My Childhood - Maxim Gorky [98]
Sitting at the table, looking so small in his wide black clothes, and with a funny hat like a little pail on his head, he shook his hands free from his sleeves and said:
"Now, children, let us have a talk together."
And at once the classroom became warm and bright, and pervaded by an atmosphere of unfamiliar pleasantness.
1 The author of the famous work, in three volumes, entitled "Religions of the Ancient World," and the article on "Egyptian Metempsychosis," as well as several articles of public interest such as "Concerning Marriage, and Women." That last article made a deep impression on me when I read it in my youth. It seems to me that I have not remembered its title correctly, but it was published in some theological journal in the seventies.
Calling me to the table, after many others had had their turns, he asked me gravely:
"And how old are you? Is that all? Why, what a tall boy you are! I suppose you have been standing out in the rain pretty often, have you? Eh?"
Placing one dried-up hand with long, sharp nails on the table, and catching hold of his sparse beard with the fingers of the other, he placed his face, with its kind eyes, quite close to mine, as he said:
"Well, now tell me which you like best of the Bible stories."
When I told him that I had no Bible and did not learn Scripture history, he pulled his cowl straight, saying:
"How is that? You know it is absolutely necessary for you to learn it. But perhaps you have learned some by listening? You know the Psalms? Good! And the prayers? . . . There, you see! And the lives of the Saints too? ... In rhyme? . . . Then I think you are very well up in the subject."
At this moment our priest appeared--flushed and out of breath. The Bishop blessed him, but when he began to speak about me, he raised his hand, saying:
"Excuse me ... just a minute. . . . Now, tell me the story of Alexei, the man of God.
"Fine verses those---eh, my boy?" he said, when I came to a full stop, having forgotten the next verse. "Let us have something else now--something about King David. . . . Go on, I am listening very attentively."
I saw that he was really listening, and that the verses pleased him. He examined me for a long time, then he suddenly stood up and asked quickly:
"You have learned the Psalms? Who taught you? A good grandfather, is he? Eh? Bad? You don't say so! . . . But are n't you very naughty?"
I hesitated, but at length I said:
"Yes."
The teacher and the priest corroborated my confession garrulously, and he listened to them with his eyes cast down; then he said with a sigh:
"You hear what they say about you? Come here!"
Placing his hand, which smelt of cypress wood, on my head, he asked:
"Why are you so naughty?"
"It is so dull learning."
"Dull? Now, my boy, that is not true. If you found it dull you would be a bad scholar, whereas your teachers testify that you are a very apt pupil. That means that you have another reason for being naughty."
Taking a little book from his breast, he said as he wrote in it:
"Pyeshkov, Alexei. There! . . . All the same, my boy, you must keep yourself in hand, and try not to be too naughty. . . . We will allow you to be just a little naughty; but people have plenty to plague them without that. Is n't it so, children?"
Many voices answered gaily:
"Yes."
"But I can see that you are not very naughty yourselves. Am I right?"
And the boys laughingly answered all together:
"No. We are very naughty too--very!"
The Bishop leaned over the back of a chair, drew me to him, and said surprisingly, causing us all--even the teacher and the priest--to laugh:
"It is a fact, my brothers--that when I was your age I was very naughty too. What do you think of that?"
The children laughed, and he began to ask them questions, adroitly contriving to muddle them, so that they began to answer each other; and the merriment redoubled. At length he stood up, saying:
"Well, it is very nice to be