My father has got very old and bent, and just takes a little walk in the evening near his house.
When we had the cholera, Prokofyi cured the shopkeepers with pepper-brandy and tar and took money for it, and as I read in the newspaper, he was flogged for libelling the doctors as he sat in his shop. His boy Nicolka died of cholera. Karpovna is still alive, and still loves and fears her Prokofyi. Whenever she sees me she sadly shakes her head and says with a sigh:
"Poor thing. You are lost!"
On week-days I am busy from early morning till late at night. And on Sundays and holidays I take my little niece (my sister expected a boy, but a girl was born) and go with her to the cemetery, where I stand or sit and look at the grave of my dear one, and tell the child that her mother is lying there.
Sometimes I find Aniuta Blagovo by the grave. We greet each other and stand silently, or we talk of Cleopatra, and the child, and the sadness of this life. Then we leave the cemetery and walk in silence and she lags behind—on purpose, to avoid staying with me. The little girl, joyful, happy, with her eyes half-closed against the brilliant sunlight, laughs and holds out her little hands to her, and we stop and together we fondle the darling child.
And when we reach the town, Aniuta Blagovo, blushing and agitated, says good-bye, and walks on alone, serious and circumspect.... And, to look at her, none of the passers-by could imagine that she had just been walking by my side and even fondling the child.
BOOKS BY ANTON TCHEKOFF
Published by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
| THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE and Other Stories. 12mo | $1.35 net |
| RUSSIAN SILHOUETTES. 12mo | $1.35 net |
| STORIES OF RUSSIAN LIFE. 12mo | $1.35 net |
| PLAYS. FIRST SERIES: "Uncle Vanya," "Ivanoff," "The Sea Gull," "The Swan Song." 12mo | $1.50 net |
| PLAYS. SECOND SERIES: "On the High Road," "The Proposal," "The Wedding," "The Bear," "A Tragedian in Spite of Himself," "The Anniversary," "The Three Sisters," "The Cherry Orchard." 12mo | $1.50 net |