Nine-year-old Vanka Zhukov was sent three months ago to be apprenticed to Ariakhine, the shoemaker. On Christmas Eve, he didn't lie down to sleep. He waited for his boss, his wife, and a few of his men to go to church, then he took a small bottle of ink from his boss's stand, a pen with a rusty nib, flattened a piece of crumpled white paper, and wrote a letter.
Before he wrote the first word, he glanced worriedly a few times toward the door and window, and squinted at the dimly lit idol, which was flanked by two rows of shelves filled with lasts. He sighed and knelt in front of the workbench, laying the piece of paper on it.
"Dear Grandfather Constantine Makarich," he wrote, "I am writing to you. I wish you a merry Christmas and ask God to bless you. I have no father or mother, and you are the only family I have."
Vanka looked toward the darkened window, which reflected the blurred shadows of the candles; he imagined his grandfather, Constantine Makarich, as if he were right in front of him. --Grandfather was the night-watchman in the house of Master Zhifarov. He was a very funny, thin old man, 65 years old, always smiling and blinking. During the day, he always slept in the big kitchen. At night, he puts on a wide sheepskin coat, bangs the clapper, and walks around the villa. The old female dog Kashidanka and the male dog Loach followed him with their heads down. Loach was a very obedient and very pleasant dog. His body was black and long like a weasel's, so he was called Loach.
By now, Grandpa must be standing at the front door, squinting at the red, shiny windows of the country church. He must have been stamping his feet in his high felt boots, his clappers hanging from his belt, and he was freezing and shrinking and shrugging his shoulders ......
It was a beautiful, clear day, not a breath of wind, and it was dry and cold and dry. It was a moonless night, but the whole village -- the white roofs, the wisps of smoke coming out of the chimneys, the trees covered in frost, the snowdrifts -- was visible. The sky was sprinkled with stars blinking happily, and the river looked clear, as if someone had polished it with snow for a holiday ......
Vanka sighed, dipped the tip of her pen, and went on writing.
"I got a beating last night because I fell asleep without realizing it while rocking the cradle for their little cub. The boss grabbed me by the hair, dragged me out into the yard and beat me with a belt. This week, the boss's wife told me to clean up a mackerel, and when I got it up by the tail, she fished the mackerel out and poked me right in the face with the beak. The guys tease me, they send me up to the hotel to get a drink, they tell me to steal the boss's cucumber, and the boss casually fishes up a guy and beats me. And the food, there was simply none. A little bread in the morning, gruel for lunch, and a little bread in the evening; as for food and tea, only the bosses themselves ate and drank. They tell me to sleep in the aisle, and when their little cubs cry, I don't want to go to sleep, so I have to rock that cradle. Dear Grandpa, have mercy, take me away from here and go home to our village! I can't take it anymore! ...... I'm on my knees to you, and I'll always pray to God for you. Take me away from here, or I will die! ......"
Vanka bristled, rubbing her eyes with the back of her dirty hand and huffing.
"I will rub your tobacco for you," he continued to write, "and I will pray to God for you. If I do something wrong, you can beat me solidly. If you are afraid that I will not find work, I will ask the housekeeper, for God's sake, to let me polish shoes; or I will ask Figeka to promise me to help him with the sheep. Dear grandfather, I can't stand it any longer; there is only death! I ...... would have run back to our village, but I have no shoes, and I am afraid of the cold. When I grow up, I will take care of you, and no one will dare to bully you.
"Speaking of Moscow, it is a big city, the houses are all old men's, there are many horses, no sheep, and the dogs are not at all fierce. At Christmas, the little children here do not walk around with star lights, and no one is allowed to just go up to the choir in the church and sing. Once I saw in the window of a store hooks sold with fishing rods and wires, which caught all kinds of fish, and were very expensive. There was one that could catch a big catfish that weighed about a pound. I also saw some stores selling all kinds of guns, like our boss's gun, which I think cost a hundred rubles a piece. In the butcher's store there were mountain snipes, and partridges, and hares,...... but where those things came from, the shopkeeper wouldn't say.
