Chapter 13 Thirteen

I moved to my grandfather again. Aha, kid, what's the matter?He knocked on the table with his hand and said to me, now I don't support you anymore, let your grandmother take care of you! Let me take care of me, how difficult do you think this is!Grandmother said. Then you'll be fine!My grandfather growled, but immediately fell silent again, and explained to me: Me and her are living separate lives now, everything is separated Grandmother sat under the window, weaving lace quickly, the spools beating happily, and the flash of copper needles dazzled the eyes.My grandmother remained the same, but my grandfather became even thinner, his red-brown hair turned gray, and his green eyes were always looking around suspiciously.Grandmother spoke in a mocking tone of her separation from her grandfather.

He gave her all the broken pots, bowls, and jars, and said: It's all yours, don't ask me for anything! He took almost all her old things, old clothes, miscellaneous things, fox fur coats, and sold them for seven hundred rubles.He gave all the money to his godson and went to earn interest.His godson was a Jew in the fruit business.He lost the last bit of shame, and was stingy to the point of madness: he searched for almost every old friend in the past, complained and begged to them one by one, saying that the child made him penniless, and begged them for money.He took advantage of people's original respect for him and got a lot of money. He took this handful of big bills and shook them in front of his grandmother's nose like a child:

Fool, have you seen it, what is it?They won't give you a penny! He gave all this money to a furrier, and to the furrier's sister who was a shopkeeper, for interest. The money spent in the family is strictly separated. Today my grandmother buys vegetables and cooks, and tomorrow I will be my grandfather.When my grandfather was cooking, he ate very poorly.And my grandmother always bought the best meat.The tea leaves and sugar are also separated, but the tea is boiled in a teapot. At this time, my grandfather will panic and say: Slow down, let me see, how much tea do you put? He counted the tea leaves carefully, then said:

Your tea leaves are a bit more broken than mine, and mine are bigger, so I need to put less! He also paid special attention to the tea color and strength of the tea poured into the two bowls, and of course the portions should be even. One last glass for you?Grandma said before pouring out the tea.Grandfather said: Well, one last drink! The lamp oil for the eternal lamp in front of the holy image is also bought separately.After living together for fifty years, they have come to this point! Watching what my grandfather did was both amusing and repulsive to me, while my grandmother just found it ridiculous.

The older you get, the more confused you become!An eighty-year-old person has also gone back eighty years, let him continue to do this, and see who is unlucky! I'll earn our bread! I also started making money.On holidays, I would walk through the streets to pick up cattle bones, rags, rotten paper and nails.A pood of rags and paper was sold to second-hand dealers for twenty kopecks, so was rotten iron, and ten kopecks or eight kopecks a pood of bones.I usually pick them up after school, and sell them every Saturday, and I can get thirty to fifty kopecks at once, or even more if I am lucky.

Every time my grandmother took my money, she would hastily stuff it into the pocket of her skirt and praise: Really capable, my boy!We can feed ourselves! Once I saw her weeping with my fifty kopecks, a cloudy tear hanging on the tip of her big nose. Better than selling junk was stealing wood and planks from the lumberyards on the banks of the Oka or on Piski Island.Every market, people build a lot of huts on the island, and the wooden boards dismantled after the market are piled up and put in piles until the spring floods.For a good piece of wood, a petty bourgeois owner can pay ten kopecks, and I can get two or three kopecks a day!But to do this, the weather must be bad, and there must be a heavy snowstorm or heavy rain to force the watchman to hide before he can succeed.

The partner who went to steal with me was Shanka, the son of the beggar woman Mordova.Viaher, he is always smiling, he is very gentle.And Kostroma, who is curly.Later, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to a reformatory for juvenile delinquents, where he was hanged.And Happy, a Tartar, twelve years old, mighty.There is also Yazi, the son of the grave watcher, who is a nine-year-old child with epilepsy and few words.The oldest of us was Grisha Grisha, the widow's tailor's son.Churka, he's always been reasonable and he's got a lot of punch. In our part of the world, stealing became the fashion, almost the only way of earning a living for the hungry and cold.The adults are targeting cargo ships, looking for opportunities on the Volga and Oka rivers.During breaks, they would talk about their experiences and boast about their achievements, and the children would learn while listening.The wallets of drunks and children can be searched openly, without interference.

