【英文文学】在人间 In the World.docx

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1、【英文文学】在人间 In the WorldChapter 1 I WENT out into the world as “shop-boy” at a fashionable boot-shop in themain street of the town.My master was a small, round man. He had a brown, rugged face, greenteeth, and watery, mud-colored eyes. At first I thought he was blind, and tosee if my supposition was c

2、orrect, I made a grimace.“Dont pull your face about!” he said to me gently, but sternly. Thethought that those dull eyes could see me was unpleasant, and I did not wantto believe that this was the case. Was it not more than probable that he hadguessed I was making grimaces ?“I told you not to pull y

3、our face about,” he said again, hardly moving histhick lips.“Dont scratch your hands,” his dry whisper came to me, as it were,stealthily. “You are serving in a first-class shop in the main street of thetown, and you must not forget it. The door-boy ought to stand like a statue.”I did not know what a

4、 statue was, and I couldnt help scratching myhands, which were covered with red pimples and sores, for they had beensimply devoured by vermin.“What did you do for a living when you were at home?” asked my master,looking at my hands.I told him, and he shook his round head, which was closely covered w

5、ithgray hair, and said in a shocked voice :“Rag-picking! Why, that is worse than begging or stealing!”I informed him, not without pride :“But I stole as well.”At this he laid his hands on his desk, looking just like a cat with her pawsup, and fixed his eyes on my face with a terrified expression as

6、hewhispered :“Wha a t? How did you steal?”I explained how and what I had stolen.“Well, well, I look upon that as nothing but a prank. But if you rob me ofboots or money, I will have you put in prison, and kept there for the rest ofyour life.”He said this quite calmly, and I was frightened, and did n

7、ot like him anymore.Besides the master, there were serving in the shop my cousin, SaschaJaakov, and the senior assistant, a competent, unctuous person with a redface. Sascha now wore a brown frock-coat, a false shirt-front, a cravat, andlong trousers, and was too proud to take any notice of me.When

8、grandfather had brought me to my master, he had asked Sascha tohelp me and to teach me. Sascha had frowned with an air of importance ashe said warningly:“He will have to do what I tell him, then.”Laying his hand on my head, grandfather had forced me to bend myneck.“You are to obey him; he is older t

9、han you both in years and experience.”And Sascha said to me, with a nod :“Dont forget what grandfather has said.” He lost no time in profiting byhis seniority.“Kashirin, dont look so goggle-eyed,” his master would advise him.“I I m all right,” Sascha would mutter, putting his head down. But themaste

10、r would not leave him alone.“Dont butt; the customers will think you are a goat.”The assistant smiled respectfully, the master stretched his lips in ahideous grin, and Sascha, his face flushing, retreated behind the counter. Idid not like the tone of these conversations. Many of the words they usedw

11、ere unintelligible to me, and sometimes they seemed to be speaking in astrange language. When a lady customer came in, the master would take hishands out of his pockets, tug at his mustache, and fix a sweet smile upon hisface a smile which wrinkled his cheeks, but did not change the expressionof his

12、 dull eyes. The assistant would draw himself up, with his elbowspressed closely against his sides, and his wrists respectfully dangling. Saschawould blink shyly, trying to hide his protruding eyes, while I would stand atthe door, surreptitiously scratching my hands, and observing the ceremonialof se

13、lling.Kneeling before the customer, the assistant would try on shoes withwonderfully deft fingers. He touched the foot of the woman so carefully thathis hands trembled, as if he were afraid of breaking her leg. But the leg wasstout enough. It looked like a bottle with sloping shoulders, turned neckd

14、ownward.One of these ladies pulled her foot away one day, shrieking :“Oh, you are tickling me!”“That is because you are so sensitive,” the assistant explainedhastily, with warmth.It was comical to watch him fawning upon the customers, and I had toturn and look through the glass of the door to keep m

15、yself from laughing.But something used to draw me back to watcli the sale. The proceedings ofthe assistant were very interesting, and while I looked at him I was thinkingthat I should never be able to make my fingers move so delicately, or sodeftly put boots on other peoples feet.It often happened t

16、hat the master went away from the shop into a littleroom behind it, and he would call Sascha to him, leaving the assistant alonewith the customer. Once, lingering over the foot of a red-haired woman, hetook it between his fingers and kissed it.“Oh,” breathed the woman, “what a bold man you are!”He p

