy! You've +dirtied all my paper!" + +To Vanya's great surprise his papa does not share his partiality +for the kittens, and, instead of being moved to enthusiasm and +delight, he pulls Vanya's ear and shouts: + +"Stepan, take away this horrid thing." + +At dinner, too, there is a scene. . . . During the second course +there is suddenly the sound of a shrill mew. They begin to investigate +its origin, and discover a kitten under Nina's pinafore. + +"Nina, leave the table!" cries her father angrily. "Throw the kittens +in the cesspool! I won't have the nasty things in the house! . . ." + +Vanya and Nina are horrified. Death in the cesspool, apart from its +cruelty, threatens to rob the cat and the wooden horse of their +children, to lay waste the cat's box, to destroy their plans for +the future, that fair future in which one cat will be a comfort to +its old mother, another will live in the country, while the third +will catch rats in the cellar. The children begin to cry and entreat +that the kittens may be spared. Their father consents, but on the +condition that the children do not go into the kitchen and touch +the kittens. + +After dinner, Vanya and Nina slouch about the rooms, feeling +depressed. The prohibition of visits to the kitchen has reduced +them to dejection. They refuse sweets, are naughty, and are rude +to their mother. When their uncle Petrusha comes in the evening, +they draw him aside, and complain to him of their father, who wanted +to throw the kittens into the cesspool. + +"Uncle Petrusha, tell mamma to have the kittens taken to the nursery," +the children beg their uncle, "do-o tell her." + +"There, there . . . very well," says their uncle, waving them off. +"All right." + +Uncle Petrusha does not usually come alone. He is accompanied by +Nero, a big black dog of Danish breed, with drooping ears, and a +tail as hard as a stick. The dog is silent, morose, and full of a +sense of his own dignity. He takes not the slightest notice of the +children, and when he passes them hits them with his tail as though +they were chairs. The children hate him from the bottom of their +hearts, but on this occasion, practical considerations override +sentiment. + +"I say, Nina," says Vanya, opening his eyes wide. "Let Nero be their +father, instead of the horse! The horse is dead and he is alive, +you see." + +They are waiting the whole evening for the moment when papa will +sit down to his cards and it will be possible to take Nero to the +kitchen without being observed. . . . At last, papa sits down to +cards, mamma is busy with the samovar and not noticing the +children. . . . + +The happy moment arrives. + +"Come along!" Vanya whispers to his sister. + +But, at that moment, Stepan comes in and, with a snigger, announces: + +"Nero has eaten the kittens, madam." + +Nina and Vanya turn pale and look at Stepan with horror. + +"He really has . . ." laughs the footman, "he went to the box and +gobbled them up." + +The children expect that all the people in the house will be aghast +and fall upon the miscreant Nero. But they all sit calmly in their +seats, and only express surprise at the appetite of the huge dog. +Papa and mamma laugh. Nero walks about by the table, wags his tail, +and licks his lips complacently . . . the cat is the only one who +is uneasy. With her tail in the air she walks about the rooms, +looking suspiciously at people and mewing plaintively. + +"Children, it's past nine," cries mamma, "it's bedtime." + +Vanya and Nina go to bed, shed tears, and spend a long time thinking +about the injured cat, and the cruel, insolent, and unpunished Nero. + + +A DAY IN THE COUNTRY + +BETWEEN eight and nine o'clock in the morning. + +A dark leaden-coloured mass is creeping over the sky towards the +sun. Red zigzags of lightning gleam here and there across it. There +is a sound of far-away rumbling. A warm wind frolics over the grass, +bends the trees, and stirs up the dust. In a minute there will be +a spurt of May rain and a real storm will begin. + +Fyokla, a little beggar-girl of six, is running through the village, +looking for Terenty the cobbler. The white-haired, barefoot child +is pale. Her eyes are wide-open, her lips are trembling. + +"Uncle, where is Terenty?" she asks every one she meets. No one +answers. They are all preoccupied with the approaching storm and +take refuge in their huts. At last she meets Silanty Silitch, the +sacristan, Terenty's bosom friend. He is coming along, staggering +from the wind. + +"Uncle, where is Terenty?" + +"At the kitchen-gardens," answers Silanty. + +The beggar-girl runs behind the huts to the kitchen-gardens and +there finds Terenty; the tall old man with a thin, pock-marked face, +very long legs, and bare feet, dressed in a woman's tattered jacket, +is standing near the vegetable plots, looking with drowsy, drunken +eyes at the dark storm-cloud. On his long crane-like legs he sways +in the wind like a starling-cote. + +"Uncle Terenty!" the white-headed beggar-girl addresses him. "Uncle, +darling!" + +Terenty bends down to Fyokla, and his grim, drunken face is overspread +with a smile, such as come into people's faces when they look at +something little, foolish, and absurd, but warmly loved. + +"Ah! servant of God, Fyokia," he says, lisping tenderly, "where +have you come from?" + +"Uncle Terenty," says Fyokia, with a sob, tugging at the lapel of +the cobbler's coat. "Brother Danilka has had an accident! Come +along!" + +"What sort of accident? Ough, what thunder! Holy, holy, holy. . . . +What sort of accident?" + +"In the count's copse Danilka stuck his hand into a hole in a tree, +and he can't get it out. Come along, uncle, do be kind and pull his +hand out!" + +"How was it he put his hand in? What for?" + +"He wanted to get a cuckoo's egg out of the hole for me." + +"The day has hardly begun and already you are in trouble. . . ." +Terenty shook his head and spat deliberately. "Well, what am I to +do with you now? I must come . . . I must, may the wolf gobble you +up, you naughty children! Come, little orphan!" + +Terenty comes out of the kitchen-garden and, lifting high his long +legs, begins striding down the village street. He walks quickly +without stopping or looking from side to side, as though he were +shoved from behind or afraid of pursuit. Fyokla can hardly keep up +with him. + +They come out of the village and turn along the dusty road towards +the count's copse that lies dark blue in the distance. It is about +a mile and a half away. The clouds have by now covered the sun, and +soon afterwards there is not a speck of blue left in the sky. It +grows dark. + +"Holy, holy, holy . . ." whispers Fyokla, hurrying after Terenty. +The first rain-drops, big and heavy, lie, dark dots on the dusty +road. A big drop falls on Fyokla's cheek and glides like a tear +down her chin. + +"The rain has begun," mutters the cobbler, kicking up the dust with +his bare, bony feet. "That's fine, Fyokla, old girl. The grass and +the trees are fed by the rain, as we are by bread. And as for the +thunder, don't you be frightened, little orphan. Why should it kill +a little thing like you?" + +As soon as the rain begins, the wind drops. The only sound is the +patter of rain dropping like fine shot on the young rye and the +parched road. + +"We shall get soaked, Fyolka," mutters Terenty. "There won't be a +dry spot left on us. . . . Ho-ho, my girl! It's run down my neck! +But don't be frightened, silly. . . . The grass will be dry again, +the earth will be dry again, and we shall be dry again. There is +the same sun for us all." + +A flash of lightning, some fourteen feet long, gleams above their +heads. There is a loud peal of thunder, and it seems to Fyokla that +something big, heavy, and round is rolling over the sky and tearing +it open, exactly over her head. + +"Holy, holy, holy . . ." says Terenty, crossing himself. "Don't be +afraid, little orphan! It is not from spite that it thunders." + +Terenty's and Fyokla's feet are covered with lumps of heavy, wet +clay. It is slippery and difficult to walk, but Terenty strides on +more and more rapidly. The weak little beggar-girl is breathless +and ready to drop. + +But at last they go into the count's copse. The washed trees, stirred +by a gust of wind, drop a perfect waterfall upon them. Terenty +stumbles over stumps and begins to slacken his pace. + +"Whereabouts is Danilka?" he asks. "Lead me to him." + +Fyokla leads him into a thicket, and, after going a quarter of a +mile, points to Danilka. Her brother, a little fellow of eight, +with hair as red as ochre and a pale sickly face, stands leaning +against a tree, and, with his head on one side, looking sideways +at the sky. In one hand he holds his shabby old cap, the other is +hidden in an old lime tree. The boy is gazing at the stormy sky, +and apparently not thinking of his trouble. Hearing footsteps and +seeing the cobbler he gives a sickly smile and says: + +"A terrible lot of thunder, Terenty. . . . I've never heard so much +thunder in all my life." + +"And where is your hand?" + +"In the hole. . . . Pull it out, please, Terenty!" + +The wood had broken at the edge of the hole and jammed Danilka's +hand: he could push it farther in, but could not pull it out. Terenty +snaps off the broken piece, and the boy's hand, red and crushed, +is released. + +"It's terrible how it's thundering," the boy says again, rubbing +his hand. "What makes it thunder, Terenty?" + +"One cloud runs against the other," answers the cobbler. The party +come out of the copse, and walk along the edge of it towards the +darkened road. The thunder gradually abates, and its rumbling is +heard far away beyond the village. + +"The ducks flew by here the other day, Terenty," says Danilka, still +rubbing his hand. "They must be nesting in the Gniliya Zaimishtcha +marshes. . . . Fyolka, would you like me to show you a nightingale's +nest?" + +"Don't touch it, you might disturb them," says Terenty, wringing +the water out of his cap. "The nightingale is a singing-bird, without +sin. He has had a voice given him in his throat, to praise God and +gladden the heart of man. It's a sin to disturb him." + +"What about the sparrow?" + +"The sparrow doesn't matter, he's a bad, spiteful bird. He is like +a pickpocket in his ways. He doesn't like man to be happy. When +Christ was crucified it was the sparrow brought nails to the Jews, +and called 'alive! alive!'" + +A bright patch of blue appears in the sky. + +"Look!" says Terenty. "An ant-heap burst open by the rain! They've +been flooded, the rogues!" + +They bend over the ant-heap. The downpour has damaged it; the insects +are scurrying to and fro in the mud, agitated, and busily trying +to carry away their drowned companions. + +"You needn't be in such a taking, you won't die of it!" says Terenty, +grinning. "As soon as the sun warms you, you'll come to your senses +again. . . . It's a lesson to you, you stupids. You won't settle +on low ground another time." + +They go on. + +"And here are some bees," cries Danilka, pointing to the branch of +a young oak tree. + +The drenched and chilled bees are huddled together on the branch. +There are so many of them that neither bark nor leaf can be seen. +Many of them are settled on one another. + +"That's a swarm of bees," Terenty informs them. "They were flying +looking for a home, and when the rain came down upon them they +settled. If a swarm is flying, you need only sprinkle water on them +to make them settle. Now if, say, you wanted to take the swarm, you +would bend the branch with them into a sack and shake it, and they +all fall in." + +Little Fyokla suddenly frowns and rubs her neck vigorously. Her +brother looks at her neck, and sees a big swelling on it. + +"Hey-hey!" laughs the cobbler. "Do you know where you got that from, +Fyokia, old girl? There are Spanish flies on some tree in the wood. +The rain has trickled off them, and a drop has fallen on your neck +--that's what has made the swelling." + +The sun appears from behind the clouds and floods the wood, the +fields, and the three friends with its warm light. The dark menacing +cloud has gone far away and taken the storm with it. The air is +warm and fragrant. There is a scent of bird-cherry, meadowsweet, +and lilies-of-the-valley. + +"That herb is given when your nose bleeds," says Terenty, pointing +to a woolly-looking flower. "It does good." + +They hear a whistle and a rumble, but not such a rumble as the +storm-clouds carried away. A goods train races by before the eyes +of Terenty, Danilka, and Fyokla. The engine, panting and puffing +out black smoke, drags more than twenty vans after it. Its power +is tremendous. The children are interested to know how an engine, +not alive and without the help of horses, can move and drag such +weights, and Terenty undertakes to explain it to them: + +"It's all the steam's doing, children. . . . The steam does the +work. . . . You see, it shoves under that thing near the wheels, +and it . . . you see . . . it works. . . ." + +They cross the railway line, and, going down from the embankment, +walk towards the river. They walk not with any object, but just at +random, and talk all the way. . . . Danilka asks questions, Terenty +answers them. . . . + +Terenty answers all his questions, and there is no secret in Nature +which baffles him. He knows everything. Thus, for example, he knows +the names of all the wild flowers, animals, and stones. He knows +what herbs cure diseases, he has no difficulty in telling the age +of a horse or a cow. Looking at the sunset, at the moon, or the +birds, he can tell what sort of weather it will be next day. And +indeed, it is not only Terenty who is so wise. Silanty Silitch, the +innkeeper, the market-gardener, the shepherd, and all the villagers, +generally speaking, know as much as he does. These people have +learned not from books, but in the fields, in the wood, on the river +bank. Their teachers have been the birds themselves, when they sang +to them, the sun when it left a glow of crimson behind it at setting, +the very trees, and wild herbs. + +Danilka looks at Terenty and greedily drinks in every word. In +spring, before one is weary of the warmth and the monotonous green +of the fields, when everything is fresh and full of fragrance, who +would not want to hear about the golden may-beetles, about the +cranes, about the gurgling streams, and the corn mounting into ear? + +The two of them, the cobbler and the orphan, walk about the fields, +talk unceasingly, and are not weary. They could wander about the +world endlessly. They walk, and in their talk of the beauty of the +earth do not notice the frail little beggar-girl tripping after +them. She is breathless and moves with a lagging step. There are +tears in her eyes; she would be glad to stop these inexhaustible +wanderers, but to whom and where can she go? She has no home or +people of her own; whether she likes it or not, she must walk and +listen to their talk. + +Towards midday, all three sit down on the river bank. Danilka takes +out of his bag a piece of bread, soaked and reduced to a mash, and +they begin to eat. Terenty says a prayer when he has eaten the +bread, then stretches himself on the sandy bank and falls asleep. +While he is asleep, the boy gazes at the water, pondering. He has +many different things to think of. He has just seen the storm, the +bees, the ants, the train. Now, before his eyes, fishes are whisking +about. Some are two inches long and more, others are no bigger than +one's nail. A viper, with its head held high, is swimming from one +bank to the other. + +Only towards the evening our wanderers return to the village. The +children go for the night to a deserted barn, where the corn of the +commune used to be kept, while Terenty, leaving them, goes to the +tavern. The children lie huddled together on the straw, dozing. + +The boy does not sleep. He gazes into the darkness, and it seems +to him that he is seeing all that he has seen in the day: the +storm-clouds, the bright sunshine, the birds, the fish, lanky +Terenty. The number of his impressions, together with exhaustion +and hunger, are too much for him; he is as hot as though he were +on fire, and tosses from, side to side. He longs to tell someone +all that is haunting him now in the darkness and agitating his soul, +but there is no one to tell. Fyokla is too little and could not +understand. + +"I'll tell Terenty to-morrow," thinks the boy. + +The children fall asleep thinking of the homeless cobbler, and, in +the night, Terenty comes to them, makes the sign of the cross over +them, and puts bread under their heads. And no one sees his love. +It is seen only by the moon which floats in the sky and peeps +caressingly through the holes in the wall of the deserted barn. + + +BOYS + +"VOLODYA'S come!" someone shouted in the yard. + +"Master Volodya's here!" bawled Natalya the cook, running into the +dining-room. "Oh, my goodness!" + +The whole Korolyov family, who had been expecting their Volodya +from hour to hour, rushed to the windows. At the front door stood +a wide sledge, with three white horses in a cloud of steam. The +sledge was empty, for Volodya was already in the hall, untying his +hood with red and chilly fingers. His school overcoat, his cap, his +snowboots, and the hair on his temples were all white with frost, +and his whole figure from head to foot diffused such a pleasant, +fresh smell of the snow that the very sight of him made one want +to shiver and say "brrr!" + +His mother and aunt ran to kiss and hug him. Natalya plumped down +at his feet and began pulling off his snowboots, his sisters shrieked +with delight, the doors creaked and banged, and Volodya's father, +in his waistcoat and shirt-sleeves, ran out into the hall with +scissors in his hand, and cried out in alarm: + +"We were expecting you all yesterday? Did you come all right? Had +a good journey? Mercy on us! you might let him say 'how do you do' +to his father! I am his father after all!" + +"Bow-wow!" barked the huge black dog, Milord, in a deep bass, tapping +with his tail on the walls and furniture. + +For two minutes there was nothing but a general hubbub of joy. After +the first outburst of delight was over the Korolyovs noticed that +there was, besides their Volodya, another small person in the hall, +wrapped up in scarves and shawls and white with frost. He was +standing perfectly still in a corner, in the shadow of a big fox-lined +overcoat. + +"Volodya darling, who is it?" asked his mother, in a whisper. + +"Oh!" cried Volodya. "This is--let me introduce my friend Lentilov, +a schoolfellow in the second class. . . . I have brought him to +stay with us." + +"Delighted to hear it! You are very welcome," the father said +cordially. "Excuse me, I've been at work without my coat. . . . +Please come in! Natalya, help Mr. Lentilov off with his things. +Mercy on us, do turn that dog out! He is unendurable!" + +A few minutes later, Volodya and his friend Lentilov, somewhat dazed +by their noisy welcome, and still red from the outside cold, were +sitting down to tea. The winter sun, making its way through the +snow and the frozen tracery on the window-panes, gleamed on the +samovar, and plunged its pure rays in the tea-basin. The room was +warm, and the boys felt as though the warmth and the frost were +struggling together with a tingling sensation in their bodies. + +"Well, Christmas will soon be here," the father said in a pleasant +sing-song voice, rolling a cigarette of dark reddish tobacco. "It +doesn't seem long since the summer, when mamma was crying at your +going . . . and here you are back again. . . . Time flies, my boy. +Before you have time to cry out, old age is upon you. Mr. Lentilov, +take some more, please help yourself! We don't stand on ceremony!" + +Volodya's three sisters, Katya, Sonya, and Masha (the eldest was +eleven), sat at the table and never took their eyes off the newcomer. + +Lentilov was of the same height and age as Volodya, but not as +round-faced and fair-skinned. He was thin, dark, and freckled; his +hair stood up like a brush, his eyes were small, and his lips were +thick. He was, in fact, distinctly ugly, and if he had not been +wearing the school uniform, he might have been taken for the son +of a cook. He seemed morose, did not speak, and never once smiled. +The little girls, staring at him, immediately came to the conclusion +that he must be a very clever and learned person. He seemed to be +thinking about something all the time, and was so absorbed in his +own thoughts, that, whenever he was spoken to, he started, threw +his head back, and asked to have the question repeated. + +The little girls noticed that Volodya, who had always been so merry +and talkative, also said very little, did not smile at all, and +hardly seemed to be glad to be home. All the time they were at tea +he only once addressed his sisters, and then he said something so +strange. He pointed to the samovar and said: + +"In California they don't drink tea, but gin." + +He, too, seemed absorbed in his own thoughts, and, to judge by the +looks that passed between him and his friend Lentilov, their thoughts +were the same. + +After tea, they all went into the nursery. The girls and their +father took up the work that had been interrupted by the arrival +of the boys. They were making flowers and frills for the Christmas +tree out of paper of different colours. It was an attractive and +noisy occupation. Every fresh flower was greeted by the little girls +with shrieks of delight, even of awe, as though the flower had +dropped straight from heaven; their father was in ecstasies too, +and every now and then he threw the scissors on the floor, in +vexation at their bluntness. Their mother kept running into the +nursery with an anxious face, asking: + +"Who has taken my scissors? Ivan Nikolaitch, have you taken my +scissors again?" + +"Mercy on us! I'm not even allowed a pair of scissors!" their father +would respond in a lachrymose voice, and, flinging himself back in +his chair, he would pretend to be a deeply injured man; but a minute +later, he would be in ecstasies again. + +On his former holidays Volodya, too, had taken part in the preparations +for the Christmas tree, or had been running in the yard to look at +the snow mountain that the watchman and the shepherd were building. +But this time Volodya and Lentilov took no notice whatever of the +coloured paper, and did not once go into the stable. They sat in +the window and began whispering to one another; then they opened +an atlas and looked carefully at a map. + +"First to Perm . . ." Lentilov said, in an undertone, "from there +to Tiumen, then Tomsk . . . then . . . then . . . Kamchatka. There +the Samoyedes take one over Behring's Straits in boats . . . . And +then we are in America. . . . There are lots of furry animals +there. . . ." + +"And California?" asked Volodya. + +"California is lower down. . . . We've only to get to America and +California is not far off. . . . And one can get a living by hunting +and plunder." + +All day long Lentilov avoided the little girls, and seemed to look +at them with suspicion. In the evening he happened to be left alone +with them for five minutes or so. It was awkward to be silent. + +He cleared his throat morosely, rubbed his left hand against his +right, looked sullenly at Katya and asked: + +"Have you read Mayne Reid?" + +"No, I haven't. . . . I say, can you skate?" + +Absorbed in his own reflections, Lentilov made no reply to this +question; he simply puffed out his cheeks, and gave a long sigh as +though he were very hot. He looked up at Katya once more and said: + +"When a herd of bisons stampedes across the prairie the earth +trembles, and the frightened mustangs kick and neigh." + +He smiled impressively and added: + +"And the Indians attack the trains, too. But worst of all are the +mosquitoes and the termites." + +"Why, what's that?" + +"They're something like ants, but with wings. They bite fearfully. +Do you know who I am?" + +"Mr. Lentilov." + +"No, I am Montehomo, the Hawk's Claw, Chief of the Ever Victorious." + +Masha, the youngest, looked at him, then into the darkness out of +window and said, wondering: + +"And we had lentils for supper yesterday." + +Lentilov's incomprehensible utterances, and the way he was always +whispering with Volodya, and the way Volodya seemed now to be always +thinking about something instead of playing . . . all this was +strange and mysterious. And the two elder girls, Katya and Sonya, +began to keep a sharp look-out on the boys. At night, when the boys +had gone to bed, the girls crept to their bedroom door, and listened +to what they were saying. Ah, what they discovered! The boys were +planning to run away to America to dig for gold: they had everything +ready for the journey, a pistol, two knives, biscuits, a burning +glass to serve instead of matches, a compass, and four roubles in +cash. They learned that the boys would have to walk some thousands +of miles, and would have to fight tigers and savages on the road: +then they would get gold and ivory, slay their enemies, become +pirates, drink gin, and finally marry beautiful maidens, and make +a plantation. + +The boys interrupted each other in their excitement. Throughout the +conversation, Lentilov called himself "Montehomo, the Hawk's Claw," +and Volodya was "my pale-face brother!" + +"Mind you don't tell mamma," said Katya, as they went back to bed. +"Volodya will bring us gold and ivory from America, but if you tell +mamma he won't be allowed to go." + +The day before Christmas Eve, Lentilov spent the whole day poring +over the map of Asia and making notes, while Volodya, with a languid +and swollen face that looked as though it had been stung by a bee, +walked about the rooms and ate nothing. And once he stood still +before the holy image in the nursery, crossed himself, and said: + +"Lord, forgive me a sinner; Lord, have pity on my poor unhappy +mamma!" + +In the evening he burst out crying. On saying good-night he gave +his father a long hug, and then hugged his mother and sisters. Katya +and Sonya knew what was the matter, but little Masha was puzzled, +completely puzzled. Every time she looked at Lentilov she grew +thoughtful and said with a sigh: + +"When Lent comes, nurse says we shall have to eat peas and lentils." + +Early in the morning of Christmas Eve, Katya and Sonya slipped +quietly out of bed, and went to find out how the boys meant to run +away to America. They crept to their door. + +"Then you don't mean to go?" Lentilov was saying angrily. "Speak +out: aren't you going?" + +"Oh dear," Volodya wept softly. "How can I go? I feel so unhappy +about mamma." + +"My pale-face brother, I pray you, let us set off. You declared you +were going, you egged me on, and now the time comes, you funk it!" + +"I . . . I . . . I'm not funking it, but I . . . I . . . I'm sorry +for mamma." + +"Say once and for all, are you going or are you not?" + +"I am going, only . . . wait a little . . . I want to be at home a +little." + +"In that case I will go by myself," Lentilov declared. "I can get +on without you. And you wanted to hunt tigers and fight! Since +that's how it is, give me back my cartridges!" + +At this Volodya cried so bitterly that his sisters could not help +crying too. Silence followed. + +"So you are not coming?" Lentilov began again. + +"I . . . I . . . I am coming!" + +"Well, put on your things, then." + +And Lentilov tried to cheer Volodya up by singing the praises of +America, growling like a tiger, pretending to be a steamer, scolding +him, and promising to give him all the ivory and lions' and tigers' +skins. + +And this thin, dark boy, with his freckles and his bristling shock +of hair, impressed the little girls as an extraordinary remarkable +person. He was a hero, a determined character, who knew no fear, +and he growled so ferociously, that, standing at the door, they +really might imagine there was a tiger or lion inside. When the +little girls went back to their room and dressed, Katya's eyes were +full of tears, and she said: + +"Oh, I feel so frightened!" + +Everything was as usual till two o'clock, when they sat down to +dinner. Then it appeared that the boys were not in the house. They +sent to the servants' quarters, to the stables, to the bailiff's +cottage. They were not to be found. They sent into the village-- +they were not there. + +At tea, too, the boys were still absent, and by supper-time Volodya's +mother was dreadfully uneasy, and even shed tears. + +Late in the evening they sent again to the village, they searched +everywhere, and walked along the river bank with lanterns. Heavens! +what a fuss there was! + +Next day the police officer came, and a paper of some sort was +written out in the dining-room. Their mother cried. . . . + +All of a sudden a sledge stopped at the door, with three white +horses in a cloud of steam. + +"Volodya's come," someone shouted in the yard. + +"Master Volodya's here!" bawled Natalya, running into the dining-room. +And Milord barked his deep bass, "bow-wow." + +It seemed that the boys had been stopped in the Arcade, where they +had gone from shop to shop asking where they could get gunpowder. + +Volodya burst into sobs as soon as he came into the hall, and flung +himself on his mother's neck. The little girls, trembling, wondered +with terror what would happen next. They saw their father take +Volodya and Lentilov into his study, and there he talked to them a +long while. + +"Is this a proper thing to do?" their father said to them. "I only +pray they won't hear of it at school, you would both be expelled. +You ought to be ashamed, Mr. Lentilov, really. It's not at all the +thing to do! You began it, and I hope you will be punished by your +parents. How could you? Where did you spend the night?" + +"At the station," Lentilov answered proudly. + +Then Volodya went to bed, and had a compress, steeped in vinegar, +on his forehead. + +A telegram was sent off, and next day a lady, Lentilov's mother, +made her appearance and bore off her son. + +Lentilov looked morose and haughty to the end, and he did not utter +a single word at taking leave of the little girls. But he took +Katya's book and wrote in it as a souvenir: "Montehomo, the Hawk's +Claw, Chief of the Ever Victorious." + + +SHROVE TUESDAY + +"PAVEL VASSILITCH!" cries Pelageya Ivanovna, waking her husband. +"Pavel Vassilitch! You might go and help Styopa with his lessons, +he is sitting crying over his book. He can't understand something +again!" + +Pavel Vassilitch gets up, makes the sign of the cross over his mouth +as he yawns, and says softly: "In a minute, my love!" + +The cat who has been asleep beside him gets up too, straightens out +its tail, arches its spine, and half-shuts its eyes. There is +stillness. . . . Mice can be heard scurrying behind the wall-paper. +Putting on his boots and his dressing-gown, Pavel Vassilitch, +crumpled and frowning from sleepiness, comes out of his bedroom +into the dining-room; on his entrance another cat, engaged in +sniffing a marinade of fish in the window, jumps down to the floor, +and hides behind the cupboard. + +"Who asked you to sniff that!" he says angrily, covering the fish +with a sheet of newspaper. "You are a pig to do that, not a cat. . . ." + +From the dining-room there is a door leading into the nursery. +There, at a table covered with stains and deep scratches, sits +Styopa, a high-school boy in the second class, with a peevish +expression of face and tear-stained eyes. With his knees raised +almost to his chin, and his hands clasped round them, he is swaying +to and fro like a Chinese idol and looking crossly at a sum book. + +"Are you working?" asks Pavel Vassilitch, sitting down to the table +and yawning. "Yes, my boy. . . . We have enjoyed ourselves, slept, +and eaten pancakes, and to-morrow comes Lenten fare, repentance, +and going to work. Every period of time has its limits. Why are +your eyes so red? Are you sick of learning your lessons? To be sure, +after pancakes, lessons are nasty to swallow. That's about it." + +"What are you laughing at the child for?" Pelageya Ivanovna calls +from the next room. "You had better show him instead of laughing +at him. He'll get a one again to-morrow, and make me miserable." + +"What is it you don't understand?" Pavel Vassilitch asks Styopa. + +"Why this . . . division of fractions," the boy answers crossly. +"The division of fractions by fractions. . . ." + +"H'm . . . queer boy! What is there in it? There's nothing to +understand in it. Learn the rules, and that's all. . . . To divide +a fraction by a fraction you must multiply the numerator of the +first fraction by the denominator of the second, and that will be +the numerator of the quotient. . . . In this case, the numerator +of the first fraction. . . ." + +"I know that without your telling me," Styopa interrupts him, +flicking a walnut shell off the table. "Show me the proof." + +"The proof? Very well, give me a pencil. Listen. . . . Suppose we +want to divide seven eighths by two fifths. Well, the point of it +is, my boy, that it's required to divide these fractions by each +other. . . . Have they set the samovar?" + +"I don't know." + +"It's time for tea. . . . It's past seven. Well, now listen. We +will look at it like this. . . . Suppose we want to divide seven +eighths not by two fifths but by two, that is, by the numerator +only. We divide it, what do we get? + +"Seven sixteenths." + +"Right. Bravo! Well, the trick of it is, my boy, that if we . . . +so if we have divided it by two then. . . . Wait a bit, I am getting +muddled. I remember when I was at school, the teacher of arithmetic +was called Sigismund Urbanitch, a Pole. He used to get into a muddle +over every lesson. He would begin explaining some theory, get in a +tangle, and turn crimson all over and race up and down the class-room +as though someone were sticking an awl in his back, then he would +blow his nose half a dozen times and begin to cry. But you know we +were magnanimous to him, we pretended not to see it. 