The Maxim Gorky

by Maxim Gorky

  “You ought to give him a whipping,” said the mother. “My little girl lived quietly, she wasn’t a bit of a bother to anybody, and now someone has to be with her all the time.”

  After Praskovya had left, the smith without saying anything led Yevsey by the hand into the yard.

  “Now talk sensibly. Why did you frighten the little girl?”

  The uncle’s voice was not loud, but it was stern. Yevsey became frightened, and quickly began to justify himself, stuttering over his words.

  “I didn’t frighten her—I did it just—just—she kept complaining—she said I see only black, but for you everything—so I began to tell her everything is black to keep her from being envious. I didn’t mean to frighten her at all.”

  Yevsey broke into sobs, feeling himself wronged. Uncle Piotr smiled.

  “You fool! You should have remembered that she’s been blind only three years. She wasn’t born blind. She lost her sight after she had the smallpox. So she recollects what things are really bright. Oh, what a stupid fellow!”

  “I’m not stupid. She believed me,” Yevsey retorted, wiping his eyes.

  “Well, all right. Only don’t go with her any more. Do you hear?”

  “I won’t.”

  “As to your crying; it’s nothing. Let them think I gave you a beating.” The blacksmith tapped Yevsey on the shoulder, and continued with a smile, “You and I, we’re cheats, both of us.”

  The little fellow buried his head in his uncle’s side, and asked tremulously:

  “Why is everybody down on me?”

  “I don’t know, Orphan,” answered the uncle after a moment’s reflection.

  The wrongs to which he was subjected now began to yield the boy a sort of bitter satisfaction. A dim conviction settled upon him that he was not like everybody else, and this was why all were down on him. He observed that all the people were malicious and worn out with ill-will. They lived, each deceiving his neighbor, abusing one another, and drinking. Everyone sought for mastery over his fellow, though over himself he was not master. Yevsey saw no man who was not in constant fear of something. The whole of life was filled with terror, and terror divided the people into fragments.

  The village stood upon a low hill. On the other side of the river stretched a marsh. In the summer after a hot day it exhaled a stifling lilac-colored mist, which breathed a putrid breath upon the village, and sent upon the people a swarm of mosquitoes. The people, angry and pitiful, scratched themselves until blood came. From behind the thin woods in the distance climbed a lowering reddish moon. Huge and round it looked through the haze like a dull sinister eye. Yevsey thought it was threatening him with all kinds of misery and dread. He feared its dirty reddish face. When he saw it over the marsh, he hid himself, and in his sleep he was tormented by heavy dreams. At night bluish, trembling lights strayed over the marsh, said to be the homeless spirits of sinners. The villagers sighed over them sorrowfully, pitying them. But for one another they had no pity.

  It was possible for them, however, to have lived differently, in friendship and joy. An incident Yevsey once witnessed proved this to him.

  One night the granary of the rich muzhik Veretennikov caught fire. The little boy ran into the garden, and climbed up a willow tree to look at the conflagration.

  It seemed to him that the many-winged, supple body of a horrible smoke-begrimed bird with a fiery jaw was circling in the sky. It inclined its red blazing head to the ground, greedily tore the straw with its sharp fiery teeth, gnawed at the wood, and licked it with its hundred yellow tongues. Its smoky body playfully coiled in the black sky, fell upon the village, crept along the roofs of the houses, and again raised itself aloft majestically and lightly, without removing its flaming red head from the ground. It snorted, scattering sheaves of sparks, whistling with joy in its evil work, singing, puffing, and spreading its raging jaw wider and wider, embracing the wood more and more greedily with its red ribbons of flame.

  In the presence of the fire the people turned small and black. They sprinkled water into its jaws, thrust long poles at it, and tore flaming sheaves from between its teeth. Then they trampled the sheaves. The people, too, coughed, sniffed, and sneezed, gasping for breath in the greasy smoke. They shouted and roared, their voices blending with the crackling and roaring of the fire. They approached nearer and nearer to the great bird, surrounding its red head with a black living ring, as if tightening a noose about its body. Here and there the noose broke, but they tied it again, and crowded about more firmly. The noose strangled the fire, which lay there savagely. It jumped up, and its body swelled, writhing like a snake, striving to free its head; but the people held it fast to the ground. Finally, enfeebled, exhausted, and sullen it fell upon the neighboring granaries, crept along the gardens, and dwindled away, shattered and faint.

