I ... Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov
II ... I got rid of the first son
III ... Second marriage and second children
IV ... Third son Alyosha
V. Elders

Book two. Inappropriate meeting.
I ... We arrived at the monastery
II. Old jester
III ... Believer women
IV ... Little faithful lady
V ... B at di, b at di
VI ... Why does such a person live!
Vii ... Seminarist-careerist
VIII. Scandal

Book three. Voluptuous.
I. In the footman's
II ... Lizaveta Stinking
III ... Confession of a Warm Heart. In verse
IV ... Confession of a Warm Heart. In jokes
V ... Confession of a Warm Heart. "Heels up"
Vi. Smerdyakov
Vii. Controversa
VIII. For cognac
IX ... Voluptuous
X. Both together
XI ... Another lost reputation

PART TWO.

Book four. Tears.
I ... Father Ferapont
II. Father
III ... I contacted the students
IV. The Khokhlakovs
V ... Tear in the living room
VI ... Tear in the hut
Vii ... And in clean air

Book five. Pro and contra.
I. Collusion
II ... Smerdyakov with a guitar
III ... Brothers meet
IV. Riot
V ... Grand Inquisitor
VI ... Not very clear yet
Vii ... "It's interesting to talk to an intelligent person"

Book six. Russian monk.
I ... Elder Zosima and his guests
II ... From the life in the Bose of the reposed hieroschemamonk Elder Zosima, compiled from his own words by Alexei Fedorovich Karamazov. Biographical information
a) About the young man - the brother of Elder Zosima
b) About Holy Scripture in the life of Father Zosima
c) Recollection of the youth and youth of Elder Zosima while still in the world. Duel
d) Mysterious visitor
III ... From the conversations and teachings of Elder Zosima
e) Something about a Russian monk and its possible meaning
f) Something about masters and servants and whether it is possible for masters and servants to become brothers in spirit mutually
g) About prayer, about love and about contact with other worlds
h) Can you be a judge of your own kind? About faith to the end
i) About hell and hellfire, mystical reasoning

PART THREE.

Book seven. Alyosha.
I ... Corrosive spirit.
II ... Such a minute.
III. Onion.
IV ... Cana of Galilee.

The eighth book. Mitya.
I ... Kuzma Samsonov.
II. Lovely.
III ... Gold mines.
IV. In the dark.
V ... Sudden decision.
Vi. I'm going myself!
Vii ... Former and indisputable.
VIII. Rave.

Book nine. Preliminary investigation.
I ... The beginning of the career of an official Perkhotin.
II. Anxiety.
III ... Walking the soul through ordeals. The first ordeal.
IV ... The second ordeal.
V ... Third ordeal.
VI ... The prosecutor caught Mitya.
Vii ... The great secret of Mitya. Booed.
VIII ... Testimony of witnesses. Child.
IX. They took Mitya away.

PART FOUR

Book ten. Boys.
I ... Kolya Krasotkin.
II. Children.
III. Schoolboy.
IV. The bug.
V ... Ilyushin's bed.
VI ... Early development.
Vii. Ilyusha.

Book eleven. Brother Ivan Fedorovich.
I. At Grushenka's.
II ... Sick leg.
III. Imp.
IV ... Anthem and secret.
V. Not you, not you!
VI ... First meeting with Smerdyakov.
Vii ... Second visit to Smerdyakov.
VIII ... Third and last meeting with Smerdyakov.
IX ... The devil is Ivan Fyodorovich's nightmare.
X ... "It was he who spoke!"

Book twelve. Judgement mistake.
I ... Fatal day.
II ... Dangerous witnesses.
III ... Medical examination and one pound of nuts.
IV ... Happiness smiles at Mitya.
V ... Sudden disaster.
VI ... Prosecutor's speech. Characteristic.
Vii ... Historical overview.
VIII ... Treatise on Smerdyakov.
IX ... Psychology in full swing. The galloping troika. Final speech of the prosecutor.
X ... Defender's speech. A double-edged sword.
XI ... There was no money. There was no robbery.
XII ... And there was no murder.
XIII ... An adulterer of thought.
XIV ... The peasants stood up for themselves.

Epilogue.
I ... Projects to save Mitya.
II ... For a moment, the lie became true.
III ... The funeral of Ilyushechka. Speech by the stone.

NOTES

The second and third parts of the novel were printed with some interruptions. The novel, which was supposed to be finished in 1879, continued to be published in 1880, and until July 1880, not in every book of the magazine, and only from this month to November - without a break.

Constant criticism of stretching one novel over two years, which was seen by the publisher's commercial considerations, prompted Dostoevsky to write the following letter, which was published in the December book of the Russian Bulletin [ This letter is verified against the autograph kept in the Pushkin House and first published by B.L. Modzalevsky in the journal. "Byloe" 1919, No. 15, pp. 114-115. The autograph has minor differences in punctuation from the text of the "Russian Bulletin"]) (pp. 907-908):

LETTER TO THE PUBLISHER OF THE RUSSIAN VESTNIK

Your Majesty
Mikhail Nikiforovich,

At the beginning of this year, starting to publish my novel "The Brothers Karamazov" in the "Russian Bulletin", I remember this, I gave you a firm promise to finish it in the same year. But I counted on my former strengths and on my previous health and was quite convinced that I would keep my promise. Unfortunately for me, it happened differently: I managed to write only a part of my novel, and the end of it was forced to postpone in the next 1880th year. Even now I did not manage to send anything to the Editors for the December book, and I have to postpone the ninth book of my story for the January issue of "Russian Bulletin" next year, while a month ago I confidently promised the Editors to finish this ninth book in December. And instead of her, I am sending you only this letter, which I ask you to convincingly print in your esteemed journal. This letter is a matter of my conscience: Let the accusations for the unfinished novel, if any, fall on me alone, and not touch the Editorial Office of the Russian Bulletin, which if a different accuser could reproach, in this case, extreme delicacy towards me as a writer and constant patient indulgence towards my failing health.

By the way, I take this opportunity to correct one of my mistakes, or rather a simple oversight. I write my novel "The Brothers Karamazov" in "books". The second part of the novel began with the fourth book. When the sixth book was concluded, I forgot to indicate that the second part of the novel ended with this sixth book. Thus, the third part must be counted from the seventh book, and this third part will conclude with the ninth book, which was intended for the December issue of "Russian Bulletin" and which I now promise to send by all means to the January issue of next year. So next year there will be only the fourth and last part of the novel, which I ask you to start publishing with the March (third) book of "Russian Bulletin". I again need this one-month break for the same reason: due to my poor health, although I hope, starting with a March book, I will finish the novel without interruptions.

Dostoevsky fulfilled his promise at the end of the letter only in part. The fourth part began with the April Book, followed by a two-month break. Then the novel began to be published without interruptions. The last part (epilogue) Dostoevsky sent to the magazine on November 8, 1880, and it is included in the November book.

Soon after the end of the novel, Dostoevsky published a separate edition in the magazine, marked the following year 1881.

In a separate edition, the copyright is noticeable. Corrected what was not brought to the end in the magazine proofreading. So the doctor, named in the magazine either Varvetsky (p. 126), then Pervinsky (p. 270), in a separate edition. called Varvinsky. The boy Sibiryakov (p. 218), named at the end of the novel by Kartashov (p. 433), in a separate edition bears this last name everywhere. The age of Kolya and his peers, which was increased by one year during the proofreading process, was not always corrected in the journal text. These remaining uncorrected passages have been corrected in a separate edition.

But besides the work on correcting the proofreadings that remained in the journal, there is a thorough stylistic correction that the last chapter of the Epilogue underwent. This work, reminiscent of the work on Poor People, basically boils down to the destruction of diminutive forms and the elimination of some motives (eg, that children cried; see pages 431 and 432).

[F.M.Dostoevsky] | [ "The Brothers Karamazov" - Table of contents ] | [Milestones Library]
© 2001, Library "Vekhi"

Dedicated to Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

(The Gospel of John, ch. XII, v. 24).

Starting the biography of my hero, Alexei Fedorovich Karamazov, I am in some bewilderment. Namely: although I call Alexey Fyodorovich my hero, I myself know that he is by no means a great man, and therefore I foresee inevitable questions like these: why is your Alexei Fyodorovich so wonderful that you chose him as your hero? What did he do that? To whom and what is known? Why should I, the reader, take the time to study the facts of his life?

The last question is the most fatal, for I can only answer it: "Perhaps you will see it yourself from the novel." Well, if they read the novel and don't see it, won't they agree with the remarkableness of my Alexei Fyodorovich? I say this because I foresee it with sorrow. For me it is remarkable, but I strongly doubt whether I will have time to prove it to the reader. The fact is that this is, perhaps, an activist, but an uncertain, unclear leader. However, it would be strange to demand clarity from people at a time like ours. One thing, perhaps, is quite certain: this is a strange man, even an eccentric. But strangeness and eccentricity rather harm than give the right to attention, especially when everyone strives to unite particulars and find at least some common sense in the general muddle. An eccentric, in most cases, particularity and isolation. Is not it?

Now, if you disagree with this last thesis and answer: “Not so” or “not always so,” then I, perhaps, will be encouraged in spirit about the significance of my hero Alexei Fyodorovich. For not only an eccentric "not always" is particularity and isolation, but on the contrary, it so happens that he, perhaps, sometimes carries the core of the whole in himself, and the rest of the people of his era - everything, by some flowing wind, for a while for some reason they broke away from him ...

However, I would not indulge in these very incurious and vague explanations and would start simply without a preface: if you like it, they will read it like that; But the trouble is that I have one biography, and two novels. The main novel of the second is the activity of my hero in our time, precisely in our present moment. The first novel took place thirteen years ago, and there is almost not even a novel, but only one moment from the first youth of my hero. It is impossible for me to do without this first novel, because much in the second novel would become incomprehensible. But in this way, my initial difficulty is even more complicated: if I, that is, the biographer himself, find that even one novel, perhaps, would be superfluous for such a modest and indefinite hero, then what is it like to appear with two and how to explain such arrogance on my part?

Getting lost in resolving these issues, I decide to bypass them without any permission. Of course, the discerning reader has long guessed that I was inclined towards this from the very beginning, and only annoyed me why I was wasting fruitless words and precious time. To this I will answer exactly: I wasted fruitless words and precious time, firstly, out of politeness, and secondly, out of cunning: after all, they say, I warned you about something in advance. However, I am even glad that my novel has broken by itself into two stories "with the essential unity of the whole": having become acquainted with the first story, the reader will decide for himself: should he start with the second? Of course, no one is bound by anything; you can throw the book and two pages of the first story, so as not to reveal more. But there are such delicate readers who will certainly want to read to the end, so as not to be mistaken in an impartial judgment; such are, for example, all Russian critics. So, in front of such and such, it is still easier for the heart: despite all their accuracy and conscientiousness, I still give them the most legitimate excuse to abandon the story in the first episode of the novel. Well, that's all the preface. I completely agree that it is superfluous, but since it has already been written, let it remain.

And now to the point.

Part one

Book one

The story of a family

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov

Alexey Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of the landowner of our district, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, who was so famous in his time (and even now we still remember him) for his tragic and dark death, which happened exactly thirteen years ago and about which I will report in my place. Now I will say about this "landowner" (as we called him, although he almost never lived on his estate all his life) only that he was a strange type, quite often, however, encountered, it was the type of person not only trashy and depraved, but at the same time stupid - but one of those, however, stupid, who know how to perfectly manage their property affairs, and only, it seems, these are the only ones. Fyodor Pavlovich, for example, started with almost nothing, he was the smallest landowner, he ran to dinner at other people's tables, strove to become a companion, and meanwhile, at the time of his death, he had up to a hundred thousand rubles in pure money. And at the same time, all his life he continued to be one of the most stupid madmen in our entire district. I repeat again: this is not stupidity; most of these madmen are quite clever and cunning - namely, stupidity, and even some special, national one.

He was married twice, and he had three sons: the eldest, Dmitry Fedorovich, from his first wife, and the other two, Ivan and Alexei, from the second. The first wife of Fyodor Pavlovich was from a fairly wealthy and noble family of the Miusov nobles, also landowners of our district. How exactly did it happen that a girl with a dowry, and even beautiful and, moreover, one of the lively clever girls, so frequent in our generation, but who have already appeared in the past, could marry such an insignificant "hunk" as all of him then called, I will not explain too much. After all, I knew a girl, even in the last “romantic” generation, who, after several years of mysterious love for one gentleman, whom, however, she could always marry in the most calm way, ended, however, by thinking of insurmountable obstacles and on a stormy night she threw herself from a high bank, like a cliff, into a rather deep and fast river and died in it decisively from her own whims, solely because of the fact that she looked like Shakespeare's Ophelia, and even so, be this cliff, her favorite and outlined for so long, not so picturesque, and if in its place there was only a prosaic flat coast, then suicide, perhaps, would not have happened at all. This fact is true, and one must think that in our Russian life, in the last two or three generations, a lot of such or similar facts happened to him. Likewise, the act of Adelaida Ivanovna Miusova was undoubtedly an echo of other people's trends and also a captive thought irritation. She, perhaps, wanted to declare female independence, to go against social conditions, against the despotism of her kinship and family, and her obsequious imagination convinced her, for one moment, that Fyodor Pavlovich, despite his rank the most daring and mocking people of that era, transitional to all the best, while he was only an evil fool, and nothing else. It was also piquant that the matter was taken away, and this greatly seduced Adelaida Ivanovna. Fyodor Pavlovich, on the other hand, was very well prepared for all such passages even in his social position, for he passionately wanted to arrange his career at least with anything; it was very tempting to cling to good relatives and take a dowry. As for mutual love, it seems that it did not exist at all - neither on the part of the bride, nor on his part, despite even the beauty of Adelaida Ivanovna. So this incident was, perhaps, the only one of its kind in the life of Fyodor Pavlovich, the most voluptuous man in his entire life, ready in an instant to cling to any skirt, if only it would beckon him. And yet this woman alone did not make any special impression on him from the passionate side.

The work "Boys" is the tenth book of the fourth part of the novel by FM Dostoevsky "". On our site you can read a summary of "Boys" by chapters to prepare for a literature lesson or a reader's diary:

F. M. Dostoevsky "Boy" summary story by chapter:

A high school boy comes to a friend who is dying of a serious illness to make peace with him.

Kolya Krasotkin

The thirty-year-old widow of the provincial secretary Krasotkin lived "with her own capital" in a small, clean house. The husband of this pretty, timid and gentle lady died thirteen years ago. Having married at the age of eighteen, she lived in marriage for only a year, but managed to give birth to a son, Kolya, to whom she devoted "all of herself."

Throughout childhood, the mother trembled over her son, and when the boy entered the gymnasium, "she rushed to study all the sciences with him in order to help him and rehearse lessons with him." They began to tease Kolya with "mama's boy", but his character turned out to be strong, and he managed to defend himself.

Kolya studied well, seeing the respect of his classmates, he did not ascend, behaved friendly and knew how to restrain his character, especially when communicating with elders. Kolya was proud of himself, and even managed to subdue his mother to his will. The widow willingly obeyed her son, but sometimes it seemed to her that the boy was "insensitive" and "loved her little." She was wrong - Kolya loved his mother very much, but could not stand the "calf tenderness".

From time to time, Kolya liked to play pranks - to play crazy and show off. Several books remained from his father in the house, and the boy "read something that he shouldn't have been given to read at his age." This inappropriate reading led to more serious mischief.

One summer, the widow took her son to visit her friend, whose husband was serving at the railway station. There Kolya argued with the local boys that he would lie motionless under a train rushing at full steam.

These fifteen-year-olds turned up their noses too much and at first did not even want to consider him a comrade, as "little", which was already unbearably offensive.

Kolya won the argument, but lost consciousness when the train passed over him, which he confessed some time later to his terrified mother. The news of this "feat" reached the gymnasium, and Kolya's reputation as a "desperate" was finally strengthened.

The boy was even going to be expelled, but the teacher of the Dardanels, who was in love with Mrs. Krasotkina, stood up for him. The grateful widow gave the teacher a little hope for reciprocity, and Kolya began to treat him more respectfully, although he despised Dardanelov for his “feelings”.

Soon after that, Kolya brought the mongrel into the house, called her Chime, locked it in his room, did not show it to anyone, and diligently taught all sorts of tricks.

Kids

It was frosty November. It was a day off. Kolya wanted to go out "on one very important matter," but he could not, since everyone left the house, and he stayed to look after the children - his brother and sister - whom he loved very much and called "bubbles."

