The story “Childhood” was written by M. Gorky in 1913 and was included in the collection “Across Rus'”. The work is written from the perspective of the main character - the boy Alexei Kashirin, who had to face the cruelty of life early on. The author, on behalf of the hero, rethinks his own childhood, seeing in it not only evil and suffering, but also the bright sides that were revealed when his grandmother told him stories and fairy tales.

The story consists of 13 chapters. In addition to the image of a fat but very clever grandmother, the author also shows other characters: a dry and cruel grandfather, a weak-willed mother, her pugnacious brothers Mikhail and Yakov, a simple-minded guy Gypsy, a kind guest Good Delo, a wasteful stepfather Evgeniy. Also, other people come into the hero’s field of view; the author gives each a capacious figurative description.

The story begins with a tragic event - Alexei’s father dies of cholera, and his mother experiences premature birth from grief. After the funeral, grandmother Akulina Ivanovna takes her daughter and two grandchildren to Nizhny Novgorod from Astrakhan, where the family lived. They sail for a long time on the ship, the little one dies on the way, he is buried during a stop in Saratov. To distract Alexei, his grandmother tells him fairy tales. Arriving, the boy meets his relatives.

It’s difficult for Alexey to get used to the new house, he’s used to friendliness, but here everyone was at enmity, mainly because of the inheritance. On Saturdays, those who were guilty were flogged with rods, and Alexei also got it for ruining the tablecloth. Out of pain, he bit his grandfather, which made him furious and beat his grandson almost to death.

Alexei was treated for a long time, and soon his grandfather himself came to make peace and talked about his difficult childhood. At the same time, the boy became friends with Gypsy, a foundling raised in the family, who stood up for him. But soon the guy dies absurdly, he was crushed under a wooden cross.

The atmosphere in the house was heating up; the only joy for Alexei was talking with his grandmother. He liked to watch her pray and then she would tell stories about devils and angels and God. One day, the workshop on the ground floor caught fire, which the hero’s uncles could not share, but the grandmother saved the house from the explosion by pulling a bottle of vitriol from the fire.

The grandfather bought a new house and began renting out rooms, and the grandmother and grandson lived in the attic. Akulina Ivanovna earned money by weaving lace and collecting medicinal herbs; her mother taught her all this. Grandfather began to teach Alexei to read and write.

Mikhail continued to brawl, even tried to kill his grandfather and once broke his grandmother’s hand with a stake as she tried to drive him away. A chiropractor was called to the grandmother, a skinny woman came with a stick, which Alyosha, in fear, mistook for death. Soon he begins to understand that his grandfather and grandmother pray differently and their gods are different.

Grandfather again changed the house and took in new tenants, among whom was Good Deed, thin, stooped, always inventing something. They called him that because of a saying that he often repeated. Alexey liked the new tenant, but his grandfather disliked the “alchemist” and soon survived him.

Alexey tried to be friends with the neighborhood kids, but his grandfather didn’t like anyone. A cab driver once reported on Alyosha, after which they became enemies. But soon he is killed; it turns out that he was robbing churches.

One winter, Varvara, Alexei’s mother, returned. He had almost forgotten her. The grandfather begins to gather guests with the goal of marrying her off again, but she resists. After one of the unsuccessful engagements, the mother seemed to get stronger and gradually became the mistress of the house.

Soon she finds herself a husband and leaves with him. But not for long. The grandfather sold the house, which was bringing in little profit, and told the grandmother to feed herself. At this time, pregnant Varvara and her husband arrive again, explaining that their house supposedly burned down, in fact, their stepfather lost it. The little brother dies shortly after the birth of his second son. Alexey himself, meanwhile, goes to school, where he is teased for his poor clothes.

In his old age, my grandfather became quite stingy. To help his grandmother, Alexey collected all sorts of old things from around the yards, and sometimes he and other guys stole firewood. But things improved at school, Alyosha moved to third grade and even received a certificate for academic success. At home it became very bad, the younger brother was sick with scrofula, the mother also fell ill and soon died. After the funeral, the grandfather points his grandson to the door: “Come join the people.”

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Maksim Gorky

I dedicate it to my son

In a dim, cramped room, on the floor, under the window, lies my father, dressed in white and unusually long; the toes of his bare feet are strangely spread out, the fingers of his gentle hands, quietly placed on his chest, are also crooked; his cheerful eyes are tightly covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face is dark and scares me with his badly bared teeth.

Mother, half naked, in a red skirt, is on her knees, combing her father’s long, soft hair from his forehead to the back of his head with a black comb, which I used to saw through the rinds of watermelons; the mother continuously says something in a thick, hoarse voice, her gray eyes are swollen and seem to melt, flowing down with large drops of tears.

My grandmother is holding my hand - round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, doughy nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting; she also cries, somehow singing along with her mother especially and well, she trembles all over and tugs at me, pushing me towards my father; I resist, hide behind her; I'm scared and embarrassed.

I have never seen big people cry before, and I did not understand the words repeatedly spoken by my grandmother:

Say goodbye to your uncle, you will never see him again, he died, my dear, at the wrong time, at the wrong time...

I was seriously ill - I had just gotten back to my feet; During my illness - I remember this well - my father merrily fussed with me, then he suddenly disappeared and was replaced by my grandmother, a strange person.

Where did you come from? - I asked her.

She answered:

From above, from Nizhny, but she didn’t come, but she arrived! They don't walk on water, shush!

It was funny and incomprehensible: upstairs in the house lived bearded, painted Persians, and in the basement an old, yellow Kalmyk was selling sheepskins. You can ride down the stairs on the railing or, when you fall, you can roll head over heels, I knew that well. And what does water have to do with it? Everything is wrong and funny confused.

Why am I freaking out?

Because you make noise,” she said, also laughing.

She spoke kindly, cheerfully, smoothly. From the very first day I became friends with her, and now I want her to quickly leave this room with me.

My mother suppresses me; her tears and howls sparked a new, anxious feeling in me. This is the first time I see her like this - she was always strict, spoke little; she is clean, smooth and big, like a horse; she has a tough body and terribly strong arms. And now she is all somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything on her is torn; the hair, lying neatly on the head, in a large light cap, scattered over the bare shoulder, fell on the face, and half of it, braided in a braid, dangled, touching his father’s sleeping face. I’ve been standing in the room for a long time, but she’s never looked at me,” she combs her father’s hair and keeps growling, choking with tears.

Black men and a sentry soldier look in the door. He shouts angrily:

Clean it up quickly!

