Simeon

The seven-year child all long summer day of the life has been occupied by job: he cared of two brothers, smaller, than it. Most smaller sister was nursed for the present by mother, and the senior seven-year son till some time had as though a rest from it. But he knew, that is fast also sister will be given to its economy because at mother the stomach though she and spoke to the son again rose, what is it from meal. The father and seven-year Simeon Ponomareva's mother were people kind, therefore mother constantly gave birth to children; hardly having fattened a breast of one, it already pochinala another.
-- Start up live, - the father spoke, having learnt, what the wife has again incurred, - that for it there to pine?
-- The daddy, and where they there? - Asked Semen. - They there dead?
-- And that what? - Spoke otets. - Time with us does not live, the dead.
-- They there suffer? - Simeon learnt.
-- You see, here all climb - means, suffer, - informed otets. - With us to them badly: you big - itself know, and there is even worse...
-- At us it is bad, - spoke mother, thrusting a grain cud in a mouth of the most smaller docheri. - Oh, badly... The Father looked at mother mild, strong eyes.
-- Anything. Let grow: not to live it - is even worse. Only year three-four after the birth Simeon had a rest also veins in infancy, then it had. The father himself has made the cart of a basket and iron wheels, and mother ordered to roll to Simeon on a court yard of the little brother while she cooks a dinner. Among day the little brother slept, but soon woke up and cried, - then it should be carried again on a court yard around - by a shed, nuzhnika, gates to a garden, by a wing, a wattle fence, by gate on street and again to a shed. Then, when was born and one more brother Simeon has grown up, it put them in the cart at once a two and too carried on a court yard around, yet umarivalsja. Having exhausted, he asked from mother of bread in a window, and it gave it a piece, and Simeon again assiduously rested hands in grjadushku carts and carried it before itself, being forgotten in long travel among straws, rubbish, stones and rare blades of a court yard; He looked at them downwards sleepy eyes and was whispered with them about something or thought in mind, that they too such as it, and nothing it to miss, they after all are silent and do not miss - neither straws, nor a grass. Sometimes Simeon talked to the brothers in the cart, but they understood it a little and liked to cry; if they cried long Simeon punished them, giving to everyone a hand on a head, but is rare. Simeon saw, that his brothers
-- Pity people and, maybe, cry from a fright, that them will back banish there where they were dead when were not given birth. "Let live", - Simeon agreed. From time to time Simeon asked mother in a window:
-- Mum, is time?
-- No, no, roll them still! - mother from a room answered. She there cooked, fed and swung last girl, erased, darned and repaired linen, washed floors, poor money protected, as big, itself fire wood with the little girl on hands went to collect about a warehouse where their muzhiks carried and dropped unintentionally from carts, and then did not raise that it was easier to horses, - fire wood strangers, and the horses. Father Simeon worked as the smith in a smithy about a highway which went to Moscow on one thousand versts and more further. The father of the house only slept, and in the morning he woke up before everything, took krajushku breads and left. In the evenings, in the winter and in the summer, it came already in darkness, seldom finding elder son Simeon when that did not sleep yet. Before laying down to sleep, the father ordinary swarmed up a floor in a lap between sleeping children, covered them better gunjami, ironed everyone on a head and could not express, that he likes them, that it is a pity to it them, he as though asked from them pardon for a poor life; Then the father laid down about mother who slept in one number with children too on a floor, put cold, zanemevshie feet on its warm and fell asleep. In the morning, having woken up, children started to cry - they wished to eat, drink, and, besides, it was strange and unusual to them to live, in their body something constantly was ill, because there there was no still an ossification. One Simeon did not cry, it silently suffered of the need in food and at first cared of brothers, and then already ate up with mother that remains from smaller children, or that has casually deteriorated and has become rotten in vain not to throw out meal. Mother lived for a long time already, she could not suffer strongly when wished to eat, but Simeon grieved till the dinner. Rolling brothers in the cart, it went sad because in him heart for hunger was ill, he cried and silently whined to be forgotten. Brothers looked at it from the cart and too started to shout for fear, time their big brother is afraid of something. Then Simeon found slices of charcoal in the thrown out oven ashes or broke off a lime from a wall of a wing and gave to brothers; they began to suck and swallow of coal and from greed ceased to shout. Simeon went into the cart with brothers for a shed where between kurnikom, a wattle