Who has a short story, wants a foreign story and doesn't want a topic?

Russia] Chekhov/same

Ru Long/Translator

Nine-year-old boy Wanka? Zhukov was sent to the shop of shoemaker Alibaba Yaxing as an apprentice three months ago. On Christmas Eve, he didn't sleep. He waited until the boss, wife and masters went out for morning prayers, took out a small bottle of ink and a rusty pen from the boss's closet, and then spread a crumpled white paper in front of him and began to write. Before he wrote his first word, he looked back at the door and window several times, squinting at the black icon and the shelf with shoe last heads on both sides, and sighed intermittently. The newspaper was spread on the bench where he knelt.

"Dear grandpa, Constantine? Makaric! " He wrote. "I'm writing to you. Merry Christmas to you, and may God bless you all the best. I have no parents, only you. "

Wanka raised her eyes and looked at the dark window, where his candle was reflected. He clearly remembers his grandfather Constantine? Makaric, the night watchman of Valery's house, the local chairman. That is a short, lean, extremely agile little old man, about 65 years old, always smiling and squinting. During the day, he sleeps in the servant's kitchen or makes fun of the chef. In the evening, he put on a fat sheepskin coat and walked around the manor, banging on the bangzi. He was followed by two dogs with drooping heads. One is an old bitch Kasitanka, and the other is a loach. It got such a nickname because its hair is black and its body is slender, like a weasel. This loach is extremely submissive and affectionate. No matter whether you meet your family or outsiders, you will always look at them with affectionate eyes. However, it is unreliable. Behind its obedience and gentleness, there are extremely cunning and sinister intentions. No dog is as good at seizing the opportunity as it is, sneaking up on people, biting his calf, or getting into the freezer, or stealing farmers' chickens. Its hind leg was broken more than once, twice people simply hung it and beat it half to death every week, but it always recovered and survived.

At present, his grandfather must be standing at the gate, squinting at the red window of the country church, stamping his feet in high-heeled felt boots and joking with the servants. His bangzi hangs on his belt. He clapped his hands from time to time in cold, narrowed his neck, squeezed on the maid, twisted on the cook and gave an old laugh.

"Shall we have some snuff?" He said, and gave his snuff bottle to the women.

These women sniffed the snuff and kept sneezing. Grandpa gave a series of happy laughter and shouted, "Wipe it off quickly, or it will freeze on your nose!" " "

He also sniffed the dog's snuff. Kasitanka sneezed, wrinkled her nose, wronged her and walked away. The spade didn't sneeze to show respect, it just wagged its tail. The weather is wonderful. The air is still and fresh. The night is dark, but the whole village, as well as the white roofs and chimneys in the village, can be seen clearly, covered with thick frost and turned into silvery white trees and snowdrifts.

The stars filled the whole sky and stared happily. Tianhe was shown so clearly that it seemed as if someone had scrubbed it with snow before the festival. ……

Wanka sighed, dipped her pen in ink and continued to write, "I was beaten yesterday." The boss grabbed my hair, dragged me into the yard, beat me with the pimp my master used for work, and blamed me for shaking the little doll in their cradle and accidentally falling asleep. Last week, the proprietress asked me to clean a herring. When I started cleaning from the tail, she picked up the herring and put the fish head straight on my face. The masters always make fun of me, send me to a small hotel to drink, encourage me to steal the boss's cucumber, and the boss will hit me with whatever he catches. There is nothing to eat. Eat bread in the morning, porridge at noon and bread at night. As for tea and cabbage soup, only the boss and proprietress drink very heavily, especially a lot. They let me sleep in the aisle. When their little doll cried, I couldn't sleep at all, and I kept rocking the cradle. Dear grandpa, God bless, take me out of here, go home and go back to the village. I can't stand it any longer. ..... I kowtowed to you, and I will always pray to God that you let me leave here, or I will die. ……"

Wanka curled her lips, raised her black fist and rubbed her eyes, sobbing and crying.

