A Sportsman's Sketches
by
Ivan Turgenev
Part 1 out of 4
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
A SPORTSMAN'S
SKETCHES
BY
IVAN TURGENEV
_Translated from the Russian
By CONSTANCE GARNETT_
VOLUME I
CONTENTS
I. HOR AND KALINITCH
II. YERMOLAI AND THE MILLER'S WIFE
III. RASPBERRY SPRING
IV. THE DISTRICT DOCTOR
V. MY NEIGHBOUR RADILOV
VI. THE PEASANT PROPRIETOR OVSYANIKOV
VII. LGOV
VIII. BYEZHIN PRAIRIE
IX. KASSYAN OF FAIR SPRINGS
X. THE AGENT
XI. THE COUNTING-HOUSE
XII. BIRYUK
XIII. TWO COUNTRY GENTLEMEN
XIV. LEBEDYAN
I
HOR AND KALINITCH
Anyone who has chanced to pass from the Bolhovsky district into the
Zhizdrinsky district, must have been impressed by the striking
difference between the race of people in the province of Orel and the
population of the province of Kaluga. The peasant of Orel is not tall,
is bent in figure, sullen and suspicious in his looks; he lives in
wretched little hovels of aspen-wood, labours as a serf in the fields,
and engages in no kind of trading, is miserably fed, and wears slippers
of bast: the rent-paying peasant of Kaluga lives in roomy cottages of
pine-wood; he is tall, bold, and cheerful in his looks, neat and clean
of countenance; he carries on a trade in butter and tar, and on
holidays he wears boots. The village of the Orel province (we are
speaking now of the eastern part of the province) is usually situated
in the midst of ploughed fields, near a water-course which has been
converted into a filthy pool. Except for a few of the ever-
accommodating willows, and two or three gaunt birch-trees, you do not
see a tree for a mile round; hut is huddled up against hut, their roofs
covered with rotting thatch.... The villages of Kaluga, on the
contrary, are generally surrounded by forest; the huts stand more
freely, are more upright, and have boarded roofs; the gates fasten
closely, the hedge is not broken down nor trailing about; there are no
gaps to invite the visits of the passing pig.... And things are much
better in the Kaluga province for the sportsman. In the Orel province
the last of the woods and copses will have disappeared five years
hence, and there is no trace of moorland left; in Kaluga, on the
contrary, the moors extend over tens, the forest over hundreds of
miles, and a splendid bird, the grouse, is still extant there; there
are abundance of the friendly larger snipe, and the loud-clapping
partridge cheers and startles the sportsman and his dog by its abrupt
upward flight.
On a visit to the Zhizdrinsky district in search of sport, I met in the
fields a petty proprietor of the Kaluga province called Polutikin, and
made his acquaintance. He was an enthusiastic sportsman; it follows,
therefore, that he was an excellent fellow. He was liable, indeed, to a
few weaknesses; he used, for instance, to pay his addresses to every
unmarried heiress in the province, and when he had been refused her
hand and house, broken-hearted he confided his sorrows to all his
friends and acquaintances, and continued to shower offerings of sour
peaches and other raw produce from his garden upon the young lady's
relatives; he was fond of repeating one and the same anecdote, which,
in spite of Mr. Polutikin's appreciation of its merits, had certainly
never amused anyone; he admired the works of Akim Nahimov and the novel
_Pinna_; he stammered; he called his dog Astronomer; instead of
'however' said 'howsomever'; and had established in his household a
French system of cookery, the secret of which consisted, according to
his cook's interpretation, in a complete transformation of the natural
taste of each dish; in this _artiste's_ hands meat assumed the flavour
of fish, fish of mushrooms, macaroni of gunpowder; to make up for this,
not a single carrot went into the soup without taking the shape of a
rhombus or a trapeze. But, with the exception of these few and
insignificant failings, Mr. Polutikin was, as has been said already, an
excellent fellow.
On the first day of my acquaintance with Mr. Polutikin, he invited me
to stay the night at his house.
'It will be five miles farther to my house,' he added; 'it's a long way
to walk; let us first go to Hor's.' (The reader must excuse my omitting
his stammer.)
'Who is Hor?'
'A peasant of mine. He is quite close by here.'
We went in that direction. In a well-cultivated clearing in the middle
of the forest rose Hor's solitary homestead. It consisted of several
pine-wood buildings, enclosed by plank fences; a porch ran along the
front of the principal building, supported on slender posts. We went
in. We were met by a young lad of twenty, tall and good-looking.
'Ah, Fedya! is Hor at home?' Mr. Polutikin asked him.
'No. Hor has gone into town,' answered the lad, smiling and showing a
row of snow-white teeth. 'You would like the little cart brought out?'
'Yes, my boy, the little cart. And bring us some kvas.'
We went into the cottage. Not a single cheap glaring print was pasted
up on the clean boards of the walls; in the corner, before the heavy,
holy picture in its silver setting, a lamp was burning; the table of
linden-wood had been lately planed and scrubbed; between the joists and
in the cracks of the window-frames there were no lively Prussian
beetles running about, nor gloomy cockroaches in hiding. The young lad
soon reappeared with a great white pitcher filled with excellent kvas,
a huge hunch of wheaten bread, and a dozen salted cucumbers in a wooden
bowl. He put all these provisions on the table, and then, leaning with
his back against the door, began to gaze with a smiling face at us. We
had not had time to finish eating our lunch when the cart was already
rattling before the doorstep. We went out. A curly-headed, rosy-cheeked
boy of fifteen was sitting in the cart as driver, and with difficulty
holding in the well-fed piebald horse. Round the cart stood six young
giants, very like one another, and Fedya.
'All of these Hor's sons!' said Polutikin.
'These are all Horkies' (_i.e._ wild cats), put in Fedya, who had come
after us on to the step; 'but that's not all of them: Potap is in the
wood, and Sidor has gone with old Hor to the town. Look out, Vasya,' he
went on, turning to the coachman; 'drive like the wind; you are driving
the master. Only mind what you're about over the ruts, and easy a
little; don't tip the cart over, and upset the master's stomach!'
The other Horkies smiled at Fedya's sally. 'Lift Astronomer in!' Mr.
Polutikin called majestically. Fedya, not without amusement, lifted the
dog, who wore a forced smile, into the air, and laid her at the bottom
of the cart. Vasya let the horse go. We rolled away. 'And here is my
counting-house,' said Mr. Polutikin suddenly to me, pointing to a
little low-pitched house. 'Shall we go in?' 'By all means.' 'It is no
longer used,' he observed, going in; 'still, it is worth looking at.'
The counting-house consisted of two empty rooms. The caretaker, a one-
eyed old man, ran out of the yard. 'Good day, Minyaitch,' said Mr.
Polutikin; 'bring us some water.' The one-eyed old man disappeared, and
at once returned with a bottle of water and two glasses. 'Taste it,'
Polutikin said to me; 'it is splendid spring water.' We drank off a
glass each, while the old man bowed low. 'Come, now, I think we can go
on,' said my new Friend. 'In that counting-house I sold the merchant
Alliluev four acres of forest-land for a good price.' We took our seats
in the cart, and in half-an-hour we had reached the court of the manor-
house.
'Tell me, please,' I asked Polutikin at supper; 'why does Hor live
apart from your other peasants?'
'Well, this is why; he is a clever peasant. Twenty-five years ago his
cottage was burnt down; so he came up to my late father and said:
"Allow me, Nikolai Kouzmitch," says he, "to settle in your forest, on
the bog. I will pay you a good rent." "But what do you want to settle
on the bog for?" "Oh, I want to; only, your honour, Nikolai Kouzmitch,
be so good as not to claim any labour from me, but fix a rent as you
think best." "Fifty roubles a year!" "Very well." "But I'll have no
arrears, mind!" "Of course, no arrears"; and so he settled on the bog.
Since then they have called him Hor' (_i.e._ wild cat).
'Well, and has he grown rich?' I inquired.
'Yes, he has grown rich. Now he pays me a round hundred for rent, and I
shall raise it again, I dare say. I have said to him more than once,
"Buy your freedom, Hor; come, buy your freedom." ... But he declares,
the rogue, that he can't; has no money, he says.... As though that were
likely....'
The next day, directly after our morning tea, we started out hunting
again. As we were driving through the village, Mr. Polutikin ordered
the coachman to stop at a low-pitched cottage and called loudly,
'Kalinitch!' 'Coming, your honour, coming' sounded a voice from the
yard; 'I am tying on my shoes.' We went on at a walk; outside the
village a man of about forty over-took us. He was tall and thin, with a
small and erect head. It was Kalinitch. His good-humoured; swarthy
face, somewhat pitted with small-pox, pleased me from the first glance.
Kalinitch (as I learnt afterwards) went hunting every day with his
master, carried his bag, and sometimes also his gun, noted where game
was to be found, fetched water, built shanties, and gathered
strawberries, and ran behind the droshky; Mr. Polutikin could not stir
a step without him. Kalinitch was a man of the merriest and gentlest
disposition; he was constantly singing to himself in a low voice, and
looking carelessly about him. He spoke a little through his nose, with
a laughing twinkle in his light blue eyes, and he had a habit of
plucking at his scanty, wedge-shaped beard with his hand. He walked not
rapidly, but with long strides, leaning lightly on a long thin staff.
He addressed me more than once during the day, and he waited on me
without, obsequiousness, but he looked after his master as if he were a
child. When the unbearable heat drove us at mid-day to seek shelter, he
took us to his beehouse in the very heart of the forest. There
Kalinitch opened the little hut for us, which was hung round with
bunches of dry scented herbs. He made us comfortable on some dry hay,
and then put a kind of bag of network over his head, took a knife, a
little pot, and a smouldering stick, and went to the hive to cut us out
some honey-comb. We had a draught of spring water after the warm
transparent honey, and then dropped asleep to the sound of the
monotonous humming of the bees and the rustling chatter of the leaves.
A slight gust of wind awakened me.... I opened my eyes and saw
Kalinitch: he was sitting on the threshold of the half-opened door,
carving a spoon with his knife. I gazed a long time admiring his face,
as sweet and clear as an evening sky. Mr. Polutikin too woke up. We did
not get up at once. After our long walk and our deep sleep it was
pleasant to lie without moving in the hay; we felt weary and languid in
body, our faces were in a slight glow of warmth, our eyes were closed
in delicious laziness. At last we got up, and set off on our wanderings
again till evening. At supper I began again to talk of Hor and
Kalinitch. 'Kalinitch is a good peasant,' Mr. Polutikin told me; 'he is
a willing and useful peasant; he can't farm his land properly; I am
always taking him away from it. He goes out hunting every day with
me.... You can judge for yourself how his farming must fare.'
I agreed with him, and we went to bed.
The next day Mr. Polutikin was obliged to go to town about some
business with his neighbour Pitchukoff. This neighbour Pitchukoff had
ploughed over some land of Polutikin's, and had flogged a peasant woman
of his on this same piece of land. I went out hunting alone, and before
evening I turned into Hor's house. On the threshold of the cottage I
was met by an old man--bald, short, broad-shouldered, and stout--Hor
himself. I looked with curiosity at the man. The cut of his face
recalled Socrates; there was the same high, knobby forehead, the same
little eyes, the same snub nose. We went into the cottage together. The
same Fedya brought me some milk and black bread. Hor sat down on a
bench, and, quietly stroking his curly beard, entered into conversation
with me. He seemed to know his own value; he spoke and moved slowly;
from time to time a chuckle came from between his long moustaches.
We discussed the sowing, the crops, the peasant's life.... He always
seemed to agree with me; only afterwards I had a sense of awkwardness
and felt I was talking foolishly.... In this way our conversation was
rather curious. Hor, doubtless through caution, expressed himself very
obscurely at times.... Here is a specimen of our talk.
