Explore "A Goodly Life" by Ivan Bunin on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
My life has been a well-spent one; I got everything I went after. I even own real property -- my little old man right after the wedding signed the house over in my name; and I keep horses, and two cows, and we have a business all our own. Of course, not a regular shop, now, but just a little store, as they say -- but then, in our village, it will pass. I always was successful, but then I have a persistent character, at that.
As to all sorts of work, it was still my daddy that learned me. Though he was a widower, and took to drink, he wasn't far behind me in being awful smart, businesslike, and heartless. When the serfs was freed, now, he up and says to me: