Chapter 3 Mr. Prohalchin-1

Mr. Semyon Ivanovitch Prokhalchin lived in the darkest and most inconspicuous corner of Ustinya Fyodorovna's house.The man was old, sound-minded and non-drinking.Because of Mr. Prokhalchin's low official position, although the salary he paid was completely in line with his ability to work, but the amount was small after all, Ustinya Fedorovna only charged him five rubles a month for rent, and no more. I can't ask for any more.Some people say that she has her own special plans.But no matter what you say, Mr. Prokhalchin, as if deliberately taking revenge on those who are fond of sneering at others, has become the landlady's confidant and won her favor, of course, in the sense of integrity .It should be noted that Ustinya Fyodorovna was a very respectable, stout woman with a special fondness for meat and coffee, which she managed with great difficulty during Lent .There were often several tenants in her house who paid twice as much in rent as Semyon Ivanovich, but they were not honest, on the contrary, without exception, they were all "vicious." "Mocking family", often mocking her as a lonely and helpless woman, so their status in her heart is not very high. As long as they don't pay the rent, she not only does not let them enter the room to sleep, but also does not want to be in her own house. meet them in the house.Ever since a drunken retiree was consigned to the Volkovo cemetery (indeed he was rather an excommunicated man) Semyon Ivanovich joined the ranks of the landlady's favorites .Although the expelled man was blinded in one eye (for bravery according to his own account) and broken in one leg (it seems also for bravery), he won Ustinya Fedorov All the goodwill and favor that Na can give.

If he hadn't been drunk and died tragically, he would have lived a long time as her pawn and patron.All this happened on Gravel Street, when Ustinya Fyodorovna had only three lodgers, of whom only one, Mr. Prokhalchin, has survived to this day.Later, he moved to a new residence and opened a relatively luxurious hotel with nearly ten tenants. I don't know whether Mr. Prohalchin has flaws that are difficult to correct, or his roommates all have the same flaws. Anyway, from the beginning, the relationship between them seems to be not harmonious.Let us point out here that Ustinya Fyodorovna's new lodgers got along like brothers.Among them, some are colleagues, who play cards and gamble when they receive their salaries on the first of every month. Most of them play cards, playing old, Preferance and Bewkes, and lose all their salaries to each other.Sometimes when they are happy, they all go out to enjoy the so-called sizzling moments of life. Sometimes they also talk about elegant things, but in this case, quarrels often occur.Since the minds of this gang were less prejudiced, their mutual solidarity was not in the least disturbed even in this quarrel.Among the tenants were particularly outstanding: Mark Ivanovich, a clever and learned man; next, the tenant Oplevaniev; a good fellow; there is Zinovy ​​Prokofievich, who is obsessed with being in the upper class; and finally the text ①② refers to drinking beer.

It is the title book of three card games, Okyanov, who almost took the crown of the first confidant from Semyon Ivanovich at that time; Lev and several others.But Semyon Ivanovich did not seem to regard them as equals.Of course, no one wanted him bad, and their initial evaluation of Prokhalchin was quite fair.They regarded Prokhalchin, in Mark Ivanovich's words, as a good-natured, good-natured fellow, who, though not of noble birth, was faithful and reliable, and he did not flatter.Of course there are shortcomings, but his disadvantage is not here, but his own lack of imagination.Besides, Mr. Prokhalchin, despite being so lacking in his own imagination, was not able to surprise anyone with his appearance and manners, so as to achieve a particularly favorable effect on himself (some mockers are very picky about this). ), but his appearance is not bad, it seems that there is no problem.Moreover, Mark Ivanovich, being a wise man, has officially assumed the role of Semyon Ivanovich's protector, and he has quite successfully declared in beautiful language and flamboyant style: Mr. Prokhalchin is a A respectable old man, his days of flirting are long past.So, if Semyon Ivanovitch was not good at getting along with people, it was only because of himself, and he was entirely responsible.