"Tell me, Hor," I said to him, "why don't you buy your freedom from
your master?"
"And what would I buy my freedom for? Now I know my master, and I know
my rent.... We have a good master."
'It's always better to be free,' I remarked. Hor gave me a dubious
look.
'Surely,' he said.
'Well, then, why don't you buy your freedom?' Hor shook his head.
'What would you have me buy it with, your honour?'
'Oh, come, now, old man!'
'If Hor were thrown among free men,' he continued in an undertone, as
though to himself, 'everyone without a beard would be a better man than
Hor.'
'Then shave your beard.'
'What is a beard? a beard is grass: one can cut it.'
'Well, then?'
'But Hor will be a merchant straight away; and merchants have a fine
life, and they have beards.'
'Why, do you do a little trading too?' I asked him.
'We trade a little in a little butter and a little tar.... Would your
honour like the cart put to?'
'You're a close man and keep a tight rein on your tongue,' I thought to
myself. 'No,' I said aloud, 'I don't want the cart; I shall want to be
near your homestead to-morrow, and if you will let me, I will stay the
night in your hay-barn.'
'You are very welcome. But will you be comfortable in the barn? I will
tell the women to lay a sheet and put you a pillow.... Hey, girls!' he
cried, getting up from his place; 'here, girls!... And you, Fedya, go
with them. Women, you know, are foolish folk.'
A quarter of an hour later Fedya conducted me with a lantern to the
barn. I threw myself down on the fragrant hay; my dog curled himself up
at my feet; Fedya wished me good-night; the door creaked and slammed
to. For rather a long time I could not get to sleep. A cow came up to
the door, and breathed heavily twice; the dog growled at her with
dignity; a pig passed by, grunting pensively; a horse somewhere near
began to munch the hay and snort.... At last I fell asleep.
At sunrise Fedya awakened me. This brisk, lively young man pleased me;
and, from what I could see, he was old Hor's favourite too. They used
to banter one another in a very friendly way. The old man came to meet
me. Whether because I had spent the night under his roof, or for some
other reason, Hor certainly treated me far more cordially than the day
before.
'The samovar is ready,' he told me with a smile; 'let us come and have
tea.'
We took our seats at the table. A robust-looking peasant woman, one of
his daughters-in-law, brought in a jug of milk. All his sons came one
after another into the cottage.
'What a fine set of fellows you have!' I remarked to the old man.
'Yes,' he said, breaking off a tiny piece of sugar with his teeth; 'me
and my old woman have nothing to complain of, seemingly.'
'And do they all live with you?'
'Yes; they choose to, themselves, and so they live here.'
'And are they all married?'
'Here's one not married, the scamp!' he answered, pointing to Fedya,
who was leaning as before against the door. 'Vaska, he's still too
young; he can wait.'
'And why should I get married?' retorted Fedya; 'I'm very well off as I
am. What do I want a wife for? To squabble with, eh?'
'Now then, you ... ah, I know you! you wear a silver ring.... You'd
always be after the girls up at the manor house.... "Have done, do, for
shame!"' the old man went on, mimicking the servant girls. 'Ah, I know
you, you white-handed rascal!'
'But what's the good of a peasant woman?'
'A peasant woman--is a labourer,' said Hor seriously; 'she is the
peasant's servant.'
'And what do I want with a labourer?'
'I dare say; you'd like to play with the fire and let others burn their
fingers: we know the sort of chap you are.'
'Well, marry me, then. Well, why don't you answer?'
'There, that's enough, that's enough, giddy pate! You see we're
disturbing the gentleman. I'll marry you, depend on it.... And you,
your honour, don't be vexed with him; you see, he's only a baby; he's
not had time to get much sense.'
Fedya shook his head.
'Is Hor at home?' sounded a well-known voice; and Kalinitch came into
the cottage with a bunch of wild strawberries in his hands, which he
had gathered for his friend Hor. The old man gave him a warm welcome. I
looked with surprise at Kalinitch. I confess I had not expected such a
delicate attention on the part of a peasant.
That day I started out to hunt four hours later than usual, and the
following three days I spent at Hor's. My new friends interested me. I
don't know how I had gained their confidence, but they began to talk to
me without constraint. The two friends were not at all alike. Hor was
a positive, practical man, with a head for management, a rationalist;
Kalinitch, on the other hand, belonged to the order of idealists and
dreamers, of romantic and enthusiastic spirits. Hor had a grasp of
actuality--that is to say, he looked ahead, was saving a little money,
kept on good terms with his master and the other authorities; Kalinitch
wore shoes of bast, and lived from hand to mouth. Hor had reared a
large family, who were obedient and united; Kalinitch had once had a
wife, whom he had been afraid of, and he had had no children. Hor took
a very critical view of Mr. Polutikin; Kalinitch revered his master.
Hor loved Kalinitch, and took protecting care of him; Kalinitch loved
and respected Hor. Hor spoke little, chuckled, and thought for himself;
Kalinitch expressed himself with warmth, though he had not the flow of
fine language of a smart factory hand. But Kalinitch was endowed with
powers which even Hor recognised; he could charm away haemorrhages,
fits, madness, and worms; his bees always did well; he had a light
hand. Hor asked him before me to introduce a newly bought horse to his
stable, and with scrupulous gravity Kalinitch carried out the old
sceptic's request. Kalinitch was in closer contact with nature; Hor
with men and society. Kalinitch had no liking for argument, and
believed in everything blindly; Hor had reached even an ironical point
of view of life. He had seen and experienced much, and I learnt a good
deal from him. For instance, from his account I learnt that every year
before mowing-time a small, peculiar-looking cart makes its appearance
in the villages. In this cart sits a man in a long coat, who sells
scythes. He charges one rouble twenty-five copecks--a rouble and a half
in notes--for ready money; four roubles if he gives credit. All the
peasants, of course, take the scythes from him on credit. In two or
three weeks he reappears and asks for the money. As the peasant has
only just cut his oats, he is able to pay him; he goes with the
merchant to the tavern, and there the debt is settled. Some landowners
conceived the idea of buying the scythes themselves for ready money and
letting the peasants have them on credit for the same price; but the
peasants seemed dissatisfied, even dejected; they had deprived them of
the pleasure of tapping the scythe and listening to the ring of the
metal, turning it over and over in their hands, and telling the
scoundrelly city-trader twenty times over, 'Eh, my friend, you won't
take me in with your scythe!' The same tricks are played over the sale
of sickles, only with this difference, that the women have a hand in
the business then, and they sometimes drive the trader himself to the
necessity--for their good, of course--of beating them. But the women
suffer most ill-treatment through the following circumstances.
Contractors for the supply of stuff for paper factories employ for the
purchase of rags a special class of men, who in some districts are
called eagles. Such an 'eagle' receives two hundred roubles in bank-
notes from the merchant, and starts off in search of his prey. But,
unlike the noble bird from whom he has derived his name, he does not
swoop down openly and boldly upon it; quite the contrary; the 'eagle'
has recourse to deceit and cunning. He leaves his cart somewhere in a
thicket near the village, and goes himself to the back-yards and back-
doors, like someone casually passing, or simply a tramp. The women
scent out his proximity and steal out to meet him. The bargain is
hurriedly concluded. For a few copper half-pence a woman gives the
'eagle' not only every useless rag she has, but often even her
husband's shirt and her own petticoat. Of late the women have thought
it profitable to steal even from themselves, and to sell hemp in the
same way--a great extension and improvement of the business for the
'eagles'! To meet this, however, the peasants have grown more cunning
in their turn, and on the slightest suspicion, on the most distant
rumors of the approach of an 'eagle,' they have prompt and sharp
recourse to corrective and preventive measures. And, after all, wasn't
it disgraceful? To sell the hemp was the men's business--and they
certainly do sell it--not in the town (they would have to drag it there
themselves), but to traders who come for it, who, for want of scales,
reckon forty handfuls to the pood--and you know what a Russian's hand
is and what it can hold, especially when he 'tries his best'! As I had
had no experience and was not 'country-bred' (as they say in Orel) I
heard plenty of such descriptions. But Hor was not always the narrator;
he questioned me too about many things. He learned that I had been in
foreign parts, and his curiosity was aroused.... Kalinitch was not
behind him in curiosity; but he was more attracted by descriptions of
nature, of mountains and waterfalls, extraordinary buildings and great
towns; Hor was interested in questions of government and
administration. He went through everything in order. 'Well, is that
with them as it is with us, or different?... Come, tell us, your
honour, how is it?' 'Ah, Lord, thy will be done!' Kalinitch would
exclaim while I told my story; Hor did not speak, but frowned with his
bushy eyebrows, only observing at times, 'That wouldn't do for us;
still, it's a good thing--it's right.' All his inquiries, I cannot
recount, and it is unnecessary; but from our conversations I carried
away one conviction, which my readers will certainly not anticipate ...
the conviction that Peter the Great was pre-eminently a Russian--
Russian, above all, in his reforms. The Russian is so convinced of his
own strength and powers that he is not afraid of putting himself to
severe strain; he takes little interest in his past, and looks boldly
forward. What is good he likes, what is sensible he will have, and
where it comes from he does not care. His vigorous sense is fond of
ridiculing the thin theorising of the German; but, in Hor's words, 'The
Germans are curious folk,' and he was ready to learn from them a
little. Thanks to his exceptional position, his practical independence,
Hor told me a great deal which you could not screw or--as the peasants
say--grind with a grindstone, out of any other man. He did, in fact,
understand his position. Talking with Hor, I for the first time
listened to the simple, wise discourse of the Russian peasant. His
acquirements were, in his own opinion, wide enough; but he could not
read, though Kalinitch could. 'That ne'er-do-weel has school-learning,'
observed Hor, 'and his bees never die in the winter.' 'But haven't you
had your children taught to read?' Hor was silent a minute. 'Fedya can
read.' 'And the others?' 'The others can't.' 'And why?' The old man
made no answer, and changed the subject. However, sensible as he was,
he had many prejudices and crotchets. He despised women, for instance,
from the depths of his soul, and in his merry moments he amused himself
by jesting at their expense. His wife was a cross old woman who lay all
day long on the stove, incessantly grumbling and scolding; her sons
paid no attention to her, but she kept her daughters-in-law in the fear
of God. Very significantly the mother-in-law sings in the Russian
ballad: 'What a son art thou to me! What a head of a household! Thou
dost not beat thy wife; thou dost not beat thy young wife....' I once
attempted to intercede for the daughters-in-law, and tried to rouse
Hor's sympathy; but he met me with the tranquil rejoinder, 'Why did I
want to trouble about such ... trifles; let the women fight it out. ...
If anything separates them, it only makes it worse ... and it's not
worth dirtying one's hands over.' Sometimes the spiteful old woman got
down from the stove and called the yard dog out of the hay, crying,
'Here, here, doggie'; and then beat it on its thin back with the poker,
or she would stand in the porch and 'snarl,' as Hor expressed it, at
everyone that passed. She stood in awe of her husband though, and would
return, at his command, to her place on the stove. It was specially
curious to hear Hor and Kalinitch dispute whenever Mr. Polutikin was
touched upon.
'There, Hor, do let him alone,' Kalinitch would say. 'But why doesn't
he order some boots for you?' Hor retorted. 'Eh? boots!... what do I
want with boots? I am a peasant.' 'Well, so am I a peasant, but look!'
And Hor lifted up his leg and showed Kalinitch a boot which looked as
if it had been cut out of a mammoth's hide. 'As if you were like one of
us!' replied Kalinitch. 'Well, at least he might pay for your bast
shoes; you go out hunting with him; you must use a pair a day.' 'He
does give me something for bast shoes.' 'Yes, he gave you two coppers
last year.'
