CHAPTER V.
Here, as a boy not yet fifteen, Sasha begins his career as a man. The task he has undertaken demands the industry, the patience, and the devotion of his life; but he has been prepared for it by a sound if a somewhat hard experience. I hope the boys who read this feel satisfied already that he is going to succeed; yet I know also that they like to be certain, and to have some little information as to how it came about. So I will allow fifteen years to pass, and we will now look upon Sasha as a man of about thirty years of age.
He has an office and warehouse on the great main street of St. Petersburg, which is called the Nevsky Prospekt, that is, the Perspective of the Neva, because when you look down it you see the blue waters of the river Neva at the end. Over the door there is a large sign-board with the name "Alexander Ivanovitch."[[1]] He employs a number of clerks and salesmen, and has a servant who would go through fire and water to help or serve him. I must relate how he found this man, and why the latter is so faithful.
[[1]] Ivanovitch means "the son of Ivan." Russian family names are formed in this manner, and therefore the son has a different name from the father, unless their baptismal names are the same.
On one of his journeys of business, five years before, Sasha visited the town of Perm, on the western side of the Ural Mountains. It is on the main highway to Siberia, and criminals are continually passing either on the way thither in chains, or returning in rags when their time of banishment has expired. One evening Sasha found by the roadside, in the outskirts of the town, a miserable looking wretch who seemed to be at the point of death. He felt the man's pulse, lifted up his head and looked in his face, and was startled at recognizing the younger of the three robbers who had attacked Baron Popoff. He had him taken to the inn, tended, and restored, and after being convinced of his earnest desire to lead a better life gave him employment. The robber was not naturally a bad man, but very ignorant and superstitious. It seemed to him both a miracle and a warning that he should have been saved by Sasha, and he fully believed that his soul would be lost if he should ever act dishonestly towards him.
Keeping his heart steadily upon the great purpose of his life, Sasha rose from one step to another until he became an independent and wealthy merchant, far wealthier, indeed, than the baron supposed. He paid the latter a handsome sum for his time, and sent only small presents of money to his parents, for he knew how few and simple their wants were. He felt a thousand times more keenly than old Gregor what it was to be a serf. The old man was still living, but very feeble and helpless, and Sasha often grew wild at the thought that he might die before knowing freedom.
His plan of action had been long fixed, and now the hour had come when he determined to try it. He had for years kept a strict watch over the baron's life in St. Petersburg, knew the amount of his increasing debts and the embarrassment they occasioned him, and could very nearly calculate the hour when ruin would overtake him. He was not disappointed, therefore, one morning at receiving an urgent summons to wait upon his master.
"Sasha," said the latter, laying his hand upon the shoulder of his serf with a familiarity he had never displayed before, "you are an honest, faithful fellow. I need a few thousand roubles for a month or two; can you get the money for me?"
"I have heard, my lord," answered Sasha, "that you are in difficulty. I knew why you sent for me, and I come to offer you a way out of all your troubles. Your debts amount to more than a hundred thousand roubles: would you like to be relieved of them?"
"Would I not!—but how?" exclaimed the baron.