'What is it, +Sigismund Urbanitch?' we used to ask him. 'Have you got toothache?' +And what a set of young ruffians, regular cut-throats, we were, but +yet we were magnanimous, you know! There weren't any boys like you +in my day, they were all great hulking fellows, great strapping +louts, one taller than another. For instance, in our third class, +there was Mamahin. My goodness, he was a solid chap! You know, a +regular maypole, seven feet high. When he moved, the floor shook; +when he brought his great fist down on your back, he would knock +the breath out of your body! Not only we boys, but even the teachers +were afraid of him. So this Mamahin used to . . ." + +Pelageya Ivanovna's footsteps are heard through the door. Pavel +Vassilitch winks towards the door and says: + +"There's mother coming. Let's get to work. Well, so you see, my +boy," he says, raising his voice. "This fraction has to be multiplied +by that one. Well, and to do that you have to take the numerator +of the first fraction. . ." + +"Come to tea!" cries Pelageya Ivanovna. Pavel Vassilitch and his +son abandon arithmetic and go in to tea. Pelageya Ivanovna is already +sitting at the table with an aunt who never speaks, another aunt +who is deaf and dumb, and Granny Markovna, a midwife who had helped +Styopa into the world. The samovar is hissing and puffing out steam +which throws flickering shadows on the ceiling. The cats come in +from the entry sleepy and melancholy with their tails in the +air. . . . + +"Have some jam with your tea, Markovna," says Pelageya Ivanovna, +addressing the midwife. "To-morrow the great fast begins. Eat well +to-day." + +Markovna takes a heaped spoonful of jam hesitatingly as though it +were a powder, raises it to her lips, and with a sidelong look at +Pavel Vassilitch, eats it; at once her face is overspread with a +sweet smile, as sweet as the jam itself. + +"The jam is particularly good," she says. "Did you make it yourself, +Pelageya Ivanovna, ma'am?" + +"Yes. Who else is there to do it? I do everything myself. Styopotchka, +have I given you your tea too weak? Ah, you have drunk it already. +Pass your cup, my angel; let me give you some more." + +"So this Mamahin, my boy, could not bear the French master," Pavel +Vassilitch goes on, addressing his son. "'I am a nobleman,' he +used to shout, 'and I won't allow a Frenchman to lord it over me! +We beat the French in 1812!' Well, of course they used to thrash +him for it . . . thrash him dre-ead-fully, and sometimes when he +saw they were meaning to thrash him, he would jump out of window, +and off he would go! Then for five or six days afterwards he would +not show himself at the school. His mother would come to the +head-master and beg him for God's sake: 'Be so kind, sir, as to +find my Mishka, and flog him, the rascal!' And the head-master would +say to her: 'Upon my word, madam, our five porters aren't a match +for him!'" + +"Good heavens, to think of such ruffians being born," whispers +Pelageya Ivanovna, looking at her husband in horror. "What a trial +for the poor mother!" + +A silence follows. Styopa yawns loudly, and scrutinises the Chinaman +on the tea-caddy whom he has seen a thousand times already. Markovna +and the two aunts sip tea carefully out of their saucers. The air +is still and stifling from the stove. . . . Faces and gestures +betray the sloth and repletion that comes when the stomach is full, +and yet one must go on eating. The samovar, the cups, and the +table-cloth are cleared away, but still the family sits on at the +table. . . . Pelageya Ivanovna is continually jumping up and, with +an expression of alarm on her face, running off into the kitchen, +to talk to the cook about the supper. The two aunts go on sitting +in the same position immovably, with their arms folded across their +bosoms and doze, staring with their pewtery little eyes at the lamp. +Markovna hiccups every minute and asks: + +"Why is it I have the hiccups? I don't think I have eaten anything +to account for it . . . nor drunk anything either. . . . Hic!" + +Pavel Vassilitch and Styopa sit side by side, with their heads +touching, and, bending over the table, examine a volume of the +"Neva" for 1878. + +"'The monument of Leonardo da Vinci, facing the gallery of Victor +Emmanuel at Milan.' I say! . . . After the style of a triumphal +arch. . . . A cavalier with his lady. . . . And there are little +men in the distance. . . ." + +"That little man is like a schoolfellow of mine called Niskubin," +says Styopa. + +"Turn over. . . . 'The proboscis of the common house-fly seen under +the microscope.' So that's a proboscis! I say--a fly. Whatever +would a bug look like under a microscope, my boy? Wouldn't it be +horrid!" + +The old-fashioned clock in the drawing-room does not strike, but +coughs ten times huskily as though it had a cold. The cook, Anna, +comes into the dining-room, and plumps down at the master's feet. + +"Forgive me, for Christ's sake, Pavel Vassilitch!" she says, getting +up, flushed all over. + +"You forgive me, too, for Christ's sake," Pavel Vassilitch responds +unconcernedly. + +In the same manner, Anna goes up to the other members of the family, +plumps down at their feet, and begs forgiveness. She only misses +out Markovna to whom, not being one of the gentry, she does not +feel it necessary to bow down. + +Another half-hour passes in stillness and tranquillity. The "Neva" +is by now lying on the sofa, and Pavel Vassilitch, holding up his +finger, repeats by heart some Latin verses he has learned in his +childhood. Styopa stares at the finger with the wedding ring, listens +to the unintelligible words, and dozes; he rubs his eyelids with +his fists, and they shut all the tighter. + +"I am going to bed . . ." he says, stretching and yawning. + +"What, to bed?" says Pelageya Ivanovna. "What about supper before +the fast?" + +"I don't want any." + +"Are you crazy?" says his mother in alarm. "How can you go without +your supper before the fast? You'll have nothing but Lenten food +all through the fast!" + +Pavel Vassilitch is scared too. + +"Yes, yes, my boy," he says. "For seven weeks mother will give you +nothing but Lenten food. You can't miss the last supper before the +fast." + +"Oh dear, I am sleepy," says Styopa peevishly. + +"Since that is how it is, lay the supper quickly," Pavel Vassilitch +cries in a fluster. "Anna, why are you sitting there, silly? Make +haste and lay the table." + +Pelageya Ivanovna clasps her hands and runs into the kitchen with +an expression as though the house were on fire. + +"Make haste, make haste," is heard all over the house. "Styopotchka +is sleepy. Anna! Oh dear me, what is one to do? Make haste." + +Five minutes later the table is laid. Again the cats, arching their +spines, and stretching themselves with their tails in the air, come +into the dining-room. . . . The family begin supper. . . . No one +is hungry, everyone's stomach is overfull, but yet they must eat. + + +THE OLD HOUSE + +_(A Story told by a Houseowner)_ + +THE old house had to be pulled down that a new one might be built +in its place. I led the architect through the empty rooms, and +between our business talk told him various stories. The tattered +wallpapers, the dingy windows, the dark stoves, all bore the traces +of recent habitation and evoked memories. On that staircase, for +instance, drunken men were once carrying down a dead body when they +stumbled and flew headlong downstairs together with the coffin; the +living were badly bruised, while the dead man looked very serious, +as though nothing had happened, and shook his head when they lifted +him up from the ground and put him back in the coffin. You see those +three doors in a row: in there lived young ladies who were always +receiving visitors, and so were better dressed than any other +lodgers, and could pay their rent regularly. The door at the end +of the corridor leads to the wash-house, where by day they washed +clothes and at night made an uproar and drank beer. And in that +flat of three rooms everything is saturated with bacteria and +bacilli. It's not nice there. Many lodgers have died there, and I +can positively assert that that flat was at some time cursed by +someone, and that together with its human lodgers there was always +another lodger, unseen, living in it. I remember particularly the +fate of one family. Picture to yourself an ordinary man, not +remarkable in any way, with a wife, a mother, and four children. +His name was Putohin; he was a copying clerk at a notary's, and +received thirty-five roubles a month. He was a sober, religious, +serious man. When he brought me his rent for the flat he always +apologised for being badly dressed; apologised for being five days +late, and when I gave him a receipt he would smile good-humouredly +and say: "Oh yes, there's that too, I don't like those receipts." +He lived poorly but decently. In that middle room, the grandmother +used to be with the four children; there they used to cook, sleep, +receive their visitors, and even dance. This was Putohin's own room; +he had a table in it, at which he used to work doing private jobs, +copying parts for the theatre, advertisements, and so on. This room +on the right was let to his lodger, Yegoritch, a locksmith--a +steady fellow, but given to drink; he was always too hot, and so +used to go about in his waistcoat and barefoot. Yegoritch used to +mend locks, pistols, children's bicycles, would not refuse to mend +cheap clocks and make skates for a quarter-rouble, but he despised +that work, and looked on himself as a specialist in musical +instruments. Amongst the litter of steel and iron on his table there +was always to be seen a concertina with a broken key, or a trumpet +with its sides bent in. He paid Putohin two and a half roubles for +his room; he was always at his work-table, and only came out to +thrust some piece of iron into the stove. + +On the rare occasions when I went into that flat in the evening, +this was always the picture I came upon: Putohin would be sitting +at his little table, copying something; his mother and his wife, a +thin woman with an exhausted-looking face, were sitting near the +lamp, sewing; Yegoritch would be making a rasping sound with his +file. And the hot, still smouldering embers in the stove filled the +room with heat and fumes; the heavy air smelt of cabbage soup, +swaddling-clothes, and Yegoritch. It was poor and stuffy, but the +working-class faces, the children's little drawers hung up along +by the stove, Yegoritch's bits of iron had yet an air of peace, +friendliness, content. . . . In the corridor outside the children +raced about with well-combed heads, merry and profoundly convinced +that everything was satisfactory in this world, and would be so +endlessly, that one had only to say one's prayers every morning and +at bedtime. + +Now imagine in the midst of that same room, two paces from the +stove, the coffin in which Putohin's wife is lying. There is no +husband whose wife will live for ever, but there was something +special about this death. When, during the requiem service, I glanced +at the husband's grave face, at his stern eyes, I thought: "Oho, +brother!" + +It seemed to me that he himself, his children, the grandmother and +Yegoritch, were already marked down by that unseen being which lived +with them in that flat. I am a thoroughly superstitious man, perhaps, +because I am a houseowner and for forty years have had to do with +lodgers. I believe if you don't win at cards from the beginning you +will go on losing to the end; when fate wants to wipe you and your +family off the face of the earth, it remains inexorable in its +persecution, and the first misfortune is commonly only the first +of a long series. . . . Misfortunes are like stones. One stone has +only to drop from a high cliff for others to be set rolling after +it. In short, as I came away from the requiem service at Putohin's, +I believed that he and his family were in a bad way. + +And, in fact, a week afterwards the notary quite unexpectedly +dismissed Putohin, and engaged a young lady in his place. And would +you believe it, Putohin was not so much put out at the loss of his +job as at being superseded by a young lady and not by a man. Why a +young lady? He so resented this that on his return home he thrashed +his children, swore at his mother, and got drunk. Yegoritch got +drunk, too, to keep him company. + +Putohin brought me the rent, but did not apologise this time, though +it was eighteen days overdue, and said nothing when he took the +receipt from me. The following month the rent was brought by his +mother; she only brought me half, and promised to bring the remainder +a week later. The third month, I did not get a farthing, and the +porter complained to me that the lodgers in No. 23 were "not behaving +like gentlemen." + +These were ominous symptoms. + +Picture this scene. A sombre Petersburg morning looks in at the +dingy windows. By the stove, the granny is pouring out the children's +tea. Only the eldest, Vassya, drinks out of a glass, for the others +the tea is poured out into saucers. Yegoritch is squatting on his +heels before the stove, thrusting a bit of iron into the fire. His +head is heavy and his eyes are lustreless from yesterday's +drinking-bout; he sighs and groans, trembles and coughs. + +"He has quite put me off the right way, the devil," he grumbles; +"he drinks himself and leads others into sin." + +Putohin sits in his room, on the bedstead from which the bedclothes +and the pillows have long ago disappeared, and with his hands +straying in his hair looks blankly at the floor at his feet. He is +tattered, unkempt, and ill. + +"Drink it up, make haste or you will be late for school," the old +woman urges on Vassya, "and it's time for me, too, to go and scrub +the floors for the Jews. . . ." + +The old woman is the only one in the flat who does not lose heart. +She thinks of old times, and goes out to hard dirty work. On Fridays +she scrubs the floors for the Jews at the crockery shop, on Saturdays +she goes out washing for shopkeepers, and on Sundays she is racing +about the town from morning to night, trying to find ladies who +will help her. Every day she has work of some sort; she washes and +scrubs, and is by turns a midwife, a matchmaker, or a beggar. It +is true she, too, is not disinclined to drown her sorrows, but even +when she has had a drop she does not forget her duties. In Russia +there are many such tough old women, and how much of its welfare +rests upon them! + +When he has finished his tea, Vassya packs up his books in a satchel +and goes behind the stove; his greatcoat ought to be hanging there +beside his granny's clothes. A minute later he comes out from behind +the stove and asks: + +"Where is my greatcoat?" + +The grandmother and the other children look for the greatcoat +together, they waste a long time in looking for it, but the greatcoat +has utterly vanished. Where is it? The grandmother and Vassya are +pale and frightened. Even Yegoritch is surprised. Putohin is the +only one who does not move. Though he is quick to notice anything +irregular or disorderly, this time he makes a pretence of hearing +and seeing nothing. That is suspicious. + +"He's sold it for drink," Yegoritch declares. + +Putohin says nothing, so it is the truth. Vassya is overcome with +horror. His greatcoat, his splendid greatcoat, made of his dead +mother's cloth dress, with a splendid calico lining, gone for drink +at the tavern! And with the greatcoat is gone too, of course, the +blue pencil that lay in the pocket, and the note-book with "_Nota +bene_" in gold letters on it! There's another pencil with india-rubber +stuck into the note-book, and, besides that, there are transfer +pictures lying in it. + +Vassya would like to cry, but to cry is impossible. If his father, +who has a headache, heard crying he would shout, stamp with his +feet, and begin fighting, and after drinking he fights horribly. +Granny would stand up for Vassya, and his father would strike granny +too; it would end in Yegoritch getting mixed up in it too, clutching +at his father and falling on the floor with him. The two would roll +on the floor, struggling together and gasping with drunken animal +fury, and granny would cry, the children would scream, the neighbours +would send for the porter. No, better not cry. + +Because he mustn't cry, or give vent to his indignation aloud, +Vassya moans, wrings his hands and moves his legs convulsively, or +biting his sleeve shakes it with his teeth as a dog does a hare. +His eyes are frantic, and his face is distorted with despair. Looking +at him, his granny all at once takes the shawl off her head, and +she too makes queer movements with her arms and legs in silence, +with her eyes fixed on a point in the distance. And at that moment +I believe there is a definite certainty in the minds of the boy and +the old woman that their life is ruined, that there is no +hope. . . . + +Putohin hears no crying, but he can see it all from his room. When, +half an hour later, Vassya sets off to school, wrapped in his +grandmother's shawl, he goes out with a face I will not undertake +to describe, and walks after him. He longs to call the boy, to +comfort him, to beg his forgiveness, to promise him on his word of +honour, to call his dead mother to witness, but instead of words, +sobs break from him. It is a grey, cold morning. When he reaches +the town school Vassya untwists his granny's shawl, and goes into +the school with nothing over his jacket for fear the boys should +say he looks like a woman. And when he gets home Putohin sobs, +mutters some incoherent words, bows down to the ground before his +mother and Yegoritch, and the locksmith's table. Then, recovering +himself a little, he runs to me and begs me breathlessly, for God's +sake, to find him some job. I give him hopes, of course. + +"At last I am myself again," he said. "It's high time, indeed, to +come to my senses. I've made a beast of myself, and now it's over." + +He is delighted and thanks me, while I, who have studied these +gentry thoroughly during the years I have owned the house, look at +him, and am tempted to say: + +"It's too late, dear fellow! You are a dead man already." + +From me, Putohin runs to the town school. There he paces up and +down, waiting till his boy comes out. + +"I say, Vassya," he says joyfully, when the boy at last comes out, +"I have just been promised a job. Wait a bit, I will buy you a +splendid fur-coat. . . . I'll send you to the high school! Do you +understand? To the high school! I'll make a gentleman of you! And +I won't drink any more. On my honour I won't." + +And he has intense faith in the bright future. But the evening comes +on. The old woman, coming back from the Jews with twenty kopecks, +exhausted and aching all over, sets to work to wash the children's +clothes. Vassya is sitting doing a sum. Yegoritch is not working. +Thanks to Putohin he has got into the way of drinking, and is feeling +at the moment an overwhelming desire for drink. It's hot and stuffy +in the room. Steam rises in clouds from the tub where the old woman +is washing. + +"Are we going?" Yegoritch asks surlily. + +My lodger does not answer. After his excitement he feels insufferably +dreary. He struggles with the desire to drink, with acute depression +and . . . and, of course, depression gets the best of it. It is a +familiar story. + +Towards night, Yegoritch and Putohin go out, and in the morning +Vassya cannot find granny's shawl. + +That is the drama that took place in that flat. After selling the +shawl for drink, Putohin did not come home again. Where he disappeared +to I don't know. After he disappeared, the old woman first got +drunk, then took to her bed. She was taken to the hospital, the +younger children were fetched by relations of some sort, and Vassya +went into the wash-house here. In the day-time he handed the irons, +and at night fetched the beer. When he was turned out of the +wash-house he went into the service of one of the young ladies, +used to run about at night on errands of some sort, and began to +be spoken of as "a dangerous customer." + +What has happened to him since I don't know. + +And in this room here a street musician lived for ten years. When +he died they found twenty thousand roubles in his feather bed. + + +IN PASSION WEEK + +"Go along, they are ringing already; and mind, don't be naughty in +church or God will punish you." + +My mother thrusts a few copper coins upon me, and, instantly +forgetting about me, runs into the kitchen with an iron that needs +reheating. I know well that after confession I shall not be allowed +to eat or drink, and so, before leaving the house, I force myself +to eat a crust of white bread, and to drink two glasses of water. +It is quite spring in the street. The roads are all covered with +brownish slush, in which future paths are already beginning to show; +the roofs and side-walks are dry; the fresh young green is piercing +through the rotting grass of last year, under the fences. In the +gutters there is the merry gurgling and foaming of dirty water, in +which the sunbeams do not disdain to bathe. Chips, straws, the husks +of sunflower seeds are carried rapidly along in the water, whirling +round and sticking in the dirty foam. Where, where are those chips +swimming to? It may well be that from the gutter they may pass into +the river, from the river into the sea, and from the sea into the +ocean. I try to imagine to myself that long terrible journey, but +my fancy stops short before reaching the sea. + +A cabman drives by. He clicks to his horse, tugs at the reins, and +does not see that two street urchins are hanging on the back of his +cab. I should like to join them, but think of confession, and the +street urchins begin to seem to me great sinners. + +"They will be asked on the day of judgment: 'Why did you play pranks +and deceive the poor cabman?'" I think. "They will begin to defend +themselves, but evil spirits will seize them, and drag them to fire +everlasting. But if they obey their parents, and give the beggars +a kopeck each, or a roll, God will have pity on them, and will let +them into Paradise." + +The church porch is dry and bathed in sunshine. There is not a soul +in it. I open the door irresolutely and go into the church. Here, +in the twilight which seems to me thick and gloomy as at no other +time, I am overcome by the sense of sinfulness and insignificance. +What strikes the eye first of all is a huge crucifix, and on one +side of it the Mother of God, and on the other, St. John the Divine. +The candelabra and the candlestands are draped in black mourning +covers, the lamps glimmer dimly and faintly, and the sun seems +intentionally to pass by the church windows. The Mother of God and +the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ, depicted in profile, gaze in +silence at the insufferable agony and do not observe my presence; +I feel that to them I am alien, superfluous, unnoticed, that I can +be no help to them by word or deed, that I am a loathsome, dishonest +boy, only capable of mischief, rudeness, and tale-bearing. I think +of all the people I know, and they all seem to me petty, stupid, +and wicked, and incapable of bringing one drop of relief to that +intolerable sorrow which I now behold. + +The twilight of the church grows darker and more gloomy. And the +Mother of God and St. John look lonely and forlorn to me. + +Prokofy Ignatitch, a veteran soldier, the church verger's assistant, +is standing behind the candle cupboard. Raising his eyebrows and +stroking his beard he explains in a half-whisper to an old woman: +"Matins will be in the evening to-day, directly after vespers. And +they will ring for the 'hours' to-morrow between seven and eight. +Do you understand? Between seven and eight." + +Between the two broad columns on the right, where the chapel of +Varvara the Martyr begins, those who are going to confess stand +beside the screen, awaiting their turn. And Mitka is there too-- +a ragged boy with his head hideously cropped, with ears that jut +out, and little spiteful eyes. He is the son of Nastasya the +charwoman, and is a bully and a ruffian who snatches apples from +the women's baskets, and has more than once carried off my +knuckle-bones. He looks at me angrily, and I fancy takes a spiteful +pleasure in the fact that he, not I, will first go behind the screen. +I feel boiling over with resentment, I try not to look at him, and, +at the bottom of my heart, I am vexed that this wretched boy's sins +will soon be forgiven. + +In front of him stands a grandly dressed, beautiful lady, wearing +a hat with a white feather. She is noticeably agitated, is waiting +in strained suspense, and one of her cheeks is flushed red with +excitement. + +I wait for five minutes, for ten. . . . A well-dressed young man +with a long thin neck, and rubber goloshes, comes out from behind +the screen. I begin dreaming how, when I am grown up, I will buy +goloshes exactly like them. I certainly will! The lady shudders and +goes behind the screen. It is her turn. + +In the crack, between the two panels of the screen, I can see the +lady go up to the lectern and bow down to the ground, then get up, +and, without looking at the priest, bow her head in anticipation. +The priest