Chapter 3 Part 11-15

11 Behind a small swamp, a glade opened, enclosed by an old fence.The bars of the hedge were gray with wind and rain, and they were made of bast and wicker bound to stakes driven into the ground. Between the two rows of fences peeped out from under the snow the traces of a deserted, untraveled road.This means that there is a family not far away!Alexei's heart was beating in a panic, the Germans probably wouldn't come to this remote place!If there were, it would be their own people there, and of course they would cover a wounded man and try to help him. Alexei felt that his wanderings were coming to an end, so he continued to climb forward without any effort or rest.He crawled panting, and often collapsed in the snow, almost unconscious from the tension.He hurriedly wanted to climb to the top of a small mountain crafter, thinking that he might be able to see a life-saving village from there, so he could gather his last strength and climb towards the place where there were houses.But he failed to notice that, save for the fence and the path emerging more and more clearly from under the melting snow, there was nothing to indicate that anyone was nearby.

At last he reached the top of the hill, and Alexey was out of breath and convulsed all over.He raised his eyes, but immediately lowered the eyes that had just been raised, because the scene before his eyes made him feel too terrible. There is no doubt that this was a small forest village not long ago, and it was burned down.Looking at the two rows of irregular chimneys erected above the snow-covered uneven fire field, it is not difficult to imagine its original outline. In some places, there are still small gardens, fences and broom-like plants planted in front of small windows. Sorbus trees, now they protrude from the snow, some charred, others suffocated by the heat.It was an empty field of snow, on which chimneys stood like stumps from a felled forest; in the middle of the snow rose an awkward-looking well boom, with its rusty chains A water bucket was hanging from the top, the color of the bucket was starting to turn green, the edge was covered with iron sheet, and it swayed slowly with the wind.There was even a little fenced-in garden at the entrance of the village, and beside it stood a pretty little archway with a little door swinging slightly and creaking on its rusty hinges.

No one, no sound, no smoke... a desolation!It was as if no one had ever lived here.A rabbit, scared away by Alexei in the bushes, ran straight to the village with a funny twitch of its hips, stopped, stood like a stick of wood, raised its front paws and pricked up its ears , stayed by the small door for a while.It saw an indescribable strangeness continuing to crawl in its tracks, and it galloped along the burnt empty yards. Alexei continued to move forward mechanically.Big tears rolled down his unshaven cheeks and dripped onto the snow.He stopped by the little door where the rabbit had been a minute before.There is still a piece of wood above the small door, on which the words "Children..." are written. It is not difficult to imagine that behind this small green fence there was once a beautiful school building for a kindergarten.A few small benches remained, planed and polished by the village carpenter.Alexei pushed open the little door, climbed up to a stool and wanted to sit down for a while.But his body was used to the lying position, and as soon as he sat down, his spine began to bend.In order to take a good rest, he simply lay down on the snow, his body half curled up, like a tired beast.

His heart was filled with sorrow. The snow beside the stool melted.The upper ground is black, and the naked eye can see that there is a wave of warm moisture swaying, overflowing, and rising.Alexei grabbed a handful of warm, thawed earth, and it squeezed greasy from between his fingers, smelling of cow dung and wetness, of cowsheds and of people's dwellings . People lived here before... Long ago people conquered this barren little upper part of the Black Forest, plowed it with old-fashioned plows, tended it with wooden harrows, and fertilized it.They lived a very difficult life, always fighting with the forest and wild animals, and always thinking about how to survive until the next harvest.In the Soviet era, they organized collective farms, realized the dream of a better life, realized mechanization, and life began to become rich.The carpenters in the village built this kindergarten, and every evening, the villagers watched the ruddy-faced children play here through the green fence.Perhaps at this time they are thinking: should they gather strength, should they build a library and club, where people can spend the winter nights warmly and peacefully when the storm is howling, should they install electric lights in this dense forest? ...But at this moment, there is nothing, barren, only the forest and the eternal silence that no force can destroy...

