The Village School Master.
By N. Uspènsky.
By N. Uspènsky.
By N. Uspènsky.
An elderly gentleman, sitting on the verandah of his house, called to a workman who was passing with a water-cart—
“Hi! Prokòfyi! Prokòfyi!”
The cart stopped.
“Are you deaf?”
“The wheels makes such a noise, Grigòryi Naòmich; one can’t hear anything. They wants greasing.”
“Oh, they’re all right. What have you got there? water?”
“Yes, sir.”
“From the pond?”
“Yes, sir.”
“All right,” said the master after a moment’s pause, “you can go.”
A soldier came up to the verandah.
“Wish your honour good-day!”
“Who are you?”
“From Verkhogliàdov in the Merkoùlovsky district; perhaps you know it?—by the river Kostra....”
“What d’ you want?”
“I’m looking for a place, sir, as doorkeeper, or bailiff.”
“What have you been up till now?”
“Well, when I served in the army, I used to be postillion for the commander; then, in Mouràvki, I was cook for the examining magistrate. I’m a Jack-of-all trades, your honour—gardener, whipper-in, cook—anything you like!”
“Can you break stones?”
“Why, no, your honour, I can’t do that kind of work!”
“Why?”
“Well, you see, the army life breaks a chap down so; I was in a line regiment, not in the guards, and a man never gets over that.”
“Oh, you’re healthy enough, I can see that, and yet you want to do such little fiddling work! What sort of career is it to be a bailiff or a whipper-in?”...
“Surely, your honour, it’s better than stone-breaking!”
“I think stone-breaking a very fine occupation.... H’m.... Have you recommendations from your former employers?”
“No, your honour.”
“I can’t take you without a character, my good man.”
“Yes, sir, you’re quite right, sir.”
“Perhaps you’re some good-for-nothing fellow—a thief or drunkard for all I know....”
“Just so, your honour.”
“You must bring me a character.”
“Yes, sir; good-morning, sir.”
The soldier went away. Presently the steward came up to his master and announced—
“If you please, sir, a strange gentleman came while your honour was asleep; he calls himself a village schoolmaster.”
“Where is he now?”
“Sitting in the office.”
“Let him in.”
There came on to the verandah a sunburnt man of about forty, in a nankeen coat and high boots. The master of the house offered him a chair.
“Who are you?”
“Schoolmaster from the Pobiràkhinsky district, from the village of Bezzùbov. I humbly venture to trouble you with a request; can I not obtain some kind of situation?”
“I don’t want a schoolmaster,” said the owner of the house.
“I can take other situations. I have heard that you are looking for a clerk?”
“Why did you leave your situation in Bezzùbov?”
“The school was destroyed by fire.”
“Long ago?”
“On All Soul’s day. The cause is not known—the whole village was burnt down.”
“Yes, one is constantly hearing of fires nowadays. A village close to us has been burnt down too.... Allow me to ask, though, how did you become a teacher?”
“After completing my education I lived in my brother’s house in the village of Khmyèlnoye. I did not work, but he supported me. Then I took a situation as tutor in a country gentleman’s house at Ogoùrtzov, at a salary of two roubles a month. But I did not stop with him long, and while there I served chiefly as coachman....”
“But why?”
“Because my pupil did not like studying, and his parents let him have his own way, and employed me temporarily as coachman....”
“That’s strange!”
“I did the work properly! I had no choice....”
“How much did you get for it?”