stands with his back to the screen, and so I can only +see his grey curly head, the chain of the cross on his chest, and +his broad back. His face is not visible. Heaving a sigh, and not +looking at the lady, he begins speaking rapidly, shaking his head, +alternately raising and dropping his whispering voice. The lady +listens meekly as though conscious of guilt, answers meekly, and +looks at the floor. + +"In what way can she be sinful?" I wonder, looking reverently at +her gentle, beautiful face. "God forgive her sins, God send her +happiness." But now the priest covers her head with the stole. "And +I, unworthy priest . . ." I hear his voice, ". . . by His power +given unto me, do forgive and absolve thee from all thy sins. . . ." + +The lady bows down to the ground, kisses the cross, and comes back. +Both her cheeks are flushed now, but her face is calm and serene +and cheerful. + +"She is happy now," I think to myself, looking first at her and +then at the priest who had forgiven her sins. "But how happy the +man must be who has the right to forgive sins!" + +Now it is Mitka's turn, but a feeling of hatred for that young +ruffian suddenly boils up in me. I want to go behind the screen +before him, I want to be the first. Noticing my movement he hits +me on the head with his candle, I respond by doing the same, and, +for half a minute, there is a sound of panting, and, as it were, +of someone breaking candles. . . . We are separated. My foe goes +timidly up to the lectern, and bows down to the floor without bending +his knees, but I do not see what happens after that; the thought +that my turn is coming after Mitka's makes everything grow blurred +and confused before my eyes; Mitka's protruding ears grow large, +and melt into his dark head, the priest sways, the floor seems to +be undulating. . . . + +The priest's voice is audible: "And I, unworthy priest . . ." + +Now I too move behind the screen. I do not feel the ground under +my feet, it is as though I were walking on air. . . . I go up to +the lectern which is taller than I am. For a minute I have a glimpse +of the indifferent, exhausted face of the priest. But after that I +see nothing but his sleeve with its blue lining, the cross, and the +edge of the lectern. I am conscious of the close proximity of the +priest, the smell of his cassock; I hear his stern voice, and my +cheek turned towards him begins to burn. . . . I am so troubled +that I miss a great deal that he says, but I answer his questions +sincerely in an unnatural voice, not my own. I think of the forlorn +figures of the Holy Mother and St. John the Divine, the crucifix, +my mother, and I want to cry and beg forgiveness. + +"What is your name?" the priest asks me, covering my head with the +soft stole. + +How light-hearted I am now, with joy in my soul! + +I have no sins now, I am holy, I have the right to enter Paradise! +I fancy that I already smell like the cassock. I go from behind the +screen to the deacon to enter my name, and sniff at my sleeves. The +dusk of the church no longer seems gloomy, and I look indifferently, +without malice, at Mitka. + +"What is your name?" the deacon asks. + +"Fedya." + +"And your name from your father?" + +"I don't know." + +"What is your papa's name?" + +"Ivan Petrovitch." + +"And your surname?" + +I make no answer. + +"How old are you?" + +"Nearly nine." + +When I get home I go to bed quickly, that I may not see them eating +supper; and, shutting my eyes, dream of how fine it would be to +endure martyrdom at the hands of some Herod or Dioskorus, to live +in the desert, and, like St. Serafim, feed the bears, live in a +cell, and eat nothing but holy bread, give my property to the poor, +go on a pilgrimage to Kiev. I hear them laying the table in the +dining-room--they are going to have supper, they will eat salad, +cabbage pies, fried and baked fish. How hungry I am! I would consent +to endure any martyrdom, to live in the desert without my mother, +to feed bears out of my own hands, if only I might first eat just +one cabbage pie! + +"Lord, purify me a sinner," I pray, covering my head over. "Guardian +angel, save me from the unclean spirit." + +The next day, Thursday, I wake up with my heart as pure and clean +as a fine spring day. I go gaily and boldly into the church, feeling +that I am a communicant, that I have a splendid and expensive shirt +on, made out of a silk dress left by my grandmother. In the church +everything has an air of joy, happiness, and spring. The faces of +the Mother of God and St. John the Divine are not so sorrowful as +yesterday. The faces of the communicants are radiant with hope, and +it seems as though all the past is forgotten, all is forgiven. +Mitka, too, has combed his hair, and is dressed in his best. I look +gaily at his protruding ears, and to show that I have nothing against +him, I say: + +"You look nice to-day, and if your hair did not stand up so, and +you weren't so poorly dressed, everybody would think that your +mother was not a washerwoman but a lady. Come to me at Easter, we +will play knuckle-bones." + +Mitka looks at me mistrustfully, and shakes his fist at me on the +sly. + +And the lady I saw yesterday looks lovely. She is wearing a light +blue dress, and a big sparkling brooch in the shape of a horse-shoe. +I admire her, and think that, when I am grown-up, I will certainly +marry a woman like that, but remembering that getting married is +shameful, I leave off thinking about it, and go into the choir where +the deacon is already reading the "hours." + + +WHITEBROW + +A HUNGRY she-wolf got up to go hunting. Her cubs, all three of them, +were sound asleep, huddled in a heap and keeping each other warm. +She licked them and went off. + +It was already March, a month of spring, but at night the trees +snapped with the cold, as they do in December, and one could hardly +put one's tongue out without its being nipped. The wolf-mother was +in delicate health and nervous; she started at the slightest sound, +and kept hoping that no one would hurt the little ones at home while +she was away. The smell of the tracks of men and horses, logs, piles +of faggots, and the dark road with horse-dung on it frightened her; +it seemed to her that men were standing behind the trees in the +darkness, and that dogs were howling somewhere beyond the forest. + +She was no longer young and her scent had grown feebler, so that +it sometimes happened that she took the track of a fox for that of +a dog, and even at times lost her way, a thing that had never been +in her youth. Owing to the weakness of her health she no longer +hunted calves and big sheep as she had in old days, and kept her +distance now from mares with colts; she fed on nothing but carrion; +fresh meat she tasted very rarely, only in the spring when she would +come upon a hare and take away her young, or make her way into a +peasant's stall where there were lambs. + +Some three miles from her lair there stood a winter hut on the +posting road. There lived the keeper Ignat, an old man of seventy, +who was always coughing and talking to himself; at night he was +usually asleep, and by day he wandered about the forest with a +single-barrelled gun, whistling to the hares. He must have worked +among machinery in early days, for before he stood still he always +shouted to himself: "Stop the machine!" and before going on: "Full +speed!" He had a huge black dog of indeterminate breed, called +Arapka. When it ran too far ahead he used to shout to it: "Reverse +action!" Sometimes he used to sing, and as he did so staggered +violently, and often fell down (the wolf thought the wind blew him +over), and shouted: "Run off the rails!" + +The wolf remembered that, in the summer and autumn, a ram and two +ewes were pasturing near the winter hut, and when she had run by +not so long ago she fancied that she had heard bleating in the +stall. And now, as she got near the place, she reflected that it +was already March, and, by that time, there would certainly be lambs +in the stall. She was tormented by hunger, she thought with what +greediness she would eat a lamb, and these thoughts made her teeth +snap, and her eyes glitter in the darkness like two sparks of light. + +Ignat's hut, his barn, cattle-stall, and well were surrounded by +high snowdrifts. All was still. Arapka was, most likely, asleep in +the barn. + +The wolf clambered over a snowdrift on to the stall, and began +scratching away the thatched roof with her paws and her nose. The +straw was rotten and decaying, so that the wolf almost fell through; +all at once a smell of warm steam, of manure, and of sheep's milk +floated straight to her nostrils. Down below, a lamb, feeling the +cold, bleated softly. Leaping through the hole, the wolf fell with +her four paws and chest on something soft and warm, probably a +sheep, and at the same moment, something in the stall suddenly began +whining, barking, and going off into a shrill little yap; the sheep +huddled against the wall, and the wolf, frightened, snatched the +first thing her teeth fastened on, and dashed away. . . . + +She ran at her utmost speed, while Arapka, who by now had scented +the wolf, howled furiously, the frightened hens cackled, and Ignat, +coming out into the porch, shouted: "Full speed! Blow the whistle!" + +And he whistled like a steam-engine, and then shouted: "Ho-ho-ho-ho!" +and all this noise was repeated by the forest echo. When, little +by little, it all died away, the wolf somewhat recovered herself, +and began to notice that the prey she held in her teeth and dragged +along the snow was heavier and, as it were, harder than lambs usually +were at that season; and it smelt somehow different, and uttered +strange sounds. . . . The wolf stopped and laid her burden on the +snow, to rest and begin eating it, then all at once she leapt back +in disgust. It was not a lamb, but a black puppy, with a big head +and long legs, of a large breed, with a white patch on his brow, +like Arapka's. Judging from his manners he was a simple, ignorant, +yard-dog. He licked his crushed and wounded back, and, as though +nothing was the matter, wagged his tail and barked at the wolf. She +growled like a dog, and ran away from him. He ran after her. She +looked round and snapped her teeth. He stopped in perplexity, and, +probably deciding that she was playing with him, craned his head +in the direction he had come from, and went off into a shrill, +gleeful bark, as though inviting his mother Arapka to play with him +and the wolf. + +It was already getting light, and when the wolf reached her home +in the thick aspen wood, each aspen tree could be seen distinctly, +and the woodcocks were already awake, and the beautiful male birds +often flew up, disturbed by the incautious gambols and barking of +the puppy. + +"Why does he run after me?" thought the wolf with annoyance. "I +suppose he wants me to eat him." + +She lived with her cubs in a shallow hole; three years before, a +tall old pine tree had been torn up by the roots in a violent storm, +and the hole had been formed by it. Now there were dead leaves and +moss at the bottom, and around it lay bones and bullocks' horns, +with which the little ones played. They were by now awake, and all +three of them, very much alike, were standing in a row at the edge +of their hole, looking at their returning mother, and wagging their +tails. Seeing them, the puppy stopped a little way off, and stared +at them for a very long time; seeing that they, too, were looking +very attentively at him, he began barking angrily, as at strangers. + +By now it was daylight and the sun had risen, the snow sparkled all +around, but still the puppy stood a little way off and barked. The +cubs sucked their mother, pressing her thin belly with their paws, +while she gnawed a horse's bone, dry and white; she was tormented +by hunger, her head ached from the dog's barking, and she felt +inclined to fall on the uninvited guest and tear him to pieces. + +At last the puppy was hoarse and exhausted; seeing they were not +afraid of him, and not even attending to him, he began somewhat +timidly approaching the cubs, alternately squatting down and bounding +a few steps forward. Now, by daylight, it was easy to have a good +look at him. . . . His white forehead was big, and on it was a hump +such as is only seen on very stupid dogs; he had little, blue, +dingy-looking eyes, and the expression of his whole face was extremely +stupid. When he reached the cubs he stretched out his broad paws, +laid his head upon them, and began: + +"Mnya, myna . . . nga--nga--nga . . . !" + +The cubs did not understand what he meant, but they wagged their +tails. Then the puppy gave one of the cubs a smack on its big head +with his paw. The cub, too, gave him a smack on the head. The puppy +stood sideways to him, and looked at him askance, wagging his tail, +then dashed off, and ran round several times on the frozen snow. +The cubs ran after him, he fell on his back and kicked up his legs, +and all three of them fell upon him, squealing with delight, and +began biting him, not to hurt but in play. The crows sat on the +high pine tree, and looked down on their struggle, and were much +troubled by it. They grew noisy and merry. The sun was hot, as +though it were spring; and the woodcocks, continually flitting +through the pine tree that had been blown down by the storm, looked +as though made of emerald in the brilliant sunshine. + +As a rule, wolf-mothers train their children to hunt by giving them +prey to play with; and now watching the cubs chasing the puppy over +the frozen snow and struggling with him, the mother thought: + +"Let them learn." + +When they had played long enough, the cubs went into the hole and +lay down to sleep. The puppy howled a little from hunger, then he, +too, stretched out in the sunshine. And when they woke up they began +playing again. + +All day long, and in the evening, the wolf-mother was thinking how +the lamb had bleated in the cattle-shed the night before, and how +it had smelt of sheep's milk, and she kept snapping her teeth from +hunger, and never left off greedily gnawing the old bone, pretending +to herself that it was the lamb. The cubs sucked their mother, and +the puppy, who was hungry, ran round them and sniffed at the snow. + +"I'll eat him . . ." the mother-wolf decided. + +She went up to him, and he licked her nose and yapped at her, +thinking that she wanted to play with him. In the past she had eaten +dogs, but the dog smelt very doggy, and in the delicate state of +her health she could not endure the smell; she felt disgusted and +walked away. . . . + +Towards night it grew cold. The puppy felt depressed and went home. + +When the wolf-cubs were fast asleep, their mother went out hunting +again. As on the previous night she was alarmed at every sound, and +she was frightened by the stumps, the logs, the dark juniper bushes, +which stood out singly, and in the distance were like human beings. +She ran on the ice-covered snow, keeping away from the road. . . . +All at once she caught a glimpse of something dark, far away on the +road. She strained her eyes and ears: yes, something really was +walking on in front, she could even hear the regular thud of +footsteps. Surely not a badger? Cautiously holding her breath, and +keeping always to one side, she overtook the dark patch, looked +round, and recognised it. It was the puppy with the white brow, +going with a slow, lingering step homewards. + +"If only he doesn't hinder me again," thought the wolf, and ran +quickly on ahead. + +But the homestead was by now near. Again she clambered on to the +cattle-shed by the snowdrift. The gap she had made yesterday had +been already mended with straw, and two new rafters stretched across +the roof. The wolf began rapidly working with her legs and nose, +looking round to see whether the puppy were coming, but the smell +of the warm steam and manure had hardly reached her nose before she +heard a gleeful burst of barking behind her. It was the puppy. He +leapt up to the wolf on the roof, then into the hole, and, feeling +himself at home in the warmth, recognising his sheep, he barked +louder than ever. . . . Arapka woke up in the barn, and, scenting +a wolf, howled, the hens began cackling, and by the time Ignat +appeared in the porch with his single-barrelled gun the frightened +wolf was already far away. + +"Fuite!" whistled Ignat. "Fuite! Full steam ahead!" + +He pulled the trigger--the gun missed fire; he pulled the trigger +again--again it missed fire; he tried a third time--and a great +blaze of flame flew out of the barrel and there was a deafening +boom, boom. It kicked him violently on the shoulder, and, taking +his gun in one hand and his axe in the other, he went to see what +the noise was about. + +A little later he went back to the hut. + +"What was it?" a pilgrim, who was staying the night at the hut and +had been awakened by the noise, asked in a husky voice. + +"It's all right," answered Ignat. "Nothing of consequence. Our +Whitebrow has taken to sleeping with the sheep in the warm. Only +he hasn't the sense to go in at the door, but always tries to wriggle +in by the roof. The other night he tore a hole in the roof and went +off on the spree, the rascal, and now he has come back and scratched +away the roof again." + +"Stupid dog." + +"Yes, there is a spring snapped in his brain. I do detest fools," +sighed Ignat, clambering on to the stove. "Come, man of God, it's +early yet to get up. Let us sleep full steam! . . ." + +In the morning he called Whitebrow, smacked him hard about the ears, +and then showing him a stick, kept repeating to him: + +"Go in at the door! Go in at the door! Go in at the door!" + + +KASHTANKA + +_(A Story)_ + +I + +_Misbehaviour_ + +A YOUNG dog, a reddish mongrel, between a dachshund and a "yard-dog," +very like a fox in face, was running up and down the pavement looking +uneasily from side to side. From time to time she stopped and, +whining and lifting first one chilled paw and then another, tried +to make up her mind how it could have happened that she was lost. + +She remembered very well how she had passed the day, and how, in +the end, she had found herself on this unfamiliar pavement. + +The day had begun by her master Luka Alexandritch's putting on his +hat, taking something wooden under his arm wrapped up in a red +handkerchief, and calling: "Kashtanka, come along!" + +Hearing her name the mongrel had come out from under the work-table, +where she slept on the shavings, stretched herself voluptuously and +run after her master. The people Luka Alexandritch worked for lived +a very long way off, so that, before he could get to any one of +them, the carpenter had several times to step into a tavern to +fortify himself. Kashtanka remembered that on the way she had behaved +extremely improperly. In her delight that she was being taken for +a walk she jumped about, dashed barking after the trains, ran into +yards, and chased other dogs. The carpenter was continually losing +sight of her, stopping, and angrily shouting at her. Once he had +even, with an expression of fury in his face, taken her fox-like +ear in his fist, smacked her, and said emphatically: "Pla-a-ague +take you, you pest!" + +After having left the work where it had been bespoken, Luka +Alexandritch went into his sister's and there had something to eat +and drink; from his sister's he had gone to see a bookbinder he +knew; from the bookbinder's to a tavern, from the tavern to another +crony's, and so on. In short, by the time Kashtanka found herself +on the unfamiliar pavement, it was getting dusk, and the carpenter +was as drunk as a cobbler. He was waving his arms and, breathing +heavily, muttered: + +"In sin my mother bore me! Ah, sins, sins! Here now we are walking +along the street and looking at the street lamps, but when we die, +we shall burn in a fiery Gehenna. . . ." + +Or he fell into a good-natured tone, called Kashtanka to him, and +said to her: "You, Kashtanka, are an insect of a creature, and +nothing else. Beside a man, you are much the same as a joiner beside +a cabinet-maker. . . ." + +While he talked to her in that way, there was suddenly a burst of +music. Kashtanka looked round and saw that a regiment of soldiers +was coming straight towards her. Unable to endure the music, which +unhinged her nerves, she turned round and round and wailed. To her +great surprise, the carpenter, instead of being frightened, whining +and barking, gave a broad grin, drew himself up to attention, and +saluted with all his five fingers. Seeing that her master did not +protest, Kashtanka whined louder than ever, and dashed across the +road to the opposite pavement. + +When she recovered herself, the band was not playing and the regiment +was no longer there. She ran across the road to the spot where she +had left her master, but alas, the carpenter was no longer there. +She dashed forward, then back again and ran across the road once +more, but the carpenter seemed to have vanished into the earth. +Kashtanka began sniffing the pavement, hoping to find her master +by the scent of his tracks, but some wretch had been that way just +before in new rubber goloshes, and now all delicate scents were +mixed with an acute stench of india-rubber, so that it was impossible +to make out anything. + +Kashtanka ran up and down and did not find her master, and meanwhile +it had got dark. The street lamps were lighted on both sides of the +road, and lights appeared in the windows. Big, fluffy snowflakes +were falling and painting white the pavement, the horses' backs and +the cabmen's caps, and the darker the evening grew the whiter were +all these objects. Unknown customers kept walking incessantly to +and fro, obstructing her field of vision and shoving against her +with their feet. (All mankind Kashtanka divided into two uneven +parts: masters and customers; between them there was an essential +difference: the first had the right to beat her, and the second she +had the right to nip by the calves of their legs.) These customers +were hurrying off somewhere and paid no attention to her. + +When it got quite dark, Kashtanka was overcome by despair and horror. +She huddled up in an entrance and began whining piteously. The long +day's journeying with Luka Alexandritch had exhausted her, her ears +and her paws were freezing, and, what was more, she was terribly +hungry. Only twice in the whole day had she tasted a morsel: she +had eaten a little paste at the bookbinder's, and in one of the +taverns she had found a sausage skin on the floor, near the counter +--that was all. If she had been a human being she would have +certainly thought: "No, it is impossible to live like this! I must +shoot myself!" + +II + +_A Mysterious Stranger_ + +But she thought of nothing, she simply whined. When her head and +back were entirely plastered over with the soft feathery snow, and +she had sunk into a painful doze of exhaustion, all at once the +door of the entrance clicked, creaked, and struck her on the side. +She jumped up. A man belonging to the class of customers came out. +As Kashtanka whined and got under his feet, he could not help +noticing her. He bent down to her and asked: + +"Doggy, where do you come from? Have I hurt you? O, poor thing, +poor thing. . . . Come, don't be cross, don't be cross. . . . I am +sorry." + +Kashtanka looked at the stranger through the snow-flakes that hung +on her eyelashes, and saw before her a short, fat little man, with +a plump, shaven face wearing a top hat and a fur coat that swung +open. + +"What are you whining for?" he went on, knocking the snow off her +back with his fingers. "Where is your master? I suppose you are +lost? Ah, poor doggy! What are we going to do now?" + +Catching in the stranger's voice a warm, cordial note, Kashtanka +licked his hand, and whined still more pitifully. + +"Oh, you nice funny thing!" said the stranger. "A regular fox! Well, +there's nothing for it, you must come along with me! Perhaps you +will be of use for something. . . . Well!" + +He clicked with his lips, and made a sign to Kashtanka with his +hand, which could only mean one thing: "Come along!" Kashtanka went. + +Not more than half an hour later she was sitting on the floor in a +big, light room, and, leaning her head against her side, was looking +with tenderness and curiosity at the stranger who was sitting at +the table, dining. He ate and threw pieces to her. . . . At first +he gave her bread and the green rind of cheese, then a piece of +meat, half a pie and chicken bones, while through hunger she ate +so quickly that she had not time to distinguish the taste, and the +more she ate the more acute was the feeling of hunger. + +"Your masters don't feed you properly," said the stranger, seeing +with what ferocious greediness she swallowed the morsels without +munching them. "And how thin you are! Nothing but skin and +bones. . . ." + +Kashtanka ate a great deal and yet did not satisfy her hunger, but +was simply stupefied with eating. After dinner she lay down in the +middle of the room, stretched her legs and, conscious of an agreeable +weariness all over her body, wagged her tail. While her new master, +lounging in an easy-chair, smoked a cigar, she wagged her tail and +considered the question, whether it was better at the stranger's +or at the carpenter's. The stranger's surroundings were poor and +ugly; besides the easy-chairs, the sofa, the lamps and the rugs, +there was nothing, and the room seemed empty. At the carpenter's +the whole place was stuffed full of things: he had a table, a bench, +a heap of shavings, planes, chisels, saws, a cage with a goldfinch, +a basin. . . . The stranger's room smelt of nothing, while there +was always a thick fog in the carpenter's room, and a glorious smell +of glue, varnish, and shavings. On the other hand, the stranger had +one great superiority--he gave her a great deal to eat and, to +do him full justice, when Kashtanka sat facing the table and looking +wistfully at him, he did not once hit or kick her, and did not once +shout: "Go away, damned brute!" + +When he had finished his cigar her new master went out, and a minute +later came back holding a little mattress in his hands. + +"Hey, you dog, come here!" he said, laying the mattress in the +corner near the dog. "Lie down here, go to sleep!" + +Then he put out the lamp and went away. Kashtanka lay down on the +mattress and shut her eyes; the sound of a bark rose from the street, +and she would have liked to answer it, but all at once she was +overcome with unexpected melancholy. She thought of Luka Alexandritch, +of his son Fedyushka, and her snug little place under the bench. . . . +She remembered on the long winter evenings, when the carpenter +was planing or reading the paper aloud, Fedyushka usually played +with her. . . . He used to pull her from under the bench by her +hind legs, and play such tricks with her, that she saw green before +her eyes, and ached in every joint. He would make her walk on her +hind legs, use her as a bell, that is, shake her violently by the +tail so that she squealed and barked, and give her tobacco to sniff +. . . . The following trick was particularly agonising: Fedyushka +would tie a piece of meat to a thread and give it to Kashtanka, and +then, when she had swallowed it he would, with a loud laugh, pull +it back again from her stomach, and the more lurid were her memories +the more loudly and miserably Kashtanka whined. + +But soon exhaustion and warmth prevailed over melancholy. She began +to fall asleep. Dogs ran by in her imagination: among them a shaggy +old poodle, whom she had seen that day in the street with a white +patch on his eye and tufts of wool by his nose. Fedyushka ran after +the poodle with a chisel in his hand, then all at once he too was +covered with shaggy wool, and began merrily barking beside Kashtanka. +Kashtanka and he goodnaturedly sniffed each other's noses and merrily +ran down the street. . . . + +III + +_New and Very Agreeable Acquaintances_ + +When Kashtanka woke up it was already light, and a sound rose from +the street, such as only comes in the day-time. There was not a +soul in the room. Kashtanka stretched, yawned and, cross and +ill-humoured, walked about the room. She sniffed the corners and +the furniture, looked into the passage and found nothing of interest +there. Besides the door that led into the passage there was another +door. After thinking a little Kashtanka scratched on it with both +paws, opened it, and went into the adjoining room. Here on the bed, +covered with a rug, a customer, in whom she recognised the stranger +of yesterday, lay asleep. + +"Rrrrr . . ." she growled, but recollecting yesterday's dinner, +wagged her tail, and began sniffing. + +She sniffed the stranger's clothes and boots and thought they smelt +of horses. In the bedroom was another door, also closed. Kashtanka +scratched at the door, leaned her chest against it, opened it, and +was instantly aware of a strange and very suspicious smell. Foreseeing +an unpleasant encounter, growling and looking about her, Kashtanka +walked into a little room with a dirty wall-paper and drew back in +alarm. She saw something surprising and terrible. A grey gander +came straight towards her, hissing, with its neck bowed down to the +floor and its wings outspread. Not far from him, on a little mattress, +lay a white tom-cat; seeing Kashtanka, he jumped up, arched his +back, wagged his tail with his hair standing on end and he, too, +hissed at her. The dog was frightened in earnest, but not caring +to betray her alarm, began barking loudly and dashed at the cat . . . . +The cat arched his back more than