The window is curtained with a dark shawl; it swells like a sail. One day my father took me on a boat with a sail. Suddenly thunder struck. My father laughed, squeezed me tightly with his knees and shouted:

Don't be afraid of anything, Luk!

Suddenly the mother threw herself up heavily from the floor, immediately sank down again, toppled over onto her back, scattering her hair across the floor; her blind, white face turned blue, and, baring her teeth like her father, she said in a terrible voice:

Shut the door... Alexei - out!

Pushing me away, my grandmother rushed to the door and shouted:

Dear ones, don’t be afraid, don’t touch, leave for Christ’s sake! This is not cholera, the birth has come, have mercy, fathers!

I hid in a dark corner behind a chest and from there I watched my mother squirm across the floor, groaning and gritting her teeth, and my grandmother, crawling around, said affectionately and joyfully:

In the name of father and son! Be patient, Varyusha!.. Most Holy Mother of God, Intercessor:

I'm scared; They are fidgeting on the floor near their father, touching him, moaning and screaming, but he is motionless and seems to be laughing. This lasted a long time - fussing on the floor; More than once the mother rose to her feet and fell again; grandmother rolled out of the room like a big black soft ball; then suddenly a child screamed in the darkness.

Glory to you, Lord! - said the grandmother. - Boy!

And lit a candle.

I must have fallen asleep in the corner - I don’t remember anything else.

The second imprint in my memory is a rainy day, a deserted corner of the cemetery; I stand on a slippery mound of sticky earth and look into the hole where my father’s coffin was lowered; at the bottom of the pit there is a lot of water and there are frogs - two have already climbed onto the yellow lid of the coffin.

At the grave - me, my grandmother, a wet guard and two angry men with shovels. Warm rain, fine as beads, showers everyone.

“Bury,” said the watchman, walking away.

Grandmother began to cry, hiding her face in the end of her headscarf. The men, bent over, hastily began to throw earth into the grave, water began to gush; Jumping from the coffin, the frogs began to rush onto the walls of the pit, clods of earth knocking them to the bottom.

Move away, Lenya,” said the grandmother, taking me by the shoulder; I slipped out from under her hand; I didn’t want to leave.

“What are you, my God,” the grandmother complained, either to me or to God, and stood silently for a long time, with her head down; The grave has already been leveled to the ground, but it still stands.

The men loudly splashed their shovels on the ground; the wind came and drove away, carried away the rain. Grandmother took me by the hand and led me to a distant church, among many dark crosses.

Aren't you going to cry? - she asked when she went outside the fence. I would cry!

“I don’t want to,” I said.

Well, I don’t want to, so I don’t have to,” she said quietly.

All this was surprising: I cried rarely and only from resentment, not from pain; my father always laughed at my tears, and my mother shouted:

Don't you dare cry!

Then we drove along a wide, very dirty street in a droshky, among dark red houses; I asked my grandmother:

Won't the frogs come out?

No, they won’t come out,” she answered. - God be with them!

Neither father nor mother spoke the name of God so often and so closely.

A few days later, I, my grandmother and my mother were traveling on a ship, in a small cabin; my newborn brother Maxim died and lay on the table in the corner, wrapped in white, swaddled with red braid.

Perched on bundles and chests, I look out the window, convex and round, like the eye of a horse; Behind the wet glass, muddy, foamy water flows endlessly. Sometimes she jumps up and licks the glass. I involuntarily jump to the floor.

“Don’t be afraid,” says grandma and, easily lifting me with soft hands, she puts me back on the knots.

Above the water there is a gray, wet fog; somewhere far away a dark land appears and disappears again into the fog and water. Everything around is shaking. Only the mother, with her hands behind her head, stands, leaning against the wall, firmly and motionless. Her face is dark, iron and blind, her eyes are tightly closed, she is silent all the time, and everything is somehow different, new, even the dress she is wearing is unfamiliar to me.

Narration on behalf of the main character

I

My father has died (now dressed “in white and unusually long; the toes of his bare feet are strangely spread out, the fingers of his gentle hands, laid quietly on his chest, are also crooked; his cheerful eyes are tightly covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face is dark and scares me with his badly bared teeth "). His mother is half naked on the floor next to him. Grandma arrived - “round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, doughy nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting... she spoke affectionately, cheerfully, smoothly. I became friends with her from the very first day.”

The boy is seriously ill and has just gotten back to his feet. Mother Varvara: “I see her like this for the first time,” she was always strict, spoke little; she is clean, smooth and big, like a horse; she has a tough body and terribly strong arms. And now she is all somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything on her is torn; the hair, lying neatly on the head, in a large light cap, scattered over the bare shoulder...” The mother went into labor and gave birth to a child.

I remembered the funeral. It was raining. There are frogs at the bottom of the pit. They were buried too. He didn't want to cry. He rarely cried from resentment, never from pain. His father laughed at his tears, his mother forbade him to cry.

We went by boat. Newborn Maxim died. He's scared. Saratov. Grandmother and mother went out to bury. The sailor came. When the locomotive blew its whistle, he began to run. Alyosha decided that he also needed to run. Found. Grandmother has long thick hair. She sniffed tobacco. Tells stories well. Even the sailors like it.

We arrived in Nizhny. We were met by grandfather, uncles Mikhail and Yakov, aunt Natalya (pregnant) and cousins, both Sasha, sister Katerina.

He didn’t like anyone, “I felt like a stranger among them, even my grandmother somehow faded, moved away.”

They came to “a squat one-story house, painted dirty pink, with a low roof and bulging windows.” The house seemed large, but was cramped. The yard is unpleasant, hung with wet rags, filled with vats of multi-colored water.

II

“Grandfather’s house was filled with the fog of mutual enmity of everyone with everyone; it poisoned adults, and even children took an active part in it.” The brothers demanded a division of property from their father, and the arrival of their mother made everything even worse. The sons yelled at their father. Grandmother offered to give everything away. The brothers got into a fight.

The grandfather watched the boy closely. It seemed that the grandfather was angry. Made him learn prayers. Natalya taught this. I didn’t understand the words, I asked Natalya, she simply forced me to memorize them, and distorted them on purpose. He had never been beaten before. Sashka was to be flogged for the thimble (the uncles wanted to play a joke on the half-blind master Grigory, Mikhail ordered his nephew to heat up the thimble for Grigory, but his grandfather took it). I was guilty myself. I decided to paint something. Sasha Yakovov suggested painting the tablecloth. Gypsy tried to save her. Grandma hid the tablecloth, but Sasha spilled the beans. They decided to flog him too. Everyone was afraid of their mother. But she did not take her child away; her authority with Alyosha was shaken. They caught him until he lost consciousness. I was sick. Grandfather came to him. He told me how he pulled barges in his youth. Then water flow. They called him, but he didn’t leave. And the boy didn’t want him to leave.

