The Simpleton (Bunin)
Division into chapters is editorial.
The seminarists encounter with the simpleton cook
One hot, dark night, the deacon's son, a seminarist who was staying with his parents during the holidays, woke up with intense physical desire. He had been spying on young women bathing in the river earlier that day, and these images inflamed his imagination further.
He got up, stole in the darkness through the lobby into the kitchen... and groped... for the plank bed on which slept the cook, a beggarly lass without kith or kin and reputed to be a simpleton, and she, in terror, did not even cry out.
After this encounter, the seminarist continued to sleep with the cook throughout the summer. Their relationship resulted in the birth of a boy who began growing up with his mother in the kitchen.
Everyone in the village knew who the father of this child was - the deacon, his wife, the priest and his household, the shopkeeper's family, and the village constable with his wife. Despite this common knowledge, the seminarist could not bear to look at the boy due to his shame over having slept with the simpleton.
The return of the seminarist and the humiliating incident
After graduating from seminary with brilliant results, the young man returned to his parents' home for the summer before entering the academy. Proud of their son's achievements, the deacon and his wife invited guests for tea on the first holy day to show off their accomplished son.
The guests spoke enthusiastically about the seminarist's promising future while enjoying tea and various jams. During this animated conversation, the deacon wound up a gramophone that began to play "Along the Roadway." Everyone fell silent and listened with pleasure to the music.
Into the room, beginning to dance and stamp, clumsily and out of time, there flew the cook's boy, to whom his mother, thinking to touch everyone with him, had stupidly whispered: "Run and have a dance, little one."
The unexpected appearance of the boy bewildered everyone. The seminarist, turning crimson with rage and shame, threw himself upon the child and violently flung him out of the room with such force that the boy rolled into the entrance hall like a spinning top.
The dismissal of the mother and child
The day after the humiliating incident, the seminarist demanded that his parents dismiss the cook. Despite being kind and compassionate people who had grown very fond of her for her meekness and obedience, the deacon and his wife did not dare to disobey their son's wishes.
They pleaded with him in various ways to show mercy, but he remained adamant in his decision. By evening, the cook, quietly crying and holding her bundle in one hand and her son's little hand in the other, left the yard and their home behind.
Towards evening, quietly crying and holding in one hand her bundle and in the other the little hand of the boy, the cook left the yard. All summer after that she went around the villages and hamlets with him, begging for alms.
Life as beggars
Throughout the summer, the cook wandered from village to village with her son, begging for food and shelter. The harsh conditions took their toll on her - her clothes became worn and shabby, her skin weathered by wind and sun until she was nothing but skin and bone. Despite this, she remained tireless in her efforts to survive.
She walked barefoot with a sackcloth bag over her shoulder, supporting herself with a tall stick. In each village, she would bow silently before every hut, asking for charity. The boy followed behind her with his own small bag over his shoulder, wearing his mother's old, battered shoes that were hardened like discarded items found in a gully.
The boy was not conventionally attractive - he had a large, flat head covered with coarse red hair like a boar's, a squashed nose with wide nostrils, and nut-brown eyes that were very shiny. Yet despite his unusual appearance, when he smiled, there was something undeniably sweet about him.