ever, mewed and gave Kashtanka +a smack on the head with his paw. Kashtanka jumped back, squatted +on all four paws, and craning her nose towards the cat, went off +into loud, shrill barks; meanwhile the gander came up behind and +gave her a painful peck in the back. Kashtanka leapt up and dashed +at the gander. + +"What's this?" They heard a loud angry voice, and the stranger came +into the room in his dressing-gown, with a cigar between his teeth. +"What's the meaning of this? To your places!" + +He went up to the cat, flicked him on his arched back, and said: + +"Fyodor Timofeyitch, what's the meaning of this? Have you got up a +fight? Ah, you old rascal! Lie down!" + +And turning to the gander he shouted: "Ivan Ivanitch, go home!" + +The cat obediently lay down on his mattress and closed his eyes. +Judging from the expression of his face and whiskers, he was +displeased with himself for having lost his temper and got into a +fight. + +Kashtanka began whining resentfully, while the gander craned his +neck and began saying something rapidly, excitedly, distinctly, but +quite unintelligibly. + +"All right, all right," said his master, yawning. "You must live +in peace and friendship." He stroked Kashtanka and went on: "And +you, redhair, don't be frightened. . . . They are capital company, +they won't annoy you. Stay, what are we to call you? You can't go +on without a name, my dear." + +The stranger thought a moment and said: "I tell you what . . . you +shall be Auntie. . . . Do you understand? Auntie!" + +And repeating the word "Auntie" several times he went out. Kashtanka +sat down and began watching. The cat sat motionless on his little +mattress, and pretended to be asleep. The gander, craning his neck +and stamping, went on talking rapidly and excitedly about something. +Apparently it was a very clever gander; after every long tirade, +he always stepped back with an air of wonder and made a show of +being highly delighted with his own speech. . . . Listening to him +and answering "R-r-r-r," Kashtanka fell to sniffing the corners. +In one of the corners she found a little trough in which she saw +some soaked peas and a sop of rye crusts. She tried the peas; they +were not nice; she tried the sopped bread and began eating it. The +gander was not at all offended that the strange dog was eating his +food, but, on the contrary, talked even more excitedly, and to show +his confidence went to the trough and ate a few peas himself. + +IV + +_Marvels on a Hurdle_ + +A little while afterwards the stranger came in again, and brought +a strange thing with him like a hurdle, or like the figure II. On +the crosspiece on the top of this roughly made wooden frame hung a +bell, and a pistol was also tied to it; there were strings from the +tongue of the bell, and the trigger of the pistol. The stranger put +the frame in the middle of the room, spent a long time tying and +untying something, then looked at the gander and said: "Ivan Ivanitch, +if you please!" + +The gander went up to him and stood in an expectant attitude. + +"Now then," said the stranger, "let us begin at the very beginning. +First of all, bow and make a curtsey! Look sharp!" + +Ivan Ivanitch craned his neck, nodded in all directions, and scraped +with his foot. + +"Right. Bravo. . . . Now die!" + +The gander lay on his back and stuck his legs in the air. After +performing a few more similar, unimportant tricks, the stranger +suddenly clutched at his head, and assuming an expression of horror, +shouted: "Help! Fire! We are burning!" + +Ivan Ivanitch ran to the frame, took the string in his beak, and +set the bell ringing. + +The stranger was very much pleased. He stroked the gander's neck +and said: + +"Bravo, Ivan Ivanitch! Now pretend that you are a jeweller selling +gold and diamonds. Imagine now that you go to your shop and find +thieves there. What would you do in that case?" + +The gander took the other string in his beak and pulled it, and at +once a deafening report was heard. Kashtanka was highly delighted +with the bell ringing, and the shot threw her into so much ecstasy +that she ran round the frame barking. + +"Auntie, lie down!" cried the stranger; "be quiet!" + +Ivan Ivanitch's task was not ended with the shooting. For a whole +hour afterwards the stranger drove the gander round him on a cord, +cracking a whip, and the gander had to jump over barriers and through +hoops; he had to rear, that is, sit on his tail and wave his legs +in the air. Kashtanka could not take her eyes off Ivan Ivanitch, +wriggled with delight, and several times fell to running after him +with shrill barks. After exhausting the gander and himself, the +stranger wiped the sweat from his brow and cried: + +"Marya, fetch Havronya Ivanovna here!" + +A minute later there was the sound of grunting. Kashtanka growled, +assumed a very valiant air, and to be on the safe side, went nearer +to the stranger. The door opened, an old woman looked in, and, +saying something, led in a black and very ugly sow. Paying no +attention to Kashtanka's growls, the sow lifted up her little hoof +and grunted good-humouredly. Apparently it was very agreeable to +her to see her master, the cat, and Ivan Ivanitch. When she went +up to the cat and gave him a light tap on the stomach with her hoof, +and then made some remark to the gander, a great deal of good-nature +was expressed in her movements, and the quivering of her tail. +Kashtanka realised at once that to growl and bark at such a character +was useless. + +The master took away the frame and cried. "Fyodor Timofeyitch, if +you please!" + +The cat stretched lazily, and reluctantly, as though performing a +duty, went up to the sow. + +"Come, let us begin with the Egyptian pyramid," began the master. + +He spent a long time explaining something, then gave the word of +command, "One . . . two . . . three!" At the word "three" Ivan +Ivanitch flapped his wings and jumped on to the sow's back. . . . +When, balancing himself with his wings and his neck, he got a firm +foothold on the bristly back, Fyodor Timofeyitch listlessly and +lazily, with manifest disdain, and with an air of scorning his art +and not caring a pin for it, climbed on to the sow's back, then +reluctantly mounted on to the gander, and stood on his hind legs. +The result was what the stranger called the Egyptian pyramid. +Kashtanka yapped with delight, but at that moment the old cat yawned +and, losing his balance, rolled off the gander. Ivan Ivanitch lurched +and fell off too. The stranger shouted, waved his hands, and began +explaining something again. After spending an hour over the pyramid +their indefatigable master proceeded to teach Ivan Ivanitch to ride +on the cat, then began to teach the cat to smoke, and so on. + +The lesson ended in the stranger's wiping the sweat off his brow +and going away. Fyodor Timofeyitch gave a disdainful sniff, lay +down on his mattress, and closed his eyes; Ivan Ivanitch went to +the trough, and the pig was taken away by the old woman. Thanks to +the number of her new impressions, Kashranka hardly noticed how the +day passed, and in the evening she was installed with her mattress +in the room with the dirty wall-paper, and spent the night in the +society of Fyodor Timofeyitch and the gander. + +V + +_Talent! Talent!_ + +A month passed. + +Kashtanka had grown used to having a nice dinner every evening, and +being called Auntie. She had grown used to the stranger too, and +to her new companions. Life was comfortable and easy. + +Every day began in the same way. As a rule, Ivan Ivanitch was the +first to wake up, and at once went up to Auntie or to the cat, +twisting his neck, and beginning to talk excitedly and persuasively, +but, as before, unintelligibly. Sometimes he would crane up his +head in the air and utter a long monologue. At first Kashtanka +thought he talked so much because he was very clever, but after a +little time had passed, she lost all her respect for him; when he +went up to her with his long speeches she no longer wagged her tail, +but treated him as a tiresome chatterbox, who would not let anyone +sleep and, without the slightest ceremony, answered him with +"R-r-r-r!" + +Fyodor Timofeyitch was a gentleman of a very different sort. When +he woke he did not utter a sound, did not stir, and did not even +open his eyes. He would have been glad not to wake, for, as was +evident, he was not greatly in love with life. Nothing interested +him, he showed an apathetic and nonchalant attitude to everything, +he disdained everything and, even while eating his delicious dinner, +sniffed contemptuously. + +When she woke Kashtanka began walking about the room and sniffing +the corners. She and the cat were the only ones allowed to go all +over the flat; the gander had not the right to cross the threshold +of the room with the dirty wall-paper, and Hayronya Ivanovna lived +somewhere in a little outhouse in the yard and made her appearance +only during the lessons. Their master got up late, and immediately +after drinking his tea began teaching them their tricks. Every day +the frame, the whip, and the hoop were brought in, and every day +almost the same performance took place. The lesson lasted three or +four hours, so that sometimes Fyodor Timofeyitch was so tired that +he staggered about like a drunken man, and Ivan Ivanitch opened his +beak and breathed heavily, while their master became red in the +face and could not mop the sweat from his brow fast enough. + +The lesson and the dinner made the day very interesting, but the +evenings were tedious. As a rule, their master went off somewhere +in the evening and took the cat and the gander with him. Left alone, +Auntie lay down on her little mattress and began to feel sad. + +Melancholy crept on her imperceptibly and took possession of her +by degrees, as darkness does of a room. It began with the dog's +losing every inclination to bark, to eat, to run about the rooms, +and even to look at things; then vague figures, half dogs, half +human beings, with countenances attractive, pleasant, but +incomprehensible, would appear in her imagination; when they came +Auntie wagged her tail, and it seemed to her that she had somewhere, +at some time, seen them and loved them. And as she dropped asleep, +she always felt that those figures smelt of glue, shavings, and +varnish. + +When she had grown quite used to her new life, and from a thin, +long mongrel, had changed into a sleek, well-groomed dog, her master +looked at her one day before the lesson and said: + +"It's high time, Auntie, to get to business. You have kicked up +your heels in idleness long enough. I want to make an artiste of +you. . . . Do you want to be an artiste?" + +And he began teaching her various accomplishments. At the first +lesson he taught her to stand and walk on her hind legs, which she +liked extremely. At the second lesson she had to jump on her hind +legs and catch some sugar, which her teacher held high above her +head. After that, in the following lessons she danced, ran tied to +a cord, howled to music, rang the bell, and fired the pistol, and +in a month could successfully replace Fyodor Timofeyitch in the +"Egyptian Pyramid." She learned very eagerly and was pleased with +her own success; running with her tongue out on the cord, leaping +through the hoop, and riding on old Fyodor Timofeyitch, gave her +the greatest enjoyment. She accompanied every successful trick with +a shrill, delighted bark, while her teacher wondered, was also +delighted, and rubbed his hands. + +"It's talent! It's talent!" he said. "Unquestionable talent! You +will certainly be successful!" + +And Auntie grew so used to the word talent, that every time her +master pronounced it, she jumped up as if it had been her name. + +VI + +_An Uneasy Night_ + +Auntie had a doggy dream that a porter ran after her with a broom, +and she woke up in a fright. + +It was quite dark and very stuffy in the room. The fleas were biting. +Auntie had never been afraid of darkness before, but now, for some +reason, she felt frightened and inclined to bark. + +Her master heaved a loud sigh in the next room, then soon afterwards +the sow grunted in her sty, and then all was still again. When one +thinks about eating one's heart grows lighter, and Auntie began +thinking how that day she had stolen the leg of a chicken from +Fyodor Timofeyitch, and had hidden it in the drawing-room, between +the cupboard and the wall, where there were a great many spiders' +webs and a great deal of dust. Would it not be as well to go now +and look whether the chicken leg were still there or not? It was +very possible that her master had found it and eaten it. But she +must not go out of the room before morning, that was the rule. +Auntie shut her eyes to go to sleep as quickly as possible, for she +knew by experience that the sooner you go to sleep the sooner the +morning comes. But all at once there was a strange scream not far +from her which made her start and jump up on all four legs. It was +Ivan Ivanitch, and his cry was not babbling and persuasive as usual, +but a wild, shrill, unnatural scream like the squeak of a door +opening. Unable to distinguish anything in the darkness, and not +understanding what was wrong, Auntie felt still more frightened and +growled: "R-r-r-r. . . ." + +Some time passed, as long as it takes to eat a good bone; the scream +was not repeated. Little by little Auntie's uneasiness passed off +and she began to doze. She dreamed of two big black dogs with tufts +of last year's coat left on their haunches and sides; they were +eating out of a big basin some swill, from which there came a white +steam and a most appetising smell; from time to time they looked +round at Auntie, showed their teeth and growled: "We are not going +to give you any!" But a peasant in a fur-coat ran out of the house +and drove them away with a whip; then Auntie went up to the basin +and began eating, but as soon as the peasant went out of the gate, +the two black dogs rushed at her growling, and all at once there +was again a shrill scream. + +"K-gee! K-gee-gee!" cried Ivan Ivanitch. + +Auntie woke, jumped up and, without leaving her mattress, went off +into a yelping bark. It seemed to her that it was not Ivan Ivanitch +that was screaming but someone else, and for some reason the sow +again grunted in her sty. + +Then there was the sound of shuffling slippers, and the master came +into the room in his dressing-gown with a candle in his hand. The +flickering light danced over the dirty wall-paper and the ceiling, +and chased away the darkness. Auntie saw that there was no stranger +in the room. Ivan Ivanitch was sitting on the floor and was not +asleep. His wings were spread out and his beak was open, and +altogether he looked as though he were very tired and thirsty. Old +Fyodor Timofeyitch was not asleep either. He, too, must have been +awakened by the scream. + +"Ivan Ivanitch, what's the matter with you?" the master asked the +gander. "Why are you screaming? Are you ill?" + +The gander did not answer. The master touched him on the neck, +stroked his back, and said: "You are a queer chap. You don't sleep +yourself, and you don't let other people. . . ." + +When the master went out, carrying the candle with him, there was +darkness again. Auntie felt frightened. The gander did not scream, +but again she fancied that there was some stranger in the room. +What was most dreadful was that this stranger could not be bitten, +as he was unseen and had no shape. And for some reason she thought +that something very bad would certainly happen that night. Fyodor +Timofeyitch was uneasy too. + +Auntie could hear him shifting on his mattress, yawning and shaking +his head. + +Somewhere in the street there was a knocking at a gate and the sow +grunted in her sty. Auntie began to whine, stretched out her +front-paws and laid her head down upon them. She fancied that in +the knocking at the gate, in the grunting of the sow, who was for +some reason awake, in the darkness and the stillness, there was +something as miserable and dreadful as in Ivan Ivanitch's scream. +Everything was in agitation and anxiety, but why? Who was the +stranger who could not be seen? Then two dim flashes of green gleamed +for a minute near Auntie. It was Fyodor Timofeyitch, for the first +time of their whole acquaintance coming up to her. What did he want? +Auntie licked his paw, and not asking why he had come, howled softly +and on various notes. + +"K-gee!" cried Ivan Ivanitch, "K-g-ee!" + +The door opened again and the master came in with a candle. + +The gander was sitting in the same attitude as before, with his +beak open, and his wings spread out, his eyes were closed. + +"Ivan Ivanitch!" his master called him. + +The gander did not stir. His master sat down before him on the +floor, looked at him in silence for a minute, and said: + +"Ivan Ivanitch, what is it? Are you dying? Oh, I remember now, I +remember!" he cried out, and clutched at his head. "I know why it +is! It's because the horse stepped on you to-day! My God! My God!" + +Auntie did not understand what her master was saying, but she saw +from his face that he, too, was expecting something dreadful. She +stretched out her head towards the dark window, where it seemed to +her some stranger was looking in, and howled. + +"He is dying, Auntie!" said her master, and wrung his hands. "Yes, +yes, he is dying! Death has come into your room. What are we to +do?" + +Pale and agitated, the master went back into his room, sighing and +shaking his head. Auntie was afraid to remain in the darkness, and +followed her master into his bedroom. He sat down on the bed and +repeated several times: "My God, what's to be done?" + +Auntie walked about round his feet, and not understanding why she +was wretched and why they were all so uneasy, and trying to understand, +watched every movement he made. Fyodor Timofeyitch, who rarely left +his little mattress, came into the master's bedroom too, and began +rubbing himself against his feet. He shook his head as though he +wanted to shake painful thoughts out of it, and kept peeping +suspiciously under the bed. + +The master took a saucer, poured some water from his wash-stand +into it, and went to the gander again. + +"Drink, Ivan Ivanitch!" he said tenderly, setting the saucer before +him; "drink, darling." + +But Ivan Ivanitch did not stir and did not open his eyes. His master +bent his head down to the saucer and dipped his beak into the water, +but the gander did not drink, he spread his wings wider than ever, +and his head remained lying in the saucer. + +"No, there's nothing to be done now," sighed his master. "It's all +over. Ivan Ivanitch is gone!" + +And shining drops, such as one sees on the window-pane when it +rains, trickled down his cheeks. Not understanding what was the +matter, Auntie and Fyodor Timofeyitch snuggled up to him and looked +with horror at the gander. + +"Poor Ivan Ivanitch!" said the master, sighing mournfully. "And I +was dreaming I would take you in the spring into the country, and +would walk with you on the green grass. Dear creature, my good +comrade, you are no more! How shall I do without you now?" + +It seemed to Auntie that the same thing would happen to her, that +is, that she too, there was no knowing why, would close her eyes, +stretch out her paws, open her mouth, and everyone would look at +her with horror. Apparently the same reflections were passing through +the brain of Fyodor Timofeyitch. Never before had the old cat been +so morose and gloomy. + +It began to get light, and the unseen stranger who had so frightened +Auntie was no longer in the room. When it was quite daylight, the +porter came in, took the gander, and carried him away. And soon +afterwards the old woman came in and took away the trough. + +Auntie went into the drawing-room and looked behind the cupboard: +her master had not eaten the chicken bone, it was lying in its place +among the dust and spiders' webs. But Auntie felt sad and dreary +and wanted to cry. She did not even sniff at the bone, but went +under the sofa, sat down there, and began softly whining in a thin +voice. + +VII + +_An Unsuccessful Début_ + +One fine evening the master came into the room with the dirty +wall-paper, and, rubbing his hands, said: + +"Well. . . ." + +He meant to say something more, but went away without saying it. +Auntie, who during her lessons had thoroughly studied his face and +intonations, divined that he was agitated, anxious and, she fancied, +angry. Soon afterwards he came back and said: + +"To-day I shall take with me Auntie and F'yodor Timofeyitch. To-day, +Auntie, you will take the place of poor Ivan Ivanitch in the 'Egyptian +Pyramid.' Goodness knows how it will be! Nothing is ready, nothing +has been thoroughly studied, there have been few rehearsals! We +shall be disgraced, we shall come to grief!" + +Then he went out again, and a minute later, came back in his fur-coat +and top hat. Going up to the cat he took him by the fore-paws and +put him inside the front of his coat, while Fyodor Timofeyitch +appeared completely unconcerned, and did not even trouble to open +his eyes. To him it was apparently a matter of absolute indifference +whether he remained lying down, or were lifted up by his paws, +whether he rested on his mattress or under his master's fur-coat. + +"Come along, Auntie," said her master. + +Wagging her tail, and understanding nothing, Auntie followed him. +A minute later she was sitting in a sledge by her master's feet and +heard him, shrinking with cold and anxiety, mutter to himself: + +"We shall be disgraced! We shall come to grief!" + +The sledge stopped at a big strange-looking house, like a soup-ladle +turned upside down. The long entrance to this house, with its three +glass doors, was lighted up with a dozen brilliant lamps. The doors +opened with a resounding noise and, like jaws, swallowed up the +people who were moving to and fro at the entrance. There were a +great many people, horses, too, often ran up to the entrance, but +no dogs were to be seen. + +The master took Auntie in his arms and thrust her in his coat, where +Fyodor Timofeyirch already was. It was dark and stuffy there, but +warm. For an instant two green sparks flashed at her; it was the +cat, who opened his eyes on being disturbed by his neighbour's cold +rough paws. Auntie licked his ear, and, trying to settle herself +as comfortably as possible, moved uneasily, crushed him under her +cold paws, and casually poked her head out from under the coat, but +at once growled angrily, and tucked it in again. It seemed to her +that she had seen a huge, badly lighted room, full of monsters; +from behind screens and gratings, which stretched on both sides of +the room, horrible faces looked out: faces of horses with horns, +with long ears, and one fat, huge countenance with a tail instead +of a nose, and two long gnawed bones sticking out of his mouth. + +The cat mewed huskily under Auntie's paws, but at that moment the +coat was flung open, the master said, "Hop!" and Fyodor Timofeyitch +and Auntie jumped to the floor. They were now in a little room with +grey plank walls; there was no other furniture in it but a little +table with a looking-glass on it, a stool, and some rags hung about +the corners, and instead of a lamp or candles, there was a bright +fan-shaped light attached to a little pipe fixed in the wall. Fyodor +Timofeyitch licked his coat which had been ruffled by Auntie, went +under the stool, and lay down. Their master, still agitated and +rubbing his hands, began undressing. . . . He undressed as he usually +did at home when he was preparing to get under the rug, that is, +took off everything but his underlinen, then he sat down on the +stool, and, looking in the looking-glass, began playing the most +surprising tricks with himself. . . . First of all he put on his +head a wig, with a parting and with two tufts of hair standing up +like horns, then he smeared his face thickly with something white, +and over the white colour painted his eyebrows, his moustaches, and +red on his cheeks. His antics did not end with that. After smearing +his face and neck, he began putting himself into an extraordinary +and incongruous costume, such as Auntie had never seen before, +either in houses or in the street. Imagine very full trousers, made +of chintz covered with big flowers, such as is used in working-class +houses for curtains and covering furniture, trousers which buttoned +up just under his armpits. One trouser leg was made of brown chintz, +the other of bright yellow. Almost lost in these, he then put on a +short chintz jacket, with a big scalloped collar, and a gold star +on the back, stockings of different colours, and green slippers. + +Everything seemed going round before Auntie's eyes and in her soul. +The white-faced, sack-like figure smelt like her master, its voice, +too, was the familiar master's voice, but there were moments when +Auntie was tortured by doubts, and then she was ready to run away +from the parti-coloured figure and to bark. The new place, the +fan-shaped light, the smell, the transformation that had taken place +in her master--all this aroused in her a vague dread and a +foreboding that she would certainly meet with some horror such as +the big face with the tail instead of a nose. And then, somewhere +through the wall, some hateful band was playing, and from time to +time she heard an incomprehensible roar. Only one thing reassured +her--that was the imperturbability of Fyodor Timofeyitch. He dozed +with the utmost tranquillity under the stool, and did not open his +eyes even when it was moved. + +A man in a dress coat and a white waistcoat peeped into the little +room and said: + +"Miss Arabella has just gone on. After her--you." + +Their master made no answer. He drew a small box from under the +table, sat down, and waited. From his lips and his hands it could +be seen that he was agitated, and Auntie could hear how his breathing +came in gasps. + +"Monsieur George, come on!" someone shouted behind the door. Their +master got up and crossed himself three times, then took the cat +from under the stool and put him in the box. + +"Come, Auntie," he said softly. + +Auntie, who could make nothing out of it, went up to his hands, he +kissed her on the head, and put her beside Fyodor Timofeyitch. Then +followed darkness. . . . Auntie trampled on the cat, scratched at +the walls of the box, and was so frightened that she could not utter +a sound, while the box swayed and quivered, as though it were on +the waves. . . . + +"Here we are again!" her master shouted aloud: "here we are again!" + +Auntie felt that after that shout the box struck against something +hard and left off swaying. There was a loud deep roar, someone was +being slapped, and that someone, probably the monster with the tail +instead of a nose, roared and laughed so loud that the locks of the +box trembled. In response to the roar, there came a shrill, squeaky +laugh from her master, such as he never laughed at home. + +"Ha!" he shouted, trying to shout above the roar. "Honoured friends! +I have only just come from the station! My granny's kicked the +bucket and left me a fortune! There is something very heavy in the +box, it must be gold, ha! ha! I bet there's a million here! We'll +open it and look. . . ." + +The lock of the box clicked. The bright light dazzled Auntie's eyes, +she jumped out of the box, and, deafened by the roar, ran quickly +round her master, and broke into a shrill bark. + +"Ha!" exclaimed her master. "Uncle Fyodor Timofeyitch! Beloved Aunt, +dear relations! The devil take you!" + +He fell on his stomach on the sand, seized the cat and Auntie, and +fell to embracing them. While he held Auntie tight in his arms, she +glanced round into the world into which fate had brought her and, +impressed by its immensity, was for a minute dumbfounded with +amazement and delight, then jumped out of her master's arms, and +to express the intensity of her emotions, whirled round and round +on one spot like a top. This new world was big and full of bright +light; wherever she looked, on all sides, from floor to ceiling +there were faces, faces, faces, and nothing else. + +"Auntie, I beg you to sit down!" shouted her master. Remembering +what that meant, Auntie jumped on to a chair, and sat down. She +looked at her master. His eyes looked at her gravely and kindly as +always, but his face, especially his mouth and teeth, were made +grotesque by a broad immovable grin. He laughed, skipped about, +twitched his shoulders, and made a show of being very merry in the +presence of the thousands of faces. Auntie believed in his merriment, +all at once felt all over her that those thousands of faces were +looking at her, lifted up her fox-like head, and howled joyously. + +"You sit there, Auntie," her master said to her, "while Uncle and +I will dance the Kamarinsky." + +Fyodor Timofeyitch stood looking about him indifferently, waiting +to be made to do something silly. He danced listlessly, carelessly, +sullenly, and one could see from his movements, his tail and his +ears, that he had a profound contempt for the crowd, the bright +light, his master and himself. When he had performed his allotted +task, he gave a yawn and sat down. + +"Now, Auntie!" said her master, "we'll have first a song, and then +a dance, shall we?" + +He took a pipe out of his pocket, and began playing. Auntie, who +could not endure music, began moving uneasily in her chair and +howled. A roar of applause rose from all sides. Her master bowed, +and when all was still again, went on playing. . . . Just as he +took one very high note, someone high up among the audience uttered +a