The gypsy offered his hand so that the boy would not be in so much pain. He taught me what to do so that it wouldn’t hurt so much.

III

The gypsy occupied a special place in the house. “Ivanka has golden hands.” His uncles did not joke with him as they did with Gregory. They spoke angrily about the gypsy behind their backs. They were so cunning in front of each other so that no one would take him to work. He is a good worker. They were still afraid that his grandfather would keep him for himself.

Gypsy is a foundling. My grandmother gave birth when she was 18. She got married at 14.

I loved Gypsy very much. He knew how to deal with children, was cheerful, and knew tricks. Loved mice.

On holidays, Yakov loved to play the guitar. Sang an endless sad song. Gypsy wanted to sing, but there was no voice. Gypsy danced. Then grandma is with him.

Uncle Yakov beat his wife to death.

I was afraid of Gregory. He was friends with Gypsy. Still, he offered his hand. Every Friday Tsyganok went for provisions (mostly he stole).

The gypsy died. Yakov decided to put a cross on his wife. Large, oak. The cross was carried by the uncles and Gypsy. “He fell, and he was crushed... And we would have been crippled, but we threw off the cross in time.” The gypsy lay in the kitchen for a long time, bleeding from his mouth. Then he died. Grandmother, grandfather and Gregory were very worried.

IV

He sleeps with his grandmother, who prays for a long time. He speaks not according to what is written, but from the heart. “I really like my grandmother’s god, so close to her,” that I often asked to talk about him. “Talking about God, heaven, angels, she became small and meek, her face became younger, her moist eyes streamed a particularly warm light.” Grandmother said that they had a good life. But that's not true. Natalya asked God for death, Gregory was seeing worse and worse, and was about to walk around the world. Alyosha wanted to be his guide. Natalia was beaten by her uncle. My grandmother said that my grandfather also beat her. She told me that she saw unclean people. And also fairy tales and stories, there were also poems. I knew a lot of them. I was afraid of cockroaches. In the darkness I heard them and asked them to kill me. I couldn't sleep like that.

Fire. Grandmother threw herself into the fire for vitriol. Burnt my hands. I loved the horse. She was saved. The workshop burned down. It was not possible to sleep that night. Natalya gave birth. She died. Alyosha felt bad and was taken to bed. Grandma's hands hurt a lot.

V

The uncles were divided. Yakov is in the city. Michael is across the river. Grandfather bought another house. Lots of tenants. Akulina Ivanovna (grandmother) was a healer. She helped everyone. She gave economic advice.

Grandmother's story: the mother was crippled, but she used to be a famous lacemaker. They gave her freedom. She asked for alms. Akulina learned to weave lace. Soon the whole city knew about her. At 22, my grandfather was already a waterman. His mother decided to marry them.

Grandfather was sick. Out of boredom, I decided to teach the boy the alphabet. He caught on quickly.

Fought with street boys. Very strong.

Grandfather: when the robbers arrived, his grandfather rushed to ring the bells. They chopped it up. I remembered myself from 1812, when I was 12. French prisoners. Everyone came to look at the prisoners, scolded them, but many also felt sorry for them. Many died from the cold. The orderly Miron knew the horses well and helped. And the officer soon died. He treated the child well, even taught him his language. But they banned it.

I never spoke about Alyosha’s father or mother. The children failed. One day, out of the blue, my grandfather hit my grandmother in the face. “He’s angry, it’s hard for him, the old man, everything’s a failure...”

VI

One evening, without saying hello, Yakov burst into the room. He said that Mikhail had gone completely crazy: he tore his ready-made dress, broke the dishes and offended him and Gregory. Mikhail said that he would kill his father. They wanted Varvarino's dowry. The boy had to look outside and say when Mikhail would appear. Scary and boring.

“The fact that my mother does not want to live in her family raises her higher and higher in my dreams; It seems to me that she lives in an inn on the highway, with robbers who rob the rich people passing by and share the loot with the poor.”

Grandma is crying. “Lord, have you not had enough good sense for me, for my children?”

Almost every weekend boys ran to their gate: “The Kashirins are fighting again!” Mikhail appeared in the evening and kept the house under siege all night. Sometimes several drunken landowners are with him. They pulled out raspberry and currant bushes and demolished the bathhouse. One day my grandfather felt especially bad. He got up and lit a fire. Mishka threw half a brick at him. Missed. Another time, my uncle took a stake and banged on the door. The grandmother wanted to talk to him, she was afraid that they would mutilate her, but he hit her in the hand with a stake. Mikhail was tied up, doused with water and placed in a barn. Grandmother told grandfather to give them Varino’s dowry. My grandmother broke a bone and a bone setter arrived. Alyosha thought that this was grandmother’s death, he rushed at her and did not let her near her grandmother. He was taken to the attic.

VII

Grandfather has one god, grandmother has another. Grandmother “almost every morning found new words of praise, and this always made me listen to her prayer with intense attention.” “Her God was with her all day, she even talked about him to the animals. It was clear to me that everything easily and obediently obeys this god: people, dogs, birds, bees and herbs; he was equally kind to everything on earth, equally close.”

One day, the innkeeper quarreled with her grandfather, and at the same time cursed her grandmother. I decided to take revenge. Locked her in the cellar. Grandma spanked me when she realized. She said not to interfere in the affairs of adults; it is not always clear who is to blame. The Lord himself does not always understand. Her god became closer and clearer to him.

Grandfather did not pray like that. “He always stood on the same knot of floorboard, like a horse’s eye, stood silently for a minute, with his arms stretched out along his body, like a soldier... his voice sounds clear and demanding... He beats his chest not too much and insistently asks... Now he crossed himself often , convulsively, nods his head, as if butting heads, his voice squeals and sobs. Later, when I visited synagogues, I realized that my grandfather prayed like a Jew.”

Alyosha knew all the prayers by heart and made sure that his grandfather did not miss them; when this happened he gloated. Grandfather's God was cruel, but he also involved him in all matters, even more often than grandmother.

Once the saints saved my grandfather from trouble, it was written in the calendar. My grandfather was secretly engaged in usury. They came with a search. Grandfather prayed until the morning. It ended well.