The children belonged to the Krasotkin's neighbor, the wife of a doctor who had abandoned the family. The doctor's maid was about to give birth, and both ladies took her to the midwife, while Agafya, who served the Krasotkin, stayed at the bazaar.

The boy was greatly amused by the reasoning of the "bubbles" about where children come from. Brother and sister were afraid to be alone at home, and Kolya had to entertain them - show them a toy cannon that can shoot, and make Chimes do all sorts of tricks. Finally, Agafya returned, and Kolya departed on his important business, taking Chime with him.

Pupils

Kolya met with the eleven-year-old boy Smurov, the son of a well-to-do official, who was two grades younger than Krasotkin. Smurov's parents forbade their son to hang out with the "desperate naughty" Krasotkin, so the boys talked secretly.

The schoolchildren went to their friend Ilyusha Snegirev, who was seriously ill and did not get out of bed anymore. Alexey Karamazov persuaded the guys to visit Ilyusha to brighten up his last days.

Kolya was surprised that Karamazov was busy with the baby when there was trouble in his own family - they would soon be tried for the paricide of his older brother. For Krasotkin, Alexey was a mysterious person, and the boy dreamed of meeting him.

The boys walked through the marketplace. Kolya announced to Smurov that he had become a socialist and a supporter of universal equality, then he spoke about the early frost, to which people were not yet accustomed. People have a habit of everything, in everything, even in state and political relations. Habit is the main driver.

On the way, Kolya started talking and bullying with peasants and merchants, declaring that he loved to "talk to the people." He even managed to make a small scandal from scratch and confuse the young guy-clerk.

Approaching the house of captain Snegirev, Kolya ordered Smurov to call Karamazov, wishing first to "sniff" with him.

Bug

Kolya was anxiously waiting for Karamazov - "there was something in all the stories he heard about Alyosha sympathetic and enticing." The boy decided not to lose face, to show his independence, but he was afraid that because of his small stature, Karamazov would not accept him as an equal.

Alyosha was glad to see Kolya. In his delirium, Ilyusha often remembered his friend and suffered very much that he did not come. Kolya told Karamazov how they met. Krasotkin noticed Ilyusha when he went to the preparatory class. Classmates teased the weak boy, but he did not obey and tried to fight back. Kolya liked this rebellious pride, and he took Ilyusha under his protection.

Soon Krasotkin noticed that the boy was too attached to him. Being the enemy of "any calf tenderness", Kolya began to treat Ilyusha more and more coldly in order to "train the character" of the baby.

Once Kolya found out that the footman of the Karamazovs had taught Ilyusha a "brutal joke" - to wrap a pin in a bread crumb and feed this "treat" to a hungry dog. The pin was swallowed by a homeless bug. Ilyusha was sure that the dog had died, and he suffered a lot. Kolya decided to take advantage of Ilyushin's remorse and, for educational purposes, declared that he no longer spoke to him.

Kolya intended to "forgive" Ilyusha in a few days, but his classmates, seeing that he had lost the protection of the elder, again began calling Ilyusha's father a "washcloth." During one of these "battles" the baby was severely beaten. Kolya, who was present at this, wanted to intercede for him, but it seemed to Ilyusha that his former friend and patron was also laughing at him, and he poked Krasotkin in the thigh with a penknife. On the same day, the excited Ilyusha bit Alyosha on the finger. Then the baby lay down. Kolya was very sorry that he had not yet come to visit him, but he had his own reasons for that.

Ilyusha decided that God had punished him with illness for killing Bugs. Snegiryov and the guys searched the whole city, but the dog was never found. Everyone hoped that Kolya would find the bug, but he said that he was not going to do it.

Before entering Ilyusha's, Kolya asked Karamazov what the boy's father, staff captain Snegirev, was. In the city he was considered a jester.

There are people who feel deeply, but somehow crushed. Their foolishness is like a malicious irony on those to whom they dare not tell the truth to their eyes because of their long-term humiliating shyness before them.

Snegirev adored his son. Alyosha was afraid that after the death of Ilyusha Snegiryov would go mad or "take his own life" out of grief.

Proud Kolya was afraid that the guys told Karamazov fables about him. For example, they said that during recess he was playing "Cossack-robbers" with the kids. But Alyosha did not see anything bad in this, considering the game "an incipient need for art in a young soul." The calmed Kolya promised to show Ilyusha some kind of "performance".

Ilyushin's bed

The small and poor room of the Snegirevs was full of children from the gymnasium. Alexey unobtrusively, one by one, brought them together with Ilyusha, hoping to alleviate the boy's suffering. He could not approach only the independent Krasotkin, who told Smurov, who was sent to him, that he had “his own calculation,” and he himself knows when to go to the patient.

Ilyusha was lying in bed under the images, next to him sat his legless sister and the "crazy mother" - a half-crazy woman, whose behavior resembled a child. Since Ilyusha fell ill, the captain almost stopped drinking and even my mother became silent and pensive.

Snegirev tried in every possible way to amuse his son. From time to time he ran out into the passage and "began to sob some kind of flooded, shaking cry." Both Snegirev and mamma rejoiced when their home was filled with children's laughter.

Recently, a wealthy merchant's wife Katerina Ivanovna began to help the Snegirev family. She gave money and paid for the doctor's regular visits, and the captain “forgot his old ambition and humbly accepted alms”. So today the famous doctor from Moscow was expected, whom Katerina Ivanovna asked to see Ilyusha.

Kolya was amazed at how Ilyusha had changed in just two months.

He could not even imagine that he would see such a thin and yellowed face, such burning in the feverish heat and seemingly terribly enlarged eyes, such thin hands.

Sitting down on his friend's bed, Kolya mercilessly reminded him of the lost bug, not noticing that Alyosha was shaking his head negatively. Then Smurov opened the door, Kolya whistled, and Chime ran into the room, in which Ilyusha recognized the Beetle.

Kolya told how he had been looking for the dog for several days, and then he locked it up and taught it various tricks. That is why he did not come to Ilyusha for so long. Krasotkin did not understand how such a shock could have a devastating effect on the sick boy, otherwise he would not have thrown out "such a thing." Probably only Alexei understood that it was dangerous to disturb the patient, everyone else was happy that the Beetle was alive.

Kolya made a chime ring to show all the tricks he had learned, and then handed Ilyusha a gun and a book, which he exchanged with a classmate especially for a friend. Mamma liked the cannon very much, and Ilyusha generously gave her the toy. Then Kolya told the patient all the news, including the story that happened to him recently.

Walking along the market square, Kolya saw a herd of geese and knocked one stupid guy to check whether the wheel of the cart would cut a goose neck. Goose, of course, died, and the instigators got to the magistrate. He decided that the goose would go to the guy who would pay the ruble to the owner of the bird. The judge released Kolya, threatening to report to the head of the gymnasium.

Then an important Moscow doctor arrived, and the guests had to leave the room for a while.

Early development

Krasotkin got the opportunity to talk with Alexei Karamazov in private, in the entryway. In an effort to appear adult and educated, the boy laid out his thoughts about God, Voltaire, Belinsky, socialism, medicine, the place of women in modern society and other things. Thirteen-year-old Kolya believed that God was needed "for world order", Voltaire did not believe in God, but "loved humanity", Christ, if he lived now, would certainly join the revolutionaries, and "a woman is a subordinate being and must obey."

After listening to Kolya very seriously, Alyosha was amazed at his early development. It turned out that Krasotkin hadn't really read either Voltaire and Belinsky, or "forbidden literature", except for the only issue of the Kolokol magazine, but he had a firm opinion about everything. In his head there was a real "mess" of not read, read too early and completely incomprehensible.

Alyosha felt sad that this young man, who had not yet begun to live, was already perverted by "all this rude nonsense" and was too proud, however, like all Russian gymnasium students, whose main feature is "no knowledge and selfless conceit."

Show <…> to the Russian schoolchild the map of the starry sky, about which he until then had no idea, and tomorrow he will return this map to you corrected.

Alyosha believed that Kolya would improve communication with people like the Snegirevs. Kolya told Karamazov how his painful pride sometimes tormented him. Sometimes the boy thinks that the whole world is laughing at him, and in response he himself begins to torment those around him, especially his mother.

Alyosha noted that “the devil incarnated in this vanity and climbed into the whole generation,” and advised Kolya not to be like everyone else, especially since he is still capable of self-condemnation. He foresaw a difficult but blessed life for Kolya. Krasotkin was delighted with Karamazov, especially the fact that he spoke to him as an equal, and hoped for a long friendship.

Ilyusha

While Kolya and Karamazov were talking, the metropolitan doctor examined Ilyusha, his sister, mamma and went out into the hallway. Krasotkin heard the doctor say that now nothing depends on him, but Ilyusha's life can be extended if he is taken to Italy for at least a year. Not in the least embarrassed by the poverty surrounding him, the doctor advised Snegirev to take his daughter to the Caucasus, and his wife to a Paris psychiatric clinic.

Kolya was so angry at the speech of the arrogant doctor that he spoke rudely to him and called him a "doctor." Alyosha had to shout at Krasotkin. The doctor stamped his feet in anger and drove away, while the captain "shook with silent sobs."

Clutching his head with both fists, he began to sob, somehow absurdly squealing, holding himself with all his might, however, so as not to hear his screeching in the hut.

Ilyusha guessed what sentence the doctor had pronounced on him. After his death, he asked his father to take another boy for himself, and Kolya to come with Chime to his grave. Then the dying boy hugged Kolya and his father tightly.

Unable to bear it, Krasotkin hastily said goodbye, jumped out into the hallway and burst into tears. Alyosha, who caught him there, took from the boy a promise to come to Ilyusha as often as possible.

You have read a summary of "Boys" by Dostoevsky from the novel "The Brothers Karamazov".

I. Kolya Krasotkin

November at the beginning. We had a frost of degrees at eleven degrees, and with it ice covered. A little dry snow fell on the frozen ground in the night, and the "dry and sharp" wind picks it up and sweeps it along the boring streets of our town and especially along the market square. The morning is cloudy, but the snow has stopped. Not far from the square, near the Plotnikovs' shop, there is a small one. very clean and inside and outside the house of the widow of the official Krasotkina. The provincial secretary Krasotkin himself died a very long time ago, almost fourteen years ago, but his widow. Thirty-year-old and still very pretty lady, she is alive and lives in her clean house "with her own capital." She lives honestly and timidly, of a gentle character, but rather cheerful. She remained after her eighteen-year-old husband, having lived with him for only about a year and had just given birth to his son. Since then, since his death, she devoted all of herself to the upbringing of this little cheek of hers - the boy Kolya, and although she loved him all fourteen years without memory, she certainly endured incomparably more suffering with him than she survived the joys, trembling and dying of fear almost every day that he gets sick, catches a cold, gets pissed off, climbs into a chair and falls down, etc., and so on. When Kolya began to go to school and then to our gymnasium, his mother rushed to study all the sciences with him in order to help him and rehearse lessons with him, rushed to get to know the teachers and their wives, even caressed Kolya's schoolchildren, and them, so that they do not touch Kolya, do not mock him, do not beat him. She brought it to the point that the boys really began to mock him through her and began to tease him that he was a mama's son. But the boy managed to defend himself. He was a brave boy, "terribly strong," as word of him spread through the class, and was soon established, he was dexterous, of a stubborn character, a daring and enterprising spirit. He studied well, and there was even a rumor that he would knock the teacher Dardanelov himself from arithmetic and from world history. But the boy, although he looked down on everyone, with his nose turned up, was a good friend and did not boast. I took the respect of schoolchildren for granted, but behaved in a friendly manner. Most importantly, he knew when to stop, he knew how to restrain himself on occasion, and in his relations with the authorities he never crossed some last and cherished line, for which an offense can no longer be tolerated, turning into disorder, rebellion and lawlessness. And yet he was very, very much not averse to fooling around at every opportunity, fooling around like the very last boy, and not so much fooling around as doing something to subtle, make some mischief, ask "extrafefer", glamor, show off. Most importantly, he was very proud. Even his mother was able to put subordinates in his relationship, acting on her almost despotically. She obeyed, oh, she had obeyed for a long time, and she just could not bear the mere thought that the boy “loved her a little”. It constantly seemed to her that Kolya was "insensitive" to her, and there were times when she, shedding hysterical tears, began to reproach him for being cold. The boy did not like this, and the more they demanded from him the outpouring of the heart, the more unyielding, as it were, on purpose. But this did not happen on purpose, but involuntarily - such was his character. Mother was mistaken: he loved his mother very much, and did not love only "calf tenderness", as he put it in his school language. After my father, there was a cabinet in which several books were kept; Kolya loved to read and had already read some of them to himself. Mother was not embarrassed by this, and only marveled sometimes how this boy, instead of going to play, stood by the cupboard for whole hours over some book. And so Kolya read something that he would not have been allowed to read at his age. However, lately, although the boy did not like to cross a certain line in his pranks, pranks began that frightened his mother in earnest - true, not some immoral, but desperate, thugs. Just this summer, in the month of July, during the vacations, it happened that mamma and her son went to stay for a week in another county, seventy miles away, to a distant relative whose husband served at the railway station (the very closest from our city station, from which Ivan Fedorovich Karamazov a month later went to Moscow). There, Kolya began by looking at the railway in detail, studying the routines, realizing that he could shine with his new knowledge, returning home, between the schoolchildren of his gymnasium. But there were also a few more boys there, with whom he got in touch: some of them lived at the station, others in the neighborhood - there were six or seven of the young people from twelve to fifteen years old, and two of them happened and from our town. The boys played together, played naughty, and on the fourth or fifth day of the meal at the station, one almost impossible bet of two rubles took place between the stupid youth, namely: Kolya, almost all the youngest, and therefore somewhat despised by the elders, out of pride or out of shameless courage, suggested that at night, when the eleven o'clock train arrived, he would lie face down between the rails and lie motionless while the train swept over him at full steam. True, a preliminary study was made, from which it turned out that it really is possible to stretch out and flatten along between the rails so that the train will of course sweep and not touch the lying one, but nevertheless, what is it like to lie! Kolya stood firm that he would lie down. At first they laughed at him, they called him a liar, a fanfare, but that made him more provoking. The main thing is that these fifteen-year-olds turned their noses too far in front of him and at first did not even want to consider him a comrade, as "little", which was already intolerably offensive. And so it was decided to set off in the evening a mile from the station, so that the train, having left the station, had time to run away completely. The boys gathered. The moonless night has come, not only dark, but almost black. At the proper hour, Kolya lay down between the rails. The five others, betting, with bated breath, and finally in fear and remorse, were waiting at the bottom of the embankment near the road in the bushes. Finally, a train pulled out of the station rang out in the distance. Two red lanterns flashed out of the darkness, and the approaching monster rumbled. "Run, run off the rails!" - Shouted to Kolya from the bushes dying of fear boys, but it was too late: the train galloped and rushed past. The boys rushed to Kolya: he was lying motionless. They began to fiddle with him, began to lift him. He suddenly got up and silently walked off the embankment. Going downstairs, he announced that he deliberately lay as if unconscious in order to frighten them, but the truth was that he really lost his senses, as he himself later admitted, a long time later, to his mother. Thus, the glory of the "desperate" for him was strengthened forever. He returned home to the station, pale as a sheet. The next day he fell ill with a slightly nervous fever, but was terribly cheerful in spirit, glad and contented. The incident was not announced now, but already in our city, penetrated into the gymnasium and reached its superiors. But then Kolya's mother rushed to beg the authorities for her boy and ended up being defended and begged for him by the respected and influential teacher of the Dardanels, and the case was left in vain, as if it had not happened at all. This Dardanelov, a single man and not old, was passionately and for many years in love with Madame Krasotkina, and already once, about a year ago, respectfully and dying with fear and delicacy, he ventured to offer her his hand, but she flatly refused, considering her consent betrayal of his boy, although the Dardanelles, according to some mysterious signs, might even have some right to dream that he is not completely disgusting to the charming, but already too chaste and tender widow. Kolya's crazy prank seems to have broken the ice, and for his intercession, a hint of hope was made to the Dardanelov, though distant, but the Dardanelov himself was a phenomenon of purity and delicacy, and therefore for him even that was enough for the fullness of his happiness. He loved the boy, although he would consider it humiliating to curry favor with him, and treated him strictly and demandingly in classes. But Kolya himself kept him at a respectful distance, prepared his lessons perfectly, was the second pupil in the class, addressed Dardanelov dryly, and the whole class firmly believed that Kolya was so strong in world history that he would "knock down" Dardanelov himself. And indeed Kolya once asked him a question: Who founded Troy? to what the Dardanelov answered only in general about the peoples, their movements and migrations, about the depth of time, about fable, but he could not answer who exactly founded Troy, that is, which persons, and even found the question for some reason idle and untenable ... But the boys remained convinced that the Dardanelles did not know who founded Troy. Kolya, on the other hand, read about the founders of Troy from Smaragdov, who was kept in a cabinet with books, which remained after his parent. In the end, even the boys finally began to be interested in: Who exactly founded Troy, but Krasotkin did not reveal his secret, and the glory of knowledge remained unshakable with him.

After the incident on the railroad, Kolya's relationship to his mother underwent a certain change. When Anna Fedorovna (Krasotkina's widow) found out about her son's feat, she almost went crazy with horror. She had such terrible hysterical fits, which continued intermittently for several days that Kolya, already seriously frightened, gave her an honest and noble word that such pranks would never happen again. He swore on his knees in front of the image and swore in the memory of his father, as Mrs. Krasotkina herself demanded, and the "courageous" Kolya himself burst into tears like a six-year-old boy from "feelings", and mother and son threw themselves into each other's arms all that day and cried shaking ...

The next day Kolya woke up still "insensitive", but became more silent, more modest, stricter, more thoughtful. True, after a month and a half he was again caught in one prank, and his name even became known to our magistrate, but the prank was already in a completely different kind, even funny and stupid, and it was not he himself, as it turned out, who committed it, but just got involved in it. But more on that later. The mother continued to tremble and suffer, and the Dardanelles, as she worried, more and more perceived hope. It should be noted that Kolya understood and deciphered Dardanelov from this side and, of course, deeply despised him for his "feelings"; before he even had the indelicacy to show this contempt before his mother, remotely hinting to her that he understood what the Dardanelles were trying to achieve. But after the incident on the railroad, he changed his behavior on this score: he no longer allowed himself hints, even the most distant ones, and began to speak more respectfully of Dardaneloff in his mother's presence, which the sensitive Anna Fyodorovna immediately understood with boundless gratitude in her heart, but but at the slightest, most inadvertent word even from some stranger about the Dardanelov, if Kolya was at the same time, all of a sudden flushed with shame like a rose. At these moments Kolya either looked frowningly out the window, or looked to see if they were asking for his boots for porridge, or fiercely called "Chime", a shaggy, rather large and lousy dog, which he suddenly acquired from somewhere for a month, dragged it into the house and For some reason he kept a secret in the rooms, not showing her to anyone among his comrades. Tyrannized terribly, teaching her all sorts of things and sciences, and brought the poor dog to the point that she howled without him when he left for classes, and when he came, squealed with delight, galloped like a madman, served, fell to the ground and pretended to be dead and so on, in a word, she showed all the things she had been taught, no longer on demand, but solely from the ardor of her enthusiastic feelings and a grateful heart.

By the way, I forgot to mention that Kolya Krasotkin was the same boy whom the already familiar boy Ilyusha, the son of retired staff captain Snegirev, stabbed in his thigh with a penknife, standing up for his father, whom the schoolchildren teased with a "washcloth."

II. Kids

So, on that frosty and silvery November morning, the boy Kolya Krasotkin was sitting at home. It was Sunday and there were no classes. But already eleven o'clock struck, and he certainly had to leave the yard "on one very important matter," and meanwhile he remained alone in the whole house and decisively as its keeper, because it so happened that all its senior inhabitants, for some reason emergency and original circumstance, absent from the yard. In the house of the widow Krasotkina. through the vestibule from the apartment she herself occupied, another and only apartment in the house of two small rooms for rent was given away, and a doctor's wife with two small children occupied it. This doctor was of the same age as Anna Fedorovna and a great friend of hers, but the doctor himself had already dropped in somewhere for a year, first in Orenburg, and then in Tashkent, and for half a year there was no rumor or spirit from him, so that if it were not for the friendship with Madame Krasotkina, which somewhat softened the grief of the abandoned doctor, she would have decisively burst into tears from this grief. And so it had to happen, to complete all the oppression of fate, that on that very night, from Saturday to Sunday, Katerina, the doctor’s only servant, suddenly and quite unexpectedly for her mistress announced to her that she intended to give birth to a baby by morning. How it happened that no one noticed this in advance was almost a miracle for everyone. The astonished doctor decided, while there was still time, to take Katerina to a midwife's place in our town, adapted for such cases. Since she treasured this servant very much, she immediately completed her project, took her away and, moreover, remained there with her. Then, in the morning, for some reason, all the friendly participation and help of Mrs. Krasotkina herself was needed, who in this case could ask someone for something and provide some kind of patronage. Thus, both ladies were away, while the servant of Madame Krasotkina herself, Baba Agafya, went to the market, and Kolya found himself in this way for a time the keeper and guardian of the "bubbles", that is, the boy and the girl of the doctor who remained alone. Kolya was not afraid to watch the house, besides, there was a Chime with him, who was ordered to lie prone in the hall under the bench "without movement" and ingratiating blows with their tail on the floor, but alas, the inviting whistle was not heard. Kolya looked menacingly at the unfortunate dog, and he again froze in obedient stupor. But if something confused Kolya, then the only "bubbles". Of course, he looked at the accidental adventure with Katerina with the deepest contempt, but he loved the orphaned bubbles very much, and had already taken them some kind of children's book. Nastya, the eldest girl, had already gone to bed at eight, knew how to read, and the youngest bubble, a seven-year-old boy, Kostya, loved to listen when Nastya reads to him. Of course, Krasotkin could have occupied them more interestingly, that is, put both of them next to each other and start playing soldiers with them, or hide all over the house. He had done this more than once before and did not hesitate to do it, so that even in the classroom they had it once that Krasotkin was playing horses with his little tenants at home, jumping by the strap and bending his head, but Krasotkin proudly parried this accusation, pretending that with peers, with thirteen-year-olds, it would really be shameful to play "in our age" in horses, but that he does this for "bubbles" because they are loved, and in his feelings no one dares to ask him for a report ... But both "bubbles" also adored him. But this time there was no time for toys. He had one very important business of his own, and it looked almost even mysterious, meanwhile time was running out, and Agafya, who could have left the children, still did not want to return from the bazaar. He had already crossed the entrance several times, opened the door to the doctor’s and looked anxiously at the “bubbles” that, at his order, were sitting at the book, and every time he opened the door, they silently smiled at him with all their mouths, expecting that he was go in and do something lovely and funny. But Kolya was in mental anxiety and did not enter. Finally it struck eleven, and he firmly and finally decided that if after ten minutes the "damned" Agafya did not return, he would leave the yard without waiting for her, of course, taking the word from the "bubbles" they will scourge and will not cry for fear. In these thoughts, he put on his wadded winter coat with a fur collar made of some kind of cat, hung his bag over his shoulder and, despite the mother's repeated pleas for him, that he should always wear galoshes when he was leaving the yard when it was so cold, only he looked at them with contempt as he passed through the hall and went out wearing only his boots. The chime, seeing him dressed, began to pound his tail vigorously on the floor, nervously twitching his whole body, and even let out a plaintive howl, but Kolya, at the sight of his dog's passionate impetuosity, concluded that this was harmful to discipline, and at least for a minute, he survived him still under the bench, and, having already opened only the door to the vestibule, suddenly whistled him. The dog jumped up like a madman, and rushed to gallop in front of him with delight. Crossing the vestibule, Kolya opened the door to the "bubbles". Both were still sitting at the table, but they were no longer reading, but arguing hotly about something. These children often argued with each other about various provocative everyday subjects, and Nastya, as the eldest, always prevailed; Kostya, if he did not agree with her, then almost always went to appeal to Kolya Krasotkin, and as he decided, it remained in the form of an absolute sentence for all parties. This time Krasotkin was somewhat interested in the dispute of the "bubbles", and he stopped at the door to listen. The children saw that he was listening, and so with even greater passion they continued their bickering.

- Never, never I will believe, - Nastya babbled hotly, - that midwives find little children in the garden between the cabbage beds. Now it is winter, and there are no beds, and grandmother could not bring Katerina a daughter.

- Whew! - Kolya whistled to himself.

- Or like this: they bring it from somewhere, but only to those who get married.

Kostya looked intently at Nastya, listened thoughtfully and thought.

- Nastya, what a fool you are, - he said at last firmly and without getting hot, - what kind of child can Katerina have when she is not married?

Nastya was terribly excited.

“You don’t understand anything,” she interrupted irritably, “maybe she had a husband, but she’s only in prison, and she’s giving birth.

- But does her husband sit in prison? - the positive Kostya inquired importantly.

- Or this is what, - Nastya interrupted swiftly, completely abandoning and forgetting her first hypothesis:

- she does not have a husband, you are right, but she wants to get married, so she began to think about how she would get married, and she kept thinking, thinking everything, and until then she thought that he was not her husband, but a child ...

- Well, really, - agreed completely defeated Kostya, - and you didn't say that before, so how could I know.

- Well, kids, - said Kolya, stepping into their room, - you are dangerous people, I see!

- And Chime with you? - Kostya grinned and began to snap his fingers and call Chime.

“Bubbles, I’m in difficulty,” Krasotkin began importantly, “and you have to help me: Agafya, of course, broke her leg, because she still hasn’t appeared, it has been decided and signed, but I need it from the yard. Will you release me or not?

The children looked at each other anxiously, their grinning faces began to express concern. However, they still did not fully understand what was being sought of them.

- Won't you be naughty without me? Won't you climb on the cupboard or break your legs? Won't you cry with fear alone?

A terrible longing was expressed on the faces of the children.

- And for that I could show you one little thing, a copper cannon, from which you can shoot real gunpowder.

The faces of the children instantly cleared up.

“Show the cannon,” Kostya said, all beaming. Krasotkin reached into his bag and, taking out a small bronze cannon, put it on the table.

- Show me something! Look, on wheels, ”he rolled the toy on the table,“ and you can shoot. Load and shoot with a fraction.

- And will he kill?

“He’ll kill everyone, it’s only worth bringing them in,” and Krasotkin explained where to put the gunpowder, where to roll the pellet, pointed to the hole in the form of a seed and said that there is a rollback. The children listened with great curiosity. They were especially struck by their imagination that there is a rollback.

- Do you have gunpowder? - asked Nastya.

“Show me the gunpowder,” she held out with a pleading smile. Krasotkin again climbed into the bag and took out a small vial, in which a few real gunpowder had indeed been poured, and in the folded piece of paper there were several grains of shot. He even uncorked the bottle and poured a little bit of gunpowder into his palm.

- Here, just there would be no fire, otherwise it will blow up and kill us all, - Krasotkin warned for effect.

The children looked at the gunpowder with awe, which added to the pleasure. But Kostya liked the fraction more.

- And the fraction does not burn? He asked.

- The fraction does not burn.

“Give me some shot,” he said in a pleading voice.

“I’ll give you a little bit, here, take it, but don’t show your mom to me until I come back, otherwise she’ll think it’s gunpowder, and she’ll die of fear, and she’ll flog you.”

- Mom never flogs us with a rod, - Nastya immediately noticed.

- I know, I just said it for the sake of the syllable. And you never deceive mom, but this time - while I come. So bubbles, can I go or not? won't you cry without me from fear?

- For-bl-what, - drawled Kostya, already getting ready to cry.

- We will pay, we will certainly pay! - picked up a timid patter and Nastya.

- Oh children, children, how dangerous your summers are. There is nothing to do, chicks, I have to sit with you, I don’t know how long. And the time is, the time is, wow!

- And order Chime to pretend to be dead, - asked Kostya.

- Yes, there’s nothing to do, we’ll have to resort to the Chime. Ici, Chime! - And Kolya began to command the dog, and she represented everything she knew. It was a shaggy dog, the size of an ordinary mongrel, some kind of gray-lilac hair. Her right eye was crooked, and for some reason her left ear had a slit. She squealed and jumped, served, walked on her hind legs, threw herself on her back with all four paws up and lay motionless as if she were dead. During this last thing the door opened, and Agafya, Madame Krasotkina's fat servant, a pockmarked woman of about forty, appeared on the threshold, returning from the market with a bag of purchased provisions in her hand. She stood and, holding a bag on a plumb line in her left hand, began to look at the dog. Kolya, no matter how he waited for Agafya, did not interrupt the performance and, having withstood the Chime for a certain time dead, finally whistled to him: the dog jumped up and started jumping for joy that it had fulfilled its duty.

- See, dog! Agafya said edifyingly.

- Why are you, female, late? - Krasotkin asked menacingly.

- Female sex, look the pimple!

- A bubble?

- And a pimple. What do you want me to be late, then it’s so necessary, if I’m late, ”Agafya muttered, starting to fiddle around the stove, but not at all in a displeased and not angry voice, but on the contrary, very pleased, as if rejoicing at the opportunity to mumble with a cheerful barchen.

“Listen, you frivolous old woman,” Krasotkin began, getting up from the sofa, “can you swear to me to everything that is holy in this world, and moreover, something else that you will watch the bubbles in my absence tirelessly? I leave the yard.

- Why would I swear to you? - Agafya laughed, - and so I will look after.

- No, not otherwise than by swearing the eternal salvation of your soul. Otherwise I will not leave.

- And don't go. I care, it's frosty outside, stay at home.

- Bubbles, - Kolya turned to the children, - this woman will stay with you until my arrival or until your mother arrives, because she would have to come back long ago. Moreover, it will give you breakfast. Will you give them something, Agafya?

- It's possible.

- Goodbye, chicks, I'm leaving with a calm heart. And you, granny, ”he said in an undertone and importantly, passing by Agafya,“ I hope you will not lie to them your usual woman’s nonsense about Katerina, you will spare your childhood. Ici, Chime!

- And well, you to God, - Agafya snapped back with her heart. - Funny! Flog yourself, that's what I mean, for such words.

III. Schoolboy

But Kolya was no longer listening. Finally, he could leave. Going out the gate, he looked around, shrugged his shoulders and said: "frost!" went straight down the street and then right down the alley to the marketplace. Before reaching the square one house, he stopped at the gate, took a whistle out of his pocket and whistled with all his might, as if giving a conventional sign. He had to wait no more than a minute, when a ruddy boy, about eleven years old, suddenly jumped out of the gate, also dressed in a warm, neat and even dandy coat. It was the boy Smurov, who was in the preparatory class (whereas Kolya Krasotkin was already two grades higher), the son of a well-to-do official, and who, it seems, was not allowed by his parents to hang out with Krasotkin, as with the most famous desperate naughty boy, so Smurov apparently jumped out now furtively ... This Smurov, if the reader has not forgotten, was one of the group of boys who, two months ago, threw stones across the ditch at Ilyusha, and who then told about Ilya to Alyosha Karamazov.

“I've been waiting for you for an hour, Krasotkin,” Smurov said with a resolute air, and the boys walked towards the square.

“Late,” Krasotkin answered. - There are circumstances. They won't whip you that you are with me?

- Well, fullness, do they flog me? And Chime with you?

- And Chime!

- You and him there?

- And him there.

- Oh, if only the Bug!

- No bug. The bug doesn't exist. The bug disappeared into the darkness of the unknown.

- Oh, couldn’t it be so, - Smurov paused suddenly, - after all Ilyusha says that the Bug was also shaggy and also the same gray-haired, smoky, like Chime, - is it possible to say that this is the same Bug, he can be and believe?

- Schoolboy, abhor lies, this time; even for a good deed, two. And most importantly, I hope you did not announce anything about my arrival there.

- God forbid, I understand. But you can't console him with a chime, ”Smurov sighed. - You know what: this father, the captain, a washcloth, told us that today the puppy will bring him, a real Medelyan one, with a black nose; he thinks that this will console Ilya, but hardly?

- And what is he like, Ilyusha?

- Oh, bad, bad! I think he has consumption. He is all in his memory, the only way he breathes, breathes, he does not breathe well. The other day, he asked to be led around, to put on his boots, he was about to go, and he was collapsing. "Oh, he says, I told you, papa, that these were my bad boots, the old ones, and it was awkward to walk in them before." It was he who thought that he was falling off his feet from his boots, but he was simply from weakness. Will not live a week. Herzenstube travels. Now they are rich again, they have a lot of money.

- Rogues.

- Who are the rascals?

- Doctors, and all the medical bastard speaking in general, and of course in particular. I deny medicine. A useless institution. However, I'm researching all this. What kind of sentimentality have you got there, however? You seem to be there as a whole class?

- Not all, but about ten of our people go there, always, every day. It's nothing.

- The role of Alexei Karamazov surprises me in all this: his brother is being tried tomorrow or after tomorrow for such a crime, and he has so much time to be sentimental with the boys!

- There is absolutely no sentimentality here. You yourself are now going to put up with Ilyusha.