They steal the carpenter's tools, the spare tire from the wagon, the wagonman's whip. We don't do those things.Chulka once said emphatically: My mother won't let me steal, so I won't do it! I dare not steal!Hubby said. Kostroma hated the word thief very much, and when he saw other children stealing drunks, he would chase them away.He considers himself a grown-up, he walks crookedly like a porter, his voice is low and rough, and his every move is pretentious.Viaher also believed that stealing was a sin. It's not a sin to get planks from Piskie, though, and we'd all love to do it.Taking advantage of bad weather or at night, Viahel and Yaz swaggered towards Piski Island from below.The four of us groped across from the side separately, seized the opportunity when the guards were chasing Viahel and Yaz, dragged the board and ran back!The watchman never spotted us, and if he did he couldn't catch up.When I sold what I got, the money was divided into six parts, and each person got five kopecks or even seven kopecks.

With this little money, it is no problem to have enough food for a day.However, everyone has a use for everyone: Viaher has to buy four and a half vodka for his mother every day, or he will be beaten; Cotes Roma wants to save money to buy pigeons; Chulka earns money for him Mother sees a doctor; Happy saves money to go back to his hometown.His uncle died after bringing him here from his hometown, and Happy didn't know the name of his hometown, only that it was on the banks of the Kama River, not far from the Volga River. We made up a song to amuse the squinting Tartar boy: A city on the Kama River.

I don't know where it is! I can't walk with my feet, Can't make it by hand! At first Hubby was very angry, Viaher said: Don't, don't!Are brothers still angry? Happy was a little embarrassed, and sang the song too. We prefer to pick up junk than to steal planks.Picking up junk after the spring snow melts or the downpour is even more interesting.In the ditches and ditches of the market, we can always find nails, broken copper, rotten iron, and sometimes money!But we had to give two kopecks to the stall guy, or beg for his permission.It's not easy to make money, but we are very good with each other, and occasionally we have small quarrels, but we have never fought.