Didn't like the street. I fought with the street people. They didn't like him. But it didn't offend him. I was outraged by their cruelty. They mocked drunken beggars. The beggar Igosha got Death in his Pocket. Master Gregory went blind. I walked with a little gray old woman and she asked for alms. I couldn't get close to him. Grandma always served it to him and talked to him. Grandmother said that God would punish them for this man. After 10 years, my grandfather himself went and begged. There was also a slutty woman Voronikha on the street. She had a husband. He wanted to get a higher rank, sold his wife to the boss, who took her away for 2 years. And when she returned, her boy and girl died, and her husband lost government money and started drinking.

They had a starling. His grandmother took him away from the cat. Taught me how to speak. The starling imitated his grandfather when he read his prayers. The house was interesting, but sometimes there was an incomprehensible melancholy.

VIII

Grandfather sold the house to the innkeeper. I bought another one. He was better. There were many lodgers: a Tatar military man with his wife, a cab driver Peter and his dumb nephew Styopa, a parasite Good Delo. “He was a thin, stooped man, with a white face, a black forked beard, kind eyes, and glasses. He was silent, inconspicuous, and when he was invited to dinner or tea, he invariably answered: “Good job.” That's what his grandmother called him. “His whole room was littered with some boxes, thick books of a civilian press unfamiliar to me; There were bottles with multi-colored liquids, pieces of copper and iron, and rods of lead everywhere. From morning until evening... he melted lead, soldered some copper things, weighed something on small scales, mumbled, burned his fingers... and sometimes he suddenly stopped in the middle of the room or at the window and stood for a long time, closing his eyes, raising his face, dumbfounded and silent". Alyosha climbed onto the roof and watched him. Good Deed was poor. Nobody in the house liked him. He asked what he was doing. Good Deed offered to climb into his window. He offered to make a drink so that the boy would not come to him anymore. He was offended.

When my grandfather was away, we organized interesting meetings. All the residents were going to drink tea. Funny. Grandmother told a story about Ivan the warrior and Myron the hermit. Good Deed was shocked and said that this story definitely needs to be written down. The boy was drawn to him again. They liked to sit together and be silent. “I don’t see anything special in the yard, but from these nudges with the elbow and from short words, everything visible seems especially significant to me, everything is firmly remembered.”

I went with my grandmother to get water. Five townspeople beat a man. Grandmother fearlessly poked them with the yoke. Good Deed believed him, but said that these cases should not be remembered. He taught me to fight: faster means stronger. His grandfather beat him every time he visited. He was survived. They didn’t like him because he was a stranger, not like everyone else. He stopped my grandmother from cleaning the room and called everyone fools. Grandfather was glad that he survived. Alyosha broke the spoon in anger.

IX

“As a child, I imagine myself as a hive, where various simple, gray people brought, like bees, the honey of their knowledge and thoughts about life, generously enriching my soul, whoever could. Often this honey was dirty and bitter, but all knowledge is still honey.”

Made friends with Peter. He looked like his grandfather. “...he looked like a teenager dressed up as an old man for a joke. His face was woven like a sieve, all made of thin leather flagella; funny, lively eyes with yellowish whites jumped between them, as if living in a cage. His gray hair was curly, his beard curled in rings; he smoked a pipe..." I argued with my grandfather about “which of the saints is holier than whom.” A gentleman settled on their street and shot at people for fun. Almost got into a Good Thing. Peter loved to tease him. One day a shot hit him in the shoulder. He told the same stories as his grandparents. “Various, they are all strangely similar to the same...

bsp; to others: in each they tormented a person, mocked him, persecuted him.”

On holidays, the brothers came to visit. We traveled across the rooftops and saw a gentleman with puppies. They decided to scare the master and take the puppies. Alyosha should have spit on his bald head. The brothers had nothing to do with it.

Peter praised him. The rest scolded. After this he disliked Peter.

Three boys lived in Ovsyannikov’s house. Watched them. They were very friendly. One day we were playing hide and seek. The little one fell into the well. He saved Alyosha and became friends. Alyosha caught birds with it. They had a stepmother. An old man came out of the house and forbade Alyosha to go to him. Peter lied to his grandfather about Alyosha. War began between Alyosha and Peter. The acquaintance with the barchuks continued. I went secretly.

Peter often dispersed them. “He now looked somewhat sideways and had long ago stopped attending grandma’s evenings; did not treat him to jam, his face shriveled, the wrinkles became deeper, and he walked swaying, raking with his legs, like a sick person.” One day a policeman came. He was found dead in the yard. The mute was not mute at all. There was a third one. They admitted that they robbed churches.

X

Alyosha was catching birds. They didn't walk into the trap. I was annoyed. When I returned home, I found out that my mother had arrived. He was worried. His mother noticed that he had grown up, his clothes were dirty and he was all white from the frost. She began to undress him and rub goose fat on his ears. “...it hurt, but a refreshing, delicious smell emanated from her, and this reduced the pain. I pressed myself against her, looking into her eyes, numb with excitement...” the grandfather wanted to talk to his mother, but they drove him away. The grandmother asked to forgive her daughter. Then they cried, Alyosha also burst into tears, hugging them. He told his mother about the Good Deed, about the three boys. “It hurt my heart, I immediately felt that she would not live in this house, she would leave.” His mother began to teach him civic literacy. I learned in a few days. “She began to demand that I memorize more and more poems, and my memory perceived these lines worse and worse, and the invincible desire to alter, distort the poems, and choose other words for them grew more and more and more angry; I managed this easily - unnecessary words appeared in swarms and quickly confused the obligatory, bookish ones.” Mother now taught algebra (easy), grammar and writing (difficult). “The first days after her arrival she was smart, fresh, but now there were dark spots under her eyes, she walked around unkempt all day long, in a wrinkled dress, without buttoning her jacket, this spoiled her and offended me...” The grandfather wanted to marry his daughter. She refused. Grandmother began to intercede. The grandfather brutally beat the grandmother. Alyosha threw pillows, his grandfather knocked over a bucket of water and went home. “I took apart her heavy hair - it turned out that a hairpin had gone deep under her skin, I pulled it out, found another one, my fingers went numb.” She asked me not to tell my mother about this. I decided to take revenge. I cut up the holy calendar for my grandfather. But I didn’t have time to do everything. The grandfather appeared, began to beat him, and the grandmother took it away. Mother appeared. Interceded. She promised to stick everything on the calico. He confessed to his mother that his grandfather beat his grandmother. The mother became friends with the resident and went to see her almost every evening. Officers and young ladies came. Grandfather didn't like it. I drove everyone away. He brought the furniture, put her in the room and locked it. “We don’t need guests, I’ll receive the guests myself!” On holidays, guests came: grandmother’s sister Matryona with her sons Vasily and Victor, uncle Yakov with a guitar and a watchmaker. It seemed that I had once seen him arrested on a cart.