17、uffed out his cheeks and emitted a long-drawn-out sound :“0 0 hi”At this I laughed so much that, to keep my feet, I had to hang on to thehandle of the door. It flew open, and my head knocked against one of thepanes of glass and broke it. The assistant stamped his foot at me, my masterhit me on the h

18、ead with his heavy gold ring, and Sascha tried to pull my ears.In the evening, when we were on our way home, he said to me, sternly:“You will lose your place for doing things like that. I d like to knowwhere the joke comes in.” And then he explained: “If ladies take a fancy tothe assistant, it is go

19、od for trade. A lady may not be in need of boots, but shecomes in and buys what she does not want just to have a look at theassistant, who pleases her. But you you cant understand! One puts oneselfout for you, and ”This incensed me. No one put himself out for me, and he least of all.In the morning t

20、he cook, a sickly, disagreeable woman, used to call mebefore him. I had to clean the boots and brush the clothes of the master, theassistant, and Sascha, get the samovar ready, bring in wood for all the stoves,and wash up. When I got to the shop I had to sweep the floor, dust, get thetea ready, carr

21、y goods to the customers, and go home to fetch the dinner, myduty at the door being taken in the meantime by Sascha, who, finding itlowering to his dignity, rated me.“Lazy young wretch! I have to do all your work for you.”This was a wearisome, dull life for me. I was accustomed to liveindependently

22、in the sandy streets of Kunavin, on the banks of the turbidOka, in the fields or woods, from morning to night. I was parted fromgrandmother and from my comrades. I had no one to speak to, and life wasshowing me her seamy, false side. There were occasions on which a customerwent away without making a

23、 purchase, when all three would feelthemselves affronted. The master would put his sweet smile away in hispocket as he said :“Kashirin, put these things away.” Then he would grumble :“Theres a pig of a woman! The fool found it dull sitting at home, so shemust come and turn our shop upside down! If y

24、ou were my wife, I d give yousomething!”His wife, a dried-up woman with black eyes and a large nose, simplymade a doormat of him. She used to scold him as if he were a servant.Often, after he had shown out a frequent customer with polite bows andpleasant words, they would all begin to talk about her

25、 in a vile and shamelessmanner, arousing in me a desire to run into the street after her and tell herwhat they said. I knew, of course, that people generally speak evil of oneanother behind one anothers backs, but these spoke of every one in aparticularly revolting manner, as if they were in the fro

26、nt rank of goodpeople and had been appointed to judge the rest of the world. Envious ofmany of them, they were never known to praise any one, and knewsomething bad about everybody.One day there came to the shop a young woman with bright, rosy cheeksand sparkling eyes, attired in a velvet cloak with

27、a collar of black fur. Herface rose out of the fur like a wonderful flower. When she had thrown thecloak off her shoulders and handed it to Sascha, she looked still morebeautiful. Her fine figure was fitted tightly with a blue-gray silk robe;diamonds sparkled in her ears. She reminded me of “Vassili

28、ssa theBeautiful,” and I could have believed that she was in truth the governorswife. They received her with particular respect, bending before her as if shewere a bright light, and almost choking themselves in their hurry to get outpolite words. All three rushed about the shop like wild things : th

29、eirreflections bobbed up and down in the glass of the cupboard. But when sheleft, after having bought some expensive boots in a great hurry, the master,smacking his lips, whistled and said :“Hussy!”“An actress that sums her up,” said the assistant, contemptuously.They began to talk of the lovers of

30、the lady and the luxury in which she lived.After dinner the master went to sleep in the room behind the shop, and I,opening his gold watch, poured vinegar into the works. It was a moment ofsupreme joy to me when he awoke and came into the shop, with his watch inhis hand, muttering wildly:“What can h

31、ave happened? My watch is all wet.I never remember such a thing happening before. It is all wet; it will beruined.”In addition to the burden of my duties in the shop and the housework, Iwas weighed down by depression. I often thought it would be a good idea tobehave so badly that I should get my dis

32、missal. Snow-covered people passedthe door of the shop without making a sound. They looked as if on their wayto somebodys funeral. Having meant to accompany the body to the grave,they had been delayed, and, being late for the funeral procession, werehurrying to the graveside. The horses quivered wit

33、h the effort of makingtheir way through the snow-drifts. From the belfry of the church behind theshop the bells rang out with a melancholy sound every day. It was Lent, andevery stroke of the bell fell upon my brain as if it had been a pillow, nothurting, but stupefying and deafening, me. One day wh