“Nothing! only board and lodging, and a cast-offdressing-gown that the gentleman gave me. In that dressing-gown I went back to my brother, and he said: ‘What are you hanging about here for, doing nothing? can’t you set to and learn something, if it’s only singing—you might get to be choir-master in time.’ So I began to study singing, and then my brother got tired of hearing me. ‘Confound it all!’ he said, ‘I’m sick of this; go home to father.’ Well, then I went home. Of course my people abused me:—‘Always hanging about in the way! We’ve had enough of this!’ What would you have me do, sir, when I couldn’t get a situation anywhere? I thought one time of going into a monastery; but just then I got a letter from my brother, telling me to come to him. I went, and he said, ‘The prince’s steward wants to start a choir. You must engage yourself as choir-master.’ I asked him how did he suppose I was to do that when I don’t know how to sing myself? But all he would say was: ‘Don’t be afraid! you’ll learn in teaching your class.’ So I took the post. They gave me a tuning-fork——”
“May I ask,” interrupted the gentleman, “whether you were attired in the dressing-gown?”...
“No, in my mother’s cloak; the dressing-gown was worn out.... It was a short cloak, ... home-made....”
“Well, and how did you get on?”
“Very well. There was quite a fair choir. My brother sang tenor; Ivàn Alexèyich (at the present moment a teacher of patrology and hermeneutics) bass; then there were a few more volunteers. We got perfect in ‘Kol Slàven,’[25]and two sort of ... a ... choral part-songs, ‘Vzỳde’ and’ Polozhìl yesi.’ The steward was quite surprised at us; he was a critic in musical matters; and he wrote a letter to Moscow, to the prince, about a salary for the choir-master. Meanwhile we began to practice: ‘Kto Bog?’ and ‘Kheruvìmskaya Razòrennaya’[26].... All of asudden the prince wrote back, ‘I don’t want a choir; I am going away for my health.’...
“So after that I got appointed at the village school at Bezzùbov. The people there are very poor; many of the peasants used to sleep in their ovens in winter-time. One day the priest came into a cottage to bless the household; he looked round, and there was no one there, so he began to sing thetropar.[27]Suddenly the people crawled out from the oven and came up to kiss the crucifix.... A good many of my pupils went about begging. For all that, though, a great gentleman from St. Petersburg passed through our village, and he said the people were not averse to education—really.”
“Do you mean that ironically?” asked the master of the house.
“Oh dear no!”
“Of course, even a poor man may desire education; just take the case of Lomonòsov: he was a peasant and became an academician.”
“Exactly so.”
“Well, what else did the great gentleman from St. Petersburg remark?”
“He said that it would be a good thing for our administration to introduce a uniform for the scholars.”
“A capital idea!” exclaimed the master of the house; “there ought to be discipline in a school. Without discipline no institution can exist. H’m.... What subjects were taught in your school?”
“We used the New Testament in the Russian and Slavonic tongues, a hundred and four selections from the Old and New Testaments, the ‘Elements of Christian Doctrine,’ ‘Examples of Piety,’ and the Breviary, for the children to learn by heart; the first hour’s division[28]of theThirty-third Psalm, and the Book of Six Psalms, with ‘All that has breath.’”...
“Is that all?”
“No, we had a library, containing the following books:
“Selected Passages from Schreck’s ‘Universal History.’”“The Programme for Acceptance into the Military Service.”“Food for the Mind and Heart.”The Psalter, without red lettering.The Breviary, with red lettering.A work of Glinka, entitled, “Hurrah.”“The Life of St. Prokopius the Natural.”“Reader for the People.”“Domestic Conversations.”“The Clever Reader.”
“Selected Passages from Schreck’s ‘Universal History.’”“The Programme for Acceptance into the Military Service.”“Food for the Mind and Heart.”The Psalter, without red lettering.The Breviary, with red lettering.A work of Glinka, entitled, “Hurrah.”“The Life of St. Prokopius the Natural.”“Reader for the People.”“Domestic Conversations.”“The Clever Reader.”
“Selected Passages from Schreck’s ‘Universal History.’”“The Programme for Acceptance into the Military Service.”“Food for the Mind and Heart.”The Psalter, without red lettering.The Breviary, with red lettering.A work of Glinka, entitled, “Hurrah.”“The Life of St. Prokopius the Natural.”“Reader for the People.”“Domestic Conversations.”“The Clever Reader.”
“Selected Passages from Schreck’s ‘Universal History.’”