"Dear grandfather, when his lordship hangs the sweets on the Christmas tree, please pick a golden walnut and hide it in my green box."
Vanka sighed sadly and stared blankly out the window again. He remembered how it was always Grandpa who went out into the woods to cut down the Christmas tree, and how Grandpa always took him with him. What happy days! The frozen mountains chirped, and Grandpa coughed in the cold, and he coughed ...... along with him. When it was time to cut down the Christmas tree, Grandpa smoked a pipe of cigarettes, then snorted for a while, and laughed for a while with little Vanka, who was freezing. ...... Many little fir trees, clothed in thick frost, stood motionless, waiting to see which one should die. Suddenly out of nowhere a hare jumped and arrowed across the snowdrift. Grandpa couldn't help but call out, "Catch it, catch it, catch it! Hey, short-tailed ghost!"
Grandpa dragged the cut tree back to his lordship's house, and everyone got to work dressing the tree.
"Come on, dear Grandpa," Vanka then wrote, "I beg you, for Christ's sake, to take me away from here. Have mercy on this unfortunate orphan. Everyone here beats me. I'm so hungry and alone, I can't tell you how hard it is. I cried all the time. One day, the boss hit me on the head with a last and I fainted, only to wake up easily. I had no hope for my life, I was worse than a dog! ...... My greetings to Alyona, to the one eyed Egor, to the coachman. Don't let the bystanders take my little organ. Your grandson Ivan Zhukov. Dear grandfather, come on!"
Vanka folded the scribbled paper in four and put it into an envelope, the one he had bought for a kopeck the night before. He thought for a moment, dipped it in ink, and wrote the address.
"Countryside For Grandpa"
Then he scratched his head, thought some more, and added a few words.
"Constantine Makaric"
Satisfied that no one had disturbed him in writing his letter, he put on his hat, and, without even a ragged coat, but only his shirt, ran out into the street....... He had asked the butcher's mate the night before, and the mate told him that the letters should be dropped in the post box, and from there they would be distributed to all parts of the country by mail carts. There were three horses on the cart, ringing bells, and a drunken letter carrier. Vanka ran to the first mailbox and stuffed his precious letter inside.
After an hour, he fell asleep with sweet hope. In his dream he saw a warm bed, on which sat his grandfather, on two legs, reading his letter ...... The loach was walking along the side of the bed, wagging its tail ......
But after all, the dream had to be awakened. On the street at Christmas, a carriage would occasionally pass through, it was the young ladies of the noble families going to sell their gifts, or to the noble school for a party, I guess. A carriage came slowly towards the front of the store, the horse was not like the carriage of the mayor's family, Vanka had seen the horse of the mayor's family. It had been the year before, when the Tsar had passed through the city, in the middle of winter, when most of the people still couldn't get warm clothes on, but had to be coerced by the police to go out into the streets barefoot with the bouquets of flowers and ribbons they were given to go out into the cold and wind to welcome their great Tsar.
The tsar and the empress wore flannel robes made from polar bears hunted from Siberia, and the empress wore a scarf made from the fur of an arctic fox around her neck. The scarves sold in old Kaga's store were far worse, but he smoothed out the collar of his grease-stained and wrinkled shirt and managed to fit the second button into the first - the first had been torn off during a fight with Lina's mother - and then with a bill stained with money, he put it on the collar of his shirt and put it on the collar of his shirt. -and then he wiped his face with his banknote-smelling hands. He didn't understand why the Tsar and the Empress had come so early, causing him to have to get up early to greet them without washing his face. But the old Kaja was excited, because it was the Tsar, after all, and he wished that either the Tsar or the Empress would look at him as eagerly as he wished that everyone in the city would come to his store to buy something.
