Kaytek the Wizard

by Janusz Korczak

  But their strong, reliable canine paws carry them more nimbly than human feet. A dog’s heart doesn’t tire so quickly.

  Zofia is the first to stop.

  “How lovely it smells here. How many hundreds of wonderful smells and sounds there are – the smell of pine needles, oak leaves, tree bark, grass, and resin. They play on the nose like music, like singing. You only have to raise your head, turn it to the right, turn it to the left – and you sense a different tune each time.”

  “Shut up!” Kaytek interrupts her impetuously. “There’s nothing lovely or wonderful about being a dog. You’re lying.”

  “I’m telling the truth.”

  “You’re lying! It’s a bad, rotten, low-down dog’s life. I’d rather be the most wretched man on earth than be a dog.”

  Kaytek refuses to admit that he can sense the same things as Zofia. Now he’s getting to know the world and its images through his sense of smell rather than his eyesight. As he runs along, he scents interesting smells, both strange and familiar. He keeps turning his well-tuned nose in different directions, and pricking up his ears in response to distant noises.

  Perhaps a dog knows the world in a way that’s different, but not any worse, than the human way. Perhaps he doesn’t just use his senses, but also understands things? No – no! Kaytek won’t betray his human pride – it’s shameful to be a dog.

  They’re hungry, but there’s no bread to eat, and no one in sight.

  Then they catch a scent of wild game, and Kaytek turns into the forest, sniffing carefully. He finds a burrow under a bush. He has to exert his will power to stop himself from digging at the ground with his paws to open up the burrow and attack the young baby hares. He presses his nose to the hole. He barks once, then again, and dashes back to the road.

  As their hunger grows, they stop running. They walk along in silence until late evening. At last they meet a man.

  The poor old fellow is dragging himself along, groaning under the weight of a bundle of twigs.

  “I must have a rest,” he says.

  He sits down in a ditch and notices Kaytek and Zofia.

  “Hey, doggies.”

  He clicks his tongue and holds out a hand. They run up to him.

  “Where are you going, doggies? Are you hungry? Have you come far? Come along with me, as we’ve met. There are two of you, but I’m all alone in my old age.”

  Kaytek feels the sincere warmth of a human hand.

  “Good doggies.”

  Kaytek responds to his petting with a dog’s kiss – he licks the old man’s wrinkled hand. The old man gets up, groaning, and tosses the bundle of wood on his back. In the distance, the smoking chimneys of a nearby village are coming more clearly into view.

  They reach a small cottage at the edge of the village.

  “You good dogs, you kissed an old man. You can stay the night here, but tomorrow you’ll have to be on your way. I’m too poor to have friends.”

  He pours a tin pint of water into a bowl, whitens it with a drop of milk, and crumbles some brown bread into it.

  “My supper’s not a rich one,” says the old man regretfully.

  He tells them how, one after another, his children have gone out into the world and left him on his own.

  “They’ve gone to the city, little dogs. There’s more fun to be had in the city. It’s jollier there than with their old father in the country.”

  Two hot tears roll down his withered face and fall onto Kaytek.

  They fall asleep, but with the vigilance of dogs, who go on hearing in their sleep. Now they hear a mouse scratching, now a rooster crowing, now a cart passing down the road. And they can sense the smell of a sad man and his poverty.

  But they do get some rest, and Kaytek feels calmer. Zofia was right – it’s not worth thinking about what might happen. Life is so full of surprises. They’ll just wait and see what comes along. At least they have a goal – to reach home.

  “Well, off you go. I can’t let a living creature starve, but I’ve no food to share with you.”

  And so they say goodbye.

  Kaytek and Zofia wander from village to village, from cottage to cottage, in search of some bread and bones.

  They’re growing weak and thin. They approach people mistrustfully, and keep at a cautious distance whenever they see a dog near the fence, because often people shout: “Scram! Go away!”