The more Alexey thought, the sharper his tired mind became.He seemed to see the dusty town of Kamyshin, which was located on a dry and flat steppe in the Volga River valley.In summer and autumn, the wind of the prairie blows all over this small town, carrying a lot of dust and sand in the wind, which stings people's faces and hands. I couldn't open my eyes, and my mouth was rustling.People call the cloud-like gray sand blowing from the grassland "the rain of Kamyshin". Generations of Kamyshin people have dreamed of blocking the dust and breathing clean air freely. .However, only in a socialist country did their dreams come true: everyone reached an agreement to fight against the wind and sand together, and every weekend the whole city took up shovels, axes and iron picks to go outside.So a park was built on the open space, and slender poplar trees were planted on both sides of the small street. Everyone carefully watered and trimmed it, as if these were not public trees in the city, but flowers and plants on their windowsills.Alexei still remembers how joyful the whole city was at that time when new shoots sprouted from the bare twigs and put on new clothes every spring.Suddenly, he seemed to really see that there were many Germans on the streets of Kamyshin, his hometown. They used the trees carefully cultivated by the Kamyshin people to burn piles of bonfires, and the smoke enveloped the small town of their hometown.There was a strange looking chimney that smoked so black out of one place.This is the original site of the cottage where Alexei grew up and lived with his mother.

His heart was full of sorrow.The sorrow was indescribable and very strong. It can't be allowed, they can't be allowed to go any further!As long as there is a little strength left, fight and fight with them, like the soldier lying on the mountain of enemy corpses in the clearing. The sun has touched the jagged blue-gray treetops. Alexei crawled along what had once been a village street.The burning place gave off an unpleasant smell of corpses, and the village seemed more deserted than the deserted dense forest.Suddenly, an unexpected uproar alerted him.At the end of the burned place he saw a dog.It was a guard dog, long-haired, with lop-eared ears, an ordinary Bobick or Ruchka.It whined and tugged at a piece of rotting flesh in its paw.The dog must have been a kind creature, a frequent object of nagging by the mistress, and a pet for the children, but when it saw Alexei it barked suddenly, bared its teeth, and shot out a gleam from its eyes that made Alexei's hair stand on end. fierce light.He dropped his shoes and reached into his pocket for his gun.They -- the man and the dog that had turned into a beast, looked at each other stubbornly for a few seconds.Later, probably because the dog's memory recovered, he lowered his head, wagged his tail apologetically, bit his prey, and ran behind the burnt black mound with his tail between his legs.

① Russian common dog name. ② Russian common dog name. No, I have to leave, I have to get out of here quickly!Taking advantage of the last few minutes when there was still light, Alexei didn't bother to identify the way, just crawled on this desolate land, crawled into the forest, almost instinctively hurried towards the sound of the guns. Clearly identifiable places to climb.The sound of the guns was like a magnet, the closer it was, the more powerfully it attracted him. 12 He climbed like this for another day, two days, or three days... He could no longer count the time, only a series of mechanical efforts.He often dozed off or fell into a coma.He often fell asleep while crawling, but the force drawing him eastward was so great that he continued to climb slowly even in his unconscious state, unless he came across a tree or a bush He didn't stop until he slid into a clump, or fell into the snow puddle when his hand slipped empty.All his willpower and all his inarticulate thoughts were always focused on one point like a focus: to crawl, to move forward anyway.

He paid special attention to every bush along the way, but he never came across a hedgehog again.He ate berries from under the snow and sucked moss.Once he came across a large ant nest, built on a tree, like a small pile of dry grass washed by rain, neat and clean.The ants haven't woken up yet, and their dwellings seem lifeless.Alexei put his hand into the small, fluffy haystack, but when he pulled it out, it was full of tiny ants, which stuck firmly to his skin.So he began to eat these ants, and his dry, cracked mouth was filled with the fragrant and astringent formic acid, which made him feel very comfortable.He reached out to the ant nest again and again until all the ants, which had been awakened by the sudden attack, awoke.

