Chapter 23 23. Beggar

"My lord! Do me a favor and think of me, poor starving man. I haven't eaten for three days... I have no money, I have no place to live... By God! I have been a villager for eight years Teacher, then lost my job because of the Zemstvo mischief. I fell victim to a false accusation. I have been out of work for a year, out of work." The lawyer Skvortsov looked at the supplicant, his gray-blue torn overcoat, cloudy eyes and red spots on his face, and he felt as if he had seen this man somewhere before. "I've got a job now in Kaluga Province," the man went on, "but I don't even have money to go there. Please help me! I'm ashamed to ask for help, but because of circumstances the persecution of..."

Skvortsov looked again at his rain boots: one had a high waist and the other had a shallow top.Now he suddenly remembered. "Listen, I seem to have met you on Fa Yuen Street the day before yesterday," he said, "but you told me that you were an expelled college student instead of a rural teacher, remember?" "No...no, it's impossible!" the supplicant muttered in a panic, "I'm a village teacher. If you want, I can show you my ID." "Stop talking nonsense! That day you claimed to be a college student, and even told me why the school expelled you, remember?"

Skvortsov blushed and walked away from the beggar in tatters and shoes with a look of disdain. "It's nasty, sir!" he cried angrily. "It's a fraud! I could send you to the police, damn it! You're poor, you're starving, but that's not why you can lie so vilely and shamelessly." reason!" The shabby man grabbed the doorknob like a caught thief, and looked around the hall in panic. "I...I'm not lying, sir..." He muttered in a low voice, "I can show you the papers." "Who can believe you?" Skvortsov went on angrily. "Cheating society's favor on rural teachers and students—you know how indecent, base, and shameless it is! It's abhorrent!"

Skvortsov lost his temper and berated the supplicant mercilessly.The other party's shameless lies aroused his disgust and disgust, and insulted him. Skvortsov loved and valued his own qualities: kindness, sensitivity, and sympathy for unfortunate people.The fellow lies all the time, and takes advantage of the kindness of others, and desecrates his pure heart's love of giving to the poor.The Ragged Man pleaded at first, swearing to God, but then fell silent, bowing his head in shame. "Sir!" he said, putting his hand on his heart, "it is true that I ... lied! I am not a student, nor a country teacher. This is all nonsense! I used to serve in the Russian choir, and because of drinking, I was kicked out. But what can I do? By God, please believe me: It is impossible not to lie! If I tell the truth, no one will give me anything. If I tell the truth, I will starve to death. You have to freeze to death where you live! What you said is correct, I understand, but... what can I do?"

"What way? You ask what you can do?" Skvortsov shouted, approaching him. "Work, that's the way! You must work!" "Work... I understand this myself, but where can I find a job?" "Nonsense! You're young, healthy, strong, and you can get a job any time you want. But you're lazy, spoiled, and drunk! You smell like liquor in a tavern. You lie, Licentiousness, your skills will be like beggars begging everywhere, nonsense! If you condescend to go to work whenever you want, then you have to find a department where you can not do things with a white collar salary, such as sitting in an office or going to a choir , or be a billiard scorer, etc. Would you like to do manual labor? I'm afraid you wouldn't be a janitor or a workman! You're such a pretentious fellow!"

"How can you say that, really..." the supplicant smiled wryly after he finished speaking, "Where can I find manual work? It's too late for me to be a shop assistant, since students usually start as apprentices; Go be a janitor, no one will want me, because I don't like others to dictate to me...the factory will not want me either, workers need craftsmanship, but I don't know anything." "Nonsense! You can always find an excuse! So, would you like to chop wood?" "I have no objection, but now even a real woodcutter has nothing to eat." "Well, that's what all the parasites say. You'll refuse any suggestion. Will you chop wood in my house, then?"

"Okay, I can chop..." "Okay, let's wait and see...very good...we will find out in the future!" Skvortsov started talking, rubbing his hands gleefully, and called the cook out of the kitchen. "Well, Olga," he said to her, "take the gentleman into the barn and let him chop wood." The rag man shrugged his shoulders, seemed a little puzzled, and followed the cook hesitantly.From his gait, it can be seen that the reason why he agreed to chop firewood was not because he was hungry and wanted to earn money, but because of face, sorry, because what he said was caught by someone and had to be honored .It can also be seen that he usually drinks too much, is very weak, and may be ill, and has no interest in working.