  And along with the sharp claws of the farm dogs . . . They’ve also had to run away and hide from whips, sticks, and stones.

  “Don’t be sad. Don’t get mad, Antek,” Zofia comforts him.

  But Kaytek is mad and rebellious when he has to sit down and scratch with his paws and teeth to fight off the vermin that keep a stray dog company. People don’t know what a great gift it is to have hands for work and for self-defense.

  On and on they go, in silence, without talking. They have no strength left now and no more thoughts. Nothing but painful delusions – is that the smell of milk, or soup?

  “Food!” cry their eyes, legs, and ears.

  Until they drag themselves to a forester’s cabin. And it’s high time.

  “Hey there, hound dogs. What are you doing here without your master? How did you get lost? But you’re starving, you poor things. And you’re fine dogs, not just any old kind. I’m sorry for you. Do you want to stay?”

  Oh, how happy they are! Properly bathed, well rested, and full of food.

  “Now let’s have a little chat,” says the forester. “A dog sometimes understands things better than a man. These days the world isn’t very kind to men, or dogs, or trees. Everything’s done for profit or for entertainment. The timber merchants are chopping down the forest. To them a tree is just a commodity, not a living thing. The sins and the injuries just keep multiplying.”

  For several days they rest. What should they do next?

  “Just you wait,” says the forester. “I’m going to the town today. I’ll leave the female here for myself, and give the male dog to an actress as a birthday present; I must teach her that dogs are better than cats.”

  What should they do? There’s no choice. Kaytek will have to part from Zofia. In the town it’ll be easier for him to find out where to go.

  The forester leaves Zofia locked in the hall, and Kaytek runs along after his carriage. He’s not ashamed to be a dog anymore; he sniffs, barks, and jumps up at the horse’s muzzle – he breathes deeply, his chest full of canine joy. There’s so much to run around, so much to sniff at.

  “I have brought you some presents, dear lady – some mushrooms and a little dog,” says the forester. “It’s such a shame you have three cats and not a single dog! What use is a cat? All it does is fawn, while a dog understands you and responds to you with his eyes.”

  “I don’t want it,” says the actress. “You’re a schemer. You’re trying to put me at odds with my friends. It’s a waste of time.”

  Kaytek is left at the actress’ place.

  Things go badly. He fights with the cats. They might seem refined and well raised, but they pick fights, they’re jealous, and they scratch on the sly.

  As soon as he can, Kaytek slips away, back to Zofia, back to the forest.

  “What’s up?” Zofia asks him.

  “We need to wait patiently,” says Kaytek. “It’s a long way to Warsaw. We’ll have to go by train, because we’ll never manage on foot. Our journey hasn’t ended badly so far, but we could have died on a trash heap by now. A dog has to be careful – there are so many dangers threatening him.”

  The forester isn’t pleased to see Kaytek back again.

  “So you’re here again? You ugly big mutt! You’ve got yourself all muddy. I found you a good home, so why did you run off? If I were your mistress, I wouldn’t let you in the house, you slob.”

  A couple of times Kaytek slips away to the railroad. They
soon get to know him there. He runs about the station, examining the trains to see how to jump on board and hide under a seat. He comes back from his reconnaissance with muddy paws, and dirties the floor. And keeps having rows with the cats.

  “That’s enough, doggy,” says the actress. “I don’t want you here. You see, my dear, I used to live in a big city, I was famous – I had more flowers than I now have potatoes. But it’s no good there, it’s too noisy – there are more tears than joys, so I hid away here in seclusion, far from the city strife. But thanks to you I’m being disturbed again.”

  What could he do?

  One cold night, as the wind blew and the rain lashed down, Kaytek and Zofia set off on their way, and managed to board a train.

  They’re lying quietly under a seat. They hear a whistle, and the rumble of the wheels.

  Only a boy, who’s on his way back to school after the holidays, has noticed them.

