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Master and Man
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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.
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III
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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.
āWhy, this is Grishkino,ā said Vasili Andreevich.
āSo it is,ā 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.
āWho are you?ā 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 driverās seat.
He was Isay, a peasant of Vasili Andreevichās acquaintance, and well known as the principal horse-thief in the district.
āAh, Vasili Andreevich! Where are you off to?ā said Isay, enveloping Nikita in the odour of the vodka he had drunk.
āWe were going to Goryachkin.ā
āAnd look where youāve got to! You should have gone through Molchanovka.ā
āShould have, but didnāt manage it,ā said Vasili Andreevich, holding in the horse.
āThatās a good horse,ā said Isay, with a shrewd glance at Mukhorty, and with a practised hand he tightened the loosened knot high in the horseās bushy tail.
āAre you going to stay the night?ā
āNo, friend. I must get on.ā
āYour business must be pressing. And who is this? Ah, Nikita Stepanych!ā
āWho else?ā replied Nikita. āBut I say, good friend, how are we to avoid going astray again?ā
āWhere can you go astray here? Turn back straight down the street and then when you come out keep straight on. Donāt take to the left. You will come out onto the high road, and then turn to the right.ā
āAnd where do we turn off the high road? As in summer, or the winter way?ā asked Nikita.
āThe winter way. As soon as you turn off youāll see some bushes, and opposite them there is a way-markāa large oak, one with branchesāand thatās the way.ā
Vasili Andreevich turned the horse back and drove through the outskirts of the village.
āWhy not stay the night?ā 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 horseās 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.
āPass on... hey there... get in front!ā 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.
āWho are you?ā shouted Vasili Andreevich.
āFrom A-a-a...ā was all that could be heard.
āI say, where are you from?ā
āFrom A-a-a-a!ā one of the peasants shouted with all his might, but still it was impossible to make out who they were.
āGet along! Keep up!ā shouted another, ceaselessly beating his horse with the switch.
āSo youāre from a feast, it seems?ā
āGo on, go on! Faster, Simon! Get in front! Faster!ā
The wings of the sledges bumped against one another, almost got jammed but managed to separate, and the peasantsā 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 Nikitaās shoulder and then began to fall behind.
āJust see what liquor does!ā said Nikita. āTheyāve tired that little horse to death. What pagans!ā
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.
āYou know weāre off the track again!ā said Vasili Andreevich.
āHowās that?ā
āWhy, there are no way-marks to be seen. We must have got off the road again.ā
āWell, if weāve lost the road we must find it,ā 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.
āThere is no road here. There may be farther on,ā he said, getting into the sledge.
It was already growing dark. The snow-storm had not increased but had also not subsided.
āIf we could only hear those peasants!ā said Vasili Andreevich.
āWell they havenāt caught us up. We must have gone far astray. Or maybe they have lost their way too.ā
āWhere are we to go then?ā asked Vasili Andreevich.
āWhy, we must let the horse take its own way,ā said Nikita. āHe will take us right. Let me have the reins.ā
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 favouriteās 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.
āThe one thing he canāt do is to talk,ā Nikita kept saying. āSee what he is doing! Go on, go on! You know best. Thatās it, thatās it!ā
The wind was now blowing from behind and it felt warmer.
āYes, heās clever,ā Nikita continued, admiring the horse. āA Kirgiz horse is strong but stupid. But this oneājust see what heās doing with his ears! He doesnāt need any telegraph. He can scent a mile off.ā
Before another half-hour had passed they saw something dark ahead of themāa wood or a villageāand stakes again appeared to the right. They had evidently come out onto the road.
āWhy, thatās Grishkino again!ā 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.
āWho is there?ā a voice replied to his knock.
āFrom Kresty, the Brekhunovs, dear fellow,ā answered Nikita. āJust come out for a minute.ā
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.
āIs that you, Andreevich?ā asked the old ma...
Table of contents
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
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