Kalinitch turned away in vexation, but Hor went off into a chuckle,
during which his little eyes completely disappeared.
Kalinitch sang rather sweetly and played a little on the balalaeca. Hor
was never weary of listening to him: all at once he would let his head
drop on one side and begin to chime in, in a lugubrious voice. He was
particularly fond of the song, 'Ah, my fate, my fate!' Fedya never lost
an opportunity of making fun of his father, saying, 'What are you so
mournful about, old man?' But Hor leaned his cheek on his hand, covered
his eyes, and continued to mourn over his fate.... Yet at other times
there could not be a more active man; he was always busy over
something--mending the cart, patching up the fence, looking after the
harness. He did not insist on a very high degree of cleanliness,
however; and, in answer to some remark of mine, said once, 'A cottage
ought to smell as if it were lived in.'
'Look,' I answered, 'how clean it is in Kalinitch's beehouse.'
'The bees would not live there else, your honour,' he said with a sigh.
'Tell me,' he asked me another time, 'have you an estate of your own?'
'Yes.' 'Far from here?' 'A hundred miles.' 'Do you live on your land,
your honour?' 'Yes.'
'But you like your gun best, I dare say?'
'Yes, I must confess I do.' 'And you do well, your honour; shoot grouse
to your heart's content, and change your bailiff pretty often.'
On the fourth day Mr. Polutikin sent for me in the evening. I was sorry
to part from the old man. I took my seat with Kalinitch in the trap.
'Well, good-bye, Hor--good luck to you,' I said; 'good-bye, Fedya.'
'Good-bye, your honour, good-bye; don't forget us.' We started; there
was the first red glow of sunset. 'It will be a fine day to-morrow,' I
remarked looking at the clear sky. 'No, it will rain,' Kalinitch
replied; 'the ducks yonder are splashing, and the scent of the grass is
strong.' We drove into the copse. Kalinitch began singing in an
undertone as he was jolted up and down on the driver's seat, and he
kept gazing and gazing at the sunset.
The next day I left the hospitable roof of Mr. Polutikin.
II
YERMOLAI AND THE MILLER'S WIFE
One evening I went with the huntsman Yermolai 'stand-shooting.' ... But
perhaps all my readers may not know what 'stand-shooting' is. I will
tell you.
A quarter of an hour before sunset in spring-time you go out into the
woods with your gun, but without your dog. You seek out a spot for
yourself on the outskirts of the forest, take a look round, examine
your caps, and glance at your companion. A quarter of an hour passes;
the sun has set, but it is still light in the forest; the sky is clear
and transparent; the birds are chattering and twittering; the young
grass shines with the brilliance of emerald.... You wait. Gradually the
recesses of the forest grow dark; the blood-red glow of the evening sky
creeps slowly on to the roots and the trunks of the trees, and keeps
rising higher and higher, passes from the lower, still almost leafless
branches, to the motionless, slumbering tree-tops.... And now even the
topmost branches are darkened; the purple sky fades to dark-blue. The
forest fragrance grows stronger; there is a scent of warmth and damp
earth; the fluttering breeze dies away at your side. The birds go to
sleep--not all at once--but after their kinds; first the finches are
hushed, a few minutes later the warblers, and after them the yellow
buntings. In the forest it grows darker and darker. The trees melt
together into great masses of blackness; in the dark-blue sky the first
stars come timidly out. All the birds are asleep. Only the redstarts
and the nuthatches are still chirping drowsily.... And now they too are
still. The last echoing call of the pee-wit rings over our heads; the
oriole's melancholy cry sounds somewhere in the distance; then the
nightingale's first note. Your heart is weary with suspense, when
suddenly--but only sportsmen can understand me--suddenly in the deep
hush there is a peculiar croaking and whirring sound, the measured
sweep of swift wings is heard, and the snipe, gracefully bending its
long beak, sails smoothly down behind a dark bush to meet your shot.
That is the meaning of 'stand-shooting.' And so I had gone out stand-
shooting with Yermolai; but excuse me, reader: I must first introduce
you to Yermolai.
Picture to yourself a tall gaunt man of forty-five, with a long thin
nose, a narrow forehead, little grey eyes, a bristling head of hair,
and thick sarcastic lips. This man wore, winter and summer alike, a
yellow nankin coat of German cut, but with a sash round the waist; he
wore blue pantaloons and a cap of astrakhan, presented to him in a
merry hour by a spendthrift landowner. Two bags were fastened on to his
sash, one in front, skilfully tied into two halves, for powder and for
shot; the other behind for game: wadding Yermolai used to produce out
of his peculiar, seemingly inexhaustible cap. With the money he gained
by the game he sold, he might easily have bought himself a cartridge-
box and powder-flask; but he never once even contemplated such a
purchase, and continued to load his gun after his old fashion, exciting
the admiration of all beholders by the skill with which he avoided the
risks of spilling or mixing his powder and shot. His gun was a single-
barrelled flint-lock, endowed, moreover, with a villainous habit of
'kicking.' It was due to this that Yermolai's right cheek was
permanently swollen to a larger size than the left. How he ever
succeeded in hitting anything with this gun, it would take a shrewd man
to discover--but he did. He had too a setter-dog, by name Valetka, a
most extraordinary creature. Yermolai never fed him. 'Me feed a dog!'
he reasoned; 'why, a dog's a clever beast; he finds a living for
himself.' And certainly, though Valetka's extreme thinness was a shock
even to an indifferent observer, he still lived and had a long life;
and in spite of his pitiable position he was not even once lost, and
never showed an inclination to desert his master. Once indeed, in his
youth, he had absented himself for two days, on courting bent, but this
folly was soon over with him. Valetka's most noticeable peculiarity was
his impenetrable indifference to everything in the world.... If it were
not a dog I was speaking of, I should have called him 'disillusioned.'
He usually sat with his cropped tail curled up under him, scowling and
twitching at times, and he never smiled. (It is well known that dogs
can smile, and smile very sweetly.) He was exceedingly ugly; and the
idle house-serfs never lost an opportunity of jeering cruelly at his
appearance; but all these jeers, and even blows, Valetka bore with
astonishing indifference. He was a source of special delight to the
cooks, who would all leave their work at once and give him chase with
shouts and abuse, whenever, through a weakness not confined to dogs, he
thrust his hungry nose through the half-open door of the kitchen,
tempting with its warmth and appetising smells. He distinguished
himself by untiring energy in the chase, and had a good scent; but if
he chanced to overtake a slightly wounded hare, he devoured it with
relish to the last bone, somewhere in the cool shade under the green
bushes, at a respectful distance from Yermolai, who was abusing him in
every known and unknown dialect. Yermolai belonged to one of my
neighbours, a landowner of the old style. Landowners of the old style
don't care for game, and prefer the domestic fowl. Only on
extraordinary occasions, such as birthdays, namedays, and elections,
the cooks of the old-fashioned landowners set to work to prepare some
long-beaked birds, and, falling into the state of frenzy peculiar to
Russians when they don't quite know what to do, they concoct such
marvellous sauces for them that the guests examine the proffered dishes
curiously and attentively, but rarely make up their minds to try them.
Yermolai was under orders to provide his master's kitchen with two
brace of grouse and partridges once a month. But he might live where
and how he pleased. They had given him up as a man of no use for work
of any kind--'bone lazy,' as the expression is among us in Orel. Powder
and shot, of course, they did not provide him, following precisely the
same principle in virtue of which he did not feed his dog. Yermolai was
a very strange kind of man; heedless as a bird, rather fond of talking,
awkward and vacant-looking; he was excessively fond of drink, and never
could sit still long; in walking he shambled along, and rolled from
side to side; and yet he got over fifty miles in the day with his
rolling, shambling gait. He exposed himself to the most varied
adventures: spent the night in the marshes, in trees, on roofs, or
under bridges; more than once he had got shut up in lofts, cellars, or
barns; he sometimes lost his gun, his dog, his most indispensable
garments; got long and severe thrashings; but he always returned home,
after a little while, in his clothes, and with his gun and his dog. One
could not call him a cheerful man, though one almost always found him
in an even frame of mind; he was looked on generally as an eccentric.
Yermolai liked a little chat with a good companion, especially over a
glass, but he would not stop long; he would get up and go. 'But where
the devil are you going? It's dark out of doors.' 'To Tchaplino.' 'But
what's taking you to Tchaplino, ten miles away?' 'I am going to stay
the night at Sophron's there.' 'But stay the night here.' 'No, I
can't.' And Yermolai, with his Valetka, would go off into the dark
night, through woods and water-courses, and the peasant Sophron very
likely did not let him into his place, and even, I am afraid, gave him
a blow to teach him 'not to disturb honest folks.' But none could
compare with Yermolai in skill in deep-water fishing in spring-time, in
catching crayfish with his hands, in tracking game by scent, in snaring
quails, in training hawks, in capturing the nightingales who had the
greatest variety of notes. ... One thing he could not do, train a dog;
he had not patience enough. He had a wife too. He went to see her once
a week. She lived in a wretched, tumble-down little hut, and led a
hand-to-mouth existence, never knowing overnight whether she would have
food to eat on the morrow; and in every way her lot was a pitiful one.
Yermolai, who seemed such a careless and easy-going fellow, treated his
wife with cruel harshness; in his own house he assumed a stern, and
menacing manner; and his poor wife did everything she could to please
him, trembled when he looked at her, and spent her last farthing to buy
him vodka; and when he stretched himself majestically on the stove and
fell into an heroic sleep, she obsequiously covered him with a
sheepskin. I happened myself more than once to catch an involuntary
look in him of a kind of savage ferocity; I did not like the expression
of his face when he finished off a wounded bird with his teeth. But
Yermolai never remained more than a day at home, and away from home he
was once more the same 'Yermolka' (i.e. the shooting-cap), as he was
called for a hundred miles round, and as he sometimes called himself.
The lowest house-serf was conscious of being superior to this vagabond
--and perhaps this was precisely why they treated him with
friendliness; the peasants at first amused themselves by chasing him
and driving him like a hare over the open country, but afterwards they
left him in God's hands, and when once they recognised him as 'queer,'
they no longer tormented him, and even gave him bread and entered into
talk with him.... This was the man I took as my huntsman, and with him
I went stand-shooting to a great birch-wood on the banks of the Ista.
Many Russian rivers, like the Volga, have one bank rugged and
precipitous, the other bounded by level meadows; and so it is with the
Ista. This small river winds extremely capriciously, coils like a
snake, and does not keep a straight course for half-a-mile together; in
some places, from the top of a sharp declivity, one can see the river
for ten miles, with its dykes, its pools and mills, and the gardens on
its banks, shut in with willows and thick flower-gardens. There are
fish in the Ista in endless numbers, especially roaches (the peasants
take them in hot weather from under the bushes with their hands);
little sand-pipers flutter whistling along the stony banks, which are
streaked with cold clear streams; wild ducks dive in the middle of the
pools, and look round warily; in the coves under the overhanging cliffs
herons stand out in the shade.... We stood in ambush nearly an hour,
killed two brace of wood snipe, and, as we wanted to try our luck again
at sunrise (stand-shooting can be done as well in the early morning),
we resolved to spend the night at the nearest mill. We came out of the
wood, and went down the slope. The dark-blue waters of the river ran
below; the air was thick with the mists of night. We knocked at the
gate. The dogs began barking in the yard.
'Who is there?' asked a hoarse and sleepy voice.
'We are sportsmen; let us stay the night.' There was no reply. 'We will
pay.'
