In
her letter Peter's mother first sent him her blessing, then greetings from
everybody and the news of his godfather's death, and at the end she added that
Aksinya (Peter's wife) had not wished to stay with them but had gone into
service, where they heard she was living honestly and well. Then came a
reference to the present of a ruble, and finally a message which the old woman,
yielding to her sorrows, had dictated with tears in her eyes and the church
clerk had taken down exactly, word for word: "One thing more, my darling
child, my sweet dove, my own Peterkin! I have wept my eyes out lamenting for
thee, thou light of my eyes. To whom has thou left me? . . . " At this
point the old woman had sobbed and wept, and said: "That will do!" So
the words stood in the letter; but it was not fated that Peter should receive
the news of his wife's having left home, nor the present of the ruble, nor his
mother's last words. The letter with the money in it came back with the
announcement that Peter had been killed in the war, "defending his Tsar,
his Fatherland, and the Orthodox Faith." That is how the army clerk
expressed it.
Comments