loud exclamation: + +"Auntie!" cried a child's voice, "why it's Kashtanka!" + +"Kashtanka it is!" declared a cracked drunken tenor. "Kashtanka! +Strike me dead, Fedyushka, it is Kashtanka. Kashtanka! here!" + +Someone in the gallery gave a whistle, and two voices, one a boy's +and one a man's, called loudly: "Kashtanka! Kashtanka!" + +Auntie started, and looked where the shouting came from. Two faces, +one hairy, drunken and grinning, the other chubby, rosy-cheeked and +frightened-looking, dazed her eyes as the bright light had dazed +them before. . . . She remembered, fell off the chair, struggled +on the sand, then jumped up, and with a delighted yap dashed towards +those faces. There was a deafening roar, interspersed with whistles +and a shrill childish shout: "Kashtanka! Kashtanka!" + +Auntie leaped over the barrier, then across someone's shoulders. +She found herself in a box: to get into the next tier she had to +leap over a high wall. Auntie jumped, but did not jump high enough, +and slipped back down the wall. Then she was passed from hand to +hand, licked hands and faces, kept mounting higher and higher, and +at last got into the gallery. . . . + + ---- + +Half an hour afterwards, Kashtanka was in the street, following the +people who smelt of glue and varnish. Luka Alexandritch staggered +and instinctively, taught by experience, tried to keep as far from +the gutter as possible. + +"In sin my mother bore me," he muttered. "And you, Kashtanka, are +a thing of little understanding. Beside a man, you are like a joiner +beside a cabinetmaker." + +Fedyushka walked beside him, wearing his father's cap. Kashtanka +looked at their backs, and it seemed to her that she had been +following them for ages, and was glad that there had not been a +break for a minute in her life. + +She remembered the little room with dirty wall-paper, the gander, +Fyodor Timofeyitch, the delicious dinners, the lessons, the circus, +but all that seemed to her now like a long, tangled, oppressive +dream. + + +A CHAMELEON + +THE police superintendent Otchumyelov is walking across the market +square wearing a new overcoat and carrying a parcel under his arm. +A red-haired policeman strides after him with a sieve full of +confiscated gooseberries in his hands. There is silence all around. +Not a soul in the square. . . . The open doors of the shops and +taverns look out upon God's world disconsolately, like hungry mouths; +there is not even a beggar near them. + +"So you bite, you damned brute?" Otchumyelov hears suddenly. "Lads, +don't let him go! Biting is prohibited nowadays! Hold him! ah . . . +ah!" + +There is the sound of a dog yelping. Otchumyelov looks in the +direction of the sound and sees a dog, hopping on three legs and +looking about her, run out of Pitchugin's timber-yard. A man in a +starched cotton shirt, with his waistcoat unbuttoned, is chasing +her. He runs after her, and throwing his body forward falls down +and seizes the dog by her hind legs. Once more there is a yelping +and a shout of "Don't let go!" Sleepy countenances are protruded +from the shops, and soon a crowd, which seems to have sprung out +of the earth, is gathered round the timber-yard. + +"It looks like a row, your honour . . ." says the policeman. + +Otchumyelov makes a half turn to the left and strides towards the +crowd. + +He sees the aforementioned man in the unbuttoned waistcoat standing +close by the gate of the timber-yard, holding his right hand in the +air and displaying a bleeding finger to the crowd. On his half-drunken +face there is plainly written: "I'll pay you out, you rogue!" and +indeed the very finger has the look of a flag of victory. In this +man Otchumyelov recognises Hryukin, the goldsmith. The culprit who +has caused the sensation, a white borzoy puppy with a sharp muzzle +and a yellow patch on her back, is sitting on the ground with her +fore-paws outstretched in the middle of the crowd, trembling all +over. There is an expression of misery and terror in her tearful +eyes. + +"What's it all about?" Otchumyelov inquires, pushing his way through +the crowd. "What are you here for? Why are you waving your finger +. . . ? Who was it shouted?" + +"I was walking along here, not interfering with anyone, your honour," +Hryukin begins, coughing into his fist. "I was talking about firewood +to Mitry Mitritch, when this low brute for no rhyme or reason bit +my finger. . . . You must excuse me, I am a working man. . . . Mine +is fine work. I must have damages, for I shan't be able to use this +finger for a week, may be. . . . It's not even the law, your honour, +that one should put up with it from a beast. . . . If everyone is +going to be bitten, life won't be worth living. . . ." + +"H'm. Very good," says Otchumyelov sternly, coughing and raising +his eyebrows. "Very good. Whose dog is it? I won't let this pass! +I'll teach them to let their dogs run all over the place! It's time +these gentry were looked after, if they won't obey the regulations! +When he's fined, the blackguard, I'll teach him what it means to +keep dogs and such stray cattle! I'll give him a lesson! . . . +Yeldyrin," cries the superintendent, addressing the policeman, "find +out whose dog this is and draw up a report! And the dog must be +strangled. Without delay! It's sure to be mad. . . . Whose dog is +it, I ask?" + +"I fancy it's General Zhigalov's," says someone in the crowd. + +"General Zhigalov's, h'm. . . . Help me off with my coat, Yeldyrin +. . . it's frightfully hot! It must be a sign of rain. . . . There's +one thing I can't make out, how it came to bite you?" Otchumyelov +turns to Hryukin. "Surely it couldn't reach your finger. It's a +little dog, and you are a great hulking fellow! You must have +scratched your finger with a nail, and then the idea struck you to +get damages for it. We all know . . . your sort! I know you devils!" + +"He put a cigarette in her face, your honour, for a joke, and she +had the sense to snap at him. . . . He is a nonsensical fellow, +your honour!" + +"That's a lie, Squinteye! You didn't see, so why tell lies about +it? His honour is a wise gentleman, and will see who is telling +lies and who is telling the truth, as in God's sight. . . . And if +I am lying let the court decide. It's written in the law. . . . We +are all equal nowadays. My own brother is in the gendarmes . . . +let me tell you. . . ." + +"Don't argue!" + +"No, that's not the General's dog," says the policeman, with profound +conviction, "the General hasn't got one like that. His are mostly +setters." + +"Do you know that for a fact?" + +"Yes, your honour." + +"I know it, too. The General has valuable dogs, thoroughbred, and +this is goodness knows what! No coat, no shape. . . . A low creature. +And to keep a dog like that! . . . where's the sense of it. If a +dog like that were to turn up in Petersburg or Moscow, do you know +what would happen? They would not worry about the law, they would +strangle it in a twinkling! You've been injured, Hryukin, and we +can't let the matter drop. . . . We must give them a lesson! It is +high time . . . . !" + +"Yet maybe it is the General's," says the policeman, thinking aloud. +"It's not written on its face. . . . I saw one like it the other +day in his yard." + +"It is the General's, that's certain!" says a voice in the crowd. + +"H'm, help me on with my overcoat, Yeldyrin, my lad . . . the wind's +getting up. . . . I am cold. . . . You take it to the General's, +and inquire there. Say I found it and sent it. And tell them not +to let it out into the street. . . . It may be a valuable dog, and +if every swine goes sticking a cigar in its mouth, it will soon be +ruined. A dog is a delicate animal. . . . And you put your hand +down, you blockhead. It's no use your displaying your fool of a +finger. It's your own fault. . . ." + +"Here comes the General's cook, ask him. . . Hi, Prohor! Come here, +my dear man! Look at this dog. . . . Is it one of yours?" + +"What an idea! We have never had one like that!" + +"There's no need to waste time asking," says Otchumyelov. "It's a +stray dog! There's no need to waste time talking about it. . . . +Since he says it's a stray dog, a stray dog it is. . . . It must +be destroyed, that's all about it." + +"It is not our dog," Prohor goes on. "It belongs to the General's +brother, who arrived the other day. Our master does not care for +hounds. But his honour is fond of them. . . ." + +"You don't say his Excellency's brother is here? Vladimir Ivanitch?" +inquires Otchumyelov, and his whole face beams with an ecstatic +smile. "'Well, I never! And I didn't know! Has he come on a visit? + +"Yes." + +"Well, I never. . . . He couldn't stay away from his brother. . . . +And there I didn't know! So this is his honour's dog? Delighted +to hear it. . . . Take it. It's not a bad pup. . . . A lively +creature. . . . Snapped at this fellow's finger! Ha-ha-ha. . . . +Come, why are you shivering? Rrr . . . Rrrr. . . . The rogue's angry +. . . a nice little pup." + +Prohor calls the dog, and walks away from the timber-yard with her. +The crowd laughs at Hryukin. + +"I'll make you smart yet!" Otchumyelov threatens him, and wrapping +himself in his greatcoat, goes on his way across the square. + + +THE DEPENDENTS + +MIHAIL PETROVITCH ZOTOV, a decrepit and solitary old man of seventy, +belonging to the artisan class, was awakened by the cold and the +aching in his old limbs. It was dark in his room, but the little +lamp before the ikon was no longer burning. Zotov raised the curtain +and looked out of the window. The clouds that shrouded the sky were +beginning to show white here and there, and the air was becoming +transparent, so it must have been nearly five, not more. + +Zotov cleared his throat, coughed, and shrinking from the cold, got +out of bed. In accordance with years of habit, he stood for a long +time before the ikon, saying his prayers. He repeated "Our Father," +"Hail Mary," the Creed, and mentioned a long string of names. To +whom those names belonged he had forgotten years ago, and he only +repeated them from habit. From habit, too, he swept his room and +entry, and set his fat little four-legged copper samovar. If Zotov +had not had these habits he would not have known how to occupy his +old age. + +The little samovar slowly began to get hot, and all at once, +unexpectedly, broke into a tremulous bass hum. + +"Oh, you've started humming!" grumbled Zotov. "Hum away then, and +bad luck to you!" + +At that point the old man appropriately recalled that, in the +preceding night, he had dreamed of a stove, and to dream of a stove +is a sign of sorrow. + +Dreams and omens were the only things left that could rouse him to +reflection; and on this occasion he plunged with a special zest +into the considerations of the questions: What the samovar was +humming for? and what sorrow was foretold by the stove? The dream +seemed to come true from the first. Zotov rinsed out his teapot and +was about to make his tea, when he found there was not one teaspoonful +left in the box. + +"What an existence!" he grumbled, rolling crumbs of black bread +round in his mouth. "It's a dog's life. No tea! And it isn't as +though I were a simple peasant: I'm an artisan and a house-owner. +The disgrace!" + +Grumbling and talking to himself, Zotov put on his overcoat, which +was like a crinoline, and, thrusting his feet into huge clumsy +golosh-boots (made in the year 1867 by a bootmaker called Prohoritch), +went out into the yard. The air was grey, cold, and sullenly still. +The big yard, full of tufts of burdock and strewn with yellow leaves, +was faintly silvered with autumn frost. Not a breath of wind nor a +sound. The old man sat down on the steps of his slanting porch, and +at once there happened what happened regularly every morning: his +dog Lyska, a big, mangy, decrepit-looking, white yard-dog, with +black patches, came up to him with its right eye shut. Lyska came +up timidly, wriggling in a frightened way, as though her paws were +not touching the earth but a hot stove, and the whole of her wretched +figure was expressive of abjectness. Zotov pretended not to notice +her, but when she faintly wagged her tail, and, wriggling as before, +licked his golosh, he stamped his foot angrily. + +"Be off! The plague take you!" he cried. "Con-found-ed bea-east!" + +Lyska moved aside, sat down, and fixed her solitary eye upon her +master. + +"You devils!" he went on. "You are the last straw on my back, you +Herods." + +And he looked with hatred at his shed with its crooked, overgrown +roof; there from the door of the shed a big horse's head was looking +out at him. Probably flattered by its master's attention, the head +moved, pushed forward, and there emerged from the shed the whole +horse, as decrepit as Lyska, as timid and as crushed, with spindly +legs, grey hair, a pinched stomach, and a bony spine. He came out +of the shed and stood still, hesitating as though overcome with +embarrassment. + +"Plague take you," Zotov went on. "Shall I ever see the last of +you, you jail-bird Pharaohs! . . . I wager you want your breakfast!" +he jeered, twisting his angry face into a contemptuous smile. "By +all means, this minute! A priceless steed like you must have your +fill of the best oats! Pray begin! This minute! And I have something +to give to the magnificent, valuable dog! If a precious dog like +you does not care for bread, you can have meat." + +Zotov grumbled for half an hour, growing more and more irritated. +In the end, unable to control the anger that boiled up in him, he +jumped up, stamped with his goloshes, and growled out to be heard +all over the yard: + +"I am not obliged to feed you, you loafers! I am not some millionaire +for you to eat me out of house and home! I have nothing to eat +myself, you cursed carcases, the cholera take you! I get no pleasure +or profit out of you; nothing but trouble and ruin, Why don't you +give up the ghost? Are you such personages that even death won't +take you? You can live, damn you! but I don't want to feed you! I +have had enough of you! I don't want to!" + +Zotov grew wrathful and indignant, and the horse and the dog listened. +Whether these two dependents understood that they were being +reproached for living at his expense, I don't know, but their +stomachs looked more pinched than ever, and their whole figures +shrivelled up, grew gloomier and more abject than before. . . . +Their submissive air exasperated Zotov more than ever. + +"Get away!" he shouted, overcome by a sort of inspiration. "Out of +my house! Don't let me set eyes on you again! I am not obliged to +keep all sorts of rubbish in my yard! Get away!" + +The old man moved with little hurried steps to the gate, opened it, +and picking up a stick from the ground, began driving out his +dependents. The horse shook its head, moved its shoulder-blades, +and limped to the gate; the dog followed him. Both of them went out +into the street, and, after walking some twenty paces, stopped at +the fence. + +"I'll give it you!" Zotov threatened them. + +When he had driven out his dependents he felt calmer, and began +sweeping the yard. From time to time he peeped out into the street: +the horse and the dog were standing like posts by the fence, looking +dejectedly towards the gate. + +"Try how you can do without me," muttered the old man, feeling as +though a weight of anger were being lifted from his heart. "Let +somebody else look after you now! I am stingy and ill-tempered. . . . +It's nasty living with me, so you try living with other people +. . . . Yes. . . ." + +After enjoying the crushed expression of his dependents, and grumbling +to his heart's content, Zotov went out of the yard, and, assuming +a ferocious air, shouted: + +"Well, why are you standing there? Whom are you waiting for? Standing +right across the middle of the road and preventing the public from +passing! Go into the yard!" + +The horse and the dog with drooping heads and a guilty air turned +towards the gate. Lyska, probably feeling she did not deserve +forgiveness, whined piteously. + +"Stay you can, but as for food, you'll get nothing from me! You may +die, for all I care!" + +Meanwhile the sun began to break through the morning mist; its +slanting rays gilded over the autumn frost. There was a sound of +steps and voices. Zotov put back the broom in its place, and went +out of the yard to see his crony and neighbour, Mark Ivanitch, who +kept a little general shop. On reaching his friend's shop, he sat +down on a folding-stool, sighed sedately, stroked his beard, and +began about the weather. From the weather the friends passed to the +new deacon, from the deacon to the choristers; and the conversation +lengthened out. They did not notice as they talked how time was +passing, and when the shop-boy brought in a big teapot of boiling +water, and the friends proceeded to drink tea, the time flew as +quickly as a bird. Zotov got warm and felt more cheerful. + +"I have a favour to ask of you, Mark Ivanitch," he began, after the +sixth glass, drumming on the counter with his fingers. "If you would +just be so kind as to give me a gallon of oats again to-day. . . ." + +From behind the big tea-chest behind which Mark Ivanitch was sitting +came the sound of a deep sigh. + +"Do be so good," Zotov went on; "never mind tea--don't give it +me to-day, but let me have some oats. . . . I am ashamed to ask +you, I have wearied you with my poverty, but the horse is hungry." + +"I can give it you," sighed the friend--"why not? But why the +devil do you keep those carcases?--tfoo!--Tell me that, please. +It would be all right if it were a useful horse, but--tfoo!-- +one is ashamed to look at it. . . . And the dog's nothing but a +skeleton! Why the devil do you keep them?" + +"What am I to do with them?" + +"You know. Take them to Ignat the slaughterer--that is all there +is to do. They ought to have been there long ago. It's the proper +place for them." + +"To be sure, that is so! . . . I dare say! . . ." + +"You live like a beggar and keep animals," the friend went on. "I +don't grudge the oats. . . . God bless you. But as to the future, +brother . . . I can't afford to give regularly every day! There is +no end to your poverty! One gives and gives, and one doesn't know +when there will be an end to it all." + +The friend sighed and stroked his red face. + +"If you were dead that would settle it," he said. "You go on living, +and you don't know what for. . . . Yes, indeed! But if it is not +the Lord's will for you to die, you had better go somewhere into +an almshouse or a refuge." + +"What for? I have relations. I have a great-niece. . . ." + +And Zotov began telling at great length of his great-niece Glasha, +daughter of his niece Katerina, who lived somewhere on a farm. + +"She is bound to keep me!" he said. "My house will be left to her, +so let her keep me; I'll go to her. It's Glasha, you know . . . +Katya's daughter; and Katya, you know, was my brother Panteley's +stepdaughter. . . . You understand? The house will come to her +. . . . Let her keep me!" + +"To be sure; rather than live, as you do, a beggar, I should have +gone to her long ago." + +"I will go! As God's above, I will go. It's her duty." + +When an hour later the old friends were drinking a glass of vodka, +Zotov stood in the middle of the shop and said with enthusiasm: + +"I have been meaning to go to her for a long time; I will go this +very day." + +"To be sure; rather than hanging about and dying of hunger, you +ought to have gone to the farm long ago." + +"I'll go at once! When I get there, I shall say: Take my house, but +keep me and treat me with respect. It's your duty! If you don't +care to, then there is neither my house, nor my blessing for you! +Good-bye, Ivanitch!" + +Zotov drank another glass, and, inspired by the new idea, hurried +home. The vodka had upset him and his head was reeling, but instead +of lying down, he put all his clothes together in a bundle, said a +prayer, took his stick, and went out. Muttering and tapping on the +stones with his stick, he walked the whole length of the street +without looking back, and found himself in the open country. It was +eight or nine miles to the farm. He walked along the dry road, +looked at the town herd lazily munching the yellow grass, and +pondered on the abrupt change in his life which he had only just +brought about so resolutely. He thought, too, about his dependents. +When he went out of the house, he had not locked the gate, and so +had left them free to go whither they would. + +He had not gone a mile into the country when he heard steps behind +him. He looked round and angrily clasped his hands. The horse and +Lyska, with their heads drooping and their tails between their legs, +were quietly walking after him. + +"Go back!" he waved to them. + +They stopped, looked at one another, looked at him. He went on, +they followed him. Then he stopped and began ruminating. It was +impossible to go to his great-niece Glasha, whom he hardly knew, +with these creatures; he did not want to go back and shut them up, +and, indeed, he could not shut them up, because the gate was no +use. + +"To die of hunger in the shed," thought Zotov. "Hadn't I really +better take them to Ignat?" + +Ignat's hut stood on the town pasture-ground, a hundred paces from +the flagstaff. Though he had not quite made up his mind, and did +not know what to do, he turned towards it. His head was giddy and +there was a darkness before his eyes. . . . + +He remembers little of what happened in the slaughterer's yard. He +has a memory of a sickening, heavy smell of hides and the savoury +steam of the cabbage-soup Ignat was sipping when he went in to him. +As in a dream he saw Ignat, who made him wait two hours, slowly +preparing something, changing his clothes, talking to some women +about corrosive sublimate; he remembered the horse was put into a +stand, after which there was the sound of two dull thuds, one of a +blow on the skull, the other of the fall of a heavy body. When +Lyska, seeing the death of her friend, flew at Ignat, barking +shrilly, there was the sound of a third blow that cut short the +bark abruptly. Further, Zotov remembers that in his drunken +foolishness, seeing the two corpses, he went up to the stand, and +put his own forehead ready for a blow. + +And all that day his eyes were dimmed by a haze, and he could not +even see his own fingers. + + +WHO WAS TO BLAME? + +As my uncle Pyotr Demyanitch, a lean, bilious collegiate councillor, +exceedingly like a stale smoked fish with a stick through it, was +getting ready to go to the high school, where he taught Latin, he +noticed that the corner of his grammar was nibbled by mice. + +"I say, Praskovya," he said, going into the kitchen and addressing +the cook, "how is it we have got mice here? Upon my word! yesterday +my top hat was nibbled, to-day they have disfigured my Latin grammar +. . . . At this rate they will soon begin eating my clothes! + +"What can I do? I did not bring them in!" answered Praskovya. + +"We must do something! You had better get a cat, hadn't you?" + +"I've got a cat, but what good is it?" + +And Praskovya pointed to the corner where a white kitten, thin as +a match, lay curled up asleep beside a broom. + +"Why is it no good?" asked Pyotr Demyanitch. + +"It's young yet, and foolish. It's not two months old yet." + +"H'm. . . . Then it must be trained. It had much better be learning +instead of lying there." + +Saying this, Pyotr Demyanitch sighed with a careworn air and went +out of the kitchen. The kitten raised his head, looked lazily after +him, and shut his eyes again. + +The kitten lay awake thinking. Of what? Unacquainted with real life, +having no store of accumulated impressions, his mental processes +could only be instinctive, and he could but picture life in accordance +with the conceptions that he had inherited, together with his flesh +and blood, from his ancestors, the tigers (_vide_ Darwin). His +thoughts were of the nature of day-dreams. His feline imagination +pictured something like the Arabian desert, over which flitted +shadows closely resembling Praskovya, the stove, the broom. In the +midst of the shadows there suddenly appeared a saucer of milk; the +saucer began to grow paws, it began moving and displayed a tendency +to run; the kitten made a bound, and with a thrill of blood-thirsty +sensuality thrust his claws into it. + +When the saucer had vanished into obscurity a piece of meat appeared, +dropped by Praskovya; the meat ran away with a cowardly squeak, but +the kitten made a bound and got his claws into it. . . . Everything +that rose before the imagination of the young dreamer had for its +starting-point leaps, claws, and teeth. . . The soul of another is +darkness, and a cat's soul more than most, but how near the visions +just described are to the truth may be seen from the following fact: +under the influence of his day-dreams the kitten suddenly leaped +up, looked with flashing eyes at Praskovya, ruffled up his coat, +and making one bound, thrust his claws into the cook's skirt. +Obviously he was born a mouse catcher, a worthy son of his bloodthirsty +ancestors. Fate had destined him to be the terror of cellars, +store-rooms and cornbins, and had it not been for education . . . +we will not anticipate, however. + +On his way home from the high school, Pyotr Demyanitch went into a +general shop and bought a mouse-trap for fifteen kopecks. At dinner +he fixed a little bit of his rissole on the hook, and set the trap +under the sofa, where there were heaps of the pupils' old exercise-books, +which Praskovya used for various domestic purposes. At six o'clock +in the evening, when the worthy Latin master was sitting at the +table correcting his pupils' exercises, there was a sudden "klop!" +so loud that my uncle started and dropped his pen. He went at once +to the sofa and took out the trap. A neat little mouse, the size +of a thimble, was sniffing the wires and trembling with fear. + +"Aha," muttered Pyotr Demyanitch, and he looked at the mouse +malignantly, as though he were about to give him a bad mark. "You +are cau--aught, wretch! Wait a bit! I'll teach you to eat my grammar!" + +Having gloated over his victim, Poytr Demyanitch put the mouse-trap +on the floor and called: + +"Praskovya, there's a mouse caught! Bring the kitten here! + +"I'm coming," responded Praskovya, and a minute later she came in +with the descendant of tigers in her arms. + +"Capital!" said Pyotr Demyanitch, rubbing his hands. "We will give +him a lesson. . . . Put him down opposite the mouse-trap . . . +that's it. . . . Let him sniff it and look at it. . . . That's +it. . . ." + +The kitten looked wonderingly at my uncle, at his arm-chair, sniffed +the mouse-trap in bewilderment, then, frightened probably by the +glaring lamplight and the attention directed to him, made a dash +and ran in terror to the door. + +"Stop!" shouted my uncle, seizing him by the tail, "stop, you rascal! +He's afraid of a mouse, the idiot! Look! It's a mouse! Look! Well? +Look, I tell you!" + +Pyotr Demyanitch took the kitten by the scruff of the neck and +pushed him with his nose against the mouse-trap. + +"Look, you carrion! Take him and hold him, Praskovya. . . . Hold +him opposite the door of the trap. . . . When I let the mouse out, +you let him go instantly. . . . Do you hear? . . . Instantly let +go! Now!" + +My uncle assumed a mysterious expression and lifted the door of the +trap. . . . The mouse came out irresolutely, sniffed the air, and +flew like an arrow under the sofa. . . . The kitten on being released +darted under the table with his tail in the air. + +"It has got away! got away!" cried Pyotr Demyanitch, looking +ferocious. "Where is he, the scoundrel? Under the table? You wait. . ." + +My uncle dragged the kitten from under the table and shook him in +the air. + +"Wretched little beast," he muttered, smacking him on the ear. "Take +that, take that! Will you shirk it next time? Wr-r-r-etch. . . ." + +Next day Praskovya heard again the summons. + +"Praskovya, there is a mouse caught! Bring the kitten here!" + +After the outrage of the previous day the kitten had taken refuge +under the stove and had not come out all night. When Praskovya +pulled him out and, carrying him by the scruff of the neck into the +study, set him down before the mouse-trap, he trembled all over and +mewed piteously. + +"Come, let him feel at home first," Pyotr Demyanitch commanded. +"Let him look and sniff. Look and learn! Stop, plague take you!" +he shouted, noticing that the kitten was backing away from the +mouse-trap. "I'll thrash you! Hold him by the ear! That's it. . . . +Well now, set him down before the trap. . . ." + +My uncle slowly lifted the door of the trap . . . the mouse whisked +under the very nose of the kitten, flung itself against Praskovya's +hand and fled under the cupboard; the kitten, feeling himself free, +took a desperate bound and retreated under the sofa. + +"He's let another mouse go!" bawled Pyotr Demyanitch. "Do you call +that a cat? Nasty little beast! Thrash him! thrash him by the +mousetrap!" + +When the third mouse had been caught, the kitten shivered all over +at the sight of the mousetrap and its inmate, and scratched Praskovya's +hand. . . . After the fourth mouse my uncle flew into a rage, kicked +the kitten, and said: + +"Take the nasty thing away! Get rid of it! Chuck it away! It's no +earthly use!" + +A year passed, the thin, frail kitten had turned into a solid and +sagacious tom-cat. One day he was on his way by the back yards to +an amatory interview. He had just reached his destination when he +suddenly heard a rustle, and thereupon caught sight of a mouse which +ran from a water-trough towards a stable; my hero's hair stood on +end, he arched his back, hissed, and trembling all over, took to +ignominious flight. + +Alas! sometimes I feel myself in the ludicrous position of the +flying cat. Like the kitten, I had in my day the honour of being +taught Latin by my uncle. Now, whenever I chance to see some work +of classical antiquity, instead of being moved to eager enthusiasm, +I begin recalling, _ut consecutivum_, the irregular verbs, the +sallow grey face of my uncle, the ablative absolute. . . . I turn +pale, my hair stands up on my head, and, like the cat, I take to +ignominious flight. + + +THE BIRD MARKET + +THERE is a small square near the monastery of the Holy Birth which +is called Trubnoy, or simply Truboy; there is a market there on +Sundays. Hundreds of sheepskins, wadded coats, fur caps, and +chimneypot hats swarm there, like crabs in a sieve. There is the +sound of the twitter of birds in all sorts of keys, recalling the +spring. If the sun is shining, and there are no clouds in the sky, +the singing of the birds and the smell of hay make a more vivid +impression, and this reminder of spring sets one thinking and carries +one's fancy far, far away. Along one side of the square there stands +a string of waggons. The waggons are loaded, not with hay, not with +cabbages, nor with beans, but with goldfinches, siskins, larks, +blackbirds and thrushes, bluetits, bullfinches. All of them are +hopping about in rough, home-made cages, twittering and looking +with envy at the free sparrows. The goldfinches cost five kopecks, +the siskins are rather more expensive, while the value of the other +birds is quite indeterminate. + +"How much is a lark?" + +The seller himself does not know the value of a lark. He scratches +his head and asks whatever comes into it, a rouble, or three kopecks, +according to the purchaser. There are expensive birds too. A faded +old blackbird, with most of its feathers plucked out of its tail, +sits on a dirty perch. He is dignified, grave, and motionless as a +retired general. He has waved his claw in resignation to his captivity +long ago, and looks at the blue sky with indifference. Probably, +owing to this indifference, he is considered a sagacious bird. He +is not to be bought for less than forty kopecks. Schoolboys, workmen, +young men in stylish greatcoats, and bird-fanciers in incredibly +shabby caps, in ragged trousers that are turned up at the ankles, +and look as though they had been gnawed by mice, crowd round the +birds, splashing through the mud. The young people and the workmen +are sold hens for cocks, young birds for old ones. . . . They know +very little about birds. But there is no deceiving the bird-fancier. +He sees and understands his bird from a distance. + +"There is no relying on that bird," a fancier will say, looking +into a siskin's beak, and counting the feathers on its tail. "He +sings now, it's true, but what of that? I sing in company too. No, +my boy, shout, sing to me without company; sing in solitude, if you +can. . . . You give me that one yonder that sits and holds its +tongue! Give me the quiet one! That one says nothing, so he thinks +the more. . . ." + +Among the waggons of birds there are some full of other live +creatures. Here you see hares, rabbits, hedgehogs, guinea-pigs, +polecats. A hare sits sorrowfully nibbling the straw. The guinea-pigs +shiver with cold, while the hedgehogs look out with curiosity from +under their prickles at the public. + +"I have read somewhere," says a post-office official in a faded +overcoat, looking lovingly at the hare, and addressing no one in +particular, "I have read that some learned man had a cat and a mouse +and a falcon and a sparrow, who all ate out of one bowl." + +"That's very possible, sir. The cat must have been beaten, and the +falcon, I dare say, had all its tail pulled out. There's no great +cleverness in that, sir. A friend of mine had a cat who, saving +your presence, used to eat his cucumbers. He thrashed her with a +big whip for a fortnight, till he taught her not to. A hare can +learn to light matches if you beat it. Does that surprise you? It's +very simple! It takes the match in its mouth and strikes it. An +animal is like a man. A man's made wiser by beating, and it's the +same with a beast." + +Men in long, full-skirted coats move backwards and forwards in the +crowd with cocks and ducks under their arms. The fowls are all lean +and hungry. Chickens poke their ugly, mangy-looking heads out of +their cages and peck at something in the mud. Boys with pigeons +stare into your face and try to detect in you a pigeon-fancier. + +"Yes, indeed! It's no use talking to you," someone shouts angrily. +"You should look before you speak! Do you call this a pigeon? It +is an eagle, not a pigeon!" + +A tall thin man, with a shaven upper lip and side whiskers, who +looks like a sick and drunken footman, is selling a snow-white +lap-dog. The old lap-dog whines. + +"She told me to sell the nasty thing," says the footman, with a +contemptuous snigger. "She is bankrupt in her old age, has nothing +to eat, and here now is selling her dogs and cats. She cries, and +kisses them on their filthy snouts. And then she is so hard up that +she sells them. 'Pon my soul, it is a fact! Buy it, gentlemen! The +money is wanted for coffee." + +But no one laughs. A boy who is standing by screws up one eye and +looks at him gravely with compassion. + +The most interesting of all is the fish section. Some dozen peasants +are sitting in a row. Before each of them is a pail, and in each +pail there is a veritable little hell. There, in the thick, greenish +water are swarms of little carp, eels, small fry, water-snails, +frogs, and newts. Big water-beetles with broken legs scurry over +the small surface, clambering on the carp, and jumping over the +frogs. The creatures have a strong hold on life. The frogs climb +on the beetles, the newts on the frogs. The dark green tench, as +more expensive fish, enjoy an exceptional position; they are kept +in a special jar where they can't swim, but still they are not so +cramped. . . . + +"The carp is a grand fish! The carp's the fish to keep, your honour, +plague take him! You can keep him for a year in a pail and he'll +live! It's a week since I caught these very fish. I caught them, +sir, in Pererva, and have come from there on foot. The carp are two +kopecks each, the eels are three, and the minnows are ten kopecks +the dozen, plague take them! Five kopecks' worth of minnows, sir? +Won't you take some worms?" + +The seller thrusts his coarse rough fingers into the pail and pulls +out of it a soft minnow, or a little carp, the size of a nail. +Fishing lines, hooks, and tackle are laid out near the pails, and +pond-worms glow with a crimson light in the sun. + +An old fancier in a fur cap, iron-rimmed spectacles, and goloshes +that look like two dread-noughts, walks about by the waggons of +birds and pails of fish. He is, as they call him here, "a type." +He hasn't a farthing to bless himself with, but in spite of that +he haggles, gets excited, and pesters purchasers with advice. He +has thoroughly examined all the hares, pigeons, and fish; examined +them in every detail, fixed the kind, the age, and the price of +each one of them a good hour ago. He is as interested as a child +in the goldfinches, the carp, and the minnows. Talk to him, for +instance, about thrushes, and the queer old fellow will tell you +things you could not find in any book. He will tell you them with +enthusiasm, with passion, and will scold you too for your ignorance. +Of goldfinches and bullfinches he is ready to talk endlessly, opening +his eyes wide and gesticulating violently with his hands. He is +only to be met here at the market in the cold weather; in the summer +he is somewhere in the country, catching quails with a bird-call +and angling for fish. + +And here is another "type," a very tall, very thin, close-shaven +gentleman in dark spectacles, wearing a cap with a cockade, and +looking like a scrivener of by-gone days. He is a fancier; he is a +man of decent position, a teacher in a high school, and that is +well known to the _habitués_ of the market, and they treat him with +respect, greet him with bows, and have even invented for him a +special title: "Your Scholarship." At Suharev market he rummages +among the books, and at Trubnoy looks out for good pigeons. + +"Please, sir!" the pigeon-sellers shout to him, "Mr. Schoolmaster, +your Scholarship, take notice of my tumblers! your Scholarship!" + +"Your Scholarship!" is shouted at him from every side. + +"Your Scholarship!" an urchin repeats somewhere on the boulevard. + +And his "Scholarship," apparently quite accustomed to his title, +grave and severe, takes a pigeon in both hands, and lifting it above +his head, begins examining it, and as he does so frowns and looks +graver than ever, like a conspirator. + +And Trubnoy Square, that little bit of Moscow where animals are so +tenderly loved, and where they are so tortured, lives its little +life, grows noisy and excited, and the business-like or pious people +who pass by along the boulevard cannot make out what has brought +this crowd of people, this medley of caps, fur hats, and chimneypots +together; what they are talking about there, what they are buying +and selling. + + +AN ADVENTURE + +_(A Driver's Story)_ + +IT was in that wood yonder, behind the creek, that it happened, +sir. My father, the kingdom of Heaven be his, was taking five hundred +roubles to the master; in those days our fellows and the Shepelevsky +peasants used to rent land from the master, so father was taking +money for the half-year. He was a God-fearing man, he used to read +the scriptures, and as for cheating or wronging anyone, or defrauding +--God forbid, and the peasants honoured him greatly, and when +someone had to be sent to the town about taxes or such-like, or +with money, they used to send him. He was a man above the ordinary, +but, not that I'd speak ill of him, he had a weakness. He was fond +of a drop. There was no getting him past a tavern: he would go in, +drink a glass, and be completely done for! He was aware of this +weakness in himself, and when he was carrying public money, that +he might not fall asleep or lose it by some chance, he always took +me or my sister Anyutka with him. + +To tell the truth, all our family have a great taste for vodka. I +can read and write, I served for six years at a tobacconist's in +the town, and I can talk to any educated gentleman, and can use +very fine language, but, it is perfectly true, sir, as I read in a +book, that vodka is the blood of Satan. Through vodka my face has +darkened. And there is nothing seemly about me, and here, as you +may see, sir, I am a cab-driver like an ignorant, uneducated peasant. + +And so, as I was telling you, father was taking the money to the +master, Anyutka was going with him, and at that time Anyutka was +seven or maybe eight--a silly chit, not that high. He got as far +as Kalantchiko successfully, he was sober, but when he reached +Kalantchiko and went into Moiseika's tavern, this same weakness of +his came upon him. He drank three glasses and set to bragging before +people: + +"I am a plain humble man," he says, "but I have five hundred roubles +in my pocket; if I like," says he, "I could buy up the tavern and +all the crockery and Moiseika and his Jewess and his little Jews. +I can buy it all out and out," he said. That was his way of joking, +to be sure, but then he began complaining: "It's a worry, good +Christian people," said he, "to be a rich man, a merchant, or +anything of that kind. If you have no money you have no care, if +you have money you must watch over your pocket the whole time that +wicked men may not rob you. It's a terror to live in the world for +a man who has a lot of money." + +The drunken people listened of course, took it in, and made a note +of it. And in those days they were making a railway line at +Kalantchiko, and there were swarms and swarms of tramps and vagabonds +of all sorts like locusts. Father pulled himself up afterwards, but +it was too late. A word is not a sparrow, if it flies out you can't +catch it. They drove, sir, by the wood, and all at once there was +someone galloping on horseback behind them. Father was not of the +chicken-hearted brigade--that I couldn't say--but he felt uneasy; +there was no regular road through the wood, nothing went that way +but hay and timber, and there was no cause for anyone to be galloping +there, particularly in working hours. One wouldn't be galloping +after any good. + +"It seems as though they are after someone," said father to Anyutka, +"they are galloping so furiously. I ought to have kept quiet in the +tavern, a plague on my tongue. Oy, little daughter, my heart misgives +me, there is something wrong!" + +He did not spend long in hesitation about his dangerous position, +and he said to my sister Anyutka: + +"Things don't look very bright, they really are in pursuit. Anyway, +Anyutka dear, you take the money, put it away in your skirts, and +go and hide behind a bush. If by ill-luck they attack me, you run +back to mother, and give her the money. Let her take it to the +village elder. Only mind you don't let anyone see you; keep to the +wood and by the creek, that no one may see you. Run your best and +call on the merciful God. Christ be with you!" + +Father thrust the parcel of notes on Anyutka, and she looked out +the thickest of the bushes and hid herself. Soon after, three men +on horseback galloped up to father. One a stalwart, big-jawed fellow, +in a crimson shirt and high boots, and the other two, ragged, shabby +fellows, navvies from the line. As my father feared, so it really +turned out, sir. The one in the crimson shirt, the sturdy, strong +fellow, a man above the ordinary, left his horse, and all three +made for my father. + +"Halt you, so-and-so! Where's the money!" + +"What money? Go to the devil!" + +"Oh, the money you are taking the master for the rent. Hand it over, +you bald devil, or we will throttle you, and you'll die in your +sins." + +And they began to practise their villainy on father, and, instead +of beseeching them, weeping, or anything of the sort, father got +angry and began to reprove them with the greatest severity. + +"What are you pestering me for?" said he. "You are a dirty lot. +There is no fear of God in you, plague take you! It's not money you +want, but a beating, to make your backs smart for three years after. +Be off, blockheads, or I shall defend myself. I have a revolver +that takes six bullets, it's in my bosom!" + +But his words did not deter the robbers, and they began beating him +with anything they could lay their hands on. + +They looked through everything in the cart, searched my father +thoroughly, even taking off his boots; when they found that beating +father only made him swear at them the more, they began torturing +him in all sorts of ways. All the time Anyutka was sitting behind +the bush, and she saw it all, poor dear. When she saw father lying +on the ground and gasping, she started off and ran her hardest +through the thicket and the creek towards home. She was only a +little girl, with no understanding; she did not know the way, just +ran on not knowing where she was going. It was some six miles to +our home. Anyone else might have run there in an hour, but a little +child, as we all know, takes two steps back for one forwards, and +indeed it is not everyone who can run barefoot through the prickly +bushes; you want to be used to it, too, and our girls used always +to be crowding together on the stove or in the yard, and were afraid +to run in the forest. + +Towards evening Anyutka somehow reached a habitation, she looked, +it was a hut. It was the forester's hut, in the Crown forest; some +merchants were renting it at the time and burning charcoal. She +knocked. A woman, the forester's wife, came out to her. Anyutka, +first of all, burst out crying, and told her everything just as it +was, and even told her about the money. The forester's wife was +full of pity for her. + +"My poor little dear! Poor mite, God has preserved you, poor little +one! My precious! Come into the hut, and I will give you something +to eat." + +She began to make up to Anyutka, gave her food and drink, and even +wept with her, and was so attentive to her that the girl, only +think, gave her the parcel of notes. + +"I will put it away, darling, and to-morrow morning I will give it +you back and take you home, dearie." + +The woman took the money, and put Anyutka to sleep on the stove +where at the time the brooms were drying. And on the same stove, +on the brooms, the forester's daughter, a girl as small as our +Anyutka, was asleep. And Anyutka used to tell us afterwards that +there was such a scent from the brooms, they smelt of honey! Anyutka +lay down, but she could not get to sleep, she kept crying quietly; +she was sorry for father, and terrified. But, sir, an hour or two +passed, and she saw those very three robbers who had tortured father +walk into the hut; and the one in the crimson shirt, with big jaws, +their leader, went up to the woman and said: + +"Well, wife, we have simply murdered a man for nothing. To-day we +killed a man at dinner-time, we killed him all right, but not a +farthing did we find." + +So this fellow in the crimson shirt turned out to be the forester, +the woman's husband. + +"The man's dead for nothing," said his ragged companions. "In vain +we have taken a sin on our souls." + +The forester's wife looked at all three and laughed. + +"What are you laughing at, silly?" + +"I am laughing because I haven't murdered anyone, and I have not +taken any sin on my soul, but I have found the money." + +"What money? What nonsense are you talking!" + +"Here, look whether I am talking nonsense." + +The forester's wife untied the parcel and, wicked woman, showed +them the money. Then she described how Anyutka had come, what she +had said, and so on. The murderers were delighted and began to +divide the money between them, they almost quarrelled, then they +sat down to the table, you know, to drink. And Anyutka lay there, +poor child, hearing every word and shaking like a Jew in a frying-pan. +What was she to do? And from their words she learned that father +was dead and lying across the road, and she fancied, in her +foolishness, that the wolves and the dogs would eat father, and +that our horse had gone far away into the forest, and would be eaten +by wolves too, and that she, Anyutka herself, would be put in prison +and beaten, because she had not taken care of the money. The robbers +got drunk and sent the woman for vodka. They gave her five roubles +for vodka and sweet wine. They set to singing and drinking on other +people's money. They drank and drank, the dogs, and sent the woman +off again that they might drink beyond all bounds. + +"We will keep it up till morning," they cried. "We have plenty of +money now, there is no need to spare! Drink, and don't drink away +your wits." + +And so at midnight, when they were all fairly fuddled, the woman +ran off for vodka the third time, and the forester strode twice up +and down the cottage, and he was staggering. + +"Look here, lads," he said, "we must make away with the girl, too! +If we leave her, she will be the first to bear witness against us." + +They talked it over and discussed it, and decided that Anyutka must +not be left alive, that she must be killed. Of course, to murder +an innocent child's a fearful thing, even a man drunken or crazy +would not take such a job on himself. They were quarrelling for +maybe an hour which was to kill her, one tried to put it on the +other, they almost fought again, and no one would agree to do it; +then they cast lots. It fell to the forester. He drank another full +glass, cleared his throat, and went to the outer room for an axe. + +But Anyutka was a sharp wench. For all she was so simple, she thought +of something that, I must say, not many an educated man would have +thought of. Maybe the Lord had compassion on her, and gave her sense +for the moment, or perhaps it was the fright sharpened her wits, +anyway when it came to the test it turned out that she was cleverer +than anyone. She got up stealthily, prayed to God, took the little +sheepskin, the one the forester's wife had put over her, and, you +understand, the forester's little daughter, a girl of the same age +as herself, was lying on the stove beside her. She covered this +girl with the sheepskin, and took the woman's jacket off her and +threw it over herself. Disguised herself, in fact. She put it over +her head, and so walked across the hut by the drunken men, and they +thought it was the forester's daughter, and did not even look at +her. Luckily for her the woman was not in the hut, she had gone for +vodka, or maybe she would not have escaped the axe, for a woman's +eyes are as far-seeing as a buzzard's. A woman's eyes are sharp. + +Anyutka came out of the hut, and ran as fast as her legs could carry +her. All night she was lost in the forest, but towards morning she +came out to the edge and ran along the road. By the mercy of God +she met the clerk Yegor Danilitch, the kingdom of Heaven be his. +He was going along with his hooks to catch fish. Anyutka told him +all about it. He went back quicker than he came--thought no more +of the fish--gathered the peasants together in the village, and +off they went to the forester's. + +They got there, and all the murderers were lying side by side, dead +drunk, each where he had fallen; the woman, too, was drunk. First +thing they searched them; they took the money and then looked on +the stove--the Holy Cross be with us! The forester's child was +lying on the brooms, under the sheepskin, and her head was in a +pool of blood, chopped off by the axe. They roused the peasants and +the woman, tied their hands behind them, and took them to the +district court; the woman howled, but the forester only shook his +head and asked: + +"You might give me a drop, lads! My head aches!" + +Afterwards they were tried in the town in due course, and punished +with the utmost rigour of the law. + +So that's what happened, sir, beyond the forest there, that lies +behind the creek. Now you can scarcely see it, the sun is setting +red behind it. I have been talking to you, and the horses have +stopped, as though they were listening too. Hey there, my beauties! +Move more briskly, the good gentleman will give us something extra. +Hey, you darlings! + + +THE FISH + +A SUMMER morning. The air is still; there is no sound but the +churring of a grasshopper on the river bank, and somewhere the timid +cooing of a turtle-dove. Feathery clouds stand motionless in the +sky, looking like snow scattered about. . . . Gerassim, the carpenter, +a tall gaunt peasant, with a curly red head and a face overgrown +with hair, is floundering about in the water under the green willow +branches near an unfinished bathing shed. . . . He puffs and pants +and, blinking furiously, is trying to get hold of something under +the roots of the willows. His face is covered with perspiration. A +couple of yards from him, Lubim, the carpenter, a young hunchback +with a triangular face and narrow Chinese-looking eyes, is standing +up to his neck in water. Both Gerassim and Lubim are in shirts and +linen breeches. Both are blue with cold, for they have been more +than an hour already in the water. + +"But why do you keep poking with your hand?" cries the hunchback +Lubim, shivering as though in a fever. "You blockhead! Hold him, +hold him, or else he'll get away, the anathema! Hold him, I tell +you!" + +"He won't get away. . . . Where can he get to? He's under a root," +says Gerassim in a hoarse, hollow bass, which seems to come not +from his throat, but from the depths of his stomach. "He's slippery, +the beggar, and there's nothing to catch hold of." + +"Get him by the gills, by the gills!" + +"There's no seeing his gills. . . . Stay, I've got hold of something +. . . . I've got him by the lip. . . He's biting, the brute!" + +"Don't pull him out by the lip, don't--or you'll let him go! Take +him by the gills, take him by the gills. . . . You've begun poking +with your hand again! You are a senseless man, the Queen of Heaven +forgive me! Catch hold!" + +"Catch hold!" Gerassim mimics him. "You're a fine one to give orders +. . . . You'd better come and catch hold of him yourself, you hunchback +devil. . . . What are you standing there for?" + +"I would catch hold of him if it were possible. But can I stand by +the bank, and me as short as I am? It's deep there." + +"It doesn't matter if it is deep. . . . You must swim." + +The hunchback waves his arms, swims up to Gerassim, and catches +hold of the twigs. At the first attempt to stand up, he goes into +the water over his head and begins blowing up bubbles. + +"I told you it was deep," he says, rolling his eyes angrily. "Am I +to sit on your neck or what?" + +"Stand on a root . . . there are a lot of roots like a ladder." The +hunchback gropes for a root with his heel, and tightly gripping +several twigs, stands on it. . . . Having got his balance, and +established himself in his new position, he bends down, and trying +not to get the water into his mouth, begins fumbling with his right +hand among the roots. Getting entangled among the weeds and slipping +on the mossy roots he finds his hand in contact with the sharp +pincers of a crayfish. + +"As though we wanted to see you, you demon!" says Lubim, and he +angrily flings the crayfish on the bank. + +At last his hand feels Gerassim' s arm, and groping its way along +it comes to something cold and slimy. + +"Here he is!" says Lubim with a grin. "A fine fellow! Move your +fingers, I'll get him directly . . . by the gills. Stop, don't prod +me with your elbow. . . . I'll have him in a minute, in a minute, +only let me get hold of him. . . . The beggar has got a long way +under the roots, there is nothing to get hold of. . . . One can't +get to the head . . . one can only feel its belly . . . . kill that +gnat on my neck--it's stinging! I'll get him by the gills, directly +. . . . Come to one side and give him a push! Poke him with your +finger!" + +The hunchback puffs out his cheeks, holds his breath, opens his +eyes wide, and apparently has already got his fingers in the gills, +but at that moment the twigs to which he is holding on with his +left hand break, and losing his balance he plops into the water! +Eddies race away from the bank as though frightened, and little +bubbles come up from the spot where he has fallen in. The hunchback +swims out and, snorting, clutches at the twigs. + +"You'll be drowned next, you stupid, and I shall have to answer for +you," wheezes Gerassim. "Clamber out, the devil take you! I'll get +him out myself." + +High words follow. . . . The sun is baking hot. The shadows begin +to grow shorter and to draw in on themselves, like the horns of a +snail. . . . The high grass warmed by the sun begins to give out a +strong, heavy smell of honey. It will soon be midday, and Gerassim +and Lubim are still floundering under the willow tree. The husky +bass and the shrill, frozen tenor persistently disturb the stillness +of the summer day. + +"Pull him out by the gills, pull him out! Stay, I'll push him out! +Where are you shoving your great ugly fist? Poke him with your +finger--you pig's face! Get round by the side! get to the left, +to the left, there's a big hole on the right! You'll be a supper +for the water-devil! Pull it by the lip!" + +There is the sound of the flick of a whip. . . . A herd of cattle, +driven by Yefim, the shepherd, saunter lazily down the sloping bank +to drink. The shepherd, a decrepit old man, with one eye and a +crooked mouth, walks with his head bowed, looking at his feet. The +first to reach the water are the sheep, then come the horses, and +last of all the cows. + +"Push him from below!" he hears Lubim's voice. "Stick your finger +in! Are you deaf, fellow, or what? Tfoo!" + +"What are you after, lads?" shouts Yefim. + +"An eel-pout! We can't get him out! He's hidden under the roots. +Get round to the side! To the side!" + +For a minute Yefim screws up his eye at the fishermen, then he takes +off his bark shoes, throws his sack off his shoulders, and takes +off his shirt. He has not the patience to take off his breeches, +but, making the sign of the cross, he steps into the water, holding +out his thin dark arms to balance himself. . . . For fifty paces +he walks along the slimy bottom, then he takes to swimming. + +"Wait a minute, lads!" he shouts. "Wait! Don't be in a hurry to +pull him out, you'll lose him. You must do it properly!" + +Yefim joins the carpenters and all three, shoving each other with +their knees and their elbows, puffing and swearing at one another, +bustle about the same spot. Lubim, the hunchback, gets a mouthful +of water, and the air rings with his hard spasmodic coughing. + +"Where's the shepherd?" comes a shout from the bank. "Yefim! Shepherd! +Where are you? The cattle are in the garden! Drive them out, drive +them out of the garden! Where is he, the old brigand?" + +First men's voices are heard, then a woman's. The master himself, +Andrey Andreitch, wearing a dressing-gown made of a Persian shawl +and carrying a newspaper in his hand, appears from behind the garden +fence. He looks inquiringly towards the shouts which come from the +river, and then trips rapidly towards the bathing shed. + +"What's this? Who's shouting?" he asks sternly, seeing through the +branches of the willow the three wet heads of the fishermen. "What +are you so busy about there?" + +"Catching