The first thing that caught the eye was undoubtedly Semyon Ivanovitch's miserliness and love of money.This was immediately apparent and noticed.For Semyon Ivanovitch would never lend his teapot to anyone, not even for a short time.He has gone too far in this matter, because he himself does not drink tea at all, and even when he needs it, he drinks a kind of water juice with a good taste.It was boiled by him with a large number of stored wild flowers and some medicinal weeds.And the way he eats is quite different from other tenants.For example, he would never eat the lunch that Ustinya Fyodorovna gave everyone every day, because it cost half a ruble a meal.Semyon Ivanovich could spend only twenty-five copper kopecks, never more, and therefore he only bought a portion of meals, or only soup and pies, or only a portion of beef, often both. No soup, no beef, but bread with scallions, milk dregs, pickles or other condiments, which is much cheaper.He only asks for half lunch when his body is really unable to support it...

The biographer must admit here that he would never dare to speak of those trivial, low, rather subtle, and for some lovers of high style, even unsightly details, but these details contain It is the character trait of the protagonist of this novel, a dominant trait.Because Mr. Prokhalchin is far from being so poor as he sometimes claims, and often even has no money to eat.In fact, quite the opposite.The reason why he was so unafraid to take a bath, and not to be afraid of others' comments, to do such disgusting things was purely to satisfy his own eccentricities, out of miserliness and excessive caution, which will be seen more clearly later.

However, in order not to bore the reader, we intend to omit all descriptions of Semyon Ivanovich's eccentricities.We also intend to omit the description of all his attire, which would be quite amusing and ridiculous to the reader.If Ustinya Fyodorovna hadn't testified in person, we probably wouldn't have mentioned that Semyon Ivanovitch never in his life resolved to take off his underwear and wash it, even if he did it with difficulty. Resolution, that too is an extremely rare event, and the time interval is so long that you can completely forget the existence of the shirt on Semyon Ivanovich.The landlady declared in her confession: "Semyon Ivanovich, my darling, may God warm his heart.

For twenty years he shamelessly stinks up the corners of my room, and during his life not only often obstinately refused to use socks, handkerchiefs, and the like, but was sometimes naked body, without any clothes. This was what Ustinya Fyodorovna saw with her own eyes from behind the broken screen. After the death of Semyon Ivanovitch, the story spread. But when he was alive, no matter what, he would never tolerate others sticking their curious noses into his corners, even his best friends took a look through the dilapidated screen. (This was one of the main points of disagreement between him and the others.) He was often taciturn, kept his mouth shut, and never took part in gossip.He doesn't like others to give him advice, and he doesn't welcome people who talk loudly and show off. He often reprimands those who laugh at him and those who talk loudly and come up with blind ideas on the spot, and humiliate them. "You're a brat, you can only move your mouth but don't do practical things, you can't come up with any good ideas. Sir, watch your purse, you'd better count it, brat, how much does it cost you to make a pair of bound feet Bu, how much is it!" Semyon Ivanovich was an informal, ordinary person who addressed everyone with "you", not polite "you".Some people clearly knew his temper, but just out of amusement, they deliberately questioned him and asked him what was in the box. This was something he couldn't tolerate. ... This box was under his bed, and he protected it like an eyeball.Although it is well known that there was nothing in the box except some worn rags, two or three pairs of boots with the openings open, and other rags.But Mr. Prokhalchin valued his movable property very much.It was even heard once that he was dissatisfied with the original old lock, which was actually quite strong, and he kept saying that he wanted to get another special new one made in Germany with a hidden spring and a very complicated structure. Lock.One day, the young and simple-minded Zinovy ​​Prokofiev expressed a very rude and rude idea that Semyon Ivanovich probably hid the money he had saved in his trunk in order to pass on to future generations.These casual words of Zinovy ​​Prokofiev's had such an extraordinary effect that all those around him were astonished.In the first place, Mr. Prokhalchin could not even find a decent word for an answer to such a blatantly violent thought.For a long time nothing came out of his mouth, you didn't know what he was talking about, and it took a lot of effort to figure out that Semyon Ivanovich was doing it for Angry about something that happened a long time ago, blamed Zinovy ​​Prokofiitch; secondly, Semyon Ivanovich seemed to be prophesying that Zinovy ​​Prokofiitch would never get into the upper class Society, and the tailor who made clothes for him will definitely beat him up, because he owes the tailor money for his work and has not paid it back for a long time.Finally, Semyon Ivanovitch added these words: "Look, you boy wants to be a hussar cadet, you can't do it, don't dream! If the boss knows all about you, he will definitely I'll send you as a clerk. Listen, I despise you boy!" At last Semyon Ivanovitch calmed down.To everyone's great surprise, after lying