Twilight had set in when we reached home. Mamma sat down to the piano, and we to a table, there to paint and draw in colours and pencil. Though I had only one cake of colour, and it was blue, I determined to draw a picture of the hunt. In exceedingly vivid fashion I painted a blue boy on a blue horse, and--but here I stopped, for I was uncertain whether it was possible also to paint a blue HARE. I ran to the study to consult Papa, and as he was busy reading he never lifted his eyes from his book when I asked, "Can there be blue hares?" but at once replied, "There can, my boy, there can." Returning to the table I painted in my blue hare, but subsequently thought it better to change it into a blue bush. Yet the blue bush did not wholly please me, so I changed it into a tree, and then into a rick, until, the whole paper having now become one blur of blue, I tore it angrily in pieces, and went off to meditate in the large arm-chair.
Mamma was playing Field's second concerto. Field, it may be said, had been her master. As I dozed, the music brought up before my imagination a kind of luminosity, with transparent dream-shapes. Next she played the "Sonate Pathetique" of Beethoven, and I at once felt heavy, depressed, and apprehensive. Mamma often played those two pieces, and therefore I well recollect the feelings they awakened in me. Those feelings were a reminiscence--of what? Somehow I seemed to remember something which had never been.
Opposite to me lay the study door, and presently I saw Jakoff enter it, accompanied by several long-bearded men in kaftans. Then the door shut again.
"Now they are going to begin some business or other," I thought. I believed the affairs transacted in that study to be the most important ones on earth. This opinion was confirmed by the fact that people only approached the door of that room on tiptoe and speaking in whispers. Presently Papa's resonant voice sounded within, and I also scented cigar smoke--always a very attractive thing to me. Next, as I dozed, I suddenly heard a creaking of boots that I knew, and, sure enough, saw Karl Ivanitch go on tiptoe, and with a depressed, but resolute, expression on his face and a written document in his hand, to the study door and knock softly. It opened, and then shut again behind him.
"I hope nothing is going to happen," I mused. "Karl Ivanitch is offended, and might be capable of anything--" and again I dozed off.
Nevertheless something DID happen. An hour later I was disturbed by the same creaking of boots, and saw Karl come out, and disappear up the stairs, wiping away a few tears from his cheeks with his pocket handkerchief as he went and muttering something between his teeth. Papa came out behind him and turned aside into the drawing-room.
"Do you know what I have just decided to do?" he asked gaily as he laid a hand upon Mamma's shoulder.
"What, my love?"
"To take Karl Ivanitch with the children. There will be room enough for him in the carriage. They are used to him, and he seems greatly attached to them. Seven hundred roubles a year cannot make much difference to us, and the poor devil is not at all a bad sort of a fellow." I could not understand why Papa should speak of him so disrespectfully.
"I am delighted," said Mamma, "and as much for the children's sake as his own. He is a worthy old man."
"I wish you could have seen how moved he was when I told him that he might look upon the 500 roubles as a present! But the most amusing thing of all is this bill which he has just handed me. It is worth seeing," and with a smile Papa gave Mamma a paper inscribed in Karl's handwriting. "Is it not capital? " he concluded.
The contents of the paper were as follows: [The joke of this bill consists chiefly in its being written in very bad Russian, with continual mistakes as to plural and singular, prepositions and so forth.]
"Two book for the children--70 copeck. Coloured paper, gold frames, and a pop-guns, blockheads [This word has a double meaning in Russian.] for cutting out several box for presents--6 roubles, 55 copecks. Several book and a bows, presents for the childrens--8 roubles, 16 copecks. A gold watches promised to me by Peter Alexandrovitch out of Moscow, in the years 18-- for 140 roubles. Consequently Karl Mayer have to receive 139 rouble, 79 copecks, beside his wage."
If people were to judge only by this bill (in which Karl Ivanitch demanded repayment of all the money he had spent on presents, as well as the value of a present promised to himself), they would take him to have been a callous, avaricious egotist yet they would be wrong.