fence and a shed wall the burdock grew, tins and everyday dust laid, and itself left on street. There it went by another's houses, looking around, that rolls on the earth. Most of all he liked to find bits of apples and carrots. When it found them and ate, at it heart for pleasure weakened, he laughed at once and ran somewhat quicker back to brothers who could creep away without it from the cart it is not known where and forever a precipice. Simeon on run lifted a hem of a shirt and looked at the stomach; it seemed to it, that someone there lives separate of it which that torments him caresses, but it would not be better there than anybody absolutely, it is better to live to one without a grief. Brothers really independently got out of the cart, - one of them was able to creep only, and another already went gradually. Which went, that could not leave far - he was beaten by all counter subjects - on a forehead, on a side, in a stomach, and it soon fell down from a pain and cried. The smaller brother, Petka which crept was dangerous; it was still all soft, chubby from infancy, it crept slowly, and counter subjects touched it a little, therefore it could creep away a silent course in a crack under wattle fences and disappear in a grass and a bush on another's distant court yard or to fall asleep in a doghouse. Having collected brothers back in the cart, Simeon again rolled them by the ground, telling it what rains and the lightnings on light happen, what towers stand in a city where live rich, - he already has much lived also all saw; it has a house from iron on the brink of wood, it goes there at night to live there to one in a terrible way because it works as the tsar for wolves. Brothers listened to it with fear and belief; Younger, Petka, understood a little, but all the same was afraid. Simeon too listened to the stories with interest and though at it was not under the truth of the iron house and it did not serve at night as the tsar at wolves, but it was happy from the imagination actually. Having opened mouths, forgetting to blink eyes, brothers looked at Simeon as on the higher, awful person, they did not have anything that it is necessary to tell, they and to speak were able only a few words, therefore, listening, children did not remember themselves. But suddenly it became a pity to Simeon of two brothers; in them there was no even a mind to imagine itself good, and they had not time to learn yet to like one life. Children looked at the big brother trustfully and in a poor way, their eyes did not express sweet pleasure and the invented thought or pride, - for them it was unimportant, where there is a happiness - in them or outside, in other person if only it was also they could know not to doubt.
-- I do not work as the tsar, I purposely, - sadly spoke Semen. - I then money or beef home brought, and that at us the need in the house, only is not enough...
-- And you steal beef and to mother give, - advised the second after Simeon, five years' Zahar. - At mum the head is ill from a grief, she spoke to me, - recollected Zahar; he was already able to collect chips for a kindling of a samovar and watched during a dinner that mother has not deprived of its piece - it is necessary to the father more, than to it, Simeon slightly only has more, and Petke it is most less, he has not grown yet and can obestsja. Once mother till a dinner has cried to Simeon in a window that it went more likely home. At it patrimonial torments have begun, and she ordered to descend to Simeon to Kapishke - the grandma-midwife that it has come. Simeon has at once resulted the old woman for a hand, he knew it and earlier. At Kapishki there was one only the top tooth, this tooth it took a lower lip, and that the lip overhung downwards and then the dark precipice of an empty mouth opened. For the night, at bedtime, Kapishka tied up the bottom jaw a tape to a cinciput, differently its mouth collapsed in a dream and there flies were typed, searching for themselves a warm place. Person Kapishki already began to resemble for a long time the muzhik, it has become green from an old age and, should be, from rage, and on its upper lip grey-haired short moustaches grew. The old woman was such thin, that Simeon heard, when led her by hand home as in it something rustled and squeaked, likely, its veins rubbed against a bone. Kapishka took from mother and has given to Simeon the smallest, manual sister-little girl and ordered not to come long to it home. Simeon has planted sister in the cart between two brothers and has told it, that mother again gives birth, now it will live is even worse. It has taken away children for kurnik where there was a silent place, and there all of them have dozed off, because there has passed midday, it was time to have dinner, and mother was ill. Simeon has shaken children in the cart that they have more strong fallen asleep, and itself has left home and has hidden in an outer entrance hall, in darkness. He wished to hear, as people are given birth, paternal they live, and shivered from a grief and fear. Mother in a room that shouted, groaned, whispered something. Kapishka rattled ware, tore apart a matter in rags and managed there, as at house daily job.
