Chapter 4 "New Villa" III

three Yelena Ivanovna and her little daughter came to the village on foot.They are walking.It so happened that it was Sunday, and women and girls in colorful dresses came out into the street.Rodion and Stepanida were sitting side by side on the steps, nodding and smiling at Elena Ivanovna and her girl, as if meeting acquaintances.A dozen children watched them from the windows.With puzzled and curious looks on their faces, they chirped and whispered, "Here comes Kucheriha! Kucheriha!" "Good morning," said Yelena Ivanovna, standing still; and after a moment she asked, "Well, how are you doing?"

"Thank God, we're doing well," Rodion replied, speaking quickly. "Of course, we'll just make do with it." "What a life we ​​have!" said Stepanida, smiling. "You can see, ma'am, good man, how poor! A family of fourteen, and only two earn money. Blacksmiths, but only an empty name. They lead horses to shoe them, and there's no coal here. No Money for it. We're terribly worried, ma'am," she went on, laughing. "Why, terribly terrified!" Yelena Ivanovna sat down on the steps, put her arms around her little girl, and was lost in thought; from the look of the little girl's face, some unpleasant thoughts were also going on in her head.She played in thought with a beautiful lace parasol she had received from her mother.

"Poor!" said Rodion. "There's a lot to worry about, and we work on and on and on and on. See, God doesn't give rain. . . . Needless to say, we're having a hard time." "You are miserable in this world," said Yelena Ivanovna, "but in the other world you will be happy." Rodion didn't understand what she said, and just coughed into Kong's fist as an answer.But Stepanida said: "My dear lady, a rich man will live quite well in another world. A rich man lights candles before the gods, pays for prayers, and a rich man gives money to beggars, but what can a peasant do? I don’t even have the time to make a cross on my forehead, and I’m so poor that I’m worse than a beggar, how can I save my soul. Besides, when a person is poor, he has more sins, and when he has troubles in his heart, he will not stop Swearing, like a dog, can't say a good word, can do anything, my good lady, please God, don't get it to this! Probably, in this world or in another world That’s right, we can’t get happiness after all. All the happiness is for the rich.”

She spoke very happily.Obviously, she has long been used to her hard life.Rodion also smiled; he was pleased to see his wife so clever and eloquent. "A rich man is comfortable, that's only on the surface," said Yelena Ivanovna. "In fact, everyone has their own troubles. Take us as an example. My husband and I are not poor. We have property, but are we happy? I am still young, but I already have four children; the children I am always sick, and I am also sick, and I often go to the doctor." "What's wrong with you?" Rodion asked. "Women's disease. I can't sleep well, and my headaches keep me from resting. For example, I'm sitting here talking now, but my head is uncomfortable and my whole body is weak. Honestly, I'd rather be doing the heaviest work than this." The job is good. My heart is not at ease. I often worry about my children and my husband. Every family has its own troubles, and ours does too. I am not a nobleman. My grandfather was an ordinary farmer, and I My father was a businessman in Moscow and was an ordinary man. My husband's parents were rich and powerful.

They didn't want him to marry me, but he didn't listen and quarreled with them, and they haven't forgiven us until now.It makes my husband restless, agitated, and worried, and he loves his mother very much.In this way, my heart will not be at ease.I feel sad. " Many peasants and village women were already standing by Rodion's hut, listening to them.Kozoff also came up, stopped, and shook his narrow beard from time to time.Rychkov and his son also came over. "It is clear that one cannot be happy and content unless one feels one is in the right place," went on Yelena Ivanovna.

"Each of you has your own field, each of you works and knows why; my husband builds bridges, in a word, each has his own place. But what about me? I just walk around I don't own a land, I don't work, I feel like an outsider. I say this so that you don't judge by appearances. If a man is richly dressed and has a family property, it is not enough to say that he is satisfied with himself. life." She got up to go, and took her daughter's hand. "I like your place very much," she said, smiling, and it was clear from her thin, timid smile that she was indeed in poor health, she was so young and so pretty; she had a pale, thin face, Two black eyebrows, a head of flaxen hair.The girl looked like her mother, with fair hair, a thin face, and a delicate appearance.They smell of perfume.