down for four or five hours, as if he had had enough of thinking, he suddenly began talking again, first to himself, then to Zinovy ​​Prokofiitch, At the beginning, he reprimanded him again, and cursed him humiliatingly.However, the matter is not over yet.In the evening Mark Ivanovitch and the lodger Plepiloviko thought they wanted tea, and they invited Okoanov, the clerk, to join them.At this moment Semyon Ivanovitch climbed out of his bed, approached them on purpose, handed over twenty or fifteen kopecks, pretended to have a sudden craving for tea, and began to complain that the poor were at best They are also poor, that's all, they can't do anything, and they want to gather money but have no money to gather.Here Mr. Prokhalchin even admitted that he was a poor man, but only because that was the subject of discussion at that time.He said that two days ago he had wanted to borrow a ruble from a bold boy, but now he was not going to borrow it, lest the boy should brag.He also said that his salary was so meager that he couldn't even pay for his meals.Finally, he said that he was a poor man, just like what everyone saw now, he had to send five rubles to his sister-in-law to Tver every month, and if he didn't send five rubles to Tver every month, the sister-in-law would be fine. will starve to death.If his sister-in-law had died, Semyon Ivanovitch would have bought himself new clothes long ago. ... This is how Semyon Ivanovitch talked about the poor, the ruble, the sister-in-law for a long time, repeating the same words over and over again in order to influence the audience most powerfully, talking, In the end, he himself was said to be confused, so he started to shut up.Until three days later, when no one wanted to tease him, provoke him, and everyone had forgotten about him, he added a concluding speech, saying that once Zinovy ​​Prokofiitch became a hussar The cavalryman, the lawless fellow, would surely have his leg cut off in battle, and a wooden prosthesis would be fitted in his place.Then Zinovy ​​Prokofiitch would come and say: "Good fellow Semyon Ivanovich, give me some bread!" But Semyon Ivanovitch would neither He would not even glance at this rebellious Zinovy ​​Prokofiitch.That's it, you go with him!

It's not hard to imagine that all this looks very amusing and, at the same time, very ludicrous.It didn't take long for all the tenants of the landlady's house to investigate together, and indeed out of curiosity, they decided to attack Semyon Ivanovich violently, and in groups.Because Mr. Prokhalchin has been very fond of inquiring about everything recently, even since he joined the group, and he has always shown a curious look when he asks the bottom line.He obviously had ulterior motives for doing so.However, the relationship between the two hostile parties began to improve, and there was no need to make any preparations in advance, and they could talk without wasting energy, as if it happened by chance and without force.In order to improve relations, Semyon Ivanovitch often resorted to a special, rather ingenious and profound method, some of which are already known to the reader.For example, when it was almost time to drink tea, he often climbed out of bed, and if he saw others gathered around to collect money for drinks, he would go to them and hand over what he should give in a very humble, skillful and kind way. Twenty kopecks, while announcing his wish to participate.The youths exchanged glances and winks at each other, so that it was agreed that Semyon Ivanovitch should be admitted.The young people started chatting, first of all they talked about business matters, and then some sharp-tongued guy talked about all kinds of news and strange things as if he didn't care.

Those things are often fictitious, and in fact do not exist at all.For example, today someone seems to have heard that his superior personally told Demid Vasilyevich that, according to his superior, married officials are more likely to "get ahead" than unmarried ones, and it is easier to get promoted.Because the ability of a married man improves much faster, so he, that is, the storyteller, in order to make it easier to get ahead and increase his ability, he plans to get married with someone like Fivronia Prokofy as soon as possible. Yevna married.Again, it seems to have been discovered more than once that certain brothers among them, owing to their ignorance of the world, lacked good and agreeable manners, so that it was impossible for them to win the hearts of ladies in society.In order to change this unfavorable situation, some money should be deducted from the salary immediately. After saving a certain amount, it should be used to build an auditorium, so that everyone can go there to learn to dance. It has all the characteristics of elegance, good manners, Learn etiquette, respect the elders, form a strong character, learn all kinds of pleasant manners, and have a kind and reciprocating heart.Finally, some people say that all officials, starting from the oldest, must take examinations in various subjects in order to become educated people more quickly.In this way, the narrator adds, many things will come to light, and certain gentlemen will have to show their cards on the table.All in all, thousands of such absurdities have been told.Everyone pretended to believe it, and they were deeply concerned. They asked and asked again and again, and also reflected on their own conditions.Some people were even more frowning, and began to talk to each other, looking for advice everywhere, and they said, what should they do if they encounter this situation?

