Weren’t the old times much better?  In a single darbas[42] we all lived together; three or four brothers and their families.  We saved in light and heat, and the blessing of God was with us.  Now in that respect it is wholly different.  If one brother spends fifty rubles, the other spends double the sum, so as not to be behind him.  And what kind of brothers are there now, as a rule?  And what kind of sisters and fathers and mothers?  If you were to chain them together you could not hold them together a week at a time.  If it is not a punishment from God, I don’t know what is.

[42] Hall.

CHACHO.  My dear Ossep, why do you revive those old memories?  It gives me the heartache to recall those old times.  I remember very well how it was.  In the room stood a long broad sofa that was covered with a carpet.  When evening came there would be a fire-pan lighted in the middle of the room and we children would sit around it That was our chandelier.  Then a blue table-cloth was spread on the sofa and something to eat, and everything that tasted good in those days was placed on it.  Then we sat around it, happy as could be:  grandfather, father, uncle, aunt, brothers, and sisters.  The wine pitcher poured out sparkling wine into the glasses, and it wandered from one end of the table to the other.  Many times there were twenty of us.  Now if for any reason five persons come together in a room one is likely to be suffocated. [Points to the ceiling.] With us there was an opening for smoke in the ceiling that was worth twenty windows.  When it became bright in the morning the daylight pressed in on us, and when it grew dark the twilight came in there, and the stars glimmered through.  Then we spread our bed-things out, and we went to sleep together with play and frolic.  We had a kettle and a roasting-spit in the house, and also a pot-ladle and strainer, and the men brought in the stock of provisions in bags.  Of the things they brought, one thing was as appetizing as the other.  Now, it seems the cooks and servants eat all the best bits.  God preserve me from them!  Our homes are ruined by the new ways!

OSSEP.  Do you know what, aunt?  I wager it will not be long before the whole city is bankrupt.  On one side extravagance and the new mode of life will be to blame, and on the other our stupidity.  Can we go on living so?  It is God’s punishment, and nothing more.  You will scarcely believe it when I tell you that I pay out ten rubles every month for pastry for the children alone.

CHACHO.  No!  Reduce your expenses a little, my son.  Retrench!

OSSEP.  That is easily said.  Retrench, is it?  Well, come over here and do it.  I would like to see once how you would begin.  Listen, now!  Lately I bought a pair of children’s shoes at the bazaar for three abaces.[43] The lad threw them to the ceiling.  “I want boots at two and a half rubles,” said the six-year-old rascal.  He was ready to burst out crying.