  “Lie still or the conductor will throw you out.” He feeds them the food his mom has given him for the journey: a roll, an egg, a tart, and a pie.

  But then their over-eager caregiver betrays them.

  “What have you there under the bench, young man? What’s that you keep fussing over? Who are you fetching water for?” asks the conductor. “Aha, dogs! Well, well. You’ll have to pay a fine.”

  “They’re not mine,” says the boy in his defense. “What harm are they doing you?”

  “It’s not allowed.”

  They’ve only gone six stations, but at least they’ve had a feed and a rest. Whatever you do to help a stray dog, it’ll be easier for him to survive another day.

  So they run along, counting the telegraph poles. In the evening there’s cold rain again.

  They dig out a rotten board with their paws and take shelter in a stable. One horse is standing up, the other is lying down. They cuddle up to the horse that is lying down; he sniffs at them and lets them stay – one animal often helps another.

  But in the morning the cart driver chases them out and whips them with a strap. Zofia starts to howl, and Kaytek bares his teeth and growls.

  “You’re gonna bite me, are you? Proud, are you, you tramp?”

  And he throws a stone at Kaytek.

  Things are bad for a dog when he’s hungry, even worse when he’s sick. The injured Kaytek drags along on three paws, while the fourth hangs in the air. The road is even longer now as they try to avoid human settlements, because healthy dogs and spiteful boys love to provoke a lame animal. Perhaps they don’t even do it out of spite, but just because they fail to stop and think.

  “Does it hurt?” asks Zofia.

  “A bit.”

  So they go on, without food, for two days, then a third.

  Zofia is growing more and more restless, turning her head this way and that. Although nearly at the end of her strength, she runs fast, outstripping Kaytek by far. She keeps turning round, wandering about, and sniffing.

  “Antek, it’s here.”

  Impatiently she snuffles the air close to the ground – and seeks the scent higher up too.

  “It’s here, it’s here. Our pony trap’s wheels went past here. Here are our pony’s hoof prints.”

  She speeds along like an arrow. But Kaytek stops and licks his wounded paw, struck by the cart driver’s stone.

  “Leave me here,” he says.

  “No, I won’t,” insists Zofia.

  Sometimes a long journey seems short, and sometimes a short one seems infinitely long. Late that night, they finally reach Zofia’s home.

  Zofia’s mom is sitting on the deck, with a child’s bonnet and slipper on her lap.

  Zofia rests on her paws, looking her mother in the eyes. She licks her feet, whimpers, and jumps up at her.

  “What’s this? Where have you come from? What do you want?”

  There’s anxiety in her voice, as if she can guess.

  “She’ll recognize her,” thinks Kaytek.

  But she doesn’t, because people only trust what they can see with their eyes.

  She doesn’t recognize her own daughter.

  “Come on, doggy. Perhaps you can find Zofia, since people don’t know how. Here, give her cap a sniff. We’ll search for her together.”

  She hugs Zofia, who kisses her mother’s face and eyes.

  At last the dogs can rest and drink warm milk again. Kaytek’s wound is dressed and soon heals.

  “Stay longer,” begs Zofia.

  It’s sad to part after so many adventures together, but he must be on his way.

  It’s easier to find food on his own, though it’s harder to bear the miserable life of a dog in solitude.

  On his lonely journey, Kaytek finds out what it’s like to be sold, to have everyone looking at you and judging you. He finds out what it’s like to be kept on a short chain. He finds out how a spoiled little boy behaves when he’s given a dog to play with. Fate does not spare Kaytek the worst misery a dog can suffer, when the dog catcher snares him on a rope. What did he do that for? Is it because Kaytek wants to live, just because he’s alive?

  He tugs at the rope once, and again. Then in a human way he cunningly waits for his moment; as soon as the bars are just about to close on him once and for all, in a dog-like way he stabs his teeth into his tormentor’s hand, bites him, and runs away.

