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Master and Man - Leo Tolstoy · Byways to Blessedness

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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brooks Jensen, anacordis Washington,
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  Speaker 1: Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy. This book consists of
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  Speaker 1: ten sections. Section one. It was in the seventies, the
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  Speaker 1: day after the Feast of Saint Nicholas in the winter.
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  Speaker 1: There had been a festival in the parish, and the
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  Speaker 1: church sexton, Vassiliandreitch Bruchanoff, who was also a merchant of
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  Speaker 1: the Second Guild, had been forced to remain at home,
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  Speaker 1: since not only was his presence necessary at the church,
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  Speaker 1: but he had been receiving and entertaining some friends and relations. Now, however,
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  Speaker 1: the last of his guests had parted and he was
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  Speaker 1: able to get himself ready to visit a neighboring landowner
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose of buying some timber for which he
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  Speaker 1: had long been entreaty. He was in a hurry to
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  Speaker 1: be off lest rival buyers from the town should deprive
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  Speaker 1: him of this eligible bargain. The only reason why the
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  Speaker 1: young landowner had asked ten thousand roubles for the timber
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  Speaker 1: was that Vassili Andreetch had offered him seven and seven
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  Speaker 1: represented about a third of its value. Perhaps Vassili might
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  Speaker 1: have gone on haggling still further, for the wood was
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  Speaker 1: in his own district, and there was a recognized agreement
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  Speaker 1: between the local merchants and himself that one merchant should
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  Speaker 1: not bid against another in the same district. Were it
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  Speaker 1: not that he had heard that the government forest contractors
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  Speaker 1: were also thinking of coming to treat for the Goviyachkinsky timber,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore he had better make up his mind to
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  Speaker 1: go at once and clinch the matter. So as soon
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  Speaker 1: as the festival was over, he took seven hundred roubles
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  Speaker 1: of his own out of the strong box, added to
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  Speaker 1: them two thousand, three hundred more out of the church
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  Speaker 1: funds which he had by him, making three thousand in all,
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  Speaker 1: and counted them carefully. Then he placed them in his
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  Speaker 1: pocket book and got ready to go. Nakita, the only
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  Speaker 1: one of Vassili's workmen who was not drunk that day,
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  Speaker 1: ran to put the horse in. Nakita was not drunk
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  Speaker 1: that day for the reason that he had formerly been
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  Speaker 1: a toper, but after pawning his jacket and leather boots,
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  Speaker 1: for drinking during the flesh eating days, had suddenly forsworn
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  Speaker 1: liquor altogether and drunk nothing during the second month. Even
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  Speaker 1: on the present occasion. He had kept his vow in
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  Speaker 1: spite of the temptation of the liquor which had flowed
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  Speaker 1: in all directions during the first two days of the festival.
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  Speaker 1: He was a moujique of about fifty and hailed from
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  Speaker 1: a neighboring village, where, however, it was said that he
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  Speaker 1: was not a householder, but had lived most of his
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  Speaker 1: life among strangers. Everywhere he was valued for his handiness, industry,
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  Speaker 1: and strength, as well as still more for his kindly,
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  Speaker 1: cheerful disposition. Yet he had never remained long in any
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  Speaker 1: one place, since twice a year or more he had
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  Speaker 1: been accustomed to get drunk, and at those times would
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  Speaker 1: not only pawn everything he possessed, but grow uproarious and
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  Speaker 1: quarrelsome as well. Vassili himself had dismissed him more than once,
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  Speaker 1: yet had always taken him on again because of the
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  Speaker 1: store which he set by his honesty, care for animals,
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  Speaker 1: and most important of all, cheapness. In fact, Vassili allowed
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  Speaker 1: Nikita a wage not of eighty rubles a year, the
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  Speaker 1: true market value of such a workman, but of forty only. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: this wage was doled out ire regularly and in driblets,
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  Speaker 1: as well as for the most part, not in cash
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  Speaker 1: at all, but in the form of goods purchased at
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  Speaker 1: a high price from Vassili's own store. Nakita's wife, Martha,
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  Speaker 1: a rugged dame who had once been good looking, lived
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  Speaker 1: at home with their little lad and two girls, but
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  Speaker 1: never invited her husband to come and see her, since
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  Speaker 1: in the first place, she had lived for the last
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  Speaker 1: twenty years with a cooper, originally a moujique from a
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  Speaker 1: distant village who had come to lodge in the hut,
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  Speaker 1: and in the second because although she could do what
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  Speaker 1: she liked with her husband when he was sober, she
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  Speaker 1: dreaded him like fire when he was drunk. Once, for instance,
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  Speaker 1: when drunk at home, he had seized the occasion to
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  Speaker 1: avenge himself upon his wife for all his submissiveness to
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  Speaker 1: her when sober, by breaking into her private box, possessing
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  Speaker 1: himself of her best clothes, laying all the gowns and
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  Speaker 1: other geyugas upon the wood block, and chopping them in
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  Speaker 1: to shreds. With an axe, yet all his earnings were
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  Speaker 1: handed over to Martha. Never once had he disputed this arrangement.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, only a couple of days before the festival,
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  Speaker 1: she had driven over to Vassili's store and been supplied
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  Speaker 1: by him with white meal, tea, sugar, and a pint
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  Speaker 1: of vodka to the value of three rubles, as well
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  Speaker 1: as with five rubles in cash, for all of which
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  Speaker 1: she thanked Vassili as for a particular favor, although as
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  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, Vassili was in Nikita's debt to
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  Speaker 1: the extent of at least twenty rubles. What agreement needs
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  Speaker 1: you and I make together, Vassili had said to Nikita,
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  Speaker 1: take what you need as you earn it. I don't
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  Speaker 1: do business as other folks do. Keep my creditors waiting
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  Speaker 1: and go in for detailed accounts and deductions and so on.
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  Speaker 1: You and I can trust one another. Only serve me well,
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  Speaker 1: and I shall never fail you. In saying this, vasis
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  Speaker 1: Cccili really had believed that he was being good to Nikita,
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  Speaker 1: for he could speak so persuasively and had always been
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  Speaker 1: so entirely supported in his decisions by his dependants. From
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  Speaker 1: Nikita upwards that even he himself had come to feel
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  Speaker 1: comfortably persuaded that he was not cheating them, but actually
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  Speaker 1: benefiting them. Yes, yes, I understand you, Vassili, andrage, Nikita
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  Speaker 1: had replied, I understand you perfectly well, and will serve
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  Speaker 1: and work for you as for my own father. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: Nikita had not been ignorant that Vassili was cheating him.
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  Speaker 1: He had only felt that it would be no use
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  Speaker 1: his trying to get a detailed account out of his master,
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  Speaker 1: and that in default of another place to go to,
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  Speaker 1: he had better grin and bear it and take what
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  Speaker 1: he could get. So, when ordered to harness the horse,
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  Speaker 1: Nikita proceeded to the stable in his usual cheerful, good
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  Speaker 1: natured manner, and with the usual easy stride of his
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  Speaker 1: rather waddling legs. There he took down from a peg
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  Speaker 1: the heavy headstall, and, with its straps and tassels, and
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  Speaker 1: rattling the bit against the side pieces, proceeded to the
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  Speaker 1: stall where the horse was standing, which he was ready
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  Speaker 1: to get. Oh ho, so you find time long, do you,
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  Speaker 1: my little beauty? He said, in reply to the low
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  Speaker 1: winnie of welcome which greeted him from the shapely, middle
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  Speaker 1: sized low rumped dark brown stallion cob, which was the
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  Speaker 1: sole occupant of the loose box. Nay, nay, he went on,
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  Speaker 1: you are in a hurry to be off, I dare say,
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  Speaker 1: but I must water you first. He always spoke to
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  Speaker 1: the animal as one might speak to a being capable
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  Speaker 1: of understanding human speech. Then, having wiped the sleek, though
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  Speaker 1: dusty and harnessed, galled back of the cob with a cloth,
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  Speaker 1: he adjusted the headstall to the handsome young head, pulled
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  Speaker 1: the ears and forehead, tuffted through, let down the hall,
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  Speaker 1: and led the animal out to drink. As soon as
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  Speaker 1: Brownie had picked his way gingerly out of the dung
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  Speaker 1: heaped stall, he grew lively and threw up his heels,
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  Speaker 1: pretending that he wanted to kick Nikita, as the latter
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  Speaker 1: trotted behind him to the water trough. Quiet then, quiet, then,
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  Speaker 1: you little rascal, exclaimed Nikita, though well aware that Brownie
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  Speaker 1: was taking good care to throw out his hind leg
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  Speaker 1: in such a manner as to only gray is Nikita's
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  Speaker 1: greasy fur coat not strike it direct, a trick which
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  Speaker 1: Nikita always admired. Having drunk his fill of cold water,
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  Speaker 1: the animal snorted as he stood twitching his strong, wet
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  Speaker 1: lips from the hairs of which the bright, transparent drops
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  Speaker 1: kept dripping back into the trough. Then he stood motionless
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  Speaker 1: for an instant or two, as though engaged in thought,
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  Speaker 1: and then suddenly gave a loud nigh. You don't want
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  Speaker 1: any more. You wouldn't get it even if you did,
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  Speaker 1: so you needn't ask for it, said Nikita, explaining his
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  Speaker 1: conduct to Brownie with absolute gravity and precision. Then he
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  Speaker 1: set off running back to the stable, holding the spirited
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  Speaker 1: young cob by the halter, as the animal kicked and
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  Speaker 1: snorted all across the yard. None of the other workmen
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  Speaker 1: were about, only the cook's husband, who had come over
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  Speaker 1: for the festival from another village. Go in, will you,
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  Speaker 1: my boy, said Nikita to this man, and ask which
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  Speaker 1: sledge I am to get ready, the big one or
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  Speaker 1: the little one. The man disappeared into the house, which
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  Speaker 1: was iron roofed and stood upon a raised foundation, and
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  Speaker 1: returned in a moment with a message that it was
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  Speaker 1: the little sledge which was to be used. Meanwhile, Nikita
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  Speaker 1: slipped the collar over the COB's head and adjusted the
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  Speaker 1: brass studded saddle piece, and was now walking with a
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  Speaker 1: light painted duga in one hand and the end of
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  Speaker 1: the COB's halter in the other, towards the two sledges
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  Speaker 1: standing beneath the shop. In a footnote, the translator explains
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  Speaker 1: the term du gaw is a curved frame fitted with
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  Speaker 1: bells which surmounts the collar in a Russian harness. If
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  Speaker 1: the little sledge, then the little sledge, he remarked, and
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  Speaker 1: proceeded to back the clever little animal into the shafts it,
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  Speaker 1: pretending meanwhile to bite him, and with the other man's assistance,
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  Speaker 1: to harness it to the vehicle. When all was ready,
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  Speaker 1: and there remained only the reins to be put on,
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  Speaker 1: Nikita sent his assistant to the stable for some straw,
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  Speaker 1: and then to the storehouse for a sack. There now,
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  Speaker 1: that will do, said Nikita, as he stuffed into the
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  Speaker 1: sledge the freshly cut oaten straw which the man had brought.
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  Speaker 1: But nay, nay, he said to Brownie, you need not
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  Speaker 1: prick your ears like that. Well, suppose we put the
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  Speaker 1: straw so and the sack on top of it, then
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  Speaker 1: it will be comfortable for you to sit upon. And
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  Speaker 1: he suited the action to the words by tucking the
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  Speaker 1: edges of the sack under the straw disposed around the seat.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, my boy, he added to the cook's husband.
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  Speaker 1: Two pairs of hand were quicker than one. After that,
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  Speaker 1: he buckled the loose ends of the reins together, mounted
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  Speaker 1: the splash board, and drove the good little steed, all
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  Speaker 1: impatient to be off, across the frozen dung of the
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  Speaker 1: yard to the entrance gates. Uncle m Kit, Uncle mac
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  Speaker 1: Keit came the shrill little voice of a seven year
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  Speaker 1: old boy from behind him, as the youngster ran hastily
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  Speaker 1: out of the porch into the yard. A youngster who
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  Speaker 1: was dressed and a short jacket of black fur, new
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  Speaker 1: white bast shoes and a cozy cap. Let me get
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  Speaker 1: up too, he implored, fastening his jacket as he ran. Well, well,
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  Speaker 1: come here, then, my dear, said Nikita, pulling him up.
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  Speaker 1: Then seating the master's pale, thin little behind him, he
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  Speaker 1: drove the boy, beaming with pleasure, out into the street.
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  Speaker 1: It was now three o'clock in the afternoon and freezing hard,
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  Speaker 1: the thermometer registering only ten degrees. Yet the weather was
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  Speaker 1: dull and gusty, and fully half the sky was covered
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  Speaker 1: by a low, dark bank of cloud. In the courtyard,
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  Speaker 1: the air was still, but directly one stepped into the
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  Speaker 1: street outside, the wind became more noticeable, and the snow
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  Speaker 1: could be seen twirling itself about in wreaths as it
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  Speaker 1: was swept from the roof of a neighboring outbuilding into
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  Speaker 1: the corner near the bathhouse. Hardly had Nikita returned through
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  Speaker 1: the gates and turned the COB's head towards the steps
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  Speaker 1: when Vassili Andreich, a cigarette between his lips and a
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  Speaker 1: sheepskin coat upon his shoulders fastened tightly and low down
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  Speaker 1: with a belt came out of the house door and
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  Speaker 1: upon the high snow trampled flight of steps, making them
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  Speaker 1: creak loudly under his felt boots as he did so,
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  Speaker 1: Drawing the last whiff from his cigarette, he threw down
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  Speaker 1: the fag end and stamped it out, then puffing the
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  Speaker 1: smoke out of his mustache. He glanced at the cob
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  Speaker 1: as it re entered the gates and began to turn
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  Speaker 1: out the corners of his coat collar in such a
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  Speaker 1: way that the fur should be next to his face
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  Speaker 1: on either side. His face was clean shaven except for
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  Speaker 1: the mustache, and yet not liable to be fouled with
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  Speaker 1: his breath. So you have managed it, you little monkey,
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  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, as he caught sight of his little boy
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  Speaker 1: seated in the sledge. Vasili was a little animated with
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  Speaker 1: the wine which he had been drinking with his guests,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore the more ready to approve of all that
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  Speaker 1: belonged to him and all that he had done in life.
