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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/986-0.txt b/986-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..639bf6c --- /dev/null +++ b/986-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2570 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Master and Man + +Author: Leo Tolstoy + +Translator: Louise and Aylmer Maude + +Release Date: July, 1997 [Etext #986] +Posting Date: July 9, 2009 +Last Updated: September 10, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER AND MAN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + + + + + +MASTER AND MAN + +By Leo Tolstoy + + +Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude + + + + + +I + +It happened in the ‘seventies in winter, on the day after St. Nicholas’s +Day. There was a fete in the parish and the innkeeper, Vasili Andreevich +Brekhunov, a Second Guild merchant, being a church elder had to go to +church, and had also to entertain his relatives and friends at home. + +But when the last of them had gone he at once began to prepare to drive +over to see a neighbouring proprietor about a grove which he had been +bargaining over for a long time. He was now in a hurry to start, +lest buyers from the town might forestall him in making a profitable +purchase. + +The youthful landowner was asking ten thousand rubles for the grove +simply because Vasili Andreevich was offering seven thousand. Seven +thousand was, however, only a third of its real value. Vasili Andreevich +might perhaps have got it down to his own price, for the woods were in +his district and he had a long-standing agreement with the other village +dealers that no one should run up the price in another’s district, but +he had now learnt that some timber-dealers from town meant to bid for +the Goryachkin grove, and he resolved to go at once and get the matter +settled. So as soon as the feast was over, he took seven hundred rubles +from his strong box, added to them two thousand three hundred rubles of +church money he had in his keeping, so as to make up the sum to three +thousand; carefully counted the notes, and having put them into his +pocket-book made haste to start. + +Nikita, the only one of Vasili Andreevich’s labourers who was not drunk +that day, ran to harness the horse. Nikita, though an habitual drunkard, +was not drunk that day because since the last day before the fast, when +he had drunk his coat and leather boots, he had sworn off drink and +had kept his vow for two months, and was still keeping it despite the +temptation of the vodka that had been drunk everywhere during the first +two days of the feast. + +Nikita was a peasant of about fifty from a neighbouring village, ‘not +a manager’ as the peasants said of him, meaning that he was not the +thrifty head of a household but lived most of his time away from home +as a labourer. He was valued everywhere for his industry, dexterity, and +strength at work, and still more for his kindly and pleasant temper. But +he never settled down anywhere for long because about twice a year, or +even oftener, he had a drinking bout, and then besides spending all his +clothes on drink he became turbulent and quarrelsome. Vasili Andreevich +himself had turned him away several times, but had afterwards taken him +back again--valuing his honesty, his kindness to animals, and especially +his cheapness. Vasili Andreevich did not pay Nikita the eighty rubles +a year such a man was worth, but only about forty, which he gave him +haphazard, in small sums, and even that mostly not in cash but in goods +from his own shop and at high prices. + +Nikita’s wife Martha, who had once been a handsome vigorous woman, +managed the homestead with the help of her son and two daughters, and +did not urge Nikita to live at home: first because she had been living +for some twenty years already with a cooper, a peasant from another +village who lodged in their house; and secondly because though she +managed her husband as she pleased when he was sober, she feared him +like fire when he was drunk. Once when he had got drunk at home, Nikita, +probably to make up for his submissiveness when sober, broke open her +box, took out her best clothes, snatched up an axe, and chopped all her +undergarments and dresses to bits. All the wages Nikita earned went to +his wife, and he raised no objection to that. So now, two days before +the holiday, Martha had been twice to see Vasili Andreevich and had got +from him wheat flour, tea, sugar, and a quart of vodka, the lot costing +three rubles, and also five rubles in cash, for which she thanked him as +for a special favour, though he owed Nikita at least twenty rubles. + +‘What agreement did we ever draw up with you?’ said Vasili Andreevich +to Nikita. ‘If you need anything, take it; you will work it off. I’m not +like others to keep you waiting, and making up accounts and reckoning +fines. We deal straight-forwardly. You serve me and I don’t neglect +you.’ + +And when saying this Vasili Andreevich was honestly convinced that he +was Nikita’s benefactor, and he knew how to put it so plausibly that +all those who depended on him for their money, beginning with Nikita, +confirmed him in the conviction that he was their benefactor and did not +overreach them. + +‘Yes, I understand, Vasili Andreevich. You know that I serve you and +take as much pains as I would for my own father. I understand very +well!’ Nikita would reply. He was quite aware that Vasili Andreevich was +cheating him, but at the same time he felt that it was useless to try +to clear up his accounts with him or explain his side of the matter, and +that as long as he had nowhere to go he must accept what he could get. + +Now, having heard his master’s order to harness, he went as usual +cheerfully and willingly to the shed, stepping briskly and easily on his +rather turned-in feet; took down from a nail the heavy tasselled leather +bridle, and jingling the rings of the bit went to the closed stable +where the horse he was to harness was standing by himself. + +‘What, feeling lonely, feeling lonely, little silly?’ said Nikita in +answer to the low whinny with which he was greeted by the good-tempered, +medium-sized bay stallion, with a rather slanting crupper, who stood +alone in the shed. ‘Now then, now then, there’s time enough. Let me +water you first,’ he went on, speaking to the horse just as to someone +who understood the words he was using, and having whisked the dusty, +grooved back of the well-fed young stallion with the skirt of his +coat, he put a bridle on his handsome head, straightened his ears and +forelock, and having taken off his halter led him out to water. + +Picking his way out of the dung-strewn stable, Mukhorty frisked, and +making play with his hind leg pretended that he meant to kick Nikita, +who was running at a trot beside him to the pump. + +‘Now then, now then, you rascal!’ Nikita called out, well knowing how +carefully Mukhorty threw out his hind leg just to touch his greasy +sheepskin coat but not to strike him--a trick Nikita much appreciated. + +After a drink of the cold water the horse sighed, moving his strong wet +lips, from the hairs of which transparent drops fell into the trough; +then standing still as if in thought, he suddenly gave a loud snort. + +‘If you don’t want any more, you needn’t. But don’t go asking for any +later,’ said Nikita quite seriously and fully explaining his conduct to +Mukhorty. Then he ran back to the shed pulling the playful young horse, +who wanted to gambol all over the yard, by the rein. + +There was no one else in the yard except a stranger, the cook’s husband, +who had come for the holiday. + +‘Go and ask which sledge is to be harnessed--the wide one or the small +one--there’s a good fellow!’ + +The cook’s husband went into the house, which stood on an iron +foundation and was iron-roofed, and soon returned saying that the little +one was to be harnessed. By that time Nikita had put the collar and +brass-studded belly-band on Mukhorty and, carrying a light, painted +shaft-bow in one hand, was leading the horse with the other up to two +sledges that stood in the shed. + +‘All right, let it be the little one!’ he said, backing the intelligent +horse, which all the time kept pretending to bite him, into the shafts, +and with the aid of the cook’s husband he proceeded to harness. When +everything was nearly ready and only the reins had to be adjusted, +Nikita sent the other man to the shed for some straw and to the barn for +a drugget. + +‘There, that’s all right! Now, now, don’t bristle up!’ said Nikita, +pressing down into the sledge the freshly threshed oat straw the cook’s +husband had brought. ‘And now let’s spread the sacking like this, and +the drugget over it. There, like that it will be comfortable sitting,’ +he went on, suiting the action to the words and tucking the drugget all +round over the straw to make a seat. + +‘Thank you, dear man. Things always go quicker with two working at it!’ +he added. And gathering up the leather reins fastened together by a +brass ring, Nikita took the driver’s seat and started the impatient +horse over the frozen manure which lay in the yard, towards the gate. + +‘Uncle Nikita! I say, Uncle, Uncle!’ a high-pitched voice shouted, and a +seven-year-old boy in a black sheepskin coat, new white felt boots, and +a warm cap, ran hurriedly out of the house into the yard. ‘Take me with +you!’ he cried, fastening up his coat as he ran. + +‘All right, come along, darling!’ said Nikita, and stopping the sledge +he picked up the master’s pale thin little son, radiant with joy, and +drove out into the road. + +It was past two o’clock and the day was windy, dull, and cold, with more +than twenty degrees Fahrenheit of frost. Half the sky was hidden by a +lowering dark cloud. In the yard it was quiet, but in the street the +wind was felt more keenly. The snow swept down from a neighbouring shed +and whirled about in the corner near the bath-house. + +Hardly had Nikita driven out of the yard and turned the horse’s head to +the house, before Vasili Andreevich emerged from the high porch in front +of the house with a cigarette in his mouth and wearing a cloth-covered +sheep-skin coat tightly girdled low at his waist, and stepped onto the +hard-trodden snow which squeaked under the leather soles of his felt +boots, and stopped. Taking a last whiff of his cigarette he threw it +down, stepped on it, and letting the smoke escape through his moustache +and looking askance at the horse that was coming up, began to tuck +in his sheepskin collar on both sides of his ruddy face, clean-shaven +except for the moustache, so that his breath should not moisten the +collar. + +‘See now! The young scamp is there already!’ he exclaimed when he saw +his little son in the sledge. Vasili Andreevich was excited by the vodka +he had drunk with his visitors, and so he was even more pleased than +usual with everything that was his and all that he did. The sight of +his son, whom he always thought of as his heir, now gave him great +satisfaction. He looked at him, screwing up his eyes and showing his +long teeth. + +His wife--pregnant, thin and pale, with her head and shoulders wrapped +in a shawl so that nothing of her face could be seen but her eyes--stood +behind him in the vestibule to see him off. + +‘Now really, you ought to take Nikita with you,’ she said timidly, +stepping out from the doorway. + +Vasili Andreevich did not answer. Her words evidently annoyed him and he +frowned angrily and spat. + +‘You have money on you,’ she continued in the same plaintive voice. +‘What if the weather gets worse! Do take him, for goodness’ sake!’ + +‘Why? Don’t I know the road that I must needs take a guide?’ exclaimed +Vasili Andreevich, uttering every word very distinctly and compressing +his lips unnaturally, as he usually did when speaking to buyers and +sellers. + +‘Really you ought to take him. I beg you in God’s name!’ his wife +repeated, wrapping her shawl more closely round her head. + +‘There, she sticks to it like a leech!... Where am I to take him?’ + +‘I’m quite ready to go with you, Vasili Andreevich,’ said Nikita +cheerfully. ‘But they must feed the horses while I am away,’ he added, +turning to his master’s wife. + +‘I’ll look after them, Nikita dear. I’ll tell Simon,’ replied the +mistress. + +‘Well, Vasili Andreevich, am I to come with you?’ said Nikita, awaiting +a decision. + +‘It seems I must humour my old woman. But if you’re coming you’d better +put on a warmer cloak,’ said Vasili Andreevich, smiling again as he +winked at Nikita’s short sheepskin coat, which was torn under the arms +and at the back, was greasy and out of shape, frayed to a fringe round +the skirt, and had endured many things in its lifetime. + +‘Hey, dear man, come and hold the horse!’ shouted Nikita to the cook’s +husband, who was still in the yard. + +‘No, I will myself, I will myself!’ shrieked the little boy, pulling his +hands, red with cold, out of his pockets, and seizing the cold leather +reins. + +‘Only don’t be too long dressing yourself up. Look alive!’ shouted +Vasili Andreevich, grinning at Nikita. + +‘Only a moment, Father, Vasili Andreevich!’ replied Nikita, and running +quickly with his inturned toes in his felt boots with their soles +patched with felt, he hurried across the yard and into the workmen’s +hut. + +‘Arinushka! Get my coat down from the stove. I’m going with the master,’ +he said, as he ran into the hut and took down his girdle from the nail +on which it hung. + +The workmen’s cook, who had had a sleep after dinner and was now getting +the samovar ready for her husband, turned cheerfully to Nikita, and +infected by his hurry began to move as quickly as he did, got down his +miserable worn-out cloth coat from the stove where it was drying, and +began hurriedly shaking it out and smoothing it down. + +‘There now, you’ll have a chance of a holiday with your good man,’ said +Nikita, who from kindhearted politeness always said something to anyone +he was alone with. + +Then, drawing his worn narrow girdle round him, he drew in his breath, +pulling in his lean stomach still more, and girdled himself as tightly +as he could over his sheepskin. + +‘There now,’ he said addressing himself no longer to the cook but the +girdle, as he tucked the ends in at the waist, ‘now you won’t come +undone!’ And working his shoulders up and down to free his arms, he put +the coat over his sheepskin, arched his back more strongly to ease his +arms, poked himself under the armpits, and took down his leather-covered +mittens from the shelf. ‘Now we’re all right!’ + +‘You ought to wrap your feet up, Nikita. Your boots are very bad.’ + +Nikita stopped as if he had suddenly realized this. + +‘Yes, I ought to.... But they’ll do like this. It isn’t far!’ and he +ran out into the yard. + +‘Won’t you be cold, Nikita?’ said the mistress as he came up to the +sledge. + +‘Cold? No, I’m quite warm,’ answered Nikita as he pushed some straw +up to the forepart of the sledge so that it should cover his feet, and +stowed away the whip, which the good horse would not need, at the bottom +of the sledge. + +Vasili Andreevich, who was wearing two fur-lined coats one over the +other, was already in the sledge, his broad back filling nearly its +whole rounded width, and taking the reins he immediately touched the +horse. Nikita jumped in just as the sledge started, and seated himself +in front on the left side, with one leg hanging over the edge. + + + + +II + +The good stallion took the sledge along at a brisk pace over the +smooth-frozen road through the village, the runners squeaking slightly +as they went. + +‘Look at him hanging on there! Hand me the whip, Nikita!’ shouted Vasili +Andreevich, evidently enjoying the sight of his ‘heir,’ who standing on +the runners was hanging on at the back of the sledge. ‘I’ll give it you! +Be off to mamma, you dog!’ + +The boy jumped down. The horse increased his amble and, suddenly +changing foot, broke into a fast trot. + +The Crosses, the village where Vasili Andreevich lived, consisted of six +houses. As soon as they had passed the blacksmith’s hut, the last in +the village, they realized that the wind was much stronger than they +had thought. The road could hardly be seen. The tracks left by the +sledge-runners were immediately covered by snow and the road was only +distinguished by the fact that it was higher than the rest of the +ground. There was a swirl of snow over the fields and the line where sky +and earth met could not be seen. The Telyatin forest, usually clearly +visible, now only loomed up occasionally and dimly through the driving +snowy dust. The wind came from the left, insistently blowing over to +one side the mane on Mukhorty’s sleek neck and carrying aside even his +fluffy tail, which was tied in a simple knot. Nikita’s wide coat-collar, +as he sat on the windy side, pressed close to his cheek and nose. + +‘This road doesn’t give him a chance--it’s too snowy,’ said Vasili +Andreevich, who prided himself on his good horse. ‘I once drove to +Pashutino with him in half an hour.’ + +‘What?’ asked Nikita, who could not hear on account of his collar. + +‘I say I once went to Pashutino in half an hour,’ shouted Vasili +Andreevich. + +‘It goes without saying that he’s a good horse,’ replied Nikita. + +They were silent for a while. But Vasili Andreevich wished to talk. + +‘Well, did you tell your wife not to give the cooper any vodka?’ he +began in the same loud tone, quite convinced that Nikita must feel +flattered to be talking with so clever and important a person as +himself, and he was so pleased with his jest that it did not enter his +head that the remark might be unpleasant to Nikita. + +The wind again prevented Nikita’s hearing his master’s words. + +Vasili Andreevich repeated the jest about the cooper in his loud, clear +voice. + +‘That’s their business, Vasili Andreevich. I don’t pry into their +affairs. As long as she doesn’t ill-treat our boy--God be with them.’ + +‘That’s so,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘Well, and will you be buying a +horse in spring?’ he went on, changing the subject. + +‘Yes, I can’t avoid it,’ answered Nikita, turning down his collar and +leaning back towards his master. + +The conversation now became interesting to him and he did not wish to +lose a word. + +‘The lad’s growing up. He must begin to plough for himself, but till now +we’ve always had to hire someone,’ he said. + +‘Well, why not have the lean-cruppered one. I won’t charge much for it,’ +shouted Vasili Andreevich, feeling animated, and consequently starting +on his favourite occupation--that of horse-dealing--which absorbed all +his mental powers. + +‘Or you might let me have fifteen rubles and I’ll buy one at the +horse-market,’ said Nikita, who knew that the horse Vasili Andreevich +wanted to sell him would be dear at seven rubles, but that if he took it +from him it would be charged at twenty-five, and then he would be unable +to draw any money for half a year. + +‘It’s a good horse. I think of your interest as of my own--according to +conscience. Brekhunov isn’t a man to wrong anyone. Let the loss be mine. +I’m not like others. Honestly!’ he shouted in the voice in which he +hypnotized his customers and dealers. ‘It’s a real good horse.’ + +‘Quite so!’ said Nikita with a sigh, and convinced that there was +nothing more to listen to, he again released his collar, which +immediately covered his ear and face. + +They drove on in silence for about half an hour. The wind blew sharply +onto Nikita’s side and arm where his sheepskin was torn. + +He huddled up and breathed into the collar which covered his mouth, and +was not wholly cold. + +‘What do you think--shall we go through Karamyshevo or by the straight +road?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + +The road through Karamyshevo was more frequented and was well marked +with a double row of high stakes. The straight road was nearer but +little used and had no stakes, or only poor ones covered with snow. + +Nikita thought awhile. + +‘Though Karamyshevo is farther, it is better going,’ he said. + +‘But by the straight road, when once we get through the hollow by the +forest, it’s good going--sheltered,’ said Vasili Andreevich, who wished +to go the nearest way. + +‘Just as you please,’ said Nikita, and again let go of his collar. + +Vasili Andreevich did as he had said, and having gone about half a verst +came to a tall oak stake which had a few dry leaves still dangling on +it, and there he turned to the left. + +On turning they faced directly against the wind, and snow was beginning +to fall. Vasili Andreevich, who was driving, inflated his cheeks, +blowing the breath out through his moustache. Nikita dozed. + +So they went on in silence for about ten minutes. Suddenly Vasili +Andreevich began saying something. + +‘Eh, what?’ asked Nikita, opening his eyes. + +Vasili Andreevich did not answer, but bent over, looking behind them and +then ahead of the horse. The sweat had curled Mukhorty’s coat between +his legs and on his neck. He went at a walk. + +‘What is it?’ Nikita asked again. + +‘What is it? What is it?’ Vasili Andreevich mimicked him angrily. ‘There +are no stakes to be seen! We must have got off the road!’ + +‘Well, pull up then, and I’ll look for it,’ said Nikita, and jumping +down lightly from the sledge and taking the whip from under the straw, +he went off to the left from his own side of the sledge. + +The snow was not deep that year, so that it was possible to walk +anywhere, but still in places it was knee-deep and got into Nikita’s +boots. He went about feeling the ground with his feet and the whip, but +could not find the road anywhere. + +‘Well, how is it?’ asked Vasili Andreevich when Nikita came back to the +sledge. + +‘There is no road this side. I must go to the other side and try there,’ +said Nikita. + +‘There’s something there in front. Go and have a look.’ + +Nikita went to what had appeared dark, but found that it was earth which +the wind had blown from the bare fields of winter oats and had strewn +over the snow, colouring it. Having searched to the right also, he +returned to the sledge, brushed the snow from his coat, shook it out of +his boots, and seated himself once more. + +‘We must go to the right,’ he said decidedly. ‘The wind was blowing on +our left before, but now it is straight in my face. Drive to the right,’ +he repeated with decision. + +Vasili Andreevich took his advice and turned to the right, but still +there was no road. They went on in that direction for some time. The +wind was as fierce as ever and it was snowing lightly. + +‘It seems, Vasili Andreevich, that we have gone quite astray,’ Nikita +suddenly remarked, as if it were a pleasant thing. ‘What is that?’ he +added, pointing to some potato vines that showed up from under the snow. + +Vasili Andreevich stopped the perspiring horse, whose deep sides were +heaving heavily. + +‘What is it?’ + +‘Why, we are on the Zakharov lands. See where we’ve got to!’ + +‘Nonsense!’ retorted Vasili Andreevich. + +‘It’s not nonsense, Vasili Andreevich. It’s the truth,’ replied Nikita. +‘You can feel that the sledge is going over a potato-field, and there +are the heaps of vines which have been carted here. It’s the Zakharov +factory land.’ + +‘Dear me, how we have gone astray!’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘What are we +to do now?’ + +‘We must go straight on, that’s all. We shall come out somewhere--if not +at Zakharova, then at the proprietor’s farm,’ said Nikita. + +Vasili Andreevich agreed, and drove as Nikita had indicated. So they +went on for a considerable time. At times they came onto bare fields and +the sledge-runners rattled over frozen lumps of earth. Sometimes they +got onto a winter-rye field, or a fallow field on which they could see +stalks of wormwood, and straws sticking up through the snow and swaying +in the wind; sometimes they came onto deep and even white snow, above +which nothing was to be seen. + +The snow was falling from above and sometimes rose from below. The horse +was evidently exhausted, his hair had all curled up from sweat and was +covered with hoar-frost, and he went at a walk. Suddenly he stumbled and +sat down in a ditch or water-course. Vasili Andreevich wanted to stop, +but Nikita cried to him: + +‘Why stop? We’ve got in and must get out. Hey, pet! Hey, darling! Gee +up, old fellow!’ he shouted in a cheerful tone to the horse, jumping out +of the sledge and himself getting stuck in the ditch. + +The horse gave a start and quickly climbed out onto the frozen bank. It +was evidently a ditch that had been dug there. + +‘Where are we now?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + +‘We’ll soon find out!’ Nikita replied. ‘Go on, we’ll get somewhere.’ + +‘Why, this must be the Goryachkin forest!’ said Vasili Andreevich, +pointing to something dark that appeared amid the snow in front of them. + +‘We’ll see what forest it is when we get there,’ said Nikita. + +He saw that beside the black thing they had noticed, dry, oblong +willow-leaves were fluttering, and so he knew it was not a forest but a +settlement, but he did not wish to say so. And in fact they had not gone +twenty-five yards beyond the ditch before something in front of them, +evidently trees, showed up black, and they heard a new and melancholy +sound. Nikita had guessed right: it was not a wood, but a row of tall +willows with a few leaves still fluttering on them here and there. They +had evidently been planted along the ditch round a threshing-floor. +Coming up to the willows, which moaned sadly in the wind, the horse +suddenly planted his forelegs above the height of the sledge, drew up +his hind legs also, pulling the sledge onto higher ground, and turned to +the left, no longer sinking up to his knees in snow. They were back on a +road. + +‘Well, here we are, but heaven only knows where!’ said Nikita. + +The horse kept straight along the road through the drifted snow, and +before they had gone another hundred yards the straight line of the +dark wattle wall of a barn showed up black before them, its roof heavily +covered with snow which poured down from it. After passing the barn the +road turned to the wind and they drove into a snow-drift. But ahead of +them was a lane with houses on either side, so evidently the snow had +been blown across the road and they had to drive through the drift. And +so in fact it was. Having driven through the snow they came out into a +street. At the end house of the village some frozen clothes hanging on +a line--shirts, one red and one white, trousers, leg-bands, and a +petticoat--fluttered wildly in the wind. The white shirt in particular +struggled desperately, waving its sleeves about. + +‘There now, either a lazy woman or a dead one has not taken her clothes +down before the holiday,’ remarked Nikita, looking at the fluttering +shirts. + + + + +III + +At the entrance to the street the wind still raged and the road was +thickly covered with snow, but well within the village it was calm, +warm, and cheerful. At one house a dog was barking, at another a woman, +covering her head with her coat, came running from somewhere and entered +the door of a hut, stopping on the threshold to have a look at the +passing sledge. In the middle of the village girls could be heard +singing. + +Here in the village there seemed to be less wind and snow, and the frost +was less keen. + +‘Why, this is Grishkino,’ said Vasili Andreevich. + +‘So it is,’ responded Nikita. + +It really was Grishkino, which meant that they had gone too far to the +left and had travelled some six miles, not quite in the direction they +aimed at, but towards their destination for all that. + +From Grishkino to Goryachkin was about another four miles. + +In the middle of the village they almost ran into a tall man walking +down the middle of the street. + +‘Who are you?’ shouted the man, stopping the horse, and recognizing +Vasili Anereevich he immediately took hold of the shaft, went along it +hand over hand till he reached the sledge, and placed himself on the +driver’s seat. + +He was Isay, a peasant of Vasili Andreevich’s acquaintance, and well +known as the principal horse-thief in the district. + +‘Ah, Vasili Andreevich! Where are you off to?’ said Isay, enveloping +Nikita in the odour of the vodka he had drunk. + +‘We were going to Goryachkin.’ + +‘And look where you’ve got to! You should have gone through +Molchanovka.’ + +‘Should have, but didn’t manage it,’ said Vasili Andreevich, holding in +the horse. + +‘That’s a good horse,’ said Isay, with a shrewd glance at Mukhorty, and +with a practised hand he tightened the loosened knot high in the horse’s +bushy tail. + +‘Are you going to stay the night?’ + +‘No, friend. I must get on.’ + +‘Your business must be pressing. And who is this? Ah, Nikita Stepanych!’ + +‘Who else?’ replied Nikita. ‘But I say, good friend, how are we to avoid +going astray again?’ + +‘Where can you go astray here? Turn back straight down the street and +then when you come out keep straight on. Don’t take to the left. You +will come out onto the high road, and then turn to the right.’ + +‘And where do we turn off the high road? As in summer, or the winter +way?’ asked Nikita. + +‘The winter way. As soon as you turn off you’ll see some bushes, and +opposite them there is a way-mark--a large oak, one with branches--and +that’s the way.’ + +Vasili Andreevich turned the horse back and drove through the outskirts +of the village. + +‘Why not stay the night?’ Isay shouted after them. + +But Vasili Andreevich did not answer and touched up the horse. Four +miles of good road, two of which lay through the forest, seemed easy to +manage, especially as the wind was apparently quieter and the snow had +stopped. + +Having driven along the trodden village street, darkened here and there +by fresh manure, past the yard where the clothes hung out and where the +white shirt had broken loose and was now attached only by one frozen +sleeve, they again came within sound of the weird moan of the willows, +and again emerged on the open fields. The storm, far from ceasing, +seemed to have grown yet stronger. The road was completely covered with +drifting snow, and only the stakes showed that they had not lost their +way. But even the stakes ahead of them were not easy to see, since the +wind blew in their faces. + +Vasili Andreevich screwed up his eyes, bent down his head, and looked +out for the way-marks, but trusted mainly to the horse’s sagacity, +letting it take its own way. And the horse really did not lose the road +but followed its windings, turning now to the right and now to the left +and sensing it under his feet, so that though the snow fell thicker and +the wind strengthened they still continued to see way-marks now to the +left and now to the right of them. + +So they travelled on for about ten minutes, when suddenly, through the +slanting screen of wind-driven snow, something black showed up which +moved in front of the horse. + +This was another sledge with fellow-travellers. Mukhorty overtook them, +and struck his hoofs against the back of the sledge in front of them. + +‘Pass on... hey there... get in front!’ cried voices from the +sledge. + +Vasili Andreevich swerved aside to pass the other sledge. + +In it sat three men and a woman, evidently visitors returning from a +feast. One peasant was whacking the snow-covered croup of their little +horse with a long switch, and the other two sitting in front waved their +arms and shouted something. The woman, completely wrapped up and covered +with snow, sat drowsing and bumping at the back. + +‘Who are you?’ shouted Vasili Andreevich. + +‘From A-a-a...’ was all that could be heard. + +‘I say, where are you from?’ + +‘From A-a-a-a!’ one of the peasants shouted with all his might, but +still it was impossible to make out who they were. + +‘Get along! Keep up!’ shouted another, ceaselessly beating his horse +with the switch. + +‘So you’re from a feast, it seems?’ + +‘Go on, go on! Faster, Simon! Get in front! Faster!’ + +The wings of the sledges bumped against one another, almost got jammed +but managed to separate, and the peasants’ sledge began to fall behind. + +Their shaggy, big-bellied horse, all covered with snow, breathed heavily +under the low shaft-bow and, evidently using the last of its strength, +vainly endeavoured to escape from the switch, hobbling with its short +legs through the deep snow which it threw up under itself. + +Its muzzle, young-looking, with the nether lip drawn up like that of a +fish, nostrils distended and ears pressed back from fear, kept up for a +few seconds near Nikita’s shoulder and then began to fall behind. + +‘Just see what liquor does!’ said Nikita. ‘They’ve tired that little +horse to death. What pagans!’ + +For a few minutes they heard the panting of the tired little horse and +the drunken shouting of the peasants. Then the panting and the shouts +died away, and around them nothing could be heard but the whistling +of the wind in their ears and now and then the squeak of their +sledge-runners over a windswept part of the road. + +This encounter cheered and enlivened Vasili Andreevich, and he drove +on more boldly without examining the way-marks, urging on the horse and +trusting to him. + +Nikita had nothing to do, and as usual in such circumstances he drowsed, +making up for much sleepless time. Suddenly the horse stopped and Nikita +nearly fell forward onto his nose. + +‘You know we’re off the track again!’ said Vasili Andreevich. + +‘How’s that?’ + +‘Why, there are no way-marks to be seen. We must have got off the road +again.’ + +‘Well, if we’ve lost the road we must find it,’ said Nikita curtly, and +getting out and stepping lightly on his pigeon-toed feet he started once +more going about on the snow. + +He walked about for a long time, now disappearing and now reappearing, +and finally he came back. + +‘There is no road here. There may be farther on,’ he said, getting into +the sledge. + +It was already growing dark. The snow-storm had not increased but had +also not subsided. + +‘If we could only hear those peasants!’ said Vasili Andreevich. + +‘Well they haven’t caught us up. We must have gone far astray. Or maybe +they have lost their way too.’ + +‘Where are we to go then?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + +‘Why, we must let the horse take its own way,’ said Nikita. ‘He will +take us right. Let me have the reins.’ + +Vasili Andreevich gave him the reins, the more willingly because his +hands were beginning to feel frozen in his thick gloves. + +Nikita took the reins, but only held them, trying not to shake them +and rejoicing at his favourite’s sagacity. And indeed the clever horse, +turning first one ear and then the other now to one side and then to the +other, began to wheel round. + +‘The one thing he can’t do is to talk,’ Nikita kept saying. ‘See what he +is doing! Go on, go on! You know best. That’s it, that’s it!’ + +The wind was now blowing from behind and it felt warmer. + +‘Yes, he’s clever,’ Nikita continued, admiring the horse. ‘A Kirgiz +horse is strong but stupid. But this one--just see what he’s doing with +his ears! He doesn’t need any telegraph. He can scent a mile off.’ + +Before another half-hour had passed they saw something dark ahead of +them--a wood or a village--and stakes again appeared to the right. They +had evidently come out onto the road. + +‘Why, that’s Grishkino again!’ Nikita suddenly exclaimed. + +And indeed, there on their left was that same barn with the snow flying +from it, and farther on the same line with the frozen washing, shirts +and trousers, which still fluttered desperately in the wind. + +Again they drove into the street and again it grew quiet, warm, and +cheerful, and again they could see the manure-stained street and hear +voices and songs and the barking of a dog. It was already so dark that +there were lights in some of the windows. + +Half-way through the village Vasili Andreevich turned the horse towards +a large double-fronted brick house and stopped at the porch. + +Nikita went to the lighted snow-covered window, in the rays of which +flying snow-flakes glittered, and knocked at it with his whip. + +‘Who is there?’ a voice replied to his knock. + +‘From Kresty, the Brekhunovs, dear fellow,’ answered Nikita. ‘Just come +out for a minute.’ + +Someone moved from the window, and a minute or two later there was the +sound of the passage door as it came unstuck, then the latch of the +outside door clicked and a tall white-bearded peasant, with a sheepskin +coat thrown over his white holiday shirt, pushed his way out holding the +door firmly against the wind, followed by a lad in a red shirt and high +leather boots. + +‘Is that you, Andreevich?’ asked the old man. + +‘Yes, friend, we’ve gone astray,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘We wanted to +get to Goryachkin but found ourselves here. We went a second time but +lost our way again.’ + +‘Just see how you have gone astray!’ said the old man. ‘Petrushka, go +and open the gate!’ he added, turning to the lad in the red shirt. + +‘All right,’ said the lad in a cheerful voice, and ran back into the +passage. + +‘But we’re not staying the night,’ said Vasili Andreevich. + +‘Where will you go in the night? You’d better stay!’ + +‘I’d be glad to, but I must go on. It’s business, and it can’t be +helped.’ + +‘Well, warm yourself at least. The samovar is just ready.’ + +‘Warm myself? Yes, I’ll do that,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘It won’t get +darker. The moon will rise and it will be lighter. Let’s go in and warm +ourselves, Nikita.’ + +‘Well, why not? Let us warm ourselves,’ replied Nikita, who was stiff +with cold and anxious to warm his frozen limbs. + +Vasili Andreevich went into the room with the old man, and Nikita drove +through the gate opened for him by Petrushka, by whose advice he backed +the horse under the penthouse. The ground was covered with manure and +the tall bow over the horse’s head caught against the beam. The hens +and the cock had already settled to roost there, and clucked peevishly, +clinging to the beam with their claws. The disturbed sheep shied and +rushed aside trampling the frozen manure with their hooves. The dog +yelped desperately with fright and anger and then burst out barking like +a puppy at the stranger. + +Nikita talked to them all, excused himself to the fowls and assured +them that he would not disturb them again, rebuked the sheep for being +frightened without knowing why, and kept soothing the dog, while he tied +up the horse. + +‘Now that will be all right,’ he said, knocking the snow off his +clothes. ‘Just hear how he barks!’ he added, turning to the dog. ‘Be +quiet, stupid! Be quiet. You are only troubling yourself for nothing. +We’re not thieves, we’re friends....’ + +‘And these are, it’s said, the three domestic counsellors,’ remarked the +lad, and with his strong arms he pushed under the pent-roof the sledge +that had remained outside. + +‘Why counsellors?’ asked Nikita. + +‘That’s what is printed in Paulson. A thief creeps to a house--the dog +barks, that means “Be on your guard!” The cock crows, that means, “Get +up!” The cat licks herself--that means, “A welcome guest is coming. Get +ready to receive him!”’ said the lad with a smile. + +Petrushka could read and write and knew Paulson’s primer, his only book, +almost by heart, and he was fond of quoting sayings from it that he +thought suited the occasion, especially when he had had something to +drink, as to-day. + +‘That’s so,’ said Nikita. + +‘You must be chilled through and through,’ said Petrushka. + +‘Yes, I am rather,’ said Nikita, and they went across the yard and the +passage into the house. + + + + +IV + +The household to which Vasili Andreevich had come was one of the richest +in the village. The family had five allotments, besides renting other +land. They had six horses, three cows, two calves, and some twenty +sheep. There were twenty-two members belonging to the homestead: four +married sons, six grandchildren (one of whom, Petrushka, was married), +two great-grandchildren, three orphans, and four daughters-in-law with +their babies. It was one of the few homesteads that remained still +undivided, but even here the dull internal work of disintegration which +would inevitably lead to separation had already begun, starting as usual +among the women. Two sons were living in Moscow as water-carriers, and +one was in the army. At home now were the old man and his wife, their +second son who managed the homestead, the eldest who had come from +Moscow for the holiday, and all the women and children. Besides these +members of the family there was a visitor, a neighbour who was godfather +to one of the children. + +Over the table in the room hung a lamp with a shade, which brightly lit +up the tea-things, a bottle of vodka, and some refreshments, besides +illuminating the brick walls, which in the far corner were hung with +icons on both sides of which were pictures. At the head of the table +sat Vasili Andreevich in a black sheepskin coat, sucking his frozen +moustache and observing the room and the people around him with his +prominent hawk-like eyes. With him sat the old, bald, white-bearded +master of the house in a white homespun shirt, and next him the son +home from Moscow for the holiday--a man with a sturdy back and powerful +shoulders and clad in a thin print shirt--then the second son, also +broad-shouldered, who acted as head of the house, and then a lean +red-haired peasant--the neighbour. + +Having had a drink of vodka and something to eat, they were about to +take tea, and the samovar standing on the floor beside the brick oven +was already humming. The children could be seen in the top bunks and on +the top of the oven. A woman sat on a lower bunk with a cradle beside +her. The old housewife, her face covered with wrinkles which wrinkled +even her lips, was waiting on Vasili Andreevich. + +As Nikita entered the house she was offering her guest a small tumbler +of thick glass which she had just filled with vodka. + +‘Don’t refuse, Vasili Andreevich, you mustn’t! Wish us a merry feast. +Drink it, dear!’ she said. + +The sight and smell of vodka, especially now when he was chilled through +and tired out, much disturbed Nikita’s mind. He frowned, and having +shaken the snow off his cap and coat, stopped in front of the icons +as if not seeing anyone, crossed himself three times, and bowed to the +icons. Then, turning to the old master of the house and bowing first +to him, then to all those at table, then to the women who stood by the +oven, and muttering: ‘A merry holiday!’ he began taking off his outer +things without looking at the table. + +‘Why, you’re all covered with hoar-frost, old fellow!’ said the eldest +brother, looking at Nikita’s snow-covered face, eyes, and beard. + +Nikita took off his coat, shook it again, hung it up beside the oven, +and came up to the table. He too was offered vodka. He went through a +moment of painful hesitation and nearly took up the glass and emptied +the clear fragrant liquid down his throat, but he glanced at Vasili +Andreevich, remembered his oath and the boots that he had sold for +drink, recalled the cooper, remembered his son for whom he had promised +to buy a horse by spring, sighed, and declined it. + +‘I don’t drink, thank you kindly,’ he said frowning, and sat down on a +bench near the second window. + +‘How’s that?’ asked the eldest brother. + +‘I just don’t drink,’ replied Nikita without lifting his eyes but +looking askance at his scanty beard and moustache and getting the +icicles out of them. + +‘It’s not good for him,’ said Vasili Andreevich, munching a cracknel +after emptying his glass. + +‘Well, then, have some tea,’ said the kindly old hostess. ‘You must +be chilled through, good soul. Why are you women dawdling so with the +samovar?’ + +‘It is ready,’ said one of the young women, and after flicking with her +apron the top of the samovar which was now boiling over, she carried it +with an effort to the table, raised it, and set it down with a thud. + +Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich was telling how he had lost his way, how +they had come back twice to this same village, and how they had gone +astray and had met some drunken peasants. Their hosts were surprised, +explained where and why they had missed their way, said who the tipsy +people they had met were, and told them how they ought to go. + +‘A little child could find the way to Molchanovka from here. All you +have to do is to take the right turning from the high road. There’s a +bush you can see just there. But you didn’t even get that far!’ said the +neighbour. + +‘You’d better stay the night. The women will make up beds for you,’ said +the old woman persuasively. + +‘You could go on in the morning and it would be pleasanter,’ said the +old man, confirming what his wife had said. + +‘I can’t, friend. Business!’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘Lose an hour and +you can’t catch it up in a year,’ he added, remembering the grove and +the dealers who might snatch that deal from him. ‘We shall get there, +shan’t we?’ he said, turning to Nikita. + +Nikita did not answer for some time, apparently still intent on thawing +out his beard and moustache. + +‘If only we don’t go astray again,’ he replied gloomily. He was gloomy +because he passionately longed for some vodka, and the only thing that +could assuage that longing was tea and he had not yet been offered any. + +‘But we have only to reach the turning and then we shan’t go wrong. The +road will be through the forest the whole way,’ said Vasili Andreevich. + +‘It’s just as you please, Vasili Andreevich. If we’re to go, let us go,’ +said Nikita, taking the glass of tea he was offered. + +‘We’ll drink our tea and be off.’ + +Nikita said nothing but only shook his head, and carefully pouring some +tea into his saucer began warming his hands, the fingers of which were +always swollen with hard work, over the steam. Then, biting off a tiny +bit of sugar, he bowed to his hosts, said, ‘Your health!’ and drew in +the steaming liquid. + +‘If somebody would see us as far as the turning,’ said Vasili +Andreevich. + +‘Well, we can do that,’ said the eldest son. ‘Petrushka will harness and +go that far with you.’ + +‘Well, then, put in the horse, lad, and I shall be thankful to you for +it.’ + +‘Oh, what for, dear man?’ said the kindly old woman. ‘We are heartily +glad to do it.’ + +‘Petrushka, go and put in the mare,’ said the eldest brother. + +‘All right,’ replied Petrushka with a smile, and promptly snatching his +cap down from a nail he ran away to harness. + +While the horse was being harnessed the talk returned to the point at +which it had stopped when Vasili Andreevich drove up to the window. The +old man had been complaining to his neighbour, the village elder, about +his third son who had not sent him anything for the holiday though he +had sent a French shawl to his wife. + +‘The young people are getting out of hand,’ said the old man. + +‘And how they do!’ said the neighbour. ‘There’s no managing them! They +know too much. There’s Demochkin now, who broke his father’s arm. It’s +all from being too clever, it seems.’ + +Nikita listened, watched their faces, and evidently would have liked to +share in the conversation, but he was too busy drinking his tea and only +nodded his head approvingly. He emptied one tumbler after another and +grew warmer and warmer and more and more comfortable. The talk continued +on the same subject for a long time--the harmfulness of a household +dividing up--and it was clearly not an abstract discussion but concerned +the question of a separation in that house; a separation demanded by the +second son who sat there morosely silent. + +It was evidently a sore subject and absorbed them all, but out of +propriety they did not discuss their private affairs before strangers. +At last, however, the old man could not restrain himself, and with tears +in his eyes declared that he would not consent to a break-up of the +family during his lifetime, that his house was prospering, thank God, +but that if they separated they would all have to go begging. + +‘Just like the Matveevs,’ said the neighbour. ‘They used to have a +proper house, but now they’ve split up none of them has anything.’ + +‘And that is what you want to happen to us,’ said the old man, turning +to his son. + +The son made no reply and there was an awkward pause. The silence was +broken by Petrushka, who having harnessed the horse had returned to the +hut a few minutes before this and had been listening all the time with a +smile. + +‘There’s a fable about that in Paulson,’ he said. ‘A father gave his +sons a broom to break. At first they could not break it, but when they +took it twig by twig they broke it easily. And it’s the same here,’ and +he gave a broad smile. ‘I’m ready!’ he added. + +‘If you’re ready, let’s go,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘And as to +separating, don’t you allow it, Grandfather. You got everything together +and you’re the master. Go to the Justice of the Peace. He’ll say how +things should be done.’ + +‘He carries on so, carries on so,’ the old man continued in a whining +tone. ‘There’s no doing anything with him. It’s as if the devil +possessed him.’ + +Nikita having meanwhile finished his fifth tumbler of tea laid it on +its side instead of turning it upside down, hoping to be offered a sixth +glass. But there was no more water in the samovar, so the hostess did +not fill it up for him. Besides, Vasili Andreevich was putting his +things on, so there was nothing for it but for Nikita to get up too, put +back into the sugar-basin the lump of sugar he had nibbled all round, +wipe his perspiring face with the skirt of his sheepskin, and go to put +on his overcoat. + +Having put it on he sighed deeply, thanked his hosts, said good-bye, +and went out of the warm bright room into the cold dark passage, through +which the wind was howling and where snow was blowing through the cracks +of the shaking door, and from there into the yard. + +Petrushka stood in his sheepskin in the middle of the yard by his horse, +repeating some lines from Paulson’s primer. He said with a smile: + + ‘Storms with mist the sky conceal, + Snowy circles wheeling wild. + Now like savage beast ‘twill howl, + And now ‘tis wailing like a child.’ + +Nikita nodded approvingly as he arranged the reins. + +The old man, seeing Vasili Andreevich off, brought a lantern into the +passage to show him a light, but it was blown out at once. And even in +the yard it was evident that the snowstorm had become more violent. + +‘Well, this is weather!’ thought Vasili Andreevich. ‘Perhaps we may not +get there after all. But there is nothing to be done. Business! Besides, +we have got ready, our host’s horse has been harnessed, and we’ll get +there with God’s help!’ + +Their aged host also thought they ought not to go, but he had already +tried to persuade them to stay and had not been listened to. + +‘It’s no use asking them again. Maybe my age makes me timid. They’ll +get there all right, and at least we shall get to bed in good time and +without any fuss,’ he thought. + +Petrushka did not think of danger. He knew the road and the whole +district so well, and the lines about ‘snowy circles wheeling wild’ +described what was happening outside so aptly that it cheered him up. +Nikita did not wish to go at all, but he had been accustomed not to have +his own way and to serve others for so long that there was no one to +hinder the departing travellers. + + + + +V + +Vasili Andreevich went over to his sledge, found it with difficulty in +the darkness, climbed in and took the reins. + +‘Go on in front!’ he cried. + +Petrushka kneeling in his low sledge started his horse. Mukhorty, who +had been neighing for some time past, now scenting a mare ahead of him +started after her, and they drove out into the street. They drove again +through the outskirts of the village and along the same road, past the +yard where the frozen linen had hung (which, however, was no longer to +be seen), past the same barn, which was now snowed up almost to the +roof and from which the snow was still endlessly pouring past the same +dismally moaning, whistling, and swaying willows, and again entered into +the sea of blustering snow raging from above and below. The wind was +so strong that when it blew from the side and the travellers steered +against it, it tilted the sledges and turned the horses to one side. +Petrushka drove his good mare in front at a brisk trot and kept shouting +lustily. Mukhorty pressed after her. + +After travelling so for about ten minutes, Petrushka turned round and +shouted something. Neither Vasili Andreevich nor Nikita could hear +anything because of the wind, but they guessed that they had arrived at +the turning. In fact Petrushka had turned to the right, and now the wind +that had blown from the side blew straight in their faces, and through +the snow they saw something dark on their right. It was the bush at the +turning. + +‘Well now, God speed you!’ + +‘Thank you, Petrushka!’ + +‘Storms with mist the sky conceal!’ shouted Petrushka as he disappeared. + +‘There’s a poet for you!’ muttered Vasili Andreevich, pulling at the +reins. + +‘Yes, a fine lad--a true peasant,’ said Nikita. + +They drove on. + +Nikita, wrapping his coat closely about him and pressing his head down +so close to his shoulders that his short beard covered his throat, sat +silently, trying not to lose the warmth he had obtained while drinking +tea in the house. Before him he saw the straight lines of the +shafts which constantly deceived him into thinking they were on a +well-travelled road, and the horse’s swaying crupper with his knotted +tail blown to one side, and farther ahead the high shaft-bow and the +swaying head and neck of the horse with its waving mane. Now and then +he caught sight of a way-sign, so that he knew they were still on a road +and that there was nothing for him to be concerned about. + +Vasili Andreevich drove on, leaving it to the horse to keep to the road. +But Mukhorty, though he had had a breathing-space in the village, ran +reluctantly, and seemed now and then to get off the road, so that Vasili +Andreevich had repeatedly to correct him. + +‘Here’s a stake to the right, and another, and here’s a third,’ Vasili +Andreevich counted, ‘and here in front is the forest,’ thought he, as he +looked at something dark in front of him. But what had seemed to him a +forest was only a bush. They passed the bush and drove on for another +hundred yards but there was no fourth way-mark nor any forest. + +‘We must reach the forest soon,’ thought Vasili Andreevich, and animated +by the vodka and the tea he did not stop but shook the reins, and the +good obedient horse responded, now ambling, now slowly trotting in the +direction in which he was sent, though he knew that he was not going the +right way. Ten minutes went by, but there was still no forest. + +‘There now, we must be astray again,’ said Vasili Andreevich, pulling +up. + +Nikita silently got out of the sledge and holding his coat, which the +wind now wrapped closely about him and now almost tore off, started to +feel about in the snow, going first to one side and then to the other. +Three or four times he was completely lost to sight. At last he returned +and took the reins from Vasili Andreevich’s hand. + +‘We must go to the right,’ he said sternly and peremptorily, as he +turned the horse. + +‘Well, if it’s to the right, go to the right,’ said Vasili Andreevich, +yielding up the reins to Nikita and thrusting his freezing hands into +his sleeves. + +Nikita did not reply. + +‘Now then, friend, stir yourself!’ he shouted to the horse, but in spite +of the shake of the reins Mukhorty moved only at a walk. + +The snow in places was up to his knees, and the sledge moved by fits and +starts with his every movement. + +Nikita took the whip that hung over the front of the sledge and struck +him once. The good horse, unused to the whip, sprang forward and moved +at a trot, but immediately fell back into an amble and then to a walk. +So they went on for five minutes. It was dark and the snow whirled from +above and rose from below, so that sometimes the shaft-bow could not +be seen. At times the sledge seemed to stand still and the field to +run backwards. Suddenly the horse stopped abruptly, evidently aware +of something close in front of him. Nikita again sprang lightly out, +throwing down the reins, and went ahead to see what had brought him to +a standstill, but hardly had he made a step in front of the horse before +his feet slipped and he went rolling down an incline. + +‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ he said to himself as he fell, and he tried to stop +his fall but could not, and only stopped when his feet plunged into a +thick layer of snow that had drifted to the bottom of the hollow. + +The fringe of a drift of snow that hung on the edge of the hollow, +disturbed by Nikita’s fall, showered down on him and got inside his +collar. + +‘What a thing to do!’ said Nikita reproachfully, addressing the drift +and the hollow and shaking the snow from under his collar. + +‘Nikita! Hey, Nikita!’ shouted Vasili Andreevich from above. + +But Nikita did not reply. He was too occupied in shaking out the snow +and searching for the whip he had dropped when rolling down the incline. +Having found the whip he tried to climb straight up the bank where he +had rolled down, but it was impossible to do so: he kept rolling down +again, and so he had to go along at the foot of the hollow to find a way +up. About seven yards farther on he managed with difficulty to crawl up +the incline on all fours, then he followed the edge of the hollow back +to the place where the horse should have been. He could not see either +horse or sledge, but as he walked against the wind he heard Vasili +Andreevich’s shouts and Mukhorty’s neighing, calling him. + +‘I’m coming! I’m coming! What are you cackling for?’ he muttered. + +Only when he had come up to the sledge could he make out the horse, and +Vasili Andreevich standing beside it and looking gigantic. + +‘Where the devil did you vanish to? We must go back, if only to +Grishkino,’ he began reproaching Nikita. + +‘I’d be glad to get back, Vasili Andreevich, but which way are we to go? +There is such a ravine here that if we once get in it we shan’t get out +again. I got stuck so fast there myself that I could hardly get out.’ + +‘What shall we do, then? We can’t stay here! We must go somewhere!’ said +Vasili Andreevich. + +Nikita said nothing. He seated himself in the sledge with his back to +the wind, took off his boots, shook out the snow that had got into them, +and taking some straw from the bottom of the sledge, carefully plugged +with it a hole in his left boot. + +Vasili Andreevich remained silent, as though now leaving everything to +Nikita. Having put his boots on again, Nikita drew his feet into the +sledge, put on his mittens and took up the reins, and directed the horse +along the side of the ravine. But they had not gone a hundred yards +before the horse again stopped short. The ravine was in front of him +again. + +Nikita again climbed out and again trudged about in the snow. He did +this for a considerable time and at last appeared from the opposite side +to that from which he had started. + +‘Vasili Andreevich, are you alive?’ he called out. + +‘Here!’ replied Vasili Andreevich. ‘Well, what now?’ + +‘I can’t make anything out. It’s too dark. There’s nothing but ravines. +We must drive against the wind again.’ + +They set off once more. Again Nikita went stumbling through the snow, +again he fell in, again climbed out and trudged about, and at last quite +out of breath he sat down beside the sledge. + +‘Well, how now?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + +‘Why, I am quite worn out and the horse won’t go.’ + +‘Then what’s to be done?’ + +‘Why, wait a minute.’ + +Nikita went away again but soon returned. + +‘Follow me!’ he said, going in front of the horse. + +Vasili Andreevich no longer gave orders but implicitly did what Nikita +told him. + +‘Here, follow me!’ Nikita shouted, stepping quickly to the right, and +seizing the rein he led Mukhorty down towards a snow-drift. + +At first the horse held back, then he jerked forward, hoping to leap the +drift, but he had not the strength and sank into it up to his collar. + +‘Get out!’ Nikita called to Vasili Andreevich who still sat in the +sledge, and taking hold of one shaft he moved the sledge closer to +the horse. ‘It’s hard, brother!’ he said to Mukhorty, ‘but it can’t be +helped. Make an effort! Now, now, just a little one!’ he shouted. + +The horse gave a tug, then another, but failed to clear himself and +settled down again as if considering something. + +‘Now, brother, this won’t do!’ Nikita admonished him. ‘Now once more!’ + +Again Nikita tugged at the shaft on his side, and Vasili Andreevich did +the same on the other. + +Mukhorty lifted his head and then gave a sudden jerk. + +‘That’s it! That’s it!’ cried Nikita. ‘Don’t be afraid--you won’t sink!’ + +One plunge, another, and a third, and at last Mukhorty was out of the +snow-drift, and stood still, breathing heavily and shaking the snow off +himself. Nikita wished to lead him farther, but Vasili Andreevich, in +his two fur coats, was so out of breath that he could not walk farther +and dropped into the sledge. + +‘Let me get my breath!’ he said, unfastening the kerchief with which he +had tied the collar of his fur coat at the village. + +‘It’s all right here. You lie there,’ said Nikita. ‘I will lead him +along.’ And with Vasili Andreevich in the sledge he led the horse by the +bridle about ten paces down and then up a slight rise, and stopped. + +The place where Nikita had stopped was not completely in the hollow +where the snow sweeping down from the hillocks might have buried them +altogether, but still it was partly sheltered from the wind by the +side of the ravine. There were moments when the wind seemed to abate a +little, but that did not last long and as if to make up for that respite +the storm swept down with tenfold vigour and tore and whirled the more +fiercely. Such a gust struck them at the moment when Vasili Andreevich, +having recovered his breath, got out of the sledge and went up to +Nikita to consult him as to what they should do. They both bent down +involuntarily and waited till the violence of the squall should +have passed. Mukhorty too laid back his ears and shook his head +discontentedly. As soon as the violence of the blast had abated a +little, Nikita took off his mittens, stuck them into his belt, breathed +onto his hands, and began to undo the straps of the shaft-bow. + +‘What’s that you are doing there?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + +‘Unharnessing. What else is there to do? I have no strength left,’ said +Nikita as though excusing himself. + +‘Can’t we drive somewhere?’ + +‘No, we can’t. We shall only kill the horse. Why, the poor beast is not +himself now,’ said Nikita, pointing to the horse, which was standing +submissively waiting for what might come, with his steep wet sides +heaving heavily. ‘We shall have to stay the night here,’ he said, as if +preparing to spend the night at an inn, and he proceeded to unfasten the +collar-straps. The buckles came undone. + +‘But shan’t we be frozen?’ remarked Vasili Andreevich. + +‘Well, if we are we can’t help it,’ said Nikita. + + + + +VI + + +Although Vasili Andreevich felt quite warm in his two fur coats, +especially after struggling in the snow-drift, a cold shiver ran down +his back on realizing that he must really spend the night where +they were. To calm himself he sat down in the sledge and got out his +cigarettes and matches. + +Nikita meanwhile unharnessed Mukhorty. He unstrapped the belly-band +and the back-band, took away the reins, loosened the collar-strap, and +removed the shaft-bow, talking to him all the time to encourage him. + +‘Now come out! come out!’ he said, leading him clear of the shafts. ‘Now +we’ll tie you up here and I’ll put down some straw and take off your +bridle. When you’ve had a bite you’ll feel more cheerful.’ + +But Mukhorty was restless and evidently not comforted by Nikita’s +remarks. He stepped now on one foot and now on another, and pressed +close against the sledge, turning his back to the wind and rubbing his +head on Nikita’s sleeve. Then, as if not to pain Nikita by refusing his +offer of the straw he put before him, he hurriedly snatched a wisp out +of the sledge, but immediately decided that it was now no time to think +of straw and threw it down, and the wind instantly scattered it, carried +it away, and covered it with snow. + +‘Now we will set up a signal,’ said Nikita, and turning the front of the +sledge to the wind he tied the shafts together with a strap and set them +up on end in front of the sledge. ‘There now, when the snow covers us +up, good folk will see the shafts and dig us out,’ he said, slapping his +mittens together and putting them on. ‘That’s what the old folk taught +us!’ + +Vasili Andreevich meanwhile had unfastened his coat, and holding its +skirts up for shelter, struck one sulphur match after another on the +steel box. But his hands trembled, and one match after another either +did not kindle or was blown out by the wind just as he was lifting it to +the cigarette. At last a match did burn up, and its flame lit up for +a moment the fur of his coat, his hand with the gold ring on the bent +forefinger, and the snow-sprinkled oat-straw that stuck out from under +the drugget. The cigarette lighted, he eagerly took a whiff or two, +inhaled the smoke, let it out through his moustache, and would have +inhaled again, but the wind tore off the burning tobacco and whirled it +away as it had done the straw. + +But even these few puffs had cheered him. + +‘If we must spend the night here, we must!’ he said with decision. ‘Wait +a bit, I’ll arrange a flag as well,’ he added, picking up the kerchief +which he had thrown down in the sledge after taking it from round his +collar, and drawing off his gloves and standing up on the front of +the sledge and stretching himself to reach the strap, he tied the +handkerchief to it with a tight knot. + +The kerchief immediately began to flutter wildly, now clinging round the +shaft, now suddenly streaming out, stretching and flapping. + +‘Just see what a fine flag!’ said Vasili Andreevich, admiring his +handiwork and letting himself down into the sledge. ‘We should be warmer +together, but there’s not room enough for two,’ he added. + +‘I’ll find a place,’ said Nikita. ‘But I must cover up the horse +first--he sweated so, poor thing. Let go!’ he added, drawing the drugget +from under Vasili Andreevich. + +Having got the drugget he folded it in two, and after taking off the +breechband and pad, covered Mukhorty with it. + +‘Anyhow it will be warmer, silly!’ he said, putting back the breechband +and the pad on the horse over the drugget. Then having finished that +business he returned to the sledge, and addressing Vasili Andreevich, +said: ‘You won’t need the sackcloth, will you? And let me have some +straw.’ + +And having taken these things from under Vasili Andreevich, Nikita went +behind the sledge, dug out a hole for himself in the snow, put straw +into it, wrapped his coat well round him, covered himself with the +sackcloth, and pulling his cap well down seated himself on the straw he +had spread, and leant against the wooden back of the sledge to shelter +himself from the wind and the snow. + +Vasili Andreevich shook his head disapprovingly at what Nikita was +doing, as in general he disapproved of the peasant’s stupidity and lack +of education, and he began to settle himself down for the night. + +He smoothed the remaining straw over the bottom of the sledge, putting +more of it under his side. Then he thrust his hands into his sleeves and +settled down, sheltering his head in the corner of the sledge from the +wind in front. + +He did not wish to sleep. He lay and thought: thought ever of the one +thing that constituted the sole aim, meaning, pleasure, and pride of his +life--of how much money he had made and might still make, of how much +other people he knew had made and possessed, and of how those others had +made and were making it, and how he, like them, might still make much +more. The purchase of the Goryachkin grove was a matter of immense +importance to him. By that one deal he hoped to make perhaps ten +thousand rubles. He began mentally to reckon the value of the wood he +had inspected in autumn, and on five acres of which he had counted all +the trees. + +‘The oaks will go for sledge-runners. The undergrowth will take care of +itself, and there’ll still be some thirty sazheens of fire-wood left on +each desyatin,’ said he to himself. ‘That means there will be at +least two hundred and twenty-five rubles’ worth left on each desyatin. +Fifty-six desyatiins means fifty-six hundreds, and fifty-six hundreds, +and fifty-six tens, and another fifty-six tens, and then fifty-six +fives....’ He saw that it came out to more than twelve thousand +rubles, but could not reckon it up exactly without a counting-frame. +‘But I won’t give ten thousand, anyhow. I’ll give about eight thousand +with a deduction on account of the glades. I’ll grease the surveyor’s +palm--give him a hundred rubles, or a hundred and fifty, and he’ll +reckon that there are some five desyatins of glade to be deducted. And +he’ll let it go for eight thousand. Three thousand cash down. That’ll +move him, no fear!’ he thought, and he pressed his pocket-book with his +forearm. + +‘God only knows how we missed the turning. The forest ought to be there, +and a watchman’s hut, and dogs barking. But the damned things don’t +bark when they’re wanted.’ He turned his collar down from his ear and +listened, but as before only the whistling of the wind could be heard, +the flapping and fluttering of the kerchief tied to the shafts, and the +pelting of the snow against the woodwork of the sledge. He again covered +up his ear. + +‘If I had known I would have stayed the night. Well, no matter, we’ll +get there to-morrow. It’s only one day lost. And the others won’t travel +in such weather.’ Then he remembered that on the 9th he had to receive +payment from the butcher for his oxen. ‘He meant to come himself, but +he won’t find me, and my wife won’t know how to receive the money. She +doesn’t know the right way of doing things,’ he thought, recalling +how at their party the day before she had not known how to treat the +police-officer who was their guest. ‘Of course she’s only a woman! Where +could she have seen anything? In my father’s time what was our house +like? Just a rich peasant’s house: just an oatmill and an inn--that was +the whole property. But what have I done in these fifteen years? A shop, +two taverns, a flour-mill, a grain-store, two farms leased out, and a +house with an iron-roofed barn,’ he thought proudly. ‘Not as it was in +Father’s time! Who is talked of in the whole district now? Brekhunov! +And why? Because I stick to business. I take trouble, not like others +who lie abed or waste their time on foolishness while I don’t sleep of +nights. Blizzard or no blizzard I start out. So business gets done. They +think money-making is a joke. No, take pains and rack your brains! You +get overtaken out of doors at night, like this, or keep awake night +after night till the thoughts whirling in your head make the pillow +turn,’ he meditated with pride. ‘They think people get on through luck. +After all, the Mironovs are now millionaires. And why? Take pains and +God gives. If only He grants me health!’ + +The thought that he might himself be a millionaire like Mironov, who +began with nothing, so excited Vasili Andreevich that he felt the need +of talking to somebody. But there was no one to talk to.... If only +he could have reached Goryachkin he would have talked to the landlord +and shown him a thing or two. + +‘Just see how it blows! It will snow us up so deep that we shan’t be +able to get out in the morning!’ he thought, listening to a gust of wind +that blew against the front of the sledge, bending it and lashing the +snow against it. He raised himself and looked round. All he could see +through the whirling darkness was Mukhorty’s dark head, his back covered +by the fluttering drugget, and his thick knotted tail; while all round, +in front and behind, was the same fluctuating whity darkness, sometimes +seeming to get a little lighter and sometimes growing denser still. + +‘A pity I listened to Nikita,’ he thought. ‘We ought to have driven on. +We should have come out somewhere, if only back to Grishkino and stayed +the night at Taras’s. As it is we must sit here all night. But what was +I thinking about? Yes, that God gives to those who take trouble, but not +to loafers, lie-abeds, or fools. I must have a smoke!’ + +He sat down again, got out his cigarette-case, and stretched himself +flat on his stomach, screening the matches with the skirt of his coat. +But the wind found its way in and put out match after match. At last +he got one to burn and lit a cigarette. He was very glad that he had +managed to do what he wanted, and though the wind smoked more of the +cigarette than he did, he still got two or three puffs and felt more +cheerful. He again leant back, wrapped himself up, started reflecting +and remembering, and suddenly and quite unexpectedly lost consciousness +and fell asleep. + +Suddenly something seemed to give him a push and awoke him. Whether +it was Mukhorty who had pulled some straw from under him, or whether +something within him had startled him, at all events it woke him, and +his heart began to beat faster and faster so that the sledge seemed to +tremble under him. He opened his eyes. Everything around him was just +as before. ‘It looks lighter,’ he thought. ‘I expect it won’t be long +before dawn.’ But he at once remembered that it was lighter because the +moon had risen. He sat up and looked first at the horse. Mukhorty still +stood with his back to the wind, shivering all over. One side of the +drugget, which was completely covered with snow, had been blown back, +the breeching had slipped down and the snow-covered head with its waving +forelock and mane were now more visible. Vasili Andreevich leant over +the back of the sledge and looked behind. Nikita still sat in the same +position in which he had settled himself. The sacking with which he was +covered, and his legs, were thickly covered with snow. + +‘If only that peasant doesn’t freeze to death! His clothes are so +wretched. I may be held responsible for him. What shiftless people they +are--such a want of education,’ thought Vasili Andreevich, and he felt +like taking the drugget off the horse and putting it over Nikita, but +it would be very cold to get out and move about and, moreover, the horse +might freeze to death. ‘Why did I bring him with me? It was all her +stupidity!’ he thought, recalling his unloved wife, and he rolled over +into his old place at the front part of the sledge. ‘My uncle once spent +a whole night like this,’ he reflected, ‘and was all right.’ But another +case came at once to his mind. ‘But when they dug Sebastian out he was +dead--stiff like a frozen carcass. If I’d only stopped the night in +Grishkino all this would not have happened!’ + +And wrapping his coat carefully round him so that none of the warmth of +the fur should be wasted but should warm him all over, neck, knees, and +feet, he shut his eyes and tried to sleep again. But try as he would he +could not get drowsy, on the contrary he felt wide awake and animated. +Again he began counting his gains and the debts due to him, again he +began bragging to himself and feeling pleased with himself and his +position, but all this was continually disturbed by a stealthily +approaching fear and by the unpleasant regret that he had not remained +in Grishkino. + +‘How different it would be to be lying warm on a bench!’ + +He turned over several times in his attempts to get into a more +comfortable position more sheltered from the wind, he wrapped up his +legs closer, shut his eyes, and lay still. But either his legs in their +strong felt boots began to ache from being bent in one position, or the +wind blew in somewhere, and after lying still for a short time he again +began to recall the disturbing fact that he might now have been lying +quietly in the warm hut at Grishkino. He again sat up, turned about, +muffled himself up, and settled down once more. + +Once he fancied that he heard a distant cock-crow. He felt glad, turned +down his coat-collar and listened with strained attention, but in spite +of all his efforts nothing could be heard but the wind whistling between +the shafts, the flapping of the kerchief, and the snow pelting against +the frame of the sledge. + +Nikita sat just as he had done all the time, not moving and not even +answering Vasili Andreevich who had addressed him a couple of times. +‘He doesn’t care a bit--he’s probably asleep!’ thought Vasili Andreevich +with vexation, looking behind the sledge at Nikita who was covered with +a thick layer of snow. + +Vasili Andreevich got up and lay down again some twenty times. It +seemed to him that the night would never end. ‘It must be getting near +morning,’ he thought, getting up and looking around. ‘Let’s have a look +at my watch. It will be cold to unbutton, but if I only know that it’s +getting near morning I shall at any rate feel more cheerful. We could +begin harnessing.’ + +In the depth of his heart Vasili Andreevich knew that it could not yet +be near morning, but he was growing more and more afraid, and wished +both to get to know and yet to deceive himself. He carefully undid the +fastening of his sheepskin, pushed in his hand, and felt about for +a long time before he got to his waistcoat. With great difficulty he +managed to draw out his silver watch with its enamelled flower design, +and tried to make out the time. He could not see anything without a +light. Again he went down on his knees and elbows as he had done when he +lighted a cigarette, got out his matches, and proceeded to strike one. +This time he went to work more carefully, and feeling with his fingers +for a match with the largest head and the greatest amount of phosphorus, +lit it at the first try. Bringing the face of the watch under the light +he could hardly believe his eyes.... It was only ten minutes past +twelve. Almost the whole night was still before him. + +‘Oh, how long the night is!’ he thought, feeling a cold shudder run down +his back, and having fastened his fur coats again and wrapped himself +up, he snuggled into a corner of the sledge intending to wait +patiently. Suddenly, above the monotonous roar of the wind, he clearly +distinguished another new and living sound. It steadily strengthened, +and having become quite clear diminished just as gradually. Beyond all +doubt it was a wolf, and he was so near that the movement of his jaws as +he changed his cry was brought down the wind. Vasili Andreevich turned +back the collar of his coat and listened attentively. Mukhorty too +strained to listen, moving his ears, and when the wolf had ceased its +howling he shifted from foot to foot and gave a warning snort. After +this Vasili Andreevich could not fall asleep again or even calm +himself. The more he tried to think of his accounts, his business, his +reputation, his worth and his wealth, the more and more was he mastered +by fear, and regrets that he had not stayed the night at Grishkino +dominated and mingled in all his thoughts. + +‘Devil take the forest! Things were all right without it, thank God. Ah, +if we had only put up for the night!’ he said to himself. ‘They say it’s +drunkards that freeze,’ he thought, ‘and I have had some drink.’ And +observing his sensations he noticed that he was beginning to shiver, +without knowing whether it was from cold or from fear. He tried to wrap +himself up and lie down as before, but could no longer do so. He could +not stay in one position. He wanted to get up, to do something to master +the gathering fear that was rising in him and against which he felt +himself powerless. He again got out his cigarettes and matches, but only +three matches were left and they were bad ones. The phosphorus rubbed +off them all without lighting. + +‘The devil take you! Damned thing! Curse you!’ he muttered, not knowing +whom or what he was cursing, and he flung away the crushed cigarette. +He was about to throw away the matchbox too, but checked the movement of +his hand and put the box in his pocket instead. He was seized with such +unrest that he could no longer remain in one spot. He climbed out of the +sledge and standing with his back to the wind began to shift his belt +again, fastening it lower down in the waist and tightening it. + +‘What’s the use of lying and waiting for death? Better mount the horse +and get away!’ The thought suddenly occurred to him. ‘The horse will +move when he has someone on his back. As for him,’ he thought of +Nikita--‘it’s all the same to him whether he lives or dies. What is his +life worth? He won’t grudge his life, but I have something to live for, +thank God.’ + +He untied the horse, threw the reins over his neck and tried to mount, +but his coats and boots were so heavy that he failed. Then he clambered +up in the sledge and tried to mount from there, but the sledge tilted +under his weight, and he failed again. At last he drew Mukhorty nearer +to the sledge, cautiously balanced on one side of it, and managed to +lie on his stomach across the horse’s back. After lying like that for a +while he shifted forward once and again, threw a leg over, and finally +seated himself, supporting his feet on the loose breeching-straps. The +shaking of the sledge awoke Nikita. He raised himself, and it seemed to +Vasili Andreevich that he said something. + +‘Listen to such fools as you! Am I to die like this for nothing?’ +exclaimed Vasili Andreevich. And tucking the loose skirts of his fur +coat in under his knees, he turned the horse and rode away from +the sledge in the direction in which he thought the forest and the +forester’s hut must be. + + + + +VII + +From the time he had covered himself with the sackcloth and seated +himself behind the sledge, Nikita had not stirred. Like all those who +live in touch with nature and have known want, he was patient and could +wait for hours, even days, without growing restless or irritable. He +heard his master call him, but did not answer because he did not want to +move or talk. Though he still felt some warmth from the tea he had drunk +and from his energetic struggle when clambering about in the snowdrift, +he knew that this warmth would not last long and that he had no strength +left to warm himself again by moving about, for he felt as tired as a +horse when it stops and refuses to go further in spite of the whip, and +its master sees that it must be fed before it can work again. The foot +in the boot with a hole in it had already grown numb, and he could no +longer feel his big toe. Besides that, his whole body began to feel +colder and colder. + +The thought that he might, and very probably would, die that night +occurred to him, but did not seem particularly unpleasant or dreadful. +It did not seem particularly unpleasant, because his whole life had been +not a continual holiday, but on the contrary an unceasing round of +toil of which he was beginning to feel weary. And it did not seem +particularly dreadful, because besides the masters he had served here, +like Vasili Andreevich, he always felt himself dependent on the Chief +Master, who had sent him into this life, and he knew that when dying he +would still be in that Master’s power and would not be ill-used by Him. +‘It seems a pity to give up what one is used to and accustomed to. But +there’s nothing to be done, I shall get used to the new things.’ + +‘Sins?’ he thought, and remembered his drunkenness, the money that had +gone on drink, how he had offended his wife, his cursing, his neglect of +church and of the fasts, and all the things the priest blamed him for +at confession. ‘Of course they are sins. But then, did I take them on of +myself? That’s evidently how God made me. Well, and the sins? Where am I +to escape to?’ + +So at first he thought of what might happen to him that night, and +then did not return to such thoughts but gave himself up to whatever +recollections came into his head of themselves. Now he thought of +Martha’s arrival, of the drunkenness among the workers and his own +renunciation of drink, then of their present journey and of Taras’s +house and the talk about the breaking-up of the family, then of his own +lad, and of Mukhorty now sheltered under the drugget, and then of his +master who made the sledge creak as he tossed about in it. ‘I expect +you’re sorry yourself that you started out, dear man,’ he thought. ‘It +would seem hard to leave a life such as his! It’s not like the likes of +us.’ + +Then all these recollections began to grow confused and got mixed in his +head, and he fell asleep. + +But when Vasili Andreevich, getting on the horse, jerked the sledge, +against the back of which Nikita was leaning, and it shifted away and +hit him in the back with one of its runners, he awoke and had to change +his position whether he liked it or not. Straightening his legs with +difficulty and shaking the snow off them he got up, and an agonizing +cold immediately penetrated his whole body. On making out what was +happening he called to Vasili Andreevich to leave him the drugget which +the horse no longer needed, so that he might wrap himself in it. + +But Vasili Andreevich did not stop, but disappeared amid the powdery +snow. + +Left alone Nikita considered for a moment what he should do. He felt +that he had not the strength to go off in search of a house. It was no +longer possible to sit down in his old place--it was by now all filled +with snow. He felt that he could not get warmer in the sledge either, +for there was nothing to cover himself with, and his coat and sheepskin +no longer warmed him at all. He felt as cold as though he had nothing on +but a shirt. He became frightened. ‘Lord, heavenly Father!’ he muttered, +and was comforted by the consciousness that he was not alone but that +there was One who heard him and would not abandon him. He gave a deep +sigh, and keeping the sackcloth over his head he got inside the sledge +and lay down in the place where his master had been. + +But he could not get warm in the sledge either. At first he shivered all +over, then the shivering ceased and little by little he began to lose +consciousness. He did not know whether he was dying or falling asleep, +but felt equally prepared for the one as for the other. + + + + +VIII + +Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich, with his feet and the ends of the reins, +urged the horse on in the direction in which for some reason he expected +the forest and forester’s hut to be. The snow covered his eyes and the +wind seemed intent on stopping him, but bending forward and constantly +lapping his coat over and pushing it between himself and the cold +harness pad which prevented him from sitting properly, he kept urging +the horse on. Mukhorty ambled on obediently though with difficulty, in +the direction in which he was driven. + +Vasili Andreevich rode for about five minutes straight ahead, as he +thought, seeing nothing but the horse’s head and the white waste, and +hearing only the whistle of the wind about the horse’s ears and his coat +collar. + +Suddenly a dark patch showed up in front of him. His heart beat with +joy, and he rode towards the object, already seeing in imagination the +walls of village houses. But the dark patch was not stationary, it +kept moving; and it was not a village but some tall stalks of wormwood +sticking up through the snow on the boundary between two fields, and +desperately tossing about under the pressure of the wind which beat +it all to one side and whistled through it. The sight of that wormwood +tormented by the pitiless wind made Vasili Andreevich shudder, he knew +not why, and he hurriedly began urging the horse on, not noticing that +when riding up to the wormwood he had quite changed his direction and +was now heading the opposite way, though still imagining that he was +riding towards where the hut should be. But the horse kept making +towards the right, and Vasili Andreevich kept guiding it to the left. + +Again something dark appeared in front of him. Again he rejoiced, +convinced that now it was certainly a village. But once more it was the +same boundary line overgrown with wormwood, once more the same wormwood +desperately tossed by the wind and carrying unreasoning terror to his +heart. But its being the same wormwood was not all, for beside it +there was a horse’s track partly snowed over. Vasili Andreevich stopped, +stooped down and looked carefully. It was a horse-track only partially +covered with snow, and could be none but his own horse’s hoofprints. He +had evidently gone round in a small circle. ‘I shall perish like that!’ +he thought, and not to give way to his terror he urged on the horse +still more, peering into the snowy darkness in which he saw only +flitting and fitful points of light. Once he thought he heard the +barking of dogs or the howling of wolves, but the sounds were so faint +and indistinct that he did not know whether he heard them or merely +imagined them, and he stopped and began to listen intently. + +Suddenly some terrible, deafening cry resounded near his ears, and +everything shivered and shook under him. He seized Mukhorty’s neck, +but that too was shaking all over and the terrible cry grew still more +frightful. For some seconds Vasili Andreevich could not collect himself +or understand what was happening. It was only that Mukhorty, whether +to encourage himself or to call for help, had neighed loudly and +resonantly. ‘Ugh, you wretch! How you frightened me, damn you!’ thought +Vasili Andreevich. But even when he understood the cause of his terror +he could not shake it off. + +‘I must calm myself and think things over,’ he said to himself, but yet +he could not stop, and continued to urge the horse on, without noticing +that he was now going with the wind instead of against it. His body, +especially between his legs where it touched the pad of the harness and +was not covered by his overcoats, was getting painfully cold, especially +when the horse walked slowly. His legs and arms trembled and his +breathing came fast. He saw himself perishing amid this dreadful snowy +waste, and could see no means of escape. + +Suddenly the horse under him tumbled into something and, sinking into +a snow-drift, began to plunge and fell on his side. Vasili Andreevich +jumped off, and in so doing dragged to one side the breechband on which +his foot was resting, and twisted round the pad to which he held as he +dismounted. As soon as he had jumped off, the horse struggled to his +feet, plunged forward, gave one leap and another, neighed again, and +dragging the drugget and the breechband after him, disappeared, leaving +Vasili Andreevich alone on the snow-drift. + +The latter pressed on after the horse, but the snow lay so deep and +his coats were so heavy that, sinking above his knees at each step, he +stopped breathless after taking not more than twenty steps. ‘The copse, +the oxen, the lease-hold, the shop, the tavern, the house with the +iron-roofed barn, and my heir,’ thought he. ‘How can I leave all that? +What does this mean? It cannot be!’ These thoughts flashed through his +mind. Then he thought of the wormwood tossed by the wind, which he had +twice ridden past, and he was seized with such terror that he did not +believe in the reality of what was happening to him. ‘Can this be a +dream?’ he thought, and tried to wake up but could not. It was real snow +that lashed his face and covered him and chilled his right hand from +which he had lost the glove, and this was a real desert in which he was +now left alone like that wormwood, awaiting an inevitable, speedy, and +meaningless death. + +‘Queen of Heaven! Holy Father Nicholas, teacher of temperance!’ he +thought, recalling the service of the day before and the holy icon with +its black face and gilt frame, and the tapers which he sold to be set +before that icon and which were almost immediately brought back to him +scarcely burnt at all, and which he put away in the store-chest. He +began to pray to that same Nicholas the Wonder-Worker to save him, +promising him a thanksgiving service and some candles. But he clearly +and indubitably realized that the icon, its frame, the candles, +the priest, and the thanksgiving service, though very important and +necessary in church, could do nothing for him here, and that there was +and could be no connexion between those candles and services and his +present disastrous plight. ‘I must not despair,’ he thought. ‘I must +follow the horse’s track before it is snowed under. He will lead me out, +or I may even catch him. Only I must not hurry, or I shall stick fast +and be more lost than ever.’ + +But in spite of his resolution to go quietly, he rushed forward and +even ran, continually falling, getting up and falling again. The horse’s +track was already hardly visible in places where the snow did not lie +deep. ‘I am lost!’ thought Vasili Andreevich. ‘I shall lose the track +and not catch the horse.’ But at that moment he saw something black. It +was Mukhorty, and not only Mukhorty, but the sledge with the shafts +and the kerchief. Mukhorty, with the sacking and the breechband twisted +round to one side, was standing not in his former place but nearer to +the shafts, shaking his head which the reins he was stepping on drew +downwards. It turned out that Vasili Andreevich had sunk in the same +ravine Nikita had previously fallen into, and that Mukhorty had been +bringing him back to the sledge and he had got off his back no more than +fifty paces from where the sledge was. + + + + +IX + +Having stumbled back to the sledge Vasili Andreevich caught hold of it +and for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm himself and recover +his breath. Nikita was not in his former place, but something, already +covered with snow, was lying in the sledge and Vasili Andreevich +concluded that this was Nikita. His terror had now quite left him, and +if he felt any fear it was lest the dreadful terror should return that +he had experienced when on the horse and especially when he was left +alone in the snow-drift. At any cost he had to avoid that terror, and +to keep it away he must do something--occupy himself with something. And +the first thing he did was to turn his back to the wind and open his fur +coat. Then, as soon as he recovered his breath a little, he shook the +snow out of his boots and out of his left-hand glove (the right-hand +glove was hopelessly lost and by this time probably lying somewhere +under a dozen inches of snow); then as was his custom when going out of +his shop to buy grain from the peasants, he pulled his girdle low down +and tightened it and prepared for action. The first thing that occurred +to him was to free Mukhorty’s leg from the rein. Having done that, and +tethered him to the iron cramp at the front of the sledge where he +had been before, he was going round the horse’s quarters to put the +breechband and pad straight and cover him with the cloth, but at that +moment he noticed that something was moving in the sledge and Nikita’s +head rose up out of the snow that covered it. Nikita, who was half +frozen, rose with great difficulty and sat up, moving his hand before +his nose in a strange manner just as if he were driving away flies. He +waved his hand and said something, and seemed to Vasili Andreevich to be +calling him. Vasili Andreevich left the cloth unadjusted and went up to +the sledge. + +‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘What are you saying?’ + +‘I’m dy... ing, that’s what,’ said Nikita brokenly and with +difficulty. ‘Give what is owing to me to my lad, or to my wife, no +matter.’ + +‘Why, are you really frozen?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + +‘I feel it’s my death. Forgive me for Christ’s sake...’ said Nikita +in a tearful voice, continuing to wave his hand before his face as if +driving away flies. + +Vasili Andreevich stood silent and motionless for half a minute. Then +suddenly, with the same resolution with which he used to strike hands +when making a good purchase, he took a step back and turning up his +sleeves began raking the snow off Nikita and out of the sledge. Having +done this he hurriedly undid his girdle, opened out his fur coat, and +having pushed Nikita down, lay down on top of him, covering him not +only with his fur coat but with the whole of his body, which glowed +with warmth. After pushing the skirts of his coat between Nikita and +the sides of the sledge, and holding down its hem with his knees, Vasili +Andreevich lay like that face down, with his head pressed against the +front of the sledge. Here he no longer heard the horse’s movements or +the whistling of the wind, but only Nikita’s breathing. At first and for +a long time Nikita lay motionless, then he sighed deeply and moved. + +‘There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm, that’s our +way...’ began Vasili Andreevich. + +But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came to his +eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He stopped speaking +and only gulped down the risings in his throat. ‘Seems I was badly +frightened and have gone quite weak,’ he thought. But this weakness was +not only unpleasant, but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never +felt before. + +‘That’s our way!’ he said to himself, experiencing a strange and solemn +tenderness. He lay like that for a long time, wiping his eyes on the fur +of his coat and tucking under his knee the right skirt, which the wind +kept turning up. + +But he longed so passionately to tell somebody of his joyful condition +that he said: ‘Nikita!’ + +‘It’s comfortable, warm!’ came a voice from beneath. + +‘There, you see, friend, I was going to perish. And you would have been +frozen, and I should have...’ + +But again his jaws began to quiver and his eyes to fill with tears, and +he could say no more. + +‘Well, never mind,’ he thought. ‘I know about myself what I know.’ + +He remained silent and lay like that for a long time. + +Nikita kept him warm from below and his fur coats from above. Only his +hands, with which he kept his coat-skirts down round Nikita’s sides, and +his legs which the wind kept uncovering, began to freeze, especially his +right hand which had no glove. But he did not think of his legs or of +his hands but only of how to warm the peasant who was lying under him. +He looked out several times at Mukhorty and could see that his back was +uncovered and the drugget and breeching lying on the snow, and that he +ought to get up and cover him, but he could not bring himself to leave +Nikita and disturb even for a moment the joyous condition he was in. He +no longer felt any kind of terror. + +‘No fear, we shan’t lose him this time!’ he said to himself, referring +to his getting the peasant warm with the same boastfulness with which he +spoke of his buying and selling. + +Vasili Andreevich lay in that way for one hour, another, and a third, +but he was unconscious of the passage of time. At first impressions +of the snow-storm, the sledge-shafts, and the horse with the shaft-bow +shaking before his eyes, kept passing through his mind, then he +remembered Nikita lying under him, then recollections of the festival, +his wife, the police-officer, and the box of candles, began to mingle +with these; then again Nikita, this time lying under that box, then the +peasants, customers and traders, and the white walls of his house with +its iron roof with Nikita lying underneath, presented themselves to +his imagination. Afterwards all these impressions blended into one +nothingness. As the colours of the rainbow unite into one white light, +so all these different impressions mingled into one, and he fell asleep. + +For a long time he slept without dreaming, but just before dawn the +visions recommenced. It seemed to him that he was standing by the box of +tapers and that Tikhon’s wife was asking for a five kopek taper for the +Church fete. He wished to take one out and give it to her, but his hands +would not lift, being held tight in his pockets. He wanted to walk round +the box but his feet would not move and his new clean goloshes had grown +to the stone floor, and he could neither lift them nor get his feet out +of the goloshes. Then the taper-box was no longer a box but a bed, and +suddenly Vasili Andreevich saw himself lying in his bed at home. He was +lying in his bed and could not get up. Yet it was necessary for him to +get up because Ivan Matveich, the police-officer, would soon call for +him and he had to go with him--either to bargain for the forest or to +put Mukhorty’s breeching straight. + +He asked his wife: ‘Nikolaevna, hasn’t he come yet?’ ‘No, he hasn’t,’ +she replied. He heard someone drive up to the front steps. ‘It must be +him.’ ‘No, he’s gone past.’ ‘Nikolaevna! I say, Nikolaevna, isn’t he +here yet?’ ‘No.’ He was still lying on his bed and could not get up, but +was always waiting. And this waiting was uncanny and yet joyful. Then +suddenly his joy was completed. He whom he was expecting came; not Ivan +Matveich the police-officer, but someone else--yet it was he whom he had +been waiting for. He came and called him; and it was he who had called +him and told him to lie down on Nikita. And Vasili Andreevich was glad +that that one had come for him. + +‘I’m coming!’ he cried joyfully, and that cry awoke him, but woke him up +not at all the same person he had been when he fell asleep. He tried to +get up but could not, tried to move his arm and could not, to move his +leg and also could not, to turn his head and could not. He was surprised +but not at all disturbed by this. He understood that this was death, and +was not at all disturbed by that either. + +He remembered that Nikita was lying under him and that he had got warm +and was alive, and it seemed to him that he was Nikita and Nikita was +he, and that his life was not in himself but in Nikita. He strained his +ears and heard Nikita breathing and even slightly snoring. ‘Nikita is +alive, so I too am alive!’ he said to himself triumphantly. + +And he remembered his money, his shop, his house, the buying and +selling, and Mironov’s millions, and it was hard for him to understand +why that man, called Vasili Brekhunov, had troubled himself with all +those things with which he had been troubled. + +‘Well, it was because he did not know what the real thing was,’ he +thought, concerning that Vasili Brekhunov. ‘He did not know, but now I +know and know for sure. Now I know!’ And again he heard the voice of +the one who had called him before. ‘I’m coming! Coming!’ he responded +gladly, and his whole being was filled with joyful emotion. He felt +himself free and that nothing could hold him back any longer. + +After that Vasili Andreevich neither saw, heard, nor felt anything more +in this world. + +All around the snow still eddied. The same whirlwinds of snow circled +about, covering the dead Vasili Andreevich’s fur coat, the shivering +Mukhorty, the sledge, now scarcely to be seen, and Nikita lying at the +bottom of it, kept warm beneath his dead master. + + + + +X + +Nikita awoke before daybreak. He was aroused by the cold that had begun +to creep down his back. He had dreamt that he was coming from the mill +with a load of his master’s flour and when crossing the stream had +missed the bridge and let the cart get stuck. And he saw that he had +crawled under the cart and was trying to lift it by arching his back. +But strange to say the cart did not move, it stuck to his back and he +could neither lift it nor get out from under it. It was crushing the +whole of his loins. And how cold it felt! Evidently he must crawl out. +‘Have done!’ he exclaimed to whoever was pressing the cart down on him. +‘Take out the sacks!’ But the cart pressed down colder and colder, +and then he heard a strange knocking, awoke completely, and remembered +everything. The cold cart was his dead and frozen master lying upon him. +And the knock was produced by Mukhorty, who had twice struck the sledge +with his hoof. + +‘Andreevich! Eh, Andreevich!’ Nikita called cautiously, beginning to +realize the truth, and straightening his back. But Vasili Andreevich did +not answer and his stomach and legs were stiff and cold and heavy like +iron weights. + +‘He must have died! May the Kingdom of Heaven be his!’ thought Nikita. + +He turned his head, dug with his hand through the snow about him and +opened his eyes. It was daylight; the wind was whistling as before +between the shafts, and the snow was falling in the same way, except +that it was no longer driving against the frame of the sledge but +silently covered both sledge and horse deeper and deeper, and neither +the horse’s movements nor his breathing were any longer to be heard. + +‘He must have frozen too,’ thought Nikita of Mukhorty, and indeed those +hoof knocks against the sledge, which had awakened Nikita, were the last +efforts the already numbed Mukhorty had made to keep on his feet before +dying. + +‘O Lord God, it seems Thou art calling me too!’ said Nikita. ‘Thy Holy +Will be done. But it’s uncanny.... Still, a man can’t die twice and +must die once. If only it would come soon!’ + +And he again drew in his head, closed his eyes, and became unconscious, +fully convinced that now he was certainly and finally dying. + + +It was not till noon that day that peasants dug Vasili Andreevich and +Nikita out of the snow with their shovels, not more than seventy yards +from the road and less than half a mile from the village. + +The snow had hidden the sledge, but the shafts and the kerchief tied to +them were still visible. Mukhorty, buried up to his belly in snow, with +the breeching and drugget hanging down, stood all white, his dead head +pressed against his frozen throat: icicles hung from his nostrils, his +eyes were covered with hoar-frost as though filled with tears, and he +had grown so thin in that one night that he was nothing but skin and +bone. + +Vasili Andreevich was stiff as a frozen carcass, and when they rolled +him off Nikita his legs remained apart and his arms stretched out as +they had been. His bulging hawk eyes were frozen, and his open mouth +under his clipped moustache was full of snow. But Nikita though chilled +through was still alive. When he had been brought to, he felt sure +that he was already dead and that what was taking place with him was +no longer happening in this world but in the next. When he heard the +peasants shouting as they dug him out and rolled the frozen body of +Vasili Andreevich from off him, he was at first surprised that in the +other world peasants should be shouting in the same old way and had the +same kind of body, and then when he realized that he was still in this +world he was sorry rather than glad, especially when he found that the +toes on both his feet were frozen. + +Nikita lay in hospital for two months. They cut off three of his toes, +but the others recovered so that he was still able to work and went on +living for another twenty years, first as a farm-labourer, then in his +old age as a watchman. He died at home as he had wished, only this year, +under the icons with a lighted taper in his hands. Before he died he +asked his wife’s forgiveness and forgave her for the cooper. He also +took leave of his son and grandchildren, and died sincerely glad that +he was relieving his son and daughter-in-law of the burden of having to +feed him, and that he was now really passing from this life of which +he was weary into that other life which every year and every hour grew +clearer and more desirable to him. Whether he is better or worse off +there where he awoke after his death, whether he was disappointed or +found there what he expected, we shall all soon learn. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER AND MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 986-0.txt or 986-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/986/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/986-0.zip b/986-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..743a243 --- /dev/null +++ b/986-0.zip diff --git a/986-h.zip b/986-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e59bf92 --- /dev/null +++ b/986-h.zip diff --git a/986-h/986-h.htm b/986-h/986-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a085ab --- /dev/null +++ b/986-h/986-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3099 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Master and Man + +Author: Leo Tolstoy + +Translator: Louise and Aylmer Maude + +Release Date: July 9, 2009 [EBook #986] +Last Updated: September 10, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER AND MAN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + MASTER AND MAN + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Leo Tolstoy + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + Contents + </h3> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> V </a> + </p> + </td> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VIII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> IX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> X </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + It happened in the ‘seventies in winter, on the day after St. Nicholas’s + Day. There was a fete in the parish and the innkeeper, Vasili Andreevich + Brekhunov, a Second Guild merchant, being a church elder had to go to + church, and had also to entertain his relatives and friends at home. + </p> + <p> + But when the last of them had gone he at once began to prepare to drive + over to see a neighbouring proprietor about a grove which he had been + bargaining over for a long time. He was now in a hurry to start, lest + buyers from the town might forestall him in making a profitable purchase. + </p> + <p> + The youthful landowner was asking ten thousand rubles for the grove simply + because Vasili Andreevich was offering seven thousand. Seven thousand was, + however, only a third of its real value. Vasili Andreevich might perhaps + have got it down to his own price, for the woods were in his district and + he had a long-standing agreement with the other village dealers that no + one should run up the price in another’s district, but he had now learnt + that some timber-dealers from town meant to bid for the Goryachkin grove, + and he resolved to go at once and get the matter settled. So as soon as + the feast was over, he took seven hundred rubles from his strong box, + added to them two thousand three hundred rubles of church money he had in + his keeping, so as to make up the sum to three thousand; carefully counted + the notes, and having put them into his pocket-book made haste to start. + </p> + <p> + Nikita, the only one of Vasili Andreevich’s labourers who was not drunk + that day, ran to harness the horse. Nikita, though an habitual drunkard, + was not drunk that day because since the last day before the fast, when he + had drunk his coat and leather boots, he had sworn off drink and had kept + his vow for two months, and was still keeping it despite the temptation of + the vodka that had been drunk everywhere during the first two days of the + feast. + </p> + <p> + Nikita was a peasant of about fifty from a neighbouring village, ‘not a + manager’ as the peasants said of him, meaning that he was not the thrifty + head of a household but lived most of his time away from home as a + labourer. He was valued everywhere for his industry, dexterity, and + strength at work, and still more for his kindly and pleasant temper. But + he never settled down anywhere for long because about twice a year, or + even oftener, he had a drinking bout, and then besides spending all his + clothes on drink he became turbulent and quarrelsome. Vasili Andreevich + himself had turned him away several times, but had afterwards taken him + back again—valuing his honesty, his kindness to animals, and + especially his cheapness. Vasili Andreevich did not pay Nikita the eighty + rubles a year such a man was worth, but only about forty, which he gave + him haphazard, in small sums, and even that mostly not in cash but in + goods from his own shop and at high prices. + </p> + <p> + Nikita’s wife Martha, who had once been a handsome vigorous woman, managed + the homestead with the help of her son and two daughters, and did not urge + Nikita to live at home: first because she had been living for some twenty + years already with a cooper, a peasant from another village who lodged in + their house; and secondly because though she managed her husband as she + pleased when he was sober, she feared him like fire when he was drunk. + Once when he had got drunk at home, Nikita, probably to make up for his + submissiveness when sober, broke open her box, took out her best clothes, + snatched up an axe, and chopped all her undergarments and dresses to bits. + All the wages Nikita earned went to his wife, and he raised no objection + to that. So now, two days before the holiday, Martha had been twice to see + Vasili Andreevich and had got from him wheat flour, tea, sugar, and a + quart of vodka, the lot costing three rubles, and also five rubles in + cash, for which she thanked him as for a special favour, though he owed + Nikita at least twenty rubles. + </p> + <p> + ‘What agreement did we ever draw up with you?’ said Vasili Andreevich to + Nikita. ‘If you need anything, take it; you will work it off. I’m not like + others to keep you waiting, and making up accounts and reckoning fines. We + deal straight-forwardly. You serve me and I don’t neglect you.’ + </p> + <p> + And when saying this Vasili Andreevich was honestly convinced that he was + Nikita’s benefactor, and he knew how to put it so plausibly that all those + who depended on him for their money, beginning with Nikita, confirmed him + in the conviction that he was their benefactor and did not overreach them. + </p> + <p> + ‘Yes, I understand, Vasili Andreevich. You know that I serve you and take + as much pains as I would for my own father. I understand very well!’ + Nikita would reply. He was quite aware that Vasili Andreevich was cheating + him, but at the same time he felt that it was useless to try to clear up + his accounts with him or explain his side of the matter, and that as long + as he had nowhere to go he must accept what he could get. + </p> + <p> + Now, having heard his master’s order to harness, he went as usual + cheerfully and willingly to the shed, stepping briskly and easily on his + rather turned-in feet; took down from a nail the heavy tasselled leather + bridle, and jingling the rings of the bit went to the closed stable where + the horse he was to harness was standing by himself. + </p> + <p> + ‘What, feeling lonely, feeling lonely, little silly?’ said Nikita in + answer to the low whinny with which he was greeted by the good-tempered, + medium-sized bay stallion, with a rather slanting crupper, who stood alone + in the shed. ‘Now then, now then, there’s time enough. Let me water you + first,’ he went on, speaking to the horse just as to someone who + understood the words he was using, and having whisked the dusty, grooved + back of the well-fed young stallion with the skirt of his coat, he put a + bridle on his handsome head, straightened his ears and forelock, and + having taken off his halter led him out to water. + </p> + <p> + Picking his way out of the dung-strewn stable, Mukhorty frisked, and + making play with his hind leg pretended that he meant to kick Nikita, who + was running at a trot beside him to the pump. + </p> + <p> + ‘Now then, now then, you rascal!’ Nikita called out, well knowing how + carefully Mukhorty threw out his hind leg just to touch his greasy + sheepskin coat but not to strike him—a trick Nikita much + appreciated. + </p> + <p> + After a drink of the cold water the horse sighed, moving his strong wet + lips, from the hairs of which transparent drops fell into the trough; then + standing still as if in thought, he suddenly gave a loud snort. + </p> + <p> + ‘If you don’t want any more, you needn’t. But don’t go asking for any + later,’ said Nikita quite seriously and fully explaining his conduct to + Mukhorty. Then he ran back to the shed pulling the playful young horse, + who wanted to gambol all over the yard, by the rein. + </p> + <p> + There was no one else in the yard except a stranger, the cook’s husband, + who had come for the holiday. + </p> + <p> + ‘Go and ask which sledge is to be harnessed—the wide one or the + small one—there’s a good fellow!’ + </p> + <p> + The cook’s husband went into the house, which stood on an iron foundation + and was iron-roofed, and soon returned saying that the little one was to + be harnessed. By that time Nikita had put the collar and brass-studded + belly-band on Mukhorty and, carrying a light, painted shaft-bow in one + hand, was leading the horse with the other up to two sledges that stood in + the shed. + </p> + <p> + ‘All right, let it be the little one!’ he said, backing the intelligent + horse, which all the time kept pretending to bite him, into the shafts, + and with the aid of the cook’s husband he proceeded to harness. When + everything was nearly ready and only the reins had to be adjusted, Nikita + sent the other man to the shed for some straw and to the barn for a + drugget. + </p> + <p> + ‘There, that’s all right! Now, now, don’t bristle up!’ said Nikita, + pressing down into the sledge the freshly threshed oat straw the cook’s + husband had brought. ‘And now let’s spread the sacking like this, and the + drugget over it. There, like that it will be comfortable sitting,’ he went + on, suiting the action to the words and tucking the drugget all round over + the straw to make a seat. + </p> + <p> + ‘Thank you, dear man. Things always go quicker with two working at it!’ he + added. And gathering up the leather reins fastened together by a brass + ring, Nikita took the driver’s seat and started the impatient horse over + the frozen manure which lay in the yard, towards the gate. + </p> + <p> + ‘Uncle Nikita! I say, Uncle, Uncle!’ a high-pitched voice shouted, and a + seven-year-old boy in a black sheepskin coat, new white felt boots, and a + warm cap, ran hurriedly out of the house into the yard. ‘Take me with + you!’ he cried, fastening up his coat as he ran. + </p> + <p> + ‘All right, come along, darling!’ said Nikita, and stopping the sledge he + picked up the master’s pale thin little son, radiant with joy, and drove + out into the road. + </p> + <p> + It was past two o’clock and the day was windy, dull, and cold, with more + than twenty degrees Fahrenheit of frost. Half the sky was hidden by a + lowering dark cloud. In the yard it was quiet, but in the street the wind + was felt more keenly. The snow swept down from a neighbouring shed and + whirled about in the corner near the bath-house. + </p> + <p> + Hardly had Nikita driven out of the yard and turned the horse’s head to + the house, before Vasili Andreevich emerged from the high porch in front + of the house with a cigarette in his mouth and wearing a cloth-covered + sheep-skin coat tightly girdled low at his waist, and stepped onto the + hard-trodden snow which squeaked under the leather soles of his felt + boots, and stopped. Taking a last whiff of his cigarette he threw it down, + stepped on it, and letting the smoke escape through his moustache and + looking askance at the horse that was coming up, began to tuck in his + sheepskin collar on both sides of his ruddy face, clean-shaven except for + the moustache, so that his breath should not moisten the collar. + </p> + <p> + ‘See now! The young scamp is there already!’ he exclaimed when he saw his + little son in the sledge. Vasili Andreevich was excited by the vodka he + had drunk with his visitors, and so he was even more pleased than usual + with everything that was his and all that he did. The sight of his son, + whom he always thought of as his heir, now gave him great satisfaction. He + looked at him, screwing up his eyes and showing his long teeth. + </p> + <p> + His wife—pregnant, thin and pale, with her head and shoulders + wrapped in a shawl so that nothing of her face could be seen but her eyes—stood + behind him in the vestibule to see him off. + </p> + <p> + ‘Now really, you ought to take Nikita with you,’ she said timidly, + stepping out from the doorway. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich did not answer. Her words evidently annoyed him and he + frowned angrily and spat. + </p> + <p> + ‘You have money on you,’ she continued in the same plaintive voice. ‘What + if the weather gets worse! Do take him, for goodness’ sake!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Why? Don’t I know the road that I must needs take a guide?’ exclaimed + Vasili Andreevich, uttering every word very distinctly and compressing his + lips unnaturally, as he usually did when speaking to buyers and sellers. + </p> + <p> + ‘Really you ought to take him. I beg you in God’s name!’ his wife + repeated, wrapping her shawl more closely round her head. + </p> + <p> + ‘There, she sticks to it like a leech!... Where am I to take him?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘I’m quite ready to go with you, Vasili Andreevich,’ said Nikita + cheerfully. ‘But they must feed the horses while I am away,’ he added, + turning to his master’s wife. + </p> + <p> + ‘I’ll look after them, Nikita dear. I’ll tell Simon,’ replied the + mistress. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, Vasili Andreevich, am I to come with you?’ said Nikita, awaiting a + decision. + </p> + <p> + ‘It seems I must humour my old woman. But if you’re coming you’d better + put on a warmer cloak,’ said Vasili Andreevich, smiling again as he winked + at Nikita’s short sheepskin coat, which was torn under the arms and at the + back, was greasy and out of shape, frayed to a fringe round the skirt, and + had endured many things in its lifetime. + </p> + <p> + ‘Hey, dear man, come and hold the horse!’ shouted Nikita to the cook’s + husband, who was still in the yard. + </p> + <p> + ‘No, I will myself, I will myself!’ shrieked the little boy, pulling his + hands, red with cold, out of his pockets, and seizing the cold leather + reins. + </p> + <p> + ‘Only don’t be too long dressing yourself up. Look alive!’ shouted Vasili + Andreevich, grinning at Nikita. + </p> + <p> + ‘Only a moment, Father, Vasili Andreevich!’ replied Nikita, and running + quickly with his inturned toes in his felt boots with their soles patched + with felt, he hurried across the yard and into the workmen’s hut. + </p> + <p> + ‘Arinushka! Get my coat down from the stove. I’m going with the master,’ + he said, as he ran into the hut and took down his girdle from the nail on + which it hung. + </p> + <p> + The workmen’s cook, who had had a sleep after dinner and was now getting + the samovar ready for her husband, turned cheerfully to Nikita, and + infected by his hurry began to move as quickly as he did, got down his + miserable worn-out cloth coat from the stove where it was drying, and + began hurriedly shaking it out and smoothing it down. + </p> + <p> + ‘There now, you’ll have a chance of a holiday with your good man,’ said + Nikita, who from kindhearted politeness always said something to anyone he + was alone with. + </p> + <p> + Then, drawing his worn narrow girdle round him, he drew in his breath, + pulling in his lean stomach still more, and girdled himself as tightly as + he could over his sheepskin. + </p> + <p> + ‘There now,’ he said addressing himself no longer to the cook but the + girdle, as he tucked the ends in at the waist, ‘now you won’t come + undone!’ And working his shoulders up and down to free his arms, he put + the coat over his sheepskin, arched his back more strongly to ease his + arms, poked himself under the armpits, and took down his leather-covered + mittens from the shelf. ‘Now we’re all right!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘You ought to wrap your feet up, Nikita. Your boots are very bad.’ + </p> + <p> + Nikita stopped as if he had suddenly realized this. + </p> + <p> + ‘Yes, I ought to.... But they’ll do like this. It isn’t far!’ and he ran + out into the yard. + </p> + <p> + ‘Won’t you be cold, Nikita?’ said the mistress as he came up to the + sledge. + </p> + <p> + ‘Cold? No, I’m quite warm,’ answered Nikita as he pushed some straw up to + the forepart of the sledge so that it should cover his feet, and stowed + away the whip, which the good horse would not need, at the bottom of the + sledge. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich, who was wearing two fur-lined coats one over the other, + was already in the sledge, his broad back filling nearly its whole rounded + width, and taking the reins he immediately touched the horse. Nikita + jumped in just as the sledge started, and seated himself in front on the + left side, with one leg hanging over the edge. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + The good stallion took the sledge along at a brisk pace over the + smooth-frozen road through the village, the runners squeaking slightly as + they went. + </p> + <p> + ‘Look at him hanging on there! Hand me the whip, Nikita!’ shouted Vasili + Andreevich, evidently enjoying the sight of his ‘heir,’ who standing on + the runners was hanging on at the back of the sledge. ‘I’ll give it you! + Be off to mamma, you dog!’ + </p> + <p> + The boy jumped down. The horse increased his amble and, suddenly changing + foot, broke into a fast trot. + </p> + <p> + The Crosses, the village where Vasili Andreevich lived, consisted of six + houses. As soon as they had passed the blacksmith’s hut, the last in the + village, they realized that the wind was much stronger than they had + thought. The road could hardly be seen. The tracks left by the + sledge-runners were immediately covered by snow and the road was only + distinguished by the fact that it was higher than the rest of the ground. + There was a swirl of snow over the fields and the line where sky and earth + met could not be seen. The Telyatin forest, usually clearly visible, now + only loomed up occasionally and dimly through the driving snowy dust. The + wind came from the left, insistently blowing over to one side the mane on + Mukhorty’s sleek neck and carrying aside even his fluffy tail, which was + tied in a simple knot. Nikita’s wide coat-collar, as he sat on the windy + side, pressed close to his cheek and nose. + </p> + <p> + ‘This road doesn’t give him a chance—it’s too snowy,’ said Vasili + Andreevich, who prided himself on his good horse. ‘I once drove to + Pashutino with him in half an hour.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘What?’ asked Nikita, who could not hear on account of his collar. + </p> + <p> + ‘I say I once went to Pashutino in half an hour,’ shouted Vasili + Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘It goes without saying that he’s a good horse,’ replied Nikita. + </p> + <p> + They were silent for a while. But Vasili Andreevich wished to talk. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, did you tell your wife not to give the cooper any vodka?’ he began + in the same loud tone, quite convinced that Nikita must feel flattered to + be talking with so clever and important a person as himself, and he was so + pleased with his jest that it did not enter his head that the remark might + be unpleasant to Nikita. + </p> + <p> + The wind again prevented Nikita’s hearing his master’s words. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich repeated the jest about the cooper in his loud, clear + voice. + </p> + <p> + ‘That’s their business, Vasili Andreevich. I don’t pry into their affairs. + As long as she doesn’t ill-treat our boy—God be with them.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘That’s so,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘Well, and will you be buying a horse + in spring?’ he went on, changing the subject. + </p> + <p> + ‘Yes, I can’t avoid it,’ answered Nikita, turning down his collar and + leaning back towards his master. + </p> + <p> + The conversation now became interesting to him and he did not wish to lose + a word. + </p> + <p> + ‘The lad’s growing up. He must begin to plough for himself, but till now + we’ve always had to hire someone,’ he said. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, why not have the lean-cruppered one. I won’t charge much for it,’ + shouted Vasili Andreevich, feeling animated, and consequently starting on + his favourite occupation—that of horse-dealing—which absorbed + all his mental powers. + </p> + <p> + ‘Or you might let me have fifteen rubles and I’ll buy one at the + horse-market,’ said Nikita, who knew that the horse Vasili Andreevich + wanted to sell him would be dear at seven rubles, but that if he took it + from him it would be charged at twenty-five, and then he would be unable + to draw any money for half a year. + </p> + <p> + ‘It’s a good horse. I think of your interest as of my own—according + to conscience. Brekhunov isn’t a man to wrong anyone. Let the loss be + mine. I’m not like others. Honestly!’ he shouted in the voice in which he + hypnotized his customers and dealers. ‘It’s a real good horse.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Quite so!’ said Nikita with a sigh, and convinced that there was nothing + more to listen to, he again released his collar, which immediately covered + his ear and face. + </p> + <p> + They drove on in silence for about half an hour. The wind blew sharply + onto Nikita’s side and arm where his sheepskin was torn. + </p> + <p> + He huddled up and breathed into the collar which covered his mouth, and + was not wholly cold. + </p> + <p> + ‘What do you think—shall we go through Karamyshevo or by the + straight road?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + The road through Karamyshevo was more frequented and was well marked with + a double row of high stakes. The straight road was nearer but little used + and had no stakes, or only poor ones covered with snow. + </p> + <p> + Nikita thought awhile. + </p> + <p> + ‘Though Karamyshevo is farther, it is better going,’ he said. + </p> + <p> + ‘But by the straight road, when once we get through the hollow by the + forest, it’s good going—sheltered,’ said Vasili Andreevich, who + wished to go the nearest way. + </p> + <p> + ‘Just as you please,’ said Nikita, and again let go of his collar. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich did as he had said, and having gone about half a verst + came to a tall oak stake which had a few dry leaves still dangling on it, + and there he turned to the left. + </p> + <p> + On turning they faced directly against the wind, and snow was beginning to + fall. Vasili Andreevich, who was driving, inflated his cheeks, blowing the + breath out through his moustache. Nikita dozed. + </p> + <p> + So they went on in silence for about ten minutes. Suddenly Vasili + Andreevich began saying something. + </p> + <p> + ‘Eh, what?’ asked Nikita, opening his eyes. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich did not answer, but bent over, looking behind them and + then ahead of the horse. The sweat had curled Mukhorty’s coat between his + legs and on his neck. He went at a walk. + </p> + <p> + ‘What is it?’ Nikita asked again. + </p> + <p> + ‘What is it? What is it?’ Vasili Andreevich mimicked him angrily. ‘There + are no stakes to be seen! We must have got off the road!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, pull up then, and I’ll look for it,’ said Nikita, and jumping down + lightly from the sledge and taking the whip from under the straw, he went + off to the left from his own side of the sledge. + </p> + <p> + The snow was not deep that year, so that it was possible to walk anywhere, + but still in places it was knee-deep and got into Nikita’s boots. He went + about feeling the ground with his feet and the whip, but could not find + the road anywhere. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, how is it?’ asked Vasili Andreevich when Nikita came back to the + sledge. + </p> + <p> + ‘There is no road this side. I must go to the other side and try there,’ + said Nikita. + </p> + <p> + ‘There’s something there in front. Go and have a look.’ + </p> + <p> + Nikita went to what had appeared dark, but found that it was earth which + the wind had blown from the bare fields of winter oats and had strewn over + the snow, colouring it. Having searched to the right also, he returned to + the sledge, brushed the snow from his coat, shook it out of his boots, and + seated himself once more. + </p> + <p> + ‘We must go to the right,’ he said decidedly. ‘The wind was blowing on our + left before, but now it is straight in my face. Drive to the right,’ he + repeated with decision. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich took his advice and turned to the right, but still there + was no road. They went on in that direction for some time. The wind was as + fierce as ever and it was snowing lightly. + </p> + <p> + ‘It seems, Vasili Andreevich, that we have gone quite astray,’ Nikita + suddenly remarked, as if it were a pleasant thing. ‘What is that?’ he + added, pointing to some potato vines that showed up from under the snow. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich stopped the perspiring horse, whose deep sides were + heaving heavily. + </p> + <p> + ‘What is it?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, we are on the Zakharov lands. See where we’ve got to!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Nonsense!’ retorted Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘It’s not nonsense, Vasili Andreevich. It’s the truth,’ replied Nikita. + ‘You can feel that the sledge is going over a potato-field, and there are + the heaps of vines which have been carted here. It’s the Zakharov factory + land.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Dear me, how we have gone astray!’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘What are we + to do now?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘We must go straight on, that’s all. We shall come out somewhere—if + not at Zakharova, then at the proprietor’s farm,’ said Nikita. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich agreed, and drove as Nikita had indicated. So they went + on for a considerable time. At times they came onto bare fields and the + sledge-runners rattled over frozen lumps of earth. Sometimes they got onto + a winter-rye field, or a fallow field on which they could see stalks of + wormwood, and straws sticking up through the snow and swaying in the wind; + sometimes they came onto deep and even white snow, above which nothing was + to be seen. + </p> + <p> + The snow was falling from above and sometimes rose from below. The horse + was evidently exhausted, his hair had all curled up from sweat and was + covered with hoar-frost, and he went at a walk. Suddenly he stumbled and + sat down in a ditch or water-course. Vasili Andreevich wanted to stop, but + Nikita cried to him: + </p> + <p> + ‘Why stop? We’ve got in and must get out. Hey, pet! Hey, darling! Gee up, + old fellow!’ he shouted in a cheerful tone to the horse, jumping out of + the sledge and himself getting stuck in the ditch. + </p> + <p> + The horse gave a start and quickly climbed out onto the frozen bank. It + was evidently a ditch that had been dug there. + </p> + <p> + ‘Where are we now?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘We’ll soon find out!’ Nikita replied. ‘Go on, we’ll get somewhere.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, this must be the Goryachkin forest!’ said Vasili Andreevich, + pointing to something dark that appeared amid the snow in front of them. + </p> + <p> + ‘We’ll see what forest it is when we get there,’ said Nikita. + </p> + <p> + He saw that beside the black thing they had noticed, dry, oblong + willow-leaves were fluttering, and so he knew it was not a forest but a + settlement, but he did not wish to say so. And in fact they had not gone + twenty-five yards beyond the ditch before something in front of them, + evidently trees, showed up black, and they heard a new and melancholy + sound. Nikita had guessed right: it was not a wood, but a row of tall + willows with a few leaves still fluttering on them here and there. They + had evidently been planted along the ditch round a threshing-floor. Coming + up to the willows, which moaned sadly in the wind, the horse suddenly + planted his forelegs above the height of the sledge, drew up his hind legs + also, pulling the sledge onto higher ground, and turned to the left, no + longer sinking up to his knees in snow. They were back on a road. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, here we are, but heaven only knows where!’ said Nikita. + </p> + <p> + The horse kept straight along the road through the drifted snow, and + before they had gone another hundred yards the straight line of the dark + wattle wall of a barn showed up black before them, its roof heavily + covered with snow which poured down from it. After passing the barn the + road turned to the wind and they drove into a snow-drift. But ahead of + them was a lane with houses on either side, so evidently the snow had been + blown across the road and they had to drive through the drift. And so in + fact it was. Having driven through the snow they came out into a street. + At the end house of the village some frozen clothes hanging on a line—shirts, + one red and one white, trousers, leg-bands, and a petticoat—fluttered + wildly in the wind. The white shirt in particular struggled desperately, + waving its sleeves about. + </p> + <p> + ‘There now, either a lazy woman or a dead one has not taken her clothes + down before the holiday,’ remarked Nikita, looking at the fluttering + shirts. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + At the entrance to the street the wind still raged and the road was + thickly covered with snow, but well within the village it was calm, warm, + and cheerful. At one house a dog was barking, at another a woman, covering + her head with her coat, came running from somewhere and entered the door + of a hut, stopping on the threshold to have a look at the passing sledge. + In the middle of the village girls could be heard singing. + </p> + <p> + Here in the village there seemed to be less wind and snow, and the frost + was less keen. + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, this is Grishkino,’ said Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘So it is,’ responded Nikita. + </p> + <p> + It really was Grishkino, which meant that they had gone too far to the + left and had travelled some six miles, not quite in the direction they + aimed at, but towards their destination for all that. + </p> + <p> + From Grishkino to Goryachkin was about another four miles. + </p> + <p> + In the middle of the village they almost ran into a tall man walking down + the middle of the street. + </p> + <p> + ‘Who are you?’ shouted the man, stopping the horse, and recognizing Vasili + Anereevich he immediately took hold of the shaft, went along it hand over + hand till he reached the sledge, and placed himself on the driver’s seat. + </p> + <p> + He was Isay, a peasant of Vasili Andreevich’s acquaintance, and well known + as the principal horse-thief in the district. + </p> + <p> + ‘Ah, Vasili Andreevich! Where are you off to?’ said Isay, enveloping + Nikita in the odour of the vodka he had drunk. + </p> + <p> + ‘We were going to Goryachkin.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘And look where you’ve got to! You should have gone through Molchanovka.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Should have, but didn’t manage it,’ said Vasili Andreevich, holding in + the horse. + </p> + <p> + ‘That’s a good horse,’ said Isay, with a shrewd glance at Mukhorty, and + with a practised hand he tightened the loosened knot high in the horse’s + bushy tail. + </p> + <p> + ‘Are you going to stay the night?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘No, friend. I must get on.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Your business must be pressing. And who is this? Ah, Nikita Stepanych!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Who else?’ replied Nikita. ‘But I say, good friend, how are we to avoid + going astray again?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Where can you go astray here? Turn back straight down the street and then + when you come out keep straight on. Don’t take to the left. You will come + out onto the high road, and then turn to the right.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘And where do we turn off the high road? As in summer, or the winter way?’ + asked Nikita. + </p> + <p> + ‘The winter way. As soon as you turn off you’ll see some bushes, and + opposite them there is a way-mark—a large oak, one with branches—and + that’s the way.’ + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich turned the horse back and drove through the outskirts of + the village. + </p> + <p> + ‘Why not stay the night?’ Isay shouted after them. + </p> + <p> + But Vasili Andreevich did not answer and touched up the horse. Four miles + of good road, two of which lay through the forest, seemed easy to manage, + especially as the wind was apparently quieter and the snow had stopped. + </p> + <p> + Having driven along the trodden village street, darkened here and there by + fresh manure, past the yard where the clothes hung out and where the white + shirt had broken loose and was now attached only by one frozen sleeve, + they again came within sound of the weird moan of the willows, and again + emerged on the open fields. The storm, far from ceasing, seemed to have + grown yet stronger. The road was completely covered with drifting snow, + and only the stakes showed that they had not lost their way. But even the + stakes ahead of them were not easy to see, since the wind blew in their + faces. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich screwed up his eyes, bent down his head, and looked out + for the way-marks, but trusted mainly to the horse’s sagacity, letting it + take its own way. And the horse really did not lose the road but followed + its windings, turning now to the right and now to the left and sensing it + under his feet, so that though the snow fell thicker and the wind + strengthened they still continued to see way-marks now to the left and now + to the right of them. + </p> + <p> + So they travelled on for about ten minutes, when suddenly, through the + slanting screen of wind-driven snow, something black showed up which moved + in front of the horse. + </p> + <p> + This was another sledge with fellow-travellers. Mukhorty overtook them, + and struck his hoofs against the back of the sledge in front of them. + </p> + <p> + ‘Pass on... hey there... get in front!’ cried voices from the sledge. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich swerved aside to pass the other sledge. + </p> + <p> + In it sat three men and a woman, evidently visitors returning from a + feast. One peasant was whacking the snow-covered croup of their little + horse with a long switch, and the other two sitting in front waved their + arms and shouted something. The woman, completely wrapped up and covered + with snow, sat drowsing and bumping at the back. + </p> + <p> + ‘Who are you?’ shouted Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘From A-a-a...’ was all that could be heard. + </p> + <p> + ‘I say, where are you from?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘From A-a-a-a!’ one of the peasants shouted with all his might, but still + it was impossible to make out who they were. + </p> + <p> + ‘Get along! Keep up!’ shouted another, ceaselessly beating his horse with + the switch. + </p> + <p> + ‘So you’re from a feast, it seems?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Go on, go on! Faster, Simon! Get in front! Faster!’ + </p> + <p> + The wings of the sledges bumped against one another, almost got jammed but + managed to separate, and the peasants’ sledge began to fall behind. + </p> + <p> + Their shaggy, big-bellied horse, all covered with snow, breathed heavily + under the low shaft-bow and, evidently using the last of its strength, + vainly endeavoured to escape from the switch, hobbling with its short legs + through the deep snow which it threw up under itself. + </p> + <p> + Its muzzle, young-looking, with the nether lip drawn up like that of a + fish, nostrils distended and ears pressed back from fear, kept up for a + few seconds near Nikita’s shoulder and then began to fall behind. + </p> + <p> + ‘Just see what liquor does!’ said Nikita. ‘They’ve tired that little horse + to death. What pagans!’ + </p> + <p> + For a few minutes they heard the panting of the tired little horse and the + drunken shouting of the peasants. Then the panting and the shouts died + away, and around them nothing could be heard but the whistling of the wind + in their ears and now and then the squeak of their sledge-runners over a + windswept part of the road. + </p> + <p> + This encounter cheered and enlivened Vasili Andreevich, and he drove on + more boldly without examining the way-marks, urging on the horse and + trusting to him. + </p> + <p> + Nikita had nothing to do, and as usual in such circumstances he drowsed, + making up for much sleepless time. Suddenly the horse stopped and Nikita + nearly fell forward onto his nose. + </p> + <p> + ‘You know we’re off the track again!’ said Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘How’s that?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, there are no way-marks to be seen. We must have got off the road + again.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, if we’ve lost the road we must find it,’ said Nikita curtly, and + getting out and stepping lightly on his pigeon-toed feet he started once + more going about on the snow. + </p> + <p> + He walked about for a long time, now disappearing and now reappearing, and + finally he came back. + </p> + <p> + ‘There is no road here. There may be farther on,’ he said, getting into + the sledge. + </p> + <p> + It was already growing dark. The snow-storm had not increased but had also + not subsided. + </p> + <p> + ‘If we could only hear those peasants!’ said Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well they haven’t caught us up. We must have gone far astray. Or maybe + they have lost their way too.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Where are we to go then?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, we must let the horse take its own way,’ said Nikita. ‘He will take + us right. Let me have the reins.’ + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich gave him the reins, the more willingly because his hands + were beginning to feel frozen in his thick gloves. + </p> + <p> + Nikita took the reins, but only held them, trying not to shake them and + rejoicing at his favourite’s sagacity. And indeed the clever horse, + turning first one ear and then the other now to one side and then to the + other, began to wheel round. + </p> + <p> + ‘The one thing he can’t do is to talk,’ Nikita kept saying. ‘See what he + is doing! Go on, go on! You know best. That’s it, that’s it!’ + </p> + <p> + The wind was now blowing from behind and it felt warmer. + </p> + <p> + ‘Yes, he’s clever,’ Nikita continued, admiring the horse. ‘A Kirgiz horse + is strong but stupid. But this one—just see what he’s doing with his + ears! He doesn’t need any telegraph. He can scent a mile off.’ + </p> + <p> + Before another half-hour had passed they saw something dark ahead of them—a + wood or a village—and stakes again appeared to the right. They had + evidently come out onto the road. + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, that’s Grishkino again!’ Nikita suddenly exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + And indeed, there on their left was that same barn with the snow flying + from it, and farther on the same line with the frozen washing, shirts and + trousers, which still fluttered desperately in the wind. + </p> + <p> + Again they drove into the street and again it grew quiet, warm, and + cheerful, and again they could see the manure-stained street and hear + voices and songs and the barking of a dog. It was already so dark that + there were lights in some of the windows. + </p> + <p> + Half-way through the village Vasili Andreevich turned the horse towards a + large double-fronted brick house and stopped at the porch. + </p> + <p> + Nikita went to the lighted snow-covered window, in the rays of which + flying snow-flakes glittered, and knocked at it with his whip. + </p> + <p> + ‘Who is there?’ a voice replied to his knock. + </p> + <p> + ‘From Kresty, the Brekhunovs, dear fellow,’ answered Nikita. ‘Just come + out for a minute.’ + </p> + <p> + Someone moved from the window, and a minute or two later there was the + sound of the passage door as it came unstuck, then the latch of the + outside door clicked and a tall white-bearded peasant, with a sheepskin + coat thrown over his white holiday shirt, pushed his way out holding the + door firmly against the wind, followed by a lad in a red shirt and high + leather boots. + </p> + <p> + ‘Is that you, Andreevich?’ asked the old man. + </p> + <p> + ‘Yes, friend, we’ve gone astray,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘We wanted to + get to Goryachkin but found ourselves here. We went a second time but lost + our way again.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Just see how you have gone astray!’ said the old man. ‘Petrushka, go and + open the gate!’ he added, turning to the lad in the red shirt. + </p> + <p> + ‘All right,’ said the lad in a cheerful voice, and ran back into the + passage. + </p> + <p> + ‘But we’re not staying the night,’ said Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘Where will you go in the night? You’d better stay!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘I’d be glad to, but I must go on. It’s business, and it can’t be helped.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, warm yourself at least. The samovar is just ready.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Warm myself? Yes, I’ll do that,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘It won’t get + darker. The moon will rise and it will be lighter. Let’s go in and warm + ourselves, Nikita.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, why not? Let us warm ourselves,’ replied Nikita, who was stiff with + cold and anxious to warm his frozen limbs. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich went into the room with the old man, and Nikita drove + through the gate opened for him by Petrushka, by whose advice he backed + the horse under the penthouse. The ground was covered with manure and the + tall bow over the horse’s head caught against the beam. The hens and the + cock had already settled to roost there, and clucked peevishly, clinging + to the beam with their claws. The disturbed sheep shied and rushed aside + trampling the frozen manure with their hooves. The dog yelped desperately + with fright and anger and then burst out barking like a puppy at the + stranger. + </p> + <p> + Nikita talked to them all, excused himself to the fowls and assured them + that he would not disturb them again, rebuked the sheep for being + frightened without knowing why, and kept soothing the dog, while he tied + up the horse. + </p> + <p> + ‘Now that will be all right,’ he said, knocking the snow off his clothes. + ‘Just hear how he barks!’ he added, turning to the dog. ‘Be quiet, stupid! + Be quiet. You are only troubling yourself for nothing. We’re not thieves, + we’re friends....’ + </p> + <p> + ‘And these are, it’s said, the three domestic counsellors,’ remarked the + lad, and with his strong arms he pushed under the pent-roof the sledge + that had remained outside. + </p> + <p> + ‘Why counsellors?’ asked Nikita. + </p> + <p> + ‘That’s what is printed in Paulson. A thief creeps to a house—the + dog barks, that means “Be on your guard!” The cock crows, that means, “Get + up!” The cat licks herself—that means, “A welcome guest is coming. + Get ready to receive him!”’ said the lad with a smile. + </p> + <p> + Petrushka could read and write and knew Paulson’s primer, his only book, + almost by heart, and he was fond of quoting sayings from it that he + thought suited the occasion, especially when he had had something to + drink, as to-day. + </p> + <p> + ‘That’s so,’ said Nikita. + </p> + <p> + ‘You must be chilled through and through,’ said Petrushka. + </p> + <p> + ‘Yes, I am rather,’ said Nikita, and they went across the yard and the + passage into the house. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + The household to which Vasili Andreevich had come was one of the richest + in the village. The family had five allotments, besides renting other + land. They had six horses, three cows, two calves, and some twenty sheep. + There were twenty-two members belonging to the homestead: four married + sons, six grandchildren (one of whom, Petrushka, was married), two + great-grandchildren, three orphans, and four daughters-in-law with their + babies. It was one of the few homesteads that remained still undivided, + but even here the dull internal work of disintegration which would + inevitably lead to separation had already begun, starting as usual among + the women. Two sons were living in Moscow as water-carriers, and one was + in the army. At home now were the old man and his wife, their second son + who managed the homestead, the eldest who had come from Moscow for the + holiday, and all the women and children. Besides these members of the + family there was a visitor, a neighbour who was godfather to one of the + children. + </p> + <p> + Over the table in the room hung a lamp with a shade, which brightly lit up + the tea-things, a bottle of vodka, and some refreshments, besides + illuminating the brick walls, which in the far corner were hung with icons + on both sides of which were pictures. At the head of the table sat Vasili + Andreevich in a black sheepskin coat, sucking his frozen moustache and + observing the room and the people around him with his prominent hawk-like + eyes. With him sat the old, bald, white-bearded master of the house in a + white homespun shirt, and next him the son home from Moscow for the + holiday—a man with a sturdy back and powerful shoulders and clad in + a thin print shirt—then the second son, also broad-shouldered, who + acted as head of the house, and then a lean red-haired peasant—the + neighbour. + </p> + <p> + Having had a drink of vodka and something to eat, they were about to take + tea, and the samovar standing on the floor beside the brick oven was + already humming. The children could be seen in the top bunks and on the + top of the oven. A woman sat on a lower bunk with a cradle beside her. The + old housewife, her face covered with wrinkles which wrinkled even her + lips, was waiting on Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + As Nikita entered the house she was offering her guest a small tumbler of + thick glass which she had just filled with vodka. + </p> + <p> + ‘Don’t refuse, Vasili Andreevich, you mustn’t! Wish us a merry feast. + Drink it, dear!’ she said. + </p> + <p> + The sight and smell of vodka, especially now when he was chilled through + and tired out, much disturbed Nikita’s mind. He frowned, and having shaken + the snow off his cap and coat, stopped in front of the icons as if not + seeing anyone, crossed himself three times, and bowed to the icons. Then, + turning to the old master of the house and bowing first to him, then to + all those at table, then to the women who stood by the oven, and + muttering: ‘A merry holiday!’ he began taking off his outer things without + looking at the table. + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, you’re all covered with hoar-frost, old fellow!’ said the eldest + brother, looking at Nikita’s snow-covered face, eyes, and beard. + </p> + <p> + Nikita took off his coat, shook it again, hung it up beside the oven, and + came up to the table. He too was offered vodka. He went through a moment + of painful hesitation and nearly took up the glass and emptied the clear + fragrant liquid down his throat, but he glanced at Vasili Andreevich, + remembered his oath and the boots that he had sold for drink, recalled the + cooper, remembered his son for whom he had promised to buy a horse by + spring, sighed, and declined it. + </p> + <p> + ‘I don’t drink, thank you kindly,’ he said frowning, and sat down on a + bench near the second window. + </p> + <p> + ‘How’s that?’ asked the eldest brother. + </p> + <p> + ‘I just don’t drink,’ replied Nikita without lifting his eyes but looking + askance at his scanty beard and moustache and getting the icicles out of + them. + </p> + <p> + ‘It’s not good for him,’ said Vasili Andreevich, munching a cracknel after + emptying his glass. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, then, have some tea,’ said the kindly old hostess. ‘You must be + chilled through, good soul. Why are you women dawdling so with the + samovar?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘It is ready,’ said one of the young women, and after flicking with her + apron the top of the samovar which was now boiling over, she carried it + with an effort to the table, raised it, and set it down with a thud. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich was telling how he had lost his way, how they + had come back twice to this same village, and how they had gone astray and + had met some drunken peasants. Their hosts were surprised, explained where + and why they had missed their way, said who the tipsy people they had met + were, and told them how they ought to go. + </p> + <p> + ‘A little child could find the way to Molchanovka from here. All you have + to do is to take the right turning from the high road. There’s a bush you + can see just there. But you didn’t even get that far!’ said the neighbour. + </p> + <p> + ‘You’d better stay the night. The women will make up beds for you,’ said + the old woman persuasively. + </p> + <p> + ‘You could go on in the morning and it would be pleasanter,’ said the old + man, confirming what his wife had said. + </p> + <p> + ‘I can’t, friend. Business!’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘Lose an hour and you + can’t catch it up in a year,’ he added, remembering the grove and the + dealers who might snatch that deal from him. ‘We shall get there, shan’t + we?’ he said, turning to Nikita. + </p> + <p> + Nikita did not answer for some time, apparently still intent on thawing + out his beard and moustache. + </p> + <p> + ‘If only we don’t go astray again,’ he replied gloomily. He was gloomy + because he passionately longed for some vodka, and the only thing that + could assuage that longing was tea and he had not yet been offered any. + </p> + <p> + ‘But we have only to reach the turning and then we shan’t go wrong. The + road will be through the forest the whole way,’ said Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘It’s just as you please, Vasili Andreevich. If we’re to go, let us go,’ + said Nikita, taking the glass of tea he was offered. + </p> + <p> + ‘We’ll drink our tea and be off.’ + </p> + <p> + Nikita said nothing but only shook his head, and carefully pouring some + tea into his saucer began warming his hands, the fingers of which were + always swollen with hard work, over the steam. Then, biting off a tiny bit + of sugar, he bowed to his hosts, said, ‘Your health!’ and drew in the + steaming liquid. + </p> + <p> + ‘If somebody would see us as far as the turning,’ said Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, we can do that,’ said the eldest son. ‘Petrushka will harness and + go that far with you.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, then, put in the horse, lad, and I shall be thankful to you for + it.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Oh, what for, dear man?’ said the kindly old woman. ‘We are heartily glad + to do it.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Petrushka, go and put in the mare,’ said the eldest brother. + </p> + <p> + ‘All right,’ replied Petrushka with a smile, and promptly snatching his + cap down from a nail he ran away to harness. + </p> + <p> + While the horse was being harnessed the talk returned to the point at + which it had stopped when Vasili Andreevich drove up to the window. The + old man had been complaining to his neighbour, the village elder, about + his third son who had not sent him anything for the holiday though he had + sent a French shawl to his wife. + </p> + <p> + ‘The young people are getting out of hand,’ said the old man. + </p> + <p> + ‘And how they do!’ said the neighbour. ‘There’s no managing them! They + know too much. There’s Demochkin now, who broke his father’s arm. It’s all + from being too clever, it seems.’ + </p> + <p> + Nikita listened, watched their faces, and evidently would have liked to + share in the conversation, but he was too busy drinking his tea and only + nodded his head approvingly. He emptied one tumbler after another and grew + warmer and warmer and more and more comfortable. The talk continued on the + same subject for a long time—the harmfulness of a household dividing + up—and it was clearly not an abstract discussion but concerned the + question of a separation in that house; a separation demanded by the + second son who sat there morosely silent. + </p> + <p> + It was evidently a sore subject and absorbed them all, but out of + propriety they did not discuss their private affairs before strangers. At + last, however, the old man could not restrain himself, and with tears in + his eyes declared that he would not consent to a break-up of the family + during his lifetime, that his house was prospering, thank God, but that if + they separated they would all have to go begging. + </p> + <p> + ‘Just like the Matveevs,’ said the neighbour. ‘They used to have a proper + house, but now they’ve split up none of them has anything.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘And that is what you want to happen to us,’ said the old man, turning to + his son. + </p> + <p> + The son made no reply and there was an awkward pause. The silence was + broken by Petrushka, who having harnessed the horse had returned to the + hut a few minutes before this and had been listening all the time with a + smile. + </p> + <p> + ‘There’s a fable about that in Paulson,’ he said. ‘A father gave his sons + a broom to break. At first they could not break it, but when they took it + twig by twig they broke it easily. And it’s the same here,’ and he gave a + broad smile. ‘I’m ready!’ he added. + </p> + <p> + ‘If you’re ready, let’s go,’ said Vasili Andreevich. ‘And as to + separating, don’t you allow it, Grandfather. You got everything together + and you’re the master. Go to the Justice of the Peace. He’ll say how + things should be done.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘He carries on so, carries on so,’ the old man continued in a whining + tone. ‘There’s no doing anything with him. It’s as if the devil possessed + him.’ + </p> + <p> + Nikita having meanwhile finished his fifth tumbler of tea laid it on its + side instead of turning it upside down, hoping to be offered a sixth + glass. But there was no more water in the samovar, so the hostess did not + fill it up for him. Besides, Vasili Andreevich was putting his things on, + so there was nothing for it but for Nikita to get up too, put back into + the sugar-basin the lump of sugar he had nibbled all round, wipe his + perspiring face with the skirt of his sheepskin, and go to put on his + overcoat. + </p> + <p> + Having put it on he sighed deeply, thanked his hosts, said good-bye, and + went out of the warm bright room into the cold dark passage, through which + the wind was howling and where snow was blowing through the cracks of the + shaking door, and from there into the yard. + </p> + <p> + Petrushka stood in his sheepskin in the middle of the yard by his horse, + repeating some lines from Paulson’s primer. He said with a smile: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ‘Storms with mist the sky conceal, + Snowy circles wheeling wild. + Now like savage beast ‘twill howl, + And now ‘tis wailing like a child.’ +</pre> + <p> + Nikita nodded approvingly as he arranged the reins. + </p> + <p> + The old man, seeing Vasili Andreevich off, brought a lantern into the + passage to show him a light, but it was blown out at once. And even in the + yard it was evident that the snowstorm had become more violent. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, this is weather!’ thought Vasili Andreevich. ‘Perhaps we may not + get there after all. But there is nothing to be done. Business! Besides, + we have got ready, our host’s horse has been harnessed, and we’ll get + there with God’s help!’ + </p> + <p> + Their aged host also thought they ought not to go, but he had already + tried to persuade them to stay and had not been listened to. + </p> + <p> + ‘It’s no use asking them again. Maybe my age makes me timid. They’ll get + there all right, and at least we shall get to bed in good time and without + any fuss,’ he thought. + </p> + <p> + Petrushka did not think of danger. He knew the road and the whole district + so well, and the lines about ‘snowy circles wheeling wild’ described what + was happening outside so aptly that it cheered him up. Nikita did not wish + to go at all, but he had been accustomed not to have his own way and to + serve others for so long that there was no one to hinder the departing + travellers. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich went over to his sledge, found it with difficulty in the + darkness, climbed in and took the reins. + </p> + <p> + ‘Go on in front!’ he cried. + </p> + <p> + Petrushka kneeling in his low sledge started his horse. Mukhorty, who had + been neighing for some time past, now scenting a mare ahead of him started + after her, and they drove out into the street. They drove again through + the outskirts of the village and along the same road, past the yard where + the frozen linen had hung (which, however, was no longer to be seen), past + the same barn, which was now snowed up almost to the roof and from which + the snow was still endlessly pouring past the same dismally moaning, + whistling, and swaying willows, and again entered into the sea of + blustering snow raging from above and below. The wind was so strong that + when it blew from the side and the travellers steered against it, it + tilted the sledges and turned the horses to one side. Petrushka drove his + good mare in front at a brisk trot and kept shouting lustily. Mukhorty + pressed after her. + </p> + <p> + After travelling so for about ten minutes, Petrushka turned round and + shouted something. Neither Vasili Andreevich nor Nikita could hear + anything because of the wind, but they guessed that they had arrived at + the turning. In fact Petrushka had turned to the right, and now the wind + that had blown from the side blew straight in their faces, and through the + snow they saw something dark on their right. It was the bush at the + turning. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well now, God speed you!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Thank you, Petrushka!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Storms with mist the sky conceal!’ shouted Petrushka as he disappeared. + </p> + <p> + ‘There’s a poet for you!’ muttered Vasili Andreevich, pulling at the + reins. + </p> + <p> + ‘Yes, a fine lad—a true peasant,’ said Nikita. + </p> + <p> + They drove on. + </p> + <p> + Nikita, wrapping his coat closely about him and pressing his head down so + close to his shoulders that his short beard covered his throat, sat + silently, trying not to lose the warmth he had obtained while drinking tea + in the house. Before him he saw the straight lines of the shafts which + constantly deceived him into thinking they were on a well-travelled road, + and the horse’s swaying crupper with his knotted tail blown to one side, + and farther ahead the high shaft-bow and the swaying head and neck of the + horse with its waving mane. Now and then he caught sight of a way-sign, so + that he knew they were still on a road and that there was nothing for him + to be concerned about. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich drove on, leaving it to the horse to keep to the road. + But Mukhorty, though he had had a breathing-space in the village, ran + reluctantly, and seemed now and then to get off the road, so that Vasili + Andreevich had repeatedly to correct him. + </p> + <p> + ‘Here’s a stake to the right, and another, and here’s a third,’ Vasili + Andreevich counted, ‘and here in front is the forest,’ thought he, as he + looked at something dark in front of him. But what had seemed to him a + forest was only a bush. They passed the bush and drove on for another + hundred yards but there was no fourth way-mark nor any forest. + </p> + <p> + ‘We must reach the forest soon,’ thought Vasili Andreevich, and animated + by the vodka and the tea he did not stop but shook the reins, and the good + obedient horse responded, now ambling, now slowly trotting in the + direction in which he was sent, though he knew that he was not going the + right way. Ten minutes went by, but there was still no forest. + </p> + <p> + ‘There now, we must be astray again,’ said Vasili Andreevich, pulling up. + </p> + <p> + Nikita silently got out of the sledge and holding his coat, which the wind + now wrapped closely about him and now almost tore off, started to feel + about in the snow, going first to one side and then to the other. Three or + four times he was completely lost to sight. At last he returned and took + the reins from Vasili Andreevich’s hand. + </p> + <p> + ‘We must go to the right,’ he said sternly and peremptorily, as he turned + the horse. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, if it’s to the right, go to the right,’ said Vasili Andreevich, + yielding up the reins to Nikita and thrusting his freezing hands into his + sleeves. + </p> + <p> + Nikita did not reply. + </p> + <p> + ‘Now then, friend, stir yourself!’ he shouted to the horse, but in spite + of the shake of the reins Mukhorty moved only at a walk. + </p> + <p> + The snow in places was up to his knees, and the sledge moved by fits and + starts with his every movement. + </p> + <p> + Nikita took the whip that hung over the front of the sledge and struck him + once. The good horse, unused to the whip, sprang forward and moved at a + trot, but immediately fell back into an amble and then to a walk. So they + went on for five minutes. It was dark and the snow whirled from above and + rose from below, so that sometimes the shaft-bow could not be seen. At + times the sledge seemed to stand still and the field to run backwards. + Suddenly the horse stopped abruptly, evidently aware of something close in + front of him. Nikita again sprang lightly out, throwing down the reins, + and went ahead to see what had brought him to a standstill, but hardly had + he made a step in front of the horse before his feet slipped and he went + rolling down an incline. + </p> + <p> + ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ he said to himself as he fell, and he tried to stop + his fall but could not, and only stopped when his feet plunged into a + thick layer of snow that had drifted to the bottom of the hollow. + </p> + <p> + The fringe of a drift of snow that hung on the edge of the hollow, + disturbed by Nikita’s fall, showered down on him and got inside his + collar. + </p> + <p> + ‘What a thing to do!’ said Nikita reproachfully, addressing the drift and + the hollow and shaking the snow from under his collar. + </p> + <p> + ‘Nikita! Hey, Nikita!’ shouted Vasili Andreevich from above. + </p> + <p> + But Nikita did not reply. He was too occupied in shaking out the snow and + searching for the whip he had dropped when rolling down the incline. + Having found the whip he tried to climb straight up the bank where he had + rolled down, but it was impossible to do so: he kept rolling down again, + and so he had to go along at the foot of the hollow to find a way up. + About seven yards farther on he managed with difficulty to crawl up the + incline on all fours, then he followed the edge of the hollow back to the + place where the horse should have been. He could not see either horse or + sledge, but as he walked against the wind he heard Vasili Andreevich’s + shouts and Mukhorty’s neighing, calling him. + </p> + <p> + ‘I’m coming! I’m coming! What are you cackling for?’ he muttered. + </p> + <p> + Only when he had come up to the sledge could he make out the horse, and + Vasili Andreevich standing beside it and looking gigantic. + </p> + <p> + ‘Where the devil did you vanish to? We must go back, if only to + Grishkino,’ he began reproaching Nikita. + </p> + <p> + ‘I’d be glad to get back, Vasili Andreevich, but which way are we to go? + There is such a ravine here that if we once get in it we shan’t get out + again. I got stuck so fast there myself that I could hardly get out.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘What shall we do, then? We can’t stay here! We must go somewhere!’ said + Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + Nikita said nothing. He seated himself in the sledge with his back to the + wind, took off his boots, shook out the snow that had got into them, and + taking some straw from the bottom of the sledge, carefully plugged with it + a hole in his left boot. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich remained silent, as though now leaving everything to + Nikita. Having put his boots on again, Nikita drew his feet into the + sledge, put on his mittens and took up the reins, and directed the horse + along the side of the ravine. But they had not gone a hundred yards before + the horse again stopped short. The ravine was in front of him again. + </p> + <p> + Nikita again climbed out and again trudged about in the snow. He did this + for a considerable time and at last appeared from the opposite side to + that from which he had started. + </p> + <p> + ‘Vasili Andreevich, are you alive?’ he called out. + </p> + <p> + ‘Here!’ replied Vasili Andreevich. ‘Well, what now?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘I can’t make anything out. It’s too dark. There’s nothing but ravines. We + must drive against the wind again.’ + </p> + <p> + They set off once more. Again Nikita went stumbling through the snow, + again he fell in, again climbed out and trudged about, and at last quite + out of breath he sat down beside the sledge. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, how now?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, I am quite worn out and the horse won’t go.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Then what’s to be done?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, wait a minute.’ + </p> + <p> + Nikita went away again but soon returned. + </p> + <p> + ‘Follow me!’ he said, going in front of the horse. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich no longer gave orders but implicitly did what Nikita + told him. + </p> + <p> + ‘Here, follow me!’ Nikita shouted, stepping quickly to the right, and + seizing the rein he led Mukhorty down towards a snow-drift. + </p> + <p> + At first the horse held back, then he jerked forward, hoping to leap the + drift, but he had not the strength and sank into it up to his collar. + </p> + <p> + ‘Get out!’ Nikita called to Vasili Andreevich who still sat in the sledge, + and taking hold of one shaft he moved the sledge closer to the horse. + ‘It’s hard, brother!’ he said to Mukhorty, ‘but it can’t be helped. Make + an effort! Now, now, just a little one!’ he shouted. + </p> + <p> + The horse gave a tug, then another, but failed to clear himself and + settled down again as if considering something. + </p> + <p> + ‘Now, brother, this won’t do!’ Nikita admonished him. ‘Now once more!’ + </p> + <p> + Again Nikita tugged at the shaft on his side, and Vasili Andreevich did + the same on the other. + </p> + <p> + Mukhorty lifted his head and then gave a sudden jerk. + </p> + <p> + ‘That’s it! That’s it!’ cried Nikita. ‘Don’t be afraid—you won’t + sink!’ + </p> + <p> + One plunge, another, and a third, and at last Mukhorty was out of the + snow-drift, and stood still, breathing heavily and shaking the snow off + himself. Nikita wished to lead him farther, but Vasili Andreevich, in his + two fur coats, was so out of breath that he could not walk farther and + dropped into the sledge. + </p> + <p> + ‘Let me get my breath!’ he said, unfastening the kerchief with which he + had tied the collar of his fur coat at the village. + </p> + <p> + ‘It’s all right here. You lie there,’ said Nikita. ‘I will lead him + along.’ And with Vasili Andreevich in the sledge he led the horse by the + bridle about ten paces down and then up a slight rise, and stopped. + </p> + <p> + The place where Nikita had stopped was not completely in the hollow where + the snow sweeping down from the hillocks might have buried them + altogether, but still it was partly sheltered from the wind by the side of + the ravine. There were moments when the wind seemed to abate a little, but + that did not last long and as if to make up for that respite the storm + swept down with tenfold vigour and tore and whirled the more fiercely. + Such a gust struck them at the moment when Vasili Andreevich, having + recovered his breath, got out of the sledge and went up to Nikita to + consult him as to what they should do. They both bent down involuntarily + and waited till the violence of the squall should have passed. Mukhorty + too laid back his ears and shook his head discontentedly. As soon as the + violence of the blast had abated a little, Nikita took off his mittens, + stuck them into his belt, breathed onto his hands, and began to undo the + straps of the shaft-bow. + </p> + <p> + ‘What’s that you are doing there?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘Unharnessing. What else is there to do? I have no strength left,’ said + Nikita as though excusing himself. + </p> + <p> + ‘Can’t we drive somewhere?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘No, we can’t. We shall only kill the horse. Why, the poor beast is not + himself now,’ said Nikita, pointing to the horse, which was standing + submissively waiting for what might come, with his steep wet sides heaving + heavily. ‘We shall have to stay the night here,’ he said, as if preparing + to spend the night at an inn, and he proceeded to unfasten the + collar-straps. The buckles came undone. + </p> + <p> + ‘But shan’t we be frozen?’ remarked Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, if we are we can’t help it,’ said Nikita. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI + </h2> + <p> + Although Vasili Andreevich felt quite warm in his two fur coats, + especially after struggling in the snow-drift, a cold shiver ran down his + back on realizing that he must really spend the night where they were. To + calm himself he sat down in the sledge and got out his cigarettes and + matches. + </p> + <p> + Nikita meanwhile unharnessed Mukhorty. He unstrapped the belly-band and + the back-band, took away the reins, loosened the collar-strap, and removed + the shaft-bow, talking to him all the time to encourage him. + </p> + <p> + ‘Now come out! come out!’ he said, leading him clear of the shafts. ‘Now + we’ll tie you up here and I’ll put down some straw and take off your + bridle. When you’ve had a bite you’ll feel more cheerful.’ + </p> + <p> + But Mukhorty was restless and evidently not comforted by Nikita’s remarks. + He stepped now on one foot and now on another, and pressed close against + the sledge, turning his back to the wind and rubbing his head on Nikita’s + sleeve. Then, as if not to pain Nikita by refusing his offer of the straw + he put before him, he hurriedly snatched a wisp out of the sledge, but + immediately decided that it was now no time to think of straw and threw it + down, and the wind instantly scattered it, carried it away, and covered it + with snow. + </p> + <p> + ‘Now we will set up a signal,’ said Nikita, and turning the front of the + sledge to the wind he tied the shafts together with a strap and set them + up on end in front of the sledge. ‘There now, when the snow covers us up, + good folk will see the shafts and dig us out,’ he said, slapping his + mittens together and putting them on. ‘That’s what the old folk taught + us!’ + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich meanwhile had unfastened his coat, and holding its + skirts up for shelter, struck one sulphur match after another on the steel + box. But his hands trembled, and one match after another either did not + kindle or was blown out by the wind just as he was lifting it to the + cigarette. At last a match did burn up, and its flame lit up for a moment + the fur of his coat, his hand with the gold ring on the bent forefinger, + and the snow-sprinkled oat-straw that stuck out from under the drugget. + The cigarette lighted, he eagerly took a whiff or two, inhaled the smoke, + let it out through his moustache, and would have inhaled again, but the + wind tore off the burning tobacco and whirled it away as it had done the + straw. + </p> + <p> + But even these few puffs had cheered him. + </p> + <p> + ‘If we must spend the night here, we must!’ he said with decision. ‘Wait a + bit, I’ll arrange a flag as well,’ he added, picking up the kerchief which + he had thrown down in the sledge after taking it from round his collar, + and drawing off his gloves and standing up on the front of the sledge and + stretching himself to reach the strap, he tied the handkerchief to it with + a tight knot. + </p> + <p> + The kerchief immediately began to flutter wildly, now clinging round the + shaft, now suddenly streaming out, stretching and flapping. + </p> + <p> + ‘Just see what a fine flag!’ said Vasili Andreevich, admiring his + handiwork and letting himself down into the sledge. ‘We should be warmer + together, but there’s not room enough for two,’ he added. + </p> + <p> + ‘I’ll find a place,’ said Nikita. ‘But I must cover up the horse first—he + sweated so, poor thing. Let go!’ he added, drawing the drugget from under + Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + Having got the drugget he folded it in two, and after taking off the + breechband and pad, covered Mukhorty with it. + </p> + <p> + ‘Anyhow it will be warmer, silly!’ he said, putting back the breechband + and the pad on the horse over the drugget. Then having finished that + business he returned to the sledge, and addressing Vasili Andreevich, + said: ‘You won’t need the sackcloth, will you? And let me have some + straw.’ + </p> + <p> + And having taken these things from under Vasili Andreevich, Nikita went + behind the sledge, dug out a hole for himself in the snow, put straw into + it, wrapped his coat well round him, covered himself with the sackcloth, + and pulling his cap well down seated himself on the straw he had spread, + and leant against the wooden back of the sledge to shelter himself from + the wind and the snow. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich shook his head disapprovingly at what Nikita was doing, + as in general he disapproved of the peasant’s stupidity and lack of + education, and he began to settle himself down for the night. + </p> + <p> + He smoothed the remaining straw over the bottom of the sledge, putting + more of it under his side. Then he thrust his hands into his sleeves and + settled down, sheltering his head in the corner of the sledge from the + wind in front. + </p> + <p> + He did not wish to sleep. He lay and thought: thought ever of the one + thing that constituted the sole aim, meaning, pleasure, and pride of his + life—of how much money he had made and might still make, of how much + other people he knew had made and possessed, and of how those others had + made and were making it, and how he, like them, might still make much + more. The purchase of the Goryachkin grove was a matter of immense + importance to him. By that one deal he hoped to make perhaps ten thousand + rubles. He began mentally to reckon the value of the wood he had inspected + in autumn, and on five acres of which he had counted all the trees. + </p> + <p> + ‘The oaks will go for sledge-runners. The undergrowth will take care of + itself, and there’ll still be some thirty sazheens of fire-wood left on + each desyatin,’ said he to himself. ‘That means there will be at least two + hundred and twenty-five rubles’ worth left on each desyatin. Fifty-six + desyatiins means fifty-six hundreds, and fifty-six hundreds, and fifty-six + tens, and another fifty-six tens, and then fifty-six fives....’ He saw + that it came out to more than twelve thousand rubles, but could not reckon + it up exactly without a counting-frame. ‘But I won’t give ten thousand, + anyhow. I’ll give about eight thousand with a deduction on account of the + glades. I’ll grease the surveyor’s palm—give him a hundred rubles, + or a hundred and fifty, and he’ll reckon that there are some five + desyatins of glade to be deducted. And he’ll let it go for eight thousand. + Three thousand cash down. That’ll move him, no fear!’ he thought, and he + pressed his pocket-book with his forearm. + </p> + <p> + ‘God only knows how we missed the turning. The forest ought to be there, + and a watchman’s hut, and dogs barking. But the damned things don’t bark + when they’re wanted.’ He turned his collar down from his ear and listened, + but as before only the whistling of the wind could be heard, the flapping + and fluttering of the kerchief tied to the shafts, and the pelting of the + snow against the woodwork of the sledge. He again covered up his ear. + </p> + <p> + ‘If I had known I would have stayed the night. Well, no matter, we’ll get + there to-morrow. It’s only one day lost. And the others won’t travel in + such weather.’ Then he remembered that on the 9th he had to receive + payment from the butcher for his oxen. ‘He meant to come himself, but he + won’t find me, and my wife won’t know how to receive the money. She + doesn’t know the right way of doing things,’ he thought, recalling how at + their party the day before she had not known how to treat the + police-officer who was their guest. ‘Of course she’s only a woman! Where + could she have seen anything? In my father’s time what was our house like? + Just a rich peasant’s house: just an oatmill and an inn—that was the + whole property. But what have I done in these fifteen years? A shop, two + taverns, a flour-mill, a grain-store, two farms leased out, and a house + with an iron-roofed barn,’ he thought proudly. ‘Not as it was in Father’s + time! Who is talked of in the whole district now? Brekhunov! And why? + Because I stick to business. I take trouble, not like others who lie abed + or waste their time on foolishness while I don’t sleep of nights. Blizzard + or no blizzard I start out. So business gets done. They think money-making + is a joke. No, take pains and rack your brains! You get overtaken out of + doors at night, like this, or keep awake night after night till the + thoughts whirling in your head make the pillow turn,’ he meditated with + pride. ‘They think people get on through luck. After all, the Mironovs are + now millionaires. And why? Take pains and God gives. If only He grants me + health!’ + </p> + <p> + The thought that he might himself be a millionaire like Mironov, who began + with nothing, so excited Vasili Andreevich that he felt the need of + talking to somebody. But there was no one to talk to.... If only he could + have reached Goryachkin he would have talked to the landlord and shown him + a thing or two. + </p> + <p> + ‘Just see how it blows! It will snow us up so deep that we shan’t be able + to get out in the morning!’ he thought, listening to a gust of wind that + blew against the front of the sledge, bending it and lashing the snow + against it. He raised himself and looked round. All he could see through + the whirling darkness was Mukhorty’s dark head, his back covered by the + fluttering drugget, and his thick knotted tail; while all round, in front + and behind, was the same fluctuating whity darkness, sometimes seeming to + get a little lighter and sometimes growing denser still. + </p> + <p> + ‘A pity I listened to Nikita,’ he thought. ‘We ought to have driven on. We + should have come out somewhere, if only back to Grishkino and stayed the + night at Taras’s. As it is we must sit here all night. But what was I + thinking about? Yes, that God gives to those who take trouble, but not to + loafers, lie-abeds, or fools. I must have a smoke!’ + </p> + <p> + He sat down again, got out his cigarette-case, and stretched himself flat + on his stomach, screening the matches with the skirt of his coat. But the + wind found its way in and put out match after match. At last he got one to + burn and lit a cigarette. He was very glad that he had managed to do what + he wanted, and though the wind smoked more of the cigarette than he did, + he still got two or three puffs and felt more cheerful. He again leant + back, wrapped himself up, started reflecting and remembering, and suddenly + and quite unexpectedly lost consciousness and fell asleep. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly something seemed to give him a push and awoke him. Whether it was + Mukhorty who had pulled some straw from under him, or whether something + within him had startled him, at all events it woke him, and his heart + began to beat faster and faster so that the sledge seemed to tremble under + him. He opened his eyes. Everything around him was just as before. ‘It + looks lighter,’ he thought. ‘I expect it won’t be long before dawn.’ But + he at once remembered that it was lighter because the moon had risen. He + sat up and looked first at the horse. Mukhorty still stood with his back + to the wind, shivering all over. One side of the drugget, which was + completely covered with snow, had been blown back, the breeching had + slipped down and the snow-covered head with its waving forelock and mane + were now more visible. Vasili Andreevich leant over the back of the sledge + and looked behind. Nikita still sat in the same position in which he had + settled himself. The sacking with which he was covered, and his legs, were + thickly covered with snow. + </p> + <p> + ‘If only that peasant doesn’t freeze to death! His clothes are so + wretched. I may be held responsible for him. What shiftless people they + are—such a want of education,’ thought Vasili Andreevich, and he + felt like taking the drugget off the horse and putting it over Nikita, but + it would be very cold to get out and move about and, moreover, the horse + might freeze to death. ‘Why did I bring him with me? It was all her + stupidity!’ he thought, recalling his unloved wife, and he rolled over + into his old place at the front part of the sledge. ‘My uncle once spent a + whole night like this,’ he reflected, ‘and was all right.’ But another + case came at once to his mind. ‘But when they dug Sebastian out he was + dead—stiff like a frozen carcass. If I’d only stopped the night in + Grishkino all this would not have happened!’ + </p> + <p> + And wrapping his coat carefully round him so that none of the warmth of + the fur should be wasted but should warm him all over, neck, knees, and + feet, he shut his eyes and tried to sleep again. But try as he would he + could not get drowsy, on the contrary he felt wide awake and animated. + Again he began counting his gains and the debts due to him, again he began + bragging to himself and feeling pleased with himself and his position, but + all this was continually disturbed by a stealthily approaching fear and by + the unpleasant regret that he had not remained in Grishkino. + </p> + <p> + ‘How different it would be to be lying warm on a bench!’ + </p> + <p> + He turned over several times in his attempts to get into a more + comfortable position more sheltered from the wind, he wrapped up his legs + closer, shut his eyes, and lay still. But either his legs in their strong + felt boots began to ache from being bent in one position, or the wind blew + in somewhere, and after lying still for a short time he again began to + recall the disturbing fact that he might now have been lying quietly in + the warm hut at Grishkino. He again sat up, turned about, muffled himself + up, and settled down once more. + </p> + <p> + Once he fancied that he heard a distant cock-crow. He felt glad, turned + down his coat-collar and listened with strained attention, but in spite of + all his efforts nothing could be heard but the wind whistling between the + shafts, the flapping of the kerchief, and the snow pelting against the + frame of the sledge. + </p> + <p> + Nikita sat just as he had done all the time, not moving and not even + answering Vasili Andreevich who had addressed him a couple of times. ‘He + doesn’t care a bit—he’s probably asleep!’ thought Vasili Andreevich + with vexation, looking behind the sledge at Nikita who was covered with a + thick layer of snow. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich got up and lay down again some twenty times. It seemed + to him that the night would never end. ‘It must be getting near morning,’ + he thought, getting up and looking around. ‘Let’s have a look at my watch. + It will be cold to unbutton, but if I only know that it’s getting near + morning I shall at any rate feel more cheerful. We could begin + harnessing.’ + </p> + <p> + In the depth of his heart Vasili Andreevich knew that it could not yet be + near morning, but he was growing more and more afraid, and wished both to + get to know and yet to deceive himself. He carefully undid the fastening + of his sheepskin, pushed in his hand, and felt about for a long time + before he got to his waistcoat. With great difficulty he managed to draw + out his silver watch with its enamelled flower design, and tried to make + out the time. He could not see anything without a light. Again he went + down on his knees and elbows as he had done when he lighted a cigarette, + got out his matches, and proceeded to strike one. This time he went to + work more carefully, and feeling with his fingers for a match with the + largest head and the greatest amount of phosphorus, lit it at the first + try. Bringing the face of the watch under the light he could hardly + believe his eyes.... It was only ten minutes past twelve. Almost the whole + night was still before him. + </p> + <p> + ‘Oh, how long the night is!’ he thought, feeling a cold shudder run down + his back, and having fastened his fur coats again and wrapped himself up, + he snuggled into a corner of the sledge intending to wait patiently. + Suddenly, above the monotonous roar of the wind, he clearly distinguished + another new and living sound. It steadily strengthened, and having become + quite clear diminished just as gradually. Beyond all doubt it was a wolf, + and he was so near that the movement of his jaws as he changed his cry was + brought down the wind. Vasili Andreevich turned back the collar of his + coat and listened attentively. Mukhorty too strained to listen, moving his + ears, and when the wolf had ceased its howling he shifted from foot to + foot and gave a warning snort. After this Vasili Andreevich could not fall + asleep again or even calm himself. The more he tried to think of his + accounts, his business, his reputation, his worth and his wealth, the more + and more was he mastered by fear, and regrets that he had not stayed the + night at Grishkino dominated and mingled in all his thoughts. + </p> + <p> + ‘Devil take the forest! Things were all right without it, thank God. Ah, + if we had only put up for the night!’ he said to himself. ‘They say it’s + drunkards that freeze,’ he thought, ‘and I have had some drink.’ And + observing his sensations he noticed that he was beginning to shiver, + without knowing whether it was from cold or from fear. He tried to wrap + himself up and lie down as before, but could no longer do so. He could not + stay in one position. He wanted to get up, to do something to master the + gathering fear that was rising in him and against which he felt himself + powerless. He again got out his cigarettes and matches, but only three + matches were left and they were bad ones. The phosphorus rubbed off them + all without lighting. + </p> + <p> + ‘The devil take you! Damned thing! Curse you!’ he muttered, not knowing + whom or what he was cursing, and he flung away the crushed cigarette. He + was about to throw away the matchbox too, but checked the movement of his + hand and put the box in his pocket instead. He was seized with such unrest + that he could no longer remain in one spot. He climbed out of the sledge + and standing with his back to the wind began to shift his belt again, + fastening it lower down in the waist and tightening it. + </p> + <p> + ‘What’s the use of lying and waiting for death? Better mount the horse and + get away!’ The thought suddenly occurred to him. ‘The horse will move when + he has someone on his back. As for him,’ he thought of Nikita—‘it’s + all the same to him whether he lives or dies. What is his life worth? He + won’t grudge his life, but I have something to live for, thank God.’ + </p> + <p> + He untied the horse, threw the reins over his neck and tried to mount, but + his coats and boots were so heavy that he failed. Then he clambered up in + the sledge and tried to mount from there, but the sledge tilted under his + weight, and he failed again. At last he drew Mukhorty nearer to the + sledge, cautiously balanced on one side of it, and managed to lie on his + stomach across the horse’s back. After lying like that for a while he + shifted forward once and again, threw a leg over, and finally seated + himself, supporting his feet on the loose breeching-straps. The shaking of + the sledge awoke Nikita. He raised himself, and it seemed to Vasili + Andreevich that he said something. + </p> + <p> + ‘Listen to such fools as you! Am I to die like this for nothing?’ + exclaimed Vasili Andreevich. And tucking the loose skirts of his fur coat + in under his knees, he turned the horse and rode away from the sledge in + the direction in which he thought the forest and the forester’s hut must + be. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII + </h2> + <p> + From the time he had covered himself with the sackcloth and seated himself + behind the sledge, Nikita had not stirred. Like all those who live in + touch with nature and have known want, he was patient and could wait for + hours, even days, without growing restless or irritable. He heard his + master call him, but did not answer because he did not want to move or + talk. Though he still felt some warmth from the tea he had drunk and from + his energetic struggle when clambering about in the snowdrift, he knew + that this warmth would not last long and that he had no strength left to + warm himself again by moving about, for he felt as tired as a horse when + it stops and refuses to go further in spite of the whip, and its master + sees that it must be fed before it can work again. The foot in the boot + with a hole in it had already grown numb, and he could no longer feel his + big toe. Besides that, his whole body began to feel colder and colder. + </p> + <p> + The thought that he might, and very probably would, die that night + occurred to him, but did not seem particularly unpleasant or dreadful. It + did not seem particularly unpleasant, because his whole life had been not + a continual holiday, but on the contrary an unceasing round of toil of + which he was beginning to feel weary. And it did not seem particularly + dreadful, because besides the masters he had served here, like Vasili + Andreevich, he always felt himself dependent on the Chief Master, who had + sent him into this life, and he knew that when dying he would still be in + that Master’s power and would not be ill-used by Him. ‘It seems a pity to + give up what one is used to and accustomed to. But there’s nothing to be + done, I shall get used to the new things.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Sins?’ he thought, and remembered his drunkenness, the money that had + gone on drink, how he had offended his wife, his cursing, his neglect of + church and of the fasts, and all the things the priest blamed him for at + confession. ‘Of course they are sins. But then, did I take them on of + myself? That’s evidently how God made me. Well, and the sins? Where am I + to escape to?’ + </p> + <p> + So at first he thought of what might happen to him that night, and then + did not return to such thoughts but gave himself up to whatever + recollections came into his head of themselves. Now he thought of Martha’s + arrival, of the drunkenness among the workers and his own renunciation of + drink, then of their present journey and of Taras’s house and the talk + about the breaking-up of the family, then of his own lad, and of Mukhorty + now sheltered under the drugget, and then of his master who made the + sledge creak as he tossed about in it. ‘I expect you’re sorry yourself + that you started out, dear man,’ he thought. ‘It would seem hard to leave + a life such as his! It’s not like the likes of us.’ + </p> + <p> + Then all these recollections began to grow confused and got mixed in his + head, and he fell asleep. + </p> + <p> + But when Vasili Andreevich, getting on the horse, jerked the sledge, + against the back of which Nikita was leaning, and it shifted away and hit + him in the back with one of its runners, he awoke and had to change his + position whether he liked it or not. Straightening his legs with + difficulty and shaking the snow off them he got up, and an agonizing cold + immediately penetrated his whole body. On making out what was happening he + called to Vasili Andreevich to leave him the drugget which the horse no + longer needed, so that he might wrap himself in it. + </p> + <p> + But Vasili Andreevich did not stop, but disappeared amid the powdery snow. + </p> + <p> + Left alone Nikita considered for a moment what he should do. He felt that + he had not the strength to go off in search of a house. It was no longer + possible to sit down in his old place—it was by now all filled with + snow. He felt that he could not get warmer in the sledge either, for there + was nothing to cover himself with, and his coat and sheepskin no longer + warmed him at all. He felt as cold as though he had nothing on but a + shirt. He became frightened. ‘Lord, heavenly Father!’ he muttered, and was + comforted by the consciousness that he was not alone but that there was + One who heard him and would not abandon him. He gave a deep sigh, and + keeping the sackcloth over his head he got inside the sledge and lay down + in the place where his master had been. + </p> + <p> + But he could not get warm in the sledge either. At first he shivered all + over, then the shivering ceased and little by little he began to lose + consciousness. He did not know whether he was dying or falling asleep, but + felt equally prepared for the one as for the other. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII + </h2> + <p> + Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich, with his feet and the ends of the reins, + urged the horse on in the direction in which for some reason he expected + the forest and forester’s hut to be. The snow covered his eyes and the + wind seemed intent on stopping him, but bending forward and constantly + lapping his coat over and pushing it between himself and the cold harness + pad which prevented him from sitting properly, he kept urging the horse + on. Mukhorty ambled on obediently though with difficulty, in the direction + in which he was driven. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich rode for about five minutes straight ahead, as he + thought, seeing nothing but the horse’s head and the white waste, and + hearing only the whistle of the wind about the horse’s ears and his coat + collar. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly a dark patch showed up in front of him. His heart beat with joy, + and he rode towards the object, already seeing in imagination the walls of + village houses. But the dark patch was not stationary, it kept moving; and + it was not a village but some tall stalks of wormwood sticking up through + the snow on the boundary between two fields, and desperately tossing about + under the pressure of the wind which beat it all to one side and whistled + through it. The sight of that wormwood tormented by the pitiless wind made + Vasili Andreevich shudder, he knew not why, and he hurriedly began urging + the horse on, not noticing that when riding up to the wormwood he had + quite changed his direction and was now heading the opposite way, though + still imagining that he was riding towards where the hut should be. But + the horse kept making towards the right, and Vasili Andreevich kept + guiding it to the left. + </p> + <p> + Again something dark appeared in front of him. Again he rejoiced, + convinced that now it was certainly a village. But once more it was the + same boundary line overgrown with wormwood, once more the same wormwood + desperately tossed by the wind and carrying unreasoning terror to his + heart. But its being the same wormwood was not all, for beside it there + was a horse’s track partly snowed over. Vasili Andreevich stopped, stooped + down and looked carefully. It was a horse-track only partially covered + with snow, and could be none but his own horse’s hoofprints. He had + evidently gone round in a small circle. ‘I shall perish like that!’ he + thought, and not to give way to his terror he urged on the horse still + more, peering into the snowy darkness in which he saw only flitting and + fitful points of light. Once he thought he heard the barking of dogs or + the howling of wolves, but the sounds were so faint and indistinct that he + did not know whether he heard them or merely imagined them, and he stopped + and began to listen intently. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly some terrible, deafening cry resounded near his ears, and + everything shivered and shook under him. He seized Mukhorty’s neck, but + that too was shaking all over and the terrible cry grew still more + frightful. For some seconds Vasili Andreevich could not collect himself or + understand what was happening. It was only that Mukhorty, whether to + encourage himself or to call for help, had neighed loudly and resonantly. + ‘Ugh, you wretch! How you frightened me, damn you!’ thought Vasili + Andreevich. But even when he understood the cause of his terror he could + not shake it off. + </p> + <p> + ‘I must calm myself and think things over,’ he said to himself, but yet he + could not stop, and continued to urge the horse on, without noticing that + he was now going with the wind instead of against it. His body, especially + between his legs where it touched the pad of the harness and was not + covered by his overcoats, was getting painfully cold, especially when the + horse walked slowly. His legs and arms trembled and his breathing came + fast. He saw himself perishing amid this dreadful snowy waste, and could + see no means of escape. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the horse under him tumbled into something and, sinking into a + snow-drift, began to plunge and fell on his side. Vasili Andreevich jumped + off, and in so doing dragged to one side the breechband on which his foot + was resting, and twisted round the pad to which he held as he dismounted. + As soon as he had jumped off, the horse struggled to his feet, plunged + forward, gave one leap and another, neighed again, and dragging the + drugget and the breechband after him, disappeared, leaving Vasili + Andreevich alone on the snow-drift. + </p> + <p> + The latter pressed on after the horse, but the snow lay so deep and his + coats were so heavy that, sinking above his knees at each step, he stopped + breathless after taking not more than twenty steps. ‘The copse, the oxen, + the lease-hold, the shop, the tavern, the house with the iron-roofed barn, + and my heir,’ thought he. ‘How can I leave all that? What does this mean? + It cannot be!’ These thoughts flashed through his mind. Then he thought of + the wormwood tossed by the wind, which he had twice ridden past, and he + was seized with such terror that he did not believe in the reality of what + was happening to him. ‘Can this be a dream?’ he thought, and tried to wake + up but could not. It was real snow that lashed his face and covered him + and chilled his right hand from which he had lost the glove, and this was + a real desert in which he was now left alone like that wormwood, awaiting + an inevitable, speedy, and meaningless death. + </p> + <p> + ‘Queen of Heaven! Holy Father Nicholas, teacher of temperance!’ he + thought, recalling the service of the day before and the holy icon with + its black face and gilt frame, and the tapers which he sold to be set + before that icon and which were almost immediately brought back to him + scarcely burnt at all, and which he put away in the store-chest. He began + to pray to that same Nicholas the Wonder-Worker to save him, promising him + a thanksgiving service and some candles. But he clearly and indubitably + realized that the icon, its frame, the candles, the priest, and the + thanksgiving service, though very important and necessary in church, could + do nothing for him here, and that there was and could be no connexion + between those candles and services and his present disastrous plight. ‘I + must not despair,’ he thought. ‘I must follow the horse’s track before it + is snowed under. He will lead me out, or I may even catch him. Only I must + not hurry, or I shall stick fast and be more lost than ever.’ + </p> + <p> + But in spite of his resolution to go quietly, he rushed forward and even + ran, continually falling, getting up and falling again. The horse’s track + was already hardly visible in places where the snow did not lie deep. ‘I + am lost!’ thought Vasili Andreevich. ‘I shall lose the track and not catch + the horse.’ But at that moment he saw something black. It was Mukhorty, + and not only Mukhorty, but the sledge with the shafts and the kerchief. + Mukhorty, with the sacking and the breechband twisted round to one side, + was standing not in his former place but nearer to the shafts, shaking his + head which the reins he was stepping on drew downwards. It turned out that + Vasili Andreevich had sunk in the same ravine Nikita had previously fallen + into, and that Mukhorty had been bringing him back to the sledge and he + had got off his back no more than fifty paces from where the sledge was. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX + </h2> + <p> + Having stumbled back to the sledge Vasili Andreevich caught hold of it and + for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm himself and recover his + breath. Nikita was not in his former place, but something, already covered + with snow, was lying in the sledge and Vasili Andreevich concluded that + this was Nikita. His terror had now quite left him, and if he felt any + fear it was lest the dreadful terror should return that he had experienced + when on the horse and especially when he was left alone in the snow-drift. + At any cost he had to avoid that terror, and to keep it away he must do + something—occupy himself with something. And the first thing he did + was to turn his back to the wind and open his fur coat. Then, as soon as + he recovered his breath a little, he shook the snow out of his boots and + out of his left-hand glove (the right-hand glove was hopelessly lost and + by this time probably lying somewhere under a dozen inches of snow); then + as was his custom when going out of his shop to buy grain from the + peasants, he pulled his girdle low down and tightened it and prepared for + action. The first thing that occurred to him was to free Mukhorty’s leg + from the rein. Having done that, and tethered him to the iron cramp at the + front of the sledge where he had been before, he was going round the + horse’s quarters to put the breechband and pad straight and cover him with + the cloth, but at that moment he noticed that something was moving in the + sledge and Nikita’s head rose up out of the snow that covered it. Nikita, + who was half frozen, rose with great difficulty and sat up, moving his + hand before his nose in a strange manner just as if he were driving away + flies. He waved his hand and said something, and seemed to Vasili + Andreevich to be calling him. Vasili Andreevich left the cloth unadjusted + and went up to the sledge. + </p> + <p> + ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘What are you saying?’ + </p> + <p> + ‘I’m dy... ing, that’s what,’ said Nikita brokenly and with difficulty. + ‘Give what is owing to me to my lad, or to my wife, no matter.’ + </p> + <p> + ‘Why, are you really frozen?’ asked Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + ‘I feel it’s my death. Forgive me for Christ’s sake...’ said Nikita in a + tearful voice, continuing to wave his hand before his face as if driving + away flies. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich stood silent and motionless for half a minute. Then + suddenly, with the same resolution with which he used to strike hands when + making a good purchase, he took a step back and turning up his sleeves + began raking the snow off Nikita and out of the sledge. Having done this + he hurriedly undid his girdle, opened out his fur coat, and having pushed + Nikita down, lay down on top of him, covering him not only with his fur + coat but with the whole of his body, which glowed with warmth. After + pushing the skirts of his coat between Nikita and the sides of the sledge, + and holding down its hem with his knees, Vasili Andreevich lay like that + face down, with his head pressed against the front of the sledge. Here he + no longer heard the horse’s movements or the whistling of the wind, but + only Nikita’s breathing. At first and for a long time Nikita lay + motionless, then he sighed deeply and moved. + </p> + <p> + ‘There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm, that’s our + way...’ began Vasili Andreevich. + </p> + <p> + But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came to his eyes + and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He stopped speaking and only + gulped down the risings in his throat. ‘Seems I was badly frightened and + have gone quite weak,’ he thought. But this weakness was not only + unpleasant, but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before. + </p> + <p> + ‘That’s our way!’ he said to himself, experiencing a strange and solemn + tenderness. He lay like that for a long time, wiping his eyes on the fur + of his coat and tucking under his knee the right skirt, which the wind + kept turning up. + </p> + <p> + But he longed so passionately to tell somebody of his joyful condition + that he said: ‘Nikita!’ + </p> + <p> + ‘It’s comfortable, warm!’ came a voice from beneath. + </p> + <p> + ‘There, you see, friend, I was going to perish. And you would have been + frozen, and I should have...’ + </p> + <p> + But again his jaws began to quiver and his eyes to fill with tears, and he + could say no more. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, never mind,’ he thought. ‘I know about myself what I know.’ + </p> + <p> + He remained silent and lay like that for a long time. + </p> + <p> + Nikita kept him warm from below and his fur coats from above. Only his + hands, with which he kept his coat-skirts down round Nikita’s sides, and + his legs which the wind kept uncovering, began to freeze, especially his + right hand which had no glove. But he did not think of his legs or of his + hands but only of how to warm the peasant who was lying under him. He + looked out several times at Mukhorty and could see that his back was + uncovered and the drugget and breeching lying on the snow, and that he + ought to get up and cover him, but he could not bring himself to leave + Nikita and disturb even for a moment the joyous condition he was in. He no + longer felt any kind of terror. + </p> + <p> + ‘No fear, we shan’t lose him this time!’ he said to himself, referring to + his getting the peasant warm with the same boastfulness with which he + spoke of his buying and selling. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich lay in that way for one hour, another, and a third, but + he was unconscious of the passage of time. At first impressions of the + snow-storm, the sledge-shafts, and the horse with the shaft-bow shaking + before his eyes, kept passing through his mind, then he remembered Nikita + lying under him, then recollections of the festival, his wife, the + police-officer, and the box of candles, began to mingle with these; then + again Nikita, this time lying under that box, then the peasants, customers + and traders, and the white walls of his house with its iron roof with + Nikita lying underneath, presented themselves to his imagination. + Afterwards all these impressions blended into one nothingness. As the + colours of the rainbow unite into one white light, so all these different + impressions mingled into one, and he fell asleep. + </p> + <p> + For a long time he slept without dreaming, but just before dawn the + visions recommenced. It seemed to him that he was standing by the box of + tapers and that Tikhon’s wife was asking for a five kopek taper for the + Church fete. He wished to take one out and give it to her, but his hands + would not lift, being held tight in his pockets. He wanted to walk round + the box but his feet would not move and his new clean goloshes had grown + to the stone floor, and he could neither lift them nor get his feet out of + the goloshes. Then the taper-box was no longer a box but a bed, and + suddenly Vasili Andreevich saw himself lying in his bed at home. He was + lying in his bed and could not get up. Yet it was necessary for him to get + up because Ivan Matveich, the police-officer, would soon call for him and + he had to go with him—either to bargain for the forest or to put + Mukhorty’s breeching straight. + </p> + <p> + He asked his wife: ‘Nikolaevna, hasn’t he come yet?’ ‘No, he hasn’t,’ she + replied. He heard someone drive up to the front steps. ‘It must be him.’ + ‘No, he’s gone past.’ ‘Nikolaevna! I say, Nikolaevna, isn’t he here yet?’ + ‘No.’ He was still lying on his bed and could not get up, but was always + waiting. And this waiting was uncanny and yet joyful. Then suddenly his + joy was completed. He whom he was expecting came; not Ivan Matveich the + police-officer, but someone else—yet it was he whom he had been + waiting for. He came and called him; and it was he who had called him and + told him to lie down on Nikita. And Vasili Andreevich was glad that that + one had come for him. + </p> + <p> + ‘I’m coming!’ he cried joyfully, and that cry awoke him, but woke him up + not at all the same person he had been when he fell asleep. He tried to + get up but could not, tried to move his arm and could not, to move his leg + and also could not, to turn his head and could not. He was surprised but + not at all disturbed by this. He understood that this was death, and was + not at all disturbed by that either. + </p> + <p> + He remembered that Nikita was lying under him and that he had got warm and + was alive, and it seemed to him that he was Nikita and Nikita was he, and + that his life was not in himself but in Nikita. He strained his ears and + heard Nikita breathing and even slightly snoring. ‘Nikita is alive, so I + too am alive!’ he said to himself triumphantly. + </p> + <p> + And he remembered his money, his shop, his house, the buying and selling, + and Mironov’s millions, and it was hard for him to understand why that + man, called Vasili Brekhunov, had troubled himself with all those things + with which he had been troubled. + </p> + <p> + ‘Well, it was because he did not know what the real thing was,’ he + thought, concerning that Vasili Brekhunov. ‘He did not know, but now I + know and know for sure. Now I know!’ And again he heard the voice of the + one who had called him before. ‘I’m coming! Coming!’ he responded gladly, + and his whole being was filled with joyful emotion. He felt himself free + and that nothing could hold him back any longer. + </p> + <p> + After that Vasili Andreevich neither saw, heard, nor felt anything more in + this world. + </p> + <p> + All around the snow still eddied. The same whirlwinds of snow circled + about, covering the dead Vasili Andreevich’s fur coat, the shivering + Mukhorty, the sledge, now scarcely to be seen, and Nikita lying at the + bottom of it, kept warm beneath his dead master. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X + </h2> + <p> + Nikita awoke before daybreak. He was aroused by the cold that had begun to + creep down his back. He had dreamt that he was coming from the mill with a + load of his master’s flour and when crossing the stream had missed the + bridge and let the cart get stuck. And he saw that he had crawled under + the cart and was trying to lift it by arching his back. But strange to say + the cart did not move, it stuck to his back and he could neither lift it + nor get out from under it. It was crushing the whole of his loins. And how + cold it felt! Evidently he must crawl out. ‘Have done!’ he exclaimed to + whoever was pressing the cart down on him. ‘Take out the sacks!’ But the + cart pressed down colder and colder, and then he heard a strange knocking, + awoke completely, and remembered everything. The cold cart was his dead + and frozen master lying upon him. And the knock was produced by Mukhorty, + who had twice struck the sledge with his hoof. + </p> + <p> + ‘Andreevich! Eh, Andreevich!’ Nikita called cautiously, beginning to + realize the truth, and straightening his back. But Vasili Andreevich did + not answer and his stomach and legs were stiff and cold and heavy like + iron weights. + </p> + <p> + ‘He must have died! May the Kingdom of Heaven be his!’ thought Nikita. + </p> + <p> + He turned his head, dug with his hand through the snow about him and + opened his eyes. It was daylight; the wind was whistling as before between + the shafts, and the snow was falling in the same way, except that it was + no longer driving against the frame of the sledge but silently covered + both sledge and horse deeper and deeper, and neither the horse’s movements + nor his breathing were any longer to be heard. + </p> + <p> + ‘He must have frozen too,’ thought Nikita of Mukhorty, and indeed those + hoof knocks against the sledge, which had awakened Nikita, were the last + efforts the already numbed Mukhorty had made to keep on his feet before + dying. + </p> + <p> + ‘O Lord God, it seems Thou art calling me too!’ said Nikita. ‘Thy Holy + Will be done. But it’s uncanny.... Still, a man can’t die twice and must + die once. If only it would come soon!’ + </p> + <p> + And he again drew in his head, closed his eyes, and became unconscious, + fully convinced that now he was certainly and finally dying. + </p> + <p> + It was not till noon that day that peasants dug Vasili Andreevich and + Nikita out of the snow with their shovels, not more than seventy yards + from the road and less than half a mile from the village. + </p> + <p> + The snow had hidden the sledge, but the shafts and the kerchief tied to + them were still visible. Mukhorty, buried up to his belly in snow, with + the breeching and drugget hanging down, stood all white, his dead head + pressed against his frozen throat: icicles hung from his nostrils, his + eyes were covered with hoar-frost as though filled with tears, and he had + grown so thin in that one night that he was nothing but skin and bone. + </p> + <p> + Vasili Andreevich was stiff as a frozen carcass, and when they rolled him + off Nikita his legs remained apart and his arms stretched out as they had + been. His bulging hawk eyes were frozen, and his open mouth under his + clipped moustache was full of snow. But Nikita though chilled through was + still alive. When he had been brought to, he felt sure that he was already + dead and that what was taking place with him was no longer happening in + this world but in the next. When he heard the peasants shouting as they + dug him out and rolled the frozen body of Vasili Andreevich from off him, + he was at first surprised that in the other world peasants should be + shouting in the same old way and had the same kind of body, and then when + he realized that he was still in this world he was sorry rather than glad, + especially when he found that the toes on both his feet were frozen. + </p> + <p> + Nikita lay in hospital for two months. They cut off three of his toes, but + the others recovered so that he was still able to work and went on living + for another twenty years, first as a farm-labourer, then in his old age as + a watchman. He died at home as he had wished, only this year, under the + icons with a lighted taper in his hands. Before he died he asked his + wife’s forgiveness and forgave her for the cooper. He also took leave of + his son and grandchildren, and died sincerely glad that he was relieving + his son and daughter-in-law of the burden of having to feed him, and that + he was now really passing from this life of which he was weary into that + other life which every year and every hour grew clearer and more desirable + to him. Whether he is better or worse off there where he awoke after his + death, whether he was disappointed or found there what he expected, we + shall all soon learn. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER AND MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 986-h.htm or 986-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/986/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Master and Man + +Author: Leo Tolstoy + +Translator: Louise and Aylmer Maude + +Release Date: July, 1997 [Etext #986] +Posting Date: July 9, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER AND MAN *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + + + + + +MASTER AND MAN + +By Leo Tolstoy + + +Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude + + + + + +I + +It happened in the 'seventies in winter, on the day after St. Nicholas's +Day. There was a fete in the parish and the innkeeper, Vasili Andreevich +Brekhunov, a Second Guild merchant, being a church elder had to go to +church, and had also to entertain his relatives and friends at home. + +But when the last of them had gone he at once began to prepare to drive +over to see a neighbouring proprietor about a grove which he had been +bargaining over for a long time. He was now in a hurry to start, +lest buyers from the town might forestall him in making a profitable +purchase. + +The youthful landowner was asking ten thousand rubles for the grove +simply because Vasili Andreevich was offering seven thousand. Seven +thousand was, however, only a third of its real value. Vasili Andreevich +might perhaps have got it down to his own price, for the woods were in +his district and he had a long-standing agreement with the other village +dealers that no one should run up the price in another's district, but +he had now learnt that some timber-dealers from town meant to bid for +the Goryachkin grove, and he resolved to go at once and get the matter +settled. So as soon as the feast was over, he took seven hundred rubles +from his strong box, added to them two thousand three hundred rubles of +church money he had in his keeping, so as to make up the sum to three +thousand; carefully counted the notes, and having put them into his +pocket-book made haste to start. + +Nikita, the only one of Vasili Andreevich's labourers who was not drunk +that day, ran to harness the horse. Nikita, though an habitual drunkard, +was not drunk that day because since the last day before the fast, when +he had drunk his coat and leather boots, he had sworn off drink and +had kept his vow for two months, and was still keeping it despite the +temptation of the vodka that had been drunk everywhere during the first +two days of the feast. + +Nikita was a peasant of about fifty from a neighbouring village, 'not +a manager' as the peasants said of him, meaning that he was not the +thrifty head of a household but lived most of his time away from home +as a labourer. He was valued everywhere for his industry, dexterity, and +strength at work, and still more for his kindly and pleasant temper. But +he never settled down anywhere for long because about twice a year, or +even oftener, he had a drinking bout, and then besides spending all his +clothes on drink he became turbulent and quarrelsome. Vasili Andreevich +himself had turned him away several times, but had afterwards taken him +back again--valuing his honesty, his kindness to animals, and especially +his cheapness. Vasili Andreevich did not pay Nikita the eighty rubles +a year such a man was worth, but only about forty, which he gave him +haphazard, in small sums, and even that mostly not in cash but in goods +from his own shop and at high prices. + +Nikita's wife Martha, who had once been a handsome vigorous woman, +managed the homestead with the help of her son and two daughters, and +did not urge Nikita to live at home: first because she had been living +for some twenty years already with a cooper, a peasant from another +village who lodged in their house; and secondly because though she +managed her husband as she pleased when he was sober, she feared him +like fire when he was drunk. Once when he had got drunk at home, Nikita, +probably to make up for his submissiveness when sober, broke open her +box, took out her best clothes, snatched up an axe, and chopped all her +undergarments and dresses to bits. All the wages Nikita earned went to +his wife, and he raised no objection to that. So now, two days before +the holiday, Martha had been twice to see Vasili Andreevich and had got +from him wheat flour, tea, sugar, and a quart of vodka, the lot costing +three rubles, and also five rubles in cash, for which she thanked him as +for a special favour, though he owed Nikita at least twenty rubles. + +'What agreement did we ever draw up with you?' said Vasili Andreevich +to Nikita. 'If you need anything, take it; you will work it off. I'm not +like others to keep you waiting, and making up accounts and reckoning +fines. We deal straight-forwardly. You serve me and I don't neglect +you.' + +And when saying this Vasili Andreevich was honestly convinced that he +was Nikita's benefactor, and he knew how to put it so plausibly that +all those who depended on him for their money, beginning with Nikita, +confirmed him in the conviction that he was their benefactor and did not +overreach them. + +'Yes, I understand, Vasili Andreevich. You know that I serve you and +take as much pains as I would for my own father. I understand very +well!' Nikita would reply. He was quite aware that Vasili Andreevich was +cheating him, but at the same time he felt that it was useless to try +to clear up his accounts with him or explain his side of the matter, and +that as long as he had nowhere to go he must accept what he could get. + +Now, having heard his master's order to harness, he went as usual +cheerfully and willingly to the shed, stepping briskly and easily on his +rather turned-in feet; took down from a nail the heavy tasselled leather +bridle, and jingling the rings of the bit went to the closed stable +where the horse he was to harness was standing by himself. + +'What, feeling lonely, feeling lonely, little silly?' said Nikita in +answer to the low whinny with which he was greeted by the good-tempered, +medium-sized bay stallion, with a rather slanting crupper, who stood +alone in the shed. 'Now then, now then, there's time enough. Let me +water you first,' he went on, speaking to the horse just as to someone +who understood the words he was using, and having whisked the dusty, +grooved back of the well-fed young stallion with the skirt of his +coat, he put a bridle on his handsome head, straightened his ears and +forelock, and having taken off his halter led him out to water. + +Picking his way out of the dung-strewn stable, Mukhorty frisked, and +making play with his hind leg pretended that he meant to kick Nikita, +who was running at a trot beside him to the pump. + +'Now then, now then, you rascal!' Nikita called out, well knowing how +carefully Mukhorty threw out his hind leg just to touch his greasy +sheepskin coat but not to strike him--a trick Nikita much appreciated. + +After a drink of the cold water the horse sighed, moving his strong wet +lips, from the hairs of which transparent drops fell into the trough; +then standing still as if in thought, he suddenly gave a loud snort. + +'If you don't want any more, you needn't. But don't go asking for any +later,' said Nikita quite seriously and fully explaining his conduct to +Mukhorty. Then he ran back to the shed pulling the playful young horse, +who wanted to gambol all over the yard, by the rein. + +There was no one else in the yard except a stranger, the cook's husband, +who had come for the holiday. + +'Go and ask which sledge is to be harnessed--the wide one or the small +one--there's a good fellow!' + +The cook's husband went into the house, which stood on an iron +foundation and was iron-roofed, and soon returned saying that the little +one was to be harnessed. By that time Nikita had put the collar and +brass-studded belly-band on Mukhorty and, carrying a light, painted +shaft-bow in one hand, was leading the horse with the other up to two +sledges that stood in the shed. + +'All right, let it be the little one!' he said, backing the intelligent +horse, which all the time kept pretending to bite him, into the shafts, +and with the aid of the cook's husband he proceeded to harness. When +everything was nearly ready and only the reins had to be adjusted, +Nikita sent the other man to the shed for some straw and to the barn for +a drugget. + +'There, that's all right! Now, now, don't bristle up!' said Nikita, +pressing down into the sledge the freshly threshed oat straw the cook's +husband had brought. 'And now let's spread the sacking like this, and +the drugget over it. There, like that it will be comfortable sitting,' +he went on, suiting the action to the words and tucking the drugget all +round over the straw to make a seat. + +'Thank you, dear man. Things always go quicker with two working at it!' +he added. And gathering up the leather reins fastened together by a +brass ring, Nikita took the driver's seat and started the impatient +horse over the frozen manure which lay in the yard, towards the gate. + +'Uncle Nikita! I say, Uncle, Uncle!' a high-pitched voice shouted, and a +seven-year-old boy in a black sheepskin coat, new white felt boots, and +a warm cap, ran hurriedly out of the house into the yard. 'Take me with +you!' he cried, fastening up his coat as he ran. + +'All right, come along, darling!' said Nikita, and stopping the sledge +he picked up the master's pale thin little son, radiant with joy, and +drove out into the road. + +It was past two o'clock and the day was windy, dull, and cold, with more +than twenty degrees Fahrenheit of frost. Half the sky was hidden by a +lowering dark cloud. In the yard it was quiet, but in the street the +wind was felt more keenly. The snow swept down from a neighbouring shed +and whirled about in the corner near the bath-house. + +Hardly had Nikita driven out of the yard and turned the horse's head to +the house, before Vasili Andreevich emerged from the high porch in front +of the house with a cigarette in his mouth and wearing a cloth-covered +sheep-skin coat tightly girdled low at his waist, and stepped onto the +hard-trodden snow which squeaked under the leather soles of his felt +boots, and stopped. Taking a last whiff of his cigarette he threw it +down, stepped on it, and letting the smoke escape through his moustache +and looking askance at the horse that was coming up, began to tuck +in his sheepskin collar on both sides of his ruddy face, clean-shaven +except for the moustache, so that his breath should not moisten the +collar. + +'See now! The young scamp is there already!' he exclaimed when he saw +his little son in the sledge. Vasili Andreevich was excited by the vodka +he had drunk with his visitors, and so he was even more pleased than +usual with everything that was his and all that he did. The sight of +his son, whom he always thought of as his heir, now gave him great +satisfaction. He looked at him, screwing up his eyes and showing his +long teeth. + +His wife--pregnant, thin and pale, with her head and shoulders wrapped +in a shawl so that nothing of her face could be seen but her eyes--stood +behind him in the vestibule to see him off. + +'Now really, you ought to take Nikita with you,' she said timidly, +stepping out from the doorway. + +Vasili Andreevich did not answer. Her words evidently annoyed him and he +frowned angrily and spat. + +'You have money on you,' she continued in the same plaintive voice. +'What if the weather gets worse! Do take him, for goodness' sake!' + +'Why? Don't I know the road that I must needs take a guide?' exclaimed +Vasili Andreevich, uttering every word very distinctly and compressing +his lips unnaturally, as he usually did when speaking to buyers and +sellers. + +'Really you ought to take him. I beg you in God's name!' his wife +repeated, wrapping her shawl more closely round her head. + +'There, she sticks to it like a leech!... Where am I to take him?' + +'I'm quite ready to go with you, Vasili Andreevich,' said Nikita +cheerfully. 'But they must feed the horses while I am away,' he added, +turning to his master's wife. + +'I'll look after them, Nikita dear. I'll tell Simon,' replied the +mistress. + +'Well, Vasili Andreevich, am I to come with you?' said Nikita, awaiting +a decision. + +'It seems I must humour my old woman. But if you're coming you'd better +put on a warmer cloak,' said Vasili Andreevich, smiling again as he +winked at Nikita's short sheepskin coat, which was torn under the arms +and at the back, was greasy and out of shape, frayed to a fringe round +the skirt, and had endured many things in its lifetime. + +'Hey, dear man, come and hold the horse!' shouted Nikita to the cook's +husband, who was still in the yard. + +'No, I will myself, I will myself!' shrieked the little boy, pulling his +hands, red with cold, out of his pockets, and seizing the cold leather +reins. + +'Only don't be too long dressing yourself up. Look alive!' shouted +Vasili Andreevich, grinning at Nikita. + +'Only a moment, Father, Vasili Andreevich!' replied Nikita, and running +quickly with his inturned toes in his felt boots with their soles +patched with felt, he hurried across the yard and into the workmen's +hut. + +'Arinushka! Get my coat down from the stove. I'm going with the master,' +he said, as he ran into the hut and took down his girdle from the nail +on which it hung. + +The workmen's cook, who had had a sleep after dinner and was now getting +the samovar ready for her husband, turned cheerfully to Nikita, and +infected by his hurry began to move as quickly as he did, got down his +miserable worn-out cloth coat from the stove where it was drying, and +began hurriedly shaking it out and smoothing it down. + +'There now, you'll have a chance of a holiday with your good man,' said +Nikita, who from kindhearted politeness always said something to anyone +he was alone with. + +Then, drawing his worn narrow girdle round him, he drew in his breath, +pulling in his lean stomach still more, and girdled himself as tightly +as he could over his sheepskin. + +'There now,' he said addressing himself no longer to the cook but the +girdle, as he tucked the ends in at the waist, 'now you won't come +undone!' And working his shoulders up and down to free his arms, he put +the coat over his sheepskin, arched his back more strongly to ease his +arms, poked himself under the armpits, and took down his leather-covered +mittens from the shelf. 'Now we're all right!' + +'You ought to wrap your feet up, Nikita. Your boots are very bad.' + +Nikita stopped as if he had suddenly realized this. + +'Yes, I ought to.... But they'll do like this. It isn't far!' and he +ran out into the yard. + +'Won't you be cold, Nikita?' said the mistress as he came up to the +sledge. + +'Cold? No, I'm quite warm,' answered Nikita as he pushed some straw +up to the forepart of the sledge so that it should cover his feet, and +stowed away the whip, which the good horse would not need, at the bottom +of the sledge. + +Vasili Andreevich, who was wearing two fur-lined coats one over the +other, was already in the sledge, his broad back filling nearly its +whole rounded width, and taking the reins he immediately touched the +horse. Nikita jumped in just as the sledge started, and seated himself +in front on the left side, with one leg hanging over the edge. + + + + +II + +The good stallion took the sledge along at a brisk pace over the +smooth-frozen road through the village, the runners squeaking slightly +as they went. + +'Look at him hanging on there! Hand me the whip, Nikita!' shouted Vasili +Andreevich, evidently enjoying the sight of his 'heir,' who standing on +the runners was hanging on at the back of the sledge. 'I'll give it you! +Be off to mamma, you dog!' + +The boy jumped down. The horse increased his amble and, suddenly +changing foot, broke into a fast trot. + +The Crosses, the village where Vasili Andreevich lived, consisted of six +houses. As soon as they had passed the blacksmith's hut, the last in +the village, they realized that the wind was much stronger than they +had thought. The road could hardly be seen. The tracks left by the +sledge-runners were immediately covered by snow and the road was only +distinguished by the fact that it was higher than the rest of the +ground. There was a swirl of snow over the fields and the line where sky +and earth met could not be seen. The Telyatin forest, usually clearly +visible, now only loomed up occasionally and dimly through the driving +snowy dust. The wind came from the left, insistently blowing over to +one side the mane on Mukhorty's sleek neck and carrying aside even his +fluffy tail, which was tied in a simple knot. Nikita's wide coat-collar, +as he sat on the windy side, pressed close to his cheek and nose. + +'This road doesn't give him a chance--it's too snowy,' said Vasili +Andreevich, who prided himself on his good horse. 'I once drove to +Pashutino with him in half an hour.' + +'What?' asked Nikita, who could not hear on account of his collar. + +'I say I once went to Pashutino in half an hour,' shouted Vasili +Andreevich. + +'It goes without saying that he's a good horse,' replied Nikita. + +They were silent for a while. But Vasili Andreevich wished to talk. + +'Well, did you tell your wife not to give the cooper any vodka?' he +began in the same loud tone, quite convinced that Nikita must feel +flattered to be talking with so clever and important a person as +himself, and he was so pleased with his jest that it did not enter his +head that the remark might be unpleasant to Nikita. + +The wind again prevented Nikita's hearing his master's words. + +Vasili Andreevich repeated the jest about the cooper in his loud, clear +voice. + +'That's their business, Vasili Andreevich. I don't pry into their +affairs. As long as she doesn't ill-treat our boy--God be with them.' + +'That's so,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'Well, and will you be buying a +horse in spring?' he went on, changing the subject. + +'Yes, I can't avoid it,' answered Nikita, turning down his collar and +leaning back towards his master. + +The conversation now became interesting to him and he did not wish to +lose a word. + +'The lad's growing up. He must begin to plough for himself, but till now +we've always had to hire someone,' he said. + +'Well, why not have the lean-cruppered one. I won't charge much for it,' +shouted Vasili Andreevich, feeling animated, and consequently starting +on his favourite occupation--that of horse-dealing--which absorbed all +his mental powers. + +'Or you might let me have fifteen rubles and I'll buy one at the +horse-market,' said Nikita, who knew that the horse Vasili Andreevich +wanted to sell him would be dear at seven rubles, but that if he took it +from him it would be charged at twenty-five, and then he would be unable +to draw any money for half a year. + +'It's a good horse. I think of your interest as of my own--according to +conscience. Brekhunov isn't a man to wrong anyone. Let the loss be mine. +I'm not like others. Honestly!' he shouted in the voice in which he +hypnotized his customers and dealers. 'It's a real good horse.' + +'Quite so!' said Nikita with a sigh, and convinced that there was +nothing more to listen to, he again released his collar, which +immediately covered his ear and face. + +They drove on in silence for about half an hour. The wind blew sharply +onto Nikita's side and arm where his sheepskin was torn. + +He huddled up and breathed into the collar which covered his mouth, and +was not wholly cold. + +'What do you think--shall we go through Karamyshevo or by the straight +road?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +The road through Karamyshevo was more frequented and was well marked +with a double row of high stakes. The straight road was nearer but +little used and had no stakes, or only poor ones covered with snow. + +Nikita thought awhile. + +'Though Karamyshevo is farther, it is better going,' he said. + +'But by the straight road, when once we get through the hollow by the +forest, it's good going--sheltered,' said Vasili Andreevich, who wished +to go the nearest way. + +'Just as you please,' said Nikita, and again let go of his collar. + +Vasili Andreevich did as he had said, and having gone about half a verst +came to a tall oak stake which had a few dry leaves still dangling on +it, and there he turned to the left. + +On turning they faced directly against the wind, and snow was beginning +to fall. Vasili Andreevich, who was driving, inflated his cheeks, +blowing the breath out through his moustache. Nikita dozed. + +So they went on in silence for about ten minutes. Suddenly Vasili +Andreevich began saying something. + +'Eh, what?' asked Nikita, opening his eyes. + +Vasili Andreevich did not answer, but bent over, looking behind them and +then ahead of the horse. The sweat had curled Mukhorty's coat between +his legs and on his neck. He went at a walk. + +'What is it?' Nikita asked again. + +'What is it? What is it?' Vasili Andreevich mimicked him angrily. 'There +are no stakes to be seen! We must have got off the road!' + +'Well, pull up then, and I'll look for it,' said Nikita, and jumping +down lightly from the sledge and taking the whip from under the straw, +he went off to the left from his own side of the sledge. + +The snow was not deep that year, so that it was possible to walk +anywhere, but still in places it was knee-deep and got into Nikita's +boots. He went about feeling the ground with his feet and the whip, but +could not find the road anywhere. + +'Well, how is it?' asked Vasili Andreevich when Nikita came back to the +sledge. + +'There is no road this side. I must go to the other side and try there,' +said Nikita. + +'There's something there in front. Go and have a look.' + +Nikita went to what had appeared dark, but found that it was earth which +the wind had blown from the bare fields of winter oats and had strewn +over the snow, colouring it. Having searched to the right also, he +returned to the sledge, brushed the snow from his coat, shook it out of +his boots, and seated himself once more. + +'We must go to the right,' he said decidedly. 'The wind was blowing on +our left before, but now it is straight in my face. Drive to the right,' +he repeated with decision. + +Vasili Andreevich took his advice and turned to the right, but still +there was no road. They went on in that direction for some time. The +wind was as fierce as ever and it was snowing lightly. + +'It seems, Vasili Andreevich, that we have gone quite astray,' Nikita +suddenly remarked, as if it were a pleasant thing. 'What is that?' he +added, pointing to some potato vines that showed up from under the snow. + +Vasili Andreevich stopped the perspiring horse, whose deep sides were +heaving heavily. + +'What is it?' + +'Why, we are on the Zakharov lands. See where we've got to!' + +'Nonsense!' retorted Vasili Andreevich. + +'It's not nonsense, Vasili Andreevich. It's the truth,' replied Nikita. +'You can feel that the sledge is going over a potato-field, and there +are the heaps of vines which have been carted here. It's the Zakharov +factory land.' + +'Dear me, how we have gone astray!' said Vasili Andreevich. 'What are we +to do now?' + +'We must go straight on, that's all. We shall come out somewhere--if not +at Zakharova, then at the proprietor's farm,' said Nikita. + +Vasili Andreevich agreed, and drove as Nikita had indicated. So they +went on for a considerable time. At times they came onto bare fields and +the sledge-runners rattled over frozen lumps of earth. Sometimes they +got onto a winter-rye field, or a fallow field on which they could see +stalks of wormwood, and straws sticking up through the snow and swaying +in the wind; sometimes they came onto deep and even white snow, above +which nothing was to be seen. + +The snow was falling from above and sometimes rose from below. The horse +was evidently exhausted, his hair had all curled up from sweat and was +covered with hoar-frost, and he went at a walk. Suddenly he stumbled and +sat down in a ditch or water-course. Vasili Andreevich wanted to stop, +but Nikita cried to him: + +'Why stop? We've got in and must get out. Hey, pet! Hey, darling! Gee +up, old fellow!' he shouted in a cheerful tone to the horse, jumping out +of the sledge and himself getting stuck in the ditch. + +The horse gave a start and quickly climbed out onto the frozen bank. It +was evidently a ditch that had been dug there. + +'Where are we now?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'We'll soon find out!' Nikita replied. 'Go on, we'll get somewhere.' + +'Why, this must be the Goryachkin forest!' said Vasili Andreevich, +pointing to something dark that appeared amid the snow in front of them. + +'We'll see what forest it is when we get there,' said Nikita. + +He saw that beside the black thing they had noticed, dry, oblong +willow-leaves were fluttering, and so he knew it was not a forest but a +settlement, but he did not wish to say so. And in fact they had not gone +twenty-five yards beyond the ditch before something in front of them, +evidently trees, showed up black, and they heard a new and melancholy +sound. Nikita had guessed right: it was not a wood, but a row of tall +willows with a few leaves still fluttering on them here and there. They +had evidently been planted along the ditch round a threshing-floor. +Coming up to the willows, which moaned sadly in the wind, the horse +suddenly planted his forelegs above the height of the sledge, drew up +his hind legs also, pulling the sledge onto higher ground, and turned to +the left, no longer sinking up to his knees in snow. They were back on a +road. + +'Well, here we are, but heaven only knows where!' said Nikita. + +The horse kept straight along the road through the drifted snow, and +before they had gone another hundred yards the straight line of the +dark wattle wall of a barn showed up black before them, its roof heavily +covered with snow which poured down from it. After passing the barn the +road turned to the wind and they drove into a snow-drift. But ahead of +them was a lane with houses on either side, so evidently the snow had +been blown across the road and they had to drive through the drift. And +so in fact it was. Having driven through the snow they came out into a +street. At the end house of the village some frozen clothes hanging on +a line--shirts, one red and one white, trousers, leg-bands, and a +petticoat--fluttered wildly in the wind. The white shirt in particular +struggled desperately, waving its sleeves about. + +'There now, either a lazy woman or a dead one has not taken her clothes +down before the holiday,' remarked Nikita, looking at the fluttering +shirts. + + + + +III + +At the entrance to the street the wind still raged and the road was +thickly covered with snow, but well within the village it was calm, +warm, and cheerful. At one house a dog was barking, at another a woman, +covering her head with her coat, came running from somewhere and entered +the door of a hut, stopping on the threshold to have a look at the +passing sledge. In the middle of the village girls could be heard +singing. + +Here in the village there seemed to be less wind and snow, and the frost +was less keen. + +'Why, this is Grishkino,' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'So it is,' responded Nikita. + +It really was Grishkino, which meant that they had gone too far to the +left and had travelled some six miles, not quite in the direction they +aimed at, but towards their destination for all that. + +From Grishkino to Goryachkin was about another four miles. + +In the middle of the village they almost ran into a tall man walking +down the middle of the street. + +'Who are you?' shouted the man, stopping the horse, and recognizing +Vasili Anereevich he immediately took hold of the shaft, went along it +hand over hand till he reached the sledge, and placed himself on the +driver's seat. + +He was Isay, a peasant of Vasili Andreevich's acquaintance, and well +known as the principal horse-thief in the district. + +'Ah, Vasili Andreevich! Where are you off to?' said Isay, enveloping +Nikita in the odour of the vodka he had drunk. + +'We were going to Goryachkin.' + +'And look where you've got to! You should have gone through +Molchanovka.' + +'Should have, but didn't manage it,' said Vasili Andreevich, holding in +the horse. + +'That's a good horse,' said Isay, with a shrewd glance at Mukhorty, and +with a practised hand he tightened the loosened knot high in the horse's +bushy tail. + +'Are you going to stay the night?' + +'No, friend. I must get on.' + +'Your business must be pressing. And who is this? Ah, Nikita Stepanych!' + +'Who else?' replied Nikita. 'But I say, good friend, how are we to avoid +going astray again?' + +'Where can you go astray here? Turn back straight down the street and +then when you come out keep straight on. Don't take to the left. You +will come out onto the high road, and then turn to the right.' + +'And where do we turn off the high road? As in summer, or the winter +way?' asked Nikita. + +'The winter way. As soon as you turn off you'll see some bushes, and +opposite them there is a way-mark--a large oak, one with branches--and +that's the way.' + +Vasili Andreevich turned the horse back and drove through the outskirts +of the village. + +'Why not stay the night?' Isay shouted after them. + +But Vasili Andreevich did not answer and touched up the horse. Four +miles of good road, two of which lay through the forest, seemed easy to +manage, especially as the wind was apparently quieter and the snow had +stopped. + +Having driven along the trodden village street, darkened here and there +by fresh manure, past the yard where the clothes hung out and where the +white shirt had broken loose and was now attached only by one frozen +sleeve, they again came within sound of the weird moan of the willows, +and again emerged on the open fields. The storm, far from ceasing, +seemed to have grown yet stronger. The road was completely covered with +drifting snow, and only the stakes showed that they had not lost their +way. But even the stakes ahead of them were not easy to see, since the +wind blew in their faces. + +Vasili Andreevich screwed up his eyes, bent down his head, and looked +out for the way-marks, but trusted mainly to the horse's sagacity, +letting it take its own way. And the horse really did not lose the road +but followed its windings, turning now to the right and now to the left +and sensing it under his feet, so that though the snow fell thicker and +the wind strengthened they still continued to see way-marks now to the +left and now to the right of them. + +So they travelled on for about ten minutes, when suddenly, through the +slanting screen of wind-driven snow, something black showed up which +moved in front of the horse. + +This was another sledge with fellow-travellers. Mukhorty overtook them, +and struck his hoofs against the back of the sledge in front of them. + +'Pass on... hey there... get in front!' cried voices from the +sledge. + +Vasili Andreevich swerved aside to pass the other sledge. + +In it sat three men and a woman, evidently visitors returning from a +feast. One peasant was whacking the snow-covered croup of their little +horse with a long switch, and the other two sitting in front waved their +arms and shouted something. The woman, completely wrapped up and covered +with snow, sat drowsing and bumping at the back. + +'Who are you?' shouted Vasili Andreevich. + +'From A-a-a...' was all that could be heard. + +'I say, where are you from?' + +'From A-a-a-a!' one of the peasants shouted with all his might, but +still it was impossible to make out who they were. + +'Get along! Keep up!' shouted another, ceaselessly beating his horse +with the switch. + +'So you're from a feast, it seems?' + +'Go on, go on! Faster, Simon! Get in front! Faster!' + +The wings of the sledges bumped against one another, almost got jammed +but managed to separate, and the peasants' sledge began to fall behind. + +Their shaggy, big-bellied horse, all covered with snow, breathed heavily +under the low shaft-bow and, evidently using the last of its strength, +vainly endeavoured to escape from the switch, hobbling with its short +legs through the deep snow which it threw up under itself. + +Its muzzle, young-looking, with the nether lip drawn up like that of a +fish, nostrils distended and ears pressed back from fear, kept up for a +few seconds near Nikita's shoulder and then began to fall behind. + +'Just see what liquor does!' said Nikita. 'They've tired that little +horse to death. What pagans!' + +For a few minutes they heard the panting of the tired little horse and +the drunken shouting of the peasants. Then the panting and the shouts +died away, and around them nothing could be heard but the whistling +of the wind in their ears and now and then the squeak of their +sledge-runners over a windswept part of the road. + +This encounter cheered and enlivened Vasili Andreevich, and he drove +on more boldly without examining the way-marks, urging on the horse and +trusting to him. + +Nikita had nothing to do, and as usual in such circumstances he drowsed, +making up for much sleepless time. Suddenly the horse stopped and Nikita +nearly fell forward onto his nose. + +'You know we're off the track again!' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'How's that?' + +'Why, there are no way-marks to be seen. We must have got off the road +again.' + +'Well, if we've lost the road we must find it,' said Nikita curtly, and +getting out and stepping lightly on his pigeon-toed feet he started once +more going about on the snow. + +He walked about for a long time, now disappearing and now reappearing, +and finally he came back. + +'There is no road here. There may be farther on,' he said, getting into +the sledge. + +It was already growing dark. The snow-storm had not increased but had +also not subsided. + +'If we could only hear those peasants!' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'Well they haven't caught us up. We must have gone far astray. Or maybe +they have lost their way too.' + +'Where are we to go then?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Why, we must let the horse take its own way,' said Nikita. 'He will +take us right. Let me have the reins.' + +Vasili Andreevich gave him the reins, the more willingly because his +hands were beginning to feel frozen in his thick gloves. + +Nikita took the reins, but only held them, trying not to shake them +and rejoicing at his favourite's sagacity. And indeed the clever horse, +turning first one ear and then the other now to one side and then to the +other, began to wheel round. + +'The one thing he can't do is to talk,' Nikita kept saying. 'See what he +is doing! Go on, go on! You know best. That's it, that's it!' + +The wind was now blowing from behind and it felt warmer. + +'Yes, he's clever,' Nikita continued, admiring the horse. 'A Kirgiz +horse is strong but stupid. But this one--just see what he's doing with +his ears! He doesn't need any telegraph. He can scent a mile off.' + +Before another half-hour had passed they saw something dark ahead of +them--a wood or a village--and stakes again appeared to the right. They +had evidently come out onto the road. + +'Why, that's Grishkino again!' Nikita suddenly exclaimed. + +And indeed, there on their left was that same barn with the snow flying +from it, and farther on the same line with the frozen washing, shirts +and trousers, which still fluttered desperately in the wind. + +Again they drove into the street and again it grew quiet, warm, and +cheerful, and again they could see the manure-stained street and hear +voices and songs and the barking of a dog. It was already so dark that +there were lights in some of the windows. + +Half-way through the village Vasili Andreevich turned the horse towards +a large double-fronted brick house and stopped at the porch. + +Nikita went to the lighted snow-covered window, in the rays of which +flying snow-flakes glittered, and knocked at it with his whip. + +'Who is there?' a voice replied to his knock. + +'From Kresty, the Brekhunovs, dear fellow,' answered Nikita. 'Just come +out for a minute.' + +Someone moved from the window, and a minute or two later there was the +sound of the passage door as it came unstuck, then the latch of the +outside door clicked and a tall white-bearded peasant, with a sheepskin +coat thrown over his white holiday shirt, pushed his way out holding the +door firmly against the wind, followed by a lad in a red shirt and high +leather boots. + +'Is that you, Andreevich?' asked the old man. + +'Yes, friend, we've gone astray,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'We wanted to +get to Goryachkin but found ourselves here. We went a second time but +lost our way again.' + +'Just see how you have gone astray!' said the old man. 'Petrushka, go +and open the gate!' he added, turning to the lad in the red shirt. + +'All right,' said the lad in a cheerful voice, and ran back into the +passage. + +'But we're not staying the night,' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'Where will you go in the night? You'd better stay!' + +'I'd be glad to, but I must go on. It's business, and it can't be +helped.' + +'Well, warm yourself at least. The samovar is just ready.' + +'Warm myself? Yes, I'll do that,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'It won't get +darker. The moon will rise and it will be lighter. Let's go in and warm +ourselves, Nikita.' + +'Well, why not? Let us warm ourselves,' replied Nikita, who was stiff +with cold and anxious to warm his frozen limbs. + +Vasili Andreevich went into the room with the old man, and Nikita drove +through the gate opened for him by Petrushka, by whose advice he backed +the horse under the penthouse. The ground was covered with manure and +the tall bow over the horse's head caught against the beam. The hens +and the cock had already settled to roost there, and clucked peevishly, +clinging to the beam with their claws. The disturbed sheep shied and +rushed aside trampling the frozen manure with their hooves. The dog +yelped desperately with fright and anger and then burst out barking like +a puppy at the stranger. + +Nikita talked to them all, excused himself to the fowls and assured +them that he would not disturb them again, rebuked the sheep for being +frightened without knowing why, and kept soothing the dog, while he tied +up the horse. + +'Now that will be all right,' he said, knocking the snow off his +clothes. 'Just hear how he barks!' he added, turning to the dog. 'Be +quiet, stupid! Be quiet. You are only troubling yourself for nothing. +We're not thieves, we're friends....' + +'And these are, it's said, the three domestic counsellors,' remarked the +lad, and with his strong arms he pushed under the pent-roof the sledge +that had remained outside. + +'Why counsellors?' asked Nikita. + +'That's what is printed in Paulson. A thief creeps to a house--the dog +barks, that means "Be on your guard!" The cock crows, that means, "Get +up!" The cat licks herself--that means, "A welcome guest is coming. Get +ready to receive him!"' said the lad with a smile. + +Petrushka could read and write and knew Paulson's primer, his only book, +almost by heart, and he was fond of quoting sayings from it that he +thought suited the occasion, especially when he had had something to +drink, as to-day. + +'That's so,' said Nikita. + +'You must be chilled through and through,' said Petrushka. + +'Yes, I am rather,' said Nikita, and they went across the yard and the +passage into the house. + + + + +IV + +The household to which Vasili Andreevich had come was one of the richest +in the village. The family had five allotments, besides renting other +land. They had six horses, three cows, two calves, and some twenty +sheep. There were twenty-two members belonging to the homestead: four +married sons, six grandchildren (one of whom, Petrushka, was married), +two great-grandchildren, three orphans, and four daughters-in-law with +their babies. It was one of the few homesteads that remained still +undivided, but even here the dull internal work of disintegration which +would inevitably lead to separation had already begun, starting as usual +among the women. Two sons were living in Moscow as water-carriers, and +one was in the army. At home now were the old man and his wife, their +second son who managed the homestead, the eldest who had come from +Moscow for the holiday, and all the women and children. Besides these +members of the family there was a visitor, a neighbour who was godfather +to one of the children. + +Over the table in the room hung a lamp with a shade, which brightly lit +up the tea-things, a bottle of vodka, and some refreshments, besides +illuminating the brick walls, which in the far corner were hung with +icons on both sides of which were pictures. At the head of the table +sat Vasili Andreevich in a black sheepskin coat, sucking his frozen +moustache and observing the room and the people around him with his +prominent hawk-like eyes. With him sat the old, bald, white-bearded +master of the house in a white homespun shirt, and next him the son +home from Moscow for the holiday--a man with a sturdy back and powerful +shoulders and clad in a thin print shirt--then the second son, also +broad-shouldered, who acted as head of the house, and then a lean +red-haired peasant--the neighbour. + +Having had a drink of vodka and something to eat, they were about to +take tea, and the samovar standing on the floor beside the brick oven +was already humming. The children could be seen in the top bunks and on +the top of the oven. A woman sat on a lower bunk with a cradle beside +her. The old housewife, her face covered with wrinkles which wrinkled +even her lips, was waiting on Vasili Andreevich. + +As Nikita entered the house she was offering her guest a small tumbler +of thick glass which she had just filled with vodka. + +'Don't refuse, Vasili Andreevich, you mustn't! Wish us a merry feast. +Drink it, dear!' she said. + +The sight and smell of vodka, especially now when he was chilled through +and tired out, much disturbed Nikita's mind. He frowned, and having +shaken the snow off his cap and coat, stopped in front of the icons +as if not seeing anyone, crossed himself three times, and bowed to the +icons. Then, turning to the old master of the house and bowing first +to him, then to all those at table, then to the women who stood by the +oven, and muttering: 'A merry holiday!' he began taking off his outer +things without looking at the table. + +'Why, you're all covered with hoar-frost, old fellow!' said the eldest +brother, looking at Nikita's snow-covered face, eyes, and beard. + +Nikita took off his coat, shook it again, hung it up beside the oven, +and came up to the table. He too was offered vodka. He went through a +moment of painful hesitation and nearly took up the glass and emptied +the clear fragrant liquid down his throat, but he glanced at Vasili +Andreevich, remembered his oath and the boots that he had sold for +drink, recalled the cooper, remembered his son for whom he had promised +to buy a horse by spring, sighed, and declined it. + +'I don't drink, thank you kindly,' he said frowning, and sat down on a +bench near the second window. + +'How's that?' asked the eldest brother. + +'I just don't drink,' replied Nikita without lifting his eyes but +looking askance at his scanty beard and moustache and getting the +icicles out of them. + +'It's not good for him,' said Vasili Andreevich, munching a cracknel +after emptying his glass. + +'Well, then, have some tea,' said the kindly old hostess. 'You must +be chilled through, good soul. Why are you women dawdling so with the +samovar?' + +'It is ready,' said one of the young women, and after flicking with her +apron the top of the samovar which was now boiling over, she carried it +with an effort to the table, raised it, and set it down with a thud. + +Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich was telling how he had lost his way, how +they had come back twice to this same village, and how they had gone +astray and had met some drunken peasants. Their hosts were surprised, +explained where and why they had missed their way, said who the tipsy +people they had met were, and told them how they ought to go. + +'A little child could find the way to Molchanovka from here. All you +have to do is to take the right turning from the high road. There's a +bush you can see just there. But you didn't even get that far!' said the +neighbour. + +'You'd better stay the night. The women will make up beds for you,' said +the old woman persuasively. + +'You could go on in the morning and it would be pleasanter,' said the +old man, confirming what his wife had said. + +'I can't, friend. Business!' said Vasili Andreevich. 'Lose an hour and +you can't catch it up in a year,' he added, remembering the grove and +the dealers who might snatch that deal from him. 'We shall get there, +shan't we?' he said, turning to Nikita. + +Nikita did not answer for some time, apparently still intent on thawing +out his beard and moustache. + +'If only we don't go astray again,' he replied gloomily. He was gloomy +because he passionately longed for some vodka, and the only thing that +could assuage that longing was tea and he had not yet been offered any. + +'But we have only to reach the turning and then we shan't go wrong. The +road will be through the forest the whole way,' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'It's just as you please, Vasili Andreevich. If we're to go, let us go,' +said Nikita, taking the glass of tea he was offered. + +'We'll drink our tea and be off.' + +Nikita said nothing but only shook his head, and carefully pouring some +tea into his saucer began warming his hands, the fingers of which were +always swollen with hard work, over the steam. Then, biting off a tiny +bit of sugar, he bowed to his hosts, said, 'Your health!' and drew in +the steaming liquid. + +'If somebody would see us as far as the turning,' said Vasili +Andreevich. + +'Well, we can do that,' said the eldest son. 'Petrushka will harness and +go that far with you.' + +'Well, then, put in the horse, lad, and I shall be thankful to you for +it.' + +'Oh, what for, dear man?' said the kindly old woman. 'We are heartily +glad to do it.' + +'Petrushka, go and put in the mare,' said the eldest brother. + +'All right,' replied Petrushka with a smile, and promptly snatching his +cap down from a nail he ran away to harness. + +While the horse was being harnessed the talk returned to the point at +which it had stopped when Vasili Andreevich drove up to the window. The +old man had been complaining to his neighbour, the village elder, about +his third son who had not sent him anything for the holiday though he +had sent a French shawl to his wife. + +'The young people are getting out of hand,' said the old man. + +'And how they do!' said the neighbour. 'There's no managing them! They +know too much. There's Demochkin now, who broke his father's arm. It's +all from being too clever, it seems.' + +Nikita listened, watched their faces, and evidently would have liked to +share in the conversation, but he was too busy drinking his tea and only +nodded his head approvingly. He emptied one tumbler after another and +grew warmer and warmer and more and more comfortable. The talk continued +on the same subject for a long time--the harmfulness of a household +dividing up--and it was clearly not an abstract discussion but concerned +the question of a separation in that house; a separation demanded by the +second son who sat there morosely silent. + +It was evidently a sore subject and absorbed them all, but out of +propriety they did not discuss their private affairs before strangers. +At last, however, the old man could not restrain himself, and with tears +in his eyes declared that he would not consent to a break-up of the +family during his lifetime, that his house was prospering, thank God, +but that if they separated they would all have to go begging. + +'Just like the Matveevs,' said the neighbour. 'They used to have a +proper house, but now they've split up none of them has anything.' + +'And that is what you want to happen to us,' said the old man, turning +to his son. + +The son made no reply and there was an awkward pause. The silence was +broken by Petrushka, who having harnessed the horse had returned to the +hut a few minutes before this and had been listening all the time with a +smile. + +'There's a fable about that in Paulson,' he said. 'A father gave his +sons a broom to break. At first they could not break it, but when they +took it twig by twig they broke it easily. And it's the same here,' and +he gave a broad smile. 'I'm ready!' he added. + +'If you're ready, let's go,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'And as to +separating, don't you allow it, Grandfather. You got everything together +and you're the master. Go to the Justice of the Peace. He'll say how +things should be done.' + +'He carries on so, carries on so,' the old man continued in a whining +tone. 'There's no doing anything with him. It's as if the devil +possessed him.' + +Nikita having meanwhile finished his fifth tumbler of tea laid it on +its side instead of turning it upside down, hoping to be offered a sixth +glass. But there was no more water in the samovar, so the hostess did +not fill it up for him. Besides, Vasili Andreevich was putting his +things on, so there was nothing for it but for Nikita to get up too, put +back into the sugar-basin the lump of sugar he had nibbled all round, +wipe his perspiring face with the skirt of his sheepskin, and go to put +on his overcoat. + +Having put it on he sighed deeply, thanked his hosts, said good-bye, +and went out of the warm bright room into the cold dark passage, through +which the wind was howling and where snow was blowing through the cracks +of the shaking door, and from there into the yard. + +Petrushka stood in his sheepskin in the middle of the yard by his horse, +repeating some lines from Paulson's primer. He said with a smile: + + 'Storms with mist the sky conceal, + Snowy circles wheeling wild. + Now like savage beast 'twill howl, + And now 'tis wailing like a child.' + +Nikita nodded approvingly as he arranged the reins. + +The old man, seeing Vasili Andreevich off, brought a lantern into the +passage to show him a light, but it was blown out at once. And even in +the yard it was evident that the snowstorm had become more violent. + +'Well, this is weather!' thought Vasili Andreevich. 