Chapter 13 13. Bad boy

Ivan Ivanitch Lapkin, a pleasant young man, and Anna Semyonovna Zambritskaya, a young girl with a snub nose, walked down the steep bank, Sit down on a bench.The bench stands by the water and is hidden in the dense willow bushes.What a wonderful place!If you sit here, you are cut off from the world—the only ones who can see you are the fish and the water spiders running around like lightning on the water.The young couple carried fishing rods, dip nets, small jars for earthworms and other fishing gear with them.After sitting down, they immediately started fishing. "I'm so glad we can be alone at last," began Rapkin, looking from side to side. "I have a lot to tell you, Anna Semyonovna . . . a lot . . . when I first The first time I saw you...the fish bit your hook...I immediately understood: why I am alive, where is my idol, and whom should I dedicate my innocent and hardworking life to... Might be a big fish...I just fell in love with someone for the first time after seeing you, madly in love!...Wait a while for you to pull again...let it kill you...Please tell me, my darling , I swear to you, can I count on—oh, I don't count on mutual admiration, no!—I don't deserve it, I can't even think of it—can I count on... !"

Anna Semyonovna lifted the fishing rod she was holding, pulled it hard, and screamed, and a small silver-green fish shone in the air. "My God, what a wonderful fish! Ho, ho... quick! Off the hook!" The perch broke free from the hook, jumped on the grass, and instinctively fled towards its satisfactory home, and then fell into the water with a plop! Rapkin hurried to catch the fish, missed the fish, caught Anna Semyonovna's hand by accident, and brought it to his lips again by accident. It was too late: their mouths were inadvertently pressed together and they kissed.This was a bit of a surprise.Kiss after kiss, then kiss again, and then pledge to each other, confiding my heart... What a happy moment!But, then again, there is no absolute happiness in this worldly life.Happiness itself contains poison, or is poisoned by foreign things.This time too.When the two young men were kissing passionately, there was a sudden burst of laughter. They looked at the river, and both were shocked: a naked boy stood waist-high in the water.His name was Kolya, a schoolboy, the younger brother of Anna Semyonovna.He stood in the river, looked at the two young men, and smiled eccentrically, "Oh!...how about kissing?" He said, "Okay! I'll tell my mother to go."

"I hope, you, as a decent person..." Rapkin blushed and began to mutter, "peeping at other people's behavior is despicable, and telling a story is even more indecent, hateful, hateful... I thought that a decent person like you Noble man..." "Give me a ruble, and I won't tell!" replied the noble man, "or I'll tell mother to go." Rapkin took a ruble from his pocket and handed it to Kolya.The opponent pinched the ruble in his wet palm, whistled, and swam away.The next couple of lovers don't want to kiss anymore. The next day Rapkin brought Kolya paints and a ball from the city.My sister first gave him all her pill boxes and then had to give him some buttons with the dog's face on them.The bad boy, obviously liked the set, and started spying on them in order to get more presents.He followed Lapkin and Anna wherever they went, and did not leave them alone for a minute.

"Bad guy!" Rapkin said through gritted teeth. "He's already so bad at such a young age! What kind of person will he grow up to be?!" Throughout June Kolya denied the poor lovers a single day of life.He threatened to tell the truth, kept following him, and begged for all kinds of gifts.He always felt that the gifts were too light, so he always picked up his pocket watch in the end.Oh, what can I do?I had to agree to give him a piece. Once, when everyone was having lunch, Kolya burst out laughing when the servants brought waffles, rolled his eyes, and asked Rapkin, "Say it? Huh?"

Rapp, red all over, chewed his napkin like a waffle.Anna jumped up from behind the desk and ran into another room. In this situation the young couple remained until the end of August, until the day when Rapkin finally proposed to Anna.Ah, what a happy day it is!Rapkin had talked to Anna's parents, and after obtaining their consent, the first thing he did was to run into the garden to find Kolya.After finding him, Rapkin was so happy that he almost burst into tears.He grabbed the bad boy by the ear.Anna Semyonovna also ran to Kolya and grabbed his other ear.Now it was Kolya's turn to cry and beg them: "Darlings, good people, dear ones, I will never do it again! Ouch, ooh, please forgive me!"

At this time, the smug expressions on the faces of a pair of lovers are really worth seeing. The young couple later confessed that, throughout their courtship, they had never experienced such bliss, such intoxicating ecstasy, that they had felt when they grabbed the bad boy by the ear.