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  Speaker 1: The aspect of his little son at that moment, of
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  Speaker 1: the little boy whom he intended to be his heir,
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  Speaker 1: afforded him the greatest satisfaction, as he stood, blinking at
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  Speaker 1: him and grinning with his long teeth. In the porch
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  Speaker 1: behind Vassili stood his pale, thin wife, Vassilia Andreecha. She
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  Speaker 1: was enciente and had her head and shoulders muffled up
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  Speaker 1: in a woolen shawl, so that only her eyes were visible.
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  Speaker 1: Had not you better take Nikita with you, she said,
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  Speaker 1: stepping timidly forward from the porch. Vassili returned her no answer,
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  Speaker 1: but merely frowned angrily, as though somehow displeased at her words,
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  Speaker 1: and spat upon the ground. You see, you will be
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  Speaker 1: traveling with money on you, she continued in the same
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  Speaker 1: anxious tone. Besides the weather might grow worse. Don't I
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  Speaker 1: know the road? Then that I must needs have a
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  Speaker 1: guide with me, burst out Vassili, with that unnatural stiffening
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  Speaker 1: of his lips, which marked his intercourse with buyers and
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  Speaker 1: cellars when he was particularly desirous of enunciating each syllable distinctly. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: do take him, for Heaven's sake, I implore you, repeated his wife,
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  Speaker 1: as she shifted her shawl to protect the other side
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  Speaker 1: of her face. Goodness, why you stick to me like
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  Speaker 1: a bathing towel, cried Vassili. Where can I find room
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  Speaker 1: for him on the sledge? I am quite ready to go,
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  Speaker 1: put in, Nikita cheerfully. Only some one else must feed
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  Speaker 1: the other horses while I am away. This last to
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  Speaker 1: his mistress. Yes, yes, I will see to that, Nikita,
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  Speaker 1: she replied, I will tell Simon to do it. Then
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  Speaker 1: I am to go with you, Vassili andreitch, said Nikita expectantly. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose I must humor the good lady, answered Vassili.
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  Speaker 1: Only if you go, you had better put on a
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  Speaker 1: rather better, not to say, warmer diplomatists uniform than that,
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  Speaker 1: And he smiled and winked one eye at Nikita's fur jacket,
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  Speaker 1: which truth to tell, had holes under its two arms,
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  Speaker 1: down the back and round the sides, besides being greasy, matted,
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  Speaker 1: shorn of hooks, and torn into strips around the edges. Here,
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  Speaker 1: my good fellow, come and hold the cob, will you,
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  Speaker 1: shouted Nikita across the yard to the cook's husband. No, no,
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  Speaker 1: let me do it, cried the little boy, drawing his small,
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  Speaker 1: red frozen hands out of his pockets and catching hold
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  Speaker 1: of the chilly reins. Don't be too long over your
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  Speaker 1: new uniform, please, said Vassili to Nikita with a grin. No, no, vassilandrovitch,
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  Speaker 1: I shan't be a moment, protested Nikita, as he went
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  Speaker 1: shuffling hurriedly off in his old felt boots towards the
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  Speaker 1: servants quarters across the yard. Now, then, my good Roninchka,
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  Speaker 1: give me my halat from the stove. I am going
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  Speaker 1: with master, shouted Nikita, as he burst into the hut
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  Speaker 1: and seized his belt from a peg. And here, in
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  Speaker 1: a footnote, the translator describes a halot as a kind
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  Speaker 1: of frock coat. The cook, who had been enjoying a
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  Speaker 1: good sleep after dinner and was now getting tea ready
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  Speaker 1: for her husband greeted Nikita cheerfully, and catching the infection
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  Speaker 1: of his haste, began to bustle about briskly as he himself.
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  Speaker 1: First she took from the stove a shabby but well
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  Speaker 1: aired cloth halot, and set about shaking and smoothing it
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  Speaker 1: out with all possible speed. You are far more fit
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  Speaker 1: to go with master than I am, he said to
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  Speaker 1: the cook, in accordance with his usual habit of saying
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  Speaker 1: something civil to every one with whom he came in contact.
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  Speaker 1: Then twisting about him the shabby, well worn belt, he
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  Speaker 1: succeeded first in compressing his not over prominent stomach, and
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  Speaker 1: then in drawing the belt with great effort over his
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  Speaker 1: fur coat. There you are, he said, not to the cook,
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  Speaker 1: but to the belt, as he tucked its ends in.
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  Speaker 1: You can't very well burst apart like that. Then, with
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  Speaker 1: a hoist and much heaving of the shoulders, he drew
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  Speaker 1: the cloth halot over all, stretching its back well to
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  Speaker 1: give looseness in the arms, and patted it into place
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  Speaker 1: under the armpits. Finally, he took his mittens from a shelf.
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  Speaker 1: Now said he I am all right, but you have
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  Speaker 1: forgotten about your feet, cried the cook. Those boots are awful.
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  Speaker 1: Nakita stopped, as if struck by this. Yes, perhaps I
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  Speaker 1: ought to change, he began, but changed his mind, and
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  Speaker 1: exclaiming no, he might go without me. If I did,
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  Speaker 1: I have not far to walk, bolted off into the yard.
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  Speaker 1: But won't you be cold in that hallot only, Nikita,
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  Speaker 1: said his mistress, when he reached the sledge. No, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: how should I It is very warm, answered Nikita, as
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  Speaker 1: he disposed the straw over the forepart of the sledge
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  Speaker 1: in such a manner as would conceal his feet after
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  Speaker 1: he had mounted and thrust the whip not needed for
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  Speaker 1: so willing a steed under the straw. Vassili had already
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  Speaker 1: taken his seat, his broad back with its double covering
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  Speaker 1: of furs, filling almost the entire rear part of the sledge.
