Stories

at least far less than Levka. To them, life was a heavy burden and a tedious ritual. Children? Children can be had by Levka too; that is no complicated matter. Why does Levka not work? Well, what harm is there in that, he asks nothing of anyone, he is fed somehow. How is he worse than the 'wise' ones who, despite working day and night, are no richer than he? Work is hardly some great pleasure; whoever can manage without work does not work. And why look far afield: one man who performs a service, that is, not a general service but at least for himself, Fyodor Grigoryevich, does absolutely nothing, the benefit happens for him all by itself. How Levka stays fed, I do not understand, but I know one thing: dull as he may be, if he gathers berries or mushrooms, it is not so easy to convince him that he should eat only unripe berries and toadstools while the delicious berries and porcini mushrooms belong to... well, let us say, to Father Vasily. Levka never lives at home, he does not fulfill the duties of a son or a brother. But then, do those who are at home fulfill them? He has seven more brothers and sisters who live in constant bickering among themselves, which has lasted something like a Thirty Years' War... And I constantly returned to the fundamental thought that the cause of all the persecution against Levka consists in the fact that Levka is stupid in his own peculiar way, whereas others are stupid across the board; and just as gamblers do not like those who do not play, and drunkards do not like the sober, so they hate poor Levka. However, I did not write the dissertation; for me, a seminary student, it seemed difficult and unseemly to write about