“The Programme for Acceptance into the Military Service.”
“Food for the Mind and Heart.”
The Psalter, without red lettering.
The Breviary, with red lettering.
A work of Glinka, entitled, “Hurrah.”
“The Life of St. Prokopius the Natural.”
“Reader for the People.”
“Domestic Conversations.”
“The Clever Reader.”
And a few others.”
“The books are good,” remarked the gentleman; “I’ll order ‘Domestic Conversation’ and the ‘Clever Reader’ myself. How long did you retain your post?”
“Eight years. I received no rise in my salary for the whole time. One day the inspector came, and he asked me, ‘How long have you been teaching here?’ ‘Eight years,’ said I. ‘Has your salary been raised?’ ‘No,’ said I; ‘I receive the minimum salary.’ ‘Why is that?’ ‘I don’t know.’ Then he turned to the chief of the district and said, ‘The teacher is to receive a rise in his salary.’ The inspector observed, too, that the school-house garden was neglected, and ordered it to be put to rights, saying, ‘that it would then have a favourable moral influence on the minds of the scholars, who would, in time, become agriculturists.’”
“I agree with him. The bad tendencies must be restrained in these people from the very tenderest years.”
“The inspector ordered flowers to be planted in the garden——”
“H’m, in my opinion that is superfluous. He should have had birch trees planted; that would have influenced the pupils more favourably.”
“There were birch trees already——”
“Ah! Birch trees are as valuable as the ‘Clever Reader’ and ‘Domestic Conversations.’ Are you married?”
“I SHOULD HAVE LIKED TO MARRY.”
“I SHOULD HAVE LIKED TO MARRY.”
“I SHOULD HAVE LIKED TO MARRY.”
“I should have liked to marry, but I was afraid to. The parish clerk of Ogoùrtzov offered me his sister-in-law in marriage. I knew her—she was a first-rate girl. I went to see her.”
“Was she clever?”
“A-a! Really, sir, I don’t know whether she was clever or not.”
“But you talked with her?”
“Oh yes, of course! I said, ‘We are acquaintances, Olga Mìtrevna.’”
“Oh yes,” she said, “I am quite aware of that.”
“I have been brought here,” said I, “to ask you in marriage.”
“Indeed!” said she.
“Do you know where I have seen you? At a christening at Ogoùrtzov,” said I, and she answered—
“Yes, I remember. And you are from Khmièlnoye?”
“Yes,” said I.
“Ah! the scenery is pretty round there.”
“And that was about all her cleverness!... Her father kept on begging me to marry quickly, because a man can’t live properly without some one to keep his house. ‘We shall get on much better together,’ she used to say.... So we stayed up till dawn, singing and dancing.”
“Sacred songs?”
“No, sir, various—sacred and secular.”
“Well, and did your betrothed sing?”
“No; afterwards, when I left her—she sang that romance—you know—
‘’Twas my fault for thus betrayingAll too soon my love to thee;Now thou hast beheld my weakness,Ah! thou hast forsaken me.’”
‘’Twas my fault for thus betrayingAll too soon my love to thee;Now thou hast beheld my weakness,Ah! thou hast forsaken me.’”
‘’Twas my fault for thus betrayingAll too soon my love to thee;Now thou hast beheld my weakness,Ah! thou hast forsaken me.’”
‘’Twas my fault for thus betraying
All too soon my love to thee;
Now thou hast beheld my weakness,
Ah! thou hast forsaken me.’”
“That’s to say, you jilted her?”
“I don’t know—anyway, I hadn’t anything to keep her on.”
“H’m—so you say the school burned down?”
“To the ground.”
“And are all the books and things burnt too?”
“No; they were saved. The fire was in the day-time, and our people had time to get the books out.”
“That’s good. So I suppose it will soon be built again, and you can go on being teacher?”
“I don’t wish to take that work.”
“Why not?”
“I’m sick of it! You wouldn’t believe me, I’ve often thought of putting an end to myself.”