It goes without saying that the man, who was far less kind and meek than Mr. Prokhalchin, was disturbed and restless at hearing all the talk. Besides, from all the indications it was quite possible to draw the conclusion that Semyon Ivanovich was extremely slow to react to any new ideas, ideas to which he was not accustomed.For example, once he gets some new news, he always has to carefully chew it over and over again to figure out its potential meaning, and then he feels confused and confused. Finally, although he sorts out the clues and overcomes the panic and confusion, but that But in a very special way, unique to him alone... In this way, Semyon Ivanovitch suddenly revealed various interesting and hitherto unsuspected qualities... People whispered and talked about it, and it all spread to his institution, and it was reported with embellishment.One circumstance also contributed to the flames: Mr. Prokhalchin, who for many years had almost the same face, suddenly changed it for no reason: the expression on his face was disturbed, his eyes were timid, shy, and somewhat disturbing. Feel suspicious, walking very alert, trembling from time to time, listening carefully.As the highest expression of these new traits, there is a special delight in the search for truth.His love of finding out the truth even led to two ventures in the end, asking Demid Vasilyevich himself about the reliability of the dozens of reports he heard every day.If we remain silent here about the consequences of what Semyon-Ivanovich has done, it is not for any other reason than out of sincere sympathy for him and a desire not to injure his reputation.In doing so, he was found to be a misanthrope with a disregard for social decorum.Later it was found that there were many absurd things about him, and this judgment was not wrong at all, because Semyon Ivanovich was found more than once to forget himself sometimes, sitting on his seat with his mouth open, the tip of his pen pointed in the air, as if Dazed, or dumbfounded, the appearance is not so much like a sane person, but more like the shadow of a thinking person.It often happens that when a certain gentleman is looking around inadvertently, he suddenly meets his cloudy eyes that are swimming quickly and looking for something, and immediately trembles all over, feeling frightened, so he immediately writes on a useful piece of paper. Scrooge or some other word that isn't needed at all.Semyon Ivanovich's unseemly behavior embarrasses the real superiors and takes it as an insult to them... At last, no one doubts that Semyon Ivanovich's mind is not right. Normal.One fine morning, a rumor spread throughout the institution that Mr. Prokhalchin even shocked Demid Vasilyevich, because when they met in the corridor, Semyon Ivanovitch's appearance was so strange and unnatural that Demid Vasilyevich had to take a big step back... Semyon Ivanovitch's fault finally reached his own ears.After he heard about this, he walked cautiously between the tables and chairs, went to the front hall and took off the coat hanging there, and walked out after putting it on, and disappeared for a while.Was he afraid, or was he tempted by something else?This we do not know.But there was a period of time, when you couldn't find him at home or in the office...

