Short Stories
little money I had, and I thought I'd have a rest for a time, so I went to
an old woman I knew, and I took a corner in her room. There was only one
corner free in it. She had been a nurse, so now she had a pension and a
room of her own. Well, now good-bye, Emelyanoushka, thinks I, you won't
find me now, my boy.
"And what do you think, sir? I had gone out to see a man I knew, and when I
came back in the evening, the first thing I saw was Emelyanoushka! There he
was, sitting on my box and his check bundle beside him; he was sitting in
his ragged old coat, waiting for me. And to while away the time he had
borrowed a church book from the old lady, and was holding it wrong side
upwards. He'd scented me out! My heart sank. Well, thinks I, there's no
help for it--why didn't I turn him out at first? So I asked him straight
off: Have you brought your passport, Emelyanoushka?'
"I sat down on the spot, sir, and began to ponder: will a vagabond like
that be very much trouble to me? And on thinking it over it seemed he would
not be much trouble. He must be fed, I thought. Well, a bit of bread in the
morning, and to make it go down better I'll buy him an onion. At midday I
should have to give him another bit of bread and an onion; and in the
evening, onion again with kvass, with some more bread if he wanted it. And
if some cabbage soup were to come our way, then we should both have had our
fill. I am no great eater myself, and a drinking man, as we all know, never
eats; all he wants is herb-brandy or green vodka. He'll ruin me with his
drinking, I thought, but then another idea came into my head, sir, and took
great hold on me. So much so that if Emelyanoushka had gone away I should
have felt that I had nothing to live for, I do believe.... I determined on
the spot to be a father and guardian to him. I'll keep him from ruin, I
thought, I'll wean him from the glass! You wait a bit, thought I; very
well, Emelyanoushka, you may stay, only you must behave yourself; you must
obey orders.
"Well, thinks I to myself, I'll begin by training him to work of some sort,
but not all at once; let him enjoy himself a little first, and I'll look
round and find something you are fit for, Emelyanoushka. For every sort of
work a man needs a special ability, you know, sir. And I began to watch him
on the quiet; I soon saw Emelyanoushka was a desperate character. I began,
sir, with a word of advice: I said this and that to him. 'Emelyanoushka,'
said I, 'you ought to take a thought and mend your ways. Have done with
drinking! Just look what rags you go about in: that old coat of yours, if I
may make bold to say so, is fit for nothing but a sieve. A pretty state of
things! It's time to draw the line, sure enough.' Emelyanoushka sat and
listened to me with his head hanging down. Would you believe it, sir? It
had come to such a pass with him, he'd lost his tongue through drink and
could not speak a word of sense. Talk to him of cucumbers and he'd answer
back about beans! He would listen and listen to me and then heave such a
sigh. 'What are you sighing for, Emelyan Ilyitch?' I asked him.
"'Oh, nothing; don't you mind me, Astafy Ivanovitch. Do you know there were
two women fighting in the street to-day, Astafy Ivanovitch? One upset the
other woman's basket of cranberries by accident.'
"'Well, what of that?'
"'And the second one upset the other's cranberries on purpose and trampled
them under foot, too.'
"'Well, and what of it, Emelyan Ilyitch?'
"'Why, nothing, Astafy Ivanovitch, I just mentioned it.'
"'"Nothing, I just mentioned it!" Emelyanoushka, my boy, I thought, you've
squandered and drunk away your brains!'
"'And do you know, a gentleman dropped a money-note on the pavement in
Gorohovy Street, no, it was Sadovy Street. And a peasant saw it and said,
"That's my luck"; and at the same time another man saw it and said, "No,
it's my bit of luck. I saw it before you did."'
"'Well, Emelyan Ilyitch?'
"'And the fellows had a fight over it, Astafy Ivanovitch. But a policeman
came up, took away the note, gave it back to the gentleman and threatened
to take up both the men.'
"'Well, but what of that? What is there edifying about it, Emelyanoushka?'
"'Why, nothing, to be sure. Folks laughed, Astafy Ivanovitch.'
"'Ach, Emelyanoushka! What do the folks matter? You've sold your soul for a
brass farthing! But do you know what I have to tell you, Emelyan Ilyitch?'
"'What, Astafy Ivanovitch?'
"'Take a job of some sort, that's what you must do. For the hundredth time
I say to you, set to work, have some mercy on yourself!'
"'What could I set to, Astafy Ivanovitch? I don't know what job I could set
to, and there is no one who will take me on, Astafy Ivanovitch.'
"'That's how you came to be turned off, Emelyanoushka, you drinking man!'
"'And do you know Vlass, the waiter, was sent for to the office to-day,
Astafy Ivanovitch?'
"'Why did they send for him, Emelyanoushka?' I asked.
"'I could not say why, Astafy Ivanovitch. I suppose they wanted him there,
and that's why they sent for him.'
"A-ach, thought I, we are in a bad way, poor Emelyanoushka! The Lord is
chastising us for our sins. Well, sir, what is one to do with such a man?
"But a cunning fellow he was, and no mistake. He'd listen and listen to me,
but at last I suppose he got sick of it. As soon as he sees I am beginning
to get angry, he'd pick up his old coat and out he'd slip and leave no
trace. He'd wander about all day and come back at night drunk. Where he got
the money from, the Lord only knows; I had no hand in that.
"'No,' said I, 'Emelyan Ilyitch, you'll come to a bad end. Give over
drinking, mind what I say now, give it up! Next time you come home in
liquor, you can spend the night on the stairs. I won't let you in!'