'I will go and tell the master--Sh! Curse the dogs! Go to the devil
with you!'
We listened as the workman went into the cottage; he soon came back to
the gate. 'No,' he said; 'the master tells me not to let you in.'
'Why not?'
'He is afraid; you are sportsmen; you might set the mill on fire;
you've firearms with you, to be sure.'
'But what nonsense!'
'We had our mill on fire like that last year; some fish-dealers stayed
the night, and they managed to set it on fire somehow.'
'But, my good friend, we can't sleep in the open air!'
'That's your business.' He went away, his boots clacking as he walked.
Yermolai promised him various unpleasant things in the future. 'Let us
go to the village,' he brought out at last, with a sigh. But it was two
miles to the village.
'Let us stay the night here,' I said, 'in the open air--the night is
warm; the miller will let us have some straw if we pay for it.'
Yermolai agreed without discussion. We began again to knock.
'Well, what do you want?' the workman's voice was heard again; 'I've
told you we can't.'
We explained to him what we wanted. He went to consult the master of
the house, and returned with him. The little side gate creaked. The
miller appeared, a tall, fat-faced man with a bull-neck, round-bellied
and corpulent. He agreed to my proposal. A hundred paces from the mill
there was a little outhouse open to the air on all sides. They carried
straw and hay there for us; the workman set a samovar down on the grass
near the river, and, squatting on his heels, began to blow vigorously
into the pipe of it. The embers glowed, and threw a bright light on his
young face. The miller ran to wake his wife, and suggested at last that
I myself should sleep in the cottage; but I preferred to remain in the
open air. The miller's wife brought us milk, eggs, potatoes and bread.
Soon the samovar boiled, and we began drinking tea. A mist had risen
from the river; there was no wind; from all round came the cry of the
corn-crake, and faint sounds from the mill-wheels of drops that dripped
from the paddles and of water gurgling through the bars of the lock. We
built a small fire on the ground. While Yermolai was baking the
potatoes in the embers, I had time to fall into a doze. I was waked by
a discreetly-subdued whispering near me. I lifted my head; before the
fire, on a tub turned upside down, the miller's wife sat talking to my
huntsman. By her dress, her movements, and her manner of speaking, I
had already recognised that she had been in domestic service, and was
neither peasant nor city-bred; but now for the first time I got a clear
view of her features. She looked about thirty; her thin, pale face
still showed the traces of remarkable beauty; what particularly charmed
me was her eyes, large and mournful in expression. She was leaning her
elbows on her knees, and had her face in her hands. Yermolai was
sitting with his back to me, and thrusting sticks into the fire.
'They've the cattle-plague again at Zheltonhiny,' the miller's wife was
saying; 'father Ivan's two cows are dead--Lord have mercy on them!'
'And how are your pigs doing?' asked Yermolai, after a brief pause.
'They're alive.'
'You ought to make me a present of a sucking pig.'
The miller's wife was silent for a while, then she sighed.
'Who is it you're with?' she asked.
'A gentleman from Kostomarovo.'
Yermolai threw a few pine twigs on the fire; they all caught fire at
once, and a thick white smoke came puffing into his face.
'Why didn't your husband let us into the cottage?'
'He's afraid.'
'Afraid! the fat old tub! Arina Timofyevna, my darling, bring me a
little glass of spirits.'
The miller's wife rose and vanished into the darkness. Yermolai began
to sing in an undertone--
'When I went to see my sweetheart,
I wore out all my shoes.'
Arina returned with a small flask and a glass. Yermolai got up, crossed
himself, and drank it off at a draught. 'Good!' was his comment.
The miller's wife sat down again on the tub.
'Well, Arina Timofyevna, are you still ill?'
'Yes.'
'What is it?'
'My cough troubles me at night.'
'The gentleman's asleep, it seems,' observed Yermolai after a short
silence. 'Don't go to a doctor, Arina; it will be worse if you do.'
'Well, I am not going.'
'But come and pay me a visit.'
Arina hung down her head dejectedly.
'I will drive my wife out for the occasion,' continued Yermolai 'Upon
my word, I will.'
'You had better wake the gentleman, Yermolai Petrovitch; you see, the
potatoes are done.'
'Oh, let him snore,' observed my faithful servant indifferently; 'he's
tired with walking, so he sleeps sound.'
I turned over in the hay. Yermolai got up and came to me. 'The potatoes
are ready; will you come and eat them?'
I came out of the outhouse; the miller's wife got up from the tub and
was going away. I addressed her.
'Have you kept this mill long?'
'It's two years since I came on Trinity day.'
'And where does your husband come from?'
Arina had not caught my question.
'Where's your husband from?' repeated Yermolai, raising his voice.
'From Byelev. He's a Byelev townsman.'
'And are you too from Byelev?'
'No, I'm a serf; I was a serf.'
'Whose?'
'Zvyerkoff was my master. Now I am free.'
'What Zvyerkoff?'
'Alexandr Selitch.'
'Weren't you his wife's lady's maid?'
'How did you know? Yes.'
I looked at Arina with redoubled curiosity and sympathy.
'I know your master,' I continued.
'Do you?' she replied in a low voice, and her head drooped.
I must tell the reader why I looked with such sympathy at Arina. During
my stay at Petersburg I had become by chance acquainted with Mr.
Zvyerkoff. He had a rather influential position, and was reputed a man
of sense and education. He had a wife, fat, sentimental, lachrymose and
spiteful--a vulgar and disagreeable creature; he had too a son, the
very type of the young swell of to-day, pampered and stupid. The
exterior of Mr. Zvyerkoff himself did not prepossess one in his favour;
his little mouse-like eyes peeped slyly out of a broad, almost square,
face; he had a large, prominent nose, with distended nostrils; his
close-cropped grey hair stood up like a brush above his scowling brow;
his thin lips were for ever twitching and smiling mawkishly. Mr.
Zvyerkoff's favourite position was standing with his legs wide apart
and his fat hands in his trouser pockets. Once I happened somehow to be
driving alone with Mr. Zvyerkoff in a coach out of town. We fell into
conversation. As a man of experience and of judgment, Mr. Zvyerkoff
began to try to set me in 'the path of truth.'
'Allow me to observe to you,' he drawled at last; 'all you young people
criticise and form judgments on everything at random; you have little
knowledge of your own country; Russia, young gentlemen, is an unknown
land to you; that's where it is!... You are for ever reading German.
For instance, now you say this and that and the other about anything;
for instance, about the house-serfs.... Very fine; I don't dispute it's
all very fine; but you don't know them; you don't know the kind of
people they are.' (Mr. Zvyerkoff blew his nose loudly and took a pinch
of snuff.) 'Allow me to tell you as an illustration one little
anecdote; it may perhaps interest you.' (Mr. Zvyerkoff cleared his
throat.) 'You know, doubtless, what my wife is; it would be difficult,
I should imagine, to find a more kind-hearted woman, you will agree.
For her waiting-maids, existence is simply a perfect paradise, and no
mistake about it.... But my wife has made it a rule never to keep
married lady's maids. Certainly it would not do; children come--and one
thing and the other--and how is a lady's maid to look after her
mistress as she ought, to fit in with her ways; she is no longer able
to do it; her mind is in other things. One must look at things through
human nature. Well, we were driving once through our village, it must
be--let me be correct--yes, fifteen years ago. We saw, at the
bailiff's, a young girl, his daughter, very pretty indeed; something
even--you know--something attractive in her manners. And my wife said
to me: "Koko"--you understand, of course, that is her pet name for me--
"let us take this girl to Petersburg; I like her, Koko...." I said,
"Let us take her, by all means." The bailiff, of course, was at our
feet; he could not have expected such good fortune, you can imagine....
Well, the girl of course cried violently. Of course, it was hard for
her at first; the parental home ... in fact ... there was nothing
surprising in that. However, she soon got used to us: at first we put
her in the maidservants' room; they trained her, of course. And what do
you think? The girl made wonderful progress; my wife became simply
devoted to her, promoted her at last above the rest to wait on herself
... observe.... And one must do her the justice to say, my wife had never
such a maid, absolutely never; attentive, modest, and obedient--simply
all that could be desired. But my wife, I must confess, spoilt her too
much; she dressed her well, fed her from our own table, gave her tea to
drink, and so on, as you can imagine! So she waited on my wife like
this for ten years. Suddenly, one fine morning, picture to yourself,
Arina--her name was Arina--rushes unannounced into my study, and flops
down at my feet. That's a thing, I tell you plainly, I can't endure. No
human being ought ever to lose sight of their personal dignity. Am I
not right? What do you say? "Your honour, Alexandr Selitch, I beseech a
favour of you." "What favour?" "Let me be married." I must confess I
was taken aback. "But you know, you stupid, your mistress has no other
lady's maid?" "I will wait on mistress as before." "Nonsense! nonsense!
your mistress can't endure married lady's maids," "Malanya could take
my place." "Pray don't argue." "I obey your will." I must confess it
was quite a shock, I assure you, I am like that; nothing wounds me so--
nothing, I venture to say, wounds me so deeply as ingratitude. I need
not tell you--you know what my wife is; an angel upon earth, goodness
inexhaustible. One would fancy even the worst of men would be ashamed
to hurt her. Well, I got rid of Arina. I thought, perhaps, she would
come to her senses; I was unwilling, do you know, to believe in wicked,
black ingratitude in anyone. What do you think? Within six months she
thought fit to come to me again with the same request. I felt revolted.
But imagine my amazement when, some time later, my wife comes to me in
tears, so agitated that I felt positively alarmed. "What has happened?"
"Arina.... You understand ... I am ashamed to tell it." ...
"Impossible! ... Who is the man?" "Petrushka, the footman." My
indignation broke out then. I am like that. I don't like half measures!
Petrushka was not to blame. We might flog him, but in my opinion he was
not to blame. Arina.... Well, well, well! what more's to be said? I
gave orders, of course, that her hair should be cut off, she should be
dressed in sackcloth, and sent into the country. My wife was deprived
of an excellent lady's maid; but there was no help for it: immorality
cannot be tolerated in a household in any case. Better to cut off the
infected member at once. There, there! now you can judge the thing for
yourself--you know that my wife is ... yes, yes, yes! indeed!... an
angel! She had grown attached to Arina, and Arina knew it, and had the
face to ... Eh? no, tell me ... eh? And what's the use of talking about
it. Any way, there was no help for it. I, indeed--I, in particular,
felt hurt, felt wounded for a long time by the ingratitude of this
girl. Whatever you say--it's no good to look for feeling, for heart, in
these people! You may feed the wolf as you will; he has always a
hankering for the woods. Education, by all means! But I only wanted to
give you an example....'
And Mr. Zvyerkoff, without finishing his sentence, turned away his
head, and, wrapping himself more closely into his cloak, manfully
repressed his involuntary emotion.
The reader now probably understands why I looked with sympathetic
interest at Arina.
'Have you long been married to the miller?' I asked her at last.
'Two years.'
'How was it? Did your master allow it?'
'They bought my freedom.'
'Who?'
'Savely Alexyevitch.'
'Who is that?'
'My husband.' (Yermolai smiled to himself.) 'Has my master perhaps
spoken to you of me?' added Arina, after a brief silence.
I did not know what reply to make to her question.
'Arina!' cried the miller from a distance. She got up and walked away.
'Is her husband a good fellow?' I asked Yermolai.
'So-so.'
'Have they any children?'
'There was one, but it died.'
'How was it? Did the miller take a liking to her? Did he give much to
buy her freedom?'
'I don't know. She can read and write; in their business it's of use. I
suppose he liked her.'
'And have you known her long?'
'Yes. I used to go to her master's. Their house isn't far from here.'