It appears that he had entered the study with the paper in his hand and a set speech in his head, for the purpose of declaiming eloquently to Papa on the subject of the wrongs which he believed himself to have suffered in our house, but that, as soon as ever he began to speak in the vibratory voice and with the expressive intonations which he used in dictating to us, his eloquence wrought upon himself more than upon Papa; with the result that, when he came to the point where he had to say, "however sad it will be for me to part with the children," he lost his self- command utterly, his articulation became choked, and he was obliged to draw his coloured pocket-handkerchief from his pocket.
"Yes, Peter Alexandrovitch," he said, weeping (this formed no part of the prepared speech), "I am grown so used to the children that I cannot think what I should do without them. I would rather serve you without salary than not at all," and with one hand he wiped his eyes, while with the other he presented the bill.
Although I am convinced that at that moment Karl Ivanitch was speaking with absolute sincerity (for I know how good his heart was), I confess that never to this day have I been able quite to reconcile his words with the bill.
"Well, if the idea of leaving us grieves you, you may be sure that the idea of dismissing you grieves me equally," said Papa, tapping him on the shoulder. Then, after a pause, he added, "But I have changed my mind, and you shall not leave us."
Just before supper Grisha entered the room. Ever since he had entered the house that day he had never ceased to sigh and weep--a portent, according to those who believed in his prophetic powers, that misfortune was impending for the household. He had now come to take leave of us, for to-morrow (so he said) he must be moving on. I nudged Woloda, and we moved towards the door.
"What is the matter?" he said.
"This--that if we want to see Grisha's chains we must go upstairs at once to the men-servants' rooms. Grisha is to sleep in the second one, so we can sit in the store-room and see everything."
"All right. Wait here, and I'll tell the girls."
The girls came at once, and we ascended the stairs, though the question as to which of us should first enter the store-room gave us some little trouble. Then we cowered down and waited.