"I like this river, this wood, this village..." continued Yelena Ivanovna. "I might live here all my life, and I think I'll get better here, and I'll find my place. I think, I just think, to help you, to be good to you, to be close to you. I know you're poor, As for the situation that I don’t know, I can feel it and figure it out with my heart. I am sick and weak, and it may be impossible for me to change my life according to my will. But I have children, and I will do my best Educate them in my power, to know you, to love you. I will always teach them that their life is not their own, but yours. But I beseech you, beseech you, to Trust us and live with us. My husband is a good man with a good heart. Don't get him excited, don't get him mad. He's sensitive to little things like yesterday when your animals broke into our vegetable garden Come, you men tear down the fence of our apiary, and make my husband angry and angry with us in this way. I beseech you," she went on in a voice of entreaty, pressing her hands to her heart, "I Please, treat us like good neighbors and let us get along! As the saying goes: a forced peace is better than a real quarrel, don't buy a property, buy a neighbor. I repeat, my husband is a good man Good man; if all goes well, then I promise you that we will do everything within our power. We will build roads, and we will build schools for your children. I promise you."

"Of course we are very grateful, ma'am," said old Rychkov, looking down, "you are educated, you know a lot. But, for example, in the village of Eresnevo there was a Ronov, a wealthy farmer, also agreed to build a school, saying, "I'll build this and that for you," but he just built a house and left it alone, and later forced the villagers to build it. The roof, when it was finished, cost thousands of rubles. Voronov didn't care, he just stroked his beard, but the country people don't like it." "That's a crow, and now another rook is coming," said Kozoff, blinking his eyes.

There was laughter. "We don't need a school," said Volodka grimly. "Our children go to school in Petrovskoe, so let them go there. We don't want to run any school. " Yelena Ivanovna suddenly felt timid for some reason.She turned pale, suddenly looked thinner, shrunk up, as if touched by something hard, and left without another word.She walked faster and faster without looking back. "Madame!" cried Rodion, following her. "Wait a minute, madam, I have something to tell you." He followed her, hatless, and whispered, as if begging for food: "Wait a minute, madam, I have something to tell you."

They went out of the village, and Yelena Ivanovna came to the shade of an old rowan tree and stopped beside someone's cart. "Don't be angry, madam," said Rodion. "It's nothing! Just bear with it. Just endure it for two years.You just stay here, bear with it, and you'll be fine in the future.The people here are all good and safe,...the people are pretty good, and what I told you is all the truth.Don't pay attention to Kozov and Rychkov, and don't pay attention to Volodka, he's my fool: he believes what people say.The other people did their duty and kept silent. ... Some people, you know, really want to say something in their conscience to help you feel wronged, but they can't say it.This kind of person has a soul and a conscience, but he lacks a tongue.Don't be angry, just bear with it. ……this is nothing! "

Yelena Ivanovna gazed at the broad, calm river, and the tears streamed down her cheeks as she meditated.These tears disturbed Rodion, and he almost cried himself. "Don't take it to heart..." he muttered. "Be patient with it for two years. You can build a school or build a road, but don't do it all at once. . . All the stones, and then plow the land, toss it, toss it away.... As for the common people, you know, it has to be the same...toss it, toss it, until they are convinced." The group of people left Rodion's small wooden house, walked on the street, and moved towards the rowan tree.They sang and played the accordion.They got closer and closer, and closer and closer. ... "Mom, let's get out of here!" said the little girl, pale and trembling, clinging to her mother. "Let's go, Mom!" "Where are you going?" "To Moscow. . . . Let's go, mother!" The little girl began to cry.Rodion was so anxious that he was sweating profusely.He took out of his pocket a small crooked cucumber covered with rye crumbs, and stuffed it into the little girl's hand. "Come on, come on..." he muttered, frowning sternly. "Take this little cucumber and eat it. . . . You can't cry. Your mother will beat you up. . . . When you get home, you will be sued to your father. . . . Come on, come on. . . . " They walked on, and he still followed them, trying to say something sweet to them.Later, when he saw that they were preoccupied with their own thoughts, absorbed in their own sorrows, and did not notice him, he stood still, built an awning with his hands, shaded the sun, and watched their backs for a long time until they disappeared. in their woods.