FullReads

“Yes. Very good! The lieutenant draws plans, and you stay in the kitchen all day long and suffer from homesickness…. Plans…. Plans don’t matter. It’s human life that matters! Life doesn’t come again. One should be sparing of it.”

“Certainly Pavel Ivanich. A bad man meets no quarter, either at home, or in the army, but if you live straight, and do as you are told, then no one will harm you. They are educated and they understand…. For five years now I’ve never been in the cells and I’ve only been thrashed once–touch wood!”

“What was that for?”

“Fighting. I have a heavy fist, Pavel Ivanich. Four Chinamen came into our yard: they were carrying wood, I think, but I don’t remember. Well, I was bored. I went for them and one of them got a bloody nose. The lieutenant saw it through the window and gave me a thick ear.”

“You poor fool,” muttered Pavel Ivanich. “You don’t understand anything.”

He was completely exhausted with the tossing of the boat and shut his eyes; his head fell back and then flopped forward onto his chest. He tried several times to lie down, but in vain, for he could not breathe.

“And why did you go for the four Chinamen?” he asked after a while.

“For no reason. They came into the yard and I went for them.”

Silence fell…. The gamblers played for a couple of hours, absorbed and cursing, but the tossing of the ship tired even them; they threw the cards away and laid down. Once more Goussiev thought of the big pond, the pottery, the village. Once more the sledges skimmed along, once more Vanka laughed, and that fool of an Akulka opened her fur coat, and stretched out her feet; look, she seemed to say, look, poor people, my felt boots are new and not like Vanka’s.

“She’s getting on for six and still she has no sense!” said Goussiev. “Instead of showing your boots off, why don’t you bring some water to your soldier-uncle? I’ll give you a present.”

Then came Andrea, with his firelock on his shoulder, carrying a hare he had shot, and he was followed by Tsaichik the cripple, who offered him a piece of soap for the hare; and there was the black heifer in the yard, and Domna sewing a shirt and crying over something, and there was the eyeless bull’s head and the black smoke….

Overhead there was shouting, sailors running; the sound of something heavy being dragged along the deck, or something had broken…. More running. Something wrong? Goussiev raised his head, listened and saw the two soldiers and the sailor playing cards again; Pavel Ivanich sitting up and moving his lips. It was very close, he could hardly breathe, he wanted a drink, but the water was warm and disgusting…. The pitching of the boat was now better.

Suddenly something queer happened to one of the soldiers…. He called ace of diamonds, lost his reckoning and dropped his cards. He started and laughed stupidly and looked round.

“In a moment, you fellows,” he said and lay down on the floor.

All were at a loss. They shouted at him but he made no reply.

“Stiepan, are you ill?” asked the other soldier with the bandaged hand. “Perhaps we’d better call the priest, eh?”

“Stiepan, drink some water,” said the sailor. “Here, mate, have a drink.”

“What’s the good of breaking his teeth with the jug,” shouted Goussiev angrily. “Don’t you see, you fatheads?”

“What.”

“What!” cried Goussiev. “He’s snuffed it, dead. That’s what! Good God, what fools!…”

III

The rolling stopped and Pavel Ivanich cheered up. He was no longer peevish. His face had an arrogant, impetuous, and mocking expression. He looked as if he were on the point of saying: “I’ll tell you a story that will make you die of laughter.” Their port-hole was open and a soft wind blew in on Pavel Ivanich. Voices could be heard and the splash of oars in the water…. Beneath the window some one was howling in a thin, horrible voice; probably a Chinaman singing.