We do not intend to explain the behavior of Semyon Ivanovich purely in terms of his absurdity.However, we cannot help pointing out to the reader that our hero is not a man of high society, and is very docile, and until he joins the lodgers, he has lived a solitary, quiet, serene, and even somewhat mysterious life. .Because during the time he lived on Sandstone Street, he always lay on the bed behind the screen, silent, and did not communicate with anyone.The lifestyles of the two old lodgers with him were exactly the same as his.The two of them also seem to be very mysterious, and they have also lived behind the screen for fifteen years.The happy and leisurely years passed day by day and hour by hour in the quaint and peaceful atmosphere.Everything went on as usual, so neither Semyon Ivanovitch nor Ustinya Fyodorovna could remember exactly when they had met.Ustinya Fyodorovna occasionally said to her later lodger: "He—my darling, may God warm his heart!—has lived with me not ten years, not fifteen. , about twenty-five years ago!" Therefore, exactly a year ago, the hero of our novel, who was not sociable and cautious, suddenly appeared among a dozen young lads, surrounded by noisy and restless new companions. Unaccustomed, and extremely unpleasantly shocked, it is only natural. The disappearance of Semyon Ivanovitch had caused some disturbance in Ustinya Fyodorovna's inn.First, he was a favored tenant; second, his identity card, which had been kept by the landlady, had been inadvertently lost.Ustinya Fyodorovna howled loudly, as she always did in times of crisis.She scolded the lodger for two days, complaining that they had turned away her old lodger like a chicken, and insisted that he had been killed by 'those who sneer'.On the third day, she drove all the tenants out to search, no matter what, she wanted to find people, to see people, and to see corpses.In the evening, Su Jibin, the clerk, came back first, claiming to have found the trace.He had seen him on Torkuchi Street and elsewhere, followed him, stood near him, but dared not speak to him.He was on the scene when a house caught fire in Crooked Alley, very close.Half an hour later, Okoanov and the civilian intellectual Kontarev both came back. Both of them confirmed Sujibin's words, saying everything was true. I walked back and forth ten steps away, but I didn't dare to talk to him.But they both found Semyon Ivanovich walking with a beggar and drunk.Finally, the rest of the tenants also came back. After listening carefully to the situation report, they agreed that Prohalchin should be nearby now, and he would definitely be back soon.As for him being with a beggar drunkard, it was known before that.The drunken beggar was a very bad fellow, unreasonable and flattering, and it was evident from all the circumstances that he had played some trick to charm Semyon Ivanovich.He had been here just a week before Semyon Ivanovich's disappearance, and had lived for a short time in a corner of the hotel with his companion Lemnev.He said that he is now suffering for the truth. He used to be an official in several counties, and then met an imperial envoy. He and a group of people fell down because they told the truth.He then went to Petersburg, fell at the feet of Porfiry Grigorievich, and applied for placement in an institution.But under the cruel urging of fate, he was removed from his post and kicked out.Later, the situation changed, and even the organization itself was abolished, and his name was not included in the establishment of the newly established organization. He has come to this end not so much because of his total incapacity and incompetence, but because of his ability to do another, completely unrelated thing, and at the same time because of his love of truth and the intrigue of his opponents. trick.After this history, Mr. Zimovikin kissed his stern, unshaven friend Lemnev more than once.He bowed deeply to all the people in the room one by one, and bowed to the ground, not forgetting even the maid Avdotya, and called them all benefactors, and declared him to be a disgraceful person, a shameful person. Nasty, despicable, brutal and stupid, I hope good people forgive him for his hard life and simplicity.After obtaining asylum, Mr. Zimovikin showed himself as a happy man.He was very pleased, and quickly kissed Ustinya Fyodorovna's little hand, although she kept saying modestly that her hand was not worth kissing, because she was not a noble lady.In the evening, Mr. Zimovikin promised everyone that he would show his talents and perform his masterpiece—a wonderful dance. But on the second day, his performance came to a tragic end.I don't know whether he danced too well or used some other means to make Ustinya Fedorovna "disgraceful and disgraceful", while Ustinya Fedorovna took a picture of him. According to Vina, she had known Yaroslav Ilyich a long time ago, "she would have been the captain's wife" if she had wanted to.As a result, Zimovikin had to flee.After he left, he came back again, but was disgracefully driven away again.Then he came under the care of Semyon Ivanovitch, but stole a pair of his new trousers, and now appeared again as Semyon Ivanovich's seducer. The