So the man would
not break the sky; he would not rend it asunder with his terrible
arms. And then Foma sees the man again--he sits on the ground,
"his flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust, his skin is
broken." But now he is small and wretched, he is like a beggar at
the church porch.
Here he says:
"What is man, that he should be clean? And he which is born
of woman, that he should be righteous?" [These words attributed
by Mayakin to Job are from Eliphaz the Temanite's reply--
Translator's Note.]
"He says this to God," explained Mayakin, inspired. "How, says
he, can I be righteous, since I am made of flesh? That's a
question asked of God. How is that?"
And the reader, triumphantly and interrogatively looks around at
his listeners.
"He merited it, the righteous man," they replied with a sigh.
Yakov Mayakin eyes them with a smile, and says:
"Fools! You better put the children to sleep."
Ignat visited the Mayakins every day, brought playthings for his
son, caught him up into his arms and hugged him, but sometimes
dissatisfied he said to him with ill-concealed uneasiness:
"Why are you such a bugbear? Oh! Why do you laugh so little?"
And he would complain to the lad's godfather:
"I am afraid that he may turn out to be like his mother.
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