"After hearing that threat, Emelyanoushka sat at home that day and the
next; but on the third he slipped off again. I waited and waited; he didn't
come back. Well, at least I don't mind owning, I was in a fright, and I
felt for the man too. What have I done to him? I thought. I've scared him
away. Where's the poor fellow gone to now? He'll get lost maybe. Lord have
mercy upon us!
"Night came on, he did not come. In the morning I went out into the porch;
I looked, and if he hadn't gone to sleep in the porch! There he was with
his head on the step, and chilled to the marrow of his bones.
"'What next, Emelyanoushka, God have mercy on you! Where will you get to
next!'
"'Why, you were--sort of--angry with me, Astafy Ivanovitch, the other day,
you were vexed and promised to put me to sleep in the porch, so I
didn't--sort of--venture to come in, Astafy Ivanovitch, and so I lay down
here....'
"I did feel angry and sorry too.
"'Surely you might undertake some other duty, Emelyanoushka, instead of
lying here guarding the steps,' I said.
"'Why, what other duty, Astafy Ivanovitch?'
"'You lost soul'--I was in such a rage, I called him that--'if you could
but learn tailoring work! Look at your old rag of a coat! It's not enough
to have it in tatters, here you are sweeping the steps with it! You might
take a needle and boggle up your rags, as decency demands. Ah, you drunken
man!'
"What do you think, sir? He actually did take a needle. Of course I said it
in jest, but he was so scared he set to work. He took off his coat and
began threading the needle. I watched him; as you may well guess, his eyes
were all red and bleary, and his hands were all of a shake. He kept shoving
and shoving the thread and could not get it through the eye of the needle;
he kept screwing his eyes up and wetting the thread and twisting it in his
fingers--it was no good! He gave it up and looked at me.
"'Well,' said I, 'this is a nice way to treat me! If there had been folks
by to see, I don't know what I should have done! Why, you simple fellow, I
said it you in joke, as a reproach. Give over your nonsense, God bless you!
Sit quiet and don't put me to shame, don't sleep on my stairs and make a
laughing-stock of me.'
"'Why, what am I to do, Astafy Ivanovitch? I know very well I am a
drunkard and good for nothing! I can do nothing but vex you, my
bene--bene--factor....'
"And at that his blue lips began all of a sudden to quiver, and a tear ran
down his white cheek and trembled on his stubbly chin, and then poor
Emelyanoushka burst into a regular flood of tears. Mercy on us! I felt as
though a knife were thrust into my heart! The sensitive creature! I'd never
have expected it. Who could have guessed it? No, Emelyanoushka, thought I,
I shall give you up altogether. You can go your way like the rubbish you
are.
"Well, sir, why make a long story of it? And the whole affair is so
trifling; it's not worth wasting words upon. Why, you, for instance, sir,
would not have given a thought to it, but I would have given a great
deal--if I had a great deal to give--that it never should have happened at
all.
"I had a pair of riding breeches by me, sir, deuce take them, fine,
first-rate riding breeches they were too, blue with a check on it. They'd
been ordered by a gentleman from the country, but he would not have them
after all; said they were not full enough, so they were left on my hands.
It struck me they were worth something. At the second-hand dealer's I ought
to get five silver roubles for them, or if not I could turn them into two
pairs of trousers for Petersburg gentlemen and have a piece over for a
waistcoat for myself. Of course for poor people like us everything comes
in. And it happened just then that Emelyanoushka was having a sad time of
it. There he sat day after day: he did not drink, not a drop passed his
lips, but he sat and moped like an owl. It was sad to see him--he just sat
and brooded. Well, thought I, either you've not got a copper to spend, my
lad, or else you're turning over a new leaf of yourself, you've given it
up, you've listened to reason. Well, sir, that's how it was with us; and
just then came a holiday. I went to vespers; when I came home I found
Emelyanoushka sitting in the window, drunk and rocking to and fro.
"Ah! so that's what you've been up to, my lad! And I went to get something
out of my chest. And when I looked in, the breeches were not there.... I
rummaged here and there; they'd vanished. When I'd ransacked everywhere and
saw they were not there, something seemed to stab me to the heart. I ran
first to the old dame and began accusing her; of Emelyanoushka I'd not the
faintest suspicion, though there was cause for it in his sitting there
drunk.
"'No,' said the old body, 'God be with you, my fine gentleman, what good
are riding breeches to me? Am I going to wear such things? Why, a skirt I
had I lost the other day through a fellow of your sort ... I know nothing;
I can tell you nothing about it,' she said.
"'Who has been here, who has been in?' I asked.
"'Why, nobody has been, my good sir,' says she; 'I've been here all the
while; Emelyan Ilyitch went out and came back again; there he sits, ask
him.'
"'Emelyanoushka,' said I, 'have you taken those new riding breeches for
anything; you remember the pair I made for that gentleman from the
country?'
"'No, Astafy Ivanovitch,' said he; 'I've not--sort of--touched them.'
"I was in a state! I hunted high and low for them--they were nowhere to be
found. And Emelyanoushka sits there rocking himself to and fro. I was
squatting on my heels facing him and bending over the chest, and all at
once I stole a glance at him.... Alack, I thought; my heart suddenly grew
hot within me and I felt myself flushing up too. And suddenly Emelyanoushka
looked at me.
"'No, Astafy Ivanovitch,' said he, 'those riding breeches of yours, maybe,
you are thinking, maybe, I took them, but I never touched them.'
"'But what can have become of them, Emelyan Ilyitch?'