My Childhood - Maxim Gorky [37]
"Do you hear how he bawls, Mother? What are you making that noise for, you little Astrakhan maniac? Eh?"
"It was you that made the noise."
It was a pleasure to me then to look at him and at grandmother, who, with her elbows on the table, and cheek resting on her hand, was watching us and laughing gently as she said:
"You will burst yourselves with laughing if you are not careful."
"I am irritable because I am unwell," grandfather explained in a friendly tone. "But what's the matter with you, eh?"
"Our poor Natalia was mistaken," he said to grandmother, shaking his damp head, "when she said he had no memory. He has a memory, thank God! It is like a horse's memory. Get on with it, snub-nose!"
At last he playfully pushed me off the bed.
"That will do. You can take the book, and tomorrow you will say the whole alphabet to me without a mistake, and I will give you five kopecks."
When I held out my hand for the book, he drew me to him and said gruffly:
"That mother of yours does not care what becomes of you, my lad."
Grandmother started.
"Oh, Father, why do you say such things?"
"I ought not to have said it--my feelings got the better of me. Oh, what a girl that is for going astray!"
He pushed me from him roughly.
"Run along now! You can go out, but not into the street; don't you dare to do that. Go to the yard or the garden."
The garden had special attractions for me. As soon as I showed myself on the hillock there, the boys in the causeway started to throw stones at me, and I returned the charge with a will.
"Here comes the ninny," they would yell as soon as they saw me, arming themselves hastily. "Let's skin him!"
As I did not know what they meant by "ninny," the nickname did not offend me; but I liked to feel that I was one alone fighting against the lot of them, especially when a well-aimed stone sent the enemy flying to shelter amongst the bushes. We engaged in these battles without malice, and they generally ended without any one being hurt.
I learned to read and write easily. Grandmother bestowed more and more attention on me, and whippings became rarer and rarer--although in my opinion I deserved them more than ever before, for the older and more vigorous I grew the more often I broke grandfather's rules, and disobeyed his commands; yet he did no more than scold me, or shake his fist at me. I began to think, if you please, that he must have beaten me without cause in the past, and I told him so.
He lightly tilted my chin and raised my face towards him, blinking as he drawled:
"Wha--a--a--t?"
And half-laughing, he added:
"You heretic! How can you possibly know how many whippings you need? Who should know if not I? There! get along with you."
But he had no sooner said this than he caught me by the shoulder and asked:
"Which are you now, I wonder--crafty or simple?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know! Well, I will tell you this much--be crafty; it pays! Simple-mindedness is nothing but foolishness. Sheep are simple-minded, remember that! That will do. Run away!"
Before long I was able to spell out the Psalms. Our usual time for this was after the evening tea, when I had to read one Psalm.
"B-l-e-s-s, Bless; e-d, ed; Blessed," I read, guiding the pointer across the page. "Blessed is the man-- Does that mean Uncle Jaakov?" I asked, to relieve the tedium.
"I'll box your ears; that will teach you who it is that is blessed," replied grandfather, snorting angrily; but I felt that his anger was only assumed, because he thought it was the right thing to be angry.
And I was not mistaken; in less than a minute it was plain that he had forgotten all about me as he muttered:
"Yes, yes! King David showed himself to be very spiteful--in sport, and in his songs, and in the Absalom affair. Ah! Maker of Songs, Master of Language, and Jester. That is what you were!"
I left off reading to look at his frowning, wondering face. His eyes, blinking slightly,