  “All together!” shouted the villagers, encouraging one another.

  “Water!” rang out the women’s voices.

  The women formed a chain from the fire to the river, strangers and kinsmen, friends and enemies all in a row. And the buckets of water were rapidly passed from hand to hand.

  “Quick, women! Quick, good women!”

  It was pleasant and cheerful to look upon this good, friendly life in conflict with the fire. The people emboldened one another. They spoke words of praise for displays of dexterity and disputed in kindly jest. The shouts were free from malice. In the presence of the fire everybody seemed to see his neighbor as good, and each grew pleasant to the other. When at last the fire was vanquished, the villagers grew even jolly. They sang songs, laughed, boasted of the work, and joked. The older people got whiskey to drink away their exhaustion, while the young folk remained in the streets amusing themselves almost until morning. And everything was as good as in a dream.

  Yevsey heard not a single malicious shout, nor noticed a single angry face. During the entire time the fire was burning no one wept from pain or abuse, no one roared with the beastly roar of savage malice, ready for murder.

  The next day Yevsey said to his uncle:

  “How nice it was last night!”

  “Yes, Orphan, it was nice. A little more, and the fire would have burned away half the village.”

  “I mean about the people,” explained the boy. “How they joined together in a friendly way. If they would live like that all the time, if there were a fire all the time!”

  The blacksmith reflected for an instant, then asked in surprise:

  “You mean there should be fires all the time?” He looked at Yevsey sternly, and shook his finger. “You wiseacre, you, look out! Don’t think such sinful thoughts. Just see him! He finds pleasure in fires!”

  CHAPTER II

  When Yevsey completed the school course, the blacksmith said to him:

  “What shall we do with you now? There’s nothing for you here. You must go to the city. I have to get bellows there, and I’ll take you along, Orphan.”

  “Will you yourself take me?”

  “Yes. Are you sorry to leave the village?”

  “No, but I am sorry on account of you.”

  The blacksmith put a piece of iron in the furnace and adjusting the coals with the tongs, said thoughtfully:

  “There’s no reason to be sorry on account of me. I am grown up. I am the muzhik I ought to be, like every other muzhik.”

  “You’re better than everybody else,” Yevsey said in a low voice.

  It seemed that Uncle Piotr did not hear the last remark, for he did not answer, but removed the glowing iron from the fire, screwed up his eyes, and began to hammer, scattering the red sparks all about him. Then he suddenly stopped, slowly dropped the hand in which he held the hammer, and said smiling:

  “I ought to give you some advice—how to live and all such things.”

  Yevsey waited to hear the advice. The blacksmith, however, apparently forgetful of his nephew, put th
e iron back into the fire, wiped the tears from his cheeks, and looked into the furnace. A muzhik entered, bringing a cracked tire. Yevsey went out to go to the ravine, where he crouched in the bushes until sunset, waiting for his uncle to be alone; which did not happen.

  The day of his departure from the village was effaced from the boy’s memory. He recalled only that when he rode out into the fields, it was dark and the air strangely oppressive. The wagon jolted horribly, and on both sides rose black motionless trees. The further they advanced the wider the space became and the brighter the atmosphere. The uncle was sullen the whole way, and reluctantly gave brief and unintelligible answers to Yevsey’s questions.

  They rode an entire day, stopping over night in a little village. Yevsey heard the fine and protracted playing of an accordion, a woman weeping, and occasionally an angry voice crying out: “Shut up!” and swearing abusively.

  The travelers continued on their way the same night. Two dogs accompanied them, running around the wagon and whining. As they left the village a bittern boomed sullenly and plaintively in the forest to the left of the road.

  “God grant good luck!” mumbled the blacksmith.