By the way, it was time to talk about the Lord Mayor's horse, which followed the Ford sedan in which the Czar was riding--Russia, in spite of its factories, does not make sedans as well as the United States, and it is said that the Empress bought her jewelry with the money spent on building the sedan--that was a white horse, with a white body, and a white face. A white horse, covered with flesh - Vanka didn't know the word "plump," so that's the only way to describe it - with hair as white as snow, like the snow in Vanka's hometown, and a mane and tailcoat that were probably as white as snow. The mane and tail were probably freshly brushed in the morning, and when the wind blew, a familiar scent wafted from the horse... Oh, that's the smell of the owner's wife's shampoo - she always said it was the best and most expensive, at least in the city... I wonder what she would have said if she had smelled it on the horse! --The horse's steppe-like belly of Donets was covered from top to bottom with Chinese silk - which he had bought at a high price from an English captain who had been in the Yuanmingyuan - and it was all for its own sake. -and it was all for the sake of making his horse look nobler and more respectable, but he could have done without it, for how many people in this town had horses?
The owner's house, where Vanka served, happened to have one, and it was not as fat as the mayor's horse, nor as fragrant, nor as noble, but the owner thought his horse was as good as his character. The horse, skinny and bony, pulled the cart the boss was sitting in to the front of the store with its legs that looked like Vanka's grandfather's crutches.
Vanka woke up, and he woke up just in time, because the boss was back. He looked through the window and saw that the horse's tail -- the tail was the most conspicuous part of the horse, as the saying goes, "the horse is thin and the hair is long" -- had been braided into a beautiful flower braid, with a colorful rope attached to it. That's a description of the braid, of course, but if the braid is the tail of the horse, and it's the tail of the owner's horse, that's a big deal. It would be like the neighbor's little Lina's mother's mountain of a body wearing a leotard, the kind worn by ballerinas, and one can only imagine what it would look like. But this horse in front of the door was just that, but in the owner's aesthetic - he often compared the owner's mom to the Mona Lisa - it was very good looking. The tail had been hand-braided by the proprietor in order to go to church services on Christmas Eve, taking time away from his usual counting of money. For he thought that, though his store was small, and though his horse was poor, he must do his best to save face, by braiding his horse's tail, for instance, so that he could boast in front of the lords and wives-but if Vanka, who had not had much schooling, were to hear the boss make a speech on the tail of his horse (which was in fact a speech in the presence of those who were less cultivated), he would have a very good impression of the owner. was that to the less educated, it was actually a big, misspelled but award-winning joke), Vanka would think it was even more disgusting than talking about a pig's ass.
The boss squirmed himself - he didn't usually squirm like that, he wriggled - and walked over into the store. Finally Vanka knew why the owner was being so unusual, and as the door to the store was pushed open, the smell of potent vodka hit him, and the owner staggered and almost fell on top of Vanka, but it seemed that the bedroom was a little more appealing to him, and a figure just flopped down onto the bed. At that moment the door opened again, and it was the boss's wife, the smell of tequila hit her, and she too almost went on top of Vanka, but in the end she fell back onto the bed. And just like that, a footstep later, the store was silent again. Vanka calmed down after a moment of trepidation, he should have been busy scrubbing the floor at this point, but now he was sitting still, which would have been a death wish in normal times.
Now, Vanka thought to himself, he's fine sitting there, no one knows, and the floor is the same whether he scrubs it or not. He gradually relaxed, remembering the letter to his grandfather again. Just as Vanka was leaning against the counter thinking about his grandfather, a pair of eyes stared at Vanka, the owner of these eyes was not exactly an adult, but he was thinking about a sinful thing with an adult heart.
