Read Books Online, for Free |
Creatures That Once Were Men | Maxim Gorky | |
Twenty-Six Men And A Girl |
Page 3 of 12 |
But the flame flickers once more in the huge oven, the baker scrapes incessantly with his shovel, the water simmers in the kettle, and the flicker of the fire on the wall dances as before in silent mockery. While in other men's words we sing out our dumb grief, the weary burden of live men robbed of the sunlight, the burden of slaves. So we lived, we six-and-twenty, in the vault-like cellar of a great stone house, and we suffered each one of us, as if we had to bear on our shoulders the whole three storys of that house. But we had something else good, besides the singing--something we loved, that perhaps took the place of the sunshine. In the second story of our house there was established a gold-embroiderer's shop, and there, living among the other embroidery girls, was Tanya, a little maid-servant of sixteen. Every morning there peeped in through the glass door a rosy little face, with merry blue eyes; while a ringing, tender voice called out to us: "Little prisoners! Have you any knugels, please, for me?" |
Who's On Your Reading List? Read Classic Books Online for Free at Page by Page Books.TM |
Creatures That Once Were Men Maxim Gorky |
Home | More Books | About Us | Copyright 2004