They wanted to marry his mother, but she flatly refused.

“Somehow I couldn’t believe that they were doing all this seriously and that it was difficult to cry. And the tears, and their cries, and all the mutual torment, flaring up often and fading quickly, became familiar to me, excited me less and less, touched my heart less and less.”

“... Russian people, due to their poverty, generally love to amuse themselves with grief, play with it like children, and are rarely ashamed of being unhappy.”

XI

“After this story, the mother immediately grew stronger, straightened up tightly and became the mistress of the house, and the grandfather became invisible, thoughtful, quiet, unlike himself.”

Grandfather had chests with clothes and antiques and all sorts of good things. One day my grandfather allowed my mother to wear it. She was very beautiful. Guests often visited her. most often the Maksimov brothers. Peter and Eugene (“tall, thin-legged, pale-faced, with a black pointed beard. His big eyes looked like plums, he dressed in a greenish uniform with large buttons...).

Sasha's father, Mikhail, got married. The stepmother didn't like it. My grandmother took me in. They didn't like school. Alyosha could not disobey and walked, but Sasha refused to walk and buried his books. Grandfather found out. Both were flogged. Sasha ran away from the assigned escort. Found.

Alyosha has smallpox. Grandma left him vodka. I drank secretly from my grandfather. I told him my father's story. He was the son of a soldier who was exiled to Siberia for cruelty to those under his command. My father was born there. His life was bad and he ran away from home. He hit me hard, the neighbors took it away and hid it. The mother had already died before. Then the father. His godfather, a carpenter, took him. He taught me a craft. Escaped. He took the blind to fairs. He worked as a carpenter on a ship. At 20 he was a cabinet maker, upholsterer and draper. I came to make a match. They were already married, they just needed to get married. The old man wouldn't give up his daughter like that. We decided in secret. My father had an enemy, a master, who started talking. Grandma was trimming the tugs at the shafts. Grandfather could not cancel the wedding. He said that there was no daughter. Then I forgave. They began to live with them, in the garden in the outbuilding. Alyosha is born. The uncles did not like Maxim (father). They wanted information. Lured to a pond for a ride, they pushed me into an ice hole. But the father emerged and grabbed the edges of the ice hole. And the uncles beat me on the hands. He stretched out under the ice, breathing. They decided that he would drown, threw ice at his head and left. And he got out. Didn't turn him in to the police. Soon we left for Astrakhan.

Grandmother's tales were less important. I wanted to know about my father. “Why is my father’s soul worried?”

XII

He recovered and began to walk. I decided to surprise everyone and quietly go downstairs. I saw “another grandmother.” Scary and all green. The mother was matched. They didn't tell him. “Several empty days passed monotonously in a thin trickle, the mother left somewhere after the conspiracy, the house was depressingly quiet.” He began to arrange a home for himself in the pit.

“I hated the old woman - and her son - with concentrated hatred, and this heavy feeling brought me many beatings.” The wedding was quiet. The next morning the young couple left. Almost moved into his hole.

Sold the house. Grandfather rented two dark rooms in the basement of an old house. The grandmother invited the brownie to come with her, but the grandfather did not let him. He said that now everyone will feed themselves.

“Mother appeared after grandfather settled in the basement, pale, thin, with huge eyes and a hot, surprised sparkle in them.” Dressed ugly, pregnant. They stated that everything had burned down. But the stepfather lost everything at cards.

We lived in Sormovo. The house is new, without wallpaper. Two rooms. Grandma is with them. Grandmother worked as a cook, chopped wood, washed floors. They were rarely allowed outside - they fought. Mother beat. Once he said that he would bite her, run into the field and freeze. Stopped. The stepfather was quarreling with the mother. “Because of your stupid belly, I can’t invite anyone to visit me, you kind of cow!” before giving birth to my grandfather.

Then school again. Everyone laughed at his poor clothes. But he soon got along with everyone, except the teacher and the priest. The teacher was pestering. And Alyosha played mischief in revenge. The pope demanded a book. There was no book, so I sent it away. They wanted to kick me out of school for inappropriate behavior. But Bishop Chrysanthos came to the school. The bishop liked Alyosha. The teachers began to treat him better. And Alyosha promised the bishop to be less mischievous.

He told fairy tales to his peers. They said that a book about Robinson was better. One day I accidentally found 10 rubles and a ruble in my stepfather’s book. I took the ruble. I bought “The Sacred History” with it (the priest demanded it) and Andersen’s fairy tales, as well as white bread and sausage. I really liked The Nightingale. His mother beat him and took away his books. My stepfather told his colleagues about this, they found out to the children at school and called him a thief. The mother did not want to believe what the stepfather told. “We are poor, we have every penny, every penny...” Brother Sasha: “Clumsy, big-headed, he looked at everything around with beautiful, blue eyes, with a quiet smile and as if expecting something. He began to speak unusually early, never cried, living in a continuous state of quiet joy. He was weak, could barely crawl and was very happy when he saw me... He died unexpectedly, without being sick...”

Things got better with school. They moved me to my grandfather again. Stepfather cheated on mother. “I heard him hit her, rushed into the room and saw that the mother, having fallen to her knees, leaned her back and elbows on a chair, arching her chest, throwing back her head, wheezing and terribly shining eyes, and he, cleanly dressed, in a new uniform hits her in the chest with his long leg. I grabbed a knife from the table... it was the only thing my mother had left after my father, I grabbed it and hit my stepfather in the side with all my might.” Maksimov’s mother pushed him away and he survived. He promised his mother that he would kill his stepfather and himself too.

“Our life is amazing not only because the layer of all sorts of bestial rubbish is so fertile and fat in it, but because through this layer the bright, healthy and creative still victoriously grows, the good - human - grows, arousing an indestructible hope for our rebirth to bright, human life."

XIII

Again with my grandfather. Property division. All the pots are for grandma, the rest for yourself. Then he took her old dresses and sold them for 700 rubles. And he gave the money as interest to his Jewish godson. Everything was shared. One day the grandmother cooks from her own provisions, the next - with the grandfather’s money. Grandma always had better food. They even counted tea. It should be the same in strength.