  He spends only two truly fine days with a poor shepherd. Here he goes hungry, but it doesn’t matter, because here he’s not treated like a toy, or even an animal, but as an equal, a close friend and brother.

  As Kaytek and the shepherd part ways sadly, they gaze after each other for a long time, sure they won’t forget each other in a hurry.

  Once his strength has run out, Kaytek tries his luck at the railroad station again. Twice he is unsuccessful – the first time the door is locked, and the second time he is kicked down the steps and thrown from the moving train.

  But the third time he is noticed by a kind-hearted girl who is traveling to the city on her own to work as a servant. She throws a slice of black bread under the seat for him.

  “Eat it up. You’re alone and so am I. But we’ll help each other on the way.”

  So finally Kaytek reaches Warsaw – his hometown, with its own special smell and memories. Taking the side streets, he reaches his parents’ apartment without any mishap.

  But here there is a painful surprise awaiting him.

  He stands at the door and scratches impatiently, breathing in the smell of the room. Longing to go inside, he presses his nose to a crack, and freezes on the spot when he hears his mother’s voice.

  “Go and see what’s making that scratching noise,” she says.

  He crawls forward, keeping his head lowered.

  They don’t recognize him.

  “It’s a dog. No, you’ve no business here. Off you go . . . If Antek were alive, you’d have a pal.”

  “Father, Daddy,” he whimpers.

  “Maybe he’s hungry,” says Mom.

  “All right, I’ll feed you.”

  But Kaytek doesn’t want food. He’s only hungry for a kind word, for his parents’ caress.

  “If you don’t want food, be off with you, before I lose my patience.”

  Kaytek jumps up, leans his paws against his father’s chest and stares him in the eyes.

  “Get lost!”

  “What if he’s rabid?”

  He goes outside, and the watchman chases him out of the yard.

  Where should he go now? Why did he ever come back?

  “How big the world is. There are so many towns and villages, so many people and animals in it. And they all have a home, a roof over their head and someone who loves them.”

  He won’t go back to Zofia. He’s ashamed to, and anyway, he hasn’t the strength for all that wandering again.

  So Kaytek walks along, not kno
wing where he’s going and what for.

  He remembers the old man with the bundle of sticks on his back, he remembers the shepherd and the schoolboy who fed him in the railroad car, and the girl, and the forester. He remembers the people who have helped him, and also the ones who have hurt him.

  He sighs.

  Suddenly he scents a familiar smell. He looks around and sees he has dragged himself to his school.

  He sits in the gateway of the house opposite, lays his head on his paws, and gazes at the window.

  He waits. Living the life of a dog has taught him patience.

  He waits for the kind lady teacher.

  He waits. He dozes. One person pets him, another jostles him. One person says something kind and clicks his tongue, another grumbles that the mutt is taking up space and getting in the way.

  He waits for the kind teacher, until finally out she comes.

  Kaytek follows her very closely.

  She looks around and he stops. Then she goes on walking. When she goes into a store, Kaytek waits outside.

  She only really notices him when they reach the door of her apartment.

  What will happen now? Kaytek can hardly breathe, his heart is beating fast, and there are stars before his eyes. He feels hot and cold by turns.

  “Are you following me? Are you coming to see me? Come in then, since you’re here.”

  She doesn’t welcome him like a dog, but like a student.

  Kaytek goes inside and looks around the shabby room.

  “Why did I always think teachers were rich people?”

  As if she has guessed his thoughts she says: “It’s a poor life here at my place. You won’t get fat on a teacher’s pay, poor dog.”

  They have some food.

  “Yes, doggy, I thought things would be different. I fooled myself that the children would be kind to me, and that I’d find support among them. Well, what can you expect when they don’t know any better? I can’t just do what I want, or what they want. I’m not allowed to because the headmaster keeps an eye on things, and the inspector checks up on me. They say there’s too much noise during my lessons and not enough progress. The teachers they like are the ones who know how to punish the children, but I want to be friendly and kind to them.”