The little creatures defended themselves angrily, they bit Alexei's hands, lips, and tongue, they got inside the flight suit and bit his body, but the slight pain even made him feel comfortable.The strong smell of formic acid refreshed him.He wants to drink water.In the middle of the mound he found a small pool full of brown forest water, and he ducked his head.As soon as he lowered his head, he ducked away again: from the mirror-like water, reflecting the blue sky, a terrible strange face looked at him.This face makes people feel like a black-skinned skull, with messy and curly hair, a pair of big, round, gleaming savage-like eyes peering from deep-set black eye sockets, unkempt His hair hung like icicles from his forehead.

"Could this be me?" Alexei thought, fearing to bow to the water again.So I decided not to drink water but to eat a little snow.Still attracted by the powerful magnet, he kept crawling eastward. He got into a large crater to spend the night. The sand around the crater was like a yellow parapet. The bottom of the crater was quiet and comfortable, and the wind could only rustle the falling sand grains. Not here.Looking up from below, I feel that the stars are very bright. They seem to hang low above the head. A cluster of hairy pine branches is swaying in the starlight. the stars.At daybreak, the weather began to grow cold, and the forest was covered with wet frost, and the wind changed direction, and a northerly wind blew, which turned the frost into ice.The belated morning light finally penetrated the branches, and the thick fog settled and gradually dissipated.At this moment, everything around seemed to be covered with a smooth shell of ice, and the pine branches above the crater looked more like a strange and crystal chandelier than a hand holding a rag.There were many little pendants hanging from it, and when the wind blew the branches, these pendants rang softly and peacefully.

After one night, Alexei seemed to become weaker, and he didn’t even chew the pine bark hidden in his bosom. It seemed that his body was stuck to the ground overnight, and his flying suit, beard, and sideburns were all frozen. On the thin ice, he climbed up the crater wall without shaking it off.But the sand had frozen in the night, and his hand slipped feebly from it.Again and again he tried to climb out, and again and again he slid to the bottom of the crater, his efforts becoming less and less effective.At last he was a little apprehensive, thinking that without outside help he would not be able to get out.This idea made him climb up the sliding wall again, but after only climbing a few times, he slid down in extreme exhaustion. "It's over! Now, no matter what, everything is over!" Crouching at the bottom of the crater, he felt a terrible silence that depressed and paralyzed the will.He fumbled feebly from the pockets of his civilian jacket for some frayed letters, but he had no strength to read them.He pulled out a cellophane-wrapped photograph of a girl in a flowered dress sitting on a meadow of flowers.He asked her with a serious and melancholy smile: "Is it going to be a farewell?" He suddenly trembled, holding the photo in his hand and froze: in the cold and damp air somewhere above the forest, he seemed to hear a familiar voice. He awoke instantly from his drowsy lethargy.There was nothing special about the sound, it was so faint that even the keen ears of wild animals could not distinguish it from the rustling of frozen treetops.But Alexei heard it more and more clearly.According to the special pitch of the whistling sound, he guessed accurately that it was the "jack" he had been driving before. The rumble of the motors approached and grew louder, changing to a whistling and a moan as the plane turned in the air, and finally to a slow-moving tiny cross in the gray sky.Sometimes it disappears, and sometimes it emerges as a gray cloud of smoke.Look, the red star on the wing is visible now; look, it's just over Alexei's head, and the wing is shining in the sun.It turned somersaults in the air and turned back.Soon, the rumbling sound slowly quieted