  Yevsey fell asleep, and awoke when his uncle lightly tapped him on his legs with the butt end of the whip.

  “Look, Orphan.”

  To the sleepy eyes of the boy the city appeared like a huge field of buckwheat. Thick and varicolored, it stretched endlessly, with the golden church steeples standing out like yellow pimpinellas, and the dark bands of the streets looking like fences between the patches.

  “Oh, how large!” said Yevsey. After another look, he asked his uncle cautiously, “Will you come to see me?”

  “Certainly, whenever I come to the city. You will begin to make money, and I will ask you to give me some. ‘Orphan,’ I’ll say, ‘give your uncle about three rubles.’”

  “I’ll give you all my money.”

  “You mustn’t give me all. You should give only as much as you won’t be sorry to part with. To give less is shameful; to give more is unfair.”

  The city grew quickly and became more and more varied in coloring. It glittered green, red, and golden, reflecting the rays of the sun from the glass of the countless windows and from the gold of the church steeples. It seemed to make promises, kindling in the heart a confused curiosity, a dim expectation of something unusual. Kneeling in the wagon with his hand on his uncle’s shoulder, Yevsey looked before him while the smith said:

  “You live this way—do whatever is assigned to you, hold yourself aloof, beware of the bold men. One bold man out of ten succeeds, and nine go to pieces.”

  He spoke with indecision, as if he himself doubted whether he was saying what he ought to say, and he searched his thoughts for something else more important. Yevsey listened attentively and gravely, expecting to hear a special warning against the terrors and dangers of the new life. But the blacksmith drew a deep breath, and after a pause continued more firmly and with more assurance, “Once they came near giving me a lashing with switches in the district court. I was betrothed then. I had to get married. Nevertheless they wanted to whip me. It’s all the same to them. They don’t care about other people’s affairs. I lodged a complaint with the governor, and for three and a half months they kept me in prison, not to speak of the blows. I got the worst beatings. I even spat blood. It’s from that time that tears are always in my eyes. One policeman, a short reddish fellow, always went for my head.”

  “Uncle,” said Yevsey quietly, “don’t speak of it.”

  “What else shall I speak to you about?” cried Uncle Piotr with a smile. “There is nothing else.”

  Yevsey’s head drooped sadly.

  One detached house after another seemed to step toward them, dirty and wrapped in heavy odors, with chimneys sticking from their red and green roofs, like warts. Bluish-grey smoke rose from them lazily. Some chimneys, monstrously tall and dirty, jutted straight up from the ground, and emitted thick black clouds of smoke. The ground was compactly trodden, and seemed to be steeped in black grease. Everywhere heavy alarming sounds penetrated the smoky atmosphere. Something growled, hummed and whistled; iron clanged angrily, and some huge creature breathed hoarsely and brokenly.

  “When will we get to the place?” asked Yevsey.

  Looking carefully in front of him the uncle said:

  “This isn’t the city yet. These are factories in the suburb.”

  Finally they pulled into a broad street lined with old squat frame houses painted various colors, which had a peaceful, homelike appearance. Especially fine were the clean cheerful houses with gardens, which seemed to be tied about with green aprons.

  “We’ll soon be there,” said the blacksmith, turning the horse into a narrow side street. “Don’t be afraid, Orphan.”

  He drew up at the open gate of a large house, jumped down, and walked into the yard. The house was old and bent. The joists protruded from under the small dim windows. In the large dirty yard there were a number of carriages, and four muzhiks talking loudly stood about a white horse tapping it with their hands. One of them, a round, bald-headed fellow with a large yellow beard and a rosy face, waved his hands wildly on seeing Piotr, and cried:

  “Oh!”

  They went to a narrow, dark room, where they sat down and drank tea. Uncle Piotr spoke about the village. The bald fellow laughed and shouted so that the dishes rattled on the table. It was close in the room and smelled of hot bread. Yevsey wanted to sleep, and he kept looking into the corner where behind dirty curtains he could see a wide bed with several pillows. Large black flies buzzed about, knocking against his forehead, crawling over his face, and tickling his perspiring skin; but he restrained himself from driving them away.