The fellow also came back, he wanted to bring the master and the wife near the house, but it did not occur to him that they were faster than rabbits, and did not need to be helped by the fellow at all, they themselves went towards the bed as if the apple had fallen to the ground. Seeing that the boss and the boss's wife were gone to bed, the fellow himself was y tired; yesterday's party at Vladimir's house on Third Street had been such a rowdy affair that he now had a headache just thinking about it, so the fellow decided that he had better go to bed himself. Just as he had settled his horse and entered the house through the back door, ready to go to bed, he saw someone from the aisle, however, and it was Vanka. Even though both were also from foreign lands and neither was yet an adult, the fellow was not at all impressed with Vanka. For in his heart, though only sixteen or seventeen years of age, many hearts were already born, which made him in advance a hypocrite, full of fraud and envy. The mate would not allow anyone in the store to disobey him except the owner and his family, and thus Vanka became an undesirable person under his tyrannical rule. Yes, as an apprentice, Vanka was disliked by the boss, but his cleverness and dexterity were a source of frustration for the man. The fellow always regarded Vanka as a thorn in his side, fearing that Vanka would take his place one day. That's the reason why the dude generated a sinister plan in his heart - he wanted to get rid of his rival.
The boss and the boss's wife were drunk, but after all, they were still well, and they woke up by the afternoon. When the boss came out of his room, stretched his arms, jerked his pants then huffed and puffed, and finally came to his senses, he realized that the store was no different than usual and went to count the money, while the boss's wife, not having as many bad habits as the boss, just got up out of her bed and rushed out of the store in a huff to get out. Where was Vanka? He was scrubbing the floor, and the sound of footsteps coming and going didn't disturb him, he still had his grandfather on his mind.
The fellow finally began his plan. The boss counted the money with such concentration that the sky couldn't make him move from his place even if the sky were to fall at the moment. The fellow came in, he was here to help with the bookkeeping. The sound of bills passing through the hands and the sound of pens sliding were heard and heard. The boss was really an old hand at this, and his work, especially when it had to do with money, was definitely speed plus quality. The boss leaned back in his chair, realizing that today the fellow was working much more seriously, and had even made tea for himself. This kid is good today, the boss thought to himself, so he said to the fellow, "You come to eat with us today, and then he went out. And the fellow, too, is secretly happy, he finally get a chance to think of the boss and the boss's wife to say a few words.
It was Christmas, after all, and the boss seemed much looser. As long as Vanka kept working, his old lady ignored him and didn't egg him on like she used to. This made it a lot easier for Vanka, he sat around quite a bit, but it was just too easy for the usual. It was finally nighttime, and Vanka wasn't looking forward to what the boss price would give him to eat, but he could dream about his grandfather when he went to bed. He was still hopeful about its letter. Vanka drank gruel and nibbled on bread, while in the restaurant not far down the aisle, the boss, the boss's wife, and the man were eating a big meal. At that moment, the man spoke up and gave the boss and the boss's wife a pot of vinegar and oil that he had seen Vanka slacking off and not working. The consequences can be imagined, the boss and the boss's wife where to eat ah, the fire immediately rushed to the sky, the boss's wife will go to the house to get a whip, and the boss is more from the table copied a fork and rushed out. The man is naturally very happy, only roll up his sleeves and followed out, because he did not want to a moment Zhifanqa to death.
In the dim light, Vanka howled from the whippings he was receiving, while he wondered why the drunken boss and his wife knew he was slacking off, but he never thought it would be the mate who told. The boss was wearing a thick breath while whipping and scolding Vanka: "I told you to be lazy, you son of a bitch, you don't work, and you dare to steal bread, it's really against you." For lazy Vanka can not be denied, but where to steal bread, Vanka really feel wronged. He held back the pain and said, "Old-boss, I-didn't steal-steal bread." When the boss heard this, he stopped the whip in his hand, "You really didn't steal it? ""Really. I wouldn't dare to steal the bread even if you gave me the courage to do so." The boss heard, gasping more and more coarse, Vanca thought the boss tired, but the boss suddenly swung up his arm, according to the Vanca leg is a bit, Vanca began to think it is to give him a punch, I did not expect a punch down, Vanca feel the pain of the heart, the blood at once seeped through the Vanca's single pants. It turned out that the boss stabbed the fork into Vanka's flesh, "really anti, still dare to sophistry ......" The boss was a bit tired, and he didn't care about Vanka's wound, he said to the fellow, "Put him in the stable." The fellow pretended to be concerned about Vanka and said, "Boss, look, Vanka is like this, and it's so cold outside, you see ......"" Tell you what to do, you do it!" The boss, still angry but tired, went back inside.