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  Speaker 1: Then taking up the reins, he flicked the cob with them,
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  Speaker 1: while Nikita jumped into the fore part of the sledge
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  Speaker 1: just as it started, and sat, leaning forward to the
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  Speaker 1: left and sticking out one leg. This ends Part one.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer. Please
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brooks Jensen, Anacordis Washington,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy. Section two. The good
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  Speaker 1: little cob moved the sledge rapidly, along with the light
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  Speaker 1: creaking of the runners as he trotted a round pace
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  Speaker 1: over the well beaten, frozen piece of road leading to
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  Speaker 1: the village. Hullo, what have you jumped up for? Cried Vassili,
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  Speaker 1: suddenly clearly enjoying the fact that an unauthorized passenger was
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: trying to perch himself upon the runners behind. Give me
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the whip, Nikita, he interjected, I'll thrash you, you young rascal.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Run along home to your mother. The boy jumped off.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Brownie broke into a gallop, but soon changed to a
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: trot again. Crestie, where Vassili lived, was a hamlet of
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: six houses only, and when they had got beyond the
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: blacksmith's hut at the end, they at once perceived that
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the wind was much stronger than they had thought it
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to be, and that the road ahead was almost invisible.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: The track of the sledge became snowed over almost as
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: fast as made, and only the fact that the road
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: was a little higher than the ground on either side
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of it, rendered it at all distinguishable. The snow was
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: whirling over the countryside and blotting out the horizon, while
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the Teleatinsky Forest, generally clearly visible, now showed only as
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a dark mass looming at intervals through the snow dust.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: The wind was blowing from the left and kept turning
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Brownie's mane over his thick, fat neck and blowing his
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: feathery tail bound at the top in a plain knot
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: across his flank. Owing to the wind too, Nikita's tall
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: coat collar, where he sat on the weather side of
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the sledge, kept pressing itself tightly against his cheeks and nose.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: The cob can't get up too much of a paste
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: to day, there's too much snow on the ground, said Vassili,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: who prided himself on the excellence of his steed. Once
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I drove him to Pashutino in half an hour, what
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: did you say, asked Nikita, whose tall coat collar had
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: prevented him from hearing what was said. I said that
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I have driven to Pashutino in half an hour, bawled Vassili.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: That's something to boast of. Indeed, He's a good animal,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: if there ever was one, commented Nikita, after which they
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: kept silent for a while. Vassili, however, was inclined to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: be talkative. What do you think I told your wife
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the other day not to let her cooper drink all
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the tea? He bawled once more, in the firm conviction
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: that Nikita must be feeling flattered at being talked to
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: by such an important and highly educated man as himself,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: as well as so greatly taken with his own joke
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: about the Cooper that it never entered into his head
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: that the topic might be distasteful to Nikita. However, the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: latter had once more failed to catch his master's words
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: for the violence of the wind, so Vassili repeated his
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: pleasantry at the very top of his educated voice. God
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: be with her, Vassili Andrevitch returned Nikita when he understood,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I never interfere with their affairs. She has given me
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: little cause for blame, and so long as she treats
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the lad well, I merely say, God be with her. Well, well,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: said Vassili, in change the subject. Are you going to
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: buy a horse in the spring? He continued, I only
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: wish I could replied Nikita, as he turned his coat
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: collar back a little and leaned over towards his master.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: The new topic interested him, and he wanted to catch
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: every word. My little lad is fast growing up and
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: ought to learn to plow. But I have squandered all
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: my money. Well, if you'll take the low rumped nag
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: off my hands, I won't ask you much for it,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: said Vassili, whose spirits were rising, and who therefore recurred
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: instinctively to his ruling passion, the passion which absorbed his
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: whole faculties, namely the pursuit of bargains. I would rather
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: you lent me fifteen roubles and let me go and
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: buy one in the horse market, answered Nikita, knowing full
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: well that the low rumped nag which Vassili was asking
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: him to buy was worth no more than seven roubles
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: at the outside, but that as soon as ever Vassili
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: had handed him over the animal, he would swear that
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: it was worth at least twenty five and therefore retain
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: about a half a year's wages to cover the amount.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: The horses a splendid one, went on Vassili, in his
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: precise business like tones. I want to do you a
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: service as well as myself. Honestly, now, Breconoff would never
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: do any man a bad turn. I would rather be
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: out of pocket myself than see others. So yes, on
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: my honor, the horse is a magnificent one, I am
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: sure of it, said Nikita with a sigh. Then, finding
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: it useless to try and listen further, he turned up
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: his coat collar again, and his face and ear became
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: covered in a twinkling. For about half an hour they
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: drove in silence. The wind kept getting down on Nikita's
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: legs and threw a hole in his mitten, but he
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: hunched his shoulders and breathed into the coat collar muffled
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: over his mouth, so that he did not feel the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: cold very much at all. What do you think shall
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: we go round by Kara Mishevo or straight on? Asked Vassili. Presently,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the road by way of Kara Mishevo was the longer
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and the rougher one, yet on the other hand it
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: was clearly defined by posts on either side. The road
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: straight on was a good deal nearer, but used by
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: few travelers, as well as either altogether devoid of posts
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: or marked only by small ones which would now be
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: almost drifted over. Nikita debated matters for a moment. The
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: road by Karamishevo is longer than the other one, but
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: a good deal the easier to drive over, he decided
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: at length. Yet if we go straight on, pursued Vassili,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: who was inclined towards the route he named. We have
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: only to get into the hollow, and then we can't
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: possibly lose our way. It will be splendid going through
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the forest, as you wish, said Nikita, and turned up
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: his coat collar again. Accordingly, Vassili had his way, and,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: after driving about half a verst farther on turned to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the left, where a tall, young oak tree stood. Here,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the translator inserts a footnote that a versed is about
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: two thirds of an English mile. Its branches and the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: few dead leaves which still clung to them were being
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: madly dashed about by the wind, which, after the turning,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: met the travelers almost full in the face. Light Snow
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: began to fall, and Vassili tightened the reins, puffed out
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: his cheeks, and let the breath escape slowly from under
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: his mustache while Nikita dozed. They had driven like this
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: in silence for about ten minutes when Vassili gave an exclamation.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: What is it, asked Nikita, opening his eyes. Vassili returned
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: no answer, but twisted himself round to look back. Then
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: he gazed ahead. The cob was still trotting along his flanks,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: steaming with sweat. What is it? Asked Nikita? Again? What
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: is it? Do you say? Cried Vassili, in an angry
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: mimicry of the question. Why only that I can't see
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: any posts. Now we must be off the road. Wait
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: a minute, then, while I go and look for it,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: said Nikita, as he leapt lightly from the sledge, and
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: taking the whip from beneath the straw, went ahead and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: towards the left the side on which he had been sitting.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: The snow had not been very deep that year, so
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that as yet the road had been easily passable the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: whole way along. But here there were patches where it
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: reached knee high and smothered Nikita's boot tops. He kept
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: on trying the ground both with his feet and the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: whip as he walked along. Yet the road had vanished, well,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: said Vassili, when Nikita returned to the sledge. No road
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: on this side, answered Nikita. I must try the other.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: There seems to be something dark ark showing ahead, remarked Vassili,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Go and see what it is. Nikita did so and
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: found it to be only a spot where the naked
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: sprouts of some winter corn sewn on a piece of
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: black earth, were making a dark patch on the snow
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: as they waved before the wind. Nikita circled round to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the right and then returned to the sledge, again beating
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the snow from his halat and boots, and remounted. We
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: must go to the right, he said, with decision. The
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: wind was on our left a moment ago, but now
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: it is straight in our faces. Yes to the right, Yes,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: to the right, he concluded, with an air of conviction.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Vassili just managed to catch what he said and turned
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: the cob in the direction indicated. Yet no road revealed
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: itself there, although they went on for a considerable time. Meanwhile,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the wind showed no signs of dropping, and the snow continued. Well,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: we are all together lost now, Vassili andrege observed Nikita
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: suddenly and half as though he were pleased at the fact.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: What is this, though, he went on, pointing to a
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: blackened potato top which was projecting above the snow. Vassili
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: at once stopped the cob, which was now sweating heavily
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: and moving its stout flanks with difficulty. Yes, what is it,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: he echoed. It means that we are on the Zakaravek estate.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: That is where we have got to surely not, exclaimed Vassili. Yes,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: it is as I say, insisted Nikita. You can tell
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: too by the sound of the sledge runners that we
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: are driving over a potato field. Look at the bits
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: of potato tops which they have dragged off. Yes, these
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: are the Zakaravek market gardens. A fine place to get
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: landed in, said Vassili. Well what is to be done now?