-- And you do not cry, do not grieve, my daughter! - has told Kapishka mothers Semena. - Give I to you nearby I will lay down, can - you polegchaet!. Kapishka pokrjahtela it is a little, and then in a room it became silent. Likely, the old woman has laid down near to mother on a feather-bed laid on a floor. It was audible only as mother often and difficultly breathed as if hurrying to process the muchene.
-- To you - it is difficult, and how to it? - Spoke Kapishka.
-- To whom, the grandmother? - Quickly, trying not to begin to cry from a pain, has asked mother.
-- And to the one who is given birth! - has told Kapishka. - In it after all the soul is included now, into the narrowness, in the little body middle, climbs to it, all veins presses and pulls... And you well, otrozhaesh, will grin yes again will start, - than to you to be engaged?
-- I will not give birth any more, - pining, mother has told.
-- Njuzhli you will not be? - Has said staruha. - Al so I to you and has believed!. I, a daughter, you will not give birth, zamutneesh, you will decay, zakvoknesh all - you will not recollect, that the life has lived, with rage will be covered... It is better to suffer, yes to know, that the live you live! Mother has again moaned.
-- Or it is again difficult? - Has told Kapishka. - Well, pout, pout, inflated more diligently! Give together, I will give birth too! - the old woman has started to groan and be inflated; she tried in it more mother, consoling the lying-in woman and at least in one visibility to put a part of its torments on herself. Simeon prodrog from expectation and grief; from a room smelt as something sour and as if yellow, the boy sat and was afraid. In the distance, on a court yard, for kurnikom, at once from something younger sister Njushka, maybe, was went by shout has fallen from the cart headfirst. But shout of sister has suddenly stopped, as though it and was not also it has only seemed. Simeon has run there, to children, on check. At the bottom of the cart one slept smaller Petka, and Zaharka and Njushka have already got out therefrom somewhere: it, likely, Zahar has pulled out sister, she would not manage to leave the cart. Simeon has looked round and has heard, that Zaharka speaks to someone: "At, a reptile such, you what for were given birth!" Simeon has entered in kurnik. There in a twilight, under empty chicken perches, Zaharka sat astride a stomach of the little sister and smothered its throat hands. It laid backwards under it and tried to breathe, helping itself naked legs by which it was scraped on the dirty earth kurnika. Its tear-stained eyes silently and already almost indifferently looked in person Zaharke, and it rested chubby hands against smothering her hands of the brother. Simeon has given behind fist Zaharke in right skulo. Zaharka has fallen down from sister and has hit the left temple about pletnevuju a top crust in a wall kurnika; he has not begun to cry at all, and at once was forgot from a strong pain in a head. Simeon has struck it some more time after what has got, but has soon come round, has ceased to beat and itself has begun to cry. Sister has already become cheerful, it has crept up to it on all fours and waited, while the big brother will pay to it attention. Simeon took it to itself on hands and, posljunjaviv one palm, has wiped to it tear-stained eyes, and has then carried it in the cart, pobajukal there, and sister is obedient, has scaredly fallen asleep near to the smaller brother. Zaharka independently left from kurnika; on its left cheek blood has dried up, but he did not take offence any more. "It is fine, - he has told to Simeon, - I to you, I will grow, all I will recollect!" - Also has laid down to sleep on the earth about the cart, knowing, that mother again gives birth also to a dinner did not prepare. Simeon too has laid down in a shade of the cart and has fallen asleep, while the evening sun has not lighted to it in the person. But there is time in a life when it is impossible to avoid the happiness. This happiness occurs not from good and not from other people, and from force of growing heart, from depth of the body warmed by heat and the sense. There in the person, something sometimes arises independently, irrespective of disaster of its destiny and against suffering, is an unconscious mood of pleasure; but it happens usually weak and soon dies away, when the person will come round and will be engaged in the close need. Simeon woke up often unintentionally happy, then thought again and forgot, that to it to live well. From a smithy the father in the evening has come and began to cook kulesh in a pig-iron pot. Mother has already given birth to the little girl and slept from loss of forces. Kapishka has waited kuleshu, has eaten with all family and began to speak to the father that it has given to it of money, and that to it would be desirable to live further, but there is nothing. The father has given it forty copecks, Kapishka has fastened them in a corner of a scarf and has gone to itself on a lodging for the night. For other day the father has very early left on job, and mother could not rise. Therefore Simeon has led one whole economy. At first it has brought on the cart two buckets of water from pool, then began to wash, get up and feed children. Besides, it was necessary to clean a room, to weld for mother liquid porridge, to buy bread and milk, to look after two brothers that they have not disappeared somewhere, have not failed in nuzhnik and have not made a fire. Mother silently, weak eyes watched Simeon as he cared and worked. The newborn girl laid at it and already sucked, was fed from its breast. At midday Simeon has saturated all children with bread with milk, and mother porridge, and children have laid down to sleep. Simeon began to think already, than to feed family in the evening because for a dinner all have eaten, and stocks and the rests were not. Having washed up ware, Simeon has gone to domohozjainu to ask on loan bread and millet.
