Moments The Beggar - CBSE Revision Notes
CBSE Class 09 English Language and Literature
Revision Notes
Moments Chapter-10
The Beggar
Revision Notes
Moments Chapter-10
The Beggar
This story is about an advocate,who helped a poor helpless man in regaining his lost dignity and changed his life completely. Advocate Skvortsov once met a beggar.He was wearing a tattered dark blue coat and looked pale ,sunken and drunk.He begged for food and some money.He tells the lawyer that he had been a schoolmaster in a village for five years but was thrown out of his job because of some false implications But Skvortsov was sure that he had seen him before.He then tells him that he has been offered a job in Kaluga province but he is short of money to travel to that place.He tries to show that he is feeling ashamed of himself but circumstances are forcing him to beg for survival.
The advocate looked at him and said, "The day before yesterday I met you in Sadovoy Street, and that time you told me that you were a student and have been expelled. Do you remember?"
The beggar got confused and tried to lie again but Skvortsov did not listen.He even threatened to hand him over to the police for his shameless lies. At first, the beggar tried to defend himself and protested with oaths but later sank in silence and hung his head in shame.He then tells him that he was in Russian Choir but was turned out because of his drunkenness.He lied and begged as nobody believed his truth and was not ready to help him.
The lawyer scolds him for his bad habits and advises him to find some work for himself.
Later, the beggar agrees to work for him and chop wood at his house. Skortsov calls his cook Olga and asks her to take him to the shed and show him the work.
The beggar silently sits and starts chopping the wood.Looking at him ,the lawyer started feeling a little sore as he did not want to be such harsh on a pampered ,drunken and perhaps a sick man and make him do such tough work on a cold night.But felt contented as he was going to make his life good.
A little later ,Olga arrives and tells him that the wood had been chopped.The advocate tells her to give him half a rouble for that.He tells her to tell the beggar that can come there on the first of every month to chop the wood,if he likes.
From then onward, the beggar would visit him frequently and do all the other odd jobs for him and Skvortsov paid him in roubles.
The lawyer was impressed the way the beggar,whose name was Lushkov,hard worked for him and had changed his ways for good.The lawyer asks him if he could write and asks him to go to one of his colleague who would further help him in earning his livelihood.He takes the letter from him and bids him good-bye
Two years had passed since Lushkov left for a better job.One day Skvortov saw a man standing next to him at a ticket window in a theatre and recognizes him as his little wood-chopper. Lushkov also rejoices on seeing him and tells him that he is working at notary's office and earns thirty-five roubles a month. Lushkov thanks him for scolding him the other day and showing him the right path.He also thanks Olga for helping him and tells that it was she who would chop the wood for him.It was because of her noble ways that he left his drinking habit and changed his soul.
