May 28. An old man who saw me by the women’s bathing place asked me why I was sitting there. To which I replied: “I am keeping watch to make sure that no young men approach.” “Let us both keep watch,” the old man said, and, sitting down next to me, we began to discuss the virtues.
NADIA N.’S VACATION HOMEWORK
RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
Give five examples of relative clauses.
Not too long ago Rushia waged war on foreign parts, by the way killing many Turks
The railroad is screechy, carries people, and is maid of rails and materials.
Beef is maid of bulls and cows, while mutton is maid of sheep and baby lambs.
Papa was passed over for a medal, so he got angry and retired due to domestic reasons.
I adore my friend Dunya Walk-on-Waters-kaya for her diligence and attention in class and for being skillful at introducing me to the hussar Nikolai Spiridonich.
Give five examples of word agreement.
During Lent, priests and men of the cloth refuse to marry newlyweds.
Peasants live in country houses both summer and winter, beat their horses, but are terribly unclean, for they are bespattered with tar and refuse to hire maids and porters.
Parents give their daughters to military men who have a fortune and their own house.
Young boy! You must honor your papa and your mama, and thus you will be a pretty child and loved by everyone in the world.
No chance had he for one last sigh, As the lunging bear did upon him fly.
COMPOSITION
How did you spend your vacation?
The instant I passed my examinations I left with Mama, our furniture, and my brother Ioanni, a third-year lycée student, for our summer dacha. We were visited by: Katya Kuzevich with her mama and papa, Zina, little Egor, Natasha, and many other friends of mine, who took walks with me and embroidered out of doors. There were a lot of men, but us maidens kept away from them and paid no attention to them whatsoever. I read many books, among them Meshchersky, Maikov, Dumas, Livanov, Turgenev, and Lomonosov. Nature was at its zenith, the young trees growing in rampant profusion, no ax having yet sought out their robust trunks, and the delicate foliage cast a breezy, all-engulfing shade over the reedy soft grasses speckled with the gilded tips of buttercups, an azure spray of bluebells, and crimson cloves. (Teacher’s note: evidently lifted from Turgenev’s “Silent Moment”!) The sun rose and it set. Where it rose there was a herd of birds flying. There was this shepherd who was shepherding his sheep, and there were some clouds floating under the sky. Oh how I do love nature! My papa was jittery all summer long. The evil bank wanted to take possession of our house just like that, and Mama never left Papa’s side as she was afraid he would take his own life. I had a very good vacation because I studied science and comported myself very well. The end.
ARITHMETIC
Three merchants invested capital in a trading enterprise, which within a year brought them a profit of 8,000 rubles. Question: How much did each receive if the first merchant invested 35,000 rubles, the second 50,000, and the third 70,000?
Answer: To solve the problem, one has to begin by figuring out which of the merchants invested the most money. This can be done by taking the three amounts and subtracting them from one another, from which we see that the third merchant invested most, as he did not invest 35,000, or 50,000, but 70,000. Fine. The next step is figuring out how much each of the merchants received, for which we must divide 8,000 into three parts so that the largest part will go to the third merchant. Division: three goes into eight two times. 3 x 2 = 6. Fine. Subtract six from eight which leaves you with 2. Add a zero. Subtract eighteen from twenty which again leaves you with two. Keep adding zeros till the end. The result is 2 rubles and 666 and 2/3 kopecks, which leads us to deduce that each merchant should have received 2 rubles and 666 and 2/3 kopecks, and the third merchant a little bit more.
Authenticated by—Chekhonte
WORDS, WORDS, WORDS
Gruzdev, a young telegraph operator, was lounging on a sofa in a hotel room, his light-blond head propped on his hands. He was gazing at a tiny red-haired young woman.
“Tell me, Katya, what led you to become a fallen woman?” he asked with an offhand sigh. “By the way, you look frozen through!”
It was one of the worst possible March nights. The dull flicker of the streetlamps barely lit the grimy, thinning snow. Everything was wet, dirty, and gray. The wind moaned quietly, timidly, as if afraid it might be forbidden to sing. There was the sound of heavy feet tramping through the slush. Nature was in the grip of nausea.
“What led you to become a fallen woman?” Gruzdev asked again.
Katya looked shyly into his eyes. They were honest, warm, sincere eyes, she thought. Fallen creatures are drawn to honest eyes like moths to a flame. A kind look is worth more than a full bowl of gruel. Embarrassed, picking at the fringe of the tablecloth, she told Gruzdev her sad tale. A humdrum tawdry tale: a man, promises, deceit, and so on.
“What a scoundrel!” Gruzdev muttered indignantly. “Brutes like that should be rounded up and sent to hell one and all! Was he rich?”
“Yes.”
“I knew it! But you women are just as much to blame, hankering after money like that! What do you need all that money for?”
“He swore he would take care of me for the rest of my life,” Katya whispered. “Is that so bad? How could I resist? I have a poor old mother to care for!”
“What unfortunate creatures you are! And you all end up like this out of sheer foolishness, out of idiocy! You women are all so fainthearted! Unfortunate, pitiful! Listen, Katya! It’s none of my business, and I’m the last person to want to meddle in other people’s affairs, but your face is so sad I have to speak my mind! Why don’t you return to a respectable life? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? After all, it’s plain to see that you are not completely ruined yet, that you can still turn back! Why don’t you at least try to be respectable again? You could, Katya, I’m sure of it! You have an honest face, and in your eyes there is goodness, sorrow. You have such a nice smile!”
Gruzdev took Katya by both hands and, looking through her eyes into her soul, uttered many kind words. He spoke in a soft trembling tenor, his eyes filled with tears. His hot breath poured over her face and neck.
“You can be respectable again, Katya! You are still young, you must try!”
“I have tried, but . . . but nothing came of it! I tried everything! Once I even started working as a scullery maid, though . . . though I am of noble lineage! I wanted to give up my life of sin! Better the dirtiest drudgery than the trade I am in now! I worked as a scullery maid in a merchant’s house. I stayed there for a month and I made do, life was livable. But the mistress was a jealous woman, even though I never paid the slightest attention to the master. Finally she threw me out, and again I had nowhere to go, and . . . and I ended up where I started! Right where I started!”
Katya’s eyes widened, her face grew pale, and suddenly she let out a shriek. In the room next door something fell crashing to the floor—Katya’s shriek must have startled someone. Her thin hysterical sobs echoed through the flimsy partition between the rooms. Gruzdev quickly got her some water. Ten minutes later Katya was lying on the sofa, still sobbing, “What a worthless woman I am! The worst in the whole world! I will never manage to return to a life of decency now! Never! I will never manage to lead a virtuous life! How can I? I am so vile! I am so ashamed! But I deserve no better!”
Katya said little, not as much as Gruzdev, but there was candor in her words. She wanted to make a full confession, the confession of an honest sinner, but her words did not amount to more than moral self-flagellation. Again and again she clawed at her soul.