Poor Folk Fyodor Dostoevsky (old books to read .txt) đ
- Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
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I arrived home today in a melancholy mood. Sitting down to the table, I had warmed myself some tea, and was about to drink a second glass of it, when there entered Gorshkov, the poor lodger. Already, this morning, I had noticed that he was hovering around the other lodgers, and also seeming to want to speak to myself. In passing I may say that his circumstances are infinitely worse than my own; for, only think of it, he has a wife and children! Indeed, if I were he, I do not know what I should do. Well, he entered my room, and bowed to me with the pus standing, as usual, in drops on his eyelashes, his feet shuffling about, and his tongue unable, at first, to articulate a word. I motioned him to a chair (it was a dilapidated enough one, but I had no other), and asked him to have a glass of tea. To this he demurredâ âfor quite a long time he demurred, but at length he accepted the offer. Next, he was for drinking the tea without sugar, and renewed his excuses, but upon the sugar I insisted. After long resistance and many refusals, he did consent to take some, but only the smallest possible lump; after which, he assured me that his tea was perfectly sweet. To what depths of humility can poverty reduce a man! âWell, what is it, my good sir?â I inquired of him; whereupon he replied: âIt is this, Makar Alexievitch. You have once before been my benefactor. Pray again show me the charity of God, and assist my unfortunate family. My wife and children have nothing to eat. To think that a father should have to say this!â I was about to speak again when he interrupted me. âYou see,â he continued, âI am afraid of the other lodgers here. That is to say, I am not so much afraid of, as ashamed to address them, for they are a proud, conceited lot of men. Nor would I have troubled even you, my friend and former benefactor, were it not that I know that you yourself have experienced misfortune and are in debt; wherefore, I have ventured to come and make this request of you, in that I know you not only to be kindhearted, but also to be in need, and for that reason the more likely to sympathise with me in my distress.â To this he added an apology for his awkwardness and presumption. I replied that, glad though I should have been to serve him, I had nothing, absolutely nothing, at my disposal. âAh, Makar Alexievitch,â he went on, âsurely it is not much that I am asking of you? My-my wife and children are starving. C-could you not afford me just a grivennik?â At that my heart contracted, âHow these people put me to shame!â thought I. But I had only twenty kopecks left, and upon them I had been counting for meeting my most pressing requirements. âNo, good sir, I cannot,â said I. âWell, what you will,â he persisted. âPerhaps ten kopecks?â Well I got out my cashbox, and gave him the twenty. It was a good deed. To think that such poverty should exist! Then I had some further talk with him. âHow is it,â I asked him, âthat, though you are in such straits, you have hired a room at five roubles?â He replied that though, when he engaged the room six months ago, he paid three monthsâ rent in advance, his affairs had subsequently turned out badly, and never righted themselves since. You see, Barbara, he was sued at law by a merchant who had defrauded the Treasury in the matter of a contract. When the fraud was discovered the merchant was prosecuted, but the transactions in which he had engaged involved Gorshkov, although the latter had been guilty only of negligence, want of prudence, and culpable indifference to the Treasuryâs interests. True, the affair had taken place some years ago,
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