'Perhaps we may not +get there after all. But there is nothing to be done. Business! Besides, +we have got ready, our host's horse has been harnessed, and we'll get +there with God's help!' + +Their aged host also thought they ought not to go, but he had already +tried to persuade them to stay and had not been listened to. + +'It's no use asking them again. Maybe my age makes me timid. They'll +get there all right, and at least we shall get to bed in good time and +without any fuss,' he thought. + +Petrushka did not think of danger. He knew the road and the whole +district so well, and the lines about 'snowy circles wheeling wild' +described what was happening outside so aptly that it cheered him up. +Nikita did not wish to go at all, but he had been accustomed not to have +his own way and to serve others for so long that there was no one to +hinder the departing travellers. + + + + +V + +Vasili Andreevich went over to his sledge, found it with difficulty in +the darkness, climbed in and took the reins. + +'Go on in front!' he cried. + +Petrushka kneeling in his low sledge started his horse. Mukhorty, who +had been neighing for some time past, now scenting a mare ahead of him +started after her, and they drove out into the street. They drove again +through the outskirts of the village and along the same road, past the +yard where the frozen linen had hung (which, however, was no longer to +be seen), past the same barn, which was now snowed up almost to the +roof and from which the snow was still endlessly pouring past the same +dismally moaning, whistling, and swaying willows, and again entered into +the sea of blustering snow raging from above and below. The wind was +so strong that when it blew from the side and the travellers steered +against it, it tilted the sledges and turned the horses to one side. +Petrushka drove his good mare in front at a brisk trot and kept shouting +lustily. Mukhorty pressed after her. + +After travelling so for about ten minutes, Petrushka turned round and +shouted something. Neither Vasili Andreevich nor Nikita could hear +anything because of the wind, but they guessed that they had arrived at +the turning. In fact Petrushka had turned to the right, and now the wind +that had blown from the side blew straight in their faces, and through +the snow they saw something dark on their right. It was the bush at the +turning. + +'Well now, God speed you!' + +'Thank you, Petrushka!' + +'Storms with mist the sky conceal!' shouted Petrushka as he disappeared. + +'There's a poet for you!' muttered Vasili Andreevich, pulling at the +reins. + +'Yes, a fine lad--a true peasant,' said Nikita. + +They drove on. + +Nikita, wrapping his coat closely about him and pressing his head down +so close to his shoulders that his short beard covered his throat, sat +silently, trying not to lose the warmth he had obtained while drinking +tea in the house. Before him he saw the straight lines of the +shafts which constantly deceived him into thinking they were on a +well-travelled road, and the horse's swaying crupper with his knotted +tail blown to one side, and farther ahead the high shaft-bow and the +swaying head and neck of the horse with its waving mane. Now and then +he caught sight of a way-sign, so that he knew they were still on a road +and that there was nothing for him to be concerned about. + +Vasili Andreevich drove on, leaving it to the horse to keep to the road. +But Mukhorty, though he had had a breathing-space in the village, ran +reluctantly, and seemed now and then to get off the road, so that Vasili +Andreevich had repeatedly to correct him. + +'Here's a stake to the right, and another, and here's a third,' Vasili +Andreevich counted, 'and here in front is the forest,' thought he, as he +looked at something dark in front of him. But what had seemed to him a +forest was only a bush. They passed the bush and drove on for another +hundred yards but there was no fourth way-mark nor any forest. + +'We must reach the forest soon,' thought Vasili Andreevich, and animated +by the vodka and the tea he did not stop but shook the reins, and the +good obedient horse responded, now ambling, now slowly trotting in the +direction in which he was sent, though he knew that he was not going the +right way. Ten minutes went by, but there was still no forest. + +'There now, we must be astray again,' said Vasili Andreevich, pulling +up. + +Nikita silently got out of the sledge and holding his coat, which the +wind now wrapped closely about him and now almost tore off, started to +feel about in the snow, going first to one side and then to the other. +Three or four times he was completely lost to sight. At last he returned +and took the reins from Vasili Andreevich's hand. + +'We must go to the right,' he said sternly and peremptorily, as he +turned the horse. + +'Well, if it's to the right, go to the right,' said Vasili Andreevich, +yielding up the reins to Nikita and thrusting his freezing hands into +his sleeves. + +Nikita did not reply. + +'Now then, friend, stir yourself!' he shouted to the horse, but in spite +of the shake of the reins Mukhorty moved only at a walk. + +The snow in places was up to his knees, and the sledge moved by fits and +starts with his every movement. + +Nikita took the whip that hung over the front of the sledge and struck +him once. The good horse, unused to the whip, sprang forward and moved +at a trot, but immediately fell back into an amble and then to a walk. +So they went on for five minutes. It was dark and the snow whirled from +above and rose from below, so that sometimes the shaft-bow could not +be seen. At times the sledge seemed to stand still and the field to +run backwards. Suddenly the horse stopped abruptly, evidently aware +of something close in front of him. Nikita again sprang lightly out, +throwing down the reins, and went ahead to see what had brought him to +a standstill, but hardly had he made a step in front of the horse before +his feet slipped and he went rolling down an incline. + +'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' he said to himself as he fell, and he tried to stop +his fall but could not, and only stopped when his feet plunged into a +thick layer of snow that had drifted to the bottom of the hollow. + +The fringe of a drift of snow that hung on the edge of the hollow, +disturbed by Nikita's fall, showered down on him and got inside his +collar. + +'What a thing to do!' said Nikita reproachfully, addressing the drift +and the hollow and shaking the snow from under his collar. + +'Nikita! Hey, Nikita!' shouted Vasili Andreevich from above. + +But Nikita did not reply. He was too occupied in shaking out the snow +and searching for the whip he had dropped when rolling down the incline. +Having found the whip he tried to climb straight up the bank where he +had rolled down, but it was impossible to do so: he kept rolling down +again, and so he had to go along at the foot of the hollow to find a way +up. About seven yards farther on he managed with difficulty to crawl up +the incline on all fours, then he followed the edge of the hollow back +to the place where the horse should have been. He could not see either +horse or sledge, but as he walked against the wind he heard Vasili +Andreevich's shouts and Mukhorty's neighing, calling him. + +'I'm coming! I'm coming! What are you cackling for?' he muttered. + +Only when he had come up to the sledge could he make out the horse, and +Vasili Andreevich standing beside it and looking gigantic. + +'Where the devil did you vanish to? We must go back, if only to +Grishkino,' he began reproaching Nikita. + +'I'd be glad to get back, Vasili Andreevich, but which way are we to go? +There is such a ravine here that if we once get in it we shan't get out +again. I got stuck so fast there myself that I could hardly get out.' + +'What shall we do, then? We can't stay here! We must go somewhere!' said +Vasili Andreevich. + +Nikita said nothing. He seated himself in the sledge with his back to +the wind, took off his boots, shook out the snow that had got into them, +and taking some straw from the bottom of the sledge, carefully plugged +with it a hole in his left boot. + +Vasili Andreevich remained silent, as though now leaving everything to +Nikita. Having put his boots on again, Nikita drew his feet into the +sledge, put on his mittens and took up the reins, and directed the horse +along the side of the ravine. But they had not gone a hundred yards +before the horse again stopped short. The ravine was in front of him +again. + +Nikita again climbed out and again trudged about in the snow. He did +this for a considerable time and at last appeared from the opposite side +to that from which he had started. + +'Vasili Andreevich, are you alive?' he called out. + +'Here!' replied Vasili Andreevich. 'Well, what now?' + +'I can't make anything out. It's too dark. There's nothing but ravines. +We must drive against the wind again.' + +They set off once more. Again Nikita went stumbling through the snow, +again he fell in, again climbed out and trudged about, and at last quite +out of breath he sat down beside the sledge. + +'Well, how now?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Why, I am quite worn out and the horse won't go.' + +'Then what's to be done?' + +'Why, wait a minute.' + +Nikita went away again but soon returned. + +'Follow me!' he said, going in front of the horse. + +Vasili Andreevich no longer gave orders but implicitly did what Nikita +told him. + +'Here, follow me!' Nikita shouted, stepping quickly to the right, and +seizing the rein he led Mukhorty down towards a snow-drift. + +At first the horse held back, then he jerked forward, hoping to leap the +drift, but he had not the strength and sank into it up to his collar. + +'Get out!' Nikita called to Vasili Andreevich who still sat in the +sledge, and taking hold of one shaft he moved the sledge closer to +the horse. 'It's hard, brother!' he said to Mukhorty, 'but it can't be +helped. Make an effort! Now, now, just a little one!' he shouted. + +The horse gave a tug, then another, but failed to clear himself and +settled down again as if considering something. + +'Now, brother, this won't do!' Nikita admonished him. 'Now once more!' + +Again Nikita tugged at the shaft on his side, and Vasili Andreevich did +the same on the other. + +Mukhorty lifted his head and then gave a sudden jerk. + +'That's it! That's it!' cried Nikita. 'Don't be afraid--you won't sink!' + +One plunge, another, and a third, and at last Mukhorty was out of the +snow-drift, and stood still, breathing heavily and shaking the snow off +himself. Nikita wished to lead him farther, but Vasili Andreevich, in +his two fur coats, was so out of breath that he could not walk farther +and dropped into the sledge. + +'Let me get my breath!' he said, unfastening the kerchief with which he +had tied the collar of his fur coat at the village. + +'It's all right here. You lie there,' said Nikita. 'I will lead him +along.' And with Vasili Andreevich in the sledge he led the horse by the +bridle about ten paces down and then up a slight rise, and stopped. + +The place where Nikita had stopped was not completely in the hollow +where the snow sweeping down from the hillocks might have buried them +altogether, but still it was partly sheltered from the wind by the +side of the ravine. There were moments when the wind seemed to abate a +little, but that did not last long and as if to make up for that respite +the storm swept down with tenfold vigour and tore and whirled the more +fiercely. Such a gust struck them at the moment when Vasili Andreevich, +having recovered his breath, got out of the sledge and went up to +Nikita to consult him as to what they should do. They both bent down +involuntarily and waited till the violence of the squall should +have passed. Mukhorty too laid back his ears and shook his head +discontentedly. As soon as the violence of the blast had abated a +little, Nikita took off his mittens, stuck them into his belt, breathed +onto his hands, and began to undo the straps of the shaft-bow. + +'What's that you are doing there?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Unharnessing. What else is there to do? I have no strength left,' said +Nikita as though excusing himself. + +'Can't we drive somewhere?' + +'No, we can't. We shall only kill the horse. Why, the poor beast is not +himself now,' said Nikita, pointing to the horse, which was standing +submissively waiting for what might come, with his steep wet sides +heaving heavily. 'We shall have to stay the night here,' he said, as if +preparing to spend the night at an inn, and he proceeded to unfasten the +collar-straps. The buckles came undone. + +'But shan't we be frozen?' remarked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Well, if we are we can't help it,' said Nikita. + + + + +VI + + +Although Vasili Andreevich felt quite warm in his two fur coats, +especially after struggling in the snow-drift, a cold shiver ran down +his back on realizing that he must really spend the night where +they were. To calm himself he sat down in the sledge and got out his +cigarettes and matches. + +Nikita meanwhile unharnessed Mukhorty. He unstrapped the belly-band +and the back-band, took away the reins, loosened the collar-strap, and +removed the shaft-bow, talking to him all the time to encourage him. + +'Now come out! come out!' he said, leading him clear of the shafts. 'Now +we'll tie you up here and I'll put down some straw and take off your +bridle. When you've had a bite you'll feel more cheerful.' + +But Mukhorty was restless and evidently not comforted by Nikita's +remarks. He stepped now on one foot and now on another, and pressed +close against the sledge, turning his back to the wind and rubbing his +head on Nikita's sleeve. Then, as if not to pain Nikita by refusing his +offer of the straw he put before him, he hurriedly snatched a wisp out +of the sledge, but immediately decided that it was now no time to think +of straw and threw it down, and the wind instantly scattered it, carried +it away, and covered it with snow. + +'Now we will set up a signal,' said Nikita, and turning the front of the +sledge to the wind he tied the shafts together with a strap and set them +up on end in front of the sledge. 'There now, when the snow covers us +up, good folk will see the shafts and dig us out,' he said, slapping his +mittens together and putting them on. 'That's what the old folk taught +us!' + +Vasili Andreevich meanwhile had unfastened his coat, and holding its +skirts up for shelter, struck one sulphur match after another on the +steel box. But his hands trembled, and one match after another either +did not kindle or was blown out by the wind just as he was lifting it to +the cigarette. At last a match did burn up, and its flame lit up for +a moment the fur of his coat, his hand with the gold ring on the bent +forefinger, and the snow-sprinkled oat-straw that stuck out from under +the drugget. The cigarette lighted, he eagerly took a whiff or two, +inhaled the smoke, let it out through his moustache, and would have +inhaled again, but the wind tore off the burning tobacco and whirled it +away as it had done the straw. + +But even these few puffs had cheered him. + +'If we must spend the night here, we must!' he said with decision. 'Wait +a bit, I'll arrange a flag as well,' he added, picking up the kerchief +which he had thrown down in the sledge after taking it from round his +collar, and drawing off his gloves and standing up on the front of +the sledge and stretching himself to reach the strap, he tied the +handkerchief to it with a tight knot. + +The kerchief immediately began to flutter wildly, now clinging round the +shaft, now suddenly streaming out, stretching and flapping. + +'Just see what a fine flag!' said Vasili Andreevich, admiring his +handiwork and letting himself down into the sledge. 'We should be warmer +together, but there's not room enough for two,' he added. + +'I'll find a place,' said Nikita. 'But I must cover up the horse +first--he sweated so, poor thing. Let go!' he added, drawing the drugget +from under Vasili Andreevich. + +Having got the drugget he folded it in two, and after taking off the +breechband and pad, covered Mukhorty with it. + +'Anyhow it will be warmer, silly!' he said, putting back the breechband +and the pad on the horse over the drugget. Then having finished that +business he returned to the sledge, and addressing Vasili Andreevich, +said: 'You won't need the sackcloth, will you? And let me have some +straw.' + +And having taken these things from under Vasili Andreevich, Nikita went +behind the sledge, dug out a hole for himself in the snow, put straw +into it, wrapped his coat well round him, covered himself with the +sackcloth, and pulling his cap well down seated himself on the straw he +had spread, and leant against the wooden back of the sledge to shelter +himself from the wind and the snow. + +Vasili Andreevich shook his head disapprovingly at what Nikita was +doing, as in general he disapproved of the peasant's stupidity and lack +of education, and he began to settle himself down for the night. + +He smoothed the remaining straw over the bottom of the sledge, putting +more of it under his side. Then he thrust his hands into his sleeves and +settled down, sheltering his head in the corner of the sledge from the +wind in front. + +He did not wish to sleep. He lay and thought: thought ever of the one +thing that constituted the sole aim, meaning, pleasure, and pride of his +life--of how much money he had made and might still make, of how much +other people he knew had made and possessed, and of how those others had +made and were making it, and how he, like them, might still make much +more. The purchase of the Goryachkin grove was a matter of immense +importance to him. By that one deal he hoped to make perhaps ten +thousand rubles. He began mentally to reckon the value of the wood he +had inspected in autumn, and on five acres of which he had counted all +the trees. + +'The oaks will go for sledge-runners. The undergrowth will take care of +itself, and there'll still be some thirty sazheens of fire-wood left on +each desyatin,' said he to himself. 'That means there will be at +least two hundred and twenty-five rubles' worth left on each desyatin. +Fifty-six desyatiins means fifty-six hundreds, and fifty-six hundreds, +and fifty-six tens, and another fifty-six tens, and then fifty-six +fives....' He saw that it came out to more than twelve thousand +rubles, but could not reckon it up exactly without a counting-frame. +'But I won't give ten thousand, anyhow. I'll give about eight thousand +with a deduction on account of the glades. I'll grease the surveyor's +palm--give him a hundred rubles, or a hundred and fifty, and he'll +reckon that there are some five desyatins of glade to be deducted. And +he'll let it go for eight thousand. Three thousand cash down. That'll +move him, no fear!' he thought, and he pressed his pocket-book with his +forearm. + +'God only knows how we missed the turning. The forest ought to be there, +and a watchman's hut, and dogs barking. But the damned things don't +bark when they're wanted.' He turned his collar down from his ear and +listened, but as before only the whistling of the wind could be heard, +the flapping and fluttering of the kerchief tied to the shafts, and the +pelting of the snow against the woodwork of the sledge. He again covered +up his ear. + +'If I had known I would have stayed the night. Well, no matter, we'll +get there to-morrow. It's only one day lost. And the others won't travel +in such weather.' Then he remembered that on the 9th he had to receive +payment from the butcher for his oxen. 'He meant to come himself, but +he won't find me, and my wife won't know how to receive the money. She +doesn't know the right way of doing things,' he thought, recalling +how at their party the day before she had not known how to treat the +police-officer who was their guest. 'Of course she's only a woman! Where +could she have seen anything? In my father's time what was our house +like? Just a rich peasant's house: just an oatmill and an inn--that was +the whole property. But what have I done in these fifteen years? A shop, +two taverns, a flour-mill, a grain-store, two farms leased out, and a +house with an iron-roofed barn,' he thought proudly. 'Not as it was in +Father's time! Who is talked of in the whole district now? Brekhunov! +And why? Because I stick to business. I take trouble, not like others +who lie abed or waste their time on foolishness while I don't sleep of +nights. Blizzard or no blizzard I start out. So business gets done. They +think money-making is a joke. No, take pains and rack your brains! You +get overtaken out of doors at night, like this, or keep awake night +after night till the thoughts whirling in your head make the pillow +turn,' he meditated with pride. 'They think people get on through luck. +After all, the Mironovs are now millionaires. And why? Take pains and +God gives. If only He grants me health!' + +The thought that he might himself be a millionaire like Mironov, who +began with nothing, so excited Vasili Andreevich that he felt the need +of talking to somebody. But there was no one to talk to.... If only +he could have reached Goryachkin he would have talked to the landlord +and shown him a thing or two. + +'Just see how it blows! It will snow us up so deep that we shan't be +able to get out in the morning!' he thought, listening to a gust of wind +that blew against the front of the sledge, bending it and lashing the +snow against it. He raised himself and looked round. All he could see +through the whirling darkness was Mukhorty's dark head, his back covered +by the fluttering drugget, and his thick knotted tail; while all round, +in front and behind, was the same fluctuating whity darkness, sometimes +seeming to get a little lighter and sometimes growing denser still. + +'A pity I listened to Nikita,' he thought. 'We ought to have driven on. +We should have come out somewhere, if only back to Grishkino and stayed +the night at Taras's. As it is we must sit here all night. But what was +I thinking about? Yes, that God gives to those who take trouble, but not +to loafers, lie-abeds, or fools. I must have a smoke!' + +He sat down again, got out his cigarette-case, and stretched himself +flat on his stomach, screening the matches with the skirt of his coat. +But the wind found its way in and put out match after match. At last +he got one to burn and lit a cigarette. He was very glad that he had +managed to do what he wanted, and though the wind smoked more of the +cigarette than he did, he still got two or three puffs and felt more +cheerful. He again leant back, wrapped himself up, started reflecting +and remembering, and suddenly and quite unexpectedly lost consciousness +and fell asleep. + +Suddenly something seemed to give him a push and awoke him. Whether +it was Mukhorty who had pulled some straw from under him, or whether +something within him had startled him, at all events it woke him, and +his heart began to beat faster and faster so that the sledge seemed to +tremble under him. He opened his eyes. Everything around him was just +as before. 'It looks lighter,' he thought. 'I expect it won't be long +before dawn.' But he at once remembered that it was lighter because the +moon had risen. He sat up and looked first at the horse. Mukhorty still +stood with his back to the wind, shivering all over. One side of the +drugget, which was completely covered with snow, had been blown back, +the breeching had slipped down and the snow-covered head with its waving +forelock and mane were now more visible. Vasili Andreevich leant over +the back of the sledge and looked behind. Nikita still sat in the same +position in which he had settled himself. The sacking with which he was +covered, and his legs, were thickly covered with snow. + +'If only that peasant doesn't freeze to death! His clothes are so +wretched. I may be held responsible for him. What shiftless people they +are--such a want of education,' thought Vasili Andreevich, and he felt +like taking the drugget off the horse and putting it over Nikita, but +it would be very cold to get out and move about and, moreover, the horse +might freeze to death. 'Why did I bring him with me? It was all her +stupidity!' he thought, recalling his unloved wife, and he rolled over +into his old place at the front part of the sledge. 'My uncle once spent +a whole night like this,' he reflected, 'and was all right.' But another +case came at once to his mind. 'But when they dug Sebastian out he was +dead--stiff like a frozen carcass. If I'd only stopped the night in +Grishkino all this would not have happened!' + +And wrapping his coat carefully round him so that none of the warmth of +the fur should be wasted but should warm him all over, neck, knees, and +feet, he shut his eyes and tried to sleep again. But try as he would he +could not get drowsy, on the contrary he felt wide awake and animated. +Again he began counting his gains and the debts due to him, again he +began bragging to himself and feeling pleased with himself and his +position, but all this was continually disturbed by a stealthily +approaching fear and by the unpleasant regret that he had not remained +in Grishkino. + +'How different it would be to be lying warm on a bench!' + +He turned over several times in his attempts to get into a more +comfortable position more sheltered from the wind, he wrapped up his +legs closer, shut his eyes, and lay still. But either his legs in their +strong felt boots began to ache from being bent in one position, or the +wind blew in somewhere, and after lying still for a short time he again +began to recall the disturbing fact that he might now have been lying +quietly in the warm hut at Grishkino. He again sat up, turned about, +muffled himself up, and settled down once more. + +Once he fancied that he heard a distant cock-crow. He felt glad, turned +down his coat-collar and listened with strained attention, but in spite +of all his efforts nothing could be heard but the wind whistling between +the shafts, the flapping of the kerchief, and the snow pelting against +the frame of the sledge. + +Nikita sat just as he had done all the time, not moving and not even +answering Vasili Andreevich who had addressed him a couple of times. +'He doesn't care a bit--he's probably asleep!' thought Vasili Andreevich +with vexation, looking behind the sledge at Nikita who was covered with +a thick layer of snow. + +Vasili Andreevich got up and lay down again some twenty times. It +seemed to him that the night would never end. 'It must be getting near +morning,' he thought, getting up and looking around. 'Let's have a look +at my watch. It will be cold to unbutton, but if I only know that it's +getting near morning I shall at any rate feel more cheerful. We could +begin harnessing.' + +In the depth of his heart Vasili Andreevich knew that it could not yet +be near morning, but he was growing more and more afraid, and wished +both to get to know and yet to deceive himself. He carefully undid the +fastening of his sheepskin, pushed in his hand, and felt about for +a long time before he got to his waistcoat. With great difficulty he +managed to draw out his silver watch with its enamelled flower design, +and tried to make out the time. He could not see anything without a +light. Again he went down on his knees and elbows as he had done when he +lighted a cigarette, got out his matches, and proceeded to strike one. +This time he went to work more carefully, and feeling with his fingers +for a match with the largest head and the greatest amount of phosphorus, +lit it at the first try. Bringing the face of the watch under the light +he could hardly believe his eyes.... It was only ten minutes past +twelve. Almost the whole night was still before him. + +'Oh, how long the night is!' he thought, feeling a cold shudder run down +his back, and having fastened his fur coats again and wrapped himself +up, he snuggled into a corner of the sledge intending to wait +patiently. Suddenly, above the monotonous roar of the wind, he clearly +distinguished another new and living sound. It steadily strengthened, +and having become quite clear diminished just as gradually. Beyond all +doubt it was a wolf, and he was so near that the movement of his jaws as +he changed his cry was brought down the wind. Vasili Andreevich turned +back the collar of his coat and listened attentively. Mukhorty too +strained to listen, moving his ears, and when the wolf had ceased its +howling he shifted from foot to foot and gave a warning snort. After +this Vasili Andreevich could not fall asleep again or even calm +himself. The more he tried to think of his accounts, his business, his +reputation, his worth and his wealth, the more and more was he mastered +by fear, and regrets that he had not stayed the night at Grishkino +dominated and mingled in all his thoughts. + +'Devil take the forest! Things were all right without it, thank God. Ah, +if we had only put up for the night!' he said to himself. 'They say it's +drunkards that freeze,' he thought, 'and I have had some drink.' And +observing his sensations he noticed that he was beginning to shiver, +without knowing whether it was from cold or from fear. He tried to wrap +himself up and lie down as before, but could no longer do so. He could +not stay in one position. He wanted to get up, to do something to master +the gathering fear that was rising in him and against which he felt +himself powerless. He again got out his cigarettes and matches, but only +three matches were left and they were bad ones. The phosphorus rubbed +off them all without lighting. + +'The devil take you! Damned thing! Curse you!' he muttered, not knowing +whom or what he was cursing, and he flung away the crushed cigarette. +He was about to throw away the matchbox too, but checked the movement of +his hand and put the box in his pocket instead. He was seized with such +unrest that he could no longer remain in one spot. He climbed out of the +sledge and standing with his back to the wind began to shift his belt +again, fastening it lower down in the waist and tightening it. + +'What's the use of lying and waiting for death? Better mount the horse +and get away!' The thought suddenly occurred to him. 'The horse will +move when he has someone on his back. As for him,' he thought of +Nikita--'it's all the same to him whether he lives or dies. What is his +life worth? He won't grudge his life, but I have something to live for, +thank God.' + +He untied the horse, threw the reins over his neck and tried to mount, +but his coats and boots were so heavy that he failed. Then he clambered +up in the sledge and tried to mount from there, but the sledge tilted +under his weight, and he failed again. At last he drew Mukhorty nearer +to the sledge, cautiously balanced on one side of it, and managed to +lie on his stomach across the horse's back. After lying like that for a +while he shifted forward once and again, threw a leg over, and finally +seated himself, supporting his feet on the loose breeching-straps. The +shaking of the sledge awoke Nikita. He raised himself, and it seemed to +Vasili Andreevich that he said something. + +'Listen to such fools as you! Am I to die like this for nothing?' +exclaimed Vasili Andreevich. And tucking the loose skirts of his fur +coat in under his knees, he turned the horse and rode away from +the sledge in the direction in which he thought the forest and the +forester's hut must be. + + + + +VII + +From the time he had covered himself with the sackcloth and seated +himself behind the sledge, Nikita had not stirred. Like all those who +live in touch with nature and have known want, he was patient and could +wait for hours, even days, without growing restless or irritable. He +heard his master call him, but did not answer because he did not want to +move or talk. Though he still felt some warmth from the tea he had drunk +and from his energetic struggle when clambering about in the snowdrift, +he knew that this warmth would not last long and that he had no strength +left to warm himself again by moving about, for he felt as tired as a +horse when it stops and refuses to go further in spite of the whip, and +its master sees that it must be fed before it can work again. The foot +in the boot with a hole in it had already grown numb, and he could no +longer feel his big toe. Besides that, his whole body began to feel +colder and colder. + +The thought that he might, and very probably would, die that night +occurred to him, but did not seem particularly unpleasant or dreadful. +It did not seem particularly unpleasant, because his whole life had been +not a continual holiday, but on the contrary an unceasing round of +toil of which he was beginning to feel weary. And it did not seem +particularly dreadful, because besides the masters he had served here, +like Vasili Andreevich, he always felt himself dependent on the Chief +Master, who had sent him into this life, and he knew that when dying he +would still be in that Master's power and would not be ill-used by Him. +'It seems a pity to give up what one is used to and accustomed to. But +there's nothing to be done, I shall get used to the new things.' + +'Sins?' he thought, and remembered his drunkenness, the money that had +gone on drink, how he had offended his wife, his cursing, his neglect of +church and of the fasts, and all the things the priest blamed him for +at confession. 'Of course they are sins. But then, did I take them on of +myself? That's evidently how God made me. Well, and the sins? Where am I +to escape to?' + +So at first he thought of what might happen to him that night, and +then did not return to such thoughts but gave himself up to whatever +recollections came into his head of themselves. Now he thought of +Martha's arrival, of the drunkenness among the workers and his own +renunciation of drink, then of their present journey and of Taras's +house and the talk about the breaking-up of the family, then of his own +lad, and of Mukhorty now sheltered under the drugget, and then of his +master who made the sledge creak as he tossed about in it. 'I expect +you're sorry yourself that you started out, dear man,' he thought. 'It +would seem hard to leave a life such as his! It's not like the likes of +us.' + +Then all these recollections began to grow confused and got mixed in his +head, and he fell asleep. + +But when Vasili Andreevich, getting on the horse, jerked the sledge, +against the back of which Nikita was leaning, and it shifted away and +hit him in the back with one of its runners, he awoke and had to change +his position whether he liked it or not. Straightening his legs with +difficulty and shaking the snow off them he got up, and an agonizing +cold immediately penetrated his whole body. On making out what was +happening he called to Vasili Andreevich to leave him the drugget which +the horse no longer needed, so that he might wrap himself in it. + +But Vasili Andreevich did not stop, but disappeared amid the powdery +snow. + +Left alone Nikita considered for a moment what he should do. He felt +that he had not the strength to go off in search of a house. It was no +longer possible to sit down in his old place--it was by now all filled +with snow. He felt that he could not get warmer in the sledge either, +for there was nothing to cover himself with, and his coat and sheepskin +no longer warmed him at all. He felt as cold as though he had nothing on +but a shirt. He became frightened. 'Lord, heavenly Father!' he muttered, +and was comforted by the consciousness that he was not alone but that +there was One who heard him and would not abandon him. He gave a deep +sigh, and keeping the sackcloth over his head he got inside the sledge +and lay down in the place where his master had been. + +But he could not get warm in the sledge either. At first he shivered all +over, then the shivering ceased and little by little he began to lose +consciousness. He did not know whether he was dying or falling asleep, +but felt equally prepared for the one as for the other. + + + + +VIII + +Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich, with his feet and the ends of the reins, +urged the horse on in the direction in which for some reason he expected +the forest and forester's hut to be. The snow covered his eyes and the +wind seemed intent on stopping him, but bending forward and constantly +lapping his coat over and pushing it between himself and the cold +harness pad which prevented him from sitting properly, he kept urging +the horse on. Mukhorty ambled on obediently though with difficulty, in +the direction in which he was driven. + +Vasili Andreevich rode for about five minutes straight ahead, as he +thought, seeing nothing but the horse's head and the white waste, and +hearing only the whistle of the wind about the horse's ears and his coat +collar. + +Suddenly a dark patch showed up in front of him. His heart beat with +joy, and he rode towards the object, already seeing in imagination the +walls of village houses. But the dark patch was not stationary, it +kept moving; and it was not a village but some tall stalks of wormwood +sticking up through the snow on the boundary between two fields, and +desperately tossing about under the pressure of the wind which beat +it all to one side and whistled through it. The sight of that wormwood +tormented by the pitiless wind made Vasili Andreevich shudder, he knew +not why, and he hurriedly began urging the horse on, not noticing that +when riding up to the wormwood he had quite changed his direction and +was now heading the opposite way, though still imagining that he was +riding towards where the hut should be. But the horse kept making +towards the right, and Vasili Andreevich kept guiding it to the left. + +Again something dark appeared in front of him. Again he rejoiced, +convinced that now it was certainly a village. But once more it was the +same boundary line overgrown with wormwood, once more the same wormwood +desperately tossed by the wind and carrying unreasoning terror to his +heart. But its being the same wormwood was not all, for beside it +there was a horse's track partly snowed over. Vasili Andreevich stopped, +stooped down and looked carefully. It was a horse-track only partially +covered with snow, and could be none but his own horse's hoofprints. He +had evidently gone round in a small circle. 'I shall perish like that!' +he thought, and not to give way to his terror he urged on the horse +still more, peering into the snowy darkness in which he saw only +flitting and fitful points of light. Once he thought he heard the +barking of dogs or the howling of wolves, but the sounds were so faint +and indistinct that he did not know whether he heard them or merely +imagined them, and he stopped and began to listen intently. + +Suddenly some terrible, deafening cry resounded near his ears, and +everything shivered and shook under him. He seized Mukhorty's neck, +but that too was shaking all over and the terrible cry grew still more +frightful. For some seconds Vasili Andreevich could not collect himself +or understand what was happening. It was only that Mukhorty, whether +to encourage himself or to call for help, had neighed loudly and +resonantly. 'Ugh, you wretch! How you frightened me, damn you!' thought +Vasili Andreevich. But even when he understood the cause of his terror +he could not shake it off. + +'I must calm myself and think things over,' he said to himself, but yet +he could not stop, and continued to urge the horse on, without noticing +that he was now going with the wind instead of against it. His body, +especially between his legs where it touched the pad of the harness and +was not covered by his overcoats, was getting painfully cold, especially +when the horse walked slowly. His legs and arms trembled and his +breathing came fast. He saw himself perishing amid this dreadful snowy +waste, and could see no means of escape. + +Suddenly the horse under him tumbled into something and, sinking into +a snow-drift, began to plunge and fell on his side. Vasili Andreevich +jumped off, and in so doing dragged to one side the breechband on which +his foot was resting, and twisted round the pad to which he held as he +dismounted. As soon as he had jumped off, the horse struggled to his +feet, plunged forward, gave one leap and another, neighed again, and +dragging the drugget and the breechband after him, disappeared, leaving +Vasili Andreevich alone on the snow-drift. + +The latter pressed on after the horse, but the snow lay so deep and +his coats were so heavy that, sinking above his knees at each step, he +stopped breathless after taking not more than twenty steps. 'The copse, +the oxen, the lease-hold, the shop, the tavern, the house with the +iron-roofed barn, and my heir,' thought he. 'How can I leave all that? +What does this mean? It cannot be!' These thoughts flashed through his +mind. Then he thought of the wormwood tossed by the wind, which he had +twice ridden past, and he was seized with such terror that he did not +believe in the reality of what was happening to him. 'Can this be a +dream?' he thought, and tried to wake up but could not. It was real snow +that lashed his face and covered him and chilled his right hand from +which he had lost the glove, and this was a real desert in which he was +now left alone like that wormwood, awaiting an inevitable, speedy, and +meaningless death. + +'Queen of Heaven! Holy Father Nicholas, teacher of temperance!' he +thought, recalling the service of the day before and the holy icon with +its black face and gilt frame, and the tapers which he sold to be set +before that icon and which were almost immediately brought back to him +scarcely burnt at all, and which he put away in the store-chest. He +began to pray to that same Nicholas the Wonder-Worker to save him, +promising him a thanksgiving service and some candles. But he clearly +and indubitably realized that the icon, its frame, the candles, +the priest, and the thanksgiving service, though very important and +necessary in church, could do nothing for him here, and that there was +and could be no connexion between those candles and services and his +present disastrous plight. 'I must not despair,' he thought. 'I must +follow the horse's track before it is snowed under. He will lead me out, +or I may even catch him. Only I must not hurry, or I shall stick fast +and be more lost than ever.' + +But in spite of his resolution to go quietly, he rushed forward and +even ran, continually falling, getting up and falling again. The horse's +track was already hardly visible in places where the snow did not lie +deep. 'I am lost!' thought Vasili Andreevich. 'I shall lose the track +and not catch the horse.' But at that moment he saw something black. It +was Mukhorty, and not only Mukhorty, but the sledge with the shafts +and the kerchief. Mukhorty, with the sacking and the breechband twisted +round to one side, was standing not in his former place but nearer to +the shafts, shaking his head which the reins he was stepping on drew +downwards. It turned out that Vasili Andreevich had sunk in the same +ravine Nikita had previously fallen into, and that Mukhorty had been +bringing him back to the sledge and he had got off his back no more than +fifty paces from where the sledge was. + + + + +IX + +Having stumbled back to the sledge Vasili Andreevich caught hold of it +and for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm himself and recover +his breath. Nikita was not in his former place, but something, already +covered with snow, was lying in the sledge and Vasili Andreevich +concluded that this was Nikita. His terror had now quite left him, and +if he felt any fear it was lest the dreadful terror should return that +he had experienced when on the horse and especially when he was left +alone in the snow-drift. At any cost he had to avoid that terror, and +to keep it away he must do something--occupy himself with something. And +the first thing he did was to turn his back to the wind and open his fur +coat. Then, as soon as he recovered his breath a little, he shook the +snow out of his boots and out of his left-hand glove (the right-hand +glove was hopelessly lost and by this time probably lying somewhere +under a dozen inches of snow); then as was his custom when going out of +his shop to buy grain from the peasants, he pulled his girdle low down +and tightened it and prepared for action. The first thing that occurred +to him was to free Mukhorty's leg from the rein. Having done that, and +tethered him to the iron cramp at the front of the sledge where he +had been before, he was going round the horse's quarters to put the +breechband and pad straight and cover him with the cloth, but at that +moment he noticed that something was moving in the sledge and Nikita's +head rose up out of the snow that covered it. Nikita, who was half +frozen, rose with great difficulty and sat up, moving his hand before +his nose in a strange manner just as if he were driving away flies. He +waved his hand and said something, and seemed to Vasili Andreevich to be +calling him. Vasili Andreevich left the cloth unadjusted and went up to +the sledge. + +'What is it?' he asked. 'What are you saying?' + +'I'm dy... ing, that's what,' said Nikita brokenly and with +difficulty. 'Give what is owing to me to my lad, or to my wife, no +matter.' + +'Why, are you really frozen?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'I feel it's my death. Forgive me for Christ's sake...' said Nikita +in a tearful voice, continuing to wave his hand before his face as if +driving away flies. + +Vasili Andreevich stood silent and motionless for half a minute. Then +suddenly, with the same resolution with which he used to strike hands +when making a good purchase, he took a step back and turning up his +sleeves began raking the snow off Nikita and out of the sledge. Having +done this he hurriedly undid his girdle, opened out his fur coat, and +having pushed Nikita down, lay down on top of him, covering him not +only with his fur coat but with the whole of his body, which glowed +with warmth. After pushing the skirts of his coat between Nikita and +the sides of the sledge, and holding down its hem with his knees, Vasili +Andreevich lay like that face down, with his head pressed against the +front of the sledge. Here he no longer heard the horse's movements or +the whistling of the wind, but only Nikita's breathing. At first and for +a long time Nikita lay motionless, then he sighed deeply and moved. + +'There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm, that's our +way...' began Vasili Andreevich. + +But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came to his +eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He stopped speaking +and only gulped down the risings in his throat. 'Seems I was badly +frightened and have gone quite weak,' he thought. But this weakness was +not only unpleasant, but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never +felt before. + +'That's our way!' he said to himself, experiencing a strange and solemn +tenderness. He lay like that for a long time, wiping his eyes on the fur +of his coat and tucking under his knee the right skirt, which the wind +kept turning up. + +But he longed so passionately to tell somebody of his joyful condition +that he said: 'Nikita!' + +'It's comfortable, warm!' came a voice from beneath. + +'There, you see, friend, I was going to perish. And you would have been +frozen, and I should have...' + +But again his jaws began to quiver and his eyes to fill with tears, and +he could say no more. + +'Well, never mind,' he thought. 'I know about myself what I know.' + +He remained silent and lay like that for a long time. + +Nikita kept him warm from below and his fur coats from above. Only his +hands, with which he kept his coat-skirts down round Nikita's sides, and +his legs which the wind kept uncovering, began to freeze, especially his +right hand which had no glove. But he did not think of his legs or of +his hands but only of how to warm the peasant who was lying under him. +He looked out several times at Mukhorty and could see that his back was +uncovered and the drugget and breeching lying on the snow, and that he +ought to get up and cover him, but he could not bring himself to leave +Nikita and disturb even for a moment the joyous condition he was in. He +no longer felt any kind of terror. + +'No fear, we shan't lose him this time!' he said to himself, referring +to his getting the peasant warm with the same boastfulness with which he +spoke of his buying and selling. + +Vasili Andreevich lay in that way for one hour, another, and a third, +but he was unconscious of the passage of time. At first impressions +of the snow-storm, the sledge-shafts, and the horse with the shaft-bow +shaking before his eyes, kept passing through his mind, then he +remembered Nikita lying under him, then recollections of the festival, +his wife, the police-officer, and the box of candles, began to mingle +with these; then again Nikita, this time lying under that box, then the +peasants, customers and traders, and the white walls of his house with +its iron roof with Nikita lying underneath, presented themselves to +his imagination. Afterwards all these impressions blended into one +nothingness. As the colours of the rainbow unite into one white light, +so all these different impressions mingled into one, and he fell asleep. + +For a long time he slept without dreaming, but just before dawn the +visions recommenced. It seemed to him that he was standing by the box of +tapers and that Tikhon's wife was asking for a five kopek taper for the +Church fete. He wished to take one out and give it to her, but his hands +would not lift, being held tight in his pockets. He wanted to walk round +the box but his feet would not move and his new clean goloshes had grown +to the stone floor, and he could neither lift them nor get his feet out +of the goloshes. Then the taper-box was no longer a box but a bed, and +suddenly Vasili Andreevich saw himself lying in his bed at home. He was +lying in his bed and could not get up. Yet it was necessary for him to +get up because Ivan Matveich, the police-officer, would soon call for +him and he had to go with him--either to bargain for the forest or to +put Mukhorty's breeching straight. + +He asked his wife: 'Nikolaevna, hasn't he come yet?' 'No, he hasn't,' +she replied. He heard someone drive up to the front steps. 'It must be +him.' 'No, he's gone past.' 'Nikolaevna! I say, Nikolaevna, isn't he +here yet?' 'No.' He was still lying on his bed and could not get up, but +was always waiting. And this waiting was uncanny and yet joyful. Then +suddenly his joy was completed. He whom he was expecting came; not Ivan +Matveich the police-officer, but someone else--yet it was he whom he had +been waiting for. He came and called him; and it was he who had called +him and told him to lie down on Nikita. And Vasili Andreevich was glad +that that one had come for him. + +'I'm coming!' he cried joyfully, and that cry awoke him, but woke him up +not at all the same person he had been when he fell asleep. He tried to +get up but could not, tried to move his arm and could not, to move his +leg and also could not, to turn his head and could not. He was surprised +but not at all disturbed by this. He understood that this was death, and +was not at all disturbed by that either. + +He remembered that Nikita was lying under him and that he had got warm +and was alive, and it seemed to him that he was Nikita and Nikita was +he, and that his life was not in himself but in Nikita. He strained his +ears and heard Nikita breathing and even slightly snoring. 'Nikita is +alive, so I too am alive!' he said to himself triumphantly. + +And he remembered his money, his shop, his house, the buying and +selling, and Mironov's millions, and it was hard for him to understand +why that man, called Vasili Brekhunov, had troubled himself with all +those things with which he had been troubled. + +'Well, it was because he did not know what the real thing was,' he +thought, concerning that Vasili Brekhunov. 'He did not know, but now I +know and know for sure. Now I know!' And again he heard the voice of +the one who had called him before. 'I'm coming! Coming!' he responded +gladly, and his whole being was filled with joyful emotion. He felt +himself free and that nothing could hold him back any longer. + +After that Vasili Andreevich neither saw, heard, nor felt anything more +in this world. + +All around the snow still eddied. The same whirlwinds of snow circled +about, covering the dead Vasili Andreevich's fur coat, the shivering +Mukhorty, the sledge, now scarcely to be seen, and Nikita lying at the +bottom of it, kept warm beneath his dead master. + + + + +X + +Nikita awoke before daybreak. He was aroused by the cold that had begun +to creep down his back. He had dreamt that he was coming from the mill +with a load of his master's flour and when crossing the stream had +missed the bridge and let the cart get stuck. And he saw that he had +crawled under the cart and was trying to lift it by arching his back. +But strange to say the cart did not move, it stuck to his back and he +could neither lift it nor get out from under it. It was crushing the +whole of his loins. And how cold it felt! Evidently he must crawl out. +'Have done!' he exclaimed to whoever was pressing the cart down on him. +'Take out the sacks!' But the cart pressed down colder and colder, +and then he heard a strange knocking, awoke completely, and remembered +everything. The cold cart was his dead and frozen master lying upon him. +And the knock was produced by Mukhorty, who had twice struck the sledge +with his hoof. + +'Andreevich! Eh, Andreevich!' Nikita called cautiously, beginning to +realize the truth, and straightening his back. But Vasili Andreevich did +not answer and his stomach and legs were stiff and cold and heavy like +iron weights. + +'He must have died! May the Kingdom of Heaven be his!' thought Nikita. + +He turned his head, dug with his hand through the snow about him and +opened his eyes. It was daylight; the wind was whistling as before +between the shafts, and the snow was falling in the same way, except +that it was no longer driving against the frame of the sledge but +silently covered both sledge and horse deeper and deeper, and neither +the horse's movements nor his breathing were any longer to be heard. + +'He must have frozen too,' thought Nikita of Mukhorty, and indeed those +hoof knocks against the sledge, which had awakened Nikita, were the last +efforts the already numbed Mukhorty had made to keep on his feet before +dying. + +'O Lord God, it seems Thou art calling me too!' said Nikita. 