To further encourage citizens to have more children, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on the 9th to relax the conditions for parents with multiple children who can take annual leave with pay at any time. Russian “Izvestia” reported on the 10th that the law will amend the current “Labor Law” and raise the upper limit of the age of the oldest child in the family from 12 to 18. In this case, parents with multiple children have the right to enjoy paid annual leave at their convenient time until the youngest child reaches the age of 14.
The law implemented in 2018 provides parents with 3 or more children with the minimum age of 12 years old and below the right to take annual leave with pay at any time. The chairman of the Russian State Duma Volodin said that the amendments to the “Labor Law” are aimed at making the lives of parents with multiple children more comfortable. Last summer, Russian State Duma member Sukhalev proposed to increase the paid annual leave for parents with three or more children from 28 days to 35 days. Because these parents have a heavy burden, the practice will give them more time for personal rest or spending time with their children. Russian netizen Katya said that in the context of the current national fertility rate continues to decline, to encourage people to have more children, more preferential policies should be provided for multi-child families so that they have more time to raise children.
Tom found that the longed-for vacation began to stretch in front of him in an endless, dreary way just eight days after it began. He hardly knew what to do with himself in this long, long time. Becky Thatcher had traveled to their estate with her parents to spend the weeks of freedom there, and had taken the last ray of light with her on that endless night of boredom. A couple of children’s societies only served to make the gaping void of Becky’s absence all the more palpable. A compassionate measles epidemic took pity on the bored youth, but in its mild character did not even offer the prospect of trembling here and there for a change about the endangered life of some comrade. It too was boring and monotonous like everything else.
Finally life came to the sleepy atmosphere. The murder trial went to court and immediately became the talk of the town. He kept Tom calm. Every new mention of the murder sent a shudder to his heart. His guilty conscience and fear made him sense a “feeler” in every comment on it, which one stretched out to probe it. Admittedly, on closer consideration, it did not seem possible to him that one would be one in him[198] Anyone who knew about the deed could suspect, but he was not comfortable with the matter; He was constantly overcome by it, now hot, now cold. In a lonely place he took Huck aside to talk to him. What a relief it must have been to loosen the seal on one’s lips for just a little while, to roll half the burden on the shoulders of a compassionate person, a fellow sufferer. Besides, Tom wanted to be certain of Huck’s steadfast silence.
“Huck, have you ever told anyone about it?”
“Of what?”
“You already know yourself.”
“I see! Well, of course not. ”
“Not a word?”
“Not a single word, no, God knows! What are you asking?”
“Well, I – I was scared.”
“You know it yourself, Tom Sawyer, the two of us would be cold in three days if that came out!”
Tom felt a little calmer. After a break:
“Huck, you know, nobody can force you to say something, can you?”
“Force me! Well, if I wanted the Indian dog to drown me, yes, then it would be possible for me to tell – otherwise not! ”
“Well then it’s good! I think we’re safe as long as we keep our mouths clean. But let’s swear again. I mean, it’s safer! ”
“For my part.”
And again the boys swore a gruesome solemn oath.
“What are they mostly chatting about in town right now, Huck? I heard everything mixed up! ”
[199]
“Chatter? Egg, Muff Potter, Muff Potter and nothing but Muff Potter, always and forever. It’ll drive me out of a cold sweat just hearing the name. I prefer to put cotton in my spoons! ”
“That’s just how it works for me, just like that! I think he’s lost. Doesn’t it take you sometimes too? ”
“Always, almost all the time. It is not worth much, but it has not done anybody any harm. I guess you steal a fish to get money for schnapps and get drunk, and stroll around all day, but – God, – everyone does that – at least almost everyone. But he’s a good guy. Once he gave me half a fish and ate himself hungry on the other half, and often and often he helped me when I was in trouble somewhere. ”
“And he mended kites for me, Huck, and hooked fishhooks to a line. God knows I wish we could set him free! I would give something! ”
“Good heavens, that wouldn’t help much, Tom, they would have it back in a second!”
“That’s true, but I can’t listen to it when they go out on him as if he were God in person and he didn’t do it at all.”
“That’s how I feel right now, Tom. Christ, that’s why they’re chatting as if he were the most bloodthirsty dog in the country and just by mistake not been tied up somewhere long ago. ”
“Yes, God knows, I even heard someone say that if they let him go, he should be lynched immediately. Oh, my goodness! ”
“And they would do that too, as much as I am standing here!”