Viaher often said quietly and convincingly when others quarreled: Is this necessary?Let's think about it, it's really not necessary. He called his mother my Mordovian woman, which we thought was nothing funny. Yesterday, when my Mordovan woman came home, she was drunk again!She slammed the door open, sat down on the threshold, and sang like a rooster! Chulka, who likes to break the casserole and ask the bottom line, asked: What are you singing? Viaher imitated his mother and sang in a high-pitched voice: The foster boy walks down the street, Roaring with a whip in hand; From house to house with a whip, Throwing the children out and wandering the streets. Yo yo hey, look at that sunset glow is like fiery red, The reed flute blew loudly, Xiaocun dreams sweetly. He can sing many such warm and joyful songs.He went on to say: Later, she fell asleep sitting on the threshold, and the room was so cold that I couldn't pull her, and I almost froze us to death.This morning, I said: You are so drunk!She said: Nothing, just wait a little longer, I will die soon! Chulka said earnestly and firmly: Yes, she was dying, her whole body was swollen! do you pity herI asked. why not?She is my wonderful mother, said Viaher. We know his mother beats him a lot, but we all believe she is a good person!On unlucky occasions Chulka would also suggest: Come on, let's each chip in a kopek to buy a bar for Vyacher's mother, or he'll be beaten! Viahel envied me and Chulka very much, because both of us could read.He grabbed his pointed ears and said softly: After I buried my Mordovan woman, I went to school, and I bowed to the teacher to accept me.After I finished my studies, I went to the bishop and asked him to accept me as a gardener, or else I went straight to the tsar In the spring, the Mordovan woman dies.Chulka said to Viahel: Come to our house, my mother will teach you how to read Not long after, Viaher held his head high and read the words on the signboard: grocery store Grocery store, dumbass!Chulka said. Hi, I pronounced the letters upside down! That's wrong! Oh, look, the letters are alive and well, and they like to be pronounced! We are both amused and surprised by Viher's love for mountains, rivers, trees, flowers, birds and vegetation.If any of us sat on the grass, Viher would say: Don't waste the grass, isn't it different to sit on the sand? No one would dare to break a branch of white willow in front of him. If he saw it, he would shrug his shoulders: What the hell are you doing? Every Sunday, we will play a game: In the evening, a group of Tatar porters from the Siberian pier [Note: On the Volga River in the market area of ​​Nizhny Novgorod. 】When we go home and pass by our crossroads, we will throw straw sandals at them.At first they chased and scolded us, but later they also thought it was interesting, and prepared some straw sandals in advance, and often stole the straw sandals we prepared, making us helpless, shouting: What kind of game is this? Finally they gave us half of the straw sandals, and the battle began.Generally, they defend and we attack.We yelled loudly and circled them, throwing straw sandals at them, and if any of us tripped over the straw sandals, they yelled too and laughed loudly. The game lasted an unusually long time, and was surrounded by petty bourgeois who, as a rule, muttered for a while in order to preserve their decency.After the battle, the Tartar boys used to invite us to eat horsemeat, and drink strong tea with creamy walnut desserts.There is something about these tall and strong people that is easy for children to understand. Their honesty without malice and their selfless help to each other deeply attract us. Among them is a crooked nose named Kasimov with fabulous powers!Once, when he brought a twenty-seven pood bell ashore from a cargo ship, he cried out: oh oh!Nonsense rotten eggs!Bullshit bullshit! Another time he put Viher in his hand, lifted it up, and said: Look, God! If the weather is bad, we will gather in Yazi's family's hut where his father looks after the grave.Yazz's father was crooked and filthy and unapproachable.He squinted happily and said: God bless, don't let me lose sleep!Oh ho! We brought three qianqian tea, four taels of sugar, a few loaves of bread, and four taels of vodka for Yaz's father, which was essential.Chulka ordered him sternly: Scrap, make a samovar! Scrap grinned, raised the tin samovar, and while we waited for tea, discussing our own affairs, he gave us good advice: Have you heard that the day after tomorrow, the Trusov family will hold a memorial day for the dead, and there will be a grand banquet. You want to go there to find the bones! Their cooks will put them all away.Said Chulka the omniscient.Viaher looked at the cemetery outside the window and said: Soon to be in the woods, great! Yaz silently took out the wooden horses, broken copper pieces, buckled horses, and missing legs he picked up from the garbage dump for us to see. We all drank tea, and Yazz's father, after drinking his share of wine, climbed onto the stove, stared at us like owls, and said: Oh, why don't you die?You thieves seem to be no longer children!God bless, don't let me lose sleep! Viahel said: We are not thieves! Not a thief?That's the thief When he bored us with his chatter, Chulka would scold him: Enough, trash! Because his topic cannot be separated from who has a patient, which patient is going to die, and so on, he deliberately teased us: Oh boys, are you scared?Let me tell you, a fat man is dying!Oh, it will take a long time to rot! We told him to shut up, but he kept on babbling: You have to die too To die is to die, said the angel Viaher after death. you?Haha, you guys, are you still going to be angels? ! He laughed a lot, and went on talking about the dead. Ah, a woman was buried three days ago, I know what happened to her, listen to me, boys He liked to talk about women, and he was always obscene, but there was something brooding in his tone, so we were fascinated. Someone asked her: Who set the fire?She said: I let it go!Oh, why did she say that!god bless don't make me lose sleep He knows the history of almost everyone lying in the grave.It was as if he had opened the doors of every house in front of us, and let us see how they lived. He could talk until dark, and from dark to dawn.But dusk had just come, and Chulka was leaving: I have to go home, or mother will be scared.Who is coming with me? Everyone is gone.Jazz closed the door and said in a muffled voice: do not! do not!We answer him. We always felt a little uneasy about leaving him in the grave.Kostroma says: He may be dead when we come back tomorrow. Yaz is worse than us!Chulka used to say. We are not suffering, not at all!Viaher retorted. Yes, wandering the