'And do you know the footman Petrushka?'
'Piotr Vassilyevitch? Of course, I knew him.'
'Where is he now?'
'He was sent for a soldier.'
We were silent for a while.
'She doesn't seem well?' I asked Yermolai at last.
'I should think not! To-morrow, I say, we shall have good sport. A
little sleep now would do us no harm.'
A flock of wild ducks swept whizzing over our heads, and we heard them
drop down into the river not far from us. It was now quite dark, and it
began to be cold; in the thicket sounded the melodious notes of a
nightingale. We buried ourselves in the hay and fell asleep.
III
RASPBERRY SPRING
At the beginning of August the heat often becomes insupportable. At
that season, from twelve to three o'clock, the most determined and
ardent sportsman is not able to hunt, and the most devoted dog begins
to 'clean his master's spurs,' that is, to follow at his heels, his
eyes painfully blinking, and his tongue hanging out to an exaggerated
length; and in response to his master's reproaches he humbly wags his
tail and shows his confusion in his face; but he does not run forward.
I happened to be out hunting on exactly such a day. I had long been
fighting against the temptation to lie down somewhere in the shade, at
least for a moment; for a long time my indefatigable dog went on
running about in the bushes, though he clearly did not himself expect
much good from his feverish activity. The stifling heat compelled me at
last to begin to think of husbanding our energies and strength. I
managed to reach the little river Ista, which is already known to my
indulgent readers, descended the steep bank, and walked along the damp,
yellow sand in the direction of the spring, known to the whole
neighbourhood as Raspberry Spring. This spring gushes out of a cleft in
the bank, which widens out by degrees into a small but deep creek, and,
twenty paces beyond it, falls with a merry babbling sound into the
river; the short velvety grass is green about the source: the sun's
rays scarcely ever reach its cold, silvery water. I came as far as the
spring; a cup of birch-wood lay on the grass, left by a passing peasant
for the public benefit. I quenched my thirst, lay down in the shade,
and looked round. In the cave, which had been formed by the flowing of
the stream into the river, and hence marked for ever with the trace of
ripples, two old men were sitting with their backs to me. One, a rather
stout and tall man in a neat dark-green coat and lined cap, was
fishing; the other was thin and little; he wore a patched fustian coat
and no cap; he held a little pot full of worms on his knees, and
sometimes lifted his hand up to his grizzled little head, as though he
wanted to protect it from the sun. I looked at him more attentively,
and recognised in him Styopushka of Shumihino. I must ask the reader's
leave to present this man to him.
A few miles from my place there is a large village called Shumihino,
with a stone church, erected in the name of St. Kosmo and St. Damian.
Facing this church there had once stood a large and stately manor-
house, surrounded by various outhouses, offices, workshops, stables and
coach-houses, baths and temporary kitchens, wings for visitors and for
bailiffs, conservatories, swings for the people, and other more or less
useful edifices. A family of rich landowners lived in this manor-house,
and all went well with them, till suddenly one morning all this
prosperity was burnt to ashes. The owners removed to another home; the
place was deserted. The blackened site of the immense house was
transformed into a kitchen-garden, cumbered up in parts by piles of
bricks, the remains of the old foundations. A little hut had been
hurriedly put together out of the beams that had escaped the fire; it
was roofed with timber bought ten years before for the construction of
a pavilion in the Gothic style; and the gardener, Mitrofan, with his
wife Axinya and their seven children, was installed in it. Mitrofan
received orders to send greens and garden-stuff for the master's table,
a hundred and fifty miles away; Axinya was put in charge of a Tyrolese
cow, which had been bought for a high price in Moscow, but had not
given a drop of milk since its acquisition; a crested smoke-coloured
drake too had been left in her hands, the solitary 'seignorial' bird;
for the children, in consideration of their tender age, no special
duties had been provided, a fact, however, which had not hindered them
from growing up utterly lazy. It happened to me on two occasions to
stay the night at this gardener's, and when I passed by I used to get
cucumbers from him, which, for some unknown reason, were even in summer
peculiar for their size, their poor, watery flavour, and their thick
yellow skin. It was there I first saw Styopushka. Except Mitrofan and
his family, and the old deaf churchwarden Gerasim, kept out of charity
in a little room at the one-eyed soldier's widow's, not one man among
the house-serfs had remained at Shumihino; for Styopushka, whom I
intend to introduce to the reader, could not be classified under the
special order of house-serfs, and hardly under the genus 'man' at all.
Every man has some kind of position in society, and at least some ties
of some sort; every house-serf receives, if not wages, at least some
so-called 'ration.' Styopushka had absolutely no means of subsistence
of any kind; had no relationship to anyone; no one knew of his
existence. This man had not even a past; there was no story told of
him; he had probably never been enrolled on a census-revision. There
were vague rumours that he had once belonged to someone as a valet; but
who he was, where he came from, who was his father, and how he had come
to be one of the Shumihino people; in what way he had come by the
fustian coat he had worn from immemorial times; where he lived and what
he lived on--on all these questions no one had the least idea; and, to
tell the truth, no one took any interest in the subject. Grandfather
Trofimitch, who knew all the pedigrees of all the house-serfs in the
direct line to the fourth generation, had once indeed been known to say
that he remembered that Styopushka was related to a Turkish woman whom
the late master, the brigadier Alexy Romanitch had been pleased to
bring home from a campaign in the baggage waggon. Even on holidays,
days of general money-giving and of feasting on buckwheat dumplings and
vodka, after the old Russian fashion--even on such days Styopushka did
not put in an appearance at the trestle-tables nor at the barrels; he
did not make his bow nor kiss the master's hand, nor toss off to the
master's health and under the master's eye a glass filled by the fat
hands of the bailiff. Some kind soul who passed by him might share an
unfinished bit of dumpling with the poor beggar, perhaps. At Easter
they said 'Christ is risen!' to him; but he did not pull up his greasy
sleeve, and bring out of the depths of his pocket a coloured egg, to
offer it, panting and blinking, to his young masters or to the mistress
herself. He lived in summer in a little shed behind the chicken-house,
and in winter in the ante-room of the bathhouse; in the bitter frosts
he spent the night in the hayloft. The house-serfs had grown used to
seeing him; sometimes they gave him a kick, but no one ever addressed a
remark to him; as for him, he seems never to have opened his lips from
the time of his birth. After the conflagration, this forsaken creature
sought a refuge at the gardener Mitrofan's. The gardener left him
alone; he did not say 'Live with me,' but he did not drive him away.
And Styopushka did not live at the gardener's; his abode was the
garden. He moved and walked about quite noiselessly; he sneezed and
coughed behind his hand, not without apprehension; he was for ever busy
and going stealthily to and fro like an ant; and all to get food--
simply food to eat. And indeed, if he had not toiled from morning till
night for his living, our poor friend would certainly have died of
hunger. It's a sad lot not to know in the morning what you will find to
eat before night! Sometimes Styopushka sits under the hedge and gnaws a
radish or sucks a carrot, or shreds up some dirty cabbage-stalks; or he
drags a bucket of water along, for some object or other, groaning as he
goes; or he lights a fire under a small pot, and throws in some little
black scraps which he takes from out of the bosom of his coat; or he is
hammering in his little wooden den--driving in a nail, putting up a
shelf for bread. And all this he does silently, as though on the sly:
before you can look round, he's in hiding again. Sometimes he suddenly
disappears for a couple of days; but of course no one notices his
absence.... Then, lo and behold! he is there again, somewhere under the
hedge, stealthily kindling a fire of sticks under a kettle. He had a
small face, yellowish eyes, hair coming down to his eyebrows, a sharp
nose, large transparent ears, like a bat's, and a beard that looked as
if it were a fortnight's growth, and never grew more nor less. This,
then, was Styopushka, whom I met on the bank of the Ista in company
with another old man.
I went up to him, wished him good-day, and sat down beside him.
Styopushka's companion too I recognised as an acquaintance; he was a
freed serf of Count Piotr Ilitch's, one Mihal Savelitch, nicknamed
Tuman (_i.e._ fog). He lived with a consumptive Bolhovsky man, who kept
an inn, where I had several times stayed. Young officials and other
persons of leisure travelling on the Orel highroad (merchants, buried
in their striped rugs, have other things to do) may still see at no
great distance from the large village of Troitska, and almost on the
highroad, an immense two-storied wooden house, completely deserted,
with its roof falling in and its windows closely stuffed up. At mid-day
in bright, sunny weather nothing can be imagined more melancholy than
this ruin. Here there once lived Count Piotr Ilitch, a rich grandee of
the olden time, renowned for his hospitality. At one time the whole
province used to meet at his house, to dance and make merry to their
heart's content to the deafening sound of a home-trained orchestra, and
the popping of rockets and Roman candles; and doubtless more than one
aged lady sighs as she drives by the deserted palace of the boyar and
recalls the old days and her vanished youth. The count long continued
to give balls, and to walk about with an affable smile among the crowd
of fawning guests; but his property, unluckily, was not enough to last
his whole life. When he was entirely ruined, he set off to Petersburg
to try for a post for himself, and died in a room at a hotel, without
having gained anything by his efforts. Tuman had been a steward of his,
and had received his freedom already in the count's lifetime. He was a
man of about seventy, with a regular and pleasant face. He was almost
continually smiling, as only men of the time of Catherine ever do
smile--a smile at once stately and indulgent; in speaking, he slowly
opened and closed his lips, winked genially with his eyes, and spoke
slightly through his nose. He blew his nose and took snuff too in a
leisurely fashion, as though he were doing something serious.
'Well, Mihal Savelitch,' I began, 'have you caught any fish?'
'Here, if you will deign to look in the basket: I have caught two perch
and five roaches.... Show them, Styopka.'
Styopushka stretched out the basket to me.
'How are you, Styopka?' I asked him.
'Oh--oh--not--not--not so badly, your honour,' answered Stepan,
stammering as though he had a heavy weight on his tongue.
'And is Mitrofan well?'
'Well--yes, yes--your honour.'
The poor fellow turned away.
'But there are not many bites,' remarked Tuman; 'it's so fearfully hot;
the fish are all tired out under the bushes; they're asleep. Put on a
worm, Styopka.' (Styopushka took out a worm, laid it on his open hand,
struck it two or three times, put it on the hook, spat on it, and gave
it to Tuman.) 'Thanks, Styopka.... And you, your honour,' he continued,
turning to me, 'are pleased to be out hunting?'
'As you see.'
'Ah--and is your dog there English or German?'
The old man liked to show off on occasion, as though he would say, 'I,
too, have lived in the world!'
'I don't know what breed it is, but it's a good dog.'
'Ah! and do you go out with the hounds too?'
'Yes, I have two leashes of hounds.'
Tuman smiled and shook his head.
'That's just it; one man is devoted to dogs, and another doesn't want
them for anything. According to my simple notions, I fancy dogs should
be kept rather for appearance' sake ... and all should be in style too;
horses too should be in style, and huntsmen in style, as they ought to
be, and all. The late count--God's grace be with him!--was never, I
must own, much of a hunter; but he kept dogs, and twice a year he was
pleased to go out with them. The huntsmen assembled in the courtyard,
in red caftans trimmed with galloon, and blew their horns; his
excellency would be pleased to come out, and his excellency's horse
would be led up; his excellency would mount, and the chief huntsman
puts his feet in the stirrups, takes his hat off, and puts the reins in
his hat to offer them to his excellency. His excellency is pleased to
click his whip like this, and the huntsmen give a shout, and off they
go out of the gate away. A huntsman rides behind the count, and holds
in a silken leash two of the master's favourite dogs, and looks after
them well, you may fancy.... And he, too, this huntsman, sits up high,
on a Cossack saddle: such a red-cheeked fellow he was, and rolled his
eyes like this.... And there were guests too, you may be sure, on such
occasions, and entertainment, and ceremonies observed.... Ah, he's got
away, the Asiatic!' He interrupted himself suddenly, drawing in his
line.