down, disappearing into the din of the forest.But the forest was frozen, and the branches rang softly in the wind.However, Alexei felt for a long time that he could still hear the whistling sound. He imagined that he was sitting in the cabin, and he could return to the friendly forest airport in the time it takes to finish a cigarette.Who is flying?Maybe it was Andrei Tego Galenko who flew out for morning reconnaissance?In reconnaissance he likes to fly high, secretly hoping to meet the enemy... Tego Galenko... the plane... brothers... Feeling a new strength in himself, Alexei carefully inspected the icy walls of the crater.yes!You can't climb out like this, but you can't just lie down and wait to die!He drew the knife from its sheath, and began to tap the ice shell feebly and exhaustedly, and then used his fingernails to dig out the frozen sand and make several steps.Although the nails were broken and the fingertips were bleeding, he ignored these and used the knife and nails more tenaciously.Then, propping himself up on these steps on his hands and knees, he slowly climbed up and successfully climbed to the chest wall.Still have to use some strength - lie down on the chest wall for a while, and then turn over.But the foot slipped and the person rolled down, his face hurt on the ice, and he fell very painfully.But the roar of the plane's motor still stopped in his ears.He started to climb again, but slipped down again.At this moment, he critically inspected his work, proceeded to dig deeper the wall steps, made the edges of the steps more angular, mustering all the strength in his weaker body to carefully climb up again. It took him a lot of effort to turn over the chest wall of the crater, and then weakly turn over the chest wall.Then he crawled in the direction the plane was flying back.It was from there that the sun dispelled the mist of melting snow, and shone in the crystalline thin ice, rising above the forest. 13 However, crawling is extremely difficult too.His hands trembled, and he had no strength to support the weight of his body.Several times he bumped his face into the snow, the gravity of the earth seemed to have increased several times, and it was impossible to overcome this gravity.He couldn't help but want to lie down and rest for a while, even for half an hour, but then Alexei would not want to go any further today.So, restraining his extreme fatigue, he kept crawling and crawling, fell down and got up and climbed again. He felt neither pain nor hunger, saw or heard anything, except the booming. The sound of shelling and the sound of firing from both sides. When he could no longer support his hands, he tried to crawl on his elbows, which was very inconvenient.He simply lay on his stomach, raised his body with his elbows on the snow, and tried to roll.That's all right, it's easier to roll from one side to the other, it doesn't take much effort, but I'm so dizzy, I'm always in a daze, I often have to stop and sit on the snow, and roll when the earth, forest, and sky stop spinning . The woods became thinner, and in some places the trees were cut down and looked bare.There are winter roads exposed on the snow.Aleksei no longer wondered whether he could reach his own people, he had only one thought: as long as his body could move, he would crawl and roll over.His whole body was weakened by this dreadful work, and he often lost consciousness for brief moments under the circumstances, but his hands and whole body continued to make these complicated movements mechanically.He was rolling on the snow--rolling in the direction of the bombardment, rolling in the east. How he passed the night, whether he had rolled a little bit in the morning, Alexey could not remember all this, and everything was lost in tormenting half-conscious darkness.He only vaguely remembered obstacles standing in his rolling path: the golden trunk of a felled pine, dripping with amber resin; and wood shavings.The stump of a tree with clearly countable rings of annual rings in its cross section... A foreign sound jolted him out of his half-conscious state, and he sat up and looked