Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 01.djvu/211

Rh actual facts of his life with fantastic incidents. On the one hand, he told his history with too much feeling and methodical consistency, which form the chief characteristics of verisimilitude, not to be believed; on the other hand, there were too many poetical beauties in his history, so that these very beauties provoked doubt.

"Through my veins courses the noble blood of the Counts of Sommerblatt! In meinen Adern fliesst das edle Blut der Grafen von Sommerblatt! I was born six weeks after the wedding. The husband of my mother (I called him father) was a tenant at Count von Sommerblatt's. He could not forget my mother's shame, and did not like me. I had a smaller brother, Johann, and two sisters; but I was a stranger in my own family! Ich war ein Fremder in meiner eigenen Familie! When Johann did anything naughty, father said: 'I shall not have a moment of peace with this child Karl!' and I was scolded and punished. When my sisters quarrelled, father said: 'Karl will never be an obedient child!' and I was scolded and punished. Only my good mother loved and petted me. She frequently said to me, 'Karl, come here, into my room!' and she softly kissed me. 'Poor, poor Karl,' she said, 'nobody loves you, but I would not exchange you for anybody. Your mother asks only this of you,' she said to me, 'study well, and be always an honest man, and God will not abandon you!'  'Trachte nur ein ehrlicher Deutscher zu werden,' sagte sie, 'und der liebe Gott wird dich nicht verlassen!' And I tried.

"When I was fourteen years old, and I could go to confirmation, mother said to father: 'Karl is now a grown-up boy, Gustav. What are we going to do with him?' And father said: 'I do not know.' Then mother said: 'We shall take him to town to Mr. Schulz, so he may become a shoemaker!' and father said: 'All right!' und mein Vater sagte: 'Gut!' I lived six years and seven months in town with my master, the shoemaker, and my