a fish," mutters Yefim, without raising his head. + +"I'll give it to you! The beasts are in the garden and he is fishing! +. . . When will that bathing shed be done, you devils? You've been +at work two days, and what is there to show for it?" + +"It . . . will soon be done," grunts Gerassim; summer is long, +you'll have plenty of time to wash, your honour. . . . Pfrrr! . . . +We can't manage this eel-pout here anyhow. . . . He's got under +a root and sits there as if he were in a hole and won't budge one +way or another . . . ." + +"An eel-pout?" says the master, and his eyes begin to glisten. "Get +him out quickly then." + +"You'll give us half a rouble for it presently if we oblige you +. . . . A huge eel-pout, as fat as a merchant's wife. . . . It's worth +half a rouble, your honour, for the trouble. . . . Don't squeeze +him, Lubim, don't squeeze him, you'll spoil him! Push him up from +below! Pull the root upwards, my good man . . . what's your name? +Upwards, not downwards, you brute! Don't swing your legs!" + +Five minutes pass, ten. . . . The master loses all patience. + +"Vassily!" he shouts, turning towards the garden. "Vaska! Call +Vassily to me!" + +The coachman Vassily runs up. He is chewing something and breathing +hard. + +"Go into the water," the master orders him. "Help them to pull out +that eel-pout. They can't get him out." + +Vassily rapidly undresses and gets into the water. + +"In a minute. . . . I'll get him in a minute," he mutters. "Where's +the eel-pout? We'll have him out in a trice! You'd better go, Yefim. +An old man like you ought to be minding his own business instead +of being here. Where's that eel-pout? I'll have him in a minute +. . . . Here he is! Let go." + +"What's the good of saying that? We know all about that! You get +it out!" + +But there is no getting it out like this! One must get hold of it +by the head." + +"And the head is under the root! We know that, you fool!" + +"Now then, don't talk or you'll catch it! You dirty cur!" + +"Before the master to use such language," mutters Yefim. "You won't +get him out, lads! He's fixed himself much too cleverly!" + +"Wait a minute, I'll come directly," says the master, and he begins +hurriedly undressing. "Four fools, and can't get an eel-pout!" + +When he is undressed, Andrey Andreitch gives himself time to cool +and gets into the water. But even his interference leads to nothing. + +"We must chop the root off," Lubim decides at last. "Gerassim, go +and get an axe! Give me an axe!" + +"Don't chop your fingers off," says the master, when the blows of +the axe on the root under water are heard. "Yefim, get out of this! +Stay, I'll get the eel-pout. . . . You'll never do it." + +The root is hacked a little. They partly break it off, and Andrey +Andreitch, to his immense satisfaction, feels his fingers under the +gills of the fish. + +"I'm pulling him out, lads! Don't crowd round . . . stand still +. . . . I am pulling him out!" + +The head of a big eel-pout, and behind it its long black body, +nearly a yard long, appears on the surface of the water. The fish +flaps its tail heavily and tries to tear itself away. + +"None of your nonsense, my boy! Fiddlesticks! I've got you! Aha!" + +A honied smile overspreads all the faces. A minute passes in silent +contemplation. + +"A famous eel-pout," mutters Yefim, scratching under his shoulder-blades. +"I'll be bound it weighs ten pounds." + +"Mm! . . . Yes," the master assents. "The liver is fairly swollen! +It seems to stand out! A-ach!" + +The fish makes a sudden, unexpected upward movement with its tail +and the fishermen hear a loud splash . . . they all put out their +hands, but it is too late; they have seen the last of the eel-pout. + + +ART + +A GLOOMY winter morning. + +On the smooth and glittering surface of the river Bystryanka, +sprinkled here and there with snow, stand two peasants, scrubby +little Seryozhka and the church beadle, Matvey. Seryozhka, a +short-legged, ragged, mangy-looking fellow of thirty, stares angrily +at the ice. Tufts of wool hang from his shaggy sheepskin like a +mangy dog. In his hands he holds a compass made of two pointed +sticks. Matvey, a fine-looking old man in a new sheepskin and high +felt boots, looks with mild blue eyes upwards where on the high +sloping bank a village nestles picturesquely. In his hands there +is a heavy crowbar. + +"Well, are we going to stand like this till evening with our arms +folded?" says Seryozhka, breaking the silence and turning his angry +eyes on Matvey. "Have you come here to stand about, old fool, or +to work?" + +"Well, you . . . er . . . show me . . ." Matvey mutters, blinking +mildly. + +"Show you. . . . It's always me: me to show you, and me to do it. +They have no sense of their own! Mark it out with the compasses, +that's what's wanted! You can't break the ice without marking it +out. Mark it! Take the compass." + +Matvey takes the compasses from Seryozhka's hands, and, shuffling +heavily on the same spot and jerking with his elbows in all directions, +he begins awkwardly trying to describe a circle on the ice. Seryozhka +screws up his eyes contemptuously and obviously enjoys his awkwardness +and incompetence. + +"Eh-eh-eh!" he mutters angrily. "Even that you can't do! The fact +is you are a stupid peasant, a wooden-head! You ought to be grazing +geese and not making a Jordan! Give the compasses here! Give them +here, I say!" + +Seryozhka snatches the compasses out of the hands of the perspiring +Matvey, and in an instant, jauntily twirling round on one heel, he +describes a circle on the ice. The outline of the new Jordan is +ready now, all that is left to do is to break the ice. . . + +But before proceeding to the work Seryozhka spends a long time in +airs and graces, whims and reproaches. . . + +"I am not obliged to work for you! You are employed in the church, +you do it!" + +He obviously enjoys the peculiar position in which he has been +placed by the fate that has bestowed on him the rare talent of +surprising the whole parish once a year by his art. Poor mild Matvey +has to listen to many venomous and contemptuous words from him. +Seryozhka sets to work with vexation, with anger. He is lazy. He +has hardly described the circle when he is already itching to go +up to the village to drink tea, lounge about, and babble. . . + +"I'll be back directly," he says, lighting his cigarette, "and +meanwhile you had better bring something to sit on and sweep up, +instead of standing there counting the crows." + +Matvey is left alone. The air is grey and harsh but still. The white +church peeps out genially from behind the huts scattered on the +river bank. Jackdaws are incessantly circling round its golden +crosses. On one side of the village where the river bank breaks off +and is steep a hobbled horse is standing at the very edge, motionless +as a stone, probably asleep or deep in thought. + +Matvey, too, stands motionless as a statue, waiting patiently. The +dreamily brooding look of the river, the circling of the jackdaws, +and the sight of the horse make him drowsy. One hour passes, a +second, and still Seryozhka does not come. The river has long been +swept and a box brought to sit on, but the drunken fellow does not +appear. Matvey waits and merely yawns. The feeling of boredom is +one of which he knows nothing. If he were told to stand on the river +for a day, a month, or a year he would stand there. + +At last Seryozhka comes into sight from behind the huts. He walks +with a lurching gait, scarcely moving. He is too lazy to go the +long way round, and he comes not by the road, but prefers a short +cut in a straight line down the bank, and sticks in the snow, hangs +on to the bushes, slides on his back as he comes--and all this +slowly, with pauses. + +"What are you about?" he cries, falling on Matvey at once. "Why are +you standing there doing nothing! When are you going to break the +ice?" + +Matvey crosses himself, takes the crowbar in both hands, and begins +breaking the ice, carefully keeping to the circle that has been +drawn. Seryozhka sits down on the box and watches the heavy clumsy +movements of his assistant. + +"Easy at the edges! Easy there!" he commands. "If you can't do it +properly, you shouldn't undertake it, once you have undertaken it +you should do it. You!" + +A crowd collects on the top of the bank. At the sight of the +spectators Seryozhka becomes even more excited. + +"I declare I am not going to do it . . ." he says, lighting a +stinking cigarette and spitting on the ground. "I should like to +see how you get on without me. Last year at Kostyukovo, Styopka +Gulkov undertook to make a Jordan as I do. And what did it amount +to--it was a laughing-stock. The Kostyukovo folks came to ours +--crowds and crowds of them! The people flocked from all the +villages." + +"Because except for ours there is nowhere a proper Jordan . . ." + +"Work, there is no time for talking. . . . Yes, old man . . . you +won't find another Jordan like it in the whole province. The soldiers +say you would look in vain, they are not so good even in the towns. +Easy, easy!" + +Matvey puffs and groans. The work is not easy. The ice is firm and +thick; and he has to break it and at once take the pieces away that +the open space may not be blocked up. + +But, hard as the work is and senseless as Seryozhka's commands are, +by three o'clock there is a large circle of dark water in the +Bystryanka. + +"It was better last year," says Seryozhka angrily. "You can't do +even that! Ah, dummy! To keep such fools in the temple of God! Go +and bring a board to make the pegs! Bring the ring, you crow! And +er . . . get some bread somewhere . . . and some cucumbers, or +something." + +Matvey goes off and soon afterwards comes back, carrying on his +shoulders an immense wooden ring which had been painted in previous +years in patterns of various colours. In the centre of the ring is +a red cross, at the circumference holes for the pegs. Seryozhka +takes the ring and covers the hole in the ice with it. + +"Just right . . . it fits. . . . We have only to renew the paint +and it will be first-rate. . . . Come, why are you standing still? +Make the lectern. Or--er--go and get logs to make the cross . . ." + +Matvey, who has not tasted food or drink all day, trudges up the +hill again. Lazy as Seryozhka is, he makes the pegs with his own +hands. He knows that those pegs have a miraculous power: whoever +gets hold of a peg after the blessing of the water will be lucky +for the whole year. Such work is really worth doing. + +But the real work begins the following day. Then Seryozhka displays +himself before the ignorant Matvey in all the greatness of his +talent. There is no end to his babble, his fault-finding, his whims +and fancies. If Matvey nails two big pieces of wood to make a cross, +he is dissatisfied and tells him to do it again. If Matvey stands +still, Seryozhka asks him angrily why he does not go; if he moves, +Seryozhka shouts to him not to go away but to do his work. He is +not satisfied with his tools, with the weather, or with his own +talent; nothing pleases him. + +Matvey saws out a great piece of ice for a lectern. + +"Why have you broken off the corner?" cries Seryozhka, and glares +at him furiously. "Why have you broken off the corner? I ask you." + +"Forgive me, for Christ's sake." + +"Do it over again!" + +Matvey saws again . . . and there is no end to his sufferings. A +lectern is to stand by the hole in the ice that is covered by the +painted ring; on the lectern is to be carved the cross and the open +gospel. But that is not all. Behind the lectern there is to be a +high cross to be seen by all the crowd and to glitter in the sun +as though sprinkled with diamonds and rubies. On the cross is to +be a dove carved out of ice. The path from the church to the Jordan +is to be strewn with branches of fir and juniper. All this is their +task. + +First of all Seryozhka sets to work on the lectern. He works with +a file, a chisel, and an awl. He is perfectly successful in the +cross on the lectern, the gospel, and the drapery that hangs down +from the lectern. Then he begins on the dove. While he is trying +to carve an expression of meekness and humility on the face of the +dove, Matvey, lumbering about like a bear, is coating with ice the +cross he has made of wood. He takes the cross and dips it in the +hole. Waiting till the water has frozen on the cross he dips it in +a second time, and so on till the cross is covered with a thick +layer of ice. It is a difficult job, calling for a great deal of +strength and patience. + +But now the delicate work is finished. Seryozhka races about the +village like one possessed. He swears and vows he will go at once +to the river and smash all his work. He is looking for suitable +paints. + +His pockets are full of ochre, dark blue, red lead, and verdigris; +without paying a farthing he rushes headlong from one shop to +another. The shop is next door to the tavern. Here he has a drink; +with a wave of his hand he darts off without paying. At one hut he +gets beetroot leaves, at another an onion skin, out of which he +makes a yellow colour. He swears, shoves, threatens, and not a soul +murmurs! They all smile at him, they sympathise with him, call him +Sergey Nikititch; they all feel that his art is not his personal +affair but something that concerns them all, the whole people. One +creates, the others help him. Seryozhka in himself is a nonentity, +a sluggard, a drunkard, and a wastrel, but when he has his red lead +or compasses in his hand he is at once something higher, a servant +of God. + +Epiphany morning comes. The precincts of the church and both banks +of the river for a long distance are swarming with people. Everything +that makes up the Jordan is scrupulously concealed under new mats. +Seryozhka is meekly moving about near the mats, trying to control +his emotion. He sees thousands of people. There are many here from +other parishes; these people have come many a mile on foot through +the frost and the snow merely to see his celebrated Jordan. Matvey, +who had finished his coarse, rough work, is by now back in the +church, there is no sight, no sound of him; he is already forgotten +. . . . The weather is lovely. . . . There is not a cloud in the sky. +The sunshine is dazzling. + +The church bells ring out on the hill . . . Thousands of heads are +bared, thousands of hands are moving, there are thousands of signs +of the cross! + +And Seryozhka does not know what to do with himself for impatience. +But now they are ringing the bells for the Sacrament; then half an +hour later a certain agitation is perceptible in the belfry and +among the people. Banners are borne out of the church one after the +other, while the bells peal in joyous haste. Seryozhka, trembling, +pulls away the mat . . . and the people behold something extraordinary. +The lectern, the wooden ring, the pegs, and the cross in the ice +are iridescent with thousands of colors. The cross and the dove +glitter so dazzlingly that it hurts the eyes to look at them. +Merciful God, how fine it is! A murmur of wonder and delight runs +through the crowd; the bells peal more loudly still, the day grows +brighter; the banners oscillate and move over the crowd as over the +waves. The procession, glittering with the settings of the ikons +and the vestments of the clergy, comes slowly down the road and +turns towards the Jordan. Hands are waved to the belfry for the +ringing to cease, and the blessing of the water begins. The priests +conduct the service slowly, deliberately, evidently trying to prolong +the ceremony and the joy of praying all gathered together. There +is perfect stillness. + +But now they plunge the cross in, and the air echoes with an +extraordinary din. Guns are fired, the bells peal furiously, loud +exclamations of delight, shouts, and a rush to get the pegs. Seryozhka +listens to this uproar, sees thousands of eyes fixed upon him, and +the lazy fellow's soul is filled with a sense of glory and triumph. + + +THE SWEDISH MATCH + +_(The Story of a Crime)_ + +I + +ON the morning of October 6, 1885, a well-dressed young man presented +himself at the office of the police superintendent of the 2nd +division of the S. district, and announced that his employer, a +retired cornet of the guards, called Mark Ivanovitch Klyauzov, had +been murdered. The young man was pale and extremely agitated as he +made this announcement. His hands trembled and there was a look of +horror in his eyes. + +"To whom have I the honour of speaking?" the superintendent asked +him. + +"Psyekov, Klyauzov's steward. Agricultural and engineering expert." + +The police superintendent, on reaching the spot with Psyekov and +the necessary witnesses, found the position as follows. + +Masses of people were crowding about the lodge in which Klyauzov +lived. The news of the event had flown round the neighbourhood with +the rapidity of lightning, and, thanks to its being a holiday, the +people were flocking to the lodge from all the neighbouring villages. +There was a regular hubbub of talk. Pale and tearful faces were to +be seen here and there. The door into Klyauzov's bedroom was found +to be locked. The key was in the lock on the inside. + +"Evidently the criminals made their way in by the window" Psyekov +observed, as they examined the door. + +They went into the garden into which the bedroom window looked. The +window had a gloomy, ominous air. It was covered by a faded green +curtain. One corner of the curtain was slightly turned back, which +made it possible to peep into the bedroom. + +"Has anyone of you looked in at the window?" inquired the superintendent. + +"No, your honour," said Yefrem, the gardener, a little, grey-haired +old man with the face of a veteran non-commissioned officer. "No +one feels like looking when they are shaking in every limb!" + +"Ech, Mark Ivanitch! Mark Ivanitch!" sighed the superintendent, as +he looked at the window. "I told you that you would come to a bad +end! I told you, poor dear--you wouldn't listen! Dissipation leads +to no good!" + +"It's thanks to Yefrem," said Psyekov. "We should never have guessed +it but for him. It was he who first thought that something was +wrong. He came to me this morning and said: 'Why is it our master +hasn't waked up for so long? He hasn't been out of his bedroom for +a whole week! When he said that to me I was struck all of a heap +. . . . The thought flashed through my mind at once. He hasn't made +an appearance since Saturday of last week, and to-day's Sunday. +Seven days is no joke!" + +"Yes, poor man," the superintendent sighed again. "A clever fellow, +well-educated, and so good-hearted. There was no one like him, one +may say, in company. But a rake; the kingdom of heaven be his! I'm +not surprised at anything with him! Stepan," he said, addressing +one of the witnesses, "ride off this minute to my house and send +Andryushka to the police captain's, let him report to him. Say Mark +Ivanitch has been murdered! Yes, and run to the inspector--why +should he sit in comfort doing nothing? Let him come here. And you +go yourself as fast as you can to the examining magistrate, Nikolay +Yermolaitch, and tell him to come here. Wait a bit, I will write +him a note." + +The police superintendent stationed watchmen round the lodge, and +went off to the steward's to have tea. Ten minutes later he was +sitting on a stool, carefully nibbling lumps of sugar, and sipping +tea as hot as a red-hot coal. + +"There it is! . . ." he said to Psyekov, "there it is! . . . a +gentleman, and a well-to-do one, too . . . a favourite of the gods, +one may say, to use Pushkin's expression, and what has he made of +it? Nothing! He gave himself up to drinking and debauchery, and +. . . here now . . . he has been murdered!" + +Two hours later the examining magistrate drove up. Nikolay Yermolaitch +Tchubikov (that was the magistrate's name), a tall, thick-set old +man of sixty, had been hard at work for a quarter of a century. He +was known to the whole district as an honest, intelligent, energetic +man, devoted to his work. His invariable companion, assistant, and +secretary, a tall young man of six and twenty, called Dyukovsky, +arrived on the scene of action with him. + +"Is it possible, gentlemen?" Tchubikov began, going into Psyekov's +room and rapidly shaking hands with everyone. "Is it possible? Mark +Ivanitch? Murdered? No, it's impossible! Imposs-i-ble!" + +"There it is," sighed the superintendent + +"Merciful heavens! Why I saw him only last Friday. At the fair at +Tarabankovo! Saving your presence, I drank a glass of vodka with +him!" + +"There it is," the superintendent sighed once more. + +They heaved sighs, expressed their horror, drank a glass of tea +each, and went to the lodge. + +"Make way!" the police inspector shouted to the crowd. + +On going into the lodge the examining magistrate first of all set +to work to inspect the door into the bedroom. The door turned out +to be made of deal, painted yellow, and not to have been tampered +with. No special traces that might have served as evidence could +be found. They proceeded to break open the door. + +"I beg you, gentlemen, who are not concerned, to retire," said the +examining magistrate, when, after long banging and cracking, the +door yielded to the axe and the chisel. "I ask this in the interests +of the investigation. . . . Inspector, admit no one!" + +Tchubikov, his assistant, and the police superintendent opened the +door and hesitatingly, one after the other, walked into the room. +The following spectacle met their eyes. In the solitary window stood +a big wooden bedstead with an immense feather bed on it. On the +rumpled feather bed lay a creased and crumpled quilt. A pillow, in +a cotton pillow case--also much creased, was on the floor. On a +little table beside the bed lay a silver watch, and silver coins +to the value of twenty kopecks. Some sulphur matches lay there too. +Except the bed, the table, and a solitary chair, there was no +furniture in the room. Looking under the bed, the superintendent +saw two dozen empty bottles, an old straw hat, and a jar of vodka. +Under the table lay one boot, covered with dust. Taking a look round +the room, Tchubikov frowned and flushed crimson. + +"The blackguards!" he muttered, clenching his fists. + +"And where is Mark Ivanitch?" Dyukovsky asked quietly. + +"I beg you not to put your spoke in," Tchubikov answered roughly. +"Kindly examine the floor. This is the second case in my experience, +Yevgraf Kuzmitch," he added to the police superintendent, dropping +his voice. "In 1870 I had a similar case. But no doubt you remember +it. . . . The murder of the merchant Portretov. It was just the +same. The blackguards murdered him, and dragged the dead body out +of the window." + +Tchubikov went to the window, drew the curtain aside, and cautiously +pushed the window. The window opened. + +"It opens, so it was not fastened. . . . H'm there are traces on +the window-sill. Do you see? Here is the trace of a knee. . . . +Some one climbed out. . . . We shall have to inspect the window +thoroughly." + +"There is nothing special to be observed on the floor," said +Dyukovsky. "No stains, nor scratches. The only thing I have found +is a used Swedish match. Here it is. As far as I remember, Mark +Ivanitch didn't smoke; in a general way he used sulphur ones, never +Swedish matches. This match may serve as a clue. . . ." + +"Oh, hold your tongue, please!" cried Tchubikov, with a wave of his +hand. "He keeps on about his match! I can't stand these excitable +people! Instead of looking for matches, you had better examine the +bed!" + +On inspecting the bed, Dyukovsky reported: + +"There are no stains of blood or of anything else. . . . Nor are +there any fresh rents. On the pillow there are traces of teeth. A +liquid, having the smell of beer and also the taste of it, has been +spilt on the quilt. . . . The general appearance of the bed gives +grounds for supposing there has been a struggle." + +"I know there was a struggle without your telling me! No one asked +you whether there was a struggle. Instead of looking out for a +struggle you had better be . . ." + +"One boot is here, the other one is not on the scene." + +"Well, what of that?" + +"Why, they must have strangled him while he was taking off his +boots. He hadn't time to take the second boot off when . . . ." + +"He's off again! . . . And how do you know that he was strangled?" + +"There are marks of teeth on the pillow. The pillow itself is very +much crumpled, and has been flung to a distance of six feet from +the bed." + +"He argues, the chatterbox! We had better go into the garden. You +had better look in the garden instead of rummaging about here. . . . +I can do that without your help." + +When they went out into the garden their first task was the inspection +of the grass. The grass had been trampled down under the windows. +The clump of burdock against the wall under the window turned out +to have been trodden on too. Dyukovsky succeeded in finding on it +some broken shoots, and a little bit of wadding. On the topmost +burrs, some fine threads of dark blue wool were found. + +"What was the colour of his last suit? Dyukovsky asked Psyekov. + +"It was yellow, made of canvas." + +"Capital! Then it was they who were in dark blue. . . ." + +Some of the burrs were cut off and carefully wrapped up in paper. +At that moment Artsybashev-Svistakovsky, the police captain, and +Tyutyuev, the doctor, arrived. The police captain greeted the others, +and at once proceeded to satisfy his curiosity; the doctor, a tall +and extremely lean man with sunken eyes, a long nose, and a sharp +chin, greeting no one and asking no questions, sat down on a stump, +heaved a sigh and said: + +"The Serbians are in a turmoil again! I can't make out what they +want! Ah, Austria, Austria! It's your doing!" + +The inspection of the window from outside yielded absolutely no +result; the inspection of the grass and surrounding bushes furnished +many valuable clues. Dyukovsky succeeded, for instance, in detecting +a long, dark streak in the grass, consisting of stains, and stretching +from the window for a good many yards into the garden. The streak +ended under one of the lilac bushes in a big, brownish stain. Under +the same bush was found a boot, which turned out to be the fellow +to the one found in the bedroom. + +"This is an old stain of blood," said Dyukovsky, examining the +stain. + +At the word "blood," the doctor got up and lazily took a cursory +glance at the stain. + +"Yes, it's blood," he muttered. + +"Then he wasn't strangled since there's blood," said Tchubikov, +looking malignantly at Dyukovsky. + +"He was strangled in the bedroom, and here, afraid he would come +to, they stabbed him with something sharp. The stain under the bush +shows that he lay there for a comparatively long time, while they +were trying to find some way of carrying him, or something to carry +him on out of the garden." + +"Well, and the boot?" + +"That boot bears out my contention that he was murdered while he +was taking off his boots before going to bed. He had taken off one +boot, the other, that is, this boot he had only managed to get half +off. While he was being dragged and shaken the boot that was only +half on came off of itself. . . ." + +"What powers of deduction! Just look at him!" Tchubikov jeered. "He +brings it all out so pat! And when will you learn not to put your +theories forward? You had better take a little of the grass for +analysis instead of arguing!" + +After making the inspection and taking a plan of the locality they +went off to the steward's to write a report and have lunch. At lunch +they talked. + +"Watch, money, and everything else . . . are untouched," Tchubikov +began the conversation. "It is as clear as twice two makes four +that the murder was committed not for mercenary motives." + +"It was committed by a man of the educated class," Dyukovsky put +in. + +"From what do you draw that conclusion?" + +"I base it on the Swedish match which the peasants about here have +not learned to use yet. Such matches are only used by landowners +and not by all of them. He was murdered, by the way, not by one but +by three, at least: two held him while the third strangled him. +Klyauzov was strong and the murderers must have known that." + +"What use would his strength be to him, supposing he were asleep?" + +"The murderers came upon him as he was taking off his boots. He was +taking off his boots, so he was not asleep." + +"It's no good making things up! You had better eat your lunch!" + +"To my thinking, your honour," said Yefrem, the gardener, as he set +the samovar on the table, "this vile deed was the work of no other +than Nikolashka." + +"Quite possible," said Psyekov. + +"Who's this Nikolashka?" + +"The master's valet, your honour," answered Yefrem. "Who else should +it be if not he? He's a ruffian, your honour! A drunkard, and such +a dissipated fellow! May the Queen of Heaven never bring the like +again! He always used to fetch vodka for the master, he always used +to put the master to bed. . . . Who should it be if not he? And +what's more, I venture to bring to your notice, your honour, he +boasted once in a tavern, the rascal, that he would murder his +master. It's all on account of Akulka, on account of a woman. . . . +He had a soldier's wife. . . . The master took a fancy to her and +got intimate with her, and he . . . was angered by it, to be sure. +He's lolling about in the kitchen now, drunk. He's crying . . . +making out he is grieving over the master . . . ." + +"And anyone might be angry over Akulka, certainly," said Psyekov. +"She is a soldier's wife, a peasant woman, but . . . Mark Ivanitch +might well call her Nana. There is something in her that does suggest +Nana . . . fascinating . . ." + +"I have seen her . . . I know . . ." said the examining magistrate, +blowing his nose in a red handkerchief. + +Dyukovsky blushed and dropped his eyes. The police superintendent +drummed on his saucer with his fingers. The police captain coughed +and rummaged in his portfolio for something. On the doctor alone +the mention of Akulka and Nana appeared to produce no impression. +Tchubikov ordered Nikolashka to be fetched. Nikolashka, a lanky +young man with a long pock-marked nose and a hollow chest, wearing +a reefer jacket that had been his master's, came into Psyekov's +room and bowed down to the ground before Tchubikov. His face looked +sleepy and showed traces of tears. He was drunk and could hardly +stand up. + +"Where is your master?" Tchubikov asked him. + +"He's murdered, your honour." + +As he said this Nikolashka blinked and began to cry. + +"We know that he is murdered. But where is he now? Where is his +body?" + +"They say it was dragged out of window and buried in the garden." + +"H'm . . . the results of the investigation are already known in +the kitchen then. . . . That's bad. My good fellow, where were you +on the night when your master was killed? On Saturday, that is?" + +Nikolashka raised his head, craned his neck, and pondered. + +"I can't say, your honour," he said. "I was drunk and I don't +remember." + +"An alibi!" whispered Dyukovsky, grinning and rubbing his hands. + +"Ah! And why is it there's blood under your master's window!" + +Nikolashka flung up his head and pondered. + +"Think a little quicker," said the police captain. + +"In a minute. That blood's from a trifling matter, your honour. I +killed a hen; I cut her throat very simply in the usual way, and +she fluttered out of my hands and took and ran off. . . .That's +what the blood's from." + +Yefrem testified that Nikolashka really did kill a hen every evening +and killed it in all sorts of places, and no one had seen the +half-killed hen running about the garden, though of course it could +not be positively denied that it had done so. + +"An alibi," laughed Dyukovsky, "and what an idiotic alibi." + +"Have you had relations with Akulka?" + +"Yes, I have sinned." + +"And your master carried her off from you?" + +"No, not at all. It was this gentleman here, Mr. Psyekov, Ivan +Mihalitch, who enticed her from me, and the master took her from +Ivan Mihalitch. That's how it was." + +Psyekov looked confused and began rubbing his left eye. Dyukovsky +fastened his eyes upon him, detected his confusion, and started. +He saw on the steward's legs dark blue trousers which he had not +previously noticed. The trousers reminded him of the blue threads +found on the burdock. Tchubikov in his turn glanced suspiciously +at Psyekov. + +"You can go!" he said to Nikolashka. "And now allow me to put one +question to you, Mr. Psyekov. You were here, of course, on the +Saturday of last week? + +"Yes, at ten o'clock I had supper with Mark Ivanitch." + +"And afterwards?" + +Psyekov was confused, and got up from the table. + +"Afterwards . . . afterwards . . . I really don't remember," he +muttered. "I had drunk a good deal on that occasion. . . . I can't +remember where and when I went to bed. . . . Why do you all look +at me like that? As though I had murdered him!" + +"Where did you wake up?" + +"I woke up in the servants' kitchen on the stove . . . . They can +all confirm that. How I got on to the stove I can't say. . . ." + +"Don't disturb yourself . . . Do you know Akulina?" + +"Oh well, not particularly." + +"Did she leave you for Klyauzov?" + +"Yes. . . . Yefrem, bring some more mushrooms! Will you have some +tea, Yevgraf Kuzmitch?" + +There followed an oppressive, painful silence that lasted for some +five minutes. Dyukovsky held his tongue, and kept his piercing eyes +on Psyekov's face, which gradually turned pale. The silence was +broken by Tchubikov. + +"We must go to the big house," he said, "and speak to the deceased's +sister, Marya Ivanovna. She may give us some evidence." + +Tchubikov and his assistant thanked Psyekov for the lunch, then +went off to the big house. They found Klyauzov's sister, a maiden +lady of five and forty, on her knees before a high family shrine +of ikons. When she saw portfolios and caps adorned with cockades +in her visitors' hands, she turned pale. + +"First of all, I must offer an apology for disturbing your devotions, +so to say," the gallant Tchubikov began with a scrape. "We have +come to you with a request. You have heard, of course, already. . . . +There is a suspicion that your brother has somehow been murdered. +God's will, you know. . . . Death no one can escape, neither Tsar +nor ploughman. Can you not assist us with some fact, something that +will throw light?" + +"Oh, do not ask me!" said Marya Ivanovna, turning whiter still, and +hiding her face in her hands. "I can tell you nothing! Nothing! I +implore you! I can say nothing . . . What can I do? Oh, no, no . . . +not a word . . . of my brother! I would rather die than speak!" + +Marya Ivanovna burst into tears and went away into another room. +The officials looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and +beat a retreat. + +"A devil of a woman!" said Dyukovsky, swearing as they went out of +the big house. "Apparently she knows something and is concealing +it. And there is something peculiar in the maid-servant's expression +too. . . . You wait a bit, you devils! We will get to the bottom +of it all!" + +In the evening, Tchubikov and his assistant were driving home by +the light of a pale-faced moon; they sat in their waggonette, summing +up in their minds the incidents of the day. Both were exhausted and +sat silent. Tchubikov never liked talking on the road. In spite of +his talkativeness, Dyukovsky held his tongue in deference to the +old man. Towards the end of the journey, however, the young man +could endure the silence no longer, and began: + +"That Nikolashka has had a hand in the business," he said, "_non +dubitandum est_. One can see from his mug too what sort of a chap +he is. . . . His alibi gives him away hand and foot. There is no +doubt either that he was not the instigator of the crime. He was +only the stupid hired tool. Do you agree? The discreet Psyekov plays +a not unimportant part in the affair too. His blue trousers, his +embarrassment, his lying on the stove from fright after the murder, +his alibi, and Akulka." + +"Keep it up, you're in your glory! According to you, if a man knows +Akulka he is the murderer. Ah, you hot-head! You ought to be sucking +your bottle instead of investigating cases! You used to be running +after Akulka too, does that mean that you had a hand in this +business?" + +"Akulka was a cook in your house for a month, too, but . . . I don't +say anything. On that Saturday night I was playing cards with you, +I saw you, or I should be after you too. The woman is not the point, +my good sir. The point is the nasty, disgusting, mean feeling. . . . +The discreet young man did not like to be cut out, do you see. +Vanity, do you see. . . . He longed to be revenged. Then . . . His +thick lips are a strong indication of sensuality. Do you remember +how he smacked his lips when he compared Akulka to Nana? That he +is burning with passion, the scoundrel, is beyond doubt! And so you +have wounded vanity and unsatisfied passion. That's enough to lead +to murder. Two of them are in our hands, but who is the third? +Nikolashka and Psyekov held him. Who was it smothered him? Psyekov +is timid, easily embarrassed, altogether a coward. People like +Nikolashka are not equal to smothering with a pillow, they set to +work with an axe or a mallet. . . . Some third person must have +smothered him, but who?" + +Dyukovsky pulled his cap over his eyes, and pondered. He was silent +till the waggonette had driven up to the examining magistrate's +house. + +"Eureka!" he said, as he went into the house, and took off his +overcoat. "Eureka, Nikolay Yermolaitch! I can't understand how it +is it didn't occur to me before. Do you know who the third is?" + +"Do leave off, please! There's supper ready. Sit down to supper!" + +Tchubikov and Dyukovsky sat down to supper. Dyukovsky poured himself +out a wine-glassful of vodka, got up, stretched, and with sparkling +eyes, said: + +"Let me tell you then that the third person who collaborated with +the scoundrel Psyekov and smothered him was a woman! Yes! I am +speaking of the murdered man's sister, Marya Ivanovna!" + +Tchubikov coughed over his vodka and fastened his eyes on Dyukovsky. + +"Are you . . . not quite right? Is your head . . . not quite right? +Does it ache?" + +"I am quite well. Very good, suppose I have gone out of my mind, +but how do you explain her confusion on our arrival? How do you +explain her refusal to give information? Admitting that that is +trivial--very good! All right!--but think of the terms they were +on! She detested her brother! She is an Old Believer, he was a +profligate, a godless fellow . . . that is what has bred hatred +between them! They say he succeeded in persuading her that he was +an angel of Satan! He used to practise spiritualism in her presence!" + +"Well, what then?" + +"Don't you understand? She's an Old Believer, she murdered him +through fanaticism! She has not merely slain a wicked man, a +profligate, she has freed the world from Antichrist--and that she +fancies is her merit, her religious achievement! Ah, you don't know +these old maids, these Old Believers! You should read Dostoevsky! +And what does Lyeskov say . . . and Petchersky! It's she, it's she, +I'll stake my life on it. She smothered him! Oh, the fiendish woman! +Wasn't she, perhaps, standing before the ikons when we went in to +put us off the scent? 'I'll stand up and say my prayers,' she said +to herself, 'they will think I am calm and don't expect them.' +That's the method of all novices in crime. Dear Nikolay Yermolaitch! +My dear man! Do hand this case over to me! Let me go through with +it to the end! My dear fellow! I have begun it, and I will carry +it through to the end." + +Tchubikov shook his head and frowned. + +"I am equal to sifting difficult cases myself," he said. "And it's +your place not to put yourself forward. Write what is dictated to +you, that is your business!" + +Dyukovsky flushed crimson, walked out, and slammed the door. + +"A clever fellow, the rogue," Tchubikov muttered, looking after +him. "Ve-ery clever! Only inappropriately hasty. I shall have to +buy him a cigar-case at the fair for a present." + +Next morning a lad with a big head and a hare lip came from Klyauzovka. +He gave his name as the shepherd Danilko, and furnished a very +interesting piece of information. + +"I had had a drop," said he. "I stayed on till midnight at my +crony's. As I was going home, being drunk, I got into the river for +a bathe. I was bathing and what do I see! Two men coming along the +dam carrying something black. 'Tyoo!' I shouted at them. They were +scared, and cut along as fast as they could go into the Makarev +kitchen-gardens. Strike me dead, if it wasn't the master they were +carrying!" + +Towards evening of the same day Psyekov and Nikolashka were arrested +and taken under guard to the district town. In the town they were +put in the prison tower. + +II + +Twelve days passed. + +It was morning. The examining magistrate, Nikolay Yermolaitch, was +sitting at a green table at home, looking through the papers, +relating to the "Klyauzov case"; Dyukovsky was pacing up and down +the room restlessly, like a wolf in a cage. + +"You are convinced of the guilt of Nikolashka and Psyekov," he said, +nervously pulling at his youthful beard. "Why is it you refuse to +be convinced of the guilt of Marya Ivanovna? Haven't you evidence +enough?" + +"I don't say that I don't believe in it. I am convinced of it, but +somehow I can't believe it. . . . There is no real evidence. It's +all theoretical, as it were. . . . Fanaticism and one thing and +another. . . ." + +"And you must have an axe and bloodstained sheets! . . . You lawyers! +Well, I will prove it to you then! Do give up your slip-shod attitude +to the psychological aspect of the case. Your Marya Ivanovna ought +to be in Siberia! I'll prove it. If theoretical proof is not enough +for you, I have something material. . . . It will show you how right +my theory is! Only let me go about a little!" + +"What are you talking about?" + +"The Swedish match! Have you forgotten? I haven't forgotten it! +I'll find out who struck it in the murdered man's room! It was not +struck by Nikolashka, nor by Psyekov, neither of whom turned out +to have matches when searched, but a third person, that is Marya +Ivanovna. And I will prove it! . . . Only let me drive about the +district, make some inquiries. . . ." + +"Oh, very well, sit down. . . . Let us proceed to the examination." + +Dyukovsky sat down to the table, and thrust his long nose into the +papers. + +"Bring in Nikolay Tetchov!" cried the examining magistrate. + +Nikolashka was brought in. He was pale and thin as a chip. He was +trembling. + +"Tetchov!" began Tchubikov. "In 1879 you were convicted of theft +and condemned to a term of imprisonment. In 1882 you were condemned +for theft a second time, and a second time sent to prison . . . We +know all about it. . . ." + +A look of surprise came up into Nikolashka's face. The examining +magistrate's omniscience amazed him, but soon wonder was replaced +by an expression of extreme distress. He broke into sobs, and asked +leave to go to wash, and calm himself. He was led out. + +"Bring in Psyekov!" said the examining magistrate. + +Psyekov was led in. The young man's face had greatly changed during +those twelve days. He was thin, pale, and wasted. There was a look +of apathy in his eyes. + +"Sit down, Psyekov," said Tchubikov. "I hope that to-day you will +be sensible and not persist in lying as on other occasions. All +this time you have denied your participation in the murder of +Klyauzov, in spite of the mass of evidence against you. It is +senseless. Confession is some mitigation of guilt. To-day I am +talking to you for the last time. If you don't confess to-day, +to-morrow it will be too late. Come, tell us. . . ." + +"I know nothing, and I don't know your evidence," whispered Psyekov. + +"That's useless! Well then, allow me to tell you how it happened. +On Saturday evening, you were sitting in Klyauzov's bedroom drinking +vodka and beer with him." (Dyukovsky riveted his eyes on Psyekov's +face, and did not remove them during the whole monologue.) "Nikolay +was waiting upon you. Between twelve and one Mark Ivanitch told you +he wanted to go to bed. He always did go to bed at that time. While +he was taking off his boots and giving you some instructions regarding +the estate, Nikolay and you at a given signal seized your intoxicated +master and flung him back upon the bed. One of you sat on his feet, +the other on his head. At that moment the lady, you know who, in a +black dress, who had arranged with you beforehand the part she would +take in the crime, came in from the passage. She picked up the +pillow, and proceeded to smother him with it. During the struggle, +the light went out. The woman took a box of Swedish matches out of +her pocket and lighted the candle. Isn't that right? I see from +your face that what I say is true. Well, to proceed. . . . Having +smothered him, and being convinced that he had ceased to breathe, +Nikolay and you dragged him out of window and put him down near the +burdocks. Afraid that he might regain consciousness, you struck him +with something sharp. Then you carried him, and laid him for some +time under a lilac bush. After resting and considering a little, +you carried him . . . lifted him over the hurdle. . . . Then went +along the road. . . Then comes the dam; near the dam you were +frightened by a peasant. But what is the matter with you?" + +Psyekov, white as a sheet, got up, staggering. + +"I am suffocating!" he said. "Very well. . . . So be it. . . . Only +I must go. . . . Please." + +Psyekov was led out. + +"At last he has admitted it!" said Tchubikov, stretching at his +ease. "He has given himself away! How neatly I caught him there." + +"And he didn't deny the woman in black!" said Dyukovsky, laughing. +"I am awfully worried over that Swedish match, though! I can't +endure it any longer. Good-bye! I am going!" + +Dyukovsky put on his cap and went off. Tchubikov began interrogating +Akulka. + +Akulka declared that she knew nothing about it. . . . + +"I have lived with you and with nobody else!" she said. + +At six o'clock in the evening Dyukovsky returned. He was more excited +than ever. His hands trembled so much that he could not unbutton +his overcoat. His cheeks were burning. It was evident that he had +not come back without news. + +"_Veni, vidi, vici!_" he cried, dashing into Tchubikov's room and +sinking into an arm-chair. "I vow on my honour, I begin to believe +in my own genius. Listen, damnation take us! Listen and wonder, old +friend! It's comic and it's sad. You have three in your grasp already +. . . haven't you? I have found a fourth murderer, or rather +murderess, for it is a woman! And what a woman! I would have given +ten years of my life merely to touch her shoulders. But . . . listen. +I drove to Klyauzovka and proceeded to describe a spiral round it. +On the way I visited all the shopkeepers and innkeepers, asking for +Swedish matches. Everywhere I was told 'No.' I have been on my round +up to now. Twenty times I lost hope, and as many times regained it. +I have been on the go all day long, and only an hour ago came upon +what I was looking for. A couple of miles from here they gave me a +packet of a dozen boxes of matches. One box was missing . . . I +asked at once: 'Who bought that box?' 'So-and-so. She took a fancy +to them. . . They crackle.' My dear fellow! Nikolay Yermolaitch! +What can sometimes be done by a man who has been expelled from a +seminary and studied Gaboriau is beyond all conception! From to-day +I shall began to respect myself! . . . Ough. . . . Well, let us +go!" + +"Go where?" + +"To her, to the fourth. . . . We must make haste, or . . . I shall +explode with impatience! Do you know who she is? You will never +guess. The young wife of our old police superintendent, Yevgraf +Kuzmitch, Olga Petrovna; that's who it is! She bought that box of +matches!" + +"You . . . you. . . . Are you out of your mind?" + +"It's very natural! In the first place she smokes, and in the second +she was head over ears in love with Klyauzov. He rejected her love +for the sake of an Akulka. Revenge. I remember now, I once came +upon them behind the screen in the kitchen. She was cursing him, +while he was smoking her cigarette and puffing the smoke into her +face. But do come along; make haste, for it is getting dark already +. . . . Let us go!" + +"I have not gone so completely crazy yet as to disturb a respectable, +honourable woman at night for the sake of a wretched boy!" + +"Honourable, respectable. . . . You are a rag then, not an examining +magistrate! I have never ventured to abuse you, but now you force +me to it! You rag! you old fogey! Come, dear Nikolay Yermolaitch, +I entreat you!" + +The examining magistrate waved his hand in refusal and spat in +disgust. + +"I beg you! I beg you, not for my own sake, but in the interests +of justice! I beseech you, indeed! Do me a favour, if only for once +in your life!" + +Dyukovsky fell on his knees. + +"Nikolay Yermolaitch, do be so good! Call me a scoundrel, a worthless +wretch if I am in error about that woman! It is such a case, you +know! It is a case! More like a novel than a case. The fame of it +will be all over Russia. They will make you examining magistrate +for particularly important cases! Do understand, you unreasonable +old man!" + +The examining magistrate frowned and irresolutely put out his hand +towards his hat. + +"Well, the devil take you!" he said, "let us go." + +It was already dark when the examining magistrate's waggonette +rolled up to the police superintendent's door. + +"What brutes we are!" said Tchubikov, as he reached for the bell. +"We are disturbing people." + +"Never mind, never mind, don't be frightened. We will say that one +of the springs has broken." + +Tchubikov and Dyukovsky were met in the doorway by a tall, plump +woman of three and twenty, with eyebrows as black as pitch and full +red lips. It was Olga Petrovna herself. + +"Ah, how very nice," she said, smiling all over her face. "You are +just in time for supper. My Yevgraf Kuzmitch is not at home. . . . +He is staying at the priest's. But we can get on without him. Sit +down. Have you come from an inquiry?" + +"Yes. . . . We have broken one of our springs, you know," began +Tchubikov, going into the drawing-room and sitting down in an +easy-chair. + +"Take her by surprise at once and overwhelm her," Dyukovsky whispered +to him. + +"A spring .. . er . . . yes. . . . We just drove up. . . ." + +"Overwhelm her, I tell you! She will guess if you go drawing it +out." + +"Oh, do as you like, but spare me," muttered Tchubikov, getting up +and walking to the window. "I can't! You cooked the mess, you eat +it!" + +"Yes, the spring," Dyukovsky began, going up to the superintendent's +wife and wrinkling his long nose. "We have not come in to . . . +er-er-er . . . supper, nor to see Yevgraf Kuzmitch. We have come +to ask you, madam, where is Mark Ivanovitch whom you have murdered?" + +"What? What Mark Ivanovitch?" faltered the superintendent's wife, +and her full face was suddenly in one instant suffused with crimson. +"I . . . don't understand." + +"I ask you in the name of the law! Where is Klyauzov? We know all +about it!" + +"Through whom?" the superintendent's wife asked slowly, unable to +face Dyukovsky's eyes. + +"Kindly inform us where he is!" + +"But how did you find out? Who told you?" + +"We know all about it. I insist in the name of the law." + +The examining magistrate, encouraged by the lady's confusion, went +up to her. + +"Tell us and we will go away. Otherwise we . . ." + +"What do you want with him?" + +"What is the object of such questions, madam? We ask you for +information. You are trembling, confused. . . . Yes, he has been +murdered, and if you will have it, murdered by you! Your accomplices +have betrayed you!" + +The police superintendent's wife turned pale. + +"Come along," she said quietly, wringing her hands. "He is hidden +in the bath-house. Only for God's sake, don't tell my husband! I +implore you! It would be too much for him." + +The superintendent's wife took a big key from the wall, and led her +visitors through the kitchen and the passage into the yard. It was +dark in the yard. There was a drizzle of fine rain. The superintendent's +wife went on ahead. Tchubikov and Dyukovsky strode after her through +the long grass, breathing in the smell of wild hemp and slops, which +made a squelching sound under their feet. It was a big yard. Soon +there were no more pools of slops, and their feet felt ploughed +land. In the darkness they saw the silhouette of trees, and among +the trees a little house with a crooked chimney. + +"This is the bath-house," said the superintendent's wife, "but, I +implore you, do not tell anyone." + +Going up to the bath-house, Tchubikov and Dyukovsky saw a large +padlock on the door. + +"Get ready your candle-end and matches," Tchubikov whispered to his +assistant. + +The superintendent's wife unlocked the padlock and let the visitors +into the bath-house. Dyukovsky struck a match and lighted up the +entry. In the middle of it stood a table. On the table, beside a +podgy little samovar, was a soup tureen with some cold cabbage-soup +in it, and a dish with traces of some sauce on it. + +"Go on!" + +They went into the next room, the bath-room. There, too, was a +table. On the table there stood a big dish of ham, a bottle of +vodka, plates, knives and forks. + +"But where is he . . . where's the murdered man?" + +"He is on the top shelf," whispered the superintendent's wife, +turning paler than ever and trembling. + +Dyukovsky took the candle-end in his hand and climbed up to the +upper shelf. There he saw a long, human body, lying motionless on +a big feather bed. The body emitted a faint snore. . . . + +"They have made fools of us, damn it all!" Dyukovsky cried. "This +is not he! It is some living blockhead lying here. Hi! who are you, +damnation take you!" + +The body drew in its breath with a whistling sound and moved. +Dyukovsky prodded it with his elbow. It lifted up its arms, stretched, +and raised its head. + +"Who is that poking?" a hoarse, ponderous bass voice inquired. "What +do you want?" + +Dyukovsky held the candle-end to the face of the unknown and uttered +a shriek. In the crimson nose, in the ruffled, uncombed hair, in +the pitch-black moustaches of which one was jauntily twisted and +pointed insolently towards the ceiling, he recognised Cornet Klyauzov. + +"You. . . . Mark . . . Ivanitch! Impossible!" + +The examining magistrate looked up and was dumbfoundered. + +"It is I, yes. . . . And it's you, Dyukovsky! What the devil do you +want here? And whose ugly mug is that down there? Holy Saints, it's +the examining magistrate! How in the world did you come here?" + +Klyauzov hurriedly got down and embraced Tchubikov. Olga Petrovna +whisked out of the door. + +"However did you come? Let's have a drink!--dash it all! Tra-ta-ti-to-tom +. . . . Let's have a drink! Who brought you here, though? How did you +get to know I was here? It doesn't matter, though! Have a drink!" + +Klyauzov lighted the lamp and poured out three glasses of vodka. + +"The fact is, I don't understand you," said the examining magistrate, +throwing out his hands. "Is it you, or not you?" + +"Stop that. . . . Do you want to give me a sermon? Don't trouble +yourself! Dyukovsky boy, drink up your vodka! Friends, let us pass +the . . . What are you staring at . . . ? Drink!" + +"All the same, I can't understand," said the examining magistrate, +mechanically drinking his vodka. "Why are you here?" + +"Why shouldn't I be here, if I am comfortable here?" + +Klyauzov sipped his vodka and ate some ham. + +"I am staying with the superintendent's wife, as you see. In the +wilds among the ruins, like some house goblin. Drink! I felt sorry +for her, you know, old man! I took pity on her, and, well, I am +living here in the deserted bath-house, like a hermit. . . . I am +well fed. Next week I am thinking of moving on. . . . I've had +enough of it. . . ." + +"Inconceivable!" said Dyukovsky. + +"What is there inconceivable in it?" + +"Inconceivable! For God's sake, how did your boot get into the +garden?" + +"What boot?" + +"We found one of your boots in the bedroom and the other in the +garden." + +"And what do you want to know that for? It is not your business. +But do drink, dash it all. Since you have waked me up, you may as +well drink! There's an interesting tale about that boot, my boy. I +didn't want to come to Olga's. I didn't feel inclined, you know, +I'd had a drop too much. . . . She came under the window and began +scolding me. . . . You know how women . . . as a rule. Being drunk, +I up and flung my boot at her. Ha-ha! . . . 'Don't scold,' I said. +She clambered in at the window, lighted the lamp, and gave me a +good drubbing, as I was drunk. I have plenty to eat here. . . . +Love, vodka, and good things! But where are you off to? Tchubikov, +where are you off to?" + +The examining magistrate spat on the floor and walked out of the +bath-house. Dyukovsky followed him with his head hanging. Both got +into the waggonette in silence and drove off. Never had the road +seemed so long and dreary. Both were silent. Tchubikov was shaking +with anger all the way. Dyukovsky hid his face in his collar as +though he were afraid the darkness and the drizzling rain might +read his shame on his face. + +On getting home the examining magistrate found the doctor, Tyutyuev, +there. The doctor was sitting at the table and heaving deep sighs +as he turned over the pages of the _Neva_. + +"The things that are going on in the world," he said, greeting the +examining magistrate with a melancholy smile. "Austria is at it +again . . . and Gladstone, too, in a way. . . ." + +Tchubikov flung his hat under the table and began to tremble. + +"You devil of a skeleton! Don't bother me! I've told you a thousand +times over, don't bother me with your politics! It's not the time +for politics! And as for you," he turned upon Dyukovsky and shook +his fist at him, "as for you. . . . I'll never forget it, as long +as I live!" + +"But the Swedish match, you know! How could I tell. . . ." + +"Choke yourself with your match! Go away and don't irritate me, or +goodness knows what I shall do to you. Don't let me set eyes on +you." + +Dyukovsky heaved a sigh, took his hat, and went out. + +"I'll go and get drunk!" he decided, as he went out of the gate, +and he sauntered dejectedly towards the tavern. + +When the superintendent's wife got home from the bath-house she +found her husband in the drawing-room. + +"What did the examining magistrate come about?" asked her husband. + +"He came to say that they had found Klyauzov. Only fancy, they found +him staying with another man's wife." + +"Ah, Mark Ivanitch, Mark Ivanitch!" sighed the police superintendent, +turning up his eyes. "I told you that dissipation would lead to no +good! I told you so--you wouldn't heed me!" + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories +by Anton Chekhov + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13417 *** |