"I will crush tobacco leaves for you," he continued, "and pray to God for you. If I do something wrong, I will be slapped by myself, just like the goat in Sidar. If you think I have no work to do, then I'll ask the general manager to wipe his boots for God's sake, or be a shepherd boy for Federica. Dear grandpa, I can't stand it any longer. I'm dying. I want to run back to the village, but I don't have any boots. I am afraid of the cold. When I grow up, I will support you for this matter, and I will not be bullied by others. When you die, I will pray and ask God to rest your soul, just like praying for my mother Pilagaya.

"Moscow is a big city. These houses belong to gentlemen. Many horses, few sheep, and dogs are not fierce. Children here don't walk around with stars, and the choir is not allowed to sing casually. Once, I saw some hooks for sale in the window of a shop. They are all equipped with fishing lines, which can catch all kinds of fish. Very good. A hook even held up a heavy catfish. I also saw several shops selling all kinds of guns, similar to the master's guns. I'm afraid each gun costs 100 rubles. ..... There are pheasants, grouse and rabbits in the butcher shop, but the guys in the shop won't say where these things come from.

"Dear Grandpa, when there is a Christmas tree with presents hanging in the host's house, you can pick me a walnut wrapped in gold paper and put it in that small green box. You asked Olga? Miss Ignativna wants it, just say it's for Wanka. "

Wanka sighed in a trembling voice and stared out of the window again. He recalled that his grandfather always went to the Woods to cut down the Christmas tree for his grandfather's house and took his grandson with him. What a happy time! Grandpa coughed, the cold rattled the trees, and Wonka cackled like them. Often before cutting down trees, my grandfather smokes a pack of cigarettes, smells snuff for a long time, and laughs at the frozen Wanka. ..... those little spruces used to make Christmas trees are covered with frost and stand there motionless, waiting to see who dies first. Suddenly, a rabbit came out of nowhere and ran like an arrow on a snowdrift. Grandpa couldn't help crying. "Grab it, grab it, ... grab it! Hey, short-tailed ghost! "

Grandpa dragged the chopped spruce back to the host's house and everyone began to decorate it.

..... The busiest is Wanka's favorite Olga? Miss Ignatieffna. When Wanka's mother Pilar Kaya was still alive, working as a maid in his master's house, Olga? Ignatieffna often gives Wanka candy to eat. If he has nothing to do, he teaches him to read and write, count from one to one hundred, and even teaches him to dance Kadrill. But when Piragaia died, the orphan Wanka was sent to the servant's kitchen to live with his grandfather, and later from the kitchen to the shop of Moscow shoemaker Ariasin. ……

"Come on, dear grandpa." Wanka went on to write: "For Christ's sake and God's sake, I beg you to take me out of here. Have pity on me, an unfortunate orphan. Everyone here is better than me. I'm too hungry to speak. I always cry. The other day, my boss hit me with a shoe last, and I fainted to the ground. I finally came back to life. My life is miserable, worse than a dog. ..... Give my regards to Alena, one-eyed Golka and the coachman, and don't give my accordion to outsiders. Sun Yifan? Zhukov grass. Dear grandpa, you come. "

Wanka folded the written paper into four folds and put it in the envelope that Gaby bought last night. ..... He just thought about it, dipped his pen in ink and wrote down the address:

Send it to my grandfather in the country.

Then he scratched his head, and wanted to think, added a few words:

Constantine? Makare

When he finished writing the letter, making sure that no one was bothering him, he put on his hat and ran into the street wearing only his shirt. ……

Last night, he asked the butcher, and the butcher told him that after the letter was put in the mailbox, the drunk driver took the letter out of the mailbox in a mail van, rang the doorbell and distributed it all over the world. Wanka ran to the nearest mailbox and stuffed the precious letter into it. ……

He settled down hopefully, and after an hour, he fell asleep. ..... In the dream, he saw a stove. Grandfather sat on the stove, drooping barefoot, reading letters to the chefs. ..... The loach walked around the stove, wagging its tail. ……

(1) refers to Christian custom: On Christmas Eve, children walk around with stars made of tissue paper.