With the boss gone, the dude looked back at Vanka as if he had passed out, and looking at Vanka's bloody leg, the dude gave a small *smile*. Thinking to himself: goodbye Vanka, who told you to be so unlucky? After saying that, he dragged Vanka, and walked away. Not to the back door of the stable, but to the front door, to the street.
The man's intention was that, with Vanka's injuries and the cold outside, he wouldn't be able to survive if he was left outside. If the boss asked, he would say that he had run away and froze to death on the street. So Vanka was dumped a few blocks away by a dumpster. Looking at Vanka's frail figure, the fellow smiled again, not realizing that his plan had worked so quickly.
And Vanka, his life at only nine years old was taking one step towards death. In his trembling little mouth, two words spilled out - Grandpa.
The day dawned, and Vanka slowly opened his tired eyes. But he didn't know that the boss and the boss's wife were already waiting for him to wake up in full gear. As soon as Vanka opened his eyes, the boss angrily yelled at Vanka, "Boy! How dare you be lazy and not do your work! Do you want to rebel? I'll whip you to death today!"
An earthquake started on the boss's side, and a volcano erupted on the boss's wife's side. The pair of evil couples came together to beat the defenseless Vanka until he was bruised and battered all over his body.
After being beaten, Vanka's heart was very sad and angry, and he thought: "I can't stay here any longer, and Grandpa may not receive my letter for a while, so I can only rely on my own strength to go back to the village ......! I'll leave tomorrow night!"
The next night, when Vanka had finished his work, he watched the shopkeeper, the boss's wife, and the fellows after they had fallen asleep, and quietly took a pair of the store's shoes, and hastened to escape from Moscow.
He walked for three whole days and was not far from the village, but he was cold and hungry, and he finally collapsed a kilometer away from the village.
Then the loach came out to look for food, and when it saw the little master, it dragged him back to his home, and let his grandfather take care of Vanka, so that he could get well soon.
Vanka was thrilled to be back in his own home, because he could live with his grandfather again.
After two hours, Vanka woke up, the owner and the owner of the food looked at him angrily, the owner manipulated a wooden stick and beat him up, beating Vanka's skin, and his mouth could not stop scolding: "You ate a bear's heart and leopard's guts, but even in the sleep. Not bad, you know how to be lazy, you dare to tease me, you're starting to learn." The boss's voice raised an octave.
At once, the boss's wife's "volcano" erupted and grabbed Vanka by the hair and beat the skinny, weak Vanka with a belt, and Vanka fainted.
He woke up with great difficulty, and rubbed the wound with the back of his dirty hand, which cut him like a knife. Vanka cried sadly, so sadly that even a stone would have been touched by him.
His tears dried up and he resolved to escape. He quickly ran out of the store and headed straight for the village. Just as he ran to a place not far from the village, suddenly, he saw a very familiar and fierce face. Ah! It was the boss! The boss returned to the store by his hair and tied the weak Vanka to a branch and whipped him hard; how could Vanka bear such abuse? His eyes blurred and tears welled up, crying so sadly and sorrowfully. At that moment, his eyes went black, and he could see nothing but his grandfather, Constantine Makarich, coming to his rescue with his male dog, Loach, and his old female dog, Kashidanka, and his grandfather took Ariashine to court with a complaint, and Ariashine, the devil, was hanged on the spot, so that those who had been bullied by him might come and seek vengeance on him! ......
How Vanka wished to return to his grandfather's side, he hoped, phen ah ......
