Short Fiction by Anton Chekhov (libby ebook reader .txt) 📕

about it? I saw nothing of it. He called me this morning, gave me a letter, and said: ‘Put it in the letterbox for me.’ And his eyes were red with crying. His wife and children were not at home. They had gone out for a walk. So when I had gone with the letter, he put a bullet into his forehead from a revolver. When I came back his cook was wailing for the whole yard to hear.”

“It’s a great sin,” said the fish-hawker in a husky voice, and he shook his head, “a great sin!”

“From too much learning,” said the porter, taking a trick; “his wits outstripped his wisdom. Sometimes he would sit writing papers all night.⁠ ⁠… Play, peasant!⁠ ⁠… But he was a nice gentleman. And so white skinned, black-haired and tall!⁠ ⁠… He was a good lodger.”

“It seems the fair sex is at the bottom of it,” said the coachman, slapping the nine of trumps on the king of diamonds. “It seems he was fond of another man’s wife and disliked his own; it does happen.”

“The king rebels,” said the porter.

At that moment there was again a ring from the yard. The rebellious king spat with vexation and went out. Shadows like dancing couples flitted across the windows of the lodge. There was the sound of voices and hurried footsteps in the yard.

“I suppose the doctors have come again,” said the coachman. “Our Mihailo is run off his legs.⁠ ⁠…”

A strange wailing voice rang out for a moment in the air. Alyoshka looked in alarm at his grandfather, the coachman; then at the windows, and said:

“He stroked me on the head at the gate yesterday, and said, ‘What district do you come from, boy?’ Grandfather, who was that howled just now?”

His grandfather trimmed the light in the lantern and made no answer.

“The man is lost,” he said a little later, with a yawn. “He is lost, and his children are ruined, too. It’s a disgrace for his children for the rest of their lives now.”

The porter came back and sat down by the lantern.

“He is dead,” he said. “They have sent to the almshouse for the old women to lay him out.”

“The kingdom of heaven and eternal peace to him!” whispered the coachman, and he crossed himself.

Looking at him, Alyoshka crossed himself too.

“You can’t pray for such as him,” said the fish-hawker.

“Why not?”

“It’s a sin.”

“That’s true,” the porter assented. “Now his soul has gone straight to hell, to the devil.⁠ ⁠…”

“It’s a sin,” repeated the fish-hawker; “such as he have no funeral, no requiem, but are buried like carrion with no respect.”

The old man put on his cap and got up.

“It was the same thing at our lady’s,” he said, pulling his cap on further. “We were serfs in those days; the younger son of our mistress, the General’s lady, shot himself through the mouth with a pistol, from too much learning, too. It seems that by law such have to be buried outside the cemetery, without priests, without a requiem service; but to save disgrace our lady, you know, bribed the police and the doctors, and they gave her a paper to say her son had done it when delirious, not knowing what he was doing. You can do anything with money. So he had a funeral with priests and every honor, the music played, and he was buried in the church; for the deceased General had built that church with his own money, and all his family were buried there. Only this is what happened, friends. One month passed, and then another, and it was all right. In the third month they informed the General’s lady that the watchmen had come from that same church. What did they want? They were brought to her, they fell at her feet. ‘We can’t go on serving, your excellency,’ they said. ‘Look out for other watchmen and graciously dismiss us.’ ‘What for?’ ‘No,’ they said, ‘we can’t possibly; your son howls under the church all night.’ ”

Alyoshka shuddered, and pressed his face to the coachman’s back so as not to see the windows.

“At first the General’s lady would not listen,” continued the old man. “ ‘All this is your fancy, you simple folk have such notions,’ she said. ‘A dead man cannot howl.’ Some time afterwards the watchmen came to her again, and with them the sacristan. So the sacristan, too, had heard him howling. The General’s lady saw that it was a bad job; she locked herself in her bedroom with the watchmen. ‘Here, my friends, here are twenty-five roubles for you, and for that go by night in secret, so that no one should hear or see you, dig up my unhappy son, and bury him,’ she said, ‘outside the cemetery.’ And I suppose she stood them a glass⁠ ⁠… And the watchmen did so. The stone with the inscription on it is there to this day, but he himself, the General’s son, is outside the cemetery.⁠ ⁠… O Lord, forgive us our transgressions!” sighed the fish-hawker. “There is only one day in the year when one may pray for such people: the Saturday before Trinity.⁠ ⁠… You mustn’t give alms to beggars for their sake, it is a sin, but you may feed the birds for the rest of their souls. The General’s lady used to go out to the crossroads every three days to feed the birds. Once at the crossroads a black dog suddenly appeared; it ran up to the bread, and was such a⁠ ⁠… we all know what that dog was. The General’s lady was like a half-crazy creature for five days afterwards, she neither ate nor drank.⁠ ⁠… All at once she fell on her knees in the garden, and prayed and prayed.⁠ ⁠… Well, goodbye, friends, the blessing of God and the Heavenly Mother be with you. Let us go, Mihailo, you’ll open the gate for me.”

The fish-hawker and the porter went out. The coachman and Alyoshka went out too, so as not to be left in the coach-house.

“The man