The boys chatted like that for a long time, but it brought them no consolation. In the meantime dusk was falling[200] and they found themselves suddenly in front of the small, lonely prison, in the unacknowledged hope that some kind fate might bring about some change for the better, whereby they would be freed from their torment. But nothing happened. The angels and all the good spirits seemed to have pulled their hands off the unfortunate prisoner.
As often before, the boys approached the small grille and passed Potter tobacco and lighter through. It was lying on the floor and there were no guards.
His touching gratitude had cut deep into their hearts before and that’s more than ever this time. But they felt themselves to be cowardly, miserable traitors of the worst kind, as Potter said:
“You have been tremendously good to me, boys – better than anyone in town. And I remember you, God knows, I’ll do it. I often say to myself: ‘You’ve only done good things to the boys all your life, patched up the dragons of the rascals and shown the best fishing spots, but no, there is no gratitude, everyone has forgotten the old Muff,[201] who is now so deep in the ink, everyone – only not Tom and not Huck, they haven’t forgotten him, ‘I say,’ and old Muff doesn’t forget them either. ‘Look, boys, I have ‘Yes, I did something terrible, as drunk and crazy as I was, that’s the only way I can explain it to myself, now I’m supposed to dangle for it and I’m doing the right thing. It serves me right, I say, and it will probably be the best for me too, I think. Well, let’s leave it alone, stop gossiping about it. Don’t want your heart to feel heavy because you’ve been so good to me. What I just wanted to say ‘, boys, never get drunk, when you grow up, then you never have to sit here, in that terrible hole. How, do yourselves a bit like that, it’s a godsend, To see friendly faces when you’re in a mess, and I don’t see any more than yours. Good, friendly faces – good, dear faces! Put yourselves like this, step one on top of the other, so that I can touch you too – like this! That’s the spirit! Now give me your hands, so, your little paws can get through the bars, my paws are too wide for that. Little hands – little, weak hands, have done a lot of good to old Muff Potter, and would do it even more if they could, good boys? So, and now run away, otherwise the old muff will be as soft as a washcloth and that’s no good. ” sometimes one on top of the other so that I can touch you too – like this! That’s the spirit! Now give me your hands, so, your little paws can get through the bars, my paws are too wide for that. Little hands – little, weak hands, have done a lot of good to old Muff Potter, and would do it even more if they could, good boys? So, and now run away, otherwise the old muff will be as soft as a washcloth and that’s no good. ” sometimes one on top of the other so that I can touch you too – like this! That’s the spirit! Now give me your hands, so, your little paws can get through the bars, my paws are too wide for that. Little hands – little, weak hands, have done a lot of good to old Muff Potter, and would do it even more if they could, good boys? So, and now run away, otherwise the old muff will be as soft as a washcloth and that’s no good. ”
Tom crept home miserable and battered and his nightly dreams were full of horrors. On the following day and the day after that, he hovered around the courtroom. He was drawn in almost irresistibly, and he had to force himself to stay outside. It was just like that for Huck. They now deliberately avoided each other. They ran away from time to time only to find themselves driven back by the same uncanny attraction. Tom pointed[202] the ears, as soon as a group of curious people left the room, heard only bad and worse, the chain of evidence tightened more brazenly and more relentlessly around poor Potter from minute to minute. At the end of the second session of the day it was said that the Indian Joe’s testimony stood firmly and steadfastly like a wall, and there could hardly be any doubt as to how the jury’s verdict would turn out.
That evening Tom was hanging around outside very late, came home through the window and was in a state of terrible excitement. He rolled on his bed for hours before he could fall asleep.
The next morning the whole city flocked to the courtroom, because today was the big day on which the decision was to be made. Both sexes were represented in large numbers among the crowded audience. After a long pause, the jury entered the hall and took their seats. Soon after, Potter was brought in, pale, hollow-cheeked, in chains. He sat there, intimidated and hopeless, while all the curious eyes stared at him mercilessly. Also noticed was the Indian Joe, who looked stupid as usual. There was another pause, then the judge appeared and the sheriff announced the beginning of the trial. The usual sticking together and whispering of the lawyers and the rustling and rummaging of papers followed. All of this
[203]
A witness was now called to testify that at the earliest hour of the morning of the day that brought the discovery of the murder he had seen Muff Potter washing himself by the brook and at once sneaked away secretly when he saw himself being watched. After a few more questions, the public prosecutor referred the defendant’s witness: “The defense attorney has the floor.”