Grandmother wove lace, and Alyosha began to engage in rag work. Grandmother took money from him. He also stole firewood with a group of children. Company: Sanka Vyakhir, Kostroma, little Tatarch Khabi, Yaz, Grishka Churka. Wood pigeon beat his mother if he didn’t bring her money for vodka, Kostroma saved money, dreaming of pigeons, Churka’s mother was sick, Khabi also saved, planning to return to the city where he was born. The wood pigeon made peace with everyone. Still, he considered his mother good and felt sorry for her. Sometimes they folded so that Wood Pigeon wouldn’t hit his mother. Wood pigeon also wanted to know how to read and write. Churka called him over. His mother taught Wood Pigeon. Soon I read it somehow. The wood pigeon felt sorry for nature (it was inconvenient to break something in his presence). Fun: they collected worn-out bast shoes and threw them at the Tatar hookers. Those in them. After the battle, the Tatars took them with them and fed them with their food. On rainy days we gathered at Father Yazya’s cemetery. “... I didn’t like it when this man began to list in which house there were sick people, which of the Sloboda residents would soon die - he spoke about this with relish and mercilessness, and seeing that his speech was unpleasant to us, he deliberately teased and incited us.”

“He spoke very often about women and always dirty... He knew the life story of almost every Sloboda resident he buried in the sand... he seemed to open the doors of houses for us,... we saw how people live, we felt something serious, important.” .

Alyosha liked this independent street life. It was hard again at school, they called me a rag-bag, a beggar. They even said that he smelled. False, I washed myself thoroughly before studying. Successfully passed the 3rd grade exams. They gave me a letter of commendation, the Gospel, Krylov’s fables and Fata Morgana. Grandfather said that this should be hidden in the chest, and he was delighted. Grandma was sick. She had no money for several days. Grandfather complained that he was being eaten. I took the books, took them to the store, received 55 kopecks and gave them to my grandmother. He spoiled the certificate of commendation with inscriptions and gave it to his grandfather. He, without unfolding it, hid it in the chest. My stepfather was kicked out of work. He disappeared. Mother and little brother Nikolai settled with their grandfather. “The mute, withered mother could barely move her legs, looking at everything with terrible eyes, the brother was scrofulous... and so weak that he couldn’t even cry...” they decided that Nikolai needed will, sand. Alyosha collected sand and poured it on the hot spot under the window. The boy liked it. I became very attached to my brother, but it was a little boring to be with him. The grandfather fed the child himself and did not feed him enough.

Mother: “she is completely numb, she rarely says a word in a seething voice, otherwise she silently lies in the corner all day and dies. That she was dying - I, of course, felt it, knew it, and my grandfather too often, annoyingly talked about death ... "

“I slept between the stove and the window, on the floor, it was short for me, I put my legs in the oven, they were tickled by cockroaches. This corner gave me a lot of evil pleasures - while my grandfather was cooking, he constantly knocked out the glass in the window with the ends of his grips and pokers.” Alyosha took a knife and cut off the long arms, his grandfather scolded him for not using a saw, rolling pins might come out. My stepfather returned from a trip, and my grandmother and Kolya moved in with him. Mother died. Before this, she asked: “Go to Evgeniy Vasilyevich, tell him - I ask him to come!” She hit her son with a knife. But the knife escaped from her hands. “A shadow floated across her face, going deep into her face, stretching her yellow skin, sharpening her nose.” The grandfather did not immediately believe that his mother had died. Stepfather came. The grandmother, like a blind woman, broke her face on the grave cross. Wood Pigeon tried to make him laugh. It didn't work out. He suggested covering the grave with turf. Soon the grandfather said that it was time for him to join the people.

The story “Childhood” Summary by chapters

“Childhood” by Maxim Gorky is of a vivid autobiographical nature. Due to the fact that the story is narrated in the first person, the reader becomes more deeply imbued with its events and understands all the feelings and confusion of the main character. This literary work is especially valuable because through it anyone gets the opportunity to get acquainted with the fate of one of the geniuses of classical Russian literature “from the horse’s mouth.”

Brief retelling of the story “Childhood”

Alexei's father and newborn brother die. The mother takes the boy to Nizhny Novgorod to his grandfather, who runs a dyeing workshop. Here the widow leaves her son to be raised, and she tries to rebuild her life. In addition to Alyosha, his uncles with their families and his adopted son Ivan live in the big house. Even though the grandfather is old and seemingly frail, he keeps a tight rein on everyone. He punishes his grandchildren mercilessly for the slightest offenses. Only grandmother stands up for Alyosha. Mom has no time, she is immersed in her own personal life, and the guys only dream of dividing their father’s inheritance as quickly as possible. The grandfather, observing their lack of consciousness, is in no hurry to give his business to them. Alexey begins to attend school, but soon his mother dies. The grandfather refuses to support his orphaned grandson and, on his orders, the boy goes public at the age of 11.

List and brief description of the heroes of Tolstoy’s story “Childhood”

• Alexey Peshkov - the main character of the story, from whose behalf the story is told. The boy will tell the reader about his difficult life in the cruel Kashirin family.
• Akulina Ivanovna Kashirina - Alexei’s 60-year-old grandmother, who became a good friend and protector to the orphan.
• Vasily Vasilievich Kashirin - Alexei’s 80-year-old grandfather, the owner of a profitable business, is a greedy and evil person.
• Varvara Vasilievna Kashirina (Peshkova) - Alexei’s mother, who left him to be raised by his grandmother.
• Maxim Peshkov - Alexei’s father, who died very young from illness.
• Yakov Vasilyevich Kashirin is Alexei's uncle, a stupid, envious and cruel person. Beat his wife to death.
• Mikhail Vasilievich Kashirin (Mikhailo) - another uncle of Alexei, also envious and cruel. He often hits his pregnant wife.
• Ivan Tsyganok - 19-year-old foundling pupil in the Kashirin family. A good, cheerful fellow who died because of Yakov and Mikhailo.
• Grigory Ivanovich - master, assistant to grandfather Kashirin, smart, kind and cheerful person. Towards the end of his life he became blind and a beggar.
• Good deal - an “unnamed” character in the story who rents a room from the Kashirins. He was very friendly with the main character Alyosha.
• Natalia Kashirina - Alexei's aunt, Mikhail's wife. A kind, quiet woman. While pregnant she suffers severe beatings and dies in childbirth.
• Sasha Yakovlevich Kashirin - cousin of Alexei, son of Yakov. His character is all like his father's.
• Sasha Mikhailovich Kashirin - another cousin of Alexei, son of Mikhail. Quiet and lazy boy.
• Katerina Kashirina - cousin of Alexei, daughter of Uncle Mikhail.
• Nanny Evgenia - nanny at the Kashirins’ house.
• Evgeniy Maksimov - Alexey’s stepfather, his mother’s second husband. Having lost all the money at cards, he becomes nervous, beats his wife and has women on the side.
• Uncle Peter - a guest in the Kashirins’ house, served as a cab driver, told interesting stories. Committed suicide.
• Igosha (death in your pocket) - the holy fool at whom everyone made fun. Only Alyosha felt sorry for him.

