scarcely ever laughed; he spoke without haste, in a quiet, serious tone. Either failing to notice his nephew, or forgetting about him – which especially pleased Yevsey – he would talk to himself in his shop, keeping up a constant dispute with some invisible opponent and forever admonishing him.
"Confound you," he would mumble, but without anger. "Greedy maw! Don't I work? There, I have scorched my eyes. I'll soon get blind. What else do you want? A curse on this life! Hard luck! No beauty – no joy."
His interjections sounded as if he were composing psalms; and Yevsey had the impression that his uncle was actually facing the man he was addressing.
Once Yevsey asked:
"Whom are you talking to?"
"Whom am I talking to?" repeated the blacksmith without looking at the boy. Then he smiled and answered. "I'm talking to my stupidity."
But it was a rare thing for Yevsey to be able to speak with his guardian, for he was seldom alone. Yashka, round as a top, often spun about the place, drowning the blows of the hammer and the crackling of the coals in the furnace with his piercing shouts. In his presence Yevsey did not dare even to look at his uncle.
The smithy stood at the edge of the shallow ravine, at the bottom of which among the osier bushes, Yevsey passed all his leisure time in spring, summer, and autumn. Here it was as peaceful as in the church. The birds warbled, the bees and drones hummed, and a fine quiet song quivered in the air. The boy sat there swaying his body and brooding with tightly shut eyes. Or he roamed amid the bushes, listening to the noise in the blacksmith shop. When he perceived his uncle was alone, he crept out and went up to him.
"What, you, Orphan?" was the blacksmith's greeting, as he scrutinized the boy with his little eyes wet with tears.
Once Yevsey asked:
"Is the evil power in the church at night?"
The smith thought a while, and answered:
"Why shouldn't it be? It gets everywhere. That's easy for it."
The boy raised his shoulders, and with his round eyes searchingly examined the dark corners of the shop.
"Don't be afraid of the devils," the uncle advised.
Yevsey sighed, and answered quietly:
"I'm not afraid."
"They won't hurt you," the blacksmith explained with assurance, wiping his eyes with his black fingers. Then Yevsey asked:
"And how about God?"
"What about Him?"
"Why does God let devils get into the church?"
"What's that to him? God isn't the keeper of the church."
"Doesn't he live there?"
"Who? God? Why should He? His place, Orphan, is everywhere. The churches are for the people."
"And the people, what are they for?"
"The people – it seems they are – in general – for everything. You can't get along without people."
"Are they for God?"
The blacksmith looked askance at his nephew, and answered after a pause:
"Of course." Wiping his hands on his apron and staring at the fire in the furnace, he added, "I don't know about this business, Orphan. Why don't you ask the teacher or the priest?"
Yevsey wiped his nose on his shirtsleeve.
"I'm afraid of them."
"It would be better for you not to talk of such things," the uncle advised gravely. "You are a little boy. You should play out in the open air, and store up health. If you want to live you must be a healthy man. If you are not strong, you can't work. Then you can't live at all. That's all we know, and what God needs is unknown to us." He grew silent, and meditated without removing his eyes from the fire. After a time he continued in a serious tone, speaking choppily: "On the one hand I know nothing, on the other hand I don't understand. They say all wisdom comes from Him. Yet it's evident that the thicker one's candle before God the more wolfish the heart." He looked around the shop, and his eyes fell on the boy in the corner. "Why are you squeezing yourself into that crack? I told you to go out and play." As Yevsey crept out timidly, the smith added, "A spark will fall into your eye, and then you'll be one-eyed. Who wants a one-eyed fellow?"
His mother had told Yevsey several stories on winter nights when the snowstorm knocking against the walls of the hut ran along the roof, touched everything as if groping for something in anguish, crept down the chimney, and whined there mournfully in different keys. The mother recited the tales quietly, drowsily. Her speech sometimes grew confused; often she repeated the same words several times. It seemed to the boy she saw everything about which she spoke, but obscurely, as in the dark.
The neighbors reminded Yevsey of his mother's tales. The blacksmith, too, it seemed, saw in the furnace-fire both devils and God, and all the terrors of human life. That was why he continually wept. While Yevsey listened to his talk, which set his heart aquiver with a dreadful tremor of expectation, the hope insensibly formulated itself that some day he would see something remarkable, not resembling the life in the village, the drunken muzhiks, the cantankerous women, the boisterous children – something quite different, without noise and confusion, without malice and quarreling, something lovable and serious, like the church service.
One of the neighbors was a blind girl, with whom Yevsey became intimate. He took her to walk in the village; carefully helped her down the ravine, and spoke to her in a low voice, opening wide his watery eyes in fear. This friendship did not escape the notice of the villagers, all of whom it pleased. But once the mother of the blind girl came to Uncle Piotr with a complaint. She declared Yevsey had frightened Tanya with his talk, and now she could not leave her daughter alone, because the girl cried and slept poorly, had disturbed dreams, and started out of her sleep screaming. What Yevsey had said to her it was impossible to make out. She kept babbling about devils, about the sky being black and having holes in it, about fires visible through the holes, and about devils who made sport in there, and teased people. What does it mean? How can anyone tell a little girl such stuff?
"Come here," said Uncle Piotr to his nephew.
When Yevsey quietly left his corner, the smith put his rough heavy hand on his head and asked:
"Did you tell her all that?"
"I did."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
The blacksmith, without removing his hand, shoved back the boy's head, and looking into his eyes asked gravely:
"Why, is the sky black?"
"What else is it if she can't see?" Yevsey muttered.
"Who?"
"Tanya."
"Yes," said the blacksmith. After a moment's reflection he asked, "And how about the fire being black? Why did you invent that?"
The boy dropped his eyes and was silent.
"Well, speak. Nobody is beating you. Why did you tell her all that nonsense, eh?"
"I was sorry for her," whispered Yevsey.
The blacksmith pushed him aside lightly.
"You shan't talk to her any more, do you hear? Never! Don't worry, Aunt Praskovya, we'll put an end to this friendship."
"You ought to give him a whipping," said the mother. "My little girl lived quietly, she wasn't a bit of a bother to anybody, and now someone has to be with her all the time."
After Praskovya had left, the smith without saying anything led Yevsey by the hand into the yard.
"Now talk sensibly. Why did you frighten the little girl?"
The uncle's voice was not loud, but it was stern. Yevsey became frightened, and quickly began to justify himself, stuttering over his words.
"I didn't frighten her – I did it just – just – she kept complaining – she said I see only black, but for you everything – so I began to tell her everything is black to keep her from being envious.