The defendant raised his eyes for a moment, but immediately lowered them when his defense attorney said:
“I do without it.”
The next witness swore that the knife had been found near the body. Again the prosecutor assigned the witness to the defense attorney, and once again the defense attorney refrained from asking any questions.
A third witness claimed to have seen the knife in Potter’s possession. The public prosecutor transfers the same to the defense attorney for the third time:
“The defense attorney has the floor.”
And for the third time he replied calmly and coldly:
“I renounce!”
A slight restlessness began to make itself felt in the audience. Was this defense attorney trying to divulge his client’s life without attempting to save it?
Several witnesses testified that Potter clearly behaved guiltily in being taken to the scene of the crime. They too were allowed to take the stand without further cross-examination.
Every detail of the extremely grave incidents that took place on that memorable morning in the cemetery, and which everyone present remembered, was corroborated by credible witnesses, but none of these witnesses subjected Potter’s defense attorney to the slightest interrogation. The[204] The audience was amazed and dissatisfied with this in loud grumbling, which resulted in a reprimand and reprimand on the part of the chairman. Now the prosecutor took the floor:
“Corrected by the oath of honorable men, whose simple word is beyond suspicion, we find ourselves compelled to bring the crime at issue to the unfortunate defendant. We consider the case to be proven. ”
A groan escaped the poor Potter’s tormented chest, he put his hands over his face and rocked his upper body to and fro, in the excess of the pain. There was a deep, silent, embarrassing silence in the house. Many a hard man’s heart was moved, and the women’s pity expressed itself in rivers of tears. At last the defense attorney spoke:
“Gentlemen, judges and juries. At the beginning of these negotiations we announced our intention to assert in favor of our client that he had committed the terrible deed in a state of senseless delirium caused by an excess of spirits, a state which in itself should exclude any responsibility. We have given up this intention, we will not refer to it any further. ”
Turning to the bailiff, he then exclaimed:
“Show off Thomas Sawyer!”
Amazed astonishment was evident on every face, not excluding Potter’s. Every eye was attached to Tom with increasing interest as he stood up and approached the stand. The boy looked confused enough and was evidently terrified. The interrogation began:
“Thomas Sawyer, where were you at midnight on June seventeenth?”
[205]
Tom briefly glanced at the iron forehead of the Indian Joe, and his tongue failed him. The crowd listened breathlessly, the words would not come. After a few moments, however, the boy pulled himself together and managed to gain control over his voice, at least to the extent that part of the house could understand him:
“In the cemetery.”
“A little louder, please. Don’t be afraid! So you were – ”
“In the cemetery.”
A contemptuous smile flickered over Indian Joe’s face.
“Were you anywhere near old William’s grave?”
“Yes, lawyer.”
“Couldn’t you speak a little louder? How close do you think you were? ”
“As close as I am here to you.”
“Were you hiding or not?”
“I was hidden.”
“Where?”
“Behind the elms that stand there near the grave.”
The Indian Joe winced almost imperceptibly.
“Was there anyone else with you?”
“Yes, I went there with -”
“Hold on a minute. We don’t want to hear the name yet, we’ll come back to that later. Did you bring anything? ”
Tom hesitated and looked down in confusion.
“Come on, my boy, don’t be afraid. Speaking the truth is always honorable. So what did you have with you? ”
[206]
Unconsciously, the questioner had fallen from the formal tone of a public inquirer to the encouraging, fatherly one, which was far more appropriate to our hero. Encouraged by this, he hesitantly stammered:
“Just – just – just a dead cat!”
A low giggle could be heard, which was stopped immediately.
“We shall take the liberty of showing the skeleton in question to the jury as evidence later. And now, my son, tell me everything you’ve seen, tell it your own way, don’t hide anything from us, forget anything and, above all, don’t be afraid. ”
Tom began – stuttering, hesitant at the beginning, but since he warmed himself with his subject, the words flowed more easily and more easily. After a few moments every other noise in the whole, wide hall died away, only the sound of the clear, bright boy’s voice was audible. Every eye was fixed on the boy, mouth open, one followed his words with restrained breath, judges, jury members, audience seemed removed from the world, so captivated they were by the drastic description of the gruesome deed. The breathless excitement of the meeting had reached its climax when the boy said, “And as the doctor struck the muff potter with the board and he fell over, the Indian Joe jumped up with the knife and -”
Crash! The Indian Joe jumped up as quickly as lightning, fell to the window, hurling aside those standing in his way, and before you came to your senses he had swung through and – was gone!