- Make peace? Funny expression. However, I do not allow anyone to analyze my actions.

- And how Ilyusha will be glad to you! He does not even imagine that you will come. Why, why didn't you want to go for so long? - suddenly exclaimed with ardor Smurov.

“Dear boy, this is my business, not yours. I walk on my own, because this is my will, and Alexey Karamazov brought you all there, so the difference. And how do you know, I can not put up with going? Silly expression.

- Not at all Karamazov, not at all. It's just that our own people began to go there, of course, first with Karamazov. And there was nothing like that, no nonsense. First one, then another. Father was terribly pleased with us. You know, he'll just go crazy if Ilyusha dies. He sees that Ilyusha will die. And we are so glad that Ilyusha and I made it up. Ilyusha asked about you, added nothing more. He will ask and be silent. And the father will go crazy or hang himself. He had behaved like a madman before. You know, he is a noble man, and then there was a mistake. All this parricide is to blame for beating him then.

- Still, Karamazov is a mystery to me. I could have met him a long time ago, but in other cases I like to be proud. At the same time, I made up some opinion about him, which still needs to be checked and clarified.

Kolya was importantly silent; Smurov too. Smurov, of course, was in awe of Kolya Krasotkin and did not dare to think of equalizing with him. Now he was terribly interested, because Kolya explained that he was walking "by itself," and there was certainly some mystery here that Kolya suddenly decided to go now and precisely today. They walked through the market square, on which this time there were many arriving carts and there were a lot of driven birds. City women traded bagels, thread, and so on under their canopies. Such Sunday conventions are naively called fairs in our town, and there are many such fairs a year. The chime ran in the most cheerful mood of spirit, incessantly evading to the right and to the left somewhere to smell something. Meeting with other dogs, with an extraordinary hunt, he sniffed with them according to all dog rules.

“I love to observe realism, Smurov,” Kolya suddenly spoke up. - Have you noticed how dogs meet and sniff? There is some common law of nature for them.

- Yes, some kind of funny.

- That is, not funny, you are not right. There is nothing funny in nature, no matter how it may seem to a person with his prejudices. If dogs could reason and criticize, they probably would have found as much funny for themselves, if not much more, in the social relations of people, their masters, if not much more; I repeat this because I am firmly convinced that we have much more nonsense. This is Rakitin's thought, a wonderful idea. I am a socialist, Smurov.

- And what is a socialist? Smurov asked.

- If everyone is equal, everyone has one common property, there are no marriages, and religion and all laws are as anyone wants, well, everything else is there. You are not yet mature enough, it is too early for you. It's cold though.

- Yes. Twelve degrees. Just now my father was looking at the thermometer.

“And you noticed, Smurov, that in the middle of winter, if it’s fifteen or even eighteen degrees, it doesn’t seem as cold as, for example, now, at the beginning of winter, when suddenly the frost suddenly hits, as now, at twelve degrees, and even when the snow is not enough. It means people are not used to it yet. People have a habit of everything, in everything, even in state and political relations. Habit is the main driver. What a ridiculous man though.

Kolya pointed to a tall man in a sheepskin coat, with a good-natured face, who patted his palms in mittens from the cold in front of his cart. His long blond beard was frosty with frost.

- The man's beard is frozen! - Kolya shouted loudly and arrogantly as he passed him.

“Many have got cold,” the man replied calmly and sentimentally.

“Don't bully him,” Smurov remarked.

- Nothing, he will not be angry, he is good. Goodbye Matvey.

- Goodbye.

- Are you Matvey?

- Matvey. You didn `t know?

- Did not know; I said at random.

- Look. In schoolchildren, I suppose?

- In schoolchildren.

- Why are you being flogged?

- Not that, but so.

- Painfully?

- Not without that.

- Eh zhist! - the man sighed from the bottom of his heart.

- Goodbye, Matvey.

- Goodbye. You're cute boy, that's what.

“This is a good man,” Kolya spoke to Smurov. - I love to talk to the people and am always glad to give them justice.

- Why did you lie to him that we were being flogged? Smurov asked.

- You should have comforted him!

- What is it?

- You see, Smurov, I don't like being asked again, if they don't understand from the first word. There is no other way to explain it. According to the idea of ​​a peasant, a schoolboy is flogged and should be flogged: what kind of a schoolboy, they say, if he is not flogged? And suddenly I will tell him that they do not flog here, because he will be upset by this. However, you do not understand this. One must speak skillfully with the people.

- Just do not bully, please, otherwise the story will come out again, as then with this goose.

- Are you afraid?

“Don’t laugh, Kolya, by God I’m afraid.” The father will be terribly angry. I am strictly forbidden to go with you.

“Don't worry, nothing will happen this time. Hello, Natasha, - he shouted to one of the merchants under the awning.

“What am I Natasha to you, I’m Marya,” the tradeswoman, who is far from being an old woman, answered loudly.

- It's good that Marya, goodbye.

- Oh, you little shots, you can't see it from the ground, but there too!

“Once, there’s no time for me to be with you, you’ll tell me next Sunday,” Kolya waved his hands, as if she was molesting him, and not he to her.

- What should I tell you on Sunday? I myself became attached, and not I to you, mischievous man, - Marya cried out, - to whip you, that's what, you are a well-known offender, that's what!

Laughter rang out among other merchants who were selling on their stalls next to Marya, when suddenly from under the arcade of city shops, out of the blue, one irritated man in the line of a merchant clerk, and not our merchant, but from visitors, to a long-hemmed blue caftan, in a cap with a visor, still young, in dark-brown curls and with a long, pale, speckled face. He was in some kind of stupid excitement and immediately began to shake Kolya with his fist.

- I know you, - he exclaimed irritably, - I know you!

Kolya looked at him intently. Something he could not remember when he could have some kind of fight with this person. But you never know he had fights on the streets, it was impossible to remember all of them.

- You know? He asked ironically.

- Do I know you! Do I know you! - the tradesman set up like a fool.

- You're better off. Well, I have no time, goodbye!

- Why are you mischievous? - shouted the tradesman. - Are you mischievous again? Do I know you! Are you mischievous again?

“It's not your business now, brother, that I'm being mischievous,” said Kolya, stopping and continuing to examine him.

- How not mine?

- So, not yours.

- Whose is it? Whose is it? Well, whose is it?

- This, brother, is now Trifon Nikitich's business, not yours.

- What kind of Trifon Nikitich? - with stupid surprise, although still hot, the guy stared at Kolya. Kolya measured him with an important glance.

- Did you go to Ascension? He suddenly asked him sternly and insistently.

- What Ascension? What for? No, I didn't, - the guy was taken aback.

- Do you know Sabaneev? - Kolya continued even more insistently and even more strictly.

- What are those Sabaneeva? No, I do not know.

- Well, the devil with you after that! - Kolya suddenly cut off and, turning sharply to the right, quickly walked along the road, as if to speak despisingly with such a fool who does not even know Sabaneeva.

- Wait, hey! What are those Sabaneeva? - the guy came to his senses, all worried again. - What was he talking about? - he suddenly turned to the merchants, looking stupidly at them,

The women laughed.

“Wise boy,” said one.

- What, what kind of Sabaneev is he? The guy repeated frantically, waving his right hand.

- And this is nadot to be Sabaneev, who served with the Kuzmichevs, here's how to be nadot, one woman suddenly guessed. The guy stared at her wildly.

- Kuz-mi-cheva? - said another woman, - but what kind of Trifon is he? That Kuzma, not Trifon, and the boy called Trifon Nikitych, was not him.

“This, you see, is not Trifon and not Sabaneev, this is Chizhov,” a third woman suddenly picked up, hitherto silent and seriously listening, “to call him Alexei Ivanitch. Chizhov, Alexey Ivanovich.

“It’s true that Chizhov,” the fourth woman insistently confirmed.

The stunned guy looked first at one, then at the other.

- But why did he ask, he asked why, good people! He exclaimed, almost in despair:

- "Do you know Sabaneev?" And the devil knows what he is, such is the Sabaneev?

- You are a stupid person, they say, not Sabaneev, but Chizhov, Aleksey Ivanovich Chizhov, that's who! One tradeswoman shouted impressively to him.

- What Chizhov? well, what? Speak if you know.

- And a long, hot-headed letos was sitting at the bazaar.

- And why do I love your Chizhova, good people, eh?

- And how do I know, why are those idiots Chizhova.

“And who knows what you need him for,” the other picked up, “you yourself should know what you need him for, if you’re talking.” After all, he told you, not us, you stupid person. Do you really know al?

- Chizhova.

- And the devil take him Chizhova, together with you! I'll knock him off, that's what! He laughed at me!

- Will you beat off Chizhov? Either he is you! you fool, that's what!

- Not Chizhova, not Chizhova, you are an evil, harmful woman, I will knock the boy off, that's what! Give it, give it here, he laughed at me!

The women laughed. And Kolya was already walking far away with a victorious expression on his face. Smurov walked beside him, looking back at the group screaming in the distance. He, too, had a lot of fun, although he still feared not to get into history with Kolya.

- What did you ask him about Sabaneev? - he asked Kolya, anticipating the answer.

- And how do I know about which one? Now they will have a cry until evening. I love to stir up fools in all walks of life. There is also a boob, this man. Note to yourself, they say: "There is nothing more stupid than a stupid Frenchman," but the Russian physiognomy betrays itself. Well, it’s not written on this face that he’s a fool, that this guy, eh?

- Leave him, Kolya, let's pass by.

- I will not leave for anything, now I have gone. Hey hello man!

A stout man, slowly passing by and already drunk, with a round, rustic face and a beard with gray hair, raised his head and looked at the boy.

“Well, hello, if you’re not joking,” he said slowly in response.

- And if I'm joking? - Kolya laughed.

- And you joke, so joke, God bless you. Nothing, it is possible. It is always possible to make a joke.

- I'm sorry, brother, joking.

- Well, God forgive those.

- Do you forgive?

- I really forgive. Go on.

- You see, you are, perhaps, you are a smart man.

“Smarter than you,” the man answered unexpectedly and still importantly.

- Hardly, - Kolya was taken aback.

“I’m right.”

- And perhaps so.

- That's it, brother.

- Goodbye, man.

- Goodbye.

“Men are different,” Kolya remarked to Smurov after some silence. - How did I know that I would run into a smart guy. I am always ready to recognize the mind in the people.

In the distance, the cathedral clock struck half-past eleven. The boys hurried, and the rest of the rather long way to the dwelling of the captain Snegirev passed quickly and almost without speaking. Kolya stopped twenty steps before the house and ordered Smurov to go ahead and summon Karamazov here.

“We must first smell it,” he remarked to Smurov.

- But why summon, - Smurov was objected, - come in and so, you will be terribly delighted. And then what is it to get acquainted in the cold?

“I already know why I need him here in the cold,” Kolya snapped despotically (which he loved to do with these “little ones”), and Smurov ran to obey the order.

Kolya leaned against the fence with a dignified expression on his face and waited for Alyosha to appear. Yes, he had long wanted to meet with him. He had heard a lot about him from the boys, but up to now always outwardly showed a contemptuously indifferent look when they talked about him, even "criticized" Alyosha, listening to what was conveyed to him about him. But about myself, I really, really wanted to get to know each other: there was something in all the stories he heard about Alyosha sympathetic and enticing. Thus, the present moment was important; firstly, he had to not hit himself in the dirt, show independence: “Otherwise he will think that I am thirteen years old, and will take me for the same boy as these. And what are these boys to him? I'll ask him when I get along. It is bad, however, that I am so small: Tuzikov is younger than me, and half a head taller. My face, however, is smart; I'm not good, I know that I have a nasty face, but my face is clever. You also need to not speak out very much, otherwise he will immediately think with hugs ... Ugh, what an abomination it will be if he thinks! .. "

Kolya was so worried, trying with all his might to take the most independent look. Most importantly, he was tormented by his small stature, not so much a "vile" face as his height. At his house, in the corner on the wall, since last year a line had been drawn with a pencil, with which he marked his height, and since then every two months he anxiously approached again to measure: how much did he grow up? But alas! He grew up terribly little, and this sometimes led him to despair. As for the face, it was not at all "vile", on the contrary, rather pretty, white, pale, with freckles. Gray, small, but lively eyes looked boldly and often lit up with feeling. The cheekbones were somewhat wide, the lips were small, not very thick, but very red; the nose is small and resolutely upturned: "completely snub-nosed, completely snub-nosed!" Kolya muttered to himself when he looked in the mirror, and always walked away from the mirror with indignation. "But is it unlikely that the face is smart?" he thought sometimes, even doubting that. However, one should not assume that concern for his face and growth absorbed his whole soul. On the contrary, no matter how caustic the minutes were in front of the mirror, he quickly forgot about them and even for a long time, “giving himself over to ideas and real life,” as he himself defined his activities.

Alyosha appeared soon and hurriedly went up to Kolya; in a few steps he could still see that Alyosha had some sort of completely joyful face. "Really so glad to me?" Kolya thought with pleasure. Here, by the way, we note that Alyosha has changed a lot since we left him: he had thrown off his cassock and now wore a beautifully tailored frock coat, a soft round hat, and short-cut hair. All this brightened him up very much, and he looked quite handsome. His handsome face always had a cheerful appearance, but this gaiety was somehow quiet and calm. To Kolya's surprise, Alyosha came out to him wearing what he was wearing in the room, without a coat, it is evident that he was in a hurry. He extended his hand straight to Kolya.

- Here you are, at last, as we all waited for you.

- There were reasons, which now you will find out. In any case, glad to meet you. I've been waiting for a chance for a long time and I've heard a lot, - muttered Kolya, a little breathless.

- Yes, you and I would have met without that, I myself have heard a lot about you, but here, here, you are late.

- Tell me, how is it here?

- Ilya is very bad, he will certainly die.

- Honor you! agree that medicine is mean, Karamazov, - Kolya exclaimed with fervor.

- Ilyusha often, very often remembered about you, even, you know, in a dream, in a delirium. It can be seen that you were very, very dear to him before ... before that incident ... with the knife. There is another reason ... Tell me, is this your dog?

- My. Chime.

- And not a bug? - Alyosha looked pitifully into Kolya's eyes. - Has that already disappeared?