around.He found himself on the ground of a large, sun-drenched lumber mill, piled high with felled and unfinished trees, lumber, and piles of firewood.The midday sun was high overhead, and the air was heavy with the smell of resin, heated needles, and the moisture of snow, and over the still-thawed land, a lark sang its monotonous in a minor tune, almost out of breath. Alexei felt an indescribable danger approaching.He looked around the lumberyard.The lumber mill is newly opened, and it has not been barren yet. The branches of the wood have not been cut off, and the needles on the branches have not withered and withered.Honeydew resin dripped from the cross-section of the tree, fresh sawdust and wet branches were strewn here and there, and the air was filled with the smell of new sawdust and wet bark.This meant that the lumberyard was still operating, or that the Germans were cutting down timber for shelters and fortifications.If that's the case, you need to get out of there quickly.The lumberjack may be coming soon.However, his body became stiff, and the pain was as if he was being shackled by iron chains, and he had no strength to move. Do you want to keep climbing?Living in the woods these days had honed an instinct in him that kept him on the alert.He didn't see it, but felt like a beast that someone was watching him intently.Who is it?It was quiet in the woods, a lark was singing over the lumber field, a few woodpeckers were pecking wood in low voices, a group of chickadees were calling each other loudly, many pine trees were blown down, and the birds were hanging down there Flying rapidly from branch to branch.Still, Alexei felt with all his being that someone was watching him. A branch clicked.He looked back and found a cluster of dense small pine trees, the curly treetops were swaying in the wind.But among its bluish-gray clumps of leaves, a few branches grew in their own way, never swaying to the rhythm.Then Alexei felt that from there came a low, anxious whisper, a human whisper.Alexei was terrified again, as he had been when he met a dog. He drew the rusty, dusty pistol from his pocket.The safety of the pistol was opened with both hands.Just as the security mechanism opened with a howl, someone seemed to jump away quickly in the small pine forest.The tops of a few trees were jerked as if someone had touched them, and then all was still again. "Is this a beast, or a human?" Alexei was thinking, and at the same time, he felt that someone in the bushes was asking in Russian: "Is it a human?" speak?Yes, it was Russian.Because they were speaking in Russian, he suddenly felt ecstasy, and without thinking about who they were: enemies or friends, he uttered a howl of excitement, jumped up to his feet, and rushed with his whole body in the direction of the voice ahead. , but immediately snorted again, fell down like an amputee, and dropped the pistol on the snow... 14 However, crawling is extremely difficult too.His hands trembled, and he had no strength to support the weight of his body.Several times he bumped his face into the snow, the gravity of the earth seemed to have increased several times, and it was impossible to overcome this gravity.He couldn't help but want to lie down and rest for a while, even for half an hour, but then Alexei would not want to go any further today.So, restraining his extreme fatigue, he kept crawling and crawling, fell down and got up and climbed again. He felt neither pain nor hunger, saw or heard anything, except the booming. The sound of shelling and the sound of firing from both sides. When he could no longer support his hands, he tried to crawl on his elbows, which was very inconvenient.He simply lay on his stomach, raised his body with his elbows on the snow, and tried to roll.That's all right, it's easier to roll from one side to the other, it doesn't take much effort, but I'm so dizzy, I'm always in a daze, I often have to stop and sit on the snow, and roll when the earth, forest, and sky stop spinning . The woods became thinner, and in some places the trees were cut down and looked bare.There are winter roads exposed