我们到家的时候，已经暮色苍茫了。妈妈在钢琴旁边坐下，而我们这群孩子则拿来纸、笔和颜料，坐在圆桌旁边画图画。我只有蓝颜料，虽然如此，可是我还是想描绘打猎的情景。我栩栩如生的画了个骑着蓝马、穿着蓝衣眼的男孩和一群蓝狗，我拿不准是不是可以画一只蓝兔子，于是跑到爸爸的书房里去商量。爸爸正在看书。他听我问“是不是有蓝兔子？”连头也没抬，就回答说：“有，亲爱的，有。”我回到圆桌旁边，画了只蓝兔子，以后又改画成一棵树，又把村改画成一个大干草垛，把大干草垛改画成云彩，结果整张纸被蓝颜料抹得一塌糊涂，我很不高兴地把画撕碎了，就坐在高背安乐椅上打起瞌睡来。
妈妈在弹她的教师菲尔德的《第二协奏曲》 ① 我在打瞌睡，在我的想像中出现了一些轻快、明朗、晶莹的回忆。她开始弹奏贝多芬的《悲怆奏鸣曲》，于是我回忆起一件令人感伤。压抑的凄惨事情。妈妈常常弹这两支曲子，因此我清清楚楚地记得它们在我心中唤起的情绪。这种情绪很象回忆；但是什么回忆呢？仿佛在追忆一种从未有过的事情。
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①菲尔德（178-1837）：英国著名作曲家。
我对面是书房的门，我看见雅柯夫和另外一些穿着长衣、留着大胡子的人走进去。那扇门随手就关上了。“哦，活动开始了！”我想道。在我看来，世界上再也不可能有比书房里所做的那些事情更为重要的了。由于大家一走到书房门前通常总是悄悄地讲话，踮起脚走路，更加强了我的这种想法；同时从那里传出爸爸响亮的声音和雪茄烟味，不知怎地，雪茄烟味总是非常吸引我。蒙胧中，仆役室里发出的一阵十分熟悉的靴子的咯吱声突然把我惊醒。卡尔·伊凡内手里拿着一些字条，踮着脚，但是却带着忧郁而坚决的神色走到门口，轻轻敲了敲门。让他进去以后，门又砰的关上了。
“但愿别发生什么不幸的事，”我心里想。“卡尔·伊凡内奇很生气：他豁出去了……”
我又蒙胧欲睡了。
不过，并没有发生什么不幸的事情。一点钟以后，我又被那双靴子的咯吱声惊醒。卡尔·伊凡内奇用手帕擦着眼泪（我看见他脸上有泪痕）出了书房，嘴里嘟嚷着什么，走上楼去。爸爸随着他出来，走进客厅。
“你知道，我刚才做了什么决定？”他声调快活地说，把一只手搭在妈妈肩上。
“什么，亲爱的？”
“我把卡尔·伊凡内奇和孩子们一起带走。马车里有地方。他们和他处惯了，他好象真的舍不得他们；一年七百卢布也算不了什么， et puis au fond e’est un tresbon diable ① ”。
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①et puis au fond c’est un tres bon diable：法语“再说，他实在是个很好的家伙。”（diable的意思是“鬼”，因此作者误认为骂卡尔。）
我一点也不了解爸爸为什么妄骂卡尔·伊凡内奇。
“为了孩子们，为了他，我很高兴。”妈妈说，“他是个好老头。”
“你要是看到，当我要把这五百卢布当作礼物收下来的时候，他深受感动的情形就好了……但是我觉得最有意思的是他拿给我的这张帐单。这真该瞧一瞧，”他笑了笑补充说，一边把卡尔·伊凡内奇亲笔这写的字条递给她。“简直妙极了！”
这就是字条的内容：
送给孩了们两根钓鱼竿 七十戈比
彩色纸镶金边、浆糊和木块，糊盒子作礼物用 六卢布五十五弋比
书和弹弓送给孩子们的礼物 八卢布十六弋比
送给尼古拉一条裤子 四卢布
彼得·亚历山德雷奇答应在一八XX年从莫斯科带来一只金表 一百四十
卢布
扣去薪水，卡尔·毛叶尔应得的总额 一百五十九卢布七十九戈比
任何人看到这张字条——上面开列着卡尔·伊凡内奇要求偿还他送礼花费的全部金钱，甚至偿还答应送给他的礼物——就认为卡尔·伊凡内奇只不过是一个冷酷无情、贪得无厌、自私自利的家伙，那就错了。
他手里拿着字条，打好发言的腹稿，一走进书房，就打算口若悬河地对我爸爸说明他在我们家里受到的一切委屈；但是当他开始用他平常让我们默写时那种动人的声音和感伤的腔调讲话时，他的口才在他自己身上发生了最强烈的作用；因此，他一说到“离开孩子们将会使我很伤心”时，他就语无伦次了，他的声音颤．抖起来，他不得不从口袋里掏出那块方格手帕。
“是的，彼得·亚历山德雷奇，”他噙着眼泪说（在他准备好的腹稿上根本没有这些话），“我和孩子们相处惯了，没有他们，我简直不知道怎么办才好。”他又补充说：“我宁愿不拿薪水替您效劳。”然后，他一只手抹眼泪，另一只手把帐单递过去。
卡尔·伊凡内奇当时说的是真心话，这一点我敢肯定，因为我知道他的心肠很好；但是，这张帐单和他的话怎么协调起来，在我始终是个迷。
“如果您觉得伤心，那末和您分开我就更觉得伤心了，”爸爸说，拍拍他的肩膀。“我现在改变主意了。”
晚饭前不久，格里沙走进屋来，从他一走进我们家，他就不断地唉声叹气，哭哭啼啼，按照那些相信他的预言本事的人看来，这是我们家要遭到某种不幸的预兆。他开始了告别了，说明天早晨就要赶路。我对沃洛佳使了个眼色，就走出屋去。
“干什么？”
“如果你愿意看看格里沙的铁链，我们就立刻到搂上男仆们的房间里去。格里沙住第二个房间，我们可以舒舒服服地坐在贮藏室里，一切都看得到。”
“妙极了！你在这儿等着，我去叫姑娘们。”
姑娘们跑来了，于是我们上楼去。我们争论了一番，才决定谁先走进那间阴暗的贮藏室，我们坐下来等待着。