Степка, перевод А. Кременского

                STYOPKA
          Styopka was the youngest in my dog pack – a puppy of about 6-8 months, not more.
          I met him near our house. He was sitting at the gates, as if had always been living there. I called him, he came up trustingly, at once began licking; his soul has not yet become stale – during his very short life. Styopka had little time to get enough number of pushes, blows with a stick or stone.
   In our yard he behaved quite, like a child: he couldn’t lie calmly, like grown up dogs. He didn’t let them in piece – wanted to play: he ran up to Mafusail pack – 20-year-old Pirat, toothless old dog, – caught him by the tail, ears. Pirat had no strength to snap, he was only pitifully whining. Then Styopka threw himself at Volchok. The latter played with him for some time, but the age was not the same, he was soon tired of it , showed his teeth, pretended to be eager to bite Styopka. The puppy ran away, hid himself under the porch. The truce was short: soon he would get out in search of a new victim.
   He ate little, treated the food indifferently; would swallow a piece or two and begin catching by the tails the dogs, waiting from me new and new portions. Like any child, he was not baleful, he was gentle; he supposed that every creature, be it a man or a dog, possessed the same qualities, without guessing that there were in the world also malice, cunningness, cruelty. That was why he had fallen a victim of the dull malice.
   It happened on the same day, when I was performing that unhappy bargaining operation with Volchok. July is the month, when the sun is slowly moving along quite clear, whitish-blue sky, without meeting even a light little cloud. The water in Oscol doesn’t get cooler even at night; the earliest apples (bely naliv) ripe in the gardens – heavy, yellow-green, without ruddiness, sour-sweet, with the little bones  inside,  of chocolate color,  bitter, like almond. Leaves on the trees have already reached full ripeness – they all are large, dark-green, with a very firm net of vein. It is not easy to pick up such a leaf – only fierce, stormy whirls, bending old tree crowns to the earth, whirls, which suddenly rush at our Kuransk at the end of the month, are able to dot the lanes of our garden with the live, strong leaves, thrown from the trees.
Everyday heat almost every year caused in our town great misfortune: during the summer one or two mad dogs appeared on the streets.  I don’t remember a case, when they bit the people – they were done away with in time, but each time a mad dog caused alarm – people spoke about it for a long time.
  I happened to see a mad dog only once, but I remembered it all my life.
It happened after the midday, on the peak of the heat, when our Nagornaya street became empty, as at night,- everything alive hid from the sun. Father and mother slept after dinner. I languished from the heat and boredom  and was lounging only in shorts about the house and yard. All my dogs hid in the shadow – lying in the bushes, in the dark barn. Only Styopka kept vigil. Seeing me, he stretched himself, yawned blissfully and immediately began snatching me by the carves – the heat didn’t influence him.
I pushed him away lazily: 
– Let me alone, Styopka! Go to sleep.
But it wasn’t easy to rid of him.
 And suddenly I heard the cries behind the gates:
– Here it is! Beat it!!
 I rushed to the wicket.  From the side of the pasture the dog was running. It was not a big mongrel, it was jumping in a slow gallop, bending the head low. The nets of dense saliva hang from its jaws. Two unknown men from the neighboring street were running after it with the heavy sticks. They didn’t approach the dog, only shouted, warning that the dog was mad. Everything took place in a few minutes; the dog had already passed our house, when Styopka rushed after it – I had no time to catch him. The distance between us grew less. Styopka will just get even with the dog, and it will snap the puppy. But at that moment the door of one of the neighboring houses opened wide. Our neighbor, old retired colonel Suhih, jumped out onto the porch. He was in the military coat, without the shoulder straps, thrown above the under linen, – the colonel was having a rest after dinner. There was a double-barreled gun in his hands. Suhih threw up the gun, shot with the doublet – from both barrels. Both charges hit the dog – it turned round on the place, raising the clouds of dust, and fell dead.
One minute – and Nagornaya came to living: people jumped out of the houses, ran to Suhih. Styopka, frightened by the shooting, fell behind the mad dog and kept aside from the people. And suddenly my dog became the object of the hostile attention. The angry exclamations sounded:
– It has bitten the puppy!
– Yes, yes, we saw – they were fighting!
 I knew: my dogs had long caused the neighbors’ condemnation, father and mother kept the reserved silence, when the neighbors demanded to do away with “this pack”. And there it was – the opportunity to revenge for the neglect of their pieces of advice. In vain I tried to convince the bitchy, shouting, irritated with the heat, frightened crowd. They didn’t listen to me, they scolded me, even pushed away, demanding  that I should leave for home. The people surrounded old Suhih and demanded that he should immediately shoot down the puppy, otherwise it would get mad in a couple of days, bite the dogs from “his own pack”, and what – what would become of Kuransk then? It will be threatened with the epidemics of madness!
 Suhih was in indecision – he himself didn’t see the puppy’s fight with the mad dog, but that’s how many witnesses there were, and all of them assured that they had seen it with their own eyes! How was it possible not to believe it?
 I understood: it was necessary to save Styopka, to save immediately, otherwise it would be late – he would die for nothing! I ran up to Suhih.
– I assure you, Styopla only ran after the dog but didn’t overtake it – you jumped out and killed it. Snyopka was badly frightened – he is afraid of shooting.
  But then the whole horde rushed at me.  How is that? To defend this scabby, almost mad puppy? One could only imagine what had been shouted in different voices! I esteemed my dog higher than the peoples’ health! I didn’t care a fig about others, lest my mad puppy was left intact! I was brought up in selfishness, in ignorance towards the people – it was our family feature: like father, like son: the son is all after mother and father! I was disgraced, pressed, put down…When all was over with me, everybody again began attacking old Suhih: he had no right to neglect the request, no, not the request – the demand of the society! It wought be antihuman!
And Suhih began to give in. I saw – he was already believing these people, who themselves believed  in what had not happened.
And Styopka? He seemed to understand: his fate was being decided now. He was sitting farther and was whining a little, imploringly looking at me. And I lost courage and spirit. I should have rushed to Styopka, grabbed him in my arms, carried home, saved from these people, possessed with rage, thirst of senseless murder. But I sat down on the ground, cosed the face with my hands. Awful minutes have passed. Suhih ran to the house to overload the gun; then the shots sounded – one and immediately the other, from both barrels. Suhih shot at Styopka, as he did at the mad dog…
I opened the eyes – Styopka was lying on the ground with the crushed head.
Our neighbors began to leave: the matter had been done. I got up from the ground and slowly walked home .I couldn’t even look, let alone come up to Styopka.