'They say the count used to live pretty freely in his day?' I asked.
The old man spat on the worm and lowered the line in again.
'He was a great gentleman, as is well-known. At times the persons of
the first rank, one may say, at Petersburg, used to visit him. With
coloured ribbons on their breasts they used to sit down to table and
eat. Well, he knew how to entertain them. He called me sometimes.
"Tuman," says he, "I want by to-morrow some live sturgeon; see there
are some, do you hear?" "Yes, your excellency." Embroidered coats,
wigs, canes, perfumes, _eau de Cologne_ of the best sort, snuff-boxes,
huge pictures: he would order them all from Paris itself! When he gave
a banquet, God Almighty, Lord of my being! there were fireworks, and
carriages driving up! They even fired off the cannon. The orchestra
alone consisted of forty men. He kept a German as conductor of the
band, but the German gave himself dreadful airs; he wanted to eat at
the same table as the masters; so his excellency gave orders to get rid
of him! "My musicians," says he, "can do their work even without a
conductor." Of course he was master. Then they would fall to dancing,
and dance till morning, especially at the ecossaise-matrador. ... Ah--
ah--there's one caught!' (The old man drew a small perch out of the
water.) 'Here you are, Styopka! The master was all a master should be,'
continued the old man, dropping his line in again, 'and he had a kind
heart too. He would give you a blow at times, and before you could look
round, he'd forgotten it already. There was only one thing: he kept
mistresses. Ugh, those mistresses! God forgive them! They were the ruin
of him too; and yet, you know, he took them most generally from a low
station. You would fancy they would not want much? Not a bit--they must
have everything of the most expensive in all Europe! One may say, "Why
shouldn't he live as he likes; it's the master's business" ... but
there was no need to ruin himself. There was one especially; Akulina
was her name. She is dead now; God rest her soul! the daughter of the
watchman at Sitoia; and such a vixen! She would slap the count's face
sometimes. She simply bewitched him. My nephew she sent for a soldier;
he spilt some chocolate on a new dress of hers ... and he wasn't the
only one she served so. Ah, well, those were good times, though!' added
the old man with a deep sigh. His head drooped forward and he was
silent.
'Your master, I see, was severe, then?' I began after a brief silence.
'That was the fashion then, your honour,' he replied, shaking his head.
'That sort of thing is not done now?' I observed, not taking my eyes
off him.
He gave me a look askance.
'Now, surely it's better,' he muttered, and let out his line further.
We were sitting in the shade; but even in the shade it was stifling.
The sultry atmosphere was faint and heavy; one lifted one's burning
face uneasily, seeking a breath of wind; but there was no wind. The sun
beat down from blue and darkening skies; right opposite us, on the
other bank, was a yellow field of oats, overgrown here and there with
wormwood; not one ear of the oats quivered. A little lower down a
peasant's horse stood in the river up to its knees, and slowly shook
its wet tail; from time to time, under an overhanging bush, a large
fish shot up, bringing bubbles to the surface, and gently sank down to
the bottom, leaving a slight ripple behind it. The grasshoppers chirped
in the scorched grass; the quail's cry sounded languid and reluctant;
hawks sailed smoothly over the meadows, often resting in the same spot,
rapidly fluttering their wings and opening their tails into a fan. We
sat motionless, overpowered with the heat. Suddenly there was a sound
behind us in the creek; someone came down to the spring. I looked
round, and saw a peasant of about fifty, covered with dust, in a smock,
and wearing bast slippers; he carried a wickerwork pannier and a cloak
on his shoulders. He went down to the spring, drank thirstily, and got
up.
'Ah, Vlass!' cried Tuman, staring at him; 'good health to you, friend!
Where has God sent you from?'
'Good health to you, Mihal Savelitch!' said the peasant, coming nearer
to us; 'from a long way off.'
'Where have you been?' Tuman asked him.
'I have been to Moscow, to my master.'
'What for?'
'I went to ask him a favour.'
'What about?'
'Oh, to lessen my rent, or to let me work it out in labour, or to put
me on another piece of land, or something.... My son is dead--so I
can't manage it now alone.'
'Your son is dead?'
'He is dead. My son,' added the peasant, after a pause, 'lived in
Moscow as a cabman; he paid, I must confess, rent for me.'
'Then are you now paying rent?'
'Yes, we pay rent.'
'What did your master say?'
'What did the master say! He drove me away! Says he, "How dare you come
straight to me; there is a bailiff for such things. You ought first,"
says he, "to apply to the bailiff ... and where am I to put you on
other land? You first," says he, "bring the debt you owe." He was angry
altogether.'
'What then--did you come back?'
'I came back. I wanted to find out if my son had not left any goods of
his own, but I couldn't get a straight answer. I say to his employer,
"I am Philip's father"; and he says, "What do I know about that? And
your son," says he, "left nothing; he was even in debt to me." So I
came away.'
The peasant related all this with a smile, as though he were speaking
of someone else; but tears were starting into his small, screwed-up
eyes, and his lips were quivering.
'Well, are you going home then now?'
'Where can I go? Of course I'm going home. My wife, I suppose, is
pretty well starved by now.'
'You should--then,' Styopushka said suddenly. He grew confused, was
silent, and began to rummage in the worm-pot.
'And shall you go to the bailiff?' continued Tuman, looking with some
amazement at Styopka.
'What should I go to him for?--I'm in arrears as it is. My son was ill
for a year before his death; he could not pay even his own rent. But it
can't hurt me; they can get nothing from me.... Yes, my friend, you can
be as cunning as you please--I'm cleaned out!' (The peasant began to
laugh.) 'Kintlyan Semenitch'll have to be clever if--'
Vlass laughed again.
'Oh! things are in a sad way, brother Vlass,' Tuman ejaculated
deliberately.
'Sad! No!' (Vlass's voice broke.) 'How hot it is!' he went on, wiping
his face with his sleeve.
'Who is your master?' I asked him.
'Count Valerian Petrovitch.'
'The son of Piotr Ilitch?'
'The son of Piotr Ilitch,' replied Tuman. 'Piotr Hitch gave him Vlass's
village in his lifetime.'
'Is he well?'
'He is well, thank God!' replied Vlass. 'He has grown so red, and his
face looks as though it were padded.'
'You see, your honour,' continued Tuman, turning to me, 'it would be
very well near Moscow, but it's a different matter to pay rent here.'
'And what is the rent for you altogether?'
'Ninety-five roubles,' muttered Vlass.
'There, you see; and it's the least bit of land; all there is is the
master's forest.'
'And that, they say, they have sold,' observed the peasant.
'There, you see. Styopka, give me a worm. Why, Styopka, are you asleep
--eh?'
Styopushka started. The peasant sat down by us. We sank into silence
again. On the other bank someone was singing a song--but such a
mournful one. Our poor Vlass grew deeply dejected.
Half-an-hour later we parted.
IV
THE DISTRICT DOCTOR
One day in autumn on my way back from a remote part of the country I
caught cold and fell ill. Fortunately the fever attacked me in the
district town at the inn; I sent for the doctor. In half-an-hour the
district doctor appeared, a thin, dark-haired man of middle height. He
prescribed me the usual sudorific, ordered a mustard-plaster to be put
on, very deftly slid a five-rouble note up his sleeve, coughing drily
and looking away as he did so, and then was getting up to go home, but
somehow fell into talk and remained. I was exhausted with feverishness;
I foresaw a sleepless night, and was glad of a little chat with a
pleasant companion. Tea was served. My doctor began to converse freely.
He was a sensible fellow, and expressed himself with vigour and some
humour. Queer things happen in the world: you may live a long while
with some people, and be on friendly terms with them, and never once
speak openly with them from your soul; with others you have scarcely
time to get acquainted, and all at once you are pouring out to him--or
he to you--all your secrets, as though you were at confession. I don't
know how I gained the confidence of my new friend--any way, with
nothing to lead up to it, he told me a rather curious incident; and
here I will report his tale for the information of the indulgent
reader. I will try to tell it in the doctor's own words.
'You don't happen to know,' he began in a weak and quavering voice (the
common result of the use of unmixed Berezov snuff); 'you don't happen
to know the judge here, Mylov, Pavel Lukitch?... You don't know him?...
Well, it's all the same.' (He cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes.)
'Well, you see, the thing happened, to tell you exactly without
mistake, in Lent, at the very time of the thaws. I was sitting at his
house--our judge's, you know--playing preference. Our judge is a good
fellow, and fond of playing preference. Suddenly' (the doctor made
frequent use of this word, suddenly) 'they tell me, "There's a servant
asking for you." I say, "What does he want?" They say, "He has brought
a note--it must be from a patient." "Give me the note," I say. So it is
from a patient--well and good--you understand--it's our bread and
butter. ... But this is how it was: a lady, a widow, writes to me; she
says, "My daughter is dying. Come, for God's sake!" she says; "and the
horses have been sent for you." ... Well, that's all right. But she was
twenty miles from the town, and it was midnight out of doors, and the
roads in such a state, my word! And as she was poor herself, one could
not expect more than two silver roubles, and even that problematic; and
perhaps it might only be a matter of a roll of linen and a sack of
oatmeal in payment. However, duty, you know, before everything: a
fellow-creature may be dying. I hand over my cards at once to
Kalliopin, the member of the provincial commission, and return home. I
look; a wretched little trap was standing at the steps, with peasant's
horses, fat--too fat--and their coat as shaggy as felt; and the
coachman sitting with his cap off out of respect. Well, I think to
myself, "It's clear, my friend, these patients aren't rolling in
riches." ... You smile; but I tell you, a poor man like me has to take
everything into consideration.... If the coachman sits like a prince,
and doesn't touch his cap, and even sneers at you behind his beard, and
flicks his whip--then you may bet on six roubles. But this case, I saw,
had a very different air. However, I think there's no help for it; duty
before everything. I snatch up the most necessary drugs, and set off.
Will you believe it? I only just managed to get there at all. The road
was infernal: streams, snow, watercourses, and the dyke had suddenly
burst there--that was the worst of it! However, I arrived at last. It
was a little thatched house. There was a light in the windows; that
meant they expected me. I was met by an old lady, very venerable, in a
cap. "Save her!" she says; "she is dying." I say, "Pray don't distress
yourself--Where is the invalid?" "Come this way." I see a clean little
room, a lamp in the corner; on the bed a girl of twenty, unconscious.
She was in a burning heat, and breathing heavily--it was fever. There
were two other girls, her sisters, scared and in tears. "Yesterday,"
they tell me, "she was perfectly well and had a good appetite; this
morning she complained of her head, and this evening, suddenly, you
see, like this." I say again: "Pray don't be uneasy." It's a doctor's
duty, you know--and I went up to her and bled her, told them to put on
a mustard-plaster, and prescribed a mixture. Meantime I looked at her;
I looked at her, you know--there, by God! I had never seen such a
face!--she was a beauty, in a word! I felt quite shaken with pity. Such
lovely features; such eyes!... But, thank God! she became easier; she
fell into a perspiration, seemed to come to her senses, looked round,
smiled, and passed her hand over her face.... Her sisters bent over
her. They ask, "How are you?" "All right," she says, and turns away. I
looked at her; she had fallen asleep. "Well," I say, "now the patient
should be left alone." So we all went out on tiptoe; only a maid
remained, in case she was wanted. In the parlour there was a samovar
standing on the table, and a bottle of rum; in our profession one can't
get on without it. They gave me tea; asked me to stop the night. ... I
consented: where could I go, indeed, at that time of night? The old
lady kept groaning. "What is it?" I say; "she will live; don't worry
yourself; you had better take a little rest yourself; it is about two
o'clock." "But will you send to wake me if anything happens?" "Yes,
yes." The old lady went away, and the girls too went to their own room;
they made up a bed for me in the parlour. Well, I went to bed--but I
could not get to sleep, for a wonder! for in reality I was very tired.