-- Yes after all you will not give probably! - has told domohozjain; at it was desjatin forty earths, and it leased to its peasants, and did nothing, laid on a sofa or on a stove bench and read krestovyj calendar Gattsuka. Simeon would like to ask for a long time at domohozjaina krestovyj a calendar and to look in him pictures, but he was afraid.
-- We will give, - has told Semen. - the Father here will receive a pay, and I will bring... Domohozjain has given to Simeon breads of pound two and millet in a shirt hem.
-- Look, that your locust on a court yard did not spoil! - has told hozjain. - Zaharka today in three places napachkal, you clean go.
-- Now I will clean I will go, - has promised Semen. - They after all small still, do not understand.
-- And here I, as will see, I will give to it chertopleshinu on bashke, he will understand at once! - the owner has told.
-- To beat them it is not necessary is better, - Simeon has asked, - and I your house will set fire to that at night!
-- See you, the swine what!. - has started talking domohozjain, but Simeon has already disappeared with bread and millet. Summer children's day of a life went long and difficultly, all birds, sparrows and hens yet have not become impregnated; when they have already stopped and began to doze from food and weariness then in the sky there was a twilight and became audible, as in the distance on a highway there leave carts in village and smiths in roadside smithies knock. Mother and all children in Simeon's family still slept; it one sat on a chest and expected, when somebody will wake up, - he has not got used to live one on freedom, in him the grief was going to, and heart again wanted care. But Simeon's eyes have started to stick together, he has lain down a head on a chest and, trying something to remember, all has forgotten and has fallen asleep. However all mothers sleep a little, and mother Simeon too has soon opened eyes.
-- Simeon! - has told ona. - Light the stove, put pig-iron with water, bath children!. Simeon has jumped at once from the place on a chest. But the boy has not had a rest yet, was not warmed in a dream and now shivered from weakness.
-- To me it is bad, - spoke mother, - descend for the father, let it before will come.
-- Now, - has told Semen. - Mum, do not give birth to more children, I was exhausted.
-- I any more will not be, - mother has answered; it laid backwards on a feather-bed and hardly breathed, exhausted by a birth of the child. The new daughter laid about mother in a deep dream and did not understand, that it already live. Simeon with surprise looked at the little sister: just was born, anything yet did not see, and all time sleeps and to wake up does not want, as though the life for it was uninteresting.
-- Simeon, try me what I cold, - have said mat. - If I die, you leave children for me, the father after all has, it to us extracts bread... Simeon has lain down to mother and her forehead has tried - it was cold and wet, and its nose became thin and eyes have turned white.
-- All interiors have fallen off in me, I as empty lay, - have told mat. - You the senior, you protect the brothers and sisters, - can, though they people will grow... Mother has taken Simeon's head in the hands and ordered to it:
-- Follow the father. Simeon descended for the father, but that could not come at once, to it still remains oshinovat three wheels, and the owner waits job. "Doterpit, will not die, - the owner of a smithy about Semenovu mother, - wives has told, they at us to die every month are going to!" Simeon, having returned, has dissolved on zagnetke fire under taganom and has started to cook millet kulesh for a supper. Children have already woken up, - Zaharka has risen nearby zagnetki and enclosed chips in fire that kulesh more likely and is more tasty cooked, and Petka has crept up to mother and long looked in her face and drove on it hands, precisely checking, that mother is still whole, she only the patient and cries. The father has returned from a smithy, as usually, in darkness. He has eaten, that Simeon from children has left to it, and has laid down to sleep near to mother. Simeon did not sleep yet, he saw, how the father has cautiously embraced mother and has kissed her on a cheek; mother has turned to the father the person, was compressed, as small, closely collecting the growing numb, become empty body. Having lain down it is a little, the father has risen and has gone to a closet. It has brought therefrom old big derjuzhku and has covered with it all time stynushchuju mother. It has shifted the new girl from mother to itself(himself) because mother could not be engaged in it any more if she begins to cry at night. Simeon all night long wished not to sleep, being afraid, that mother will die or the father will unintentionally knock down the younger girl in a dream, but eyes him were closed, and it has opened them only in the morning when on it has climbed Zaharka and has stuck to it with a finger into an ear. The father paced the room, swinging on hands the crying newborn daughter. Mother still laid on a floor on a feather-bed, covered with a blanket, and from above the big sackcloth. It has hidden there with a head and did not rise. Simeon has approached to mother - to look it and to ask, that it needs to do since morning that to cook to children and where to occupy money to a pay of the father.