- I know that you would all like a Beetle, I heard everything, - Kolya smiled mysteriously. “Listen, Karamazov, I’ll explain the whole matter to you, the main thing is that I came, for this I called you to explain the whole passage to you before we enter,” he began briskly. - You see, Karamazov, in the spring Ilyusha enters the preparatory class: Well, you know, our preparatory class: boys, kids. Ilya was immediately bullied. I am two classes higher and, of course, I look from afar from the side. I see the boy is small, weak, but does not obey, he even fights with them, proud, his little eyes are on fire. I love those. And they are worse than him. The main thing is that then he had a nasty dress, pants climb to the top, and boots are asking for porridge. They are his and for it. They humiliate. No, I don’t like that, I immediately interceded and asked an extrafefer. I beat them, and they adore me, do you know that, Karamazov? - Kolya boasted expansively. - And in general I love kids. I still have two chicks on my neck at home, even today I was detained. Thus, they stopped beating Ilya, and I took him under my protection. I see, a proud boy, I'm telling you that I'm proud, but I ended up giving myself up to me slavishly, fulfilling my slightest orders, listening to me like God, trying to imitate me. In the intervals between classes, now to me, and we go with him. Sundays too. In our gymnasium, they laugh when the elder gets on such a leg with the little one, but this is a prejudice. This is my fantasy, and that's it, isn't it? I teach him, develop. - why, tell me, I can’t develop it if I like it? After all, you, Karamazov, have come to terms with all these chicks, so you want to act on the younger generation, develop, be useful? And I confess that this trait in your character, which I recognized by hearsay, interested me most of all. But to the point: I note that some kind of sensitivity, sentimentality develops in the boy, and I, you know, have been a decisive enemy of all calf tenderness, from my very birth. And besides, there are contradictions: proud, but slavishly betrayed to me, slavishly betrayed, and suddenly his little eyes sparkle and does not even want to agree with me, he argues, he climbs the wall. I sometimes carried out different ideas: he not only disagrees with the ideas, but simply see that he is personally rebelling against me, because I respond to his tenderness with composure. And so, in order to withstand him, the more tender he is, the more calm I become, I do this on purpose, this is my conviction. I meant to educate character, align, create a person ... well, there ... you, of course, understand me half a word. Suddenly I notice that he is a day, two, three, embarrassed, grieving, but not about tenderness, but about something else, the strongest, the highest. Think what a tragedy? I step on him and learn a thing: somehow he got along with the footman of your late father (who was still alive at that time) Smerdyakov, and he, you fool, teach him a stupid joke, that is, a brutal joke, a vile joke - take a piece of bread, a crumb, stick a pin into it and throw it to some yard dog, one of those who, out of hunger, swallow a piece without chewing, and see what happens. So they made such a piece and threw it to this very shaggy Beetle, about which there is such a story now, to one yard dog from a yard where she was simply not fed, and she barks in the wind all day. (Do you love that stupid barking. Karamazov? I can't stand it.) So she rushed, swallowed and screamed, turned and started to run, runs and screeches everything, and disappeared, - this is how Ilyusha himself described to me. He confesses to me, and he cries and cries, hugs me, shakes: "He runs and screams, runs and screams" - only this he repeats, this picture amazed him. Well, I see, remorse. I took it seriously. Most importantly, I wanted to beat him up for the past, so, I confess, I cheated here. I pretended to be in such indignation that I might not have at all; “You, I say, have done a low deed, you are a scoundrel, I will not disclose of course, but for now I am interrupting relations with you. I'll think it over, and let you know through Smurov (this very boy who has now come with me and who has always been devoted to me): will I continue my relationship with you in the future, or will I abandon you forever as a scoundrel. " This struck him terribly. I confess that at the same time I felt that I might be too harsh, but what to do, that was my then thought. A day later I send Smurov to him and convey through him that I no longer “speak to him,” that is, this is what we call it when two comrades break off relations with each other. The secret is that I wanted to keep him on the ferbant for only a few days, and there, seeing my repentance, I again stretch out my hand to him. This was my firm intention. But what do you think: he listened to Smurov, and suddenly his eyes sparkled: "Tell him, he shouted," from me to Krasotkin, now I will throw pieces with pins to all the dogs, everyone, everyone! " “And, I think, a free smell has started, it must be smoked,” and began to show him complete contempt, at every meeting I turn away or smile ironically. And suddenly this incident happens with his father, remember, a washcloth? Understand that he was already prepared in this way to a terrible annoyance. The boys, seeing that I had left him, pounced on him, teasing: "washcloth, washcloth." It was then that their battles began, which I am terribly sorry about, because it seemed very painful then once they beat him. Once he throws himself at everyone in the yard, when they left the classrooms, and I just stand ten paces away and look at him. And I swear, I don’t remember that I laughed then, on the contrary, then I felt very, very sorry for him, and another moment, and I would have rushed to defend him. But he suddenly met my gaze: I don’t know what it seemed to him, but he grabbed his penknife, rushed at me and poked it in my thigh, right here, at my right foot. I did not move, I confess I am sometimes brave, Karamazov, I just looked with contempt, as if saying with a glance: "Would you like to say more, for all my friendship, so I'm at your service." But he didn’t stab another time, he couldn’t stand it, he got scared himself, dropped the knife, cried aloud and started to run. Of course, I didn’t fiscal and ordered everyone to be silent so that it wouldn’t come to the authorities, I even told my mother only when everything healed, and the wound was empty, a scratch. Then I hear that on the same day he threw stones and bit your finger - but you know what state he was in! Well, what can I do, I did a stupid thing: when he fell ill, I did not go to forgive him, that is, to make up, now I repent. But then I had special goals. Well, that's the whole story ... only it seems I did something stupid ...

“Oh, what a pity,” Alyosha exclaimed with excitement, “that I didn’t know your relationship with him before, otherwise I myself would have come to you long ago to ask you to come to him with me. Do you believe in the heat, in the illness, he raved about you. I didn’t know how dear you are to him! And really, did you never find this bug? Father and all the boys throughout the city were looking for. Believe me, he, sick, in tears, three times in front of me already repeated to his father: "This is why I am sick, dad, because I killed the Beetle then, it was God who punished me": you won’t get him out of this thought! And if only they got this bug now and showed that she was not dead, but alive, then it seems he would have resurrected with joy. We all hoped for you.

- Tell me, why on earth did they hope that I would find the Bug, that is, what exactly would I find? - Kolya asked with extreme curiosity, - why did they count on me, and not on someone else?

“There was some rumor that you were looking for her, and that when you found her, you would bring her. Smurov said something like that. We, most importantly, all try to assure that the Bug is alive, that she was seen somewhere. The boys got him a live bunny from somewhere, only he looked, smiled a little and asked to be released into the field. And so we did. This very minute, the father came back and brought him a Medelyansky puppy, he also got it from somewhere, thought to console it, only it still seems worse ...

- Tell me, Karamazov: what is this father? I know him, but what is he by your definition: clown, clown?

- Oh no, there are people who feel deeply, but somehow crushed. Their foolishness is a kind of malicious irony towards those to whom they dare not tell the truth in their eyes because of their long-term humiliating timidity in front of them. Believe me, Krasotkin, such buffoonery is sometimes extremely tragic. He has everything now, everything on earth has copulated in Ilyusha, and die Ilyusha, he will either go mad with grief, or take his own life. I'm almost convinced of that when I look at him now!

“I understand you, Karamazov, I see you know the person,” added Kolya soulfully.

- And I, as I saw you with the dog, I thought that you brought it that very bug.

- Wait, Karamazov, maybe we can find her, and this one is Chime. I will let her into the room now and maybe I will cheer Ilya more than a Medelyan puppy. Wait, Karamazov, you will find out something now. Oh, my God, why am I holding you! - Kolya cried suddenly impetuously. - You are in a frock coat in such cold weather, and I am holding you back; see, see how selfish I am! Oh, we are all selfish, Karamazov!

“Don’t worry, it’s true, it’s cold, but I’m not a cold.” Come on, however. By the way: what is your name, I know that Kolya, and then what?

- Nikolai, Nikolai Ivanov Krasotkin, or as they say in the official way: the son of Krasotkin, - Kolya laughed at something, but suddenly added:

- I, of course, hate my name Nikolai.

- Why not?

- Trivial, official ...

- Are you thirteenth year old? - asked Alyosha.

- That is, the fourteenth, in two weeks fourteen, very soon. I confess before you in advance of one weakness, Karamazov, this is so before you, for the first acquaintance, so that you immediately see my whole nature: I hate being asked about my years, more than I hate ... and finally ... about me, for example, there is slander that I played with the prep robbers last week. What I played is reality, but what I played for myself, to give myself pleasure, is definitely slander. I have reason to think that it came to you, but I didn’t play for myself, but for the kids, because they couldn’t invent anything without me. And now we will always dismiss nonsense. This is a city of gossip, I assure you.

- And even if they played for their own pleasure, what's wrong with that?

- Well, for yourself ... You won’t play horses, will you?

- And you reason like this, - smiled Alyosha:

- for example, adults go to the theater, and in the theater they also present the adventures of all kinds of heroes, sometimes also with robbers and with the war - so isn't this the same, of course, in its own way? And the game of war among young people, during recreational time, or there as robbers, is also an incipient art, an incipient need for art in a young soul, and these games are sometimes even composed more harmoniously than performances at the theater, the only difference is that they go to the theater to watch the actors, and here the young people are the actors themselves. But this is only natural.

- You think so? Is this your conviction? - stared at the negro Kolya. - You know, you said a rather curious idea; I'll come home now and use my brains about this. I confess that I was expecting something to learn from you. I came to study with you, Karamazov, - Kolya concluded in a heartfelt and expansive voice.

“And I’m with you,” Alyosha smiled, shaking his hand. Kolya was extremely pleased with Alyosha. He was struck by the fact that with him he was on an extremely level foot, and that he spoke to him as "the greatest."

“I'll show you one trick now, Karamazov, also one theatrical performance,” he laughed nervously, “that's what I came with.

- Let's go first to the left to the owners, there they leave all your coats, because the room is cramped and hot.

- Oh, because for a moment, I will go in and sit in my coat. The chime will stay here in the hallway and die: "Isi, Chime, kush and die!" - you see, he died. And first I will go in, look out for the situation, and then, when necessary, I will whistle: Hesi, Chime! and you will see that he will immediately fly in like a madman. Only it is necessary that Smurov does not forget to open the door at that moment. I will give orders, and you will see the trick ...

V. Ilyushin's bed

In the room we already knew, in which the family of the retired staff captain Snegirev lived, at that moment, it was stuffy and cramped from the large crowded audience. Several boys sat with Ilyusha this time, and although they were all ready, like Smurov, to deny that he had reconciled and brought them together with Ilyusha Alyosha, but it was so. All his art in this case consisted in the fact that he brought them together with Ilyusha, one by one, without "calf tenderness", but quite as if not on purpose and unintentionally. It brought great relief to Ilya in his suffering. Seeing the almost tender friendship and sympathy of all these boys, their former enemies, he was very touched. Only Krasotkin was lacking, and this lay on his heart with a terrible oppression. If there was something the most bitter in Ilyushechka's bitter memories, then this is exactly this whole episode with Krasotkin, his former only friend and protector, at whom he then rushed with a knife. The clever boy Smurov (who was the first to come to make peace with Ilyusha) thought so too. But Krasotkin himself, when Smurov remotely informed him that Alyosha wanted to come to him "on one matter," immediately cut off and cut off the approach, instructing Smurov to immediately inform "Karamazov" that he himself knew how to act, that advice from no one does not ask, and that if he goes to the patient, he himself knows when to go, because he has “his own calculation”. It was two weeks before that Sunday. That is why Alyosha did not go to him himself, as he had intended. However, although he waited, he nevertheless sent Smurov to Krasotkin again and again. But on both these times Krasotkin responded with the most impatient and sharp refusal, telling Alyosha that if he came for him himself, he would never go to Ilya for this, and so that he would no longer be bored. Even until that very last day, Smurov himself did not know that Kolya had decided to go to Ilyusha that morning, and only the evening before, saying goodbye to Smurov, Kolya suddenly announced to him that he should wait for him at home tomorrow morning, because he would go with him. to the Snegirevs, but so as not to dare, however, notify anyone of his arrival, since he wants to come by accident. Smurov obeyed. The dream that he would bring the missing Beetle came to Smurov on the basis of Krasotkin's words that “they are all donkeys if they cannot find the dog, if only it is alive”. When Smurov timidly, having waited for the time, hinted about his guess about the dog to Krasotkin, he suddenly became terribly angry: “What am I like a donkey to look for other people's dogs all over the city, when I have my own Chime? And is it possible to dream that the dog that swallowed the pin will remain alive? Calf tenderness, nothing else! "

Meanwhile, for two weeks now Ilyusha has hardly left his bed, in the corner, by the images. I have not attended classes since the very case when I met Alyosha and bit his finger. However, he fell ill from that day, although for a month he could somehow somehow walk around the room and in the hallway, occasionally getting up from the bed. Finally I was completely exhausted, so that without the help of my father I could not move. His father trembled over him, stopped even completely drinking, was almost distraught with fear that his boy would die, and often, especially after he had taken him around the room arm in arm and put him back to bed, he suddenly ran out into the hallway, into a dark corner , and, leaning his forehead against the wall, he began to sob with some kind of flooded, shaking cry, stifling his voice so that Ilyushechka's sobs would not be heard.

Returning to the room, he usually began to entertain and console his dear boy with something, told him fairy tales, funny anecdotes, or represented various funny people whom he managed to meet, even imitated animals, how they howl or shout funny. But Ilyusha really did not like it when his father distorted and represented himself as a jester. Although the boy tried not to show that it was unpleasant for him, but with a pain of his heart he realized that his father was humiliated in society, and always, obsessively, remembered the “washcloth” and that “terrible day”. Ninochka, legless, quiet and meek sister of Ilyushechka, also did not like it when her father distorted (as for Varvara Nikolaevna, she had already gone to Petersburg to take courses long ago), but the half-witted mother was very amused and laughed heartily when her husband began it happened to imagine something or make some funny gestures. This was the only way to comfort her; all the same, the rest of the time she was constantly grumbling and crying that now everyone had forgotten her, that no one respected her, that she was offended, etc., etc. But in the very last days, she suddenly, as it were, everything has changed. She often began to look in the corner at Ilya and began to think. She became much more silent, became quiet, and if she began to cry, then quietly so that they would not hear. The captain noticed this change in her with bitter bewilderment. At first she didn’t like the boys' visits and only annoyed her, but then the cheerful shouts and stories of the children began to entertain her, and in the end she liked it so much that if these boys had stopped walking, she would have been terribly yearning. When the children told what or started to play, she laughed and clapped her hands. She called others to her and kissed them. She especially fell in love with the boy Smurov. As for the captain, the appearance in his apartment of the children who came to amuse Ilya filled his soul from the very beginning with ecstatic joy and even the hope that Ilyusha would now cease to grieve and, perhaps, therefore, would soon recover. Not a single minute, until very recently, did not doubt, despite all his fear for Ilya, that his boy would suddenly recover. He greeted the little guests with reverence, walked around them, served, was ready to carry them on himself, and even really started to carry them, but Ilya did not like these games and were left behind. I began to buy them presents, gingerbread, nuts, arrange tea, spread sandwiches. It should be noted that during all this time no money was transferred from him. He received the then two hundred rubles from Katerina Ivanovna exactly as predicted by Alyosha. And then Katerina Ivanovna, having found out more about their circumstances and about Ilya's illness, visited their apartment herself, met the whole family and even managed to charm the crazy staff captain. Since then, her hand did not grow thin, and the staff captain himself, depressed with horror at the thought that his boy would die, forgot his previous ambition and humbly accepted the alms. All this time, Doctor Herzenstube, at the invitation of Katerina Ivanovna, went constantly and carefully every other day to the patient, but there was little sense from his visits, and he stained him with drugs terribly. But on that day, that is, this Sunday morning, a new doctor was expected at the staff-captain, who came from Moscow and was considered a celebrity in Moscow. Katerina Ivanovna deliberately discharged him and invited him from Moscow for a lot of money - not for Ilyushechka, but for another purpose, which will be discussed below and in its place, but since he arrived, she asked him to visit Ilyushechka, oh than the staff captain had been informed in advance. He had no premonition of the arrival of Kolya Krasotkin, although he had long wished that this boy, for whom his Ilyushechka was so tormented, would come at last. At the very moment when Krasotkin opened the door and appeared in the room, everyone, the staff captain and the boys, crowded around the patient's bed and looked at the tiny Medellian puppy just brought in, just born yesterday, but ordered by the staff captain a week before to entertain and to console Ilyushechka, who was longing for the disappeared and of course already dead Beetle. But Ilyusha, who had already heard and knew for three more days that he would be presented with a small dog, and not a simple one, but a real Medelyan dog (which of course was terribly important), although he showed out of a subtle and delicate feeling that he was happy with the gift, but that was all, and his father and the boys, clearly saw that the new dog could only stir even more strongly in his heart the memory of the unfortunate Beetle tortured by him. The puppy lay and fumbled beside him, and he, with a sickly smile, stroked him with his thin, pale, dry hand; It was even evident that he liked the dog, but ... There was still no bug, yet it was not a bug, but if the bug and the puppy were together, then there would be complete happiness!

- Krasotkin! - suddenly shouted one of the boys, the first to see Kolya as he entered. There was a visible excitement, the boys parted and stood on both sides of the bed, so that they suddenly revealed all of Ilyushechka. The headquarters captain rushed to meet Kolya.

- Please, please ... dear guest! - he whispered to him, - Ilyushechka, Mr. Krasotkin has come to you ...

But Krasotkin, hastily shaking hands with him, instantly showed his extraordinary knowledge of secular decency. He immediately and first of all turned to the wife of the staff captain, who was sitting in her chair (who at that very moment was terribly unhappy and grumbled that the boys had covered Ilyusha's bed and did not allow her to look at the new dog), and extremely politely shuffled his foot in front of her, and then, turning to Ninochka, gave her the same bow as a lady. This polite act made an unusually pleasant impression on the sick lady.

- Now you can see a well-educated young man. - she said loudly, spreading her hands, - and the fact that the rest of our guests: one on top of the other come.

- How, mommy, one on top of the other, how is it? - albeit affectionately, but fearing a little for "mommy", the staff captain babbled.

- And so they enter. Sits in the entryway, one another astride the shoulders, but into a noble family and will ride, sitting astride. What kind of guest is this?

- But who, who, mommy, drove in like that, who?

- Yes, this boy drove in on this boy today, but this one on that one ...

But Kolya was already standing at Ilyusha's bed. The patient apparently turned pale. He raised himself on the crib and gazed intently at Kolya. He had not seen his former little friend for two months, and suddenly he stopped before him completely amazed: he could not even imagine that he would see such a thin and yellowed face, such burning in the feverish heat and seemingly terribly enlarged eyes, such thin hands. He looked with sad surprise that Ilyusha was breathing so deeply and often and that his lips were so dry. He took a step towards him, held out his hand and, almost completely lost, said:

- Well, old man ... how are you?

