Collected Shorter Fiction, Volume 2

Alyoshka was a thin boy with lop-ears (his ears stuck out just like wings) and he had a big nose. The other children would taunt him by saying ‘Alyoshka’s got a nose like a dog on a hillock.’ There was a school in the village, but Alyoshka never managed to learn reading and writing, in fact he had no time to study. His elder brother was living in a merchant’s household in the town, and from his earliest childhood Alyoshka began helping his father. At the age of six he was already minding the sheep and cows on the common pasture with his sister who was not much older, and when he had got a little bigger he started minding the horses, by day and by night. From his twelfth year he was ploughing, and driving the cart. He was not particularly strong, but he had the knack of doing things. And he was always cheerful. The other children made fun of him, but he would just keep quiet, or laugh. If his father cursed at him, he kept quiet and listened. And when the cursing was over he would smile, and get on with the job in hand.

Alyosha was nineteen years old when his brother was taken away to be a soldier. And his father sent Alyosha to take his brother’s place as a yardman at the merchant’s house. Alyosha was given his brother’s old boots, his father’s cap and a coat, and went off on a cart to the town. Alyosha himself was not too delighted with his outfit, but the merchant was quite displeased at the look of him.

‘I reckoned I was going to get something like a man in place of Semyon,’ said the merchant, giving Alyosha the once over, ‘but this is a proper little milksop you’ve brought me. Whatever use is he going to be?’

‘He can do anything you want – he can harness up, and fetch and carry anywhere, and he’s a glutton for work. He may look like a yard of wattle fencing, but in fact he’s a wiry young chap.’

‘Well, I can see what he looks like, but I’ll give him a try.’

‘And the best thing about him is, he doesn’t answer back. He’s really keen to work.’

‘There’s no getting round you. All right, you can leave him with me.’

So Alyosha came to live at the merchant’s house.

The merchant’s family was a small one: the master’s wife, his old mother, an elder son with only a basic education, married, who helped his father in the business, and another son who was a scholar – after leaving the grammar school he had gone to the university, but he had been expelled from there and was now living at home; and there was a daughter, a young schoolgirl.

To begin with Alyosha was not happy there – for he was a real country bumpkin, poorly dressed and without manners, and he called everyone ‘thou’; but they soon got used to him. He worked even harder than his brother had done. He really was meek and didn’t answer back: they sent him on all kinds of errands and he did everything willingly and quickly, and switched over from one task to the next with no break whatever. And as it had been at home, so too in the merchant’s house, all manner of work fell on Alyosha’s shoulders. The master’s wife, the master’s mother, the master’s daughter and the master’s son, the steward, the cook, they all sent him running hither and thither and told him to do this, that and the other. You would never hear anything but ‘Run and fetch this, lad’, or ‘Alyosha, you sort it out’, or ‘You did remember to do that, didn’t you Alyosha?’ or ‘Look here, Alyosha, don’t forget this’. And Alyosha ran, and sorted out, and looked, and didn’t forget, and managed to do it all, and all the time he never stopped smiling.

He soon wore his brother’s boots to pieces and the master told him off for going about with his boots full of holes and his bare toes sticking out, and gave orders for some new boots to be bought for him at the bazaar. The boots were brand new and Alyosha was delighted with them, but his legs were still the same old pair, and towards evening they ached from all this running about, and he would get cross with them. Alyosha was afraid that his father, when he came to get his money, might take offence if the merchant was to deduct part of his wages in payment for the boots.

In winter Alyosha would get up before it was light, chop the firewood, sweep the yard, give the horse and the cow their fodder and water them. Then he would heat up the stoves, clean the master’s boots and brush his clothes, and take out the samovars and clean them; then either the steward would call him to help get out the wares, or the cook would order him to knead the dough and scour the saucepans. Then he would be sent into town, sometimes with a note for somebody, sometimes to take something to the master’s daughter at the grammar school, sometimes to fetch lamp-oil for the old lady.

‘Wherever did you get to, you wretch?’ now one of them, now another would say to him. ‘Why go yourself? Alyosha will run and get it. Alyoshka! Here, Alyoshka!’ And Alyosha would come running.