  “We’ll find a place for you!” the bald man shouted to him, nodding his head gaily. “In a minute! Natalya, did you call for Matveyevich?”

  A full woman with dark lashes, a small mouth, and a high bust, answered calmly and clearly:

  “How many times have you asked me already?”

  She held her head straight and proudly, and when she moved her hands the rose-colored chintz of her new jacket rustled sumptuously. Her whole being recalled some good dream or fairy tale.

  “Piotr, my friend, look at Natalya. What a Natalya! Droppings from the honey-comb!” shouted the bald man deafeningly.

  Uncle Piotr laughed quietly, as if fearing to look at the woman, who pushed a hot rye cake filled with curds toward Yevsey, and said:

  “Eat, eat a lot. In the city people must eat a good deal.”

  A jar of preserves stood on the table, honey in a saucer, toasted cracknels sprinkled with anise-seed, sausage, cucumber, and vodka. All this filled the air with a strong odor. Yevsey grew faint from the oppressive sensation of over-abundance, though he did not dare to decline, and submissively chewed everything set before him.

  “Eat!” cried the bald man, then continued his talk with Uncle Piotr. “I tell you, it’s luck. It’s only a week since the horse crushed the little boy. He went to the tavern for boiling water, when suddenly—”

  Another man now made his entrance unnoticed by the others. He, too, was bald, but small and thin, with dark eyeglasses on a large nose, and a long tuft of grey hair on his chin.

  “What is it, people?” he asked in a low, indistinct voice.

  The master jumped up from his chair, uttered a cry, and laughed aloud. Yevsey was suddenly seized with alarm.

  The man addressed Piotr and his hosts as “People,” by which he separated himself from them. He sat down at some distance from the table, then moved to one side away from the blacksmith, and looked around moving his thin dry neck slowly. On his head, a little above his forehead, over his right eye, was a large bump. His little pointed ears clung closely to his skull, as if to hide themselves in the short fringe of his grey hair. He produced the impression of a quiet, grey, seedy, per
son. Yevsey unsuccessfully tried to get a surreptitious peep at his eyes under the glasses. His failure disquieted him.

  The host cried:

  “Do you understand, Orphan?”

  “This is a trump,” remarked the man with the bump. He sat supporting his thin dark hands on his sharp knees, and spoke little. Occasionally Yevsey heard the men utter some peculiar words.

  At last the newcomer said:

  “And so it is settled.”

  Uncle Piotr moved heavily in his chair.

  “Now, Orphan, you have a place. This is your master.” He turned to the master. “I want to tell you, sir, that the boy can read and write, and is not at all a stupid fellow. I am not saying this because I can’t find a place for him, but because it is the truth. The boy is even very curious—”

  “I have no need for curiosity,” said the master shaking his head.

  “He’s a quiet sort. They call him Old Man in the village—that’s the kind he is.”

  “We shall see,” said the man with the bump on his forehead. He adjusted his glasses, scrutinized Yevsey’s face closely, and added, “My name is Matvey Matveyevich.”

  Turning away, he took up a glass of tea, which he drank noiselessly. Then he rose and with a silent nod walked out.

  Yevsey and his uncle now went to the yard, where they seated themselves in the shade near the stable. The blacksmith spoke to Yevsey cautiously, as if groping with his words for something unintelligible to him.

  “You’ll surely have it good with him. He’s a quiet little old man. He has run his course and left all sorts of sins behind him. Now he lives in order to eat a little bite, and he grumbles and purrs like a satiated Tom-cat.”

  “But isn’t he a sorcerer?” asked the boy.

  “Why? I should think there are no sorcerers in the cities.” After reflecting a few moments, the blacksmith went on. “Anyway it’s all the same to you. A sorcerer is a man, too. But remember this, a city is a dangerous place. This is how it spoils people: the wife of a man goes away on a pilgrimage, and he immediately puts in her place some housemaid or other, and indulges himself. But the old man can’t show you such an example. That’s why I say you’ll have it good with him. You will live with him as behind a bush, sitting and looking.”