But his voice was cut short, there was not enough swagger, his face somehow suddenly twitched, and something trembled near his lips. Ilya smiled painfully at him, still unable to say a word. Kolya suddenly raised his hand and ran his hand through Ilyusha's hair for something.

- Nothing! - he murmured to him quietly, - either encouraging him, or not knowing why he said it. They were silent again for a minute.

- What is your new puppy? - suddenly asked Kolya in the most insensitive voice.

- Yeees! - answered Ilyusha in a long whisper, gasping for breath.

- Black nose, then from the evil, from the chains, - Kolya remarked importantly and firmly, as if the whole thing was in the puppy and in his black nose. But the main thing was that he was still trying his best to overcome the feeling in himself, so as not to cry like "little", and still could not overcome it. “When he grows up, he’ll have to be put on a chain, I know.”

- It will be huge! One boy from the crowd exclaimed.

- You know, Medelyansky, huge, like that, from a calf, - suddenly several voices rang out.

“From a calf, from a real calf, sir,” the staff captain jumped up, “I deliberately found this, the most feisty one, and his parents are also huge and the most feisty, that’s the same height from the floor ... Sit down, here on the crib at Ilyusha's, or else on the bench here. You are welcome, dear guest, long-awaited guest ... With Alexei Fyodorovich you have deigned to come, sir?

Krasotkin sat down on the bed at Ilya's feet. At least he may have prepared the road with which to start a conversation cheekily, but now he has decisively lost the thread.

- No ... I'm with Chime ... I have such a dog now, Chime. Slavic name. Waiting there ... whistle and fly in. I, too, with a dog, - he suddenly turned to Ilya, - do you remember, old man, Zhuchka? - suddenly he hit him with a question.

Ilyushechka's face is distorted. He looked at Kolya with suffering. Alyosha, who was standing at the door, frowned and nodded to Kolya furtively so that he would not talk about the Beetle, but he did not notice or did not want to notice.

- Well, brother, your Bug is fucking! Your Bug is gone!

Ilyusha was silent, but looked intently at Kolya again. Alyosha, catching Kolya's gaze, nodded to him with all his might, but he again looked away, pretending that he had not noticed even now.

- I ran somewhere and disappeared. How not to be lost after such a snack, - Kolya cut mercilessly. and yet he himself seemed to be suffocating from something. - But I have a Chime ... Slavic name ... I brought you ...

- Do not! - said Ilyushechka suddenly.

- No, no, you must, by all means take a look ... You will have fun, I deliberately brought ... the same shaggy, like that ... Will you allow me, madam, to call my dog ​​here? - he suddenly turned to Madame Snegireva in some completely incomprehensible excitement.

- Don't, don't! - Ilyusha exclaimed with a sad tear in his voice. Rebuke lit up in his eyes.

“Would you, sir…” the captain suddenly rushed from the chest near the wall, on which he had sat down, “you would… at another time, sir…” he stammered, but Kolya, uncontrollably insisting and in a hurry, suddenly shouted to Smurov: "Smurov, open the door!" and as soon as he opened it, he whistled into his whistle. The chime rushed into the room.

- Jump, Chime, serve! serve! - Kolya yelled, jumping up from his place, and the dog, standing on its hind legs, stretched out right in front of Ilyusha's bed. Something unexpected happened: Ilyusha shuddered and suddenly moved forward with force, bent down to Chime and, as if freezing, looked at him:

- This is ... a bug! He shouted in a voice cracked with suffering and happiness,

- Look, old man, you see, the eye is crooked and the left ear is notched, exactly like those signs, as you told me. I found him by these signs! Then I found it, in speed. She was a draw, she was a draw! - he explained, quickly turning to the staff captain, to his wife, to Alyosha and then again to Ilya, - she was with the Fedotovs in the backyards, she took root there, but they did not feed her, but she was runaway, she ran away from the village ... I found her ... You see, old man, she then didn’t swallow your piece. If she had swallowed, she would certainly have died, after all, of course! So, she managed to spit it out, if she was now alive. And you didn't even notice what she spat out. She spat it out, but nevertheless pricked her tongue, that's why she screamed then. She ran and screamed, and you thought that she completely swallowed. She had to squeal a lot, because the dog has very delicate skin in the mouth ... softer than a human, much softer! - Kolya exclaimed furiously, his face flushed and beaming with delight.

Ilyusha could not even speak. He looked at Kolya with his large and somehow terribly rolling eyes, with his mouth open and turned pale as a sheet. And if only Krasotkin, who did not suspect anything, knew how painfully and murderously such a minute could affect the health of a sick boy, he would never have dared to throw out such a thing that he threw out. But there could be only one Alyosha in the room. As for the staff captain, he seemed to have turned into the smallest boy.

- Bug! So this is the bug? He shouted in a blissful voice. - Ilyushechka, it's a bug, your bug! Mamma, this is a Bug! - He almost cried.

- And I didn’t guess! - Smurov exclaimed sorrowfully. - Ah yes Krasotkin, I said that he will find the Bug, so he found it!

- So I found it! - someone else happily responded.

- Well done, well done! - shouted all the boys and began to applaud.

- Yes, stop, stop, - Krasotkin tried to shout down everyone: - I'll tell you how it was, the thing is how it was, and nothing else! After all, I found him, dragged him to me and immediately hid him, and locked the house, and did not show anyone until the very last day. Only Smurov found out two weeks ago, but I assured him that it was Chime, and he didn’t guess, and I taught the Beetle all the sciences during the intermission, look, just look at what tricks he knows! That's why he taught, so that he could bring to you, the old man, trained, smooth: Here, they say, old man, what is your Beetle now! Do you have any piece of beef, he will show you one such piece that you will fall with laughter - beef, a piece, well, don't you?

The headquarters-captain rushed swiftly, through the passage, into the hut to the owners, where the staff-captain's food was also cooked. Kolya, in order not to waste precious time, desperately in a hurry, shouted to Chime: Die! And he suddenly spun around, lay down on his back and stood motionless with all four of his paws up. The boys laughed, Ilyusha looked with his old suffering smile, but everyone liked it better that Pezvon died, "mamma". She laughed at the dog and began snapping her fingers and calling:

- Chime, Chime!

- It will not rise, not for anything, - Kolya shouted victoriously and justly proud, - even shout the whole world, but I will shout and jump up in an instant! Ici, Chime!

The dog jumped up and began to jump, squealing with joy. The staff captain rushed in with a piece of boiled beef.

- Not hot? - Kolya inquired hastily and busily, taking a piece, - no, not hot, otherwise dogs don't like hot food. Look, everyone, Ilyushechka, look, but look, look, old man, why aren't you looking? I brought, but he does not look!

The new trick was to put a tidbit of beef on the very nose of the dog standing motionless and stretching out its nose. The unfortunate dog, without moving, had to stand with a piece on his nose as long as the owner ordered, not to move, not to move, at least half an hour. But the Chime was held only for the smallest minute.

- Peel! - Kolya shouted, and a piece in an instant flew from nose to mouth Chime. The audience, of course, expressed enthusiastic surprise.

- And really, really, just to train the dog, didn’t come all the time! - Alyosha exclaimed with an involuntary reproach.

“Precisely for that,” Kolya shouted in the most innocent way. - I wanted to show it in all its splendor!

- Chime! Chime! - Ilyusha snapped suddenly with his thin fingers, beckoning the dog.

- What do you want! Let him jump on your bed by himself. Ici, Chime! - Kolya banged his hand on the bed, and Chime flew like an arrow towards Ilya. He swiftly hugged his head with both hands, and Chime instantly licked his cheek for it. Ilyushechka pressed against him, stretched out on the bed and hid his face from everyone in his shaggy fur.

- Lord, Lord! - exclaimed the staff captain. Kolya sat down again on the bed with Ilya.

- Ilya, I can show you one more thing. I brought you a gun. Do you remember, I told you about this gun then, and you said: "Oh, how could I see it too!" Well, now I have brought it.

And Kolya, in a hurry, pulled out his bronze cannon from his bag. He was in a hurry because he himself was very happy: at another time he would have waited so long for the effect produced by the Chime to pass, but now he hastened, despising any restraint: "already so happy, so there you have more happiness!" He himself was very intoxicated.

- I saw this little thing for a long time from the official Morozov - for you, old man, for you. He had it for free, he got it from his brother, and I exchanged it for a book, from my father’s closet: A Relative of Mohammed or healing tomfoolery. For a hundred years, the book, zabubennye, was published in Moscow, when there was still no censorship, and Morozov is a hunter of these things. I also thanked ...

Kolya held the cannon in his hand in front of everyone, so that everyone could see and enjoy, Ilyusha got up and, continuing to hug Chime with his right hand, looked at the toy with admiration. The effect reached a high degree when Kolya announced that he had gunpowder, and that he could shoot right away, "if only the ladies are not worried about it." “Mamma” immediately asked to be given a closer look at the toy, which was immediately done. She liked the bronze cannon on wheels terribly, and began to roll it on her lap. She answered the request for permission to shoot with the fullest consent, not understanding, however, what she was asked about. Kolya showed gunpowder and shot. The staff captain, as a former military man, disposed of the charge himself, adding the smallest portion of gunpowder, but asked to postpone the fraction until another time. They put the cannon on the floor, with its muzzle in an empty spot, squeezed three grains of powder into the seed and lit it with a match. The most brilliant shot took place. "Mamma" was startled, but immediately laughed with joy. The boys watched with silent triumph, but most of all he was blissful, looking at Ilya, the staff captain. Kolya raised the cannon and immediately presented it to Ilya, along with shot and gunpowder.

- This is me for you, for you! I cooked it a long time ago, ”he repeated once more, in the fullness of happiness.

- Oh, give it to me! No, give me a gun better! - suddenly, as if a little mother began to ask. Her face showed sorrowful concern from the fear that she would not be given a gift. Kolya was embarrassed. The staff captain became uneasy.

- Mommy, Mommy! - he jumped up to her, the cannon is yours, yours, but let Ilyusha have it, because it was given to him, but it's all the same as yours, Ilyushechka will always let you play, let it be common, common ...

“No, I don’t want it to be shared, no, to be completely mine, and not Ilyushin’s,” mamma continued, getting ready to cry completely.

- Mom, take it for yourself, here take it for yourself! - suddenly shouted Ilyusha. - Krasotkin, can I give it to my mother? - he suddenly turned with a pleading look to Krasotkin, as if afraid that he would not be offended that he was giving his gift to another.

- Absolutely possible! - Krasotkin immediately agreed and, taking the cannon from Ilyusha's hands, he himself handed it over with the most polite bow to his mother. She even burst into tears with emotion.

- Ilyushechka, dear, that's who loves his mom! She exclaimed with emotion, and immediately began rolling the cannon on her knees again.

- Mamma, let me kiss you a hand, - the husband jumped up to her and immediately fulfilled his intention.

- And who else is the sweetest young man, so this good boy! - said the grateful lady, pointing to Krasotkin.

- And I will wear gunpowder for you, Ilyusha, now as much as I like. Now we make our own gunpowder. Borovikov recognized the composition: twenty-four parts of saltpeter, ten sulfur and six birch coal, put everything together, pour in water, mix until soft and rub through the drum skin - that's gunpowder.

“Smurov has already told me about your gunpowder, but dad says that it’s not real gunpowder,” Ilyusha responded.

- How not real? - Kolya blushed, - we are on fire. However, I don’t know ...

“No, sir, I’m okay,” the staff-captain jumped up suddenly with a guilty look. - True, I said that real gunpowder is not compiled that way, but that’s okay, it’s possible and so.

“I don’t know, you know better. We lit it in a fondant stone jar, it burned gloriously, it all burned out, the smallest soot remained. But this is only pulp, and if you rub it through the skin ... But by the way, you know better, I don't know ... But Bulkin's father ripped out Bulkin for our gunpowder, did you hear? - he suddenly turned to Ilya.

“I heard,” Ilyusha answered. He listened to Kolya with endless interest and pleasure.

- We prepared a whole bottle of gunpowder, he kept it under the bed. The father saw. Explode, he says, can. Yes, and whipped him right there. I wanted to complain about me to the gymnasium. Now they won't let him in with me, now they won't let anyone in with me. Smurov is also not allowed in, he became famous among everyone, - they say that I am "desperate", - Kolya smiled contemptuously. - It all started here with the railroad.

- Oh, we heard about this passage of yours! - exclaimed the staff captain, - how did you lie there? And weren't you really scared of anything at all when you lay under the train. Were you scared, sir?

The headquarters-captain laughed terribly in front of Kolya.

“N-not particularly! - Kolya answered casually. “This damned goose has spoiled my reputation the most here,” he turned back to Ilyusha. But even though he was contorting in a careless manner, he still could not control himself and continued, as it were, to lose his tone.

- Oh, I heard about the goose! - Ilyusha laughed, beaming all over; - I was told, but I did not understand, was it possible that you were tried by the judge?

- The most brainless thing, the most insignificant, from which a whole elephant, as usual, we have composed, - Kolya began cheekily. - I was just walking along the square, and just drove the geese. I stopped and looked at the geese. Suddenly one local guy, Vishnyakov, he now serves as a messenger for the Plotnikovs, looks at me, and says: "Why are you looking at geese?" I look at him: stupid, round mug, the guy is twenty years old, I, you know, never reject people. I love with the people ... We have lagged behind the people - this is an axiom - you seem to deign to laugh, Karamazov?

- No, God forbid, I'm listening to you very much, - Alyosha responded with the most innocent look, and the suspicious Kolya instantly cheered up.

“My theory, Karamazov, is clear and simple,” again he hurried joyfully at once. - I believe in the people and am always glad to give them justice, but by no means spoiling them, this is sine qua ... Yes, because I'm talking about a goose. So I turn to this fool and answer him: "But I think about what the goose is thinking." He looks at me completely stupidly: "And what is the goose thinking about?" “But you see, I say, the cart with oats is worth it. Oats are pouring out of the sack, and the goose has stretched its neck under the wheel itself and the grain is pecking - see? " - “I really see it,” he says. "Well, so, I say, if this very cart is now moved forward a little, will the wheel cut the goose's neck or not?" - “Without fail, he says, he will cut it,” and he himself is already grinning at the top of his mouth, so he melted all over. "Well, let's go, I say, boy, come on." - "Come on," he says. And we didn’t have to tinker for long: He stood so imperceptibly near the bridle, and I stood at the side to guide the goose. And the man at that time gape, talked to someone, so I didn't have to direct at all: the goose stretched out its neck for the oats, under the cart, under the wheel itself. I blinked at the guy, he jerked and - k-crack, and moved the goose's neck in half! And so it must be so that at that very second all the men saw us, well, and shouted at once: "This is you on purpose!" - "No, not on purpose." - "No, on purpose!" Well, they shout: "To the world!" They captured me too: "And you were here, they say, you helped, the whole bazaar knows you!" And for some reason the whole bazaar really knows me, ”added Kolya proudly. - We all reached out to the world, and they are carrying a goose. I looked, and my boyfriend got cold feet and roared, really, roars like a woman. And the driver shouts: "In this manner, geese, you can transfer as much as you like!" Well, of course, the witnesses. In an instant he finished: for a goose give the driver a ruble, and let the guy take the goose for himself. Yes, henceforth, so that such jokes are by no means allowed to yourself. And the guy is still roaring like a woman: “It's not me, he says, it was he who put me on the line,” and he points at me. I answer with complete composure that I did not teach at all, that I only expressed the main idea and spoke only in the draft. World Nefyodov chuckled, and now he was angry with himself for grinning: "I, he says to me, are now certifying you to your superiors so that you will not start such projects from now on, instead of sitting at books and teaching your lessons." ... He did not certify me to the authorities, these are jokes, but the case really spread and reached the ears of the authorities: our ears are long! Especially the classic Kolbasnikov rose, but the Dardanelov defended again. And now Kolbasnikov is angry with us all like a green donkey. You, Ilyusha, heard that he got married, took a thousand rubles from the Mikhailovs' dowry, and the bride had a snatch of the first hand and the last degree. Third-graders immediately composed an epigram:

I was struck by the news of the third graders,

That the slob Kolbasnikov got married.

- However, you brought him down on the one who founded Troy! Smurov suddenly turned in, decisively proud of Krasotkin at this moment. He really liked the story about the goose.

- Really and so and shot down, sir? - the captain said flatteringly; - this is about who founded Troy, sir? We have already heard that we shot down, sir. Ilyushenka told me then, sir ...