landlady, who had just learned that Semyon Ivanovitch was safe and well, and that there was no need to look for ID cards now, immediately relieved herself and stopped crying. At this time, some of the tenants decided to hold a grand welcome party to welcome Semyon Ivanovich back from his departure.They broke the latches, moved the screen away from the missing man's bed, turned the quilt a little, brought the famous box, and put it upright under the bed, leaving his big Auntie (that is, a doll) sat on the bed (dressed up with the landlady's old kerchief, a bonnet, and shawl, so resembling his great-aunt that one could be deceived). When this was done, everyone began to wait, and announced to Semyon Ivanovitch as soon as he arrived; his sister-in-law had come from the county, and sat behind a screen, waiting for him, poor thing!But, waiting and waiting, no one came... While waiting, Mark Ivanovich had already lost half a month's salary to the tenants Prepoloviko and Kontariev, Okoanov lost the game of scratching his nose, and his little nose was red and swollen.The female worker, Avdogiya, had almost fully slept, and got up twice to fetch firewood to light the stove.Zinovy ​​Prokofievich, who had been running outside every once in a while to see if Semyon Ivanovich was here, was drenched in sweat and drenched.But still no one came, neither Semyon Ivanovitch nor the beggar.Finally, everyone went to bed, leaving only my sister-in-law behind the screen as a spare.It was not until four o'clock in the night that there was a knock at the door, but it was loud enough to reward the watchmen for their hard work.It was him, it was himself, Semyon Ivanovich, Mr. Prokhalchin, but his appearance was so shocking that no one thought about his sister-in-law.The missing man lost consciousness upon his return.He had been helped in, or rather carried on the shoulders of a drenched and ragged night-time street coachman.The landlady asked the coachman where on earth had the poor wretch got drunk?The coachman replied: "He is not drunk, he has not drunk a drop of wine. I can assure you that he probably passed out, or he had a convulsion, or he may have had a stroke." Look carefully.For the sake of convenience, they helped him lean against the fire, and found that he did not show signs of drunkenness, nor did he appear to have suffered a stroke, but for some other reason.Later, he couldn't even move his tongue, as if suffering from a convulsion, but kept blinking his eyes, inexplicably looking at this one and then at the onlookers who were all dressed up at night.Later, everyone asked the coachman where he found him?The coachman replied: "Probably a group of people came from the island of Kolomna, God knows who they are, the master is not like the master, anyway, they are a group of idle, merry-go-round gentlemen, and they handed him over to me. of. Whether they had fought, or whether he had gout, God only knows. However, those people are happy and happy people! They picked up Semyon Ivanovich, put him on the shoulders of two strong-shouldered men, and lifted him onto the bed. Just as Semyon Ivanovich lay down in bed, His body touched the eldest sister-in-law, and his feet pressed against the treasure chest he had been thinking about day and night. He yelled desperately, almost sat up with his legs bent, trembling all over, and scratched in the air. Pawing around, trying to fill the space on the bed with both hands and body. At that time, he scanned all the people present with trembling and extremely determined eyes, as if to say that he would rather die than give up all the money in that poor family property. One percent, give it to anyone... Semyon Ivanovitch lay for two or three days, screened tightly by the screen, which separated him from the whole world, and freed him from all unnecessary troubles and agitations that troubled him.By the next day, everyone forgot about him as usual.But time flew by just like that, hour after hour, day after day.The patient was hot, and his heavy head fell into a half-sleeping, half-comatose state.However, he lay quietly, without moaning or complaining, on the contrary, he became very peaceful, silent, stiff, and let his body stick to the bed, like a rabbit lying down when it hears a hunting gun. Same on the ground.At times a long, disturbing silence reigned in the room.This shows that all the tenants have gone to work, and Semyon Ivanovich, who is awake, can spend his melancholy thoughts as he pleases, or listen to the slight noise made by the landlady busy in the kitchen, or to Avdorji, the maid. The rhythmic rattle of her boots as she mopped the floors in the various rooms.She sighed, wheezed, and wheezed, while cleaning and tidying up the various rooms.For several hours in a row, I was so lazy, like sleeping but not sleeping, dreaming but not dreaming, lonely and boring, like the water dripping from the kitchen into the wooden basin, making a uniform tick-tock-tick sound.Finally the tenants came back from get off work, some alone or in groups.Then Semyon Ivanovitch distinctly heard them complaining about the bad weather, that they were hungry and wanted something to eat, their noises, their smoking, their