on the snow.Aleksei no longer wondered whether he could reach his own people, he had only one thought: as long as his body could move, he would crawl and roll over.His whole body was weakened by this dreadful work, and he often lost consciousness for brief moments under the circumstances, but his hands and whole body continued to make these complicated movements mechanically.He was rolling on the snow--rolling in the direction of the bombardment, rolling in the east. How he passed the night, whether he had rolled a little bit in the morning, Alexey could not remember all this, and everything was lost in tormenting half-conscious darkness.He only vaguely remembered obstacles standing in his rolling path: the golden trunk of a felled pine, dripping with amber resin; and wood shavings.The stump of a tree with clearly countable rings of annual rings in its cross section... A foreign sound jolted him out of his half-conscious state, and he sat up and looked around.He found himself on the ground of a large, sun-drenched lumber mill, piled high with felled and unfinished trees, lumber, and piles of firewood.The midday sun was high overhead, and the air was heavy with the smell of resin, heated needles, and the moisture of snow, and over the still-thawed land, a lark sang its monotonous in a minor tune, almost out of breath. Alexei felt an indescribable danger approaching.He looked around the lumberyard.The lumber mill is newly opened, and it has not been barren yet. The branches of the wood have not been cut off, and the needles on the branches have not withered and withered.Honeydew resin dripped from the cross-section of the tree, fresh sawdust and wet branches were strewn here and there, and the air was filled with the smell of new sawdust and wet bark.This meant that the lumberyard was still operating, or that the Germans were cutting down timber for shelters and fortifications.If that's the case, you need to get out of there quickly.The lumberjack may be coming soon.However, his body became stiff, and the pain was as if he was being shackled by iron chains, and he had no strength to move. Do you want to keep climbing?Living in the woods these days had honed an instinct in him that kept him on the alert.He didn't see it, but felt like a beast that someone was watching him intently.Who is it?It was quiet in the woods, a lark was singing over the lumber field, a few woodpeckers were pecking wood in low voices, a group of chickadees were calling each other loudly, many pine trees were blown down, and the birds were hanging down there Flying rapidly from branch to branch.Still, Alexei felt with all his being that someone was watching him. A branch clicked.He looked back and found a cluster of dense small pine trees, the curly treetops were swaying in the wind.But among its bluish-gray clumps of leaves, a few branches grew in their own way, never swaying to the rhythm.Then Alexei felt that from there came a low, anxious whisper, a human whisper.Alexei was terrified again, as he had been when he met a dog. He drew the rusty, dusty pistol from his pocket.The safety of the pistol was opened with both hands.Just as the security mechanism opened with a howl, someone seemed to jump away quickly in the small pine forest.The tops of a few trees were jerked as if someone had touched them, and then all was still again. "Is this a beast, or a human?" Alexei was thinking, and at the same time, he felt that someone in the bushes was asking in Russian: "Is it a human?" speak?Yes, it was Russian.Because they were speaking in Russian, he suddenly felt ecstasy, and without thinking about who they were: enemies or friends, he uttered a howl of excitement, jumped up to his feet, and rushed with his whole body in the direction of the voice ahead. , but immediately snorted again, fell down like an amputee, and dropped the pistol on the snow... 15 For the next two or three days, Alexei was shrouded in a layer of hot and dense fog, and he vaguely saw what happened in this hazy vision.Facts and false dreams were mingled together, and it was only after a long time that he recalled each true