I could not get my patient out of my head. At last I could not put up
with it any longer; I got up suddenly; I think to myself, "I will go
and see how the patient is getting on." Her bedroom was next to the
parlour. Well, I got up, and gently opened the door--how my heart beat!
I looked in: the servant was asleep, her mouth wide open, and even
snoring, the wretch! but the patient lay with her face towards me, and
her arms flung wide apart, poor girl! I went up to her ... when
suddenly she opened her eyes and stared at me! "Who is it? who is it?"
I was in confusion. "Don't be alarmed, madam," I say; "I am the doctor;
I have come to see how you feel." "You the doctor?" "Yes, the doctor;
your mother sent for me from the town; we have bled you, madam; now
pray go to sleep, and in a day or two, please God! we will set you on
your feet again." "Ah, yes, yes, doctor, don't let me die.... please,
please." "Why do you talk like that? God bless you!" She is in a fever
again, I think to myself; I felt her pulse; yes, she was feverish. She
looked at me, and then took me by the hand. "I will tell you why I
don't want to die; I will tell you.... Now we are alone; and only,
please don't you ... not to anyone ... Listen...." I bent down; she
moved her lips quite to my ear; she touched my cheek with her hair--I
confess my head went round--and began to whisper.... I could make out
nothing of it.... Ah, she was delirious!... She whispered and
whispered, but so quickly, and as if it were not in Russian; at last
she finished, and shivering dropped her head on the pillow, and
threatened me with her finger: "Remember, doctor, to no one." I calmed
her somehow, gave her something to drink, waked the servant, and went
away.'
At this point the doctor again took snuff with exasperated energy, and
for a moment seemed stupefied by its effects.
'However,' he continued, 'the next day, contrary to my expectations,
the patient was no better. I thought and thought, and suddenly decided
to remain there, even though my other patients were expecting me....
And you know one can't afford to disregard that; one's practice suffers
if one does. But, in the first place, the patient was really in danger;
and secondly, to tell the truth, I felt strongly drawn to her. Besides,
I liked the whole family. Though they were really badly off, they were
singularly, I may say, cultivated people.... Their father had been a
learned man, an author; he died, of course, in poverty, but he had
managed before he died to give his children an excellent education; he
left a lot of books too. Either because I looked after the invalid very
carefully, or for some other reason; any way, I can venture to say all
the household loved me as if I were one of the family.... Meantime the
roads were in a worse state than ever; all communications, so to say,
were cut off completely; even medicine could with difficulty be got
from the town.... The sick girl was not getting better. ... Day after
day, and day after day ... but ... here....' (The doctor made a brief
pause.) 'I declare I don't know how to tell you.' ... (He again took
snuff, coughed, and swallowed a little tea.) 'I will tell you without
beating about the bush. My patient ... how should I say?... Well, she
had fallen in love with me ... or, no, it was not that she was in love
... however ... really, how should one say?' (The doctor looked down
and grew red.) 'No,' he went on quickly, 'in love, indeed! A man should
not over-estimate himself. She was an educated girl, clever and well-
read, and I had even forgotten my Latin, one may say, completely. As to
appearance' (the doctor looked himself over with a smile) 'I am nothing
to boast of there either. But God Almighty did not make me a fool; I
don't take black for white; I know a thing or two; I could see very
clearly, for instance, that Alexandra Andreevna--that was her name--did
not feel love for me, but had a friendly, so to say, inclination--a
respect or something for me. Though she herself perhaps mistook this
sentiment, any way this was her attitude; you may form your own
judgment of it. But,' added the doctor, who had brought out all these
disconnected sentences without taking breath, and with obvious
embarrassment, 'I seem to be wandering rather--you won't understand
anything like this.... There, with your leave, I will relate it all in
order.'
He drank off a glass of tea, and began in a calmer voice.
'Well, then. My patient kept getting worse and worse. You are not a
doctor, my good sir; you cannot understand what passes in a poor
fellow's heart, especially at first, when he begins to suspect that the
disease is getting the upper hand of him. What becomes of his belief in
himself? You suddenly grow so timid; it's indescribable. You fancy then
that you have forgotten everything you knew, and that the patient has
no faith in you, and that other people begin to notice how distracted
you are, and tell you the symptoms with reluctance; that they are
looking at you suspiciously, whispering.... Ah! it's horrid! There must
be a remedy, you think, for this disease, if one could find it. Isn't
this it? You try--no, that's not it! You don't allow the medicine the
necessary time to do good.... You clutch at one thing, then at another.
Sometimes you take up a book of medical prescriptions--here it is, you
think! Sometimes, by Jove, you pick one out by chance, thinking to
leave it to fate.... But meantime a fellow-creature's dying, and
another doctor would have saved him. "We must have a consultation," you
say; "I will not take the responsibility on myself." And what a fool
you look at such times! Well, in time you learn to bear it; it's
nothing to you. A man has died--but it's not your fault; you treated
him by the rules. But what's still more torture to you is to see blind
faith in you, and to feel yourself that you are not able to be of use.
Well, it was just this blind faith that the whole of Alexandra
Andreevna's family had in me; they had forgotten to think that their
daughter was in danger. I, too, on my side assure them that it's
nothing, but meantime my heart sinks into my boots. To add to our
troubles, the roads were in such a state that the coachman was gone for
whole days together to get medicine. And I never left the patient's
room; I could not tear myself away; I tell her amusing stories, you
know, and play cards with her. I watch by her side at night. The old
mother thanks me with tears in her eyes; but I think to myself, "I
don't deserve your gratitude." I frankly confess to you--there is no
object in concealing it now--I was in love with my patient. And
Alexandra Andreevna had grown fond of me; she would not sometimes let
anyone be in her room but me. She began to talk to me, to ask me
questions; where I had studied, how I lived, who are my people, whom I
go to see. I feel that she ought not to talk; but to forbid her to--to
forbid her resolutely, you know--I could not. Sometimes I held my head
in my hands, and asked myself, "What are you doing, villain?" ... And
she would take my hand and hold it, give me a long, long look, and turn
away, sigh, and say, "How good you are!" Her hands were so feverish,
her eyes so large and languid.... "Yes," she says, "you are a good,
kind man; you are not like our neighbours.... No, you are not like
that. ... Why did I not know you till now!" "Alexandra Andreevna, calm
yourself," I say.... "I feel, believe me, I don't know how I have
gained ... but there, calm yourself.... All will be right; you will be
well again." And meanwhile I must tell you,' continued the doctor,
bending forward and raising his eyebrows, 'that they associated very
little with the neighbours, because the smaller people were not on
their level, and pride hindered them from being friendly with the rich.
I tell you, they were an exceptionally cultivated family; so you know
it was gratifying for me. She would only take her medicine from my
hands ... she would lift herself up, poor girl, with my aid, take it,
and gaze at me.... My heart felt as if it were bursting. And meanwhile
she was growing worse and worse, worse and worse, all the time; she
will die, I think to myself; she must die. Believe me, I would sooner
have gone to the grave myself; and here were her mother and sisters
watching me, looking into my eyes ... and their faith in me was wearing
away. "Well? how is she?" "Oh, all right, all right!" All right,
indeed! My mind was failing me. Well, I was sitting one night alone
again by my patient. The maid was sitting there too, and snoring away
in full swing; I can't find fault with the poor girl, though; she was
worn out too. Alexandra Andreevna had felt very unwell all the evening;
she was very feverish. Until midnight she kept tossing about; at last
she seemed to fall asleep; at least, she lay still without stirring.
The lamp was burning in the corner before the holy image. I sat there,
you know, with my head bent; I even dozed a little. Suddenly it seemed
as though someone touched me in the side; I turned round.... Good God!
Alexandra Andreevna was gazing with intent eyes at me ... her lips
parted, her cheeks seemed burning. "What is it?" "Doctor, shall I die?"
"Merciful Heavens!" "No, doctor, no; please don't tell me I shall live
... don't say so.... If you knew.... Listen! for God's sake don't
conceal my real position," and her breath came so fast. "If I can know
for certain that I must die ... then I will tell you all--all!"
"Alexandra Andreevna, I beg!" "Listen; I have not been asleep at all
... I have been looking at you a long while.... For God's sake! ... I
believe in you; you are a good man, an honest man; I entreat you by all
that is sacred in the world--tell me the truth! If you knew how
important it is for me.... Doctor, for God's sake tell me.... Am I in
danger?" "What can I tell you, Alexandra Andreevna, pray?" "For God's
sake, I beseech you!" "I can't disguise from you," I say, "Alexandra
Andreevna; you are certainly in danger; but God is merciful." "I shall
die, I shall die." And it seemed as though she were pleased; her face
grew so bright; I was alarmed. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid! I am
not frightened of death at all." She suddenly sat up and leaned on her
elbow. "Now ... yes, now I can tell you that I thank you with my whole
heart ... that you are kind and good--that I love you!" I stare at her,
like one possessed; it was terrible for me, you know. "Do you hear, I
love you!" "Alexandra Andreevna, how have I deserved--" "No, no, you
don't--you don't understand me." ... And suddenly she stretched out her
arms, and taking my head in her hands, she kissed it.... Believe me, I
almost screamed aloud.... I threw myself on my knees, and buried my
head in the pillow. She did not speak; her fingers trembled in my hair;
I listen; she is weeping. I began to soothe her, to assure her.... I
really don't know what I did say to her. "You will wake up the girl," I
say to her; "Alexandra Andreevna, I thank you ... believe me ... calm
yourself." "Enough, enough!" she persisted; "never mind all of them;
let them wake, then; let them come in--it does not matter; I am dying,
you see.... And what do you fear? why are you afraid? Lift up your
head.... Or, perhaps, you don't love me; perhaps I am wrong.... In that
case, forgive me." "Alexandra Andreevna, what are you saying!... I love
you, Alexandra Andreevna." She looked straight into my eyes, and opened
her arms wide. "Then take me in your arms." I tell you frankly, I don't
know how it was I did not go mad that night. I feel that my patient is
killing herself; I see that she is not fully herself; I understand,
too, that if she did not consider herself on the point of death, she
would never have thought of me; and, indeed, say what you will, it's
hard to die at twenty without having known love; this was what was
torturing her; this was why, in despair, she caught at me--do you
understand now? But she held me in her arms, and would not let me go.
"Have pity on me, Alexandra Andreevna, and have pity on yourself," I
say. "Why," she says; "what is there to think of? You know I must die."
... This she repeated incessantly.... "If I knew that I should return
to life, and be a proper young lady again, I should be ashamed ... of
course, ashamed ... but why now?" "But who has said you will die?" "Oh,
no, leave off! you will not deceive me; you don't know how to lie--look
at your face." ... "You shall live, Alexandra Andreevna; I will cure
you; we will ask your mother's blessing ... we will be united--we will
be happy." "No, no, I have your word; I must die ... you have promised
me ... you have told me." ... It was cruel for me--cruel for many
reasons. And see what trifling things can do sometimes; it seems
nothing at all, but it's painful. It occurred to her to ask me, what is
my name; not my surname, but my first name. I must needs be so unlucky
as to be called Trifon. Yes, indeed; Trifon Ivanitch. Every one in the
house called me doctor. However, there's no help for it. I say,
"Trifon, madam." She frowned, shook her head, and muttered something in
French--ah, something unpleasant, of course!--and then she laughed--
disagreeably too. Well, I spent the whole night with her in this way.
