It happened in the 'seventies
in winter, on the day after St.
Nicholas's Day. There was a fete
in the parish and the innkeeper,
Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov,
a Second Guild merchant, being
a church elder had to go to church,
and had also to entertain his
relatives and friends at home.
But when the last of them had
gone he at once began to prepare
to drive over to see a neighbouring
proprietor about a grove which
he had been bargaining over for
a long time. He was now in a
hurry to start, lest buyers from
the town might forestall him
in making a profitable purchase.
The youthful landowner was
asking ten thousand rubles for
the grove simply because Vasili
Andreevich was offering seven
thousand. Seven thousand was,
however, only a third of its
real value. Vasili Andreevich
might perhaps have got it down
to his own price, for the woods
were in his district and he had
a long-standing agreement with
the other village dealers that
no one should run up the price
in another's district, but he
had now learnt that some timber-dealers
from town meant to bid for the
Goryachkin grove, and he resolved
to go at once and get the matter
settled. So as soon as the feast
was over, he took seven hundred
rubles from his strong box, added
to them two thousand three hundred
rubles of church money he had
in his keeping, so as to make
up the sum to three thousand;
carefully counted the notes,
and having put them into his
pocket-book made haste to start.
Nikita, the only one of Vasili
Andreevich's labourers who was
not drunk that day, ran to harness
the horse. Nikita, though an
habitual drunkard, was not drunk
that day because since the last
day before the fast, when he
had drunk his coat and leather
boots, he had sworn off drink
and had kept his vow for two
months, and was still keeping
it despite the temptation of
the vodka that had been drunk
everywhere during the first two
days of the feast.
Nikita was a peasant of about
fifty from a neighbouring village,
'not a manager' as the peasants
said of him, meaning that he
was not the thrifty head of a
household but lived most of his
time away from home as a labourer.
He was valued everywhere for
his industry, dexterity, and
strength at work, and still more
for his kindly and pleasant temper.
But he never settled down anywhere
for long because about twice
a year, or even oftener, he had
a drinking bout, and then besides
spending all his clothes on drink
he became turbulent and quarrelsome.
Vasili Andreevich himself had
turned him away several times,
but had afterwards taken him
back again--valuing his honesty,
his kindness to animals, and
especially his cheapness. Vasili
Andreevich did not pay Nikita
the eighty rubles a year such
a man was worth, but only about
forty, which he gave him haphazard,
in small sums, and even that
mostly not in cash but in goods
from his own shop and at high
prices.
Nikita's wife Martha, who had
once been a handsome vigorous
woman, managed the homestead
with the help of her son and
two daughters, and did not urge
Nikita to live at home: first
because she had been living for
some twenty years already with
a cooper, a peasant from another
village who lodged in their house;
and secondly because though she
managed her husband as she pleased
when he was sober, she feared
him like fire when he was drunk.
Once when he had got drunk at
home, Nikita, probably to make
up for his submissiveness when
sober, broke open her box, took
out her best clothes, snatched
up an axe, and chopped all her
undergarments and dresses to
bits. All the wages Nikita earned
went to his wife, and he raised
no objection to that. So now,
two days before the holiday,
Martha had been twice to see
Vasili Andreevich and had got
from him wheat flour, tea, sugar,
and a quart of vodka, the lot
costing three rubles, and also
five rubles in cash, for which
she thanked him as for a special
favour, though he owed Nikita
at least twenty rubles.
'What agreement did we ever
draw up with you?' said Vasili
Andreevich to Nikita. 'If you
need anything, take it; you will
work it off. I'm not like others
to keep you waiting, and making
up accounts and reckoning fines.
We deal straight-forwardly. You
serve me and I don't neglect
you.'
And when saying this Vasili
Andreevich was honestly convinced
that he was Nikita's benefactor,
and he knew how to put it so
plausibly that all those who
depended on him for their money,
beginning with Nikita, confirmed
him in the conviction that he
was their benefactor and did
not overreach them.
'Yes, I understand, Vasili
Andreevich. You know that I serve
you and take as much pains as
I would for my own father. I
understand very well!' Nikita
would reply. He was quite aware
that Vasili Andreevich was cheating
him, but at the same time he
felt that it was useless to try
to clear up his accounts with
him or explain his side of the
matter, and that as long as he
had nowhere to go he must accept
what he could get.
Now, having heard his master's
order to harness, he went as
usual cheerfully and willingly
to the shed, stepping briskly
and easily on his rather turned-in
feet; took down from a nail the
heavy tasselled leather bridle,
and jingling the rings of the
bit went to the closed stable
where the horse he was to harness
was standing by himself.