'Thy Holy +Will be done. But it's uncanny.... Still, a man can't die twice and +must die once. If only it would come soon!' + +And he again drew in his head, closed his eyes, and became unconscious, +fully convinced that now he was certainly and finally dying. + + +It was not till noon that day that peasants dug Vasili Andreevich and +Nikita out of the snow with their shovels, not more than seventy yards +from the road and less than half a mile from the village. + +The snow had hidden the sledge, but the shafts and the kerchief tied to +them were still visible. Mukhorty, buried up to his belly in snow, with +the breeching and drugget hanging down, stood all white, his dead head +pressed against his frozen throat: icicles hung from his nostrils, his +eyes were covered with hoar-frost as though filled with tears, and he +had grown so thin in that one night that he was nothing but skin and +bone. + +Vasili Andreevich was stiff as a frozen carcass, and when they rolled +him off Nikita his legs remained apart and his arms stretched out as +they had been. His bulging hawk eyes were frozen, and his open mouth +under his clipped moustache was full of snow. But Nikita though chilled +through was still alive. When he had been brought to, he felt sure +that he was already dead and that what was taking place with him was +no longer happening in this world but in the next. When he heard the +peasants shouting as they dug him out and rolled the frozen body of +Vasili Andreevich from off him, he was at first surprised that in the +other world peasants should be shouting in the same old way and had the +same kind of body, and then when he realized that he was still in this +world he was sorry rather than glad, especially when he found that the +toes on both his feet were frozen. + +Nikita lay in hospital for two months. They cut off three of his toes, +but the others recovered so that he was still able to work and went on +living for another twenty years, first as a farm-labourer, then in his +old age as a watchman. He died at home as he had wished, only this year, +under the icons with a lighted taper in his hands. Before he died he +asked his wife's forgiveness and forgave her for the cooper. He also +took leave of his son and grandchildren, and died sincerely glad that +he was relieving his son and daughter-in-law of the burden of having to +feed him, and that he was now really passing from this life of which +he was weary into that other life which every year and every hour grew +clearer and more desirable to him. Whether he is better or worse off +there where he awoke after his death, whether he was disappointed or +found there what he expected, we shall all soon learn. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER AND MAN *** + +***** This file should be named 986.txt or 986.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/986/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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There was a fete in the parish and the +innkeeper, Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov, a Second Guild +merchant, being a church elder had to go to church, and had +also to entertain his relatives and friends at home. + +But when the last of them had gone he at once began to prepare +to drive over to see a neighbouring proprietor about a grove +which he had been bargaining over for a long time. He was now +in a hurry to start, lest buyers from the town might forestall +him in making a profitable purchase. + +The youthful landowner was asking ten thousand rubles for the +grove simply because Vasili Andreevich was offering seven +thousand. Seven thousand was, however, only a third of its +real value. Vasili Andreevich might perhaps have got it down +to his own price, for the woods were in his district and he had +a long-standing agreement with the other village dealers that +no one should run up the price in another's district, but he +had now learnt that some timber-dealers from town meant to bid +for the Goryachkin grove, and he resolved to go at once and get +the matter settled. So as soon as the feast was over, he took +seven hundred rubles from his strong box, added to them two +thousand three hundred rubles of church money he had in his +keeping, so as to make up the sum to three thousand; carefully +counted the notes, and having put them into his pocket-book +made haste to start. + +Nikita, the only one of Vasili Andreevich's labourers who was +not drunk that day, ran to harness the horse. Nikita, though +an habitual drunkard, was not drunk that day because since the +last day before the fast, when he had drunk his coat and +leather boots, he had sworn off drink and had kept his vow for +two months, and was still keeping it despite the temptation of +the vodka that had been drunk everywhere during the first two +days of the feast. + +Nikita was a peasant of about fifty from a neighbouring +village, 'not a manager' as the peasants said of him, meaning +that he was not the thrifty head of a household but lived most +of his time away from home as a labourer. He was valued +everywhere for his industry, dexterity, and strength at work, +and still more for his kindly and pleasant temper. But he +never settled down anywhere for long because about twice a +year, or even oftener, he had a drinking bout, and then besides +spending all his clothes on drink he became turbulent and +quarrelsome. Vasili Andreevich himself had turned him away +several times, but had afterwards taken him back again--valuing +his honesty, his kindness to animals, and especially his +cheapness. Vasili Andreevich did not pay Nikita the eighty +rubles a year such a man was worth, but only about forty, which +he gave him haphazard, in small sums, and even that mostly not +in cash but in goods from his own shop and at high prices. + +Nikita's wife Martha, who had once been a handsome vigorous +woman, managed the homestead with the help of her son and two +daughters, and did not urge Nikita to live at home: first +because she had been living for some twenty years already with +a cooper, a peasant from another village who lodged in their +house; and secondly because though she managed her husband as +she pleased when he was sober, she feared him like fire when he +was drunk. Once when he had got drunk at home, Nikita, +probably to make up for his submissiveness when sober, broke +open her box, took out her best clothes, snatched up an axe, +and chopped all her undergarments and dresses to bits. All the +wages Nikita earned went to his wife, and he raised no +objection to that. So now, two days before the holiday, Martha +had been twice to see Vasili Andreevich and had got from him +wheat flour, tea, sugar, and a quart of vodka, the lot costing +three rubles, and also five rubles in cash, for which she +thanked him as for a special favour, though he owed Nikita at +least twenty rubles. + +'What agreement did we ever draw up with you?' said Vasili +Andreevich to Nikita. 'If you need anything, take it; you will +work it off. I'm not like others to keep you waiting, and +making up accounts and reckoning fines. We deal +straight-forwardly. You serve me and I don't neglect you.' + +And when saying this Vasili Andreevich was honestly convinced +that he was Nikita's benefactor, and he knew how to put it so +plausibly that all those who depended on him for their money, +beginning with Nikita, confirmed him in the conviction that he +was their benefactor and did not overreach them. + +'Yes, I understand, Vasili Andreevich. You know that I serve +you and take as much pains as I would for my own father. I +understand very well!' Nikita would reply. He was quite aware +that Vasili Andreevich was cheating him, but at the same time +he felt that it was useless to try to clear up his accounts +with him or explain his side of the matter, and that as long as +he had nowhere to go he must accept what he could get. + +Now, having heard his master's order to harness, he went as +usual cheerfully and willingly to the shed, stepping briskly +and easily on his rather turned-in feet; took down from a nail +the heavy tasselled leather bridle, and jingling the rings of +the bit went to the closed stable where the horse he was to +harness was standing by himself. + +'What, feeling lonely, feeling lonely, little silly?' said +Nikita in answer to the low whinny with which he was greeted by +the good-tempered, medium-sized bay stallion, with a rather +slanting crupper, who stood alone in the shed. 'Now then, now +then, there's time enough. Let me water you first,' he went +on, speaking to the horse just as to someone who understood the +words he was using, and having whisked the dusty, grooved back +of the well-fed young stallion with the skirt of his coat, he +put a bridle on his handsome head, straightened his ears and +forelock, and having taken off his halter led him out to water. + +Picking his way out of the dung-strewn stable, Mukhorty +frisked, and making play with his hind leg pretended that he +meant to kick Nikita, who was running at a trot beside him to +the pump. + +'Now then, now then, you rascal!' Nikita called out, well +knowing how carefully Mukhorty threw out his hind leg just to +touch his greasy sheepskin coat but not to strike him--a trick +Nikita much appreciated. + +After a drink of the cold water the horse sighed, moving his +strong wet lips, from the hairs of which transparent drops fell +into the trough; then standing still as if in thought, he +suddenly gave a loud snort. + +'If you don't want any more, you needn't. But don't go asking +for any later,' said Nikita quite seriously and fully +explaining his conduct to Mukhorty. Then he ran back to the +shed pulling the playful young horse, who wanted to gambol all +over the yard, by the rein. + +There was no one else in the yard except a stranger, the cook's +husband, who had come for the holiday. + +'Go and ask which sledge is to be harnessed--the wide one or +the small one--there's a good fellow!' + +The cook's husband went into the house, which stood on an iron +foundation and was iron-roofed, and soon returned saying that +the little one was to be harnessed. By that time Nikita had +put the collar and brass-studded belly-band on Mukhorty and, +carrying a light, painted shaft-bow in one hand, was leading +the horse with the other up to two sledges that stood in the +shed. + +'All right, let it be the little one!' he said, backing the +intelligent horse, which all the time kept pretending to bite +him, into the shafts, and with the aid of the cook's husband he +proceeded to harness. When everything was nearly ready and +only the reins had to be adjusted, Nikita sent the other man to +the shed for some straw and to the barn for a drugget. + +'There, that's all right! Now, now, don't bristle up!' said +Nikita, pressing down into the sledge the freshly threshed oat +straw the cook's husband had brought. 'And now let's spread +the sacking like this, and the drugget over it. There, like +that it will be comfortable sitting,' he went on, suiting the +action to the words and tucking the drugget all round over the +straw to make a seat. + +'Thank you, dear man. Things always go quicker with two +working at it!' he added. And gathering up the leather reins +fastened together by a brass ring, Nikita took the driver's +seat and started the impatient horse over the frozen manure +which lay in the yard, towards the gate. + +'Uncle Nikita! I say, Uncle, Uncle!' a high-pitched voice +shouted, and a seven-year-old boy in a black sheepskin coat, +new white felt boots, and a warm cap, ran hurriedly out of the +house into the yard. 'Take me with you!' he cried, fastening +up his coat as he ran. + +'All right, come along, darling!' said Nikita, and stopping the +sledge he picked up the master's pale thin little son, radiant +with joy, and drove out into the road. + +It was past two o'clock and the day was windy, dull, and cold, +with more than twenty degrees Fahrenheit of frost. Half the +sky was hidden by a lowering dark cloud. In the yard it was +quiet, but in the street the wind was felt more keenly. The +snow swept down from a neighbouring shed and whirled about in +the corner near the bath-house. + +Hardly had Nikita driven out of the yard and turned the horse's +head to the house, before Vasili Andreevich emerged from the +high porch in front of the house with a cigarette in his mouth +and wearing a cloth-covered sheep-skin coat tightly girdled low +at his waist, and stepped onto the hard-trodden snow which +squeaked under the leather soles of his felt boots, and +stopped. Taking a last whiff of his cigarette he threw it +down, stepped on it, and letting the smoke escape through his +moustache and looking askance at the horse that was coming up, +began to tuck in his sheepskin collar on both sides of his +ruddy face, clean-shaven except for the moustache, so that his +breath should not moisten the collar. + +'See now! The young scamp is there already!' he exclaimed when +he saw his little son in the sledge. Vasili Andreevich was +excited by the vodka he had drunk with his visitors, and so he +was even more pleased than usual with everything that was his +and all that he did. The sight of his son, whom he always +thought of as his heir, now gave him great satisfaction. He +looked at him, screwing up his eyes and showing his long teeth. + +His wife--pregnant, thin and pale, with her head and shoulders +wrapped in a shawl so that nothing of her face could be seen +but her eyes--stood behind him in the vestibule to see him off. + +'Now really, you ought to take Nikita with you,' she said +timidly, stepping out from the doorway. + +Vasili Andreevich did not answer. Her words evidently annoyed +him and he frowned angrily and spat. + +'You have money on you,' she continued in the same plaintive +voice. 'What if the weather gets worse! Do take him, for +goodness' sake!' + +'Why? Don't I know the road that I must needs take a guide?' +exclaimed Vasili Andreevich, uttering every word very +distinctly and compressing his lips unnaturally, as he usually +did when speaking to buyers and sellers. + +'Really you ought to take him. I beg you in God's name!' his +wife repeated, wrapping her shawl more closely round her head. + +'There, she sticks to it like a leech! . . . Where am I to +take him?' + +'I'm quite ready to go with you, Vasili Andreevich,' said +Nikita cheerfully. 'But they must feed the horses while I am +away,' he added, turning to his master's wife. + +'I'll look after them, Nikita dear. I'll tell Simon,' replied +the mistress. + +'Well, Vasili Andreevich, am I to come with you?' said Nikita, +awaiting a decision. + +'It seems I must humour my old woman. But if you're coming +you'd better put on a warmer cloak,' said Vasili Andreevich, +smiling again as he winked at Nikita's short sheepskin coat, +which was torn under the arms and at the back, was greasy and +out of shape, frayed to a fringe round the skirt, and had +endured many things in its lifetime. + +'Hey, dear man, come and hold the horse!' shouted Nikita to the +cook's husband, who was still in the yard. + +'No, I will myself, I will myself!' shrieked the little boy, +pulling his hands, red with cold, out of his pockets, and +seizing the cold leather reins. + +'Only don't be too long dressing yourself up. Look alive!' +shouted Vasili Andreevich, grinning at Nikita. + +'Only a moment, Father, Vasili Andreevich!' replied Nikita, and +running quickly with his inturned toes in his felt boots with +their soles patched with felt, he hurried across the yard and +into the workmen's hut. + +'Arinushka! Get my coat down from the stove. I'm going with +the master,' he said, as he ran into the hut and took down his +girdle from the nail on which it hung. + +The workmen's cook, who had had a sleep after dinner and was +now getting the samovar ready for her husband, turned +cheerfully to Nikita, and infected by his hurry began to move +as quickly as he did, got down his miserable worn-out cloth +coat from the stove where it was drying, and began hurriedly +shaking it out and smoothing it down. + +'There now, you'll have a chance of a holiday with your good +man,' said Nikita, who from kindhearted politeness always said +something to anyone he was alone with. + +Then, drawing his worn narrow girdle round him, he drew in his +breath, pulling in his lean stomach still more, and girdled +himself as tightly as he could over his sheepskin. + +'There now,' he said addressing himself no longer to the cook +but the girdle, as he tucked the ends in at the waist, 'now you +won't come undone!' And working his shoulders up and down to +free his arms, he put the coat over his sheepskin, arched his +back more strongly to ease his arms, poked himself under the +armpits, and took down his leather-covered mittens from the +shelf. 'Now we're all right!' + +'You ought to wrap your feet up, Nikita. Your boots are very +bad.' + +Nikita stopped as if he had suddenly realized this. + +'Yes, I ought to. . . . But they'll do like this. It isn't +far!' and he ran out into the yard. + +'Won't you be cold, Nikita?' said the mistress as he came up to +the sledge. + +'Cold? No, I'm quite warm,' answered Nikita as he pushed some +straw up to the forepart of the sledge so that it should cover +his feet, and stowed away the whip, which the good horse would +not need, at the bottom of the sledge. + +Vasili Andreevich, who was wearing two fur-lined coats one over +the other, was already in the sledge, his broad back filling +nearly its whole rounded width, and taking the reins he +immediately touched the horse. Nikita jumped in just as the +sledge started, and seated himself in front on the left side, +with one leg hanging over the edge. + + + +II + +The good stallion took the sledge along at a brisk pace over +the smooth-frozen road through the village, the runners +squeaking slightly as they went. + +'Look at him hanging on there! Hand me the whip, Nikita!' +shouted Vasili Andreevich, evidently enjoying the sight of his +'heir,' who standing on the runners was hanging on at the back +of the sledge. 'I'll give it you! Be off to mamma, you dog!' + +The boy jumped down. The horse increased his amble and, +suddenly changing foot, broke into a fast trot. + +The Crosses, the village where Vasili Andreevich lived, +consisted of six houses. As soon as they had passed the +blacksmith's hut, the last in the village, they realized that +the wind was much stronger than they had thought. The road +could hardly be seen. The tracks left by the sledge-runners +were immediately covered by snow and the road was only +distinguished by the fact that it was higher than the rest of +the ground. There was a swirl of snow over the fields and the +line where sky and earth met could not be seen. The Telyatin +forest, usually clearly visible, now only loomed up +occasionally and dimly through the driving snowy dust. The +wind came from the left, insistently blowing over to one side +the mane on Mukhorty's sleek neck and carrying aside even his +fluffy tail, which was tied in a simple knot. Nikita's wide +coat-collar, as he sat on the windy side, pressed close to his +cheek and nose. + +'This road doesn't give him a chance--it's too snowy,' said +Vasili Andreevich, who prided himself on his good horse. 'I +once drove to Pashutino with him in half an hour.' + +'What?' asked Nikita, who could not hear on account of his +collar. + +'I say I once went to Pashutino in half an hour,' shouted +Vasili Andreevich. + +'It goes without saying that he's a good horse,' replied +Nikita. + +They were silent for a while. But Vasili Andreevich wished to +talk. + +'Well, did you tell your wife not to give the cooper any +vodka?' he began in the same loud tone, quite convinced that +Nikita must feel flattered to be talking with so clever and +important a person as himself, and he was so pleased with his +jest that it did not enter his head that the remark might be +unpleasant to Nikita. + +The wind again prevented Nikita's hearing his master's words. + +Vasili Andreevich repeated the jest about the cooper in his +loud, clear voice. + +'That's their business, Vasili Andreevich. I don't pry into +their affairs. As long as she doesn't ill-treat our boy--God +be with them.' + +'That's so,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'Well, and will you be +buying a horse in spring?' he went on, changing the subject. + +'Yes, I can't avoid it,' answered Nikita, turning down his +collar and leaning back towards his master. + +The conversation now became interesting to him and he did not +wish to lose a word. + +'The lad's growing up. He must begin to plough for himself, +but till now we've always had to hire someone,' he said. + +'Well, why not have the lean-cruppered one. I won't charge +much for it,' shouted Vasili Andreevich, feeling animated, and +consequently starting on his favourite occupation--that of +horse-dealing--which absorbed all his mental powers. + +'Or you might let me have fifteen rubles and I'll buy one at +the horse-market,' said Nikita, who knew that the horse Vasili +Andreevich wanted to sell him would be dear at seven rubles, +but that if he took it from him it would be charged at +twenty-five, and then he would be unable to draw any money for +half a year. + +'It's a good horse. I think of your interest as of my +own--according to conscience. Brekhunov isn't a man to wrong +anyone. Let the loss be mine. I'm not like others. +Honestly!' he shouted in the voice in which he hypnotized his +customers and dealers. 'It's a real good horse.' + +'Quite so!' said Nikita with a sigh, and convinced that there +was nothing more to listen to, he again released his collar, +which immediately covered his ear and face. + +They drove on in silence for about half an hour. The wind blew +sharply onto Nikita's side and arm where his sheepskin was +torn. + +He huddled up and breathed into the collar which covered his +mouth, and was not wholly cold. + +'What do you think--shall we go through Karamyshevo or by the +straight road?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +The road through Karamyshevo was more frequented and was well +marked with a double row of high stakes. The straight road was +nearer but little used and had no stakes, or only poor ones +covered with snow. + +Nikita thought awhile. + +'Though Karamyshevo is farther, it is better going,' he said. + +'But by the straight road, when once we get through the hollow +by the forest, it's good going--sheltered,' said Vasili +Andreevich, who wished to go the nearest way. + +'Just as you please,' said Nikita, and again let go of his +collar. + +Vasili Andreevich did as he had said, and having gone about +half a verst came to a tall oak stake which had a few dry +leaves still dangling on it, and there he turned to the left. + +On turning they faced directly against the wind, and snow was +beginning to fall. Vasili Andreevich, who was driving, +inflated his cheeks, blowing the breath out through his +moustache. Nikita dozed. + +So they went on in silence for about ten minutes. Suddenly +Vasili Andreevich began saying something. + +'Eh, what?' asked Nikita, opening his eyes. + +Vasili Andreevich did not answer, but bent over, looking behind +them and then ahead of the horse. The sweat had curled +Mukhorty's coat between his legs and on his neck. He went at a +walk. + +'What is it?' Nikita asked again. + +'What is it? What is it?' Vasili Andreevich mimicked him +angrily. 'There are no stakes to be seen! We must have got +off the road!' + +'Well, pull up then, and I'll look for it,' said Nikita, and +jumping down lightly from the sledge and taking the whip from +under the straw, he went off to the left from his own side of +the sledge. + +The snow was not deep that year, so that it was possible to +walk anywhere, but still in places it was knee-deep and got +into Nikita's boots. He went about feeling the ground with his +feet and the whip, but could not find the road anywhere. + +'Well, how is it?' asked Vasili Andreevich when Nikita came +back to the sledge. + +'There is no road this side. I must go to the other side and +try there,' said Nikita. + +'There's something there in front. Go and have a look.' + +Nikita went to what had appeared dark, but found that it was +earth which the wind had blown from the bare fields of winter +oats and had strewn over the snow, colouring it. Having +searched to the right also, he returned to the sledge, brushed +the snow from his coat, shook it out of his boots, and seated +himself once more. + +'We must go to the right,' he said decidedly. 'The wind was +blowing on our left before, but now it is straight in my face. +Drive to the right,' he repeated with decision. + +Vasili Andreevich took his advice and turned to the right, but +still there was no road. They went on in that direction for +some time. The wind was as fierce as ever and it was snowing +lightly. + +'It seems, Vasili Andreevich, that we have gone quite astray,' +Nikita suddenly remarked, as if it were a pleasant thing. +'What is that?' he added, pointing to some potato vines that +showed up from under the snow. + +Vasili Andreevich stopped the perspiring horse, whose deep +sides were heaving heavily. + +'What is it?' + +'Why, we are on the Zakharov lands. See where we've got to!' + +'Nonsense!' retorted Vasili Andreevich. + +'It's not nonsense, Vasili Andreevich. It's the truth,' +replied Nikita. 'You can feel that the sledge is going over a +potato-field, and there are the heaps of vines which have been +carted here. It's the Zakharov factory land.' + +'Dear me, how we have gone astray!' said Vasili Andreevich. +'What are we to do now?' + +'We must go straight on, that's all. We shall come out +somewhere--if not at Zakharova, then at the proprietor's farm,' +said Nikita. + +Vasili Andreevich agreed, and drove as Nikita had indicated. +So they went on for a considerable time. At times they came +onto bare fields and the sledge-runners rattled over frozen +lumps of earth. Sometimes they got onto a winter-rye field, or +a fallow field on which they could see stalks of wormwood, and +straws sticking up through the snow and swaying in the wind; +sometimes they came onto deep and even white snow, above which +nothing was to be seen. + +The snow was falling from above and sometimes rose from below. +The horse was evidently exhausted, his hair had all curled up +from sweat and was covered with hoar-frost, and he went at a +walk. Suddenly he stumbled and sat down in a ditch or +water-course. Vasili Andreevich wanted to stop, but Nikita +cried to him: + +'Why stop? We've got in and must get out. Hey, pet! Hey, +darling! Gee up, old fellow!' he shouted in a cheerful tone to +the horse, jumping out of the sledge and himself getting stuck +in the ditch. + +The horse gave a start and quickly climbed out onto the frozen +bank. It was evidently a ditch that had been dug there. + +'Where are we now?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'We'll soon find out!' Nikita replied. 'Go on, we'll get +somewhere.' + +'Why, this must be the Goryachkin forest!' said Vasili +Andreevich, pointing to something dark that appeared amid the +snow in front of them. + +'We'll see what forest it is when we get there,' said Nikita. + +He saw that beside the black thing they had noticed, dry, +oblong willow-leaves were fluttering, and so he knew it was not +a forest but a settlement, but he did not wish to say so. And +in fact they had not gone twenty-five yards beyond the ditch +before something in front of them, evidently trees, showed up +black, and they heard a new and melancholy sound. Nikita had +guessed right: it was not a wood, but a row of tall willows +with a few leaves still fluttering on them here and there. +They had evidently been planted along the ditch round a +threshing-floor. Coming up to the willows, which moaned sadly +in the wind, the horse suddenly planted his forelegs above the +height of the sledge, drew up his hind legs also, pulling the +sledge onto higher ground, and turned to the left, no longer +sinking up to his knees in snow. They were back on a road. + +'Well, here we are, but heaven only knows where!' said Nikita. + +The horse kept straight along the road through the drifted +snow, and before they had gone another hundred yards the +straight line of the dark wattle wall of a barn showed up black +before them, its roof heavily covered with snow which poured +down from it. After passing the barn the road turned to the +wind and they drove into a snow-drift. But ahead of them was a +lane with houses on either side, so evidently the snow had been +blown across the road and they had to drive through the drift. +And so in fact it was. Having driven through the snow they +came out into a street. At the end house of the village some +frozen clothes hanging on a line--shirts, one red and one +white, trousers, leg-bands, and a petticoat--fluttered wildly +in the wind. The white shirt in particular struggled +desperately, waving its sleeves about. + +'There now, either a lazy woman or a dead one has not taken her +clothes down before the holiday,' remarked Nikita, looking at +the fluttering shirts. + + + +III + +At the entrance to the street the wind still raged and the road +was thickly covered with snow, but well within the village it +was calm, warm, and cheerful. At one house a dog was barking, +at another a woman, covering her head with her coat, came +running from somewhere and entered the door of a hut, stopping +on the threshold to have a look at the passing sledge. In the +middle of the village girls could be heard singing. + +Here in the village there seemed to be less wind and snow, and +the frost was less keen. + +'Why, this is Grishkino,' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'So it is,' responded Nikita. + +It really was Grishkino, which meant that they had gone too far +to the left and had travelled some six miles, not quite in the +direction they aimed at, but towards their destination for all +that. + +From Grishkino to Goryachkin was about another four miles. + +In the middle of the village they almost ran into a tall man +walking down the middle of the street. + +'Who are you?' shouted the man, stopping the horse, and +recognizing Vasili Anereevich he immediately took hold of the +shaft, went along it hand over hand till he reached the sledge, +and placed himself on the driver's seat. + +He was Isay, a peasant of Vasili Andreevich's acquaintance, and +well known as the principal horse-thief in the district. + +'Ah, Vasili Andreevich! Where are you off to?' said Isay, +enveloping Nikita in the odour of the vodka he had drunk. + +'We were going to Goryachkin.' + +'And look where you've got to! You should have gone through +Molchanovka.' + +'Should have, but didn't manage it,' said Vasili Andreevich, +holding in the horse. + +'That's a good horse,' said Isay, with a shrewd glance at +Mukhorty, and with a practised hand he tightened the loosened +knot high in the horse's bushy tail. + +'Are you going to stay the night?' + +'No, friend. I must get on.' + +'Your business must be pressing. And who is this? Ah, Nikita +Stepanych!' + +'Who else?' replied Nikita. 'But I say, good friend, how are +we to avoid going astray again?' + +'Where can you go astray here? Turn back straight down the +street and then when you come out keep straight on. Don't take +to the left. You will come out onto the high road, and then +turn to the right.' + +'And where do we turn off the high road? As in summer, or the +winter way?' asked Nikita. + +'The winter way. As soon as you turn off you'll see some +bushes, and opposite them there is a way-mark--a large oak, one +with branches--and that's the way.' + +Vasili Andreevich turned the horse back and drove through the +outskirts of the village. + +'Why not stay the night?' Isay shouted after them. + +But Vasili Andreevich did not answer and touched up the horse. +Four miles of good road, two of which lay through the forest, +seemed easy to manage, especially as the wind was apparently +quieter and the snow had stopped. + +Having driven along the trodden village street, darkened here +and there by fresh manure, past the yard where the clothes hung +out and where the white shirt had broken loose and was now +attached only by one frozen sleeve, they again came within +sound of the weird moan of the willows, and again emerged on +the open fields. The storm, far from ceasing, seemed to have +grown yet stronger. The road was completely covered with +drifting snow, and only the stakes showed that they had not +lost their way. But even the stakes ahead of them were not +easy to see, since the wind blew in their faces. + +Vasili Andreevich screwed up his eyes, bent down his head, and +looked out for the way-marks, but trusted mainly to the horse's +sagacity, letting it take its own way. And the horse really +did not lose the road but followed its windings, turning now to +the right and now to the left and sensing it under his feet, so +that though the snow fell thicker and the wind strengthened +they still continued to see way-marks now to the left and now +to the right of them. + +So they travelled on for about ten minutes, when suddenly, +through the slanting screen of wind-driven snow, something +black showed up which moved in front of the horse. + +This was another sledge with fellow-travellers. Mukhorty +overtook them, and struck his hoofs against the back of the +sledge in front of them. + +'Pass on . . . hey there . . . get in front!' cried voices from +the sledge. + +Vasili Andreevich swerved aside to pass the other sledge. + +In it sat three men and a woman, evidently visitors returning +from a feast. One peasant was whacking the snow-covered croup +of their little horse with a long switch, and the other two +sitting in front waved their arms and shouted something. The +woman, completely wrapped up and covered with snow, sat +drowsing and bumping at the back. + +'Who are you?' shouted Vasili Andreevich. + +'From A-a-a . . .' was all that could be heard. + +'I say, where are you from?' + +'From A-a-a-a!' one of the peasants shouted with all his might, +but still it was impossible to make out who they were. + +'Get along! Keep up!' shouted another, ceaselessly beating +his horse with the switch. + +'So you're from a feast, it seems?' + +'Go on, go on! Faster, Simon! Get in front! Faster!' + +The wings of the sledges bumped against one another, almost got +jammed but managed to separate, and the peasants' sledge began +to fall behind. + +Their shaggy, big-bellied horse, all covered with snow, +breathed heavily under the low shaft-bow and, evidently using +the last of its strength, vainly endeavoured to escape from the +switch, hobbling with its short legs through the deep snow +which it threw up under itself. + +Its muzzle, young-looking, with the nether lip drawn up like +that of a fish, nostrils distended and ears pressed back from +fear, kept up for a few seconds near Nikita's shoulder and then +began to fall behind. + +'Just see what liquor does!' said Nikita. 'They've tired that +little horse to death. What pagans!' + +For a few minutes they heard the panting of the tired little +horse and the drunken shouting of the peasants. Then the +panting and the shouts died away, and around them nothing could +be heard but the whistling of the wind in their ears and now +and then the squeak of their sledge-runners over a windswept +part of the road. + +This encounter cheered and enlivened Vasili Andreevich, and he +drove on more boldly without examining the way-marks, urging on +the horse and trusting to him. + +Nikita had nothing to do, and as usual in such circumstances +he drowsed, making up for much sleepless time. Suddenly the +horse stopped and Nikita nearly fell forward onto his nose. + +'You know we're off the track again!' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'How's that?' + +'Why, there are no way-marks to be seen. We must have got off +the road again.' + +'Well, if we've lost the road we must find it,' said Nikita +curtly, and getting out and stepping lightly on his pigeon-toed +feet he started once more going about on the snow. + +He walked about for a long time, now disappearing and now +reappearing, and finally he came back. + +'There is no road here. There may be farther on,' he said, +getting into the sledge. + +It was already growing dark. The snow-storm had not increased +but had also not subsided. + +'If we could only hear those peasants!' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'Well they haven't caught us up. We must have gone far astray. +Or maybe they have lost their way too.' + +'Where are we to go then?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Why, we must let the horse take its own way,' said Nikita. +'He will take us right. Let me have the reins.' + +Vasili Andreevich gave him the reins, the more willingly +because his hands were beginning to feel frozen in his thick +gloves. + +Nikita took the reins, but only held them, trying not to shake +them and rejoicing at his favourite's sagacity. And indeed the +clever horse, turning first one ear and then the other now to +one side and then to the other, began to wheel round. + +'The one thing he can't do is to talk,' Nikita kept saying. +'See what he is doing! Go on, go on! You know best. That's +it, that's it!' + +The wind was now blowing from behind and it felt warmer. + +'Yes, he's clever,' Nikita continued, admiring the horse. 'A +Kirgiz horse is strong but stupid. But this one--just see what +he's doing with his ears! He doesn't need any telegraph. He +can scent a mile off.' + +Before another half-hour had passed they saw something dark +ahead of them--a wood or a village--and stakes again appeared +to the right. They had evidently come out onto the road. + +'Why, that's Grishkino again!' Nikita suddenly exclaimed. + +And indeed, there on their left was that same barn with the +snow flying from it, and farther on the same line with the +frozen washing, shirts and trousers, which still fluttered +desperately in the wind. + +Again they drove into the street and again it grew quiet, warm, +and cheerful, and again they could see the manure-stained +street and hear voices and songs and the barking of a dog. It +was already so dark that there were lights in some of the +windows. + +Half-way through the village Vasili Andreevich turned the horse +towards a large double-fronted brick house and stopped at the +porch. + +Nikita went to the lighted snow-covered window, in the rays of +which flying snow-flakes glittered, and knocked at it with his +whip. + +'Who is there?' a voice replied to his knock. + +'From Kresty, the Brekhunovs, dear fellow,' answered Nikita. +'Just come out for a minute.' + +Someone moved from the window, and a minute or two later there +was the sound of the passage door as it came unstuck, then the +latch of the outside door clicked and a tall white-bearded +peasant, with a sheepskin coat thrown over his white holiday +shirt, pushed his way out holding the door firmly against the +wind, followed by a lad in a red shirt and high leather boots. + +'Is that you, Andreevich?' asked the old man. + +'Yes, friend, we've gone astray,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'We +wanted to get to Goryachkin but found ourselves here. We went +a second time but lost our way again.' + +'Just see how you have gone astray!' said the old man. +'Petrushka, go and open the gate!' he added, turning to the lad +in the red shirt. + +'All right,' said the lad in a cheerful voice, and ran back +into the passage. + +'But we're not staying the night,' said Vasili Andreevich. + +'Where will you go in the night? You'd better stay!' + +'I'd be glad to, but I must go on. It's business, and it can't +be helped.' + +'Well, warm yourself at least. The samovar is just ready.' + +'Warm myself? Yes, I'll do that,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'It +won't get darker. The moon will rise and it will be lighter. +Let's go in and warm ourselves, Nikita.' + +'Well, why not? Let us warm ourselves,' replied Nikita, who +was stiff with cold and anxious to warm his frozen limbs. + +Vasili Andreevich went into the room with the old man, and +Nikita drove through the gate opened for him by Petrushka, by +whose advice he backed the horse under the penthouse. The +ground was covered with manure and the tall bow over the +horse's head caught against the beam. The hens and the cock +had already settled to roost there, and clucked peevishly, +clinging to the beam with their claws. The disturbed sheep +shied and rushed aside trampling the frozen manure with their +hooves. The dog yelped desperately with fright and anger and +then burst out barking like a puppy at the stranger. + +Nikita talked to them all, excused himself to the fowls and +assured them that he would not disturb them again, rebuked the +sheep for being frightened without knowing why, and kept +soothing the dog, while he tied up the horse. + +'Now that will be all right,' he said, knocking the snow off +his clothes. 'Just hear how he barks!' he added, turning to +the dog. 'Be quiet, stupid! Be quiet. You are only troubling +yourself for nothing. We're not thieves, we're friends. . . .' + +'And these are, it's said, the three domestic counsellors,' +remarked the lad, and with his strong arms he pushed under the +pent-roof the sledge that had remained outside. + +'Why counsellors?' asked Nikita. + +'That's what is printed in Paulson. A thief creeps to a +house--the dog barks, that means "Be on your guard!" The cock +crows, that means, "Get up!" The cat licks herself--that +means, "A welcome guest is coming. Get ready to receive him!"' +said the lad with a smile. + +Petrushka could read and write and knew Paulson's primer, his +only book, almost by heart, and he was fond of quoting sayings +from it that he thought suited the occasion, especially when he +had had something to drink, as to-day. + +'That's so,' said Nikita. + +'You must be chilled through and through,' said Petrushka. + +'Yes, I am rather,' said Nikita, and they went across the yard +and the passage into the house. + + + +IV + +The household to which Vasili Andreevich had come was one of +the richest in the village. The family had five allotments, +besides renting other land. They had six horses, three cows, +two calves, and some twenty sheep. There were twenty-two +members belonging to the homestead: four married sons, six +grandchildren (one of whom, Petrushka, was married), two +great-grandchildren, three orphans, and four daughters-in-law +with their babies. It was one of the few homesteads that +remained still undivided, but even here the dull internal work +of disintegration which would inevitably lead to separation had +already begun, starting as usual among the women. Two sons +were living in Moscow as water-carriers, and one was in the +army. At home now were the old man and his wife, their second +son who managed the homestead, the eldest who had come from +Moscow for the holiday, and all the women and children. +Besides these members of the family there was a visitor, a +neighbour who was godfather to one of the children. + +Over the table in the room hung a lamp with a shade, which +brightly lit up the tea-things, a bottle of vodka, and some +refreshments, besides illuminating the brick walls, which in +the far corner were hung with icons on both sides of which were +pictures. At the head of the table sat Vasili Andreevich in a +black sheepskin coat, sucking his frozen moustache and +observing the room and the people around him with his prominent +hawk-like eyes. With him sat the old, bald, white-bearded +master of the house in a white homespun shirt, and next him the +son home from Moscow for the holiday--a man with a sturdy back +and powerful shoulders and clad in a thin print shirt--then the +second son, also broad-shouldered, who acted as head of the +house, and then a lean red-haired peasant--the neighbour. + +Having had a drink of vodka and something to eat, they were +about to take tea, and the samovar standing on the floor beside +the brick oven was already humming. The children could be seen +in the top bunks and on the top of the oven. A woman sat on a +lower bunk with a cradle beside her. The old housewife, her +face covered with wrinkles which wrinkled even her lips, was +waiting on Vasili Andreevich. + +As Nikita entered the house she was offering her guest a small +tumbler of thick glass which she had just filled with vodka. + +'Don't refuse, Vasili Andreevich, you mustn't! Wish us a merry +feast. Drink it, dear!' she said. + +The sight and smell of vodka, especially now when he was +chilled through and tired out, much disturbed Nikita's mind. +He frowned, and having shaken the snow off his cap and coat, +stopped in front of the icons as if not seeing anyone, crossed +himself three times, and bowed to the icons. Then, turning to +the old master of the house and bowing first to him, then to +all those at table, then to the women who stood by the oven, +and muttering: 'A merry holiday!' he began taking off his outer +things without looking at the table. + +'Why, you're all covered with hoar-frost, old fellow!' said the +eldest brother, looking at Nikita's snow-covered face, eyes, +and beard. + +Nikita took off his coat, shook it again, hung it up beside the +oven, and came up to the table. He too was offered vodka. He +went through a moment of painful hesitation and nearly took up +the glass and emptied the clear fragrant liquid down his +throat, but he glanced at Vasili Andreevich, remembered his +oath and the boots that he had sold for drink, recalled the +cooper, remembered his son for whom he had promised to buy a +horse by spring, sighed, and declined it. + +'I don't drink, thank you kindly,' he said frowning, and sat +down on a bench near the second window. + +'How's that?' asked the eldest brother. + +'I just don't drink,' replied Nikita without lifting his eyes +but looking askance at his scanty beard and moustache and +getting the icicles out of them. + +'It's not good for him,' said Vasili Andreevich, munching a +cracknel after emptying his glass. + +'Well, then, have some tea,' said the kindly old hostess. 'You +must be chilled through, good soul. Why are you women dawdling +so with the samovar?' + +'It is ready,' said one of the young women, and after flicking +with her apron the top of the samovar which was now boiling +over, she carried it with an effort to the table, raised it, +and set it down with a thud. + +Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich was telling how he had lost his +way, how they had come back twice to this same village, and how +they had gone astray and had met some drunken peasants. Their +hosts were surprised, explained where and why they had missed +their way, said who the tipsy people they had met were, and +told them how they ought to go. + +'A little child could find the way to Molchanovka from here. +All you have to do is to take the right turning from the high +road. There's a bush you can see just there. But you didn't +even get that far!' said the neighbour. + +'You'd better stay the night. The women will make up beds for +you,' said the old woman persuasively. + +'You could go on in the morning and it would be pleasanter,' +said the old man, confirming what his wife had said. + +'I can't, friend. Business!' said Vasili Andreevich. 'Lose an +hour and you can't catch it up in a year,' he added, +remembering the grove and the dealers who might snatch that +deal from him. 'We shall get there, shan't we?' he said, +turning to Nikita. + +Nikita did not answer for some time, apparently still intent on +thawing out his beard and moustache. + +'If only we don't go astray again,' he replied gloomily. He was +gloomy because he passionately longed for some vodka, and the +only thing that could assuage that longing was tea and he had +not yet been offered any. + +'But we have only to reach the turning and then we shan't go +wrong. The road will be through the forest the whole way,' +said Vasili Andreevich. + +'It's just as you please, Vasili Andreevich. If we're to go, +let us go,' said Nikita, taking the glass of tea he was +offered. + +'We'll drink our tea and be off.' + +Nikita said nothing but only shook his head, and carefully +pouring some tea into his saucer began warming his hands, the +fingers of which were always swollen with hard work, over the +steam. Then, biting off a tiny bit of sugar, he bowed to his +hosts, said, 'Your health!' and drew in the steaming liquid. + +'If somebody would see us as far as the turning,' said Vasili +Andreevich. + +'Well, we can do that,' said the eldest son. 'Petrushka will +harness and go that far with you.' + +'Well, then, put in the horse, lad, and I shall be thankful to +you for it.' + +'Oh, what for, dear man?' said the kindly old woman. 'We are +heartily glad to do it.' + +'Petrushka, go and put in the mare,' said the eldest brother. + +'All right,' replied Petrushka with a smile, and promptly +snatching his cap down from a nail he ran away to harness. + +While the horse was being harnessed the talk returned to the +point at which it had stopped when Vasili Andreevich drove up +to the window. The old man had been complaining to his +neighbour, the village elder, about his third son who had not +sent him anything for the holiday though he had sent a French +shawl to his wife. + +'The young people are getting out of hand,' said the old man. + +'And how they do!' said the neighbour. 'There's no managing +them! They know too much. There's Demochkin now, who broke +his father's arm. It's all from being too clever, it seems.' + +Nikita listened, watched their faces, and evidently would have +liked to share in the conversation, but he was too busy +drinking his tea and only nodded his head approvingly. He +emptied one tumbler after another and grew warmer and warmer +and more and more comfortable. The talk continued on the same +subject for a long time--the harmfulness of a household +dividing up--and it was clearly not an abstract discussion but +concerned the question of a separation in that house; a +separation demanded by the second son who sat there morosely +silent. + +It was evidently a sore subject and absorbed them all, but out +of propriety they did not discuss their private affairs before +strangers. At last, however, the old man could not restrain +himself, and with tears in his eyes declared that he would not +consent to a break-up of the family during his lifetime, that +his house was prospering, thank God, but that if they separated +they would all have to go begging. + +'Just like the Matveevs,' said the neighbour. 'They used to +have a proper house, but now they've split up none of them has +anything.' + +'And that is what you want to happen to us,' said the old man, +turning to his son. + +The son made no reply and there was an awkward pause. The +silence was broken by Petrushka, who having harnessed the horse +had returned to the hut a few minutes before this and had been +listening all the time with a smile. + +'There's a fable about that in Paulson,' he said. 'A father +gave his sons a broom to break. At first they could not break +it, but when they took it twig by twig they broke it easily. +And it's the same here,' and he gave a broad smile. 'I'm +ready!' he added. + +'If you're ready, let's go,' said Vasili Andreevich. 'And as +to separating, don't you allow it, Grandfather. You got +everything together and you're the master. Go to the Justice +of the Peace. He'll say how things should be done.' + +'He carries on so, carries on so,' the old man continued in a +whining tone. 'There's no doing anything with him. It's as if +the devil possessed him.' + +Nikita having meanwhile finished his fifth tumbler of tea laid +it on its side instead of turning it upside down, hoping to be +offered a sixth glass. But there was no more water in the +samovar, so the hostess did not fill it up for him. Besides, +Vasili Andreevich was putting his things on, so there was +nothing for it but for Nikita to get up too, put back into the +sugar-basin the lump of sugar he had nibbled all round, wipe +his perspiring face with the skirt of his sheepskin, and go to +put on his overcoat. + +Having put it on he sighed deeply, thanked his hosts, said +good-bye, and went out of the warm bright room into the cold +dark passage, through which the wind was howling and where +snow was blowing through the cracks of the shaking door, and +from there into the yard. + +Petrushka stood in his sheepskin in the middle of the yard by +his horse, repeating some lines from Paulson's primer. He said +with a smile: + + + 'Storms with mist the sky conceal, + Snowy circles wheeling wild. + Now like savage beast 'twill howl, + And now 'tis wailing like a child.' + + +Nikita nodded approvingly as he arranged the reins. + +The old man, seeing Vasili Andreevich off, brought a lantern +into the passage to show him a light, but it was blown out at +once. And even in the yard it was evident that the snowstorm +had become more violent. + +'Well, this is weather!' thought Vasili Andreevich. 