bickering, their making peace, playing cards, knocking cups for tea.Semyon Ivanovich struggled subconsciously to get up, and tried to drink tea by the fire, as was customary, but fell asleep immediately.He dreamed that he was already sitting at the tea table, drinking tea and chatting.Zinovy ​​Prokofievitch had seized the opportunity to talk a lot about his sister-in-law and the attitude of all kinds of good people towards her.Semyon Ivanovitch was at this moment eager to protest and defend himself.But the all-powerful phrase, "It has been pointed out more than once," that came out of everyone's mouths completely blocked his rebuttal, and Semyon Ivanovich could not think of a better way. To deal with it, I had to dream again.He dreamed that today was number one, and that he was receiving a salary in his work institution.He opened a ticket on the stairs, looked round quickly, hastily divided his salary in half, and stuffed one half into the shaft of his boot as quickly as possible.He didn't realize that he was sleeping on the bed and dreaming, so he made a decision on the stairs: immediately after returning home, he would pay the landlady the accommodation and board expenses, and then buy the necessary daily necessities, pretending to be careless , let people know that his salary has been completely used up after deducting expenses.He is now penniless and has no money to send to his aunt, so he can only lament her suffering.Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, I will talk more about my aunt's situation, even ten days later, I will also talk about her poverty in passing, so that my colleagues will not forget.Having decided thus, he discovered that Andrey Yefimovich, that little, bald man who never spoke, was sitting in the office of the office at a distance from the place where Semyon Ivanovich sat. Three rooms, haven't said a word to him in twenty years, and now he is standing on the stairs counting his silver rubles. He shook his head and said to Semyon Ivanovitch: "Money, I don't even have porridge if I don't have money!" Concluding, "Sir, but I have to support seven people!" At this time, the bald little man probably didn't notice at all that he was swimming like a phantom, not walking and talking like a real person at all.He gestured to the height of one foot and one inch from the ground, waved his hand down, murmured that his eldest son was going to secondary school, and then gave Semyon Ivanovitch an angry look.It seemed that it was Mr. Prokhalchin's fault that he had seven people to eat.He put his hat back on his head, almost covering his eyes, then shook his coat, turned right and disappeared.Semyon Ivanovitch was terribly alarmed. Although he was sure that he was not responsible for the seven members of the family, in fact it seemed that no one else was to blame but Semyon Ivanovitch.He panicked and ran away, because he felt that the bald gentleman would turn around and catch up with him, taking advantage of the indisputable superiority of his group of seven, completely ignoring Semyon Ivanovitch. He has to bear the obligation to support his eldest sister-in-law, and wants to use the method of body search to rob him of all his salary.Mr. Prokhalchin ran, ran, and ran until he was out of breath. ...and many, many others running with him, in their tight tuxedos, with their salaries jingling in their back pockets, and at last, all running, the fire hydrants turned on, and the flowers The stream of water is sprayed out, and the crowd is almost shoulder-length ①Here refers to Russian inches.A Russian foot = Russian inch = meter back squeezed him to the place where the fire had been where he had been with the beggar drunk last time.The drunkard, in other words Mr. Zimovikin, was already there.Seeing Semyon Ivanovitch he hurried to work.Immediately grab his hand and lead him to the thickest part of the crowd.As in the scene of the real fire, the black crowd around them shouted and yelled, crowding the embankment between the two bridges on the Fountain River and the adjacent streets and alleys.As then, Semyon Ivanovitch was pushed out of the fence along with the drunk.In a large yard full of firewood, they were completely immobilized as if they were clamped in a pincer.The courtyard was packed with spectators, some from the streets, some from flea markets, and some from nearby houses, pubs and restaurants.Semyon Ivanovitch saw and felt exactly the same then as then. In the vortex of fever and coma, all kinds of strange faces began to flash in front of him.Among them were a few faces that he vaguely remembered.There is one who left a deep impression on everyone.The gentleman, a few feet tall and with a beard a foot long, stood right behind Semyon Ivanovich when the fire broke out, cheering him on.Our hero was indeed very excited, and began to stamp his feet furiously, as if in this way to encourage the heroic work of fighting the fire, the grandeur of which he had seen clearly from a height.The other is the burly young lad who punches our hero over the other fence.The kid was about to climb over the fence, maybe to save someone.The figure of an old man also flashed before Semyon Ivanovitch.His face was sallow, and