Short Fiction

children when they are married. They marry, become husband and wife, and then only children come. Janichka Do they always get children then? Lady No, not always. Our cook has a wife, but they have no children. Janichka Couldn’t it be arranged that only those who want children should have them, and those who don’t want them should have none? Schoolboy What nonsense you talk! Janichka That is not nonsense at all. I only thought that if Matresha’s daughter doesn’t want to have children, it ought to be arranged so that she shouldn’t have any. Couldn’t it be arranged, mother? Schoolboy Have I not told you not to talk nonsense about things you know nothing about? Janichka Mother, could it be arranged as I say? Lady I don’t know: we never know about that. It all depends on the will of God. Janichka But how do children come into the world? Schoolboy The goat brings them. Janichka Hurt. Why do you tease me? I don’t see anything to laugh at in what I am saying. But I do think that since Matresha says they are worse off for having children, it ought to be managed so that no children should be born to her. There is Nurse who has none. Lady But she is not married. Janichka Then all those that do not care for children ought not to marry. As it is now, children are born and people have nothing to feed them with. The mother exchanges a glance with her son, and does not answer. When I am grown up I will marry by all means, and I shall see that I have one girl and one boy, and no more. Do you think it is nice when children are born and people don’t care for them? As for mine, I shall love them dearly. Don’t you think so, mother? I will go and ask Nurse. Exit. Lady To her son. Yes, truth flows from the lips of children. What she says is a great truth. If people would understand how serious marriage is, instead of regarding it as amusement⁠—if they would marry not for their own sake, but for the sake of the children⁠—then all these horrors would not exist. There would be no children suffering from neglect or distress, nor would such cases happen as that of Matresha’s daughter, where children bring sorrow in place of joy.

On Education

The Yard Porter is cleaning the handles of the doors. Katia, a girl of seven, is building a house with blocks. Nicholas, a schoolboy of fifteen, enters with a book and throws it angrily on the floor.

Nicholas	To the devil with that damned school!
Porter	What is the matter with it?
Nicholas	Again a bad mark. That means more new trouble. Damn it all! What do I want their cursed geography for? California⁠—why is it necessary to know about California?
Porter	What will they do to you?
Nicholas	They will keep me another year in that same old class.
Porter	Then why don’t you learn your lessons?
Nicholas	Why? Because I can’t learn the stupid things. Damn it all! Throwing himself on a chair. I’ll go and tell mother. I’ll tell her I can’t do it. Let them do whatever they like but I can’t do it. And if after that she doesn’t take me out of school I will run away from home. I swear I will.
Porter	But where will you go?
Nicholas	Just away. I will look out for a place as a coachman, or a yard porter. Anything is better than having to learn that cursed nonsense.
Porter	But to be a yard porter is not an easy job either, I can tell you. A porter has to get up early, chop wood, carry it in, make fires⁠—
Nicholas	Whew! Whistles. But that is like a holiday. I love chopping wood. I simply adore it. No, that would not stop me. No, you just try what it is to learn geography.
Porter	You’re right there. But why do you learn it? What use is it to you? Is it that they make you do it?
Nicholas	I wish I knew why. It is of no use whatever. But that’s the rule. They think one cannot do without it.
Porter	I dare say it is necessary for you in order to become an official, to get honours, high appointments, like your father and uncle.
Nicholas	But since I don’t care for all that.
Katia	Since he does not care!
	Enter Mother, with a letter in her hand.
Mother	I have just heard from the director of the school that you have got a bad mark again. That won’t do, Nikolenka. It must be one thing or the other: learn or not learn.
Nicholas	I’ll stick to the one: I cannot, I cannot, I cannot learn. For God’s sake, let me go. I cannot learn.
Mother	You cannot learn?
Nicholas	I cannot. It won’t get into my head.
Mother	That is because your head is full of nonsense. Don’t think about all your stupid things, but concentrate your mind on the lessons you have to learn.
Nicholas	Mother, I am talking seriously. Take me away from school. I wish for nothing else in the world but to get rid of that dreadful school, of that treadmill! I can’t stand it.
Mother	But what would you do out of school?
Nicholas	That is my own business.
Mother	It is not your own business, but mine. I have to answer to God for you. I must give you an education.
Nicholas	But since I cannot.
Mother	Severely. What nonsense to say you cannot. For the last time, I will speak to you like a mother. I beseech you to mend your ways and to do what is required of you. If you will not obey me this time I shall take other measures.
Nicholas	I tell you, I cannot and I will not learn.
Mother	Take care, Nicholas.
Nicholas	Why should I take care? Why do you torture me? Don’t you see you do!
Mother	I forbid you to speak like that. How dare you! Go away! You