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2
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
presents itself every time that I begin to recall the
very earliest years of my life.
A chiming of bells. An odor of incense. A throng
of people comes out of the church. Nurse leads me
by the hand from the church porch, carefully
shielding me from being jostled. " Don’t hurt the child !"
she repeats every moment, in a beseeching tone, to the
people who are crowding about us.
As we emerge from the church, one of nurse’s
acquaintances approaches, clad in a long
under-cas-sock (he must have been a deacon or a chanter), and
gives her one of the little sacramental loaves.1 " Eat,
and may health attend you, madam," he says to her.
" Come, now; tell us your name, my clever child,"
he says to me.
I make no reply, but stare at him with all my eyes.
" ’T is shameful, miss, not to know your name!"
says the chanter, jeeringly.
" Tell him, my dear, ’ My name is Sönetchka, and
my father is General Krukovsky,’" nurse prompts me.
I try to repeat after her, but it must have been a
failure, for nurse and her friend break out laughing.
Nurse’s friend accompanies us home. I dance about
all the way, and repeat nurse’s words, mangling them
after my own fashion. Evidently this is a new fact
to me, and I try to engrave it in my memory.
As we approach our house, the chanter points out
the gate to me.
"You see, little bdryshnya [miss], there is a hook
hanging on the gate," he says. " When you forget
1A prosford: the little leavened double loaf, from bits of which
the communion is prepared. When more than one prosford is
used the auxiliary loaves are generally given to persons of
distinction who may be present. Such a gift is regarded as a
compliment and favor.—Trans.
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