'Perhaps +we may not get there after all. But there is nothing to be +done. Business! Besides, we have got ready, our host's horse +has been harnessed, and we'll get there with God's help!' + +Their aged host also thought they ought not to go, but he had +already tried to persuade them to stay and had not been +listened to. + +'It's no use asking them again. Maybe my age makes me timid. +They'll get there all right, and at least we shall get to bed +in good time and without any fuss,' he thought. + +Petrushka did not think of danger. He knew the road and the +whole district so well, and the lines about 'snowy circles +wheeling wild' described what was happening outside so aptly +that it cheered him up. Nikita did not wish to go at all, but +he had been accustomed not to have his own way and to serve +others for so long that there was no one to hinder the +departing travellers. + + + +V + +Vasili Andreevich went over to his sledge, found it with +difficulty in the darkness, climbed in and took the reins. + +'Go on in front!' he cried. + +Petrushka kneeling in his low sledge started his horse. +Mukhorty, who had been neighing for some time past, now +scenting a mare ahead of him started after her, and they drove +out into the street. They drove again through the outskirts of +the village and along the same road, past the yard where the +frozen linen had hung (which, however, was no longer to be +seen), past the same barn, which was now snowed up almost to +the roof and from which the snow was still endlessly pouring +past the same dismally moaning, whistling, and swaying willows, +and again entered into the sea of blustering snow raging from +above and below. The wind was so strong that when it blew from +the side and the travellers steered against it, it tilted the +sledges and turned the horses to one side. Petrushka drove his +good mare in front at a brisk trot and kept shouting lustily. +Mukhorty pressed after her. + +After travelling so for about ten minutes, Petrushka turned +round and shouted something. Neither Vasili Andreevich nor +Nikita could hear anything because of the wind, but they +guessed that they had arrived at the turning. In fact +Petrushka had turned to the right, and now the wind that had +blown from the side blew straight in their faces, and through +the snow they saw something dark on their right. It was the +bush at the turning. + +'Well now, God speed you!' + +'Thank you, Petrushka!' + +'Storms with mist the sky conceal!' shouted Petrushka as he +disappeared. + +'There's a poet for you!' muttered Vasili Andreevich, pulling +at the reins. + +'Yes, a fine lad--a true peasant,' said Nikita. + +They drove on. + +Nikita, wrapping his coat closely about him and pressing his +head down so close to his shoulders that his short beard +covered his throat, sat silently, trying not to lose the warmth +he had obtained while drinking tea in the house. Before him he +saw the straight lines of the shafts which constantly deceived +him into thinking they were on a well-travelled road, and the +horse's swaying crupper with his knotted tail blown to one +side, and farther ahead the high shaft-bow and the swaying head +and neck of the horse with its waving mane. Now and then he +caught sight of a way-sign, so that he knew they were still on +a road and that there was nothing for him to be concerned +about. + +Vasili Andreevich drove on, leaving it to the horse to keep to +the road. But Mukhorty, though he had had a breathing-space in +the village, ran reluctantly, and seemed now and then to get +off the road, so that Vasili Andreevich had repeatedly to +correct him. + +'Here's a stake to the right, and another, and here's a third,' +Vasili Andreevich counted, 'and here in front is the forest,' +thought he, as he looked at something dark in front of him. +But what had seemed to him a forest was only a bush. They +passed the bush and drove on for another hundred yards but +there was no fourth way-mark nor any forest. + +'We must reach the forest soon,' thought Vasili Andreevich, and +animated by the vodka and the tea he did not stop but shook the +reins, and the good obedient horse responded, now ambling, now +slowly trotting in the direction in which he was sent, though +he knew that he was not going the right way. Ten minutes went +by, but there was still no forest. + +'There now, we must be astray again,' said Vasili Andreevich, +pulling up. + +Nikita silently got out of the sledge and holding his coat, +which the wind now wrapped closely about him and now almost +tore off, started to feel about in the snow, going first to one +side and then to the other. Three or four times he was +completely lost to sight. At last he returned and took the +reins from Vasili Andreevich's hand. + +'We must go to the right,' he said sternly and peremptorily, as +he turned the horse. + +'Well, if it's to the right, go to the right,' said Vasili +Andreevich, yielding up the reins to Nikita and thrusting his +freezing hands into his sleeves. + +Nikita did not reply. + +'Now then, friend, stir yourself!' he shouted to the horse, but +in spite of the shake of the reins Mukhorty moved only at a +walk. + +The snow in places was up to his knees, and the sledge moved by +fits and starts with his every movement. + +Nikita took the whip that hung over the front of the sledge and +struck him once. The good horse, unused to the whip, sprang +forward and moved at a trot, but immediately fell back into an +amble and then to a walk. So they went on for five minutes. +It was dark and the snow whirled from above and rose from +below, so that sometimes the shaft-bow could not be seen. At +times the sledge seemed to stand still and the field to run +backwards. Suddenly the horse stopped abruptly, evidently +aware of something close in front of him. Nikita again sprang +lightly out, throwing down the reins, and went ahead to see +what had brought him to a standstill, but hardly had he made a +step in front of the horse before his feet slipped and he went +rolling down an incline. + +'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' he said to himself as he fell, and he tried +to stop his fall but could not, and only stopped when his feet +plunged into a thick layer of snow that had drifted to the +bottom of the hollow. + +The fringe of a drift of snow that hung on the edge of the +hollow, disturbed by Nikita's fall, showered down on him and +got inside his collar. + +'What a thing to do!' said Nikita reproachfully, addressing +the drift and the hollow and shaking the snow from under his +collar. + +'Nikita! Hey, Nikita!' shouted Vasili Andreevich from above. + +But Nikita did not reply. He was too occupied in shaking out +the snow and searching for the whip he had dropped when rolling +down the incline. Having found the whip he tried to climb +straight up the bank where he had rolled down, but it was +impossible to do so: he kept rolling down again, and so he had +to go along at the foot of the hollow to find a way up. About +seven yards farther on he managed with difficulty to crawl up +the incline on all fours, then he followed the edge of the +hollow back to the place where the horse should have been. He +could not see either horse or sledge, but as he walked against +the wind he heard Vasili Andreevich's shouts and Mukhorty's +neighing, calling him. + +'I'm coming! I'm coming! What are you cackling for?' he +muttered. + +Only when he had come up to the sledge could he make out the +horse, and Vasili Andreevich standing beside it and looking +gigantic. + +'Where the devil did you vanish to? We must go back, if only +to Grishkino,' he began reproaching Nikita. + +'I'd be glad to get back, Vasili Andreevich, but which way are +we to go? There is such a ravine here that if we once get in +it we shan't get out again. I got stuck so fast there myself +that I could hardly get out.' + +'What shall we do, then? We can't stay here! We must go +somewhere!' said Vasili Andreevich. + +Nikita said nothing. He seated himself in the sledge with his +back to the wind, took off his boots, shook out the snow that +had got into them, and taking some straw from the bottom of the +sledge, carefully plugged with it a hole in his left boot. + +Vasili Andreevich remained silent, as though now leaving +everything to Nikita. Having put his boots on again, Nikita +drew his feet into the sledge, put on his mittens and took up +the reins, and directed the horse along the side of the ravine. +But they had not gone a hundred yards before the horse again +stopped short. The ravine was in front of him again. + +Nikita again climbed out and again trudged about in the snow. +He did this for a considerable time and at last appeared from +the opposite side to that from which he had started. + +'Vasili Andreevich, are you alive?' he called out. + +'Here!' replied Vasili Andreevich. 'Well, what now?' + +'I can't make anything out. It's too dark. There's nothing +but ravines. We must drive against the wind again.' + +They set off once more. Again Nikita went stumbling through +the snow, again he fell in, again climbed out and trudged +about, and at last quite out of breath he sat down beside the +sledge. + +'Well, how now?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Why, I am quite worn out and the horse won't go.' + +'Then what's to be done?' + +'Why, wait a minute.' + +Nikita went away again but soon returned. + +'Follow me!' he said, going in front of the horse. + +Vasili Andreevich no longer gave orders but implicitly did what +Nikita told him. + +'Here, follow me!' Nikita shouted, stepping quickly to the +right, and seizing the rein he led Mukhorty down towards a +snow-drift. + +At first the horse held back, then he jerked forward, hoping to +leap the drift, but he had not the strength and sank into it up +to his collar. + +'Get out!' Nikita called to Vasili Andreevich who still sat in +the sledge, and taking hold of one shaft he moved the sledge +closer to the horse. 'It's hard, brother!' he said to +Mukhorty, 'but it can't be helped. Make an effort! Now, now, +just a little one!' he shouted. + +The horse gave a tug, then another, but failed to clear himself +and settled down again as if considering something. + +'Now, brother, this won't do!' Nikita admonished him. 'Now once +more!' + +Again Nikita tugged at the shaft on his side, and Vasili +Andreevich did the same on the other. + +Mukhorty lifted his head and then gave a sudden jerk. + +'That's it! That's it!' cried Nikita. 'Don't be afraid--you +won't sink!' + +One plunge, another, and a third, and at last Mukhorty was out +of the snow-drift, and stood still, breathing heavily and +shaking the snow off himself. Nikita wished to lead him +farther, but Vasili Andreevich, in his two fur coats, was so +out of breath that he could not walk farther and dropped into +the sledge. + +'Let me get my breath!' he said, unfastening the kerchief with +which he had tied the collar of his fur coat at the village. + +'It's all right here. You lie there,' said Nikita. 'I will +lead him along.' And with Vasili Andreevich in the sledge he +led the horse by the bridle about ten paces down and then up a +slight rise, and stopped. + +The place where Nikita had stopped was not completely in the +hollow where the snow sweeping down from the hillocks might +have buried them altogether, but still it was partly sheltered +from the wind by the side of the ravine. There were moments +when the wind seemed to abate a little, but that did not last +long and as if to make up for that respite the storm swept down +with tenfold vigour and tore and whirled the more fiercely. +Such a gust struck them at the moment when Vasili Andreevich, +having recovered his breath, got out of the sledge and went up +to Nikita to consult him as to what they should do. They both +bent down involuntarily and waited till the violence of the +squall should have passed. Mukhorty too laid back his ears and +shook his head discontentedly. As soon as the violence of the +blast had abated a little, Nikita took off his mittens, stuck +them into his belt, breathed onto his hands, and began to undo +the straps of the shaft-bow. + +'What's that you are doing there?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Unharnessing. What else is there to do? I have no strength +left,' said Nikita as though excusing himself. + +'Can't we drive somewhere?' + +'No, we can't. We shall only kill the horse. Why, the poor +beast is not himself now,' said Nikita, pointing to the horse, +which was standing submissively waiting for what might come, +with his steep wet sides heaving heavily. 'We shall have to +stay the night here,' he said, as if preparing to spend the +night at an inn, and he proceeded to unfasten the +collar-straps. The buckles came undone. + +'But shan't we be frozen?' remarked Vasili Andreevich. + +'Well, if we are we can't help it,' said Nikita. + + + +VI + + +Although Vasili Andreevich felt quite warm in his two fur +coats, especially after struggling in the snow-drift, a cold +shiver ran down his back on realizing that he must really spend +the night where they were. To calm himself he sat down in the +sledge and got out his cigarettes and matches. + +Nikita meanwhile unharnessed Mukhorty. He unstrapped the +belly-band and the back-band, took away the reins, loosened the +collar-strap, and removed the shaft-bow, talking to him all the +time to encourage him. + +'Now come out! come out!' he said, leading him clear of the +shafts. 'Now we'll tie you up here and I'll put down some +straw and take off your bridle. When you've had a bite you'll +feel more cheerful.' + +But Mukhorty was restless and evidently not comforted by +Nikita's remarks. He stepped now on one foot and now on +another, and pressed close against the sledge, turning his back +to the wind and rubbing his head on Nikita's sleeve. Then, as +if not to pain Nikita by refusing his offer of the straw he put +before him, he hurriedly snatched a wisp out of the sledge, but +immediately decided that it was now no time to think of straw +and threw it down, and the wind instantly scattered it, carried +it away, and covered it with snow. + +'Now we will set up a signal,' said Nikita, and turning the +front of the sledge to the wind he tied the shafts together +with a strap and set them up on end in front of the sledge. +'There now, when the snow covers us up, good folk will see the +shafts and dig us out,' he said, slapping his mittens together +and putting them on. 'That's what the old folk taught us!' + +Vasili Andreevich meanwhile had unfastened his coat, and +holding its skirts up for shelter, struck one sulphur match +after another on the steel box. But his hands trembled, and +one match after another either did not kindle or was blown out +by the wind just as he was lifting it to the cigarette. At +last a match did burn up, and its flame lit up for a moment the +fur of his coat, his hand with the gold ring on the bent +forefinger, and the snow-sprinkled oat-straw that stuck out +from under the drugget. The cigarette lighted, he eagerly took +a whiff or two, inhaled the smoke, let it out through his +moustache, and would have inhaled again, but the wind tore off +the burning tobacco and whirled it away as it had done the +straw. + +But even these few puffs had cheered him. + +'If we must spend the night here, we must!' he said with +decision. 'Wait a bit, I'll arrange a flag as well,' he added, +picking up the kerchief which he had thrown down in the sledge +after taking it from round his collar, and drawing off his +gloves and standing up on the front of the sledge and +stretching himself to reach the strap, he tied the handkerchief +to it with a tight knot. + +The kerchief immediately began to flutter wildly, now clinging +round the shaft, now suddenly streaming out, stretching and +flapping. + +'Just see what a fine flag!' said Vasili Andreevich, admiring +his handiwork and letting himself down into the sledge. 'We +should be warmer together, but there's not room enough for +two,' he added. + +'I'll find a place,' said Nikita. 'But I must cover up the +horse first--he sweated so, poor thing. Let go!' he added, +drawing the drugget from under Vasili Andreevich. + +Having got the drugget he folded it in two, and after taking +off the breechband and pad, covered Mukhorty with it. + +'Anyhow it will be warmer, silly!' he said, putting back the +breechband and the pad on the horse over the drugget. Then +having finished that business he returned to the sledge, and +addressing Vasili Andreevich, said: 'You won't need the +sackcloth, will you? And let me have some straw.' + +And having taken these things from under Vasili Andreevich, +Nikita went behind the sledge, dug out a hole for himself in +the snow, put straw into it, wrapped his coat well round him, +covered himself with the sackcloth, and pulling his cap well +down seated himself on the straw he had spread, and leant +against the wooden back of the sledge to shelter himself from +the wind and the snow. + +Vasili Andreevich shook his head disapprovingly at what Nikita +was doing, as in general he disapproved of the peasant's +stupidity and lack of education, and he began to settle himself +down for the night. + +He smoothed the remaining straw over the bottom of the sledge, +putting more of it under his side. Then he thrust his hands +into his sleeves and settled down, sheltering his head in the +corner of the sledge from the wind in front. + +He did not wish to sleep. He lay and thought: thought ever of +the one thing that constituted the sole aim, meaning, pleasure, +and pride of his life--of how much money he had made and might +still make, of how much other people he knew had made and +possessed, and of how those others had made and were making it, +and how he, like them, might still make much more. The +purchase of the Goryachkin grove was a matter of immense +importance to him. By that one deal he hoped to make perhaps +ten thousand rubles. He began mentally to reckon the value of +the wood he had inspected in autumn, and on five acres of which +he had counted all the trees. + +'The oaks will go for sledge-runners. The undergrowth will +take care of itself, and there'll still be some thirty sazheens +of fire-wood left on each desyatin,' said he to himself. 'That +means there will be at least two hundred and twenty-five +rubles' worth left on each desyatin. Fifty-six desyatiins +means fifty-six hundreds, and fifty-six hundreds, and +fifty-six tens, and another fifty-six tens, and then fifty-six +fives. . . .' He saw that it came out to more than twelve +thousand rubles, but could not reckon it up exactly without a +counting-frame. 'But I won't give ten thousand, anyhow. I'll +give about eight thousand with a deduction on account of the +glades. I'll grease the surveyor's palm--give him a hundred +rubles, or a hundred and fifty, and he'll reckon that there are +some five desyatins of glade to be deducted. And he'll let it +go for eight thousand. Three thousand cash down. That'll move +him, no fear!' he thought, and he pressed his pocket-book with +his forearm. + +'God only knows how we missed the turning. The forest ought to +be there, and a watchman's hut, and dogs barking. But the +damned things don't bark when they're wanted.' He turned his +collar down from his ear and listened, but as before only the +whistling of the wind could be heard, the flapping and +fluttering of the kerchief tied to the shafts, and the pelting +of the snow against the woodwork of the sledge. He again +covered up his ear. + +'If I had known I would have stayed the night. Well, no +matter, we'll get there to-morrow. It's only one day lost. And +the others won't travel in such weather.' Then he remembered +that on the 9th he had to receive payment from the butcher for +his oxen. 'He meant to come himself, but he won't find me, and +my wife won't know how to receive the money. She doesn't know +the right way of doing things,' he thought, recalling how at +their party the day before she had not known how to treat the +police-officer who was their guest. 'Of course she's only a +woman! Where could she have seen anything? In my father's time +what was our house like? Just a rich peasant's house: just an +oatmill and an inn--that was the whole property. But what have +I done in these fifteen years? A shop, two taverns, a +flour-mill, a grain-store, two farms leased out, and a house +with an iron-roofed barn,' he thought proudly. 'Not as it was +in Father's time! Who is talked of in the whole district now? +Brekhunov! And why? Because I stick to business. I take +trouble, not like others who lie abed or waste their time on +foolishness while I don't sleep of nights. Blizzard or no +blizzard I start out. So business gets done. They think +money-making is a joke. No, take pains and rack your brains! +You get overtaken out of doors at night, like this, or keep +awake night after night till the thoughts whirling in your head +make the pillow turn,' he meditated with pride. 'They think +people get on through luck. After all, the Mironovs are now +millionaires. And why? Take pains and God gives. If only He +grants me health!' + +The thought that he might himself be a millionaire like +Mironov, who began with nothing, so excited Vasili Andreevich +that he felt the need of talking to somebody. But there was no +one to talk to. . . . If only he could have reached Goryachkin +he would have talked to the landlord and shown him a thing or +two. + +'Just see how it blows! It will snow us up so deep that we +shan't be able to get out in the morning!' he thought, +listening to a gust of wind that blew against the front of the +sledge, bending it and lashing the snow against it. He raised +himself and looked round. All he could see through the +whirling darkness was Mukhorty's dark head, his back covered by +the fluttering drugget, and his thick knotted tail; while all +round, in front and behind, was the same fluctuating whity +darkness, sometimes seeming to get a little lighter and +sometimes growing denser still. + +'A pity I listened to Nikita,' he thought. 'We ought to have +driven on. We should have come out somewhere, if only back to +Grishkino and stayed the night at Taras's. As it is we must +sit here all night. But what was I thinking about? Yes, that +God gives to those who take trouble, but not to loafers, +lie-abeds, or fools. I must have a smoke!' + +He sat down again, got out his cigarette-case, and stretched +himself flat on his stomach, screening the matches with the +skirt of his coat. But the wind found its way in and put out +match after match. At last he got one to burn and lit a +cigarette. He was very glad that he had managed to do what he +wanted, and though the wind smoked more of the cigarette than +he did, he still got two or three puffs and felt more cheerful. +He again leant back, wrapped himself up, started reflecting +and remembering, and suddenly and quite unexpectedly lost +consciousness and fell asleep. + +Suddenly something seemed to give him a push and awoke him. +Whether it was Mukhorty who had pulled some straw from under +him, or whether something within him had startled him, at all +events it woke him, and his heart began to beat faster and +faster so that the sledge seemed to tremble under him. He +opened his eyes. Everything around him was just as before. +'It looks lighter,' he thought. 'I expect it won't be long +before dawn.' But he at once remembered that it was lighter +because the moon had risen. He sat up and looked first at the +horse. Mukhorty still stood with his back to the wind, +shivering all over. One side of the drugget, which was +completely covered with snow, had been blown back, the +breeching had slipped down and the snow-covered head with its +waving forelock and mane were now more visible. Vasili +Andreevich leant over the back of the sledge and looked behind. +Nikita still sat in the same position in which he had settled +himself. The sacking with which he was covered, and his legs, +were thickly covered with snow. + +'If only that peasant doesn't freeze to death! His clothes are +so wretched. I may be held responsible for him. What +shiftless people they are--such a want of education,' thought +Vasili Andreevich, and he felt like taking the drugget off the +horse and putting it over Nikita, but it would be very cold to +get out and move about and, moreover, the horse might freeze to +death. 'Why did I bring him with me? It was all her +stupidity!' he thought, recalling his unloved wife, and he +rolled over into his old place at the front part of the sledge. +'My uncle once spent a whole night like this,' he reflected, +'and was all right.' But another case came at once to his +mind. 'But when they dug Sebastian out he was dead--stiff like +a frozen carcass. If I'd only stopped the night in Grishkino +all this would not have happened!' + +And wrapping his coat carefully round him so that none of the +warmth of the fur should be wasted but should warm him all +over, neck, knees, and feet, he shut his eyes and tried to +sleep again. But try as he would he could not get drowsy, on +the contrary he felt wide awake and animated. Again he began +counting his gains and the debts due to him, again he began +bragging to himself and feeling pleased with himself and his +position, but all this was continually disturbed by a +stealthily approaching fear and by the unpleasant regret that +he had not remained in Grishkino. + +'How different it would be to be lying warm on a bench!' + +He turned over several times in his attempts to get into a more +comfortable position more sheltered from the wind, he wrapped +up his legs closer, shut his eyes, and lay still. But either +his legs in their strong felt boots began to ache from being +bent in one position, or the wind blew in somewhere, and after +lying still for a short time he again began to recall the +disturbing fact that he might now have been lying quietly in +the warm hut at Grishkino. He again sat up, turned about, +muffled himself up, and settled down once more. + +Once he fancied that he heard a distant cock-crow. He felt +glad, turned down his coat-collar and listened with strained +attention, but in spite of all his efforts nothing could be +heard but the wind whistling between the shafts, the flapping +of the kerchief, and the snow pelting against the frame of the +sledge. + +Nikita sat just as he had done all the time, not moving and not +even answering Vasili Andreevich who had addressed him a +couple of times. 'He doesn't care a bit--he's probably +asleep!' thought Vasili Andreevich with vexation, looking +behind the sledge at Nikita who was covered with a thick layer +of snow. + +Vasili Andreevich got up and lay down again some twenty times. +It seemed to him that the night would never end. 'It must be +getting near morning,' he thought, getting up and looking +around. 'Let's have a look at my watch. It will be cold to +unbutton, but if I only know that it's getting near morning I +shall at any rate feel more cheerful. We could begin +harnessing.' + +In the depth of his heart Vasili Andreevich knew that it could +not yet be near morning, but he was growing more and more +afraid, and wished both to get to know and yet to deceive +himself. He carefully undid the fastening of his sheepskin, +pushed in his hand, and felt about for a long time before he +got to his waistcoat. With great difficulty he managed to draw +out his silver watch with its enamelled flower design, and +tried to make out the time. He could not see anything without +a light. Again he went down on his knees and elbows as he had +done when he lighted a cigarette, got out his matches, and +proceeded to strike one. This time he went to work more +carefully, and feeling with his fingers for a match with the +largest head and the greatest amount of phosphorus, lit it at +the first try. Bringing the face of the watch under the light +he could hardly believe his eyes. . . . It was only ten +minutes past twelve. Almost the whole night was still before +him. + +'Oh, how long the night is!' he thought, feeling a cold shudder +run down his back, and having fastened his fur coats again and +wrapped himself up, he snuggled into a corner of the sledge +intending to wait patiently. Suddenly, above the monotonous +roar of the wind, he clearly distinguished another new and +living sound. It steadily strengthened, and having become +quite clear diminished just as gradually. Beyond all doubt it +was a wolf, and he was so near that the movement of his jaws as +he changed his cry was brought down the wind. Vasili +Andreevich turned back the collar of his coat and listened +attentively. Mukhorty too strained to listen, moving his ears, +and when the wolf had ceased its howling he shifted from foot +to foot and gave a warning snort. After this Vasili Andreevich +could not fall asleep again or even calm himself. The more he +tried to think of his accounts, his business, his reputation, +his worth and his wealth, the more and more was he mastered by +fear, and regrets that he had not stayed the night at Grishkino +dominated and mingled in all his thoughts. + +'Devil take the forest! Things were all right without it, +thank God. Ah, if we had only put up for the night!' he said +to himself. 'They say it's drunkards that freeze,' he thought, +'and I have had some drink.' And observing his sensations he +noticed that he was beginning to shiver, without knowing +whether it was from cold or from fear. He tried to wrap +himself up and lie down as before, but could no longer do so. +He could not stay in one position. He wanted to get up, to do +something to master the gathering fear that was rising in him +and against which he felt himself powerless. He again got out +his cigarettes and matches, but only three matches were left +and they were bad ones. The phosphorus rubbed off them all +without lighting. + +'The devil take you! Damned thing! Curse you!' he muttered, +not knowing whom or what he was cursing, and he flung away the +crushed cigarette. He was about to throw away the matchbox +too, but checked the movement of his hand and put the box in +his pocket instead. He was seized with such unrest that he +could no longer remain in one spot. He climbed out of the +sledge and standing with his back to the wind began to shift +his belt again, fastening it lower down in the waist and +tightening it. + +'What's the use of lying and waiting for death? Better mount +the horse and get away!' The thought suddenly occurred to +him. 'The horse will move when he has someone on his back. +As for him,' he thought of Nikita--'it's all the same to him +whether he lives or dies. What is his life worth? He won't +grudge his life, but I have something to live for, thank God.' + +He untied the horse, threw the reins over his neck and tried to +mount, but his coats and boots were so heavy that he failed. +Then he clambered up in the sledge and tried to mount from +there, but the sledge tilted under his weight, and he failed +again. At last he drew Mukhorty nearer to the sledge, +cautiously balanced on one side of it, and managed to lie on +his stomach across the horse's back. After lying like that for +a while he shifted forward once and again, threw a leg over, +and finally seated himself, supporting his feet on the loose +breeching-straps. The shaking of the sledge awoke Nikita. He +raised himself, and it seemed to Vasili Andreevich that he said +something. + +'Listen to such fools as you! Am I to die like this for +nothing?' exclaimed Vasili Andreevich. And tucking the loose +skirts of his fur coat in under his knees, he turned the horse +and rode away from the sledge in the direction in which he +thought the forest and the forester's hut must be. + + + +VII + +From the time he had covered himself with the sackcloth and +seated himself behind the sledge, Nikita had not stirred. Like +all those who live in touch with nature and have known want, he +was patient and could wait for hours, even days, without +growing restless or irritable. He heard his master call him, +but did not answer because he did not want to move or talk. +Though he still felt some warmth from the tea he had drunk and +from his energetic struggle when clambering about in the +snowdrift, he knew that this warmth would not last long and +that he had no strength left to warm himself again by moving +about, for he felt as tired as a horse when it stops and +refuses to go further in spite of the whip, and its master sees +that it must be fed before it can work again. The foot in the +boot with a hole in it had already grown numb, and he could no +longer feel his big toe. Besides that, his whole body began to +feel colder and colder. + +The thought that he might, and very probably would, die that +night occurred to him, but did not seem particularly unpleasant +or dreadful. It did not seem particularly unpleasant, because +his whole life had been not a continual holiday, but on the +contrary an unceasing round of toil of which he was beginning +to feel weary. And it did not seem particularly dreadful, +because besides the masters he had served here, like Vasili +Andreevich, he always felt himself dependent on the Chief +Master, who had sent him into this life, and he knew that when +dying he would still be in that Master's power and would not be +ill-used by Him. 'It seems a pity to give up what one is used +to and accustomed to. But there's nothing to be done, I shall +get used to the new things.' + +'Sins?' he thought, and remembered his drunkenness, the money +that had gone on drink, how he had offended his wife, his +cursing, his neglect of church and of the fasts, and all the +things the priest blamed him for at confession. 'Of course they +are sins. But then, did I take them on of myself? That's +evidently how God made me. Well, and the sins? Where am I to +escape to?' + +So at first he thought of what might happen to him that night, +and then did not return to such thoughts but gave himself up to +whatever recollections came into his head of themselves. Now +he thought of Martha's arrival, of the drunkenness among the +workers and his own renunciation of drink, then of their +present journey and of Taras's house and the talk about the +breaking-up of the family, then of his own lad, and of Mukhorty +now sheltered under the drugget, and then of his master who +made the sledge creak as he tossed about in it. 'I expect +you're sorry yourself that you started out, dear man,' he +thought. 'It would seem hard to leave a life such as his! +It's not like the likes of us.' + +Then all these recollections began to grow confused and got +mixed in his head, and he fell asleep. + +But when Vasili Andreevich, getting on the horse, jerked the +sledge, against the back of which Nikita was leaning, and it +shifted away and hit him in the back with one of its runners, +he awoke and had to change his position whether he liked it or +not. Straightening his legs with difficulty and shaking the +snow off them he got up, and an agonizing cold immediately +penetrated his whole body. On making out what was happening he +called to Vasili Andreevich to leave him the drugget which the +horse no longer needed, so that he might wrap himself in it. + +But Vasili Andreevich did not stop, but disappeared amid the +powdery snow. + +Left alone Nikita considered for a moment what he should do. +He felt that he had not the strength to go off in search of a +house. It was no longer possible to sit down in his old +place--it was by now all filled with snow. He felt that he +could not get warmer in the sledge either, for there was +nothing to cover himself with, and his coat and sheepskin no +longer warmed him at all. He felt as cold as though he had +nothing on but a shirt. He became frightened. 'Lord, heavenly +Father!' he muttered, and was comforted by the consciousness +that he was not alone but that there was One who heard him and +would not abandon him. He gave a deep sigh, and keeping the +sackcloth over his head he got inside the sledge and lay down +in the place where his master had been. + +But he could not get warm in the sledge either. At first he +shivered all over, then the shivering ceased and little by +little he began to lose consciousness. He did not know whether +he was dying or falling asleep, but felt equally prepared for +the one as for the other. + + + +VIII + +Meanwhile Vasili Andreevich, with his feet and the ends of the +reins, urged the horse on in the direction in which for some +reason he expected the forest and forester's hut to be. The +snow covered his eyes and the wind seemed intent on stopping +him, but bending forward and constantly lapping his coat over +and pushing it between himself and the cold harness pad which +prevented him from sitting properly, he kept urging the horse +on. Mukhorty ambled on obediently though with difficulty, in +the direction in which he was driven. + +Vasili Andreevich rode for about five minutes straight ahead, +as he thought, seeing nothing but the horse's head and the +white waste, and hearing only the whistle of the wind about the +horse's ears and his coat collar. + +Suddenly a dark patch showed up in front of him. His heart +beat with joy, and he rode towards the object, already seeing +in imagination the walls of village houses. But the dark patch +was not stationary, it kept moving; and it was not a village +but some tall stalks of wormwood sticking up through the snow +on the boundary between two fields, and desperately tossing +about under the pressure of the wind which beat it all to one +side and whistled through it. The sight of that wormwood +tormented by the pitiless wind made Vasili Andreevich shudder, +he knew not why, and he hurriedly began urging the horse on, +not noticing that when riding up to the wormwood he had quite +changed his direction and was now heading the opposite way, +though still imagining that he was riding towards where the +hut should be. But the horse kept making towards the right, +and Vasili Andreevich kept guiding it to the left. + +Again something dark appeared in front of him. Again he +rejoiced, convinced that now it was certainly a village. But +once more it was the same boundary line overgrown with +wormwood, once more the same wormwood desperately tossed by +the wind and carrying unreasoning terror to his heart. But its +being the same wormwood was not all, for beside is* there was a +horse's track partly snowed over. Vasili Andreevich stopped, +stooped down and looked carefully. It was a horse-track only +partially covered with snow, and could be none but his own +horse's hoofprints. He had evidently gone round in a small +circle. 'I shall perish like that!' he thought, and not to +give way to his terror he urged on the horse still more, +peering into the snowy darkness in which he saw only flitting +and fitful points of light. Once he thought he heard the +barking of dogs or the howling of wolves, but the sounds were +so faint and indistinct that he did not know whether he heard +them or merely imagined them, and he stopped and began to +listen intently. + +Suddenly some terrible, deafening cry resounded near his ears, +and everything shivered and shook under him. He seized +Mukhorty's neck, but that too was shaking all over and the +terrible cry grew still more frightful. For some seconds +Vasili Andreevich could not collect himself or understand what +was happening. It was only that Mukhorty, whether to encourage +himself or to call for help, had neighed loudly and +resonantly. 'Ugh, you wretch! How you frightened me, damn +you!' thought Vasili Andreevich. But even when he understood +the cause of his terror he could not shake it off. + +'I must calm myself and think things over,' he said to himself, +but yet he could not stop, and continued to urge the horse on, +without noticing that he was now going with the wind instead of +against it. His body, especially between his legs where it +touched the pad of the harness and was not covered by his +overcoats, was getting painfully cold, especially when the +horse walked slowly. His legs and arms trembled and his +breathing came fast. He saw himself perishing amid this +dreadful snowy waste, and could see no means of escape. + +Suddenly the horse under him tumbled into something and, +sinking into a snow-drift, began to plunge and fell on his +side. Vasili Andreevich jumped off, and in so doing dragged to +one side the breechband on which his foot was resting, and +twisted round the pad to which he held as he dismounted. As +soon as he had jumped off, the horse struggled to his feet, +plunged forward, gave one leap and another, neighed again, and +dragging the drugget and the breechband after him, disappeared, +leaving Vasili Andreevich alone on the snow-drift. + +The latter pressed on after the horse, but the snow lay so deep +and his coats were so heavy that, sinking above his knees at +each step, he stopped breathless after taking not more than +twenty steps. 'The copse, the oxen, the lease-hold, the shop, +the tavern, the house with the iron-roofed barn, and my heir,' +thought he. 'How can I leave all that? What does this mean? +It cannot be!' These thoughts flashed through his mind. Then +he thought of the wormwood tossed by the wind, which he had +twice ridden past, and he was seized with such terror that he +did not believe in the reality of what was happening to him. +'Can this be a dream?' he thought, and tried to wake up but +could not. It was real snow that lashed his face and covered +him and chilled his right hand from which he had lost the +glove, and this was a real desert in which he was now left +alone like that wormwood, awaiting an inevitable, speedy, and +meaningless death. + +'Queen of Heaven! Holy Father Nicholas, teacher of +temperance!' he thought, recalling the service of the day +before and the holy icon with its black face and gilt frame, +and the tapers which he sold to be set before that icon and +which were almost immediately brought back to him scarcely +burnt at all, and which he put away in the store-chest. He +began to pray to that same Nicholas the Wonder-Worker to save +him, promising him a thanksgiving service and some candles. +But he clearly and indubitably realized that the icon, its +frame, the candles, the priest, and the thanksgiving service, +though very important and necessary in church, could do nothing +for him here, and that there was and could be no connexion +between those candles and services and his present disastrous +plight. 'I must not despair,' he thought. 'I must follow the +horse's track before it is snowed under. He will lead me out, +or I may even catch him. Only I must not hurry, or I shall +stick fast and be more lost than ever.' + +But in spite of his resolution to go quietly, he rushed forward +and even ran, continually falling, getting up and falling +again. The horse's track was already hardly visible in places +where the snow did not lie deep. 'I am lost!' thought Vasili +Andreevich. 'I shall lose the track and not catch the horse.' +But at that moment he saw something black. It was Mukhorty, +and not only Mukhorty, but the sledge with the shafts and the +kerchief. Mukhorty, with the sacking and the breechband +twisted round to one side, was standing not in his former place +but nearer to the shafts, shaking his head which the reins he +was stepping on drew downwards. It turned out that Vasili +Andreevich had sunk in the same ravine Nikita had previously +fallen into, and that Mukhorty had been bringing him back to +the sledge and he had got off his back no more than fifty paces +from where the sledge was. + + + +IX + +Having stumbled back to the sledge Vasili Andreevich caught +hold of it and for a long time stood motionless, trying to calm +himself and recover his breath. Nikita was not in his former +place, but something, already covered with snow, was lying in +the sledge and Vasili Andreevich concluded that this was +Nikita. His terror had now quite left him, and if he felt any +fear it was lest the dreadful terror should return that he had +experienced when on the horse and especially when he was left +alone in the snow-drift. At any cost he had to avoid that +terror, and to keep it away he must do something--occupy +himself with something. And the first thing he did was to turn +his back to the wind and open his fur coat. Then, as soon as +he recovered his breath a little, he shook the snow out of his +boots and out of his left-hand glove (the right-hand glove was +hopelessly lost and by this time probably lying somewhere under +a dozen inches of snow); then as was his custom when going out +of his shop to buy grain from the peasants, he pulled his +girdle low down and tightened it and prepared for action. The +first thing that occurred to him was to free Mukhorty's leg +from the rein. Having done that, and tethered him to the iron +cramp at the front of the sledge where he had been before, he +was going round the horse's quarters to put the breechband and +pad straight and cover him with the cloth, but at that moment +he noticed that something was moving in the sledge and Nikita's +head rose up out of the snow that covered it. Nikita, who was +half frozen, rose with great difficulty and sat up, moving his +hand before his nose in a strange manner just as if he were +driving away flies. He waved his hand and said something, and +seemed to Vasili Andreevich to be calling him. Vasili +Andreevich left the cloth unadjusted and went up to the sledge. + +'What is it?' he asked. 'What are you saying?' + +'I'm dy . . . ing, that's what,' said Nikita brokenly and with +difficulty. 'Give what is owing to me to my lad, or to my +wife, no matter.' + +'Why, are you really frozen?' asked Vasili Andreevich. + +'I feel it's my death. Forgive me for Christ's sake . . .' +said Nikita in a tearful voice, continuing to wave his hand +before his face as if driving away flies. + +Vasili Andreevich stood silent and motionless for half a +minute. Then suddenly, with the same resolution with which he +used to strike hands when making a good purchase, he took a +step back and turning up his sleeves began raking the snow off +Nikita and out of the sledge. Having done this he hurriedly +undid his girdle, opened out his fur coat, and having pushed +Nikita down, lay down on top of him, covering him not only with +his fur coat but with the whole of his body, which glowed with +warmth. After pushing the skirts of his coat between Nikita +and the sides of the sledge, and holding down its hem with his +knees, Vasili Andreevich lay like that face down, with his head +pressed against the front of the sledge. Here he no longer +heard the horse's movements or the whistling of the wind, but +only Nikita's breathing. At first and for a long time Nikita +lay motionless, then he sighed deeply and moved. + +'There, and you say you are dying! Lie still and get warm, +that's our way . . .' began Vasili Andreevich. + +But to his great surprise he could say no more, for tears came +to his eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver rapidly. He +stopped speaking and only gulped down the risings in his +throat. 'Seems I was badly frightened and have gone quite +weak,' he thought. But this weakness was not only unpleasant, +but gave him a peculiar joy such as he had never felt before. + +'That's our way!' he said to himself, experiencing a strange +and solemn tenderness. He lay like that for a long time, +wiping his eyes on the fur of his coat and tucking under his +knee the right skirt, which the wind kept turning up. + +But he longed so passionately to tell somebody of his joyful +condition that he said: 'Nikita!' + +'It's comfortable, warm!' came a voice from beneath. + +'There, you see, friend, I was going to perish. And you would +have been frozen, and I should have . . .' + +But again his jaws began to quiver and his eyes to fill with +tears, and he could say no more. + +'Well, never mind,' he thought. 'I know about myself what I +know.' + +He remained silent and lay like that for a long time. + +Nikita kept him warm from below and his fur coats from above. +Only his hands, with which he kept his coat-skirts down round +Nikita's sides, and his legs which the wind kept uncovering, +began to freeze, especially his right hand which had no glove. +But he did not think of his legs or of his hands but only of +how to warm the peasant who was lying under him. He looked out +several times at Mukhorty and could see that his back was +uncovered and the drugget and breeching lying on the snow, and +that he ought to get up and cover him, but he could not bring +himself to leave Nikita and disturb even for a moment the +joyous condition he was in. He no longer felt any kind of +terror. + +'No fear, we shan't lose him this time!' he said to himself, +referring to his getting the peasant warm with the same +boastfulness with which he spoke of his buying and selling. + +Vasili Andreevich lay in that way for one hour, another, and a +third, but he was unconscious of the passage of time. At first +impressions of the snow-storm, the sledge-shafts, and the horse +with the shaft-bow shaking before his eyes, kept passing +through his mind, then he remembered Nikita lying under him, +then recollections of the festival, his wife, the +police-officer, and the box of candles, began to mingle with +these; then again Nikita, this time lying under that box, then +the peasants, customers and traders, and the white walls of his +house with its iron roof with Nikita lying underneath, +presented themselves to his imagination. Afterwards all these +impressions blended into one nothingness. As the colours of +the rainbow unite into one white light, so all these different +impressions mingled into one, and he fell asleep. + +For a long time he slept without dreaming, but just before dawn +the visions recommenced. It seemed to him that he was standing +by the box of tapers and that Tikhon's wife was asking for a +five kopek taper for the Church fete. He wished to take one out +and give it to her, but his hands would not life, being held +tight in his pockets. He wanted to walk round the box but his +feet would not move and his new clean goloshes had grown to the +stone floor, and he could neither lift them nor get his feet +out of the goloshes. Then the taper-box was no longer a box +but a bed, and suddenly Vasili Andreevich saw himself lying in +his bed at home. He was lying in his bed and could not get up. +Yet it was necessary for him to get up because Ivan Matveich, +the police-officer, would soon call for him and he had to go +with him--either to bargain for the forest or to put +Mukhorty's breeching straight. + +He asked his wife: 'Nikolaevna, hasn't he come yet?' 'No, he +hasn't,' she replied. He heard someone drive up to the front +steps. 'It must be him.' 'No, he's gone past.' 'Nikolaevna! +I say, Nikolaevna, isn't he here yet?' 'No.' He was still +lying on his bed and could not get up, but was always waiting. +And this waiting was uncanny and yet joyful. Then suddenly his +joy was completed. He whom he was expecting came; not Ivan +Matveich the police-officer, but someone else--yet it was he +whom he had been waiting for. He came and called him; and it +was he who had called him and told him to lie down on Nikita. +And Vasili Andreevich was glad that that one had come for him. + +'I'm coming!' he cried joyfully, and that cry awoke him, but +woke him up not at all the same person he had been when he fell +asleep. He tried to get up but could not, tried to move his +arm and could not, to move his leg and also could not, to turn +his head and could not. He was surprised but not at all +disturbed by this. He understood that this was death, and was +not at all disturbed by that either. + +He remembered that Nikita was lying under him and that he had +got warm and was alive, and it seemed to him that he was Nikita +and Nikita was he, and that his life was not in himself but in +Nikita. He strained his ears and heard Nikita breathing and +even slightly snoring. 'Nikita is alive, so I too am alive!' +he said to himself triumphantly. + +And he remembered his money, his shop, his house, the buying +and selling, and Mironov's millions, and it was hard for him to +understand why that man, called Vasili Brekhunov, had troubled +himself with all those things with which he had been troubled. + +'Well, it was because he did not know what the real thing was,' +he thought, concerning that Vasili Brekhunov. 'He did not +know, but now I know and know for sure. Now I know!' And again +he heard the voice of the one who had called him before. 'I'm +coming! Coming!' he responded gladly, and his whole being was +filled with joyful emotion. He felt himself free and that +nothing could hold him back any longer. + +After that Vasili Andreevich neither saw, heard, nor felt +anything more in this world. + +All around the snow still eddied. The same whirlwinds of snow +circled about, covering the dead Vasili Andreevich's fur coat, +the shivering Mukhorty, the sledge, now scarcely to be seen, +and Nikita lying at the bottom of it, kept warm beneath his +dead master. + + + +X + +Nikita awoke before daybreak. He was aroused by the cold that +had begun to creep down his back. He had dreamt that he was +coming from the mill with a load of his master's flour and when +crossing the stream had missed the bridge and let the cart get +stuck. And he saw that he had crawled under the cart and was +trying to lift it by arching his back. But strange to say the +cart did not move, it stuck to his back and he could neither +lift it nor get out from under it. It was crushing the whole +of his loins. And how cold it felt! Evidently he must crawl +out. 'Have done!' he exclaimed to whoever was pressing the +cart down on him. 'Take out the sacks!' But the cart pressed +down colder and colder, and then he heard a strange knocking, +awoke completely, and remembered everything. The cold cart was +his dead and frozen master lying upon him. And the knock was +produced by Mukhorty, who had twice struck the sledge with his +hoof. + +'Andreevich! Eh, Andreevich!' Nikita called cautiously, +beginning to realize the truth, and straightening his back. +But Vasili Andreevich did not answer and his stomach and legs +were stiff and cold and heavy like iron weights. + +'He must have died! May the Kingdom of Heaven be his!' thought +Nikita. + +He turned his head, dug with his hand through the snow about +him and opened his eyes. It was daylight; the wind was +whistling as before between the shafts, and the snow was +falling in the same way, except that it was no longer driving +against the frame of the sledge but silently covered both +sledge and horse deeper and deeper, and neither the horse's +movements nor his breathing were any longer to be heard. + +'He must have frozen too,' thought Nikita of Mukhorty, and +indeed those hoof knocks against the sledge, which had awakened +Nikita, were the last efforts the already numbed Mukhorty had +made to keep on his feet before dying. + +'O Lord God, it seems Thou art calling me too!' said Nikita. +'Thy Holy Will be done. But it's uncanny. . . . Still, a man +can't die twice and must die once. If only it would come +soon!' + +And he again drew in his head, closed his eyes, and became +unconscious, fully convinced that now he was certainly and +finally dying. + + +It was not till noon that day that peasants dug Vasili +Andreevich and Nikita out of the snow with their shovels, not +more than seventy yards from the road and less than half a mile +from the village. + +The snow had hidden the sledge, but the shafts and the kerchief +tied to them were still visible. Mukhorty, buried up to his +belly in snow, with the breeching and drugget hanging down, +stood all white, his dead head pressed against his frozen +throat: icicles hung from his nostrils, his eyes were covered +with hoar-frost as though filled with tears, and he had grown +so thin in that one night that he was nothing but skin and +bone. + +Vasili Andreevich was stiff as a frozen carcass, and when they +rolled him off Nikita his legs remained apart and his arms +stretched out as they had been. His bulging hawk eyes were +frozen, and his open mouth under his clipped moustache was full +of snow. But Nikita though chilled through was still alive. +When he had been brought to, he felt sure that he was already +dead and that what was taking place with him was no longer +happening in this world but in the next. When he heard the +peasants shouting as they dug him out and rolled the frozen +body of Vasili Andreevich from off him, he was at first +surprised that in the other world peasants should be shouting +in the same old way and had the same kind of body, and then +when he realized that he was still in this world he was sorry +rather than glad, especially when he found that the toes on +both his feet were frozen. + +Nikita lay in hospital for two months. They cut off three of +his toes, but the others recovered so that he was still able to +work and went on living for another twenty years, first as a +farm-labourer, then in his old age as a watchman. He died at +home as he had wished, only this year, under the icons with a +lighted taper in his hands. Before he died he asked his wife's +forgiveness and forgave her for the cooper. He also took leave +of his son and grandchildren, and died sincerely glad that he +was relieving his son and daughter-in-law of the burden of +having to feed him, and that he was now really passing from +this life of which he was weary into that other life which +every year and every hour grew clearer and more desirable to +him. Whether he is better or worse off there where he awoke +after his death, whether he was disappointed or found there +what he expected, we shall all soon learn. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy + diff --git a/old/mramn10.zip b/old/mramn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bb5136 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mramn10.zip |