Before morning I went away, feeling as though I were mad. When I went
again into her room it was daytime, after morning tea. Good God! I
could scarcely recognise her; people are laid in their grave looking
better than that. I swear to you, on my honour, I don't understand--I
absolutely don't understand--now, how I lived through that experience.
Three days and nights my patient still lingered on. And what nights!
What things she said to me! And on the last night--only imagine to
yourself--I was sitting near her, and kept praying to God for one thing
only: "Take her," I said, "quickly, and me with her." Suddenly the old
mother comes unexpectedly into the room. I had already the evening
before told her--the mother--there was little hope, and it would be
well to send for a priest. When the sick girl saw her mother she said:
"It's very well you have come; look at us, we love one another--we have
given each other our word." "What does she say, doctor? what does she
say?" I turned livid. "She is wandering," I say; "the fever." But she:
"Hush, hush; you told me something quite different just now, and have
taken my ring. Why do you pretend? My mother is good--she will forgive
--she will understand--and I am dying.... I have no need to tell lies;
give me your hand." I jumped up and ran out of the room. The old lady,
of course, guessed how it was.
'I will not, however, weary you any longer, and to me too, of course,
it's painful to recall all this. My patient passed away the next day.
God rest her soul!' the doctor added, speaking quickly and with a sigh.
'Before her death she asked her family to go out and leave me alone
with her.'
'"Forgive me," she said; "I am perhaps to blame towards you ... my
illness ... but believe me, I have loved no one more than you ... do
not forget me ... keep my ring."'
The doctor turned away; I took his hand.
'Ah!' he said, 'let us talk of something else, or would you care to
play preference for a small stake? It is not for people like me to give
way to exalted emotions. There's only one thing for me to think of; how
to keep the children from crying and the wife from scolding. Since
then, you know, I have had time to enter into lawful wed-lock, as they
say.... Oh ... I took a merchant's daughter--seven thousand for her
dowry. Her name's Akulina; it goes well with Trifon. She is an ill-
tempered woman, I must tell you, but luckily she's asleep all day....
Well, shall it be preference?'
We sat down to preference for halfpenny points. Trifon Ivanitch won two
roubles and a half from me, and went home late, well pleased with his
success.
V
MY NEIGHBOUR RADILOV
For the autumn, woodcocks often take refuge in old gardens of lime-
trees. There are a good many such gardens among us, in the province of
Orel. Our forefathers, when they selected a place for habitation,
invariably marked out two acres of good ground for a fruit-garden, with
avenues of lime-trees. Within the last fifty, or seventy years at most,
these mansions--'noblemen's nests,' as they call them--have gradually
disappeared off the face of the earth; the houses are falling to
pieces, or have been sold for the building materials; the stone
outhouses have become piles of rubbish; the apple-trees are dead and
turned into firewood, the hedges and fences are pulled up. Only the
lime-trees grow in all their glory as before, and with ploughed fields
all round them, tell a tale to this light-hearted generation of 'our
fathers and brothers who have lived before us.'
A magnificent tree is such an old lime-tree.... Even the merciless axe
of the Russian peasant spares it. Its leaves are small, its powerful
limbs spread wide in all directions; there is perpetual shade under
them.
Once, as I was wandering about the fields after partridges with
Yermolai, I saw some way off a deserted garden, and turned into it. I
had hardly crossed its borders when a snipe rose up out of a bush with
a clatter. I fired my gun, and at the same instant, a few paces from
me, I heard a shriek; the frightened face of a young girl peeped out
for a second from behind the trees, and instantly disappeared. Yermolai
ran up to me: 'Why are you shooting here? there is a landowner living
here.'
Before I had time to answer him, before my dog had had time to bring
me, with dignified importance, the bird I had shot, swift footsteps
were heard, and a tall man with moustaches came out of the thicket and
stopped, with an air of displeasure, before me. I made my apologies as
best I could, gave him my name, and offered him the bird that had been
killed on his domains.
'Very well,' he said to me with a smile; 'I will take your game, but
only on one condition: that you will stay and dine with us.'
I must confess I was not greatly delighted at his proposition, but it
was impossible to refuse.
'I am a landowner here, and your neighbour, Radilov; perhaps you have
heard of me?' continued my new acquaintance; 'to-day is Sunday, and we
shall be sure to have a decent dinner, otherwise I would not have
invited you.'
I made such a reply as one does make in such circumstances, and turned
to follow him. A little path that had lately been cleared soon led us
out of the grove of lime-trees; we came into the kitchen-garden.
Between the old apple-trees and gooseberry bushes were rows of curly
whitish-green cabbages; the hop twined its tendrils round high poles;
there were thick ranks of brown twigs tangled over with dried peas;
large flat pumpkins seemed rolling on the ground; cucumbers showed
yellow under their dusty angular leaves; tall nettles were waving along
the hedge; in two or three places grew clumps of tartar honeysuckle,
elder, and wild rose--the remnants of former flower-beds. Near a small
fish-pond, full of reddish and slimy water, we saw the well, surrounded
by puddles. Ducks were busily splashing and waddling about these
puddles; a dog blinking and twitching in every limb was gnawing a bone
in the meadow, where a piebald cow was lazily chewing the grass, from
time to time flicking its tail over its lean back. The little path
turned to one side; from behind thick willows and birches we caught
sight of a little grey old house, with a boarded roof and a winding
flight of steps. Radilov stopped short.
'But,' he said, with a good-humoured and direct look in my face,' on
second thoughts ... perhaps you don't care to come and see me, after
all.... In that case--'
I did not allow him to finish, but assured him that, on the contrary,
it would be a great pleasure to me to dine with him.
'Well, you know best.'
We went into the house. A young man in a long coat of stout blue cloth
met us on the steps. Radilov at once told him to bring Yermolai some
vodka; my huntsman made a respectful bow to the back of the munificent
host. From the hall, which was decorated with various parti-coloured
pictures and check curtains, we went into a small room--Radilov's
study. I took off my hunting accoutrements, and put my gun in a corner;
the young man in the long-skirted coat busily brushed me down.
'Well, now, let us go into the drawing-room.' said Radilov cordially.
'I will make you acquainted with my mother.'
I walked after him. In the drawing-room, in the sofa in the centre of
the room, was sitting an old lady of medium height, in a cinnamon-
coloured dress and a white cap, with a thinnish, kind old face, and a
timid, mournful expression.
'Here, mother, let me introduce to you our neighbour....'
The old lady got up and made me a bow, not letting go out of her
withered hands a fat worsted reticule that looked like a sack.
'Have you been long in our neighbourhood?' she asked, in a weak and
gentle voice, blinking her eyes.
'No, not long.'
'Do you intend to remain here long?'
'Till the winter, I think.'
The old lady said no more.
'And here,' interposed Radilov, indicating to me a tall and thin man,
whom I had not noticed on entering the drawing-room, 'is Fyodor
Miheitch. ... Come, Fedya, give the visitor a specimen of your art. Why
have you hidden yourself away in that corner?'
Fyodor Miheitch got up at once from his chair, fetched a wretched
little fiddle from the window, took the bow--not by the end, as is
usual, but by the middle--put the fiddle to his chest, shut his eyes,
and fell to dancing, singing a song, and scraping on the strings. He
looked about seventy; a thin nankin overcoat flapped pathetically about
his dry and bony limbs. He danced, at times skipping boldly, and then
dropping his little bald head with his scraggy neck stretched out as if
he were dying, stamping his feet on the ground, and sometimes bending
his knees with obvious difficulty. A voice cracked with age came from
his toothless mouth.
Radilov must have guessed from the expression of my face that Fedya's
'art' did not give me much pleasure.
'Very good, old man, that's enough,' he said. 'You can go and refresh
yourself.'
Fyodor Miheitch at once laid down the fiddle on the window-sill, bowed
first to me as the guest, then to the old lady, then to Radilov, and
went away.
'He too was a landowner,' my new friend continued, 'and a rich one too,
but he ruined himself--so he lives now with me.... But in his day he
was considered the most dashing fellow in the province; he eloped with
two married ladies; he used to keep singers, and sang himself, and
danced like a master.... But won't you take some vodka? dinner is just
ready.'
A young girl, the same that I had caught a glimpse of in the garden,
came into the room.
'And here is Olga!' observed Radilov, slightly turning his head; 'let
me present you.... Well, let us go into dinner.'
We went in and sat down to the table. While we were coming out of the
drawing-room and taking our seats, Fyodor Miheitch, whose eyes were
bright and his nose rather red after his 'refreshment,' sang 'Raise the
cry of Victory.' They laid a separate cover for him in a corner on a
little table without a table-napkin. The poor old man could not boast
of very nice habits, and so they always kept him at some distance from
society. He crossed himself, sighed, and began to eat like a shark. The
dinner was in reality not bad, and in honour of Sunday was accompanied,
of course, with shaking jelly and Spanish puffs of pastry. At the table
Radilov, who had served ten years in an infantry regiment and had been
in Turkey, fell to telling anecdotes; I listened to him with attention,
and secretly watched Olga. She was not very pretty; but the tranquil
and resolute expression of her face, her broad, white brow, her thick
hair, and especially her brown eyes--not large, but clear, sensible and
lively--would have made an impression on anyone in my place. She seemed
to be following every word Radilov uttered--not so much sympathy as
passionate attention was expressed on her face. Radilov in years might
have been her father; he called her by her Christian name, but I
guessed at once that she was not his daughter. In the course of
conversation he referred to his deceased wife--'her sister,' he added,
indicating Olga. She blushed quickly and dropped her eyes. Radilov
paused a moment and then changed the subject. The old lady did not
utter a word during the whole of dinner; she ate scarcely anything
herself, and did not press me to partake. Her features had an air of
timorous and hopeless expectation, that melancholy of old age which it
pierces one's heart to look upon. At the end of dinner Fyodor Miheitch
was beginning to 'celebrate' the hosts and guests, but Radilov looked
at me and asked him to be quiet; the old man passed his hand over his
lips, began to blink, bowed, and sat down again, but only on the very
edge of his chair. After dinner I returned with Radilov to his study.
In people who are constantly and intensely preoccupied with one idea,
or one emotion, there is something in common, a kind of external
resemblance in manner, however different may be their qualities, their
abilities, their position in society, and their education. The more I
watched Radilov, the more I felt that he belonged to the class of such
people. He talked of husbandry, of the crops, of the war, of the gossip
of the district and the approaching elections; he talked without
constraint, and even with interest; but suddenly he would sigh and drop
into a chair, and pass his hand over his face, like a man wearied out
by a tedious task. His whole nature--a good and warm-hearted one too--
seemed saturated through, steeped in some one feeling. I was amazed by
the fact that I could not discover in him either a passion for eating,
nor for wine, nor for sport, nor for Kursk nightingales, nor for
epileptic pigeons, nor for Russian literature, nor for trotting-hacks,
nor for Hungarian coats, nor for cards, nor billiards, nor for dances,
nor trips to the provincial town or the capital, nor for paper-
factories and beet-sugar refineries, nor for painted pavilions, nor for
tea, nor for trace-horses trained to hold their heads askew, nor even
for fat coachmen belted under their very armpits--those magnificent
coachmen whose eyes, for some mysterious reason, seem rolling and
starting out of their heads at every movement.... 'What sort of
landowner is this, then?' I thought. At the same time he did not in the
least pose as a gloomy man discontented with his destiny; on the
contrary, he seemed full of indiscrimating good-will, cordial and even
Back to Full Books
|