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: We must keep going to the right, and we shall
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: be sure to come out somewhere or other, answered Nikita.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: If we don't actually strike Zakaravek, we shall at all
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: events come across some tenants. Vassili assented and drove the
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: cob forward in the direction Nikita had advised. They proceeded
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: thus for a considerable time, now coming upon bare grass,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: now upon rough patches of frozen ground over which the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: sledge went grating loudly. Then again they would find themselves
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: passing over stubble of winter or spring corn, with the
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: dead straws or sticks of weeds projecting above the snow
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and waving madly before the wind. More than once they
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: found themselves laboring through deep level, pure white drifts, with
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: nothing whatever showing above the top. All the while the
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: snow fall continued and the snow dust whirled about the ground.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: The cob was evidently failing now, for his flanks were
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: white and steaming with sweat. He proceeded only at a
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: foot's pace. Suddenly he stumbled and then plunged forward in
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: some ditch or gully. Vassili was for pulling up, but
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Nikita shouted to him, why stop, go on, go on,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: We must get him out of this. Now then, my beauty, Now, then,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: my pet. He went on to the cob encouragingly as
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: he leaped from the sledge, only to stick fast in
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the ditch himself. However, the cob extricated himself presently and
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: scrambled back on to the frozen ridge which lined the bank.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Evidently it was a ditch dug out by hand. Where
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: are we now, queried Vassili. We must find that out,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: answered Nikita. Let us push on a bit and we
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: shall arrive somewhere. Isn't that the Goviotchkinsky forest, surely, said
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: his master, presently pointing to something black looming in the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: snow ahead. It may be we'd better push on and
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: find out, rejoined Nikita. As a matter of fact, he
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: had already distinguished the oblong patches of some withered vine
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: leaves showing against the blackness of the object in question,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: and knew therefore that it was more likely to be
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: a habitation of some kind than a forest. Yet he
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: hesitated to speak before he knew for certain. Sure enough,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: they had not proceeded more than twenty yards beyond the ditch,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: when trees showed up clearly before them, and some melancholy
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: sound became audible. Nikita had guessed rightly. It was not
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: a forest they had come to, but a row of
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: tall vines and a few withered leaves still quivering upon them.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Evidently they marked the trench of a threshing floor. Just
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: as the travelers had almost reached these vines, and could
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: tell that the melancholy sound arose from the wind sweeping
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: through their rustling leaves, the cob took a sudden plunge
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: upward with his fore hoofs pulled up his hind quarters
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: after them, turned to the left, and went on with
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: the snow, no longer reaching to his knees. It was
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the road again. Now we have reached it, exclaimed Nikita.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: But the Lord only knows where. The cob, however, never faltered,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: but when straight ahead with the snow swept road, until
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: just as they had covered about a hundred yards, there
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: uprose before them the rectangular outlines of a waddled barn,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: with its roof piled up with snow, and the snow
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: dust blowing from it in clouds. Passing the barn, the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: road wound back into the wind a little, and they
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: found themselves in a snow drift. A short way further
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: on could be seen an opening between two buildings, so
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: that it was clear that the road lay through the
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: snow drift, and that the latter must be surmounted. Sure enough,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: they had no sooner accomplished this than they found themselves
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: in a village street, in the nearest courtyard of which
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: some frozen linen was hanging from a line and rustling
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: distractedly in the wind. It comprised two shirts, one of
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: them white and the other one red. A pair of drawers,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: some leggings, and a petticoat, of which the white shirt
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: was particularly a abandon in its antics, as it waved
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: its sleeves before the wind. Ugh the lazy woman, though
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to have to say it of her, said Nikita,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: with a glance at the waving shirts. To think of
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: not getting one's linen ready for the festival. This ends
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Section two. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brooks Jensen, Ana Chordis,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Washington Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy. Section three. The
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: wind was as strong at the entrance to the street
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: as it had been in the open country, and the
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: roadway piled with snow. But in the middle of the
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: hamlet everything seen warm and quiet and cheerful. A dog
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: came barking out of a yard, while in another yard,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: an old woman came running from somewhere with her head
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: swathed in a handkerchief, but stopped as she was making
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: for the door of the hoot, and stood for a
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: moment on the threshold to gaze at the new arrivals.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: From the middle of the village came the sound of
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: girls singing, and all together there seemed to be less
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: wind and cold and snow here than outside. Why this
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: must be Grishkino, said Vassili. It is, replied Nikita, and
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Grishkino it was. It turned out afterwards that they had
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: left the road upon their right and traveled some eight
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: versts at a tangent to their former direction, though still
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: more or less in the direction of their proper goal. Yet,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Goviatchkine was a full five versts from Grishkino. Half Way
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: up the street, they encountered a tall man walking in
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the sea of the roadway. Who are you, he cried
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: as he stopped. Then, recognizing Vassili, he caught hold of
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: one of the shafts, rested his hands upon it, and
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: climbed to the seat of the sledge. It was a
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: friend of Vassili's named Esai, known as the worst horse
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: thief in the district. Well, and whither is God taking
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: you now? Said Esai, suffusing Nikita with the smell of
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: vodka which he had been drinking. We have been trying
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to get to Goviyatshkina. What a way to take, then
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: you should have gone by Malakova. It's no good saying
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: what we should have done when we didn't do it,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: retorted Vassili as he pulled up the cob. That's a
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: good animal, remarked Esai, looking the cob over and passing
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: his hand under the now drooping stump of its stout
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: knotted tail in his usual horsey manner. Are you going
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: to stay the night here? No, my friend, we have
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: further yet to go. You had much better stay. But
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: who is this? Why if it isn't Nikita stepanitch? Yes,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: no one else, replied Nikita. But pray tell us brother,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: how to avoid losing our way again? How to avoid
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: losing your way again? Why? Turn back and go right
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: along the street, and the road is straight in front
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: of you. Don't turn to the left, but keep on
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: till you come nearly to a larger village, and then
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: to the right. But whereabouts is the turning near that village?
