Six weeks later, it is true, he got into another scrape, which even brought his name to the ears of our Justice of the Peace, but it was a scrape of quite another kind, amusing, foolish, and he did not, as it turned out, take the leading part in it, but was only implicated in it.But of this later.His mother still fretted and trembled, but the more uneasy she became, the greater were the hopes of Dardanelov.It must be noted that Kolya understood and divined what was in Dardanelov's heart and, of course, despised him profoundly for his "feelings"; he had in the past been so tactless as to show this contempt before his mother, hinting vaguely that he knew what Dardanelov was after.But from the time of the railway incident his behaviour in this respect also was changed; he did not allow himself the remotest allusion to the subject and began to speak more respectfully of Dardanelov before his mother, which the sensitive woman at once appreciated with boundless gratitude.But at the slightest mention of Dardanelov by a visitor in Kolya's presence, she would flush as pink as a rose.At such moments Kolya would either stare out of the window scowling, or would investigate the state of his boots, or would shout angrily for "Perezvon," the big, shaggy, mangy dog, which he had picked up a month before, brought home, and kept for some reason secretly indoors, not showing him to any of his schoolfellows.He bullied him frightfully, teaching him all sorts of tricks, so that the poor dog howled for him whenever he was absent at school, and when he came in, whined with delight, rushed about as if he were crazy, begged, lay down on the ground pretending to be dead, and so on; in fact, showed all the tricks he had taught him, not at the word of command, but simply from the zeal of his excited and grateful heart.
I have forgotten, by the way, to mention that Kolya Krassotkin was the boy stabbed with a penknife by the boy already known to the reader as the son of Captain Snegiryov.Ilusha had been defending his father when the schoolboys jeered at him, shouting the nickname "wisp of tow."Chapter 2
ChildrenAND so on that frosty, snowy, and windy day in November, Kolya Krassotkin was sitting at home.It was Sunday and there was no school.
It had just struck eleven, and he particularly wanted to go out "on very urgent business," but he was left alone in charge of the house, for it so happened that all its elder inmates were absent owing to a sudden and singular event.Madame Krassotkin had let two little rooms, separated from the rest of the house by a passage, to a doctor's wife with her two small children.This lady was the same age as Anna Fyodorovna, and a great friend of hers.Her husband, the doctor, had taken his departure twelve months before, going first to Orenburg and then to Tashkend, and for the last six months she had not heard a word from him.Had it not been for her friendship with Madame Krassotkin, which was some consolation to the forsaken lady, she would certainly have completely dissolved away in tears.And now, to add to her misfortunes, Katerina, her only servant, was suddenly moved the evening before to announce, to her mistress's amazement, that she proposed to bring a child into the world before morning.It seemed almost miraculous to everyone that no one had noticed the probability of it before.The astounded doctor's wife decided to move Katerina while there was still time to an establishment in the town kept by a midwife for such emergencies.As she set great store by her servant, she promptly carried out this plan and remained there looking after her.By the morning all Madame Krassotkin's friendly sympathy and energy were called upon to render assistance and appeal to someone for help in the case.
So both the ladies were absent from home, the Krassotkins'
servant, Agafya, had gone out to the market, and Kolya was thus left for a time to protect and look after "the kids," that is, the son and daughter of the doctor's wife, who were left alone.Kolya was not afraid of taking care of the house, besides he had Perezvon, who had been told to lie flat, without moving, under the bench in the hall.Every time Kolya, walking to and fro through the rooms, came into the hall, the dog shook his head and gave two loud and insinuating taps on the floor with his tail, but alas! the whistle did not sound to release him.Kolya looked sternly at the luckless dog, who relapsed again into obedient rigidity.The one thing that troubled Kolya was "the kids." He looked, of course, with the utmost scorn on Katerina's unexpected adventure, but he was very fond of the bereaved "kiddies," and had already taken them a picture-book.Nastya, the elder, a girl of eight, could read, and Kostya, the boy, aged seven, was very fond of being read to by her.Krassotkin could, of course, have provided more diverting entertainment for them.He could have made them stand side by side and played soldiers with them, or sent them hiding all over the house.He had done so more than once before and was not above doing it, so much so that a report once spread at school that Krassotkin played horses with the little lodgers at home, prancing with his head on one side like a trace-horse.But Krassotkin haughtily parried this thrust, pointing out that to play horses with boys of one's own age, boys of thirteen, would certainly be disgraceful "at this date," but that he did it for the sake of "the kids" because he liked them, and no one had a right to call him to account for his feelings.The two "kids"adored him.
But on this occasion he was in no mood for games.He had very important business of his own before him, something almost mysterious.