Through Russia [9]
fashion, in the large scriptory characters of the Ecclesiastical Rubric, not in those of the ordinary kind.)
"For example, that scoop there--what does IT say?"
"It is the word 'Good.'"
"'Good'? But what a slip-knot of a thing! And what are those words THERE, on THAT line?"
"They say, 'Planks, 1 vershok by 9 arshini, 5.'"
"No, six was the number used."
"No, five."
"Five? Why, the soldier broke one, didn't he?"
"Yes, but never mind--at least it wasn't a plank that was wanted."
"Oh! Well, I may tell you that he took the two pieces to the tavern to get drink with."
Then, glancing into my face with his cornflower-blue eyes and quiet, quizzical smile, he would say without the least confusion as he twisted the ringlets of his beard:
"Put down '6.' And see here, young cockerel. The weather has turned wet and cold, and the work is hard, and sometimes folk need to have their spirits cheered and raised with a drop of liquor. So don't you be too hard upon us, for God won't think the more of you for being strict."
And as he thus talked to me in his slow and kindly, but semi-affected, fashion--bespattering me, as it were, with wordy sawdust--I would suddenly grow blind of an eye and silently show him the corrected figure.
"That's it--that's right. And how fine the figure looks now, as it squats there like a merchant's buxom, comely dame!"
Then he would be seen triumphantly telling his mates of his success; then, I would find myself feeling acutely conscious of the fact that everyone was despising me for my complacence Yes, grown sick beyond endurance with a yearning for some thing which it could not descry, my fifteen-year-old heart would dissolve in a flood of mortified tears, and there would pass through my brain the despondent, aching thought:
"Oh, what a sad, uncomfortable world is this! How should Ossip have known so well that I should not re-correct the 6 into a 5, or that I should not tell the contractor that the men have bartered a plank for liquor?"
Again, there befell an occasion when the men stole two pounds' weight of five vershok mandrels and bolts.
"Look here," I said to Ossip warningly. "I am going to report this."
"All right," he agreed with a twitch of his grey eyebrows. "Though what such a trifle can matter I fail to see. Yes, go and report every mother's son of them."
And to the men themselves he shouted:
"Hi, boobies! Each of you now stands docked for some mandrels and bolts."
"Why?" was the old soldier's grim inquiry.
"Because you DO so stand," carelessly retorted the other.
With snarls thereafter, the men eyed me covertly, until I began to feel that very likely I should not do as I had threatened, and even that so to do might not be expedient.
"But look here," said I to Ossip. "I am going to give the contractor notice, and let all of you go to the devil. For if I were to remain with you much longer I too should become a thief."
Ossip stroked his beard awhile, and pondered. Then he seated himself beside me, and said in an undertone:
"That is true."
"Well?"
"But things are always so. The truth is that it's time you departed. What sort of a watchman, of a checker, are you? In jobs of this kind what a man needs to know is the meaning of property. He needs to have in him the spirit of a dog, so that he shall look after his master's stuff as he would look after the skin which his mother has put on to his own body. But you, you young puppy, haven't the slightest notion of what property means. In fact, were anyone to go and tell Vasili Sergeitch about the way in which you keep letting us off, he'd give it you in the neck. Yes, you're no good to him at all, but just an expense: whereas when a man serves a master he ought, do you understand, to be PROFITABLE to that master."
He rolled and handed me a cigarette.
"Smoke this," said he, "and perhaps it'll make your brain work easier. If only you had been of a less awkward, uncomfortable nature, I should have said to you, 'Go and join the priests; but, as things are, you aren't the right
"For example, that scoop there--what does IT say?"
"It is the word 'Good.'"
"'Good'? But what a slip-knot of a thing! And what are those words THERE, on THAT line?"
"They say, 'Planks, 1 vershok by 9 arshini, 5.'"
"No, six was the number used."
"No, five."
"Five? Why, the soldier broke one, didn't he?"
"Yes, but never mind--at least it wasn't a plank that was wanted."
"Oh! Well, I may tell you that he took the two pieces to the tavern to get drink with."
Then, glancing into my face with his cornflower-blue eyes and quiet, quizzical smile, he would say without the least confusion as he twisted the ringlets of his beard:
"Put down '6.' And see here, young cockerel. The weather has turned wet and cold, and the work is hard, and sometimes folk need to have their spirits cheered and raised with a drop of liquor. So don't you be too hard upon us, for God won't think the more of you for being strict."
And as he thus talked to me in his slow and kindly, but semi-affected, fashion--bespattering me, as it were, with wordy sawdust--I would suddenly grow blind of an eye and silently show him the corrected figure.
"That's it--that's right. And how fine the figure looks now, as it squats there like a merchant's buxom, comely dame!"
Then he would be seen triumphantly telling his mates of his success; then, I would find myself feeling acutely conscious of the fact that everyone was despising me for my complacence Yes, grown sick beyond endurance with a yearning for some thing which it could not descry, my fifteen-year-old heart would dissolve in a flood of mortified tears, and there would pass through my brain the despondent, aching thought:
"Oh, what a sad, uncomfortable world is this! How should Ossip have known so well that I should not re-correct the 6 into a 5, or that I should not tell the contractor that the men have bartered a plank for liquor?"
Again, there befell an occasion when the men stole two pounds' weight of five vershok mandrels and bolts.
"Look here," I said to Ossip warningly. "I am going to report this."
"All right," he agreed with a twitch of his grey eyebrows. "Though what such a trifle can matter I fail to see. Yes, go and report every mother's son of them."
And to the men themselves he shouted:
"Hi, boobies! Each of you now stands docked for some mandrels and bolts."
"Why?" was the old soldier's grim inquiry.
"Because you DO so stand," carelessly retorted the other.
With snarls thereafter, the men eyed me covertly, until I began to feel that very likely I should not do as I had threatened, and even that so to do might not be expedient.
"But look here," said I to Ossip. "I am going to give the contractor notice, and let all of you go to the devil. For if I were to remain with you much longer I too should become a thief."
Ossip stroked his beard awhile, and pondered. Then he seated himself beside me, and said in an undertone:
"That is true."
"Well?"
"But things are always so. The truth is that it's time you departed. What sort of a watchman, of a checker, are you? In jobs of this kind what a man needs to know is the meaning of property. He needs to have in him the spirit of a dog, so that he shall look after his master's stuff as he would look after the skin which his mother has put on to his own body. But you, you young puppy, haven't the slightest notion of what property means. In fact, were anyone to go and tell Vasili Sergeitch about the way in which you keep letting us off, he'd give it you in the neck. Yes, you're no good to him at all, but just an expense: whereas when a man serves a master he ought, do you understand, to be PROFITABLE to that master."
He rolled and handed me a cigarette.
"Smoke this," said he, "and perhaps it'll make your brain work easier. If only you had been of a less awkward, uncomfortable nature, I should have said to you, 'Go and join the priests; but, as things are, you aren't the right