Twenty-six and One | Page 7

. . It is
laughable! And why cannot women fight honestly? Why do they
scratch? Eh?"
He sat on the bench, strong and clean and jovial; talking and laughing
all the time. We were silent. Somehow or other he seemed repulsive to
us this time.
"How lucky I am with women, Eh? It is very funny! Just a wink and I
have them!"
His white hands, covered with glossy hair, were lifted and thrown back
to his knees with a loud noise. And he stared at us with such a
pleasantly surprised look, as though he really could not understand why
he was so lucky in his affairs with women. His stout, red face was
radiant with happiness and self-satisfaction, and he kept on licking his
lips with relish.
Our baker scraped the shovel firmly and angrily against the hearth of
the oven and suddenly said, sarcastically:
"You need no great strength to fell little fir-trees, but try to throw down
a pine." . . .
"That is, do you refer to me?" asked the soldier.
"To you. . . ."
"What is it?"

"Nothing. . . . Too late!"
"No, wait! What's the matter? Which pine?"
Our baker did not reply, quickly working with his shovel at the oven.
He would throw into the oven the biscuits from the boiling kettle,
would take out the ready ones and throw them noisily to the floor, to
the boys who put them on bast strings. It looked as though he had
forgotten all about the soldier and his conversation with him. But
suddenly the soldier became very restless. He rose to his feet and
walking up to the oven, risked striking his chest against the handle of
the shovel, which was convulsively trembling in the air.
"No, you tell me--who is she? You have insulted me. . . . I? . . . Not a
single one can wrench herself from me, never! And you say to me such
offensive words." . . . And, indeed, he looked really offended.
Evidently there was nothing for which he might respect himself, except
for his ability to lead women astray; it may be that aside from this
ability there was no life in him, and only this ability permitted him to
feel himself a living man.
There are people to whom the best and dearest thing in life is some
kind of a disease of either the body or the soul. They make much of it
during all their lives and live by it only; suffering from it, they are
nourished by it, they always complain of it to others and thus attract the
attention of their neighbors. By this they gain people's compassion for
themselves, and aside from this they have nothing. Take away this
disease from them, cure them, and they are rendered most unfortunate,
because they thus lose their sole means of living, they then become
empty. Sometimes a man's life is so poor that he is involuntarily
compelled to prize his defect and live by it. It may frankly be said that
people are often depraved out of mere weariness. The soldier felt
insulted, and besetting our baker, roared:
"Tell me--who is it?"
"Shall I tell you?" the baker suddenly turned to him.

"Well?"
"Do you know Tanya?"
"Well?"
"Well, try." . . .
"I?"
"You!"
"Her? That's easy enough!"
"We'll see!"
"You'll see! Ha, ha!"
"She'll. . . ."
"A month's time!"
"What a boaster you are, soldier!"
"Two weeks! I'll show you! Who is it? Tanya! Tfoo!" . . .
"Get away, I say."
"Get away, . . . you're bragging!"
"Two weeks, that's all!"
Suddenly our baker became enraged, and he raised the shovel against
the soldier. The soldier stepped back, surprised, kept silent for awhile,
and, saying ominously, in a low voice: "Very well, then!" he left us.
During the dispute we were all silent, interested in the result. But when
the soldier went out, a loud, animated talk and noise was started among
us.

Some one cried to the baker:
"You contrived a bad thing, Pavel!"
"Work!" replied the baker, enraged.
We felt that the soldier was touched to the quick and that a danger was
threatening Tanya. We felt this, and at the same time we were seized
with a burning, pleasant curiosity--what will happen? Will she resist
the soldier? And almost all of us cried out with confidence:
"Tanya? She will resist! You cannot take her with bare hands!"
We were very desirous of testing the strength of our godling; we
persistently proved to one another that our godling was a strong
godling, and that Tanya would come out the victor in this combat. Then,
finally, it appeared to us that we did not provoke the soldier enough,
that he might forget about the dispute,