- He, dad, knows everything, he knows better than anyone else! - Ilyushechka also picked up, - he is only pretending that he is like that, and he is our first student in all subjects ...

Ilyusha looked at Kolya with boundless happiness.

- Well, this is nonsense about Troy, nonsense. I myself consider this question empty, - Kolya responded with proud modesty. He had already managed to fully enter the tone, although, incidentally, he was also in some anxiety: he felt that he was in great excitement and that, for example, he had told too much from the bottom of his heart about the goose, and meanwhile Alyosha was silent all the time he was telling and was serious. And now, little by little, the proud boy began to scratch his heart: “Is it not because he is silent that he despises me, thinking that I am looking for his praise? In this case, if he dares to think it, then I ... "

“I consider this question to be decidedly empty,” he snapped once more proudly.

“And I know who founded Troy,” a boy, who had not yet said almost anything, said suddenly, silent and apparently shy, very pretty, about eleven years old, by the name of Kartashov. He was sitting at the very door. Kolya looked at him with surprise and importance. The fact is that the question: "Who exactly founded Troy?" resolutely turned into a secret in all classes, and in order to penetrate it, one had to read it from Smaragdov. But no one except Kolya had Smaragdov. And once the boy Kartashov, on the sly, when Kolya turned away, quickly turned Smaragdov, who was lying between his books, and went straight to the place where it was said about the founders of Troy. This happened quite a long time ago, but he was somehow embarrassed and did not dare to openly reveal that he also knew who founded Troy, fearing that something would not work out and that Kolya would not somehow embarrass him for this. And now suddenly for some reason he could not resist and said. And he had wanted to for a long time.

- Well, who founded it? - Kolya turned to him arrogantly and haughtily, already guessing from his face that he really knew, and, of course, immediately prepared for all the consequences. In the general mood there was what is called a dissonance.

“Troy was founded by Tevkr, Dardan, Illus and Tros,” the boy rapped out at once, and in an instant he blushed all over, so reddened that it was a pity to look at him. But the boys all looked at him point blank, looked for a whole minute, and then suddenly all those staring eyes at once turned to Kolya. He, with contemptuous composure, still continued to measure the impudent boy with his gaze:

- That is how they founded it? - he deigned to finally speak, - and what does it mean to found a city or a state in general? Well: they came and laid brick by brick or what?

There was laughter. The guilty boy went from pink to crimson. He was silent, he was ready to cry. Kolya withstood him like that for a minute.

“To interpret such historical events as the foundation of nationality, one must first of all understand what it means,” he sternly rapped out for edification. “However, I don’t attach importance to all these women’s tales, and indeed I don’t really respect world history,” he added suddenly casually, addressing everyone in general.

- This is the history of the world, sir? The captain inquired with some sudden alarm.

- Yes, world history. The study of a number of human stupidity, and nothing more. I respect mathematics and natural sciences alone, ”Kolya fought and glanced at Alyosha: he was afraid of only one opinion of his here. But Alyosha kept silent and was still serious. If Alyosha had said anything now, it would have ended there, but Alyosha kept silent, and "his silence could have been contemptuous," and Kolya was already completely irritated.

- Again these classic languages ​​now we have: one madness and nothing more ... You again, it seems, do not agree with me, Karamazov?

“I don’t agree,” Alyosha smiled with restraint.

- Classical languages, if you want all my opinion of them - this is a police measure, that's what they are for only, - little by little Kolya began to choke again, - they are brought up because they are boring, and because they dull abilities. It was boring, so here's how to make it even more boring? It was stupid, so how to make it even more stupid? So the classical languages ​​were invented. Here is my complete opinion about them and I hope that I will never change it, - Kolya finished abruptly. A red dot of blush showed on both cheeks.

- And he himself is the first in Latin! One boy suddenly shouted from the crowd.

- Yes, dad, he speaks himself, and he himself is the first in Latin in the class, - Ilyusha responded.

- What is it? - Kolya considered it necessary to defend himself, although he was very pleased with the praise. “I’m studying Latin because I have to, because I promised my mother to finish the course, but in my opinion, I’ve taken up what I’m doing, it’s good to do it, but in my heart I deeply despise classicism and all this meanness ... Don’t agree, Karamazov?”

- Well, why "meanness"? - Alyosha grinned again.

- Yes, pardon me, because the classics are all translated into all languages, so they did not need Latin at all to study the classics, but only for police measures and for dulling their abilities. How then is it not meanness?

- Well, who taught you all this? - Alyosha exclaimed, surprised at last.

- Firstly, I myself can understand, without learning, and secondly, you know, this is the same thing that I just told you about the translated classics, the teacher Kolbasnikov himself spoke aloud to the whole third grade ...

- The doctor has arrived! - suddenly exclaimed silent Ninochka all the time.

Indeed, a carriage belonging to Mrs. Khokhlakova drove up to the gates of the house. The staff captain, who had been waiting for the doctor all morning, rushed headlong to the gate to meet him. "Mamma" stepped up and assumed the importance. Alyosha went up to Ilya and began to straighten his pillow. Ninochka, from her armchairs, watched with concern as he straightened the bed. The boys hurriedly began to say goodbye, some of them promised to stop by in the evening. Kolya shouted Chime, and he jumped out of bed.

- I will not leave, I will not leave! - Kolya said in a hurry to Ilyusha, I will wait in the entryway and come again, when the doctor leaves, I’ll come with the Chime.

But already the doctor entered - an important figure in a bearskin coat, with long dark sideburns and with a shiny shaven chin. Stepping through the threshold, he suddenly stopped, as if taken aback: it seemed to him that he had gone in the wrong place: “What is this? Where I am?" he muttered, without throwing off his fur coat and without taking off his seals 'cap with a seals' visor from his head. The crowd, the poverty of the room, and the clothes hanging on a line in the corner confused him. The head-captain bent down before him in three deaths.

“You are here, sir, here, sir,” he muttered obsequiously, “you are here, sir, here, sir, to me, sir ...

- Sleep-gi-roar? - said the doctor importantly and loudly. - Mister Snegirev - is that you?

- It's me!

The doctor once again looked around the room with disgust and threw off his fur coat. An important order on the neck flashed into everyone's eyes. The staff captain picked up his fur coat on the fly, and the doctor took off his cap.

- Where is the patient? He asked loudly and urgently.

Vi. Early development

- What do you think the doctor will tell him? - Kolya said quickly; - what a disgusting mug, however, isn't it? I hate medicine!

- Ilyusha will die. This, it seems to me, probably, ”Alyosha answered sadly.

- Rogues! Rogue medicine! I am glad, however, that I recognized you, Karamazov. I've wanted to know you for a long time. It's a pity that we met so sadly ...

Kolya would very much like to say something even hotter, even more expansive, but as if something jarred him. Alyosha noticed this, smiled and shook his hand.

“I have long learned to respect a rare creature in you,” Kolya muttered again, bewildered and confused. “I heard you are a mystic and you were in the monastery. I know you are a mystic, but ... that did not stop me. Touching reality will heal you ... With natures as you do not happen otherwise.

- What do you call a mystic? What will it cure from? - Alyosha was a little surprised.

- Well, there is God and stuff.

- How, but don't you believe in God?

“On the contrary, I have nothing against God. Of course, God is only a hypothesis ... but ... I admit that he is needed for order ... for world order and so on ... and if it were not for him, then he would have to be invented, - added Kolya, starting to blush. He suddenly imagined that Alyosha would now think that he wanted to expose his knowledge and show how "big" he is. "And I do not want to expose my knowledge to him at all," Kolya thought indignantly. And he suddenly felt terribly annoyed.

- I, I confess, can not stand to enter into all this bickering, - he snapped, - you can, and without believing in God, love humanity, do you think? Voltaire did not believe in God, but he loved humanity? (Again, again! He thought to himself.)

“Voltaire believed in God, but it seems a little, and it seems that he loved mankind a little,” Alyosha said quietly, with restraint and completely naturally, as if talking with his equal in age, or even with an older person. Kolya was struck by this seemingly uncertainty of Alyosha in his opinion about Voltaire and that he seemed to be giving this question to him, little Kolya, for decision.

- Have you read Voltaire? - concluded Alyosha.

- No, not that I read ... I did read Candida, in the Russian translation ... in the old, ugly translation, funny ... (Again, again!)

- And you understand?

“Oh yes, everything… that is… why do you think that I would not understand? Of course, there are a lot of dirty tricks ... I am certainly able to understand that this is a philosophical novel, and was written to carry out the idea ... - Kolya got completely confused. “I’m a socialist, Karamazov, I’m an incorrigible socialist,” he suddenly cut short for no reason.

- Socialist? - Alyosha laughed, - but when did you manage it? You're only thirteen years old, aren't you?

Kolya grimaced.

- Firstly, not thirteen, but fourteen, two weeks later fourteen, - and he flushed, - and secondly, I don't understand at all what my summers are for? The point is what my convictions are, and not which year I am, isn't it?

- When you are more years old, then you yourself will see how important age has on persuasion. It seemed to me, too, that you were not speaking your own words, ”Alyosha replied modestly and calmly, but Kolya interrupted him fervently.

- Have mercy, you want obedience and mysticism. Agree that, for example, the Christian faith served only the rich and noble to keep the lower class in slavery, right?

- Oh, I know where you read it, and someone certainly taught you! - exclaimed Alyosha.

- Pardon me, why did I certainly read it? And nobody taught exactly. I myself can ... And if you want, I am not against Christ. He was a completely humane person, and if he lived in our time, he would have directly sided with the revolutionaries and might have played a prominent role ... This is even indispensable.

- Well, where, well, where did you pick it up! What kind of fool are you getting in touch with? - exclaimed Alyosha.

- Pardon me, you can't hide the truth. Of course, on one occasion, I often speak with Mr. Rakitin, but ... This is old man Belinsky, too, they say, he spoke.

- Belinsky? I do not remember. He did not write this anywhere.

- If he didn't write, then they say he did. I heard that from one ... but the devil ...

- Have you read Belinsky?

- You see ... no ... I didn’t quite read it, but ... the place about Tatyana, why she didn’t go with Onegin, I read.

- How did you not go with Onegin? But do you really ... understand?

- Pardon me, you seem to take me for the boy Smurov, - Kolya grinned irritably. - However, please do not think that I am such a revolutionary. I very often disagree with Mr. Rakitin. If I'm talking about Tatiana, then I'm not at all for the emancipation of women. I admit that a woman is a subordinate being and must obey. Les femmes tricottent, as Napoleon said, - Kolya smiled for some reason, - and at least in this I completely share the conviction of this pseudo-great man. For example, I also think that fleeing to America from the fatherland is meanness, worse than meanness is stupidity. Why go to America, when we can do a lot of good for mankind too? Right now. A whole lot of fruitful activities. So I answered.

- How did you answer? To whom? Has anyone already invited you to America?

- I confess, they beat me up, but I rejected it. This, of course, is between us, Karamazov, do you hear, not a word to anyone. This is me only for you. I do not want to get into the hands of the Third Section and take lessons from the Chain Bridge,

You will remember the building

At the Chain Bridge!

Remember? Fabulous! What are you laughing at? Do you think that I lied to you all? (And what if he finds out that in my father's closet there is only this one number for the Bell, and I haven't read anything else from this? - Kolya thought briefly, but with a shudder.)

“Oh no, I’m not laughing, and I don’t think you lied to me at all.” That’s just what it is that I don’t think so, because all this, alas, is sheer truth! Well, tell me, have you read Pushkin, Onegin… So you just talked about Tatiana?

- No, I haven't read it yet, but I want to read it. I am without prejudice, Karamazov. I want to listen to both sides. Why did you ask?

- Tell me, Karamazov, do you despise me terribly? - Kolya suddenly cut off and all stretched out in front of Alyosha, as if standing in a position. - Do me a favor, bluntly.

- I despise you? - Alyosha looked at him with surprise. - But for what? I am only sad that a charming nature like yours, which has not yet begun to live, has already been perverted by all this rude nonsense.

“Don’t worry about my nature,” Kolya interrupted, not without complacency, “but that I am suspicious, it is so. Stupidly suspicious, rudely suspicious. You just grinned, and it seemed to me that you seemed to ...

- Ah, I grinned at something completely different. You see what I chuckled at: I recently read a review by a foreign German who lived in Russia about our current student youth: “Show you - he writes - to a Russian schoolchild a map of the starry sky, about which he had no idea until then, and he will return this card to you tomorrow, corrected. " No knowledge and selfless conceit - this is what the German wanted to say about the Russian schoolchild.

- Ah, but this is absolutely true! - Kolya laughed suddenly, - vernissimo, exactly! Bravo, German! However, Chukhna did not consider the good side either, but what do you think? Self-conceit is even if it is from youth, it will be corrected, if only it is necessary for it to be corrected, but then an independent spirit, from almost childhood, but the courage of thought and conviction, and not the spirit of their sausage servility before the authorities ... But that's all- the German said well! Bravo, German! Although all the same the Germans must be strangled. They may be strong in the sciences, but they still need to be strangled ...

- Why strangle something? - Alyosha smiled.

- Well, maybe I lied, I agree. Sometimes I am a terrible child, and when I am happy about something, I can not resist and am ready to lie to nonsense. Look, we are still chatting about trifles here, and this doctor has been stuck there for a long time. However, he can examine the "mother" there and this legless Ninochka. You know, I liked this Ninochka. She suddenly whispered to me when I was leaving: "Why didn't you come earlier?" And in such a voice, with a reproach! I think she is terribly kind and pathetic.

- Yes Yes! As you walk, you will see what kind of creature it is. It is very useful for you to recognize such creatures, in order to be able to appreciate and much more, which you will learn from your acquaintance with these creatures, ”Alyosha noted with ardor. - It will remake you the best.

- Oh, how I regret and scold myself for not coming earlier! - Kolya exclaimed with bitter feeling.

- Very pity. You saw for yourself what a joyful impression you made on the poor baby! And how he killed himself, waiting for you!

- Do not tell me! You are annoying me. And yet it serves me right: I did not come out of selfish pride, out of selfish pride and vile autocracy, from which I cannot get rid of all my life, although all my life I have been breaking myself. I can see it now, I am in many ways a scoundrel, Karamazov!

“No, you are a charming nature, albeit a perverse one, and I too understand why you could have such an influence on this noble and painfully susceptible boy! - Alyosha answered hotly.

- And you are talking to me! - Kolya cried, - and I, imagine, I thought - I already several times, now as I am here, I thought that you despise me! If you only knew how much I value your opinion!

- But are you really so suspicious? In such years! Well, imagine, I just thought there in the room, looking at you when you told me that you must be very suspicious.

- Did you think so? What an eye you have, you see, you see! I bet it was in the same place when I talked about the goose. It was in this place that I imagined that you deeply despise me for the fact that I was in a hurry to show myself as a fine fellow, and I even suddenly hated you for this and began to carry nonsense. Then I imagined (this is already here now) at the place when I said: "If there was no God, then he must be invented" that I was in too much haste to expose my education, especially since I had read this phrase in a book. But I swear to you, I was in a hurry to expose not out of vanity, but, I don’t know why, from joy, by God, as if from joy ... although this is a deeply shameful trait when a person crawls on everyone's neck for joy. I know it. But I am convinced now that you do not despise me, but I invented all this myself. Oh, Karamazov, I am deeply unhappy. Sometimes I imagine, God knows what, that everyone is laughing at me, the whole world, and then, I'm just ready then to destroy the whole order of things.

“And you torture those around you,” smiled Alyosha.

- And I torture others, especially my mother. Karamazov, tell me, am I very funny now?

“Don’t think about it, don’t think about it at all!” - exclaimed Alyosha. - And what is funny? How many times does it happen or does a person seem ridiculous? At the same time, almost all people with abilities are terribly afraid of being funny and thus unhappy. I am only surprised that you began to feel it so early, although, by the way, I have noticed it for a long time and not on you alone. Today even almost children have begun to suffer from this. It's almost crazy. The devil has embodied in this pride and has climbed into the whole generation, precisely the devil, 'added Alyosha, not grinning at all, as Kolya, who was staring at him, thought. - You, like everyone else, - concluded Alyosha, - that is, like very many, only you don't have to be like everyone else, that's what.

- Even though everyone is like that?

- Yes, despite the fact that everyone is like that. You alone are not like that. You really are not like everyone else: now you are not ashamed to admit something bad and even funny. Who will admit it today? Nobody, and even the need, has ceased to be found in self-condemnation. Be different from everyone else; even if you alone remain different, still be different.

- Fabulous! I was not mistaken in you. You are able to comfort. Oh, how I longed for you, Karamazov, how long have I been looking for a meeting with you! Did you think of me too? Just now you said that you thought of me too?

