The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky [children's books read aloud TXT] 📗

several voices.

 

“As big as a calf, as a real calf,” chimed in the captain. “I

got one like that on purpose, one of the fiercest breed, and his

parents are huge and very fierce, they stand as high as this from

the floor…. Sit down here, on Ilusha’s bed, or here on the bench.

You are welcome, we’ve been hoping to see you a long time…. You were

so kind as to come with Alexey Fyodorovitch?”

 

Krassotkin sat on the edge of the bed, at Ilusha’s feet. Though he

had perhaps prepared a free-and-easy opening for the conversation on

his way, now he completely lost the thread of it.

 

“No… I came with Perezvon. I’ve got a dog now, called

Perezvon. A Slavonic name. He’s out there… if I whistle, he’ll run

in. I’ve brought a dog, too,” he said, addressing Ilusha all at

once. “Do you remember Zhutchka, old man?” he suddenly fired the

question at him.

 

Ilusha’s little face quivered. He looked with an agonised

expression at Kolya. Alyosha, standing at the door, frowned and signed

to Kolya not to speak of Zhutchka, but he did not or would not notice.

 

“Where… is Zhutchka?” Ilusha asked in a broken voice.

 

“Oh well, my boy, your Zhutchka’s lost and done for!”

 

Ilusha did not speak, but he fixed an intent gaze once more on

Kolya. Alyosha, catching Kolya’s eye, signed to him vigourously again,

but he turned away his eyes pretending not to have noticed.

 

“It must have run away and died somewhere. It must have died after

a meal like that,” Kolya pronounced pitilessly, though he seemed a

little breathless. “But I’ve got a dog, Perezvon… A Slavonic name…

I’ve brought him to show you.”

 

“I don’t want him!” said Ilusha suddenly.

 

“No, no, you really must see him… it will amuse you. I brought

him on purpose…. He’s the same sort of shaggy dog…. You allow me

to call in my dog, madam?” He suddenly addressed Madame Snegiryov,

with inexplicable excitement in his manner.

 

“I don’t want him, I don’t want him!” cried Ilusha, with a

mournful break in his voice. There was a reproachful light in his

eyes.

 

“You’d better,” the captain started up from the chest by the

wall on which he had just sat down, “you’d better… another time,” he

muttered, but Kolya could not be restrained. He hurriedly shouted to

Smurov, “Open the door,” and as soon as it was open, he blew his

whistle. Perezvon dashed headlong into the room.

 

“Jump, Perezvon, beg! Beg!” shouted Kolya, jumping up, and the dog

stood erect on its hind-legs by Ilusha’s bedside. What followed was

a surprise to everyone: Ilusha started, lurched violently forward,

bent over Perezvon and gazed at him, faint with suspense.

 

“It’s… Zhutchka!” he cried suddenly, in a voice breaking with

joy and suffering.

 

“And who did you think it was?” Krassotkin shouted with all his

might, in a ringing, happy voice, and bending down he seized the dog

and lifted him up to Ilusha.

 

“Look, old man, you see, blind of one eye and the left ear is

torn, just the marks you described to me. It was by that I found

him. I found him directly. He did not belong to anyone!” he explained,

to the captain, to his wife, to Alyosha and then again to Ilusha.

“He used to live in the Fedotovs’ backyard. Though he made his home

there, they did not feed him. He was a stray dog that had run away

from the village… I found him…. You see, old man, he couldn’t have

swallowed what you gave him. If he had, he must have died, he must

have! So he must have spat it out, since he is alive. You did not

see him do it. But the pin pricked his tongue, that is why he

squealed. He ran away squealing and you thought he’d swallowed it.

He might well squeal, because the skin of dogs’ mouths is so tender…

tenderer than in men, much tenderer!” Kolya cried impetuously, his

face glowing and radiant with delight. Ilusha could not speak. White

as a sheet, he gazed open-mouthed at Kolya, with his great eyes almost

starting out of his head. And if Krassotkin, who had no suspicion of

it, had known what a disastrous and fatal effect such a moment might

have on the sick child’s health, nothing would have induced him to

play such a trick on him. But Alyosha was perhaps the only person in

the room who realised it. As for the captain he behaved like a small

child.

 

“Zhutchka! It’s Zhutchka!” he cried in a blissful voice,

“Ilusha, this is Zhutchka, your Zhutchka! Mamma, this is Zhutchka!” He

was almost weeping.

 

“And I never guessed!” cried Smurov regretfully. “Bravo,

Krassotkin! I said he’d find the dog and here he’s found him.”

 

“Here he’s found him!” another boy repeated gleefully.

 

“Krassotkin’s a brick! cried a third voice.

 

“He’s a brick, he’s a brick!” cried the other boys, and they began

clapping.

 

“Wait, wait,” Krassotkin did his utmost to shout above them all.

“I’ll tell you how it happened, that’s the whole point. I found him, I

took him home and hid him at once. I kept him locked up at home and

did not show him to anyone till to-day. Only Smurov has known for

the last fortnight, but I assured him this dog was called Perezvon and

he did not guess. And meanwhile I taught the dog all sorts of

tricks. You should only see all the things he can do! I trained him so

as to bring you a well trained dog, in good condition, old man, so

as to be able to say to you, ‘See, old man, what a fine dog your

Zhutchka is now!’ Haven’t you a bit of meat? He’ll show you a trick

that will make you die with laughing. A piece of meat, haven’t you got

any?”