event coherently. The fugitive farmers lived in a century-old forest.Numerous cave dwellings are covered with snow, not yet melted, and covered with needles, imperceptible at first glance.The cooking smoke coming out of the cave dwellings looks like coming from the ground.The day Alexei came here was windless and humid, and the smoke from the cooking clung to the moss and lingered on the trees, so Alexei felt that the place was trapped in a dying forest fire. The whole village—mainly women and children, with a few elderly people—learned that Mikhaila was bringing from the woods an unknown Soviet pilot who, as Fedka described, resembled "a real "Skeleton", they all came out to greet them.When the "troika" pulled the small sled and just appeared in the woods, the women surrounded it, slapped their hands and slapped their heads to drive away the entangled children, and then it was like a wall Surrounded by the sledge, sighing and crying, he followed.They were all dressed in rags and looked as if they were all very old.Because there was no chimney for the fire, the smoke in the cave made their faces black.It was only by the luster of the eyes and the whiteness of the teeth that it was possible to tell the young from the old in these brown faces. "Women, girls, oh, girls! What are you all doing here? Do you think this is a theater? Is it an act?" Mikhail lost his temper and squeezed the harness expertly, "For God's sake Come on, don't you walk around under your feet, a flock of ewes, God forgive me, it's going mad!" Alexei heard someone in the crowd say: "Oh, how terrible! It's really like a skeleton! Doesn't move, is it still alive?" "He's fainted... How did he get like this? Ah, old woman, how thin he is, how thin he is!" Later, the wave of surprise subsided.The pilot's fate was uncertain and dire, which obviously surprised the girls.As they dragged their sled along the edge of the forest and approached the underground village slowly, a dispute arose: whose house did Alexei live in? "My cave dwelling is very dry, covered with sand, and ventilated...I also have a small stove." A short woman with a round face argued.The whites of her eyes were very like those of young Negroes, quick-witted and bright. "'Little stove'! But how many people live in your house? Their breath alone can kill people! ... Mihaila, let him come to my house, I have three sons who are all Red Army soldiers , I have some flour left at home, and I can give him scones!" "No, no, come to my house. My house is very spacious. There are only two of us. There are plenty of places. You bring the cake to us. It doesn't matter where you eat it. Kexiuha and I can take care of him. , I have frozen braided fish and a bunch of white mushrooms... I can make him fish and mushroom soup..." "Where can he drink fish soup? He has one foot in the coffin! . . . Come to my house, Father Misha, we have a cow and milk!" ①Mihaila's pet name. But Mikhaila dragged the sledge to his own door, which happened to be the center of the underground village. ...Aleksei remembered: he was lying in a small dark cave, the pine lights inserted on the wall were burning, smoking slightly, making crackling noises from time to time, and sparks often fell.Visible by firelight: a table top made of wooden boxes containing German mines, it rests on a post buried in the ground, and next to the table are not stools but knots of logs; Sitting at the table with her head bowed was a thin woman dressed like an old woman in a black turban. This was Varvara, Father Mihaila's youngest daughter-in-law; With silver-gray but not thick hair. Alexei lay on a striped mattress made of straw.He was also covered with that sheepskin jacket covered with colorful patches. The leather jacket gave off the sour smell that is often seen in the daily life of the family, which is very pleasant to smell.So even though his body ached as if he had been stoned, and his feet were on fire, as if the soles of his feet were pressed against hot bricks, he was comfortable lying still: no one came to hurt him. You don't have to move, think, or watch out. A small fireplace was built into the floor in the corner of the room, and the smoke was coming out of the stove, filling the air like layers of flowing blue-gray mist that varied in color from dark to light.And it seemed to Alexei that not only the smoke, but also the table, the gray-haired head of Father Mikhail, who was always in a hurry, and even the slim figure of Valya', all these things were loosening. Floating and extending.Alexei closed his eyes.Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew in through the doorway with the German black eagle on it, and he opened his eyes again.A woman stood by the table, and she had put a small bag on the table, her hands resting on it, as if hesitating whether to take it back or not.She sighed and said to Varvara: ① Varvara's pet name. "It's wheat flour . . . it's been kept for Kosdyuenka since before the war. Now, Kosdyuenka, he doesn't need anything. Take it, please, and make some porridge for your guests. It's good for serving It's just right for the child to eat." She turned and walked away quietly, and everyone was infected with this sadness.Later, someone brought frozen bream, and someone brought some pancakes, baked on the bricks of the stove.Now, the whole cave dwelling is filled with the sour heat of food. Shelenka and Fedka are here.With the sophistication of a farmer, Selenka took off his boat hat at the door and said, "Hello!" He put two small cubes of sugar on the table, with tobacco dust and wheat bran still stuck to the cube. "Mom asked me to bring it. It's good to eat candy. Eat it." He said, then turned to his grandfather and said seriously: "We went to the village that was burned by the fire again, and dug out an iron can, two A hoe that didn't burn out and an ax that didn't have a handle. We brought them, and they're still usable." And Fedka peeked from behind his brother, greedily looked at the two small cubes of sugar on the table, and swallowed noisily. After a long time, when Alexei pondered all this carefully, he realized how precious these gifts were given to him by the people in the village at that time: in this winter, about one-third of the residents in the village died. ，都是因为饥饿，没有一家不埋葬一个死人，有的还埋葬了两个。 “啊，娘儿们，娘儿们，你们真是无价之宝！怎么样？听我说，阿辽哈，我说，俄罗斯的娘儿们，你听我说，是无价之宝。只要你打动了她的心肠，我们的娘儿们，无论什么东西，她都肯给你，连头也肯割下来！怎么样？不是这样吗？”米哈依拉爷爷一边要接受别人送给阿列克谢的所有礼物，一边又要去做没完没了的事情，像修理马套、缝制颈圈或是缝补穿坏的毡靴，同时唠叨着：“就拿干活来说吧，阿辽哈老弟，这些娘儿们，她们并不比我们差，很了不起！瞧瞧，干起活来比有的男人还强！只是娘儿们的嘴呀，唉，这舌头呀！阿辽哈，这班鬼娘儿们真是把我弄得头昏脑涨的，唉，简直把我搅晕了。我的阿妮西娅刚死的时候，我这个罪人就曾琢磨道：'谢天谢地，我可以安静地过日子了！'这样，上帝就来惩罚我。我们的男人们，凡是没有继续留在军队里的，在德国人来的时候全都打游击去了，只有我不知道作了什么孽，留下来当上了娘子军的指挥，像一群母羊里的一只公羊……哈—哈—哈！” 在这个林中小村里，阿列克谢看见了许许多多这类使他感动的事。帕拉夫尼的村民世世代代辛辛苦苦地积攒下来的房屋、财产、农具、家畜、日常用品、衣服，所有这一切都被德国人剥夺了。他们现在住在树林里，忍受着极大的不幸，每一分钟都处在可能被德国人发现的威胁之中，面临着饥饿、死亡。但是经过先进分子长达半年的争执和口舌，三十年代好不容易才建立起来的集体农庄并没解散。相反，战争的巨大灾难却使大家更加紧密地团结起来，甚至窑洞也是集体挖的，住进去的时候也不是照老办法——谁高兴住哪儿就住哪儿，而是按工作队分配的。米哈依拉老大爷替代遇害的女婿，担负起主席的职责。他在林中神圣地遵奉着集体农庄的所有惯例，他领导的到密林里来过穴居生活的村民现在都编成工作队和生产组，正准备春耕。 深受饥饿之苦的农妇，她们把粮种拿到公共窑洞里来，一粒也不留，全部倒了出来，这是他们逃跑之后所保存的全部东西。德国人来到之前，人们事先已牵出几头母牛到森林里，他们制订了严格的规则，要照料好这些公共牲口。孩子们常到被火烧掉的村庄上去，在焦炭堆里挖出熏得变成蓝色的耕犁。这么做是要冒着牺牲生命的危险的。他们给那些保存得最完好的犁装上木把，用麻袋布做成牛轭，准备开春就用牛耕田。妇女工作队奉命在湖里捕鱼，村民整个冬天全靠吃鱼度日。 她们常常在米哈依拉老大爷窑洞里为农事激烈地争吵不休，那些农事问题是阿列克谢不太了解的，这时候老大爷虽然也要叱责“他的娘儿们”，把耳朵塞起来不听她们嚷嚷——他不止一次地被她们弄得发起火来，不得不撕破嗓子对她们大喊大叫，但是，他能珍惜她们。当着自己那沉默寡言、性格随和的听众——阿列克谢的面，他不止一次地高度赞扬了这些“女流之辈”。 “阿辽哈，你是我亲爱的朋友，你瞧瞧出了什么事。娘儿们，她们永远是连一块面包也不会轻易让出的。怎么样？不是这样吗？而这是为了什么呢？是吝啬吗？不是的，因为一小块面包对她们来说也是宝贵的。要知道，孩子们总要她们养活吧，家务什么的，不管怎么说，总是她们娘儿们来管吧。现在你来看看是怎么回事。我们过的是什么日子，你是亲眼看见的：哪怕是一点点东西都要精打细算。唉，人人都在挨饿！可是，在这种情况下，那是在一月份，忽然来了一批游击队，他们不是我们村里的，不是我们这儿的，听说他们在奥列宁城下打仗，是些外乡人，还带着铁罐什么的。好吧，他们突然来了。他们说：'我们快要饿死了。'接下来，你想会怎么样，第二天娘儿们就把他们的袋子塞得满满的。可是，她们自己的孩子却饿得浮肿，连双脚都站不起来。怎么样？不是这样吗？问题就在这里！我要是一个什么指挥官，我们一旦把德国人赶跑，我就集合最好的军队，把他们领到娘儿们跟前，命令他们在她们面前，在俄罗斯的娘儿们面前，列队正步走，向她们，向这些可爱的娘儿们致敬……” 在老人的絮语声中，阿列克谢甜蜜地打着瞌睡。有时候，听着老人的讲述，他很想从衬衣口袋里掏出那个姑娘的来信和照片，把它们给他瞧瞧。但是，他太虚弱了，连手都举不起来。不过，米哈依拉老大爷在夸奖他的娘儿们时，阿列克谢仿佛透过呢军便服感到这些信的温暖。 米哈依拉老大爷的儿媳妇灵巧、沉默少语，每每到了晚上总是在桌边忙着什么事。起初，阿列克谢把她看成老太婆，老大爷的妻子，但是后来看清楚了，她不过才二十一二岁的样子。她轻盈、苗条、面容姣好。她看阿列克谢时，不知为什么有些惊恐、害怕，叹着气，好像要咽下堵在喉咙里的什么东西。每到夜里，松明熄灭了，窑洞里烟雾弥漫。在这漆黑的窑洞里有一只蟋蟀开始若有所思地鸣叫，这蟋蟀是米哈依拉爷爷偶然在老家的废墟上掘出来的，他把它放在无指手套里，连同一只烧黑的锅一起带了回来的，为的是使生活有点乐趣。有时候，阿列克谢听见简陋的床铺上有人用嘴咬住枕头，不出声地哭泣着。