"Bang-... "The boss kicked the door open and saw Vanka hiding in a corner, sleeping, and was so furious that he picked up a bucket of water and threw it on Vanka. Vanka opened his hooded sleepy eyes, he thought it was his grandfather coming to get him and yelled, "Grandpa!" "Grandpa? Who's your grandpa, you brat! While I was out of the house, you slept in, your wings have hardened, right, you want to fly out of the house! I'll teach you a lesson today!" Vanka realized that it was the vicious boss who had returned. The boss shouted, "Man, bring me my belt. I really need to teach this brat a lesson today!" The fellows immediately presented a hard leather belt, which the boss squeezed tightly with both hands, his eyes filled with anger, as he took one step towards Vanka, and Vanka's danger would approach step by step. The vicious boss pinned young Vanka to the ground, peeled down his pants, and whipped Vanka's ass hard with the belt. Vanka was in severe pain, but he didn't cry, because he knew that once he cried, the boss would hit him even harder. Instead of coming to Vanka's aid, the fellows laughed at poor little Vanka: "Look at him, he's such a hick, he doesn't know what's good for him!"
Next, Vanka had to endure the intense pain of being whipped by the belt, and then did the work: scrubbing the floor, cleaning the glass, cleaning up the mackerel ...... body is already weak Vanka where can withstand this torment, and almost, Vanka was tired to lie down ......
To eat lunch time, Vanka rubbed the boss with a belt whipped buttocks, whacked the tired and painful waist, picked up a bowl of porridge diluted to see the low, gulp straight to the throat pouring. And the boss and the boss's wife! Instead, they were in the living room, eating and drinking, the table on the sumptuous lunch, the aroma is overflowing, at a glance let a person drool. Even the boss's dog was eating a big catfish! Vanka sighed as he looked at the boss and then at his own lunch: a bowl of porridge that he could drink in one gulp. He thought back to the good times he used to spend with his grandfather in the countryside ......
"Brat, you're still floundering after eating, are you looking for a fight? Still do not give me to work!" The angry boss cursed and raised his belt once again ......
Vanka was busy again, and he kept thinking, Grandpa, why don't you come to pick me up yet?
Night fell, and Vanka touched his hungry stomach and looked out the window at the flurry of snow in a cold, shivering manner.
"Woah, woah, woah ......" the cry of the cub brought Vanka to his senses, and the boss sniffed, "You brat, you're lazy, aren't you! Make my little cub cry, happy right!" "No, no ......" The boss didn't allow little Vanka to tell the difference, and like a mad dog, he slapped his belt mercilessly on Vanka's frail body.
Once again, he was beaten by the cruel boss, making it clear to Vanka that he could not stay in the cobbler's store and suffer any longer, or else, one day, he would be beaten to death by the boss! He thought of escape! He got up with determination and rushed into the vast snow.
The cold wind whistled, and the people in the street were wrapped in thick coats, while Vanka, on the other hand, wore a thin, ragged garment with five or six patches; and his pants, only half a pair. Because the boss felt that Vanka was sometimes too disobedient, and could not get rid of his anger by beating him, he asked his beloved dog to pull Vanka's pants, and over time, Vanka's pants were pulled to only half; Vanka had no socks and shoes, so he could only walk on the cold street with a pair of bare feet that were red from the snow. Now and then, Vanka had to tighten his belt ......
Suddenly, a carriage flew across the street from Vanka, who didn't pay attention, and fell into a pool of blood. "Phew-" the carriage stopped. It turned out to be a drunken letter carrier driving a carriage hit Vanka, the letter carrier did not come down to the carriage to save Vanka, but contemptuously said to Vanka: "Poor boy, deserve to die! Write a letter - no stamps, no recipient's address, who will send it to you!" Said, then with a hand a tear, and then a tear, and then a tear, and then a tear ...... hand a raise, the wind blew, Vanca wrote to Grandpa's letter into millions of butterflies, fluttering in the sky ...... Vanca with the rest of the last breath, gently called out: "Master - Master ......" with the last bit of strength left, picked up a piece of debris, placed it on his chest, and slowly died... ...
The sun rose, the soft sunlight shone on Vanka's thin body, his lips white, but the corners of his mouth hung a smile: he may be thinking, Grandpa will surely come to pick him up out of his misery ......