- Yes, I heard about you and thought about you too ... and if partly and pride made you now ask this, then it's nothing.

“You know, Karamazov, our explanation looks like a declaration of love,” Kolya said in a somewhat relaxed and bashful voice. - It's not funny, isn't it funny?

“It’s not funny at all, but even if it’s funny, it’s nothing, because it’s good,” Alyosha smiled brightly.

“You know, Karamazov, you must agree that you yourself are now a little ashamed of me… I can see it in your eyes,” Kolya smiled somehow slyly, but with a kind of almost happiness.

- Why is it embarrassing?

- Why did you blush?

- Yes, you did it so that I blushed! - Alyosha laughed, and really blushed all over. “Well, yes, it's a little embarrassing, God knows why, I don’t know why…” he muttered, almost even embarrassed.

- Oh, how I love and appreciate you at this moment, precisely because you are ashamed of something with me! Because you are exactly me! - Kolya exclaimed in decisive delight. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes glittered.

“Listen, Kolya, by the way, you will also be a very unhappy person in life,” Alyosha suddenly said for some reason.

- I know I know. How do you know all this in advance! - Kolya immediately confirmed.

“But on the whole, bless life.

- Exactly! Hurrah! You are a prophet! Oh, we'll get along, Karamazov. You know, what admires me most of all is that you are with me exactly like an equal. And we are no equal, no, no equal, you are higher! But we'll get along. You know, for the whole last month I have been saying to myself: "Either we will become friends with him forever, or from the very first time we will disperse enemies to the grave!"

- And saying so, of course they loved me! - Alyosha laughed cheerfully.

- Loved, loved terribly, loved and dreamed of you! And how do you know everything in advance? Bah, here's the doctor. Lord, he will say something, look what his face is!

The doctor went out of the hut again wrapped in a fur coat and with a cap on his head. His face was almost angry and disgusted, as if he was still afraid of getting dirty on something. He glanced briefly around the canopy and at the same time glanced sternly at Alyosha and Kolya. Alyosha waved out the door to the coachman, and the carriage that had brought the doctor drove up to the exit doors. The staff captain rushed out after the doctor and, bending over, almost wriggling in front of him, stopped him for the last word. The face of the poor man was killed, his look was frightened:

- Your Excellency, Your Excellency ... really? .. - he began, and did not finish, but only threw up his hands in despair, although still looking at the doctor with the last supplication, as if in fact, the doctor's words could change the sentence on the poor boy.

- What to do! I'm not a god, ”the doctor replied in a casual, though habitually imposing voice.

“Doctor… Your Excellency… is it soon, soon?

“Get ready for everything,” the doctor rapped out, striking each syllable, and, bowing his gaze, he himself was about to step over the threshold to the carriage.

- Your Excellency, for Christ's sake! - the staff-captain stopped him once again, frightenedly, - your excellency!

“It’s not from me now,” the doctor said impatiently, “and yet, um,” he paused suddenly, “if, for example, you could… direct… your patient… now and not less not hesitating (the words "now and not hesitating" the doctor uttered not only strictly, but almost angrily, so that the captain even shuddered) in Si-ra-ku-zy, then ... due to new clean climatic conditions ... it could be pro-and-come ...

- To Syracuse! - cried the staff captain, as if not understanding anything yet.

“Syracuse is in Sicily,” Kolya snapped out loudly, for an explanation. The doctor looked at him.

- To Sicily! Father, your excellency, - the captain was lost, - but you saw! - he made a circle with both hands, pointing to his surroundings, - and mama, but what about the family?

- N-no, your family is not to Sicily, but your family to the Caucasus, in early spring ... your daughter to the Caucasus, and your spouse ... having kept the course of waters also in the Caucasus in view of her rheumatism ... immediately after to Paris, to the hospital of doctor psi-hi-atra Le-pelle-letier, I could give you a note to him, and then ... it could happen ...

- Doctor, doctor! Why, you see! The captain suddenly waved his arms again, pointing in despair at the bare log walls of the entryway.

- Ah, this is not my business, - the doctor grinned, - I just said what I could say to your question about the last resort, and the rest ... unfortunately for my ...

“Don’t worry, doctor, my dog ​​will not bite you,” Kolya snapped loudly, noticing the doctor’s somewhat anxious glance at Chime, who was on the doorstep. An angry note rang out in Kolya's voice. The word "doctor" instead of a doctor, he said on purpose and, as he announced later, "he said to insult."

- What? - the doctor threw up his head, staring at Kolya in surprise. - Which one? - he suddenly turned to Alyosha, as if asking that report.

- This is the owner of Chime, doctor, do not worry about my personality, - Kolya rapped out again.

- Ringing? - said the doctor, not understanding what Chime is.

- He doesn't know where he is. Goodbye doctor, see you in Syracuse.

- Who is this? Who, who? The doctor suddenly boiled terribly.

“This is a local schoolboy, doctor, he is a mischievous person, don’t pay attention,” Alyosha said, frowning and speaking quickly. - Kolya, shut up! - he shouted to Krasotkin. “Don't pay attention, Doctor,” he repeated, a little more impatiently.

- Wh-whip, wh-whip, wh-whip! - for some reason the already enraged doctor stamped with his feet too.

- And you know, a doctor, after all, Chime is probably what bites me! - Kolya said in a trembling voice, turning pale and flashing eyes. - Ici, Chime!

“Kolya, if you say just one more word, then I’ll break it with you forever,” Alyosha shouted imperiously.

- Healer, there is only one creature in the whole world that can give orders to Nikolai Krasotkin, this is this man (Kolya pointed to Alyosha); I obey him, goodbye!

He darted from his seat and, opening the door, quickly walked into the room. The chime rushed after him. The doctor stood for another five seconds, as if in a tetanus, looking at Alyosha, then suddenly spat and quickly walked to the carriage, repeating loudly: "Etta, etta, etta, I don't know what it is!" The staff captain rushed to get him in. Alyosha followed Kolya into the room. The latter was already at Ilya's bed. Ilyusha held his hand and called daddy. A minute later the staff captain also returned.

- Dad, dad, come here ... we ... - Ilyusha stammered in extreme excitement, but apparently unable to continue, suddenly threw both his emaciated arms forward and hugged them both as tightly as he could, both Kolya and Dad , combining them into one embrace and hugging himself to them. The headquarters captain suddenly shook all over with silent sobs, and Kolya's lips and chin trembled.

- Dad, dad! How sorry I am for you, dad! - Ilyusha moaned bitterly.

- Ilyushechka ... my dear ... the doctor said ... you will be healthy ... we will be happy ... doctor ... - the staff captain began to speak.

- Ah, dad! I know what the new doctor told you about me ... I saw! - exclaimed Ilyusha, and again tightly, with all his might, pressed them both to him, hiding his face on Dad's shoulder.

- Dad, don't cry ... but when I die, then take a good boy, another ... choose one of them, a good one, call him Ilyusha and love him instead of me ...

- Shut up, old man, you will recover! - Krasotkin suddenly shouted as if angry.

- And me, dad, never forget me, - continued Ilyusha, - go to my grave ... but that's what, dad, bury me at our big stone, to which you and I went for a walk, and go to me there with Krasotkin, in the evening ... And Chime ... And I'll be waiting for you ... Dad, dad!

- Ilyushechka! Ilyushechka! She exclaimed. Krasotkin suddenly freed himself from Ilya's embrace:

- Farewell, old man, my mother is waiting for me for dinner, - he said quickly ... - What a pity that I did not inform her! He will be very worried ... But after dinner I will immediately come to you, for the whole day, for the whole evening, and I will tell you so much, I will tell you so much! And I will bring the Chime, and now I will take it with me, because he will start howling without me and will interfere with you; Goodbye!

And he ran out into the hallway. He did not want to cry, but in the entryway he did weep. Alyosha found him in this state.

“Kolya, you must by all means keep your word and come, otherwise he will be in terrible grief,” Alyosha insisted.

- Certainly! Oh, how I swear to myself that I did not come before, - weeping and no longer embarrassed that he was crying, muttered Kolya. At that moment the captain suddenly jumped out of the room and immediately closed the door behind him. His face was frantic, his lips trembled. He stood in front of both young people and threw up both hands:

- I don’t want a good boy! I don’t want another boy! - he whispered in a wild whisper, grinding his teeth, - if I forget you, Jerusalem, let it stick ...

He did not finish, as if choking, and knelt down in powerlessness before the wooden bench. Clutching his head with both fists, he began to sob, somehow absurdly squealing, but with all his might, however, he braced himself so that they would not hear his screeching in the hut. Kolya jumped out into the street.

- Farewell, Karamazov! Will you come yourself? He shouted to Alyosha sharply and angrily.

- I will certainly be in the evening.

- What is he about Jerusalem ... What is this?

“This is from the Bible:“ If I forget you, Jerusalem, ”that is, if I forget everything that is most precious to me, if I exchange it for something, then let it amaze ...

- I understand, that's enough! Come yourself! Ici, Chime! - already quite fiercely he shouted to the dog and with big, quick steps walked home.

This article presents a summary of Dostoevsky's Boys. This is not a separate work, but a part of the novel "The Brothers Karamazov". The tenth chapter deals with Kolya Krasotkin and Ilyusha - the son of Snegirev, a man who was once publicly humiliated by Dmitry Karamazov. Of course, one of the main characters, Alexei, is also present here.

What is the summary for?

During school holidays, teachers advise children to start reading diaries. A brief summary of Dostoevsky's Boys should be included in such a notebook, perhaps, in the first place. It's no secret that the prose of this writer is rather complicated. There are a lot of characters and lengthy discourses in his books. It is advisable to record basic information about what you have read, as well as your own opinion about the characters and events of the work on paper. And this should be done not for the teacher, but for yourself.

Dostoevsky's "Boys", a summary of which will be included in the reader's diary, the schoolboy will remember years later, already as an adult, when he opens one from the most famous novels of Russian literature.

Why do we consider the tenth chapter as a separate work? It tells about the heroes who are also found in the novel, while the events reflected in this part are connected with the main ones only indirectly. The story of Kolya Krasotkin and his friendship with the boy Ilyusha is very touching. It will be of interest even to those who have not read the novel and are not familiar with its summary. Dostoevsky's Boys are often published as part of a collection of works for children. The writer often showed difficult childhood destinies in his books. Let us recall "Humiliated and Insulted", "Netochku Nezvanov".

In a condensed presentation of the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" F. M. Dostoevsky the summary of "Boys" is only two or three sentences, while the tenth chapter of the book can be considered a full-fledged story. There are problems here, a system of images, and a tragic denouement. We can devote quite a bit of time to the presentation of the summary of Dostoevsky's Boys, telling only about the main events. But it is better to make a more detailed description of the heroes and events.

Plan

In presenting a summary of Dostoevsky's Boys, it is advisable to adhere to a certain plan. The retelling, of course, should begin with the characteristics of the main character. Namely Kolya Krasotkina. And then tell about the relationship of the schoolboy with other children, as well as with Alyosha Karamazov. A summary of Dostoevsky's Boys by chapters will have the following plan:

• Kolya Krasotkin.
• Children.
• Pupils.
• The bug.
• Ilyushin's bed.
• Early development.

So, let's start retelling the summary of the story "Boys" by Dostoevsky.

Kolya Krasotkin

Official Krasotkin died many years ago. His wife was then only 18 years old. She directed all her energy and love to her little son, who was not yet a year old when the woman was widowed. The name of Kolya Krasotkin's mother Anna Fedorovna... The boy's widow was passionately in love, but during his short life he caused her more suffering than joy. Every day she went crazy with fear that suddenly he would fall, hurt his knee, or God forbid some other misfortune would happen to him. When he matured and entered the gymnasium, she began to study all sciences with him, in order to help, prompt her son.

Kolya Krasotkin had every chance of gaining the reputation of a mother's son. But that did not happen. It turned out that he was not timid. He knew how to win the respect of his peers, behaved with dignity with teachers, loved to play pranks, but never crossed the permissible limits. Anna Fyodorovna was worried, she often thought that her son did not love her enough. She reproached him for being cold, insensitive. But Krasotkin's widow was wrong. Kolya loved her very much, but could not tolerate what in the language of school students was called "calf tenderness."

The case on the railroad

Kolya was very proud. And he suffered a lot from this. And his mother was even more unhappy with his pride. One summer incident happened that almost drove her crazy. Kolya argued with the local boys that he could lie on the rails under the rushing train. They were older than him and they turned their noses too much. And that was intolerable. Kolya won the argument. But while he was lying on the tracks under the speeding train, he lost consciousness for only two minutes. The boys got scared, then they took them into their company and no longer considered them small.

This incident reached the gymnasium. A scandal could have erupted, which, perhaps, would have led to the expulsion of Kolya Krasotkin. But a teacher by the name of the Dardanels intervened. This man had a personal interest. For many years the Dardanelov was in love with Anna Fedorovna, and perhaps this feeling was mutual. But the widow considered marriage a betrayal of her beloved son. In the evening, a real drama broke out in the Krasotkin house. The mother sobbed, begged her son not to repeat such actions again. It all ended with the fact that Kolya himself, like a little boy, burst into tears and promised his mother never to upset her in the future.

Kids

Soon after the event, which upset Kolya's mother so much, but earned the respect of his peers, the boy brought home a mongrel. He called the dog Chime and dreamed, apparently, of raising an intelligent dog out of it, because he spent hours training it. In the chapter "Children", in fact, no events take place. It tells only about how once Kolya was forced to look after the neighbors' children.

Nastya and Kostya's mother took the maid to the hospital, and Agafya, who looked after Krasotkina's son, went to the market. The schoolboy could not leave "bubbles", as he affectionately called the kids, until one of them returned. But he had some, in his opinion, very important things to do. Therefore, without waiting for Agafya, Kolya went out into the street, taking from the children a promise that without him they would neither be naughty nor cry.

Pupils

What urgent business did Kolya Krasotkin have? Going out into the street, he went to meet a boy named Smurov. This was a lad from a well-to-do family. His father forbade him to communicate with Kolya, because he had a reputation as a desperate guy. It is worth saying that the boys did not go to the side of the railway at all, but to Snegirev's house. The very miserable person who was mistaken for a jester in the district and whom Dmitry Karamazov once treated so cruelly. But the reader knows about all this only if he is familiar with the content of Dostoevsky's entire novel. However, this unpleasant story is also mentioned in the tenth chapter.

The boys on this day were supposed to visit Ilya Snegirev, who had been seriously ill for a long time. This desire did not arise spontaneously. Alexey asked them to visit Ilya Karamazov is a man rather strange from Kolya's point of view. By that time, news of the arrest of his older brother had already spread throughout the district. A real drama unfolded in the family of Alexei. At the same time, he found time to help completely strangers to him. This surprised and amazed Krasotkin. The boy had long dreamed of meeting Karamazov.

Bug

To be an outcast is, apparently, the fate of every member of the Snegirev family. Nobody took the elder seriously in the district. The youngest, Ilyusha, also had problems with peers. Krasotkin met this boy even when he went to preparatory classes. He drew attention to the fact that Ilya is offended by his elders, but he is trying in every possible way to resist this. Kolya liked the boy's independence, and soon he took him under his wing. But one day there was an incident that made them quarrel.

Lackey Karamazov taught Snegirev Jr. cruel trick. Namely: insert a pin into the bread crumb, and then feed this bread to a hungry dog. The mongrel Zhuchka became the victim of Ilyusha, who disappeared without a trace shortly after such a breakfast. Kolya decided to punish his younger friend for his cruelty and stopped communicating with him. And soon Ilyusha fell ill.

Ilyushin's bed

Snegirev's housing was extremely miserable. In the corner sat a half-mad mother, a father who had recently given up drinking, occasionally ran out into the hallway, unable to contain the sobbing. Snegirev loved his son very much and, it seemed, would finally lose his mind when he died.

Kolya sat down by Ilyusha's bed, and then, a few minutes later, called Chime. He passed the dog off for the missing Beetle and assured the boy that she did not appear for so long, because she was subjected to his training lesson.

Early development

After visiting Ilyusha, Kolya went out into the street, where he talked for a long time with Alexei Karamazov. These events had a huge impact on Krasotkin. In just a few days, he became more mature, merciful, wiser. Ilyusha spent the last days of his life in the Snegirevs' house. Once a sick boy was examined by a metropolitan doctor who arrived here at the request of Katerina Ivanovna, the failed bride of Dmitry Karamazov. The doctor sentenced Ilya: he has several weeks to live. Hearing this, Krasotkin jumped out into the hallway and burst into tears.