'What, feeling lonely, feeling
lonely, little silly?' said Nikita
in answer to the low whinny with
which he was greeted by the good-tempered,
medium-sized bay stallion, with
a rather slanting crupper, who
stood alone in the shed. 'Now
then, now then, there's time
enough. Let me water you first,'
he went on, speaking to the horse
just as to someone who understood
the words he was using, and having
whisked the dusty, grooved back
of the well-fed young stallion
with the skirt of his coat, he
put a bridle on his handsome
head, straightened his ears and
forelock, and having taken off
his halter led him out to water.
Picking his way out of the
dung-strewn stable, Mukhorty
frisked, and making play with
his hind leg pretended that he
meant to kick Nikita, who was
running at a trot beside him
to the pump.
'Now then, now then, you rascal!'
Nikita called out, well knowing
how carefully Mukhorty threw
out his hind leg just to touch
his greasy sheepskin coat but
not to strike him--a trick Nikita
much appreciated.
After a drink of the cold water
the horse sighed, moving his
strong wet lips, from the hairs
of which transparent drops fell
into the trough; then standing
still as if in thought, he suddenly
gave a loud snort.
'If you don't want any more,
you needn't. But don't go asking
for any later,' said Nikita quite
seriously and fully explaining
his conduct to Mukhorty. Then
he ran back to the shed pulling
the playful young horse, who
wanted to gambol all over the
yard, by the rein.
There was no one else in the
yard except a stranger, the cook's
husband, who had come for the
holiday.
'Go and ask which sledge is
to be harnessed--the wide one
or the small one--there's a good
fellow!'
The cook's husband went into
the house, which stood on an
iron foundation and was iron-roofed,
and soon returned saying that
the little one was to be harnessed.
By that time Nikita had put the
collar and brass-studded belly-band
on Mukhorty and, carrying a light,
painted shaft-bow in one hand,
was leading the horse with the
other up to two sledges that
stood in the shed.
'All right, let it be the little
one!' he said, backing the intelligent
horse, which all the time kept
pretending to bite him, into
the shafts, and with the aid
of the cook's husband he proceeded
to harness. When everything was
nearly ready and only the reins
had to be adjusted, Nikita sent
the other man to the shed for
some straw and to the barn for
a drugget.
'There, that's all right! Now,
now, don't bristle up!' said
Nikita, pressing down into the
sledge the freshly threshed oat
straw the cook's husband had
brought. 'And now let's spread
the sacking like this, and the
drugget over it. There, like
that it will be comfortable sitting,'
he went on, suiting the action
to the words and tucking the
drugget all round over the straw
to make a seat.
'Thank you, dear man. Things
always go quicker with two working
at it!' he added. And gathering
up the leather reins fastened
together by a brass ring, Nikita
took the driver's seat and started
the impatient horse over the
frozen manure which lay in the
yard, towards the gate.
'Uncle Nikita! I say, Uncle,
Uncle!' a high-pitched voice
shouted, and a seven-year-old
boy in a black sheepskin coat,
new white felt boots, and a warm
cap, ran hurriedly out of the
house into the yard. 'Take me
with you!' he cried, fastening
up his coat as he ran.
'All right, come along, darling!'
said Nikita, and stopping the
sledge he picked up the master's
pale thin little son, radiant
with joy, and drove out into
the road.
It was past two o'clock and
the day was windy, dull, and
cold, with more than twenty degrees
Fahrenheit of frost. Half the
sky was hidden by a lowering
dark cloud. In the yard it was
quiet, but in the street the
wind was felt more keenly. The
snow swept down from a neighbouring
shed and whirled about in the
corner near the bath-house.
Hardly had Nikita driven out
of the yard and turned the horse's
head to the house, before Vasili
Andreevich emerged from the high
porch in front of the house with
a cigarette in his mouth and
wearing a cloth-covered sheep-skin
coat tightly girdled low at his
waist, and stepped onto the hard-trodden
snow which squeaked under the
leather soles of his felt boots,
and stopped. Taking a last whiff
of his cigarette he threw it
down, stepped on it, and letting
the smoke escape through his
moustache and looking askance
at the horse that was coming
up, began to tuck in his sheepskin
collar on both sides of his ruddy
face, clean-shaven except for
the moustache, so that his breath
should not moisten the collar.