Skvortsov hurried into the dining room.The windows there looked on to the yard, and one could see what was going on in the firewood shed and in the yard.Standing at the window, Skvortsov saw the cook and the man enter the yard by a side door and walk towards the shed on the dirty snow.Olga looked angrily at her companion, threw her arms from side to side, opened the locked shed, and slammed the door violently. "Perhaps we have prevented this woman from drinking coffee," thought Skvortsov, "such a wicked woman!" The next thing he saw, the fake teacher and fake college student were sitting on the wooden plinth, resting their red cheeks on their fists, thinking about something.The cook threw an ax at his feet, spat viciously, and, as you can see from the movement of her mouth, began to curse.The Ragged Man hesitantly pulled a piece of wood, placed it between his legs, and timidly chopped it down with his axe.The firewood shook and fell.The man pulled it back again, breathed on the frozen hand, and cut down carefully with the axe, lest he cut off his rain boots or cut off his fingers.The firewood fell again.

Now Skvortsov, whose anger had subsided, felt a little uneasy, a little ashamed that perhaps he shouldn't have forced this pampered and possibly sick alcoholic to do such menial work in a cold barn. "Oh, it's nothing, let him do it..." He thought again, leaving the dining room and returning to the study, "I'm doing this for his own good." An hour later Olga came and reported that the wood had been split. "Here, give him the half-rouble," said Skvortsov, "and, if he likes, let him chop wood on the first day of every month. . . . There will always be work."

On the first of the next month, the beggar in tattered clothes and shoes came again and earned another half a ruble, although he could barely keep his legs.From then on, he began to appear in the yard often, and every time he found some work for him: sometimes sweeping snow into piles, sometimes tidying up the sundries in the shed, sometimes dusting the carpet and mattress, Each time he was paid twenty to forty kopecks for his labor, and once the master even gave him a pair of old trousers. When Skvortsov moved, he was hired to help with packing and moving furniture.This time, the ragged man didn't drink, his expression was gloomy, and he rarely spoke.He barely touched the furniture, followed the truck with his head down, and he didn't even try to put on an appearance of willingness to do it. He just shrank his neck from the cold.He was often bewildered with embarrassment when the drivers teased him about his laziness, his lack of energy, and his expensive torn overcoat.After the removal, Skvortsov sent for him.

"Oh, I can see that my words have worked on you," he said; handing him a ruble, "this is your wages. I can see that you don't drink, and you don't object to work. You what is it call?" "Lushkov." "Then, Lushkov, I now recommend you to another job, a cleaner job. Can you copy?" "Yes, sir." "Okay, take this letter and go to one of my colleagues tomorrow, who will give you a copying job. Work hard, quit drinking, and don't forget what I told you. Good-bye!" Skvortsov was very proud: he had finally brought this man to the right path.He patted Lushkov kindly on the shoulder, and even extended his hand to him at parting.Lushkov took the letter and left, and never came to work with the family again. Two years have passed.One day, as Skvortsov was standing at the box office of the theater, paying for tickets, he saw standing beside him a small man with a lambskin collar turned up and an old fur seal hat.The little man timidly asked the conductor for a ticket for the garret, and paid a few nickels. "Lushkov, is that you?" asked Skvortsov, recognizing the man as his former woodcutter. "Well, how are you? What are you doing now? Are you doing well?" "It's all right. I'm working for a notary at the moment, and I get thirty-five rubles a month, sir." "Oh, thank God. That's great! I'm very, very happy for you, Lushkov! You know you're in a way my godson. You know it's me who put you on the right track Do you remember how I reprimanded you then? You were so embarrassed in front of me that you wanted to find a crack in the ground. Well, thank you, dear friend, and thank you for not forgetting my words." "I want to thank you," Lushkov said. "If I hadn't gone to you, I might still be pretending to be a teacher or a student. Yes, I was saved by you, I jumped out of the trap." "I'm very, very happy!" "Thank you for your kind words and kind actions. You spoke well then. I am grateful to you as well as to your cook, and God bless this good and noble woman with good health! You spoke very well That's right, of course I will be grateful to the end of my life. But, to be honest, it was your cook Olga who really saved me." "How is this going?" "That's right. When I went to your house to chop wood, she always started like this when I arrived: 'Oh, you drunkard! You are a wretch! Why don't you die!' Then she sat opposite me and started to worry. , looking at my face, wept and said: 'You are an unfortunate man! You have no joy in this world, even if you go to another world, you drunkard, you will also go to hell and be burned! You wretched man Ah!' You know, all that kind of stuff. I can't tell you how much she's done for me, how many tears she's shed for me. But the important thing is, she chops wood for me! You know, sir, I Not a single piece of wood was cut in your house, but she did it all! Why she saved me, why I looked at her and decided to change my past and stop drinking, I can't explain to you. I All I know is that her words and noble deeds changed my soul, and that she saved me, and I will never forget that. But now is the time to enter, and the bell is ringing inside." Lushkov bowed and went to his balcony.