streets, free, why bother?On the contrary, I often have a great feeling in my heart, I love my companions too much, and always want to do something good for them. However, street vagrancy caused problems for my life at school.They told me to be a scavenger, a stinky beggar, and said I smell like garbage!I feel humiliated because I change into clean clothes every time I go to school. When I finally finished the third grade, the school awarded me a Gospel book, a copy of Krylov's fables, and a copy of "Fada.Morgana, and a certificate.When my grandfather saw the prizes, he was so excited that he wanted to lock the books in his own box. At that time, my grandmother had been ill for several days. She had no money and almost no food, but my grandfather was still complaining endlessly: You drank and ate me up and left me nothing I sold the book for fifty-five kopeks and gave it to my grandmother.I scribbled some words on the certificate before giving it to my grandfather. He kept it before opening it, so he didn't discover my tricks. After finishing my school life, I started wandering on the streets again. When spring returned to the earth, the wild forest became our best place to go, and I came back very late every day. And such happy days did not last long.The stepfather was fired, and he disappeared without a trace.My mother and younger brother moved back to my grandfather's house, and I became a nanny.My grandmother embroidered holy images on coffin covers at a rich merchant's house in the city. The mother was dry and skinny, almost out of human shape; the little brother was also starved to the skin and bones, and an unknown disease afflicted him, making him look like a dying puppy. Grandfather touched his head and said: I have to feed him well, but my feed is limited, not enough for all of you to eat Mother leaned against the wall, sighed and said: he can't eat much It's not much, but it's terrible if you don't have much together My grandfather asked me to carry the sand and bury my little brother in it to bask in the sun.The little brother was very happy and smiled sweetly.I fell in love with him immediately, as if he knew what I was thinking. Die, easy!What you should think about is how to live!Grandfather's roar flew from the window. Mother coughed for a long time I stayed there with my little brother, who would turn his head and smile at me when he saw a cat or a dog in the distance.Oh, the little guy, does he already feel that I am bored with him and wants to run out into the street? At lunch, the grandfather feeds the children himself.After the child had eaten a few mouthfuls, he pressed his belly and said to himself: Are you full?Would you like some more? A mother's voice came from a dark corner: Didn't you clearly see that he was still reaching out for it? Children, don't understand!More if you are full! The grandfather put the chewed food into the child's mouth again. alright!Grandpa finally said, give it to his mother. My grandfather asked me to hand the child to my mother.Mother stood up facing me and stretched out her arms like branches. The mother became completely dumb, lying on the bed day after day, half dead.What annoys me the most is that my grandfather talks about dying every day after dark.He lay in the dark, muttering in his mouth: The time of death has come!What face do you have to meet God?Alas, I have been busy all my life and ended up like this Mother died at noon on a Sunday in August.At that time, my stepfather had just returned from other places, my grandmother and younger brother had already moved to his place, and my mother would soon move there. On the morning of her death, my mother whispered to me: Go to Yevgeny.Vasilyevich go, tell him I invite him! She braced herself up and added: run! I felt a strange gleam in her eyes.My stepfather was at mass, and my grandmother asked me to buy cigarettes, which delayed me for a while. When I got home, I was surprised to see my mother sitting at the table, all dressed up, with the same demeanor as before. How are you?I was a little apprehensive.She gave me a cold look, and said: come over!Where have you been wandering again? Before I could speak, she grabbed me and slapped me with the back of the knife, but the knife slipped out of her hand immediately. pick it up!Give me I picked up the knife and threw it on the table, and my mother pushed me away; I sat on the steps of the kang stove and looked at her in surprise. She got up from the chair, moved slowly to her sleeping corner, lay on the bed and began to wipe the sweat off her face with a handkerchief.weak says: give me water I quickly scooped up a bowl of cold water, but she only drank a little. Pushing away my hand, her lips moved, as if she had a wry smile, and a shadow appeared on her face, which quickly occupied her entire face. She opened her mouth in astonishment, but she couldn't hear her breathing. I stood next to her with water in my hand, watching her face turn cold and gray, I don't know how long I stood there. Grandfather came in, and I said to him: mother died He glanced at the bed: What nonsense are you talking about! He went to get the buns from the kang stove, which made a lot of clinking. The stepfather came in, moved a chair and sat down beside my mother.Suddenly he jumped up from his chair, knocked it down, and cried out: she died, look Grandfather stared, holding the lid of the kang stove in his hand, stumbled and quietly left the stove like a blind man. When everyone was throwing dirt on Mother's coffin, Grandmother bumped into the cemetery like a blind man. She bumped into the cross and broke her head. Yazz's father took her to his cabin, and while my grandmother was washing her face, he comforted me by saying: Alas, as a human being, there must be such a time, no matter rich or poor, will go into the coffin sooner or later I said, right, grandma? He ran out of the hut and was back with Viaher in a moment. Look, look what's this?He handed me a broken spur. I gave it to you with Viher, I want to buy it from him, I will give him two kopecks nonsense!Viaher said angrily. Ah, well, it's not me, it's him, he gave it to you! Viaher did his best to make me laugh: Yaz's father laughed exaggeratedly as he hung the spurs around his neck and twisted the little wheels with his tongue. Seeing that I didn't respond, he said seriously: Wake up, everyone is going to die, what is that, isn't the bird going to die too? Come on, how about we lay sod on your mother's grave? This pleased me, and we all set off.A few days after burying my mother, my grandfather said: Alexey, you're not a medal, I can't stand having you around my neck all the time!Go, go, go, go to the world to make a living So, I walked into the world. (End of the book)