The Power of Darkness Part 21

Silence. The cricket chirps.

NAN [whispers] Daddy! I say, daddy! Are you asleep?

MiTRITCH. Now then, what d'you want?

NAN. What's the bogey like?

MiTRITCH. Why, like this! When he finds such a one as you, who won't sleep, he comes with a sack and pops the girl into it, then in he gets himself, head and all, lifts her dress, and gives her a fine whipping!

NAN. What with?

MiTRITCH. He takes a birch-broom with him.

NAN. But he can't see there--inside the sack!

MiTRITCH. He'll see, no fear!

NAN. But I'll bite him.

MiTRITCH. No, friend, him you can't bite!

NAN. Daddy, there's some one coming! Who is it? Oh gracious goodness!

Who can it be?

MiTRITCH. Well, if some one's coming, let them come! What's the matter with you? I suppose it's your mother!

Enter Anisya.

ANiSYA. Nan! [Nan pretends to be asleep] Mitritch!

MiTRITCH. What?

ANiSYA. What's the lamp burning for? We are going to sleep in the summer-hut.

MiTRITCH. Why, you see I've only just got straight. I'll put the light out all right.

ANiSYA [rummages in her box and grumbles] When a thing's wanted one never can find it!

MiTRITCH. Why, what is it you are looking for?

ANiSYA. I'm looking for a cross. Suppose it were to die unbaptized! It would be a sin, you know!

MiTRITCH. Of course it would! Everything in due order.... Have you found it?

ANiSYA. Yes, I've found it. [Exit].

MiTRITCH. That's right, else I'd have lent her mine. Oh Lord!

NAN [jumps up trembling] Oh, oh, daddy! Don't go to sleep; for goodness'

sake, don't! It's so frightful!

MiTRITCH. What's frightful?

NAN. It will die--the little baby will! At Aunt Irene's the old woman also baptized the baby, and it died!

MiTRITCH. If it dies, they'll bury it!

NAN. But maybe it wouldn't have died, only old Granny Matryona's there!

Didn't I hear what granny was saying? I heard her! Blest if I didn't!

MiTRITCH. What did you hear? Go to sleep, I tell you. Cover yourself up, head and all, and let's have an end of it!

NAN. If it lived, I'd nurse it!

MiTRITCH [roars] Oh Lord!

NAN. Where will they put it?

MiTRITCH. In the right place! It's no business of yours! Go to sleep I tell you, else mother will come; she'll give it you! [Silence].

NAN. Daddy! Eh, daddy! That girl, you know, you were telling about--they didn't kill her?

MiTRITCH. That girl? Oh yes. That girl turned out all right!

NAN. How was it? You were saying you found her?

MiTRITCH. Well, we just found her!

NAN. But where did you find her? Do tell!

MiTRITCH. Why, in their own house; that's where! We came to a village, the soldiers began hunting about in the house, when suddenly there's that same little girl lying on the floor, flat on her stomach. We were going to give her a knock on the head, but all at once I felt that sorry, that I took her up in my arms; but no, she wouldn't let me! Made herself so heavy, quite a hundredweight, and caught hold where she could with her hands, so that one couldn't get them off! Well, so I began stroking her head. It was so bristly,--just like a hedgehog! So I stroked and stroked, and she quieted down at last. I soaked a bit of rusk and gave it her. She understood that, and began nibbling. What were we to do with her? We took her; took her, and began feeding and feeding her, and she got so used to us that we took her with us on the march, and so she went about with us. Ah, she was a fine girl!

NAN. Yes, and not baptized?

MiTRITCH. Who can tell! They used to say, not altogether. 'Cos why, those people weren't our own.

NAN. Germans?

MiTRITCH. What an idea! Germans! Not Germans, but Asiatics. They are just the same as Jews, but still not Jews. Polish, yet Asiatics. Curls ... or, Curdlys is their name.... I've forgotten what it is![8] We called the girl Sashka. She was a fine girl, Sashka was! There now, I've forgotten everything I used to know! But that girl--the deuce take her--seems to be before my eyes now! Out of all my time of service, I remember how they flogged me, and I remember that girl. That's all I remember! She'd hang round one's neck, and one 'ud carry her so. That was a girl,--if you wanted a better you'd not find one! We gave her away afterwards. The captain's wife took her to bring up as her daughter.

So--she was all right! How sorry the soldiers were to let her go!

[8] Probably Kurds.

NAN. There now, daddy, and I remember when father was dying,--you were not living with us then. Well, he called Nikita and says, "Forgive me, Nikita!" he says, and begins to cry. [Sighs] That also felt very sad!

MiTRITCH. Yes; there now, so it is ...

NAN. Daddy! Daddy, I say! There they are again, making a noise in the cellar! Oh gracious heavens! Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh, daddy! They'll do something to it! They'll make away with it, and it's so little! Oh, oh!