 

The captain ran across the passage to the landlady, where their

cooking was done. Not to lose precious time, Kolya, in desperate

haste, shouted to Perezvon, “Dead!” And the dog immediately turned

round and lay on his back with its four paws in the air. The boys

laughed, Ilusha looked on with the same suffering smile, but the

person most delighted with the dog’s performance was “mamma.” She

laughed at the dog and began snapping her fingers and calling it,

“Perezvon, Perezvon!”

 

“Nothing will make him get up, nothing!” Kolya cried triumphantly,

proud of his success. “He won’t move for all the shouting in the

world, but if I call to him, he’ll jump up in a minute. Ici,

Perezvon!” The dog leapt up and bounded about, whining with delight.

The captain ran back with a piece of cooked beef.

 

“Is it hot?” Kolya inquired hurriedly, with a businesslike air,

taking the meat. “Dogs don’t like hot things. No, it’s all right.

Look, everybody, look, Ilusha, look, old man; why aren’t you

looking? He does not look at him, now I’ve brought him.”

 

The new trick consisted in making the dog stand motionless with

his nose out and putting a tempting morsel of meat just on his nose.

The luckless dog had to stand without moving, with the meat on his

nose, as long as his master chose to keep him, without a movement,

perhaps for half an hour. But he kept Perezvon only for a brief

moment.

 

“Paid for!” cried Kolya, and the meat passed in a flash from the

dog’s nose to his mouth. The audience, of course, expressed enthusiasm

and surprise.

 

“Can you really have put off coming all this time simply to

train the dog?” exclaimed Alyosha, with an involuntary note of

reproach in his voice.

 

“Simply for that!” answered Kolya, with perfect simplicity. “I

wanted to show him in all his glory.”

 

“Perezvon! Perezvon,” called Ilusha suddenly, snapping his thin

fingers and beckoning to the dog.

 

“What is it? Let him jump up on the bed! Ici, Perezvon!” Kolya

slapped the bed and Perezvon darted up by Ilusha. The boy threw both

arms round his head and Perezvon instantly licked his cheek. Ilusha

crept close to him, stretched himself out in bed and hid his face in

the dog’s shaggy coat.

 

“Dear, dear!” kept exclaiming the captain. Kolya sat down again on

the edge of the bed.

 

“Ilusha, I can show you another trick. I’ve brought you a little

cannon. You remember, I told you about it before and you said how much

you’d like to see it. Well, here, I’ve brought it to you.”

 

And Kolya hurriedly pulled out of his satchel the little bronze

cannon. He hurried, because he was happy himself. Another time he

would have waited till the sensation made by Perezvon had passed

off, now he hurried on, regardless of all consideration. “You are

all happy now,” he felt, “so here’s something to make you happier!” He

was perfectly enchanted himself.

 

“I’ve been coveting this thing for a long while; it’s for you, old

man, it’s for you. It belonged to Morozov, it was no use to him, he

had it from his brother. I swopped a book from father’s bookcase

for it, A Kinsman of Mahomet, or Salutary Folly, a scandalous book

published in Moscow a hundred years ago, before they had any

censorship. And Morozov has a taste for such things. He was grateful

to me, too….”

 

Kolya held the cannon in his hand so that all could see and admire

it. Ilusha raised himself, and, with his right arm still round the

dog, he gazed enchanted at the toy. The sensation was even greater

when Kolya announced that he had gunpowder too, and that it could be

fired off at once “if it won’t alarm the ladies.” “Mamma”

immediately asked to look at the toy closer and her request was

granted. She was much pleased with the little bronze cannon on

wheels and began rolling it to and fro on her lap. She readily gave

permission for the cannon to be fired, without any idea of what she

had been asked. Kolya showed the powder and the shot. The captain,

as a military man, undertook to load it, putting in a minute

quantity of powder. He asked that the shot might be put off till

another time. The cannon was put on the floor, aiming towards an empty

part of the room, three grains of powder were thrust into the

touchhole and a match was put to it. A magnificent explosion followed.

Mamma was startled, but at once laughed with delight. The boys gazed

in speechless triumph. But the captain, looking at Ilusha, was more

enchanted than any of them. Kolya picked up the cannon and immediately

presented it to Ilusha, together with the powder and the shot.

 

“I got it for you, for you! I’ve been keeping it for you a long

time,” he repeated once more in his delight.

 

“Oh, give it to me! No, give me the cannon!” mamma began begging

like a little child. Her face showed a piteous fear that she would not

get it. Kolya was disconcerted. The captain fidgeted uneasily.

 

“Mamma, mamma,” he ran to her, “the cannon’s yours, of course, but

let Ilusha have it, because it’s a present to him, but it’s just as

good as yours. Ilusha will always let you play with it; it shall

belong to both of you, both of you.”

 

“No, I don’t want it to belong to both of us; I want it to be mine

altogether, not Ilusha’s,” persisted mamma, on the point of tears.

 

“Take it, mother, here, keep it!” Ilusha cried. “Krassotkin, may I

give it to my mother?” he turned to Krassotkin with an