Brief summary of Tolstoy's story “Childhood” by chapters

Chapter 1. Dad's death and new home

Astrakhan. The boy Alyosha and his parents had a happy life. Unexpectedly, his father Maxim died of cholera very young. At the same time, Varvara’s mother gave birth to Alexei’s brother Nikita. The family left without a breadwinner went by boat to Nizhny Novgorod to visit relatives. The baby dies on the road. In Alexei’s new house lives the quarrelsome Kashirin family, with grandfather Vasily in charge here, the owner of a dyeing workshop and a respected man in the city.

Chapter 2. Severe orders

Before the move, Alyosha grew up in a loving and kind family, but he doesn’t like his new home. Anger, envy and violence reign here. As punishment for ruining the tablecloth, the grandfather beat Alyosha with rods until the boy lost consciousness from painful shock. After this “educational process” the child could not recover for a long time. In addition, the mother is leaving somewhere, leaving her son in the care of his grandmother.

Chapter 3. Death of the Gypsy

There lived a foundling in the Kashirin family. 19-year-old Gypsy. Alyosha and Tsyganok were friends. From a conversation with master Grigory, Alexey learns a terrible secret - his uncle Yakov beat his wife to death a year ago. At the beginning of winter, her uncle and Gypsy carried a heavy cross to her grave. This cross crushed the boy to death. For his death, the old Kashirins blame their evil and unlucky children - Yakov and Mikhailo.

Chapter 4. Fire in the workshop

Every day life in the Kashirin family becomes more and more unbearable for Alyosha. All his thoughts are only about escaping from this damned house. A fire breaks out, but it can be quickly localized thanks to the grandmother’s clear instructions. Aunt Natalya’s premature birth immediately begins, and the woman dies.

Chapter 5. Dividing a family into two houses

The grandfather buys a new house, the family splits up. In the new house, the grandfather receives tenants. Alyosha finds it difficult to come to terms with the constant noise and bustle of strangers. Sometimes my mother comes, but not for long. Grandfather undertakes to teach Alexey to read and write.

Chapter 6. Civil strife between grandfather and Mikhailo

On Sundays, Uncle Mikhailo trashes the house and is eager to kill his grandfather. One day, in a brawl, he even wounds his grandmother, his mother. It’s hard for Alexey to see all this; he still won’t get used to this way of life.

Chapter 7. Discarded Master

Grandfather's old faithful worker, Master Grigory, went blind. The cruel boss immediately put the poor man out on the street. Grisha begs for alms, his grandmother feeds him and the kind and sensitive Alyosha takes pity on him. He cannot understand how his grandfather could leave the poor fellow without help, throw him out onto the street like a useless rag.

Chapter 8. New friend

Alexey makes friends with one of the tenants. For this communication, his grandfather beats him mercilessly. He ends up kicking the tenant out. Alyosha misses his good friend.

Chapter 9. Cabby Peter

Alyosha becomes close to another tenant named Peter. He enjoys listening to his stories. Over time, the hero notices something suspicious in his friend and moves away from him. Enmity begins between them. Then Alyosha becomes friends with the neighboring boys, but only secretly - adults resist their meetings. The cab driver Peter unexpectedly kills himself.

Chapter 10. Mom is back

Alyosha's mother arrives. She undertakes to teach him. Alyosha, seeing once again how his grandfather beats his grandmother, takes revenge on him and spoils his favorite images of saints. The grandfather wants to whip his grandson, but his mother stands up for him. Grandfather decides to marry Alexei’s mother to a watchmaker, but she is categorically against it.

Chapter 11. Smallpox

Having shown character, Alyosha’s mother becomes an authority in his grandfather’s house. Alexey goes to school, but he doesn’t like it there. He soon falls ill with smallpox and, delirious, jumps from the attic. The boy cannot walk for three months. Grandma tells him a lot about his late father, who was a very good man.

Chapter 12. Stepfather

Varvara, Alyosha’s mother, is getting married again. His stepfather, nobleman Maksimov, loses at cards and dooms the family to poverty. Grandfather is going broke. Alyosha studies well at school, but plays a lot of pranks. Varvara gives birth to children: boys Sasha, who dies very young, and Nikolai. The new husband cheats on Varvara and often beats her. One day Alexey intervenes and stands up for his mother, rushing at his stepfather with a knife.

Chapter 13. The end of childhood

The ruined grandfather no longer wants to provide for his grandmother and Alexei. They earn money themselves as best they can. Alyosha collects and sells rags, steals timber from the warehouse. The boy makes friends with other poor children and drops out of school. His mother dies after a serious illness. The grandfather sends the orphan to the people. Alyosha begins a completely independent life when he is no more than 11 years old.

Briefly about the history of the creation of the story “Childhood” by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

The story “Childhood” opens the autobiographical trilogy of Maxim Gorky: “Childhood”, “In People” and “My Universities”. These works tell about the writer’s childhood and youth. Gorky decided to write an autobiography in the very first years of his literary activity. At first these were sketches and essays, but already in 1910 the writer began directly writing his first story, “Childhood.” The main period of work on it was 1912-1913. In 1913, “Childhood” was published in separate chapters in the newspaper “Russkoe Slovo”. The writer changed the name for the first publication and the current childhood was named “Grandma” in those years. The first publication in book format took place in Berlin in 1914. In Russia, the book was published a year later by the publishing house “Life and Knowledge”.

Maksim Gorky

Childhood. Ch. I (Abbreviated)

The steamer was thumping and shaking again, the cabin window was burning like the sun. Grandmother, sitting next to me, scratched her hair and frowned, whispering something...

She spoke, singing the words in a special way, and they easily became stronger in my memory, like flowers, just as affectionate, bright, juicy. When she smiled, her pupils, dark as cherries, dilated, flashing with an inexpressibly pleasant light, her smile cheerfully revealed white, strong teeth, and, despite the many wrinkles in the dark skin of her cheeks, her whole face seemed young and bright. This loose nose with swollen nostrils and red at the end spoiled him very much. She sniffed tobacco from a black snuff box decorated with silver. She was all dark, but glowed from within - through her eyes - with an unquenchable, cheerful and warm light. She was stooped, almost hunchbacked, very plump, and she moved easily and deftly, like a big cat - she was as soft as this affectionate animal.