34、en I was in the yardunpacking a case of new goods just received, at the door of the shop, thewatchman of the church, a crooked old man, as soft as if he were made ofrags and as ragged as if he had been torn to pieces by dogs, approached me.“Are you going to be kind and steal some goloshes for me?” h

35、e asked.I was silent. He sat down on an empty case, yawned, made the sign of thecross over his mouth, and repeated:“Will you steal them for me?”“It is wrong to steal,” I informed him.“But people steal all the same. Old age must have its compensations.”He was pleasantly different from the people amon

36、g whom I lived. I feltthat he had a firm belief in my readiness to steal, and I agreed to hand himthe goloshes through the window.“Thats right,” he said calmly, without enthusiasm. “You are notdeceiving me? No, I see that you are not.”He was silent for a moment, trampling the dirty, wet snow with th

37、e solesof his boots. Then he lit a long pipe, and suddenly startled me.“But suppose it is I who deceive you? Suppose I take the goloshes to yourmaster, and tell him that you have sold them to me for half a ruble? Whatthen? Their price is two rubles, and you have sold them for half a ruble. As aprese

38、nt, eh?”I gazed at him dumbly, as if he had already done what he said he woulddo; but he went on talking gently through his nose, looking at his boots, andblowing out blue smoke.“Suppose, for example, that your master has said to me, Go and try thatyoungster, and see if he is a thief? What then?”“I

39、shall not give you the goloshes,” I said, angry and frightened.“You must give them now that you have promised.”He took me by the arm and drew me to him, and, tapping my foreheadwith his cold fingers, drawled:“What are you thinking of, with your take this and take that ?”“You asked me for them yourse

40、lf.”“I might ask you to do lots of things. I might ask you to come and rob thechurch. Would you do it? Do you think you can trust everybody? Ah, youyoung fool!” He pushed me away from him and stood up.“I dont want stolen goloshes. I am not a gentleman, and I dont weargoloshes. I was only making fun

41、of you. For your simplicity, when Eastercomes, I will let you come up into the belfry and ring the bells and look at thetown.”“I know the town.”“It looks better from the belfry.”Dragging his broken boots in the snow, he went slowly round the cornerof the church, and I looked after him, wondering dej

42、ectedly and fearfullywhether the old man had really been making fun of me, or had been sent bymy master to try me. I did not want to go back to the shop.Sascha came hurriedly into the yard and shouted:“What the devil has become of you?”I shook my pincers at him in a sudden access of rage. I knew tha

43、t both heand the assistant robbed the master. They would hide a pair of boots orslippers in the stovepipe, and when they left the shop, would slip them intothe sleeves of their overcoats. I did not like this, and felt alarmed about it, forI remembered the threats of the master.“Are you stealing?” I

44、had asked Sascha.“Not I, but the assistant,” he would explain crossly. “I am only helpinghim. He says, Do as I tell you, and I have to obey. If I did not, he would dome some mischief. As for master, he was an assistant himself once, and heunderstands. But you hold your tongue.”As he spoke, he looked

45、 in the glass and set his tie straight with just sucha movement of his naturally spreading fingers as the senior assistantemployed. He was unwearying in his demonstrations of his seniority andpower over me, scolding me in a bass voice, and ordering me about withthreatening gestures. I was taller tha

46、n he, but bony and clumsy, while he wascompact, flexible, and fleshy. In his frock-coat and long trousers he seemedan important and substantial figure in my eyes, and yet there was somethingludicrous and unpleasing about him. He hated the cook, a curious woman, ofwhom it was impossible to decide whe

47、ther she was good or bad.“What I love most in the world is a fight,” she said, opening wide herburning black eyes. “I dont care what sort of fight it is, cock-fights, dogfights,or fights between men. It is all the same to me.”And if she saw cocks or pigeons fighting in the yard, she would throwaside

48、 her work and watch the fight to the end, standing dumb andmotionless at the window. In the evenings she would say to me and Sascha:“Why do you sit there doing nothing, children ? You had far better befighting.”This used to make Sascha angry.“I am not a child, you fool; I am junior assistant.”“That does not concern me. In my eyes, while you remain unmarried,you are a child.”“Fool! Blockhead!”“The devil is clever, but God does not love him.”Her talk was a special source