'See now! The young scamp is
there already!' he exclaimed
when he saw his little son in
the sledge. Vasili Andreevich
was excited by the vodka he had
drunk with his visitors, and
so he was even more pleased than
usual with everything that was
his and all that he did. The
sight of his son, whom he always
thought of as his heir, now gave
him great satisfaction. He looked
at him, screwing up his eyes
and showing his long teeth.
His wife--pregnant, thin and
pale, with her head and shoulders
wrapped in a shawl so that nothing
of her face could be seen but
her eyes--stood behind him in
the vestibule to see him off.
'Now really, you ought to take
Nikita with you,' she said timidly,
stepping out from the doorway.
Vasili Andreevich did not answer.
Her words evidently annoyed him
and he frowned angrily and spat.
'You have money on you,' she
continued in the same plaintive
voice. 'What if the weather gets
worse! Do take him, for goodness'
sake!'
'Why? Don't I know the road
that I must needs take a guide?'
exclaimed Vasili Andreevich,
uttering every word very distinctly
and compressing his lips unnaturally,
as he usually did when speaking
to buyers and sellers.
'Really you ought to take him.
I beg you in God's name!' his
wife repeated, wrapping her shawl
more closely round her head.
'There, she sticks to it like
a leech! . . . Where am I to
take him?'
'I'm quite ready to go with
you, Vasili Andreevich,' said
Nikita cheerfully. 'But they
must feed the horses while I
am away,' he added, turning to
his master's wife.
'I'll look after them, Nikita
dear. I'll tell Simon,' replied
the mistress.
'Well, Vasili Andreevich, am
I to come with you?' said Nikita,
awaiting a decision.
'It seems I must humour my
old woman. But if you're coming
you'd better put on a warmer
cloak,' said Vasili Andreevich,
smiling again as he winked at
Nikita's short sheepskin coat,
which was torn under the arms
and at the back, was greasy and
out of shape, frayed to a fringe
round the skirt, and had endured
many things in its lifetime.
'Hey, dear man, come and hold
the horse!' shouted Nikita to
the cook's husband, who was still
in the yard.
'No, I will myself, I will
myself!' shrieked the little
boy, pulling his hands, red with
cold, out of his pockets, and
seizing the cold leather reins.
'Only don't be too long dressing
yourself up. Look alive!' shouted
Vasili Andreevich, grinning at
Nikita.
'Only a moment, Father, Vasili
Andreevich!' replied Nikita,
and running quickly with his
inturned toes in his felt boots
with their soles patched with
felt, he hurried across the yard
and into the workmen's hut.
'Arinushka! Get my coat down
from the stove. I'm going with
the master,' he said, as he ran
into the hut and took down his
girdle from the nail on which
it hung.
The workmen's cook, who had
had a sleep after dinner and
was now getting the samovar ready
for her husband, turned cheerfully
to Nikita, and infected by his
hurry began to move as quickly
as he did, got down his miserable
worn-out cloth coat from the
stove where it was drying, and
began hurriedly shaking it out
and smoothing it down.
'There now, you'll have a chance
of a holiday with your good man,'
said Nikita, who from kindhearted
politeness always said something
to anyone he was alone with.
Then, drawing his worn narrow
girdle round him, he drew in
his breath, pulling in his lean
stomach still more, and girdled
himself as tightly as he could
over his sheepskin.
'There now,' he said addressing
himself no longer to the cook
but the girdle, as he tucked
the ends in at the waist, 'now
you won't come undone!' And working
his shoulders up and down to
free his arms, he put the coat
over his sheepskin, arched his
back more strongly to ease his
arms, poked himself under the
armpits, and took down his leather-covered
mittens from the shelf. 'Now
we're all right!'
'You ought to wrap your feet
up, Nikita. Your boots are very
bad.'
Nikita stopped as if he had
suddenly realized this.
'Yes, I ought to. . . . But
they'll do like this. It isn't
far!' and he ran out into the
yard.
'Won't you be cold, Nikita?'
said the mistress as he came
up to the sledge.
'Cold? No, I'm quite warm,'
answered Nikita as he pushed
some straw up to the forepart
of the sledge so that it should
cover his feet, and stowed away
the whip, which the good horse
would not need, at the bottom
of the sledge.
Vasili Andreevich, who was
wearing two fur-lined coats one
over the other, was already in
the sledge, his broad back filling
nearly its whole rounded width,
and taking the reins he immediately
touched the horse. Nikita jumped
in just as the sledge started,
and seated himself in front on
the left side, with one leg hanging
over the edge.
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