“So you prefer to be a clerk?”
“Yes, sir.”
“H’m’m—I am sorry that I can’t help you; it’s true that I’ve just dismissed my clerk, but I don’t want another. You see, in these times one must look after everything oneself. I do all my accounts myself. Now, I have a vacancy for a bailiff, but you wouldn’t care for that ... the salary is so small ... three roubles a month.”
“That is very little,” said the teacher.
“There you see! and I don’t want a clerk. Besides, I can’t understand why you don’t wish to be a teacher.”
“I can’t stand it, indeed I can’t!”
“It’s true that the root of learning is bitter, but, you see, the fruits are sweet.... No, I would advise you to disseminate instruction among the people.... At the present time, when education has become a positive necessity, we ought all of us to assist in the work, to the limit of our powers. For my part, I am quite willing to do what I can. I will make a donation of books to your school. Here! Aliòshka! Fetch the hamper that stands under the ante-room sofa.”
The footman brought in a hamper of books, gnawed all over by rats.
“THE FORMER TEACHER, IT IS SAID, HAD HANGED HIMSELF.”
“THE FORMER TEACHER, IT IS SAID, HAD HANGED HIMSELF.”
“THE FORMER TEACHER, IT IS SAID, HAD HANGED HIMSELF.”
“Now,” said the gentleman, “here’s a book for you; ‘Nature’s Vengeance,’ a capital book; I’ve forgotten what it’s about. Ah! and here ... ‘The Oath, taken at the Holy Sepulchre.’... In fact, you can have the whole lot. When your new school is built, kindly range all these works in your library with an inscription: ‘Presented by Mr. Yàkov Antònovich Svinooùkhov,[29]the squire of Prokhòrovka.’ Posterity will remember me.... I am very glad that fortune brought you here, otherwise my books would have lain by uselessly, but now they will do good; and not to one generation only, but to future ages.... Hi! Aliòshka. Tell the man to harness a horse and conduct these books and the schoolmaster with them to the village of Bezzùbov.”
Two months later the new school was built. The educational library had been enriched by the following works, the gift of Mr. Svinooùkhov:—
“The Correspondence of the Nobility of Hell.”“Hunting with the Hounds.”“The Russian Theatre.”“Nature’s Vengeance.”“The Works of Bulgarin.”“Political and Moral Fables.”“The Moscow Gazette.”“A New Latin Alphabet.”“Words to Scholars, Concerning the Attributes of True Wisdom.”“A Guide to Didactics.”“A Short Dissertation upon the Rules of True Wisdom.”
“The Correspondence of the Nobility of Hell.”“Hunting with the Hounds.”“The Russian Theatre.”“Nature’s Vengeance.”“The Works of Bulgarin.”“Political and Moral Fables.”“The Moscow Gazette.”“A New Latin Alphabet.”“Words to Scholars, Concerning the Attributes of True Wisdom.”“A Guide to Didactics.”“A Short Dissertation upon the Rules of True Wisdom.”
“The Correspondence of the Nobility of Hell.”“Hunting with the Hounds.”“The Russian Theatre.”“Nature’s Vengeance.”“The Works of Bulgarin.”“Political and Moral Fables.”“The Moscow Gazette.”“A New Latin Alphabet.”“Words to Scholars, Concerning the Attributes of True Wisdom.”“A Guide to Didactics.”“A Short Dissertation upon the Rules of True Wisdom.”
“The Correspondence of the Nobility of Hell.”
“Hunting with the Hounds.”
“The Russian Theatre.”
“Nature’s Vengeance.”
“The Works of Bulgarin.”
“Political and Moral Fables.”
“The Moscow Gazette.”
“A New Latin Alphabet.”
“Words to Scholars, Concerning the Attributes of True Wisdom.”
“A Guide to Didactics.”
“A Short Dissertation upon the Rules of True Wisdom.”
&c., &c.
Nothing was wanting, except a teacher. The former teacher, it is said, had hanged himself.