It was as if I was sleeping before her, hidden in the darkness, but she appeared, woke me up, brought me into the light, tied everything around me into a continuous thread, wove everything into multi-colored lace and immediately became a friend for life, the closest to my heart, the most understandable and dear person - it was her selfless love for the world that enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life.

Forty years ago steamships moved slowly; We drove to Nizhny for a very long time, and I remember well those first days of being saturated with beauty.

The weather was fine; from morning to evening I am with my grandmother on the deck, under a clear sky, between the autumn-gilded, silk-embroidered banks of the Volga. Slowly, lazily and loudly thumping along the greyish-blue water, a light-red steamship with a barge in a long tow is stretching upstream. The barge is gray and looks like a woodlice. The sun floats unnoticed over the Volga; Every hour everything around is new, everything changes; green mountains are like lush folds on the rich clothing of the earth; along the banks there are cities and villages, like gingerbread ones from afar; golden autumn leaf floats on the water.

Look how good it is! - Grandma says every minute, moving from side to side, and she’s all beaming, and her eyes are joyfully widened.

Often, looking at the shore, she forgot about me: she stood at the side, folded her arms on her chest, smiled and was silent, and there were tears in her eyes. I tug at her dark skirt, printed with flowers.

Ass? - she will perk up. - It’s like I dozed off and was dreaming.

What are you crying about?

This, dear, is from joy and from old age,” she says, smiling. - I’m already old, after my sixth decade of summer and spring, they spread and went.

And, after sniffing tobacco, he begins to tell me some strange stories about good thieves, about holy people, about all kinds of animals and evil spirits.

She tells stories quietly, mysteriously, leaning towards my face, looking into my eyes with dilated pupils, as if pouring strength into my heart, lifting me up. He speaks as if he were singing, and the further he goes, the more complex the words sound. It is indescribably pleasant to listen to her. I listen and ask:

And here’s how it happened: an old brownie was sitting in the shelter, he’d stabbed his paw with a noodle, swaying, whining: “Oh, little mice, it hurts, oh, little mice, I can’t stand it!”

Raising her leg, she grabs it with her hands, swings it in the air and wrinkles her face funny, as if she herself is in pain.

There are sailors standing around - bearded, affectionate men - listening, laughing, praising her and also asking:

Come on, grandma, tell me something else! Then they say:

Come have dinner with us!

At dinner they treat her with vodka, me with watermelons and melon; this is done secretly: a man travels on the ship who forbids eating fruit, takes it away and throws it into the river. He is dressed like a guard - with brass buttons - and is always drunk; people are hiding from him.

Mother rarely comes on deck and stays away from us. She is still silent, mother. Her large, slender body, dark, iron face, heavy crown of blond hair braided in braids - the whole of her, powerful and solid, is remembered to me as if through fog or a transparent cloud; Straight gray eyes, as large as grandma’s, look out of it distantly and unfriendly.

One day she said sternly:

People are laughing at you, mom!

And the Lord is with them! - Grandma answered carefree. - Let them laugh, for good health!

I remember my grandmother’s childhood joy at the sight of Nizhny. Pulling my hand, she pushed me towards the board and shouted:

Look, look how good it is! Here it is, father, Nizhny! That's what he is, Gods! Those churches, look, they seem to be flying!

And the mother asked, almost crying:

Varyusha, look, tea, huh? Look, I forgot! Rejoice!

The mother smiled gloomily.

When the steamer stopped opposite a beautiful city, in the middle of a river closely cluttered with ships, bristling with hundreds of sharp masts, a large boat with many people floated up to its side, hooked itself with a hook to the lowered ladder, and one after another the people from the boat began to climb onto the deck. A small, dry old man, in a long black robe, with a red beard like gold, a bird's nose and green eyes, walked quickly ahead of everyone.

Dad! - the mother screamed thickly and loudly and fell over on him, and he, grabbing her head, quickly stroking her cheeks with his small red hands, shouted, squealing:

What-oh, stupid? Yeah! That's it... Eh, you...

Grandma hugged and kissed everyone at once, spinning like a propeller; she pushed me towards people and said hastily:

Well, hurry up! This is Uncle Mikhailo, this is Yakov... Aunt Natalya, these are brothers, both Sasha, sister Katerina, this is our whole tribe, that’s how many!

Grandfather told her:

Are you well, mother?

They kissed three times.

Grandfather pulled me out of the crowd of people and asked, holding me by the head:

Whose will you be?

Astrakhansky, from the cabin...

What is he saying? - the grandfather turned to his mother and, without waiting for an answer, pushed me aside, saying:

Those cheekbones are like fathers... Get into the boat!

We drove ashore and walked in a crowd up the hill, along a ramp paved with large cobblestones, between two high slopes covered with withered, crushed grass.

Grandfather and mother walked ahead of everyone. He was as tall as her arm, walked shallowly and quickly, and she, looking down at him, seemed to be floating through the air. Behind them silently moved the uncles: black, smooth-haired Mikhail, dry as a grandfather, fair and curly Yakov, some fat women in bright dresses and about six children, all older than me and all quiet. I walked with my grandmother and little aunt Natalya. Pale, blue-eyed, with a huge belly, she often stopped and, breathless, whispered:

Oh, I can't!

Why did they bother you? - Grandma grumbled angrily. “What a stupid tribe!”

Both adults and children - I didn’t like them all, I felt like a stranger among them, even my grandmother somehow faded and moved away.

I especially didn’t like my grandfather; I immediately sensed an enemy in him, and I developed a special attention to him, a cautious curiosity.

We reached the end of the congress. At the very top of it, leaning against the right slope and starting the street, stood a squat one-story house, painted dirty pink, with a low roof and bulging windows. From the street it seemed large to me, but inside it, in the small, dimly lit rooms, it was cramped; Everywhere, as on a steamship in front of the pier, angry people were fussing, children were darting about in a flock of thieving sparrows, and everywhere there was a pungent, unfamiliar smell.

I found myself in the yard. The yard was also unpleasant: it was all hung with huge wet rags, filled with vats of thick, multi-colored water. The rags were also soaked in it. In the corner, in a low, dilapidated outbuilding, wood was burning hot in the stove, something was boiling, gurgling, and an invisible man was loudly saying strange words:

Sandalwood - magenta 2 - vitriol...

1 Plates are the blades of a steamship wheel.

2 Sandalwood is a dye (usually red) extracted from the wood of sandalwood and some other tropical trees. Fuchsin is a red aniline dye.