My Childhood - Maxim Gorky [85]
"'How can you allow yourself to be taken in by a man like that, when no one knows where he came from or what he is?'
"I kept quiet until he was tired, and then I said:
"'You ought to go and see how they are living. They are getting along all right.'
"'That would be doing them too much honor,' he said. 'Let them come here.'
"At this I cried for joy, and he loosened my hair (he loved to play with my hair) and muttered:
"'Don't upset yourself, stupid. Do you think I have not got a heart?'
"He used to be very good, you know, our grandfather, before he got an idea into his head that he was cleverer than any one else, and then he became spiteful and stupid.
"Well, so they came, your father and mother, one Saint's Day--both of them large and sleek and neat; and Maxim stood in front of grandfather, who laid a hand on his shoulder--he stood there and he said:
"'Don't think, Vassili Vassilitch, that I have come to you for a dowry; I have come to do honor to my wife's father.'
"Grandfather was very pleased at this, and burst out laughing. 'Ach!--you fighter!' he said. 'You robber! Well,' he said, 'we 'll be indulgent for once. Come and live with me.'
"Maxim wrinkled his forehead. 'That must be as Varia wishes,' he said. 'It is all the same to me.'
"And then it began. They were at each other tooth and nail all the time; they could not get on together anyhow. I used to wink at your father and kick him under the table, but it was no use; he would stick to his own opinion. He had very fine eyes, very bright and clear, and his brows were dark, and when he drew them together his eyes were almost hidden, and his face became stony and stubborn. He would not listen to any one but me. I loved him, if possible, more than my own children, and he knew this and loved me too. Sometimes he would hug me, and catch me up in his arms, and drag me round the room, saying: 'You are my real mother, like the earth. I love you more than I love Varvara.' And your mother (when she was happy she was very saucy) would fly at him and cry: 'How dare you say such a thing, you rascal?' And the three of us would romp together. Ah! we were happy then, my dear. He used to dance wonderfully well too--and such beautiful songs he knew. He picked them up from the blind people; and there are no better singers than the blind.
"Well, they settled themselves in the outbuilding in the garden, and there you were born on the stroke of noon. Your father came home to dinner, and you were there to greet him. He was so delighted that he was almost beside himself, and nearly tired your mother out; as if he did not realize, the stupid creature, what an ordeal it is to bring a child into the world. He put me on his shoulder and carried me right across the yard to grandfather to tell him the news--that another grandson had appeared on the scene. Even grandfather laughed: 'What a demon you are, Maxim!' he said.
"But your uncles did not like him. He did not drink wine, he was bold in his speech, and clever in all kinds of tricks--for which he was bitterly paid out. One day, for instance, during the great Fast, the wind sprang up, and all at once a terrible howling resounded through the house. We were all stupefied. What did it mean? Grandfather himself was terrified, ordered lamps to be lit all over the house, and ran about, shouting at the top of his voice: rWe must offer up prayers together!'
"And suddenly it stopped--which frightened us still more. Then Uncle Jaakov guessed. 'This is Maxim's doing, I am sure!' he said. And afterwards Maxim himself confessed that he had put bottles and glasses of various kinds in the dormer-window, and the wind blowing down the necks of the vessels produced the sounds, all by itself. 'These jokes will land you in Siberia again if you don't take care, Maxim,' said grandfather menacingly.
"One year there was a very hard frost and wolves began to come into the towns from the fields; they killed the dogs, frightened the horses, ate up tipsy watchmen, and caused a great