|
| In addition to this, they are afraid that Vaniushka will not go with either of them, but will stay with grandfather, who always gets his own way, and might set up a third workshop with Ivanka, which would do your uncles no good. Now do you understand?" | А ещё боятся, что не пойдёт к ним Ванюшка, останется с дедом, а дед - своенравный, он и третью мастерскую с Иванкой завести может,-дядьям-то невыгодно будет, понял? |
| She laughed softly. | Она тихонько засмеялась: |
| "They are crafty about everything, setting God at naught; and grandfather, seeing their artfulness, teases them by saying: | - Хитрят всё, богу на смех! Ну, а дедушка хитрости эти видит да нарочно дразнит Яшу с Мишей: |
| 'I shall buy Ivan a certificate of exemption so that they won't take him for a soldier. I can't do without him.' | "Куплю, говорит, Ивану рекрутскую квитанцию, чтобы его в солдаты не забрали: мне он самому нужен!" |
| This makes them angry; it is just what they don't want; besides, they grudge the money. Exemptions cost money." | А они сердятся, им этого не хочется, и денег жаль, - квитанция-то дорогая! |
| I was living with grandmother again, as I had done on the steamer, and every evening before I fell asleep she used to tell me fairy stories, or tales about her life, which were just like a story. | Теперь я снова жил с бабушкой, как на пароходе, и каждый вечер перед сном она рассказывала мне сказки или свою жизнь, тоже подобную сказке. |
| But she spoke about family affairs, such as the distribution of the property amongst the children, and grandfather's purchase of a new house, lightly, in the character of a stranger regarding the matter from a distance, or at the most that of a neighbor, rather than that of the person next in importance to the head of the house. | А про деловую жизнь семьи - о выделе детей, о покупке дедом нового дома для себя - она говорила посмеиваясь, отчуждённо, как-то издали, точно соседка, а не вторая в доме по старшинству. |
| From her I learned that Tsiganok was a foundling; he had been found one wet night in early spring, on a bench in the porch. | Я узнал от неё, что Цыганок - подкидыш; раннею весной, в дождливую ночь, его нашли у ворот дома на лавке. |
| "There he lay," said grandmother pensively and mysteriously, "hardly able to cry, for he was nearly numb with cold." | - Лежит, в запон обёрнут, - задумчиво и таинственно сказывала бабушка, - еле попискивает, закоченел уж. |
| "But why do people abandon children?" |