-- It is not necessary to open it, - father Simeon has told, - she has died at daybreak. Go, descend for Kapishkoj.
-- What for for Kapishkoj? - Simeon has asked.
-- Start up it at us now lives, - spoke otets. - Will be though for children to look and a dinner to prepare. It the old woman.
-- On what to us Kapishka! - Simeon has said.
-- Old toad such! - has told Zaharka. - It will guzzle much, and ourselves have not enough! Simeon took to itself new sister from hands of the father. Petka and younger sister (already senior) sat on a floor; they silently played with each other in different rubbish and matter rags, doing from them to themselves things and riches.
-- And as to us now to live! - Simeon has told and zhalostno has wrinkled the person; the grief its slow hot wave rose from heart to a throat, but is yet cunning to slez. - Than to us now chest to feed, she after all too will die...
-- It still small, - the father spoke, - she did not live still, has not got used, does not know anything. It is necessary it with mother together to bury. Simeon has rocked to sleep the crying new girl on the hands, she has fallen asleep and has stopped. He has put it temporarily on a feather-bed, to feet of mother.
-- The daddy, how much is goat? - Simeon has asked.
-- Yes, likely, cheaply, I do not know, - the father has answered.
-- Buy it to us in a pay, - has asked Semen. - Zaharka will graze in the field it to go, and in the evening I podoju from it milk, I will boil it, and ourselves, without mother, will bring up the girl. I from a nipple will give to it, - we will buy a nipple and a vial it we will put on... Only tell itself Zaharke that he from a goat in the field of sucked nothing, and he likes that to gain!
-- I will not suck anything from your goat, - have promised Zaharka. - In it milk unsweetened, for a long time mum gave to me. The father was silent. He looked at all children, on the died wife who was heated about it all night long, but all the same could not be warmed and now has stiffened, - and the smith did not know, that to it to think, that it became easier on a shower.
-- Mother is necessary to them, instead of a goat, - has said otets. - After all you only, Simeon, one senior, and they still small all... Simeon was now in one shirt because has not had time to put on trousers since has woken up. He has had a look upwards, at the father, and has told to it:
-- Give I to them I will be mother, there is nobody more. The father has told nothing to the elder son. Then Simeon took from a stool materino a dress, a cowl and its plot on itself through a head. The dress has appeared long, but Simeon has put in order it on itself and has told:
-- Anything, I will cut it and I will file. Died mother was thin, therefore the dress on Simeon should just right if it is not long. The father looked at the elder son, - "the eighth year already to it", he has thought. Now, dressed in a dress, with a children's sad face, Simeon resembled as much the boy, how much and on the girl, - is identical. If it grows up a little, it can be accepted even for the girl, and the girl is all the same that the woman; it - almost mother.
-- Zaharka, go into a court yard, take for a drive in cart Petku with Njushkoj that they are did not ask, - Simeon in parent kapote. - I you has told then I will call. At us has put much with the father.
-- Children in the street the little girl will tease you! - has laughed Zahar. - You the little fool now, instead of the boy! Simeon took a broom and began to sweep a floor round a feather-bed where mother laid.
-- Start up tease, - Simeon Zaharke has answered, - to them will bother to tease, and I the girl all the same will get used to be... Go, be not stirred here, take children in the cart, and that here a broom you will receive! Zaharka has called with itself Petku, and it has spread behind it on a court yard, and Njushku Zaharka took to itself on hands, hardly coping with weight of sister. The father stood aside and gradually, silently cried. Simeon, having tidied up a room, has approached to the father:
-- The daddy, give at first mother we will open, it should be washed... And then you will cry, and I will be, I too want - we together!