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Asked Nikita again? Is it on the summer or the
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: winter road? The winter, you will come to a copse there,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: and exactly opposite the copse there stands a tall, ragged
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: oaken post. That is where you are to turn off. Accordingly,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Vassili turned the cobs head round and drove off down
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: the street again. You had better have stayed the night here,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: shouted Esay after them, but Vassili shook up the cob
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: and returned no answer. To cover five versts on level
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: of which two would run through a forest seemed an
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: easy enough prospect, especially in view of the fact that
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: the snow now seemed to them to have ceased and
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the wind to have dropped. Passing from the street again
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: with its roadway trampled hard and showing black here and
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: there with patches of fresh dung, they drove past the
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: yard where the linen was hanging out to dry. The
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: white shirt had now partly torn away from the line
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and was dangling by one frozen sleeve only, and went
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: on until they came to the vine stalks with their
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: quaintly murmuring leaves. Here they were in the open country again,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: only to discover that the blizzard had in no way abated,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: but rather, on the contrary, increased. The road was drifted
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: over ahead, and nothing but the posts alongside could keep
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: them from leaving it. These posts, too, were difficult to distinguish,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: since the wind was head on. Vasili knit his brows
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: as he bent forward to watch for the posts, but
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: gave the cob more rain than before and trusted to
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: its sagacity. Sure Enough, the cob never faltered, but went
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: on turning to the left of the right according to
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the windings of the road, and feeling for it with
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: his hoofs, so that despite the fact that the wind
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: kept rising and the snow falling ever thicker and thicker,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the posts remained plainly visible on either side. They had
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: been driving like this for about ten minutes when there
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: suddenly loomed up something black in front of the cob,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: something which was moving along in a tangled whirl of
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: wind driven snow. It was a party of fellow travelers
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: whom Brownie had out paced, and the back of whose
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: sledge he had actually struck into with his fore hoofs.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Pull out, Hi, look out in front of you. Came
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: in a chorus of shouts from this vehicle, and Vassili
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: pulled out accordingly. In the sledge were seated three moujiques
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and an old woman. Evidently they were guests reached turning
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: from the village festival. One of the men was lashing
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the snow covered flanks of their pony with a dry branch.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: His two comrades were shouting and gesticulating at one another
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: in the forepart of the sledge, and the old woman,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: muffled up and wide over with snow, was seated motionless
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: at the back. Whose men are you, shouted vassili Ahski
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: was all it could be heard in the answer. Eh Ahski,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: repeated one of the Mujiks at the top of his voice,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: but it was impossible to distinguish precisely what he said.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Lay On, don't give way to them, shout at another
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: to the one belaboring the pony with the branch. You
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: are returning from the festival. I suppose they are gaining.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: They are gaining. Lay On, semka, pull out you lay on.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: The sledges kept bumping against each other, almost interlocking, and
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: then parting again, until finally the mujique sledge began to
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: be overhauled. Their shaggy, fat bellied, snow covered pony, blowing
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: heavily under its low duga, and evidently frantic, though in
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: vain to escape from the flagellation of the dry branch,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: kept shuffling along on its stumpy legs through the deep snow,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: although at times they almost gave way beneath it. Its
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: muzzle that apparently of a young animal, with its lower
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: lip projecting like a fish's. The nostrils distended and the
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: ears laid back in terror, kept level with Nikita's shoulder
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: for a few seconds, and then began to drop behind.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: That's what drink will make men do, observed Nikita. The
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: pony will be ruined by treatment like that. What asiatic
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: brutes these fellows are. For several minutes, the sobbing of
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: the distressed pony's nostrils could be heard behind them, as
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: well as the drunken shouts of the moujiks. Then the
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: first sounded away, and presently the second also. Nothing whatever
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: was to be heard now except the whistling of the
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: wind in the traveler's ears, and an occasional faint scrape
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: of the runners over patches which the wind had swept bare.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: This contest with the rival sledge had cheered and enlivened Vassili,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: so that he drove the cob with greater assurance than ever,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: and without watching for the posts at all, leaving matters,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: in fact to the cob entirely. Nikita also had nothing
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: to do, so that, as usual with him, when thus situated,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: he fell into a doze in order to make up
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: for arrears of sleep at other times. Suddenly the cob
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: stopped short, almost pitching Nikita forward out of the sledge.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: We have gone wrong again, said Vassili. How do you know,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: because there are no posts to be seen. We must
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: have left the road. Well, if we have, I'm must
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: look for it again, remarked Nikita abruptly, as he got
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: out and began to trudge about the snow, stepping as
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: lightly as possible on the balls of his splayed out feet.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: He kept this up for a long time, now disappearing
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: from view, now reappearing, now vanishing again, and then returned.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: No road there, he remarked, as he mounted the sledge.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: It must be somewhere ahead. The dusk was now coming on,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: and although the blizzard had not increased, it had also
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: not lessened. If only we could hear those moujiks, sighed Vassili.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: They won't overtake us, now, replied Nikita, for we must
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: have left the road a long way back. Perhaps they
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: have done the same, he added, as an afterthought. Well,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: which way, now inquired Vassili, give the cob his head,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: advised Nikita, and perhaps he will take us right here.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Give me the reins. Vassili relinquished them, none the less
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: us readily, because his hands were half frozen in their
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: warm mittens. Nikita took the reins, but let them lie
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: quite passively in his fingers, endeavoring not to give them
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the slightest twitch. In fact, he took keen pleasure in
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: thus trying the intelligence of his favorite. Sure enough, after
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: pricking his ears, first to the one side and then
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: to the other, the clever animals started to turn round.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: He can almost speak, cried Nikita, my word, how well
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: he knows what to do? On you go, then on
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: with you. The wind was now at their backs again,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: and it seemed warmer Ah, what annoying fellow he has
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: went on, Nikita, delighted with his pet. Kerghizhanok is strong enough,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: of course, but an absolute fool. Whereas this fellow, well,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: see what he found out with his ears alone. No
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: need of telegraphs for him when he can smell out
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: a road or verst away, and indeed, less than half
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: an hour or later, a black object, either a wood
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: or a village began to loom ahead, while the posts
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: reappeared on their right, placing it beyond doubt that the
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: travelers had hit the road once more. If this isn't
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Grishkino again, exclaimed Nikita. Suddenly, and Grishkino it was on
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: their left showed the barn with the dust blowing from
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: its roof, while further on could be seen the clothes
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: line with its burden of shirts and drawers still fluttering
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: in the wind. Once again, they drove up the street
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: and found everything grow suddenly quiet and warm and cheerful.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Once again, the miery roadway appeared, Voices and singing became audible,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: and the dog barked as before. The dusk, however, was
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: now so far advanced that lights could be seen gleaming
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: in some of the windows. Half Way up the street.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Vassili turned the COB's head towards a large hut with
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: a double coping of bricks and pulled up up to
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: the steps. Nakita approached the gleaming snow encrusted window, in
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: the light of which the dancing snowflakes glittered brightly, and
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: knocked at the pane with the butt end of his whip.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Who is there cried a voice in answer to Nikita's summons.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: The brechinoffs from Gristie brother replied Nikita, please let us in.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Some one could be heard moving away from the window,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: and in another two minutes the sound of the inner
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: door opening with a wrench. Then the latch of the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: outer door rattled, and there came out a tall, old,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: white bearded moujique, holding the door half closed behind him
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: to keep the wind from blowing into the hut. He
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: was clad in a fur coat hastily thrown over a
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: white holiday shirt, while behind him stood a young fellow
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: in a red shirt and tall boots. How is it
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: with you, andreh, inquired the old man. We have lost
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: our way, my friend, replied Vassili. We tried to get
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: to Goviatchk, but land it here and we set off