he was wearing a worn-out cotton coat tied around his waist by something.He had left the house before the fire to go to the shop to buy tobacco and bread for one of his tenants.A meter equals one Russian foot.rice. Dry, now with a milk jug and a quarter of a pound of tobacco in his hand, walking home through the crowd.His wife at home, a young daughter, and thirty rubles and fifty kopeks, hidden in a little corner under a feather mattress, were being consumed by the fire.But what Semyon Ivanovitch saw most clearly was the wretched, sinful woman whom he had so often dreamed about during his illness.The appearance of the woman that appeared in his mind now was exactly the same as that at that time: wearing a pair of worn-out bark shoes, carrying a cane, carrying a straw backpack on her back, and her clothes were in tatters.She brandished her cane, waved her hands, and yelled louder than the firefighters and the onlookers, saying that her own sons and daughters had chased her out of nowhere and had taken all her two Copper coin of five kopecks.The child and the penny, the penny and the child kept twirling on her tongue, and she said a lot of nonsense that no one could understand.It took a great deal of effort to try and understand what she was saying, but in vain they had to go away.But she didn't give up, she kept yelling, roaring, and waving her hands desperately, as if she didn't notice the fire in front of her eyes (she was pushed from the street to the scene of the fire), and she didn't pay attention to the crowd around her , not noticing the misfortunes of others, not even that the burning logs and sparks had begun to splash on the people standing beside her.At last Mr. Prokhalchin felt that a sense of terror was beginning to overwhelm him, for he saw clearly that all this did not seem to have happened for no reason and would not be easily spared.Sure enough, there was a man immediately, who boarded a firewood pile not far from him.The man wore a tattered duffel coat with no belt around his waist, and his hair and beard were nearly burnt.He began to encourage all the people present to stand up and realize that one Russian catty is equal to.gram. To Semyon Ivanovitch.More and more people gathered, and the man kept yelling, which frightened Mr. Prohalchin dumbfounded.Semyon Ivanovitch suddenly remembered.It turned out that the man was none other than a coachman who had been cheated by him once.That was an event that happened exactly five years ago.Mr. Prokhalchin had no conscience at the time, slipped through the gate and slipped away before it was time to pay for the car.As he ran, he pocketed the few five-copeck pieces he had to pay into his pocket, as if he were running barefoot on a red-hot steel plate.Mr. Prokhalchin was in such despair that he wanted to speak, to cry out, but his voice just couldn't come out.He felt that the whole raging crowd had already entangled him like a piebald viper, and it was getting tighter and tighter, almost suffocating him to death.He struggled desperately and finally woke up.Then he saw that it was on fire, and everything was burning, including the corner he had rented, his screen, and the whole house, including Ustinya Fyodorovna and all her lodgers. All on fire.His bed, the pillows, the quilt, the trunk, and finally his expensive mattress, were burning.Semyon Ivanovich jumped up, grabbed the mat, dragged himself up and ran.But they stopped him in the landlady's room, tied him up, and forced him behind a screen.Our hero was disheveled, barefoot and wearing only a shirt, and ran into the landlady's room.In fact, nothing caught fire at that time, but Semyon Ivanovitch's head was feverish.So they tucked him into the bed, much like a ragged, unkempt, stern-looking tramp with a hurdy-gurdy forcing his Pricinera into a suitcase.Because the kid was running amok and lawless, beat everyone up, sold his soul to the devil, and ended up with the devil, the liars, Petrushka, and the loitering A quick-witted servant, witty and teasing, often used as a satirical figure. The woman Katerina and her happy lover, the Captain Police Commissioner, ended their activities together in the same suitcase until the next new performance. Everyone, young and old, immediately surrounded Semyon Ivanovitch and gathered neatly around his bed.Faces full of expectation stared at the patient.At this moment, he woke up.But he didn't know whether it was because of embarrassment or other reasons, he suddenly used all his strength to pull the quilt towards himself, probably trying to hide under the quilt and avoid the attention of sympathizers.In the end it was Mark Ivanovitch, the wise man, who broke the silence first, and began very kindly, saying that Semyon Ivanovich needed to rest very quietly, that it was bad to be sick, it was embarrassing, only children do that dry.He needs to recover first and then go to work.At the end of the conversation, Mark Ivanovich joked that the standard of salary for the patients had not yet been fully set, because he knew very well that the ranks would be set very low, so according to his understanding, at least the title or status of patient, does not confer significant, substantive benefits.