Mother Read Online Free PDF Page B

Pavel came from the factory, washed himself, put on clean clothes, and when walking out of the house said to his mother without looking at her:
    "When they come, tell them I'll be back soon. Let them wait a while. And please don't be afraid. They are people like all other people."
    She sank into her seat almost fainting.
    Her son looked at her soberly. "Maybe you'd better go away somewhere,"
he suggested.
    The thought offended her. Shaking her head in dissent, she said:
    "No, it's all the same. What for?"
    It was the end of November. During the day a dry, fine snow had fallen upon the frozen earth, and now she heard it crunching outside the window under her son's feet as he walked away. A dense crust of darkness settled immovably upon the window panes, and seemed to lie in hostile watch for something. Supporting herself on the bench, the mother sat and waited, looking at the door.
    It seemed to her that people were stealthily and watchfully walking about the house in the darkness, stooping and looking about on all sides, strangely attired and silent. There around the house some one was already coming, fumbling with his hands along the wall.
    A whistle was heard. It circled around like the notes of a fine chord, sad and melodious, wandered musingly into the wilderness of darkness, and seemed to be searching for something. It came nearer. Suddenly it died away under the window, as if it had entered into the wood of the wall. The noise of feet was heard on the porch. The mother started, and rose with a strained, frightened look in her eyes.
    The door opened. At first a head with a big, shaggy hat thrust itself into the room; then a slender, bending body crawled in, straightened itself out, and deliberately raised its right hand.
    "Good evening!" said the man, in a thick, bass voice, breathing heavily.
    The mother bowed in silence.
    "Pavel is not at home yet?"
    The stranger leisurely removed his short fur jacket, raised one foot, whipped the snow from his boot with his hat, then did the same with the other foot, flung his hat into a corner, and rocking on his thin legs walked into the room, looking back at the imprints he left on the floor. He approached the table, examined it as if to satisfy himself of its solidity, and finally sat down and, covering his mouth with his hand, yawned. His head was perfectly round and close-cropped, his face shaven except for a thin mustache, the ends of which pointed downward.
    After carefully scrutinizing the room with his large, gray, protuberant eyes, he crossed his legs, and, leaning his head over the table, inquired:
    "Is this your own house, or do you rent it?"
    The mother, sitting opposite him, answered:
    "We rent it."
    "Not a very fine house," he remarked.
    "Pasha will soon be here; wait," said the mother quietly.
    "Why, yes, I am waiting," said the man.
    His calmness, his deep, sympathetic voice, and the candor and simplicity of his face encouraged the mother. He looked at her openly and kindly, and a merry sparkle played in the depths of his transparent eyes. In the entire angular, stooping figure, with its thin legs, there was something comical, yet winning. He was dressed in a blue shirt, and dark, loose trousers thrust into his boots. She was seized with the desire to ask him who he was, whence he came, and whether he had known her son long. But suddenly he himself put a question, leaning forward with a swing of his whole body.
    "Who made that hole in your forehead, mother?"
    His question was uttered in a kind voice and with a noticeable smile in his eyes; but the woman was offended by the sally. She pressed her lips together tightly, and after a pause rejoined with cold civility:
    "And what business is it of yours, sir?"
    With the same swing of his whole body toward her, he said:
    "Now, don't get angry! I ask because my foster mother had her head smashed just exactly like yours. It was her man who did it for her once, with a last--he was a shoemaker, you see. She was a washerwoman