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: again and have just missed the road for the second time.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: But how came you to go wrong? Asked the old
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: man here Patrushka, and he turned to the young fellow
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: in the red shirt, Go and open the yard gates, certainly,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: responded the youngster cheerfully, and ran forward out of the porch. No, no,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: we must not stop the night, interposed Vassili. But where
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: can you be going now it's nearly dark. You had
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: much better stay here. I should have been only too
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: glad to do so, but I simply cannot business, you see,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: my friend, and business won't wait. Then. At least come
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: in and warm yourselves with some tea, said the old man. Yes,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: we might do that, replied Vassili. The night won't grow
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: any darker than it is now, for the moon will
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: soon be rising. Shall we go in and warm ourselves? Nikita? Yes,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: I could do with something to warm me, replied Nikita,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: who was desperately cold and only too eager to thaw
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: his frozen limbs before a stove. Vassili thereupon entered the
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: hut with the old man, while Nikita drove the sledge
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: through the yard gates duly opened for him by Patrushka.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Under the latter's guidance, He then led the cob under
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: the roof of a shed. The shed was heaped high
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: with dung, so that the COB's lofty dugau caught upon
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: a beam, whereupon the cock and the hens which were
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: roosting there were moved to uneasy flutterings and scratchings of
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: their claws. Some sheep darted away in terror, with much
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: pattering of their hoofs over the frozen dung, and a
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: dog whined loudly, then growled in angry alarm, and finally
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: barked at the intruder in puppy fashion. Nakita had a
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: word from them all. He begged the hen's pardon and
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: quieted them by saying that he would not disturb them further,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: chided the sheep for their unreasoning nervousness, and never ceased
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: to make overtures to the dog as he tied up
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: his We shall be all right now, he said, as
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: he beat the snow from his clothes. Hush, then, how
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: he growls, He added to the dog. It's all right now.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Quiet then, stupid, be quiet. You are only disturbing yourself
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: for nothing. We are not thieves. They are what we
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: might call our three domestic counselors, remarked Patrushka, as he
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: drew the sledge under the shed with his powerful hands. Why, counselors,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: asked Nikita, Because, said Patrushka with a smile. You will
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: find it written in Paulson's book. When a thief is
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: sneaking up to a house, the dog barks out in
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: his own language, Wake up, The cock sings out, Get up,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: and the cat starts washing herself, meaning thereby to say,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: a guest is at hand, so let us be ready
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: to receive him. Patrushka, it seemed, was of a literary turn,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: and knew by heart the only book which he possessed,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: some book or other by Paulson. It was particularly fond
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: of it when he had had a little to drink
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: as now, and would quote such extracts from it as
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: might seem to him to fit the occasion. That is
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: just right, observed Nikita. Yes, isn't it, answered Petrushka. But
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: you are simply frozen. Shall I take you into tea now,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: my boy? Yes, by all means, replied Nikita, and they
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: crossed the yard to the hut door. This ends Section three.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brooks Jensen, Ana Chordis,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Washington Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy. Section four. The
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: homestead where Vassili had pulled up was one of the
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: richest in the village, for the family held no less
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: than five lots of land, as well as rented some,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: while in the stables stood six horses, three cows, two
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: draft bullocks, and a flock of twenty sheep. In all,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: there lived around the courtyard of the homestead twenty two souls,
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: namely four married sons, six grandchildren, of whom one Patrushka
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: was married, two great grandchildren, three orphans, and four daughters
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: in law with their children. In addition to these, there
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: were two sons employed as water carriers in Moscow, while
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: a third was in the army. At the present moment,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: there were at home only the old man, his wife,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: the second of the married sons, the elder of the
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: two sons who worked at Moscow come over for the festival,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: and the various wives and children, and a neighboring gossip.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: It was one of those rare households which are still
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: to be found undivided, yet one in which there were
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: already at work those deep rooted and internal dissensions which
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: generally originate among the women of a family, and which
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: would break up this family also in time. Over the
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: table in the hut there hung a shaded lamp, throwing
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: a clear light upon the crockery below, upon a bottle
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: of vodka, and upon sundry viands, as well as over
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: the clay walls of the room. In one corner, the
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: corner Beautiful, there hung some icons with pictures on either
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: side of them. In the place of honor at the
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: table sat Vassili, stripped now to his black under jacket
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and chewing his frozen mustache as he gazed round the
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: hut and at those about him with his prominent hawk
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: like eyes. Next to him sat the bald, white bearded
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: head of the family, dressed in a white shirt of
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: home manufacture, while further on with a son who had
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: come over from Moscow for the festival, straight backed, square
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: shouldered and wearing a similar shirt to his father's, but
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: a finer material, a second square shouldered son, the eldest
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: of those living at home, and lastly the neighbor, a
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: red haired, lanky mujique. These moujiques had had their supper
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: in vodka and were just about to drink tea when
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: the travelers arrived. Consequently, the samovar on the floor by
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: the stove was already boiling. Near the stove also and
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: in the shelf bunks could be seen various children, while
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: the old woman, her face covered in every direction with
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: fine wrinkles furrowing even her lips, bustled about behind Vassili.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: As Nikita entered the hut, she was just taking her
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: guests from vodka, which she had poured out into a
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: tumbler of thick glass. You must not refuse it, Vassily Andreitch,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: she said, no, you really us not. You need something
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: to refresh yourself. Drink it down, my dear sir. Nikita
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: found himself greatly excited by the smell of the vodka,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: especially now that he was so cold and hungry. He
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: knit his brows and shaking the snow from his hat
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and halat halted for a moment before the icons, with
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: his eyes turned away from the company, he crossed himself
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: three times and made a genuflection, after which he turned
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: first to his host and saluted him, then to those
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: present at the table, and then to the woman standing
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: by the stove. Finally, with a general greeting of a
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: merry festival to you all. He started to take off
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: his halt, though still without looking at the table. But
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: you are frozen all over, my brother, cried the eldest brother,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: as he stared at Nikita's snow caked eyes, beard and face.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: For answer. Nikita divested himself of his halt, shook it out,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: and hung it over the stove, after which he at
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: length approached the table offered vodka. He had almost taken
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: the glass and tilted the fragrant, shining liquor into his
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: mouth when he glanced at Vassili and remembered the pond boots,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: as well as the cooper and the young son for
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: whom he had promised to buy a horse in the spring.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: So he ended by declining the vodka with a sigh.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: I would rather not drink it. I thank you humbly,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: he said, with knitted brows, and seated himself on a
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: bench by the window. But why, asked the eldest brother.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: Because I would rather not. I would rather not, Nikita replied,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: without raising his eyes, as he squinted down at his
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: short beard and mustache and thawed the icicles out of them.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: It does not suit him, put in Vassili, smacking his
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: lips over a cracknel washed down with the vodka. Well,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: give me the tea pot, then said the kindly old woman.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I will get you some tea for you must be frozen.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Why are you so long at the samovar? My good woman,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: it is quite ready, retorted one of the younger ones,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: as she wiped the covered samovar with a napkin, Then
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: raising it with some difficulty, she came and plumped it
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: down on the table. Meanwhile, Vassili had been relating how
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: he and his companion had missed their way, wandered about,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: fallen in with the drunken moujiku's, and twice returned to
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: the village. His hosts marveled at the story, and then
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: went on to explain how and where they had gone wrong,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: who the drunken moujiques had been, and the route which
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Vassili and Nikita must take when they set off again.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: Why even a child could find the way as far
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: as Moltchanovka, said the neighbor. And once there you will
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: only have to hit the turning near the village. You'll
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: see a copse there. To think that you never got
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: so far? But hadn't you better stay the night here?
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: Put in the old woman persuasively. The women, should I
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: get you a bed ready? Yes? Do so, for if
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: you were to get lost again, it might be a
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: terrible business, added her husband. No, no, really, I cannot,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: my good friend replied Vassili. Business is business. Delay an
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: hour and you lose a year, he added, remembering the
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: timber and the rival buyers who might forestall him. Shall
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: we go now, this last to Nikita. Nikita returned no
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: answer for a moment, and seemed absorbed in the task
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: of thawing out his beard and mustache. At length, he muttered, gruffly,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: it would hardly do to get lost again, would it.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he was gruff because he
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: wanted the vodka so badly, and the only thing which
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: would assuage that yearning of his was tea, which he
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: had not yet been offered. But we need only to
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: reach that turning, protested Vassili, and we simply can't lose
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: our way afterwards. From there onwards it will be all
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: forest road. Well it is for you to say, Vassili, andretch,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: said Nikita, as he took a tumbler of the tea
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: now proffered him. If we must go, we must, that's all.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: Drink up the tea then and quick march. Nikita said
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: no more, although he shook his head disapprovingly, but poured
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: the tea out carefully into the saucer and began to
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: warm his work swollen fingers in the steam. Then, having
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: bitten off a crumb from his lump of sugar, he
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: bowed to his host's said a good health to you all,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: and poured the grateful liquid down his throat. If only
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: we had some one to guide us to the turning,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: sighed Vassili. That could be managed, said the eldest brother.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Patrushka could harness a horse and go with you as
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: far as that harness up, then, brother, and my best
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: thanks to you, exclaimed Vassili. And to you also, good sir,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: said the hospitable old woman. We have been only too
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: pleased to see you, Patrushka, Off you go, and harness
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: the mare, ordered the eldest brother. Very well, replied Patrushka, smilingly,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: as he seized his cap from a peg and departed.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: Whilst the horses were being got ready, the conversation passed
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: to the subject which had been interrupted when Vassili drove
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: up to the window. It seemed that the old man
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: had been complaining to the neighbor, who was also the
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: local star Rosta, about his third son, who had sent
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: him no gift for the festival, but had given his
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: wife a French shawl. Here the translator inserts a footnote
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: that a star Rosta is the village headman. The young
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: people are getting out of hand nowadays, said the old man. Indeed,
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: they are agreed the neighbor. There is no living with them.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: They are growing much too clever. Look at Dumochkin, who
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: broke his father's arm the other day, All through his
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: being too clever. Of course, Nikita kept list and looking
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: from one to the other of the speaker's faces, with
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: an evident desire to join in the conversation, but he
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: was too full of tea to do so, and therefore
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: merely nodded his head approvingly at intervals. He had drunk
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: tumbler after tumbler of tea until he had grown warmer
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: and warmer, and more and more good humored. The conversation
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: lasted for quite a long time on this subject, on
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: the evil of dividing up families, and proved too absorbing
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: to be successfully diverted, so that in time it passed
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: to the dissensions in this particular household, to the separation
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: which the second son, who had been sitting by meanwhile,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: and maintaining a sullen silence was demanding. Evidently it was
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: a moot point, and the question above all others, which
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: was exercising the household. Yet politeness had hitherto prevented the
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: family from discussing such a private affair before strangers. At length. However,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: the old man could not forbear, and with tears in
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: his voice, went on to say that so long as
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: he lived, he would never permit the separation, that he
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: maintained his household to the glory of God, and that
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: once it were divided, it would become scattered all over
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: the world. Yes, that is what happened to the Matfyevs,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: observed the neighbor. They were a comfortable household once, but separated,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: and now not a single one of them has anything left.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: That is what you desire for us, I suppose, said
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: the old man, turning to his son. The son returned
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: no answer, and an awkward silence ensued, until interrupted by Petrushka,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: who had duly harnessed his horse and been back in
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: the hut for some minutes past smiling the whole time.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: It reminds me of a fable in Paulson, He said,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: a father gave his son a broom to tear across.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: None of them could tear it but twig by twig.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: Well that was easy enough. So also it will be
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: in our case, he added, with a broad smile. But
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: I am quite ready to start now. Then, if you
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: are ready, let us be off, said Vassili about that separation,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: good grandfather, do not give in. It is you who
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: have made the household, and therefore it should be you
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: who are a master of it. If necessary, refer the
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: matter to the Mirovoi, he would settle it for you.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: And here the translator inserts another footnote that a merovoi
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: is the local magistrate. But to behave like this, to
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: behave like this, cried the old man with unrestrained grief.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: There is no living with them. It is the devil's
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: doing entirely. Meanwhile, Nikita, his fifth tumbler of tea swallowed,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: had placed the empty glass by his side instead of
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: returning it, in the hope that he would be given
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: a sixth. But there was no more water left the samovar,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: and so the hostess brewed no more tea, while Vassili
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: was already putting his fur coat on accordingly, there being
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: nothing else for it. Nikita rose replaced his lump of sugar,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: which he had nibbled on every side in the sugar basin,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: wiped his perspiring face with the lappet of his jacket,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: and went to put on his Halat this done, he
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: sighed heavily. Then he thanked and took leave of his hosts,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: and left the warm, bright living room for the cold,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: dark porch, which was rattling with the wind which hurtled
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: through it, and which had drifted the snow through the
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: chinks of the quaking outer door until it lay in
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: heaps upon the floor. Thence he passed into the dark courtyard. Patrushka,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: clad in a sheepskin jacket, was standing by his horse
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the yard and smilingly quoting some
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: verses from Paulsen. The lowering tempest hides the sky. The
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: whirlwind brings the driving snow. Now like a wild beast,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: it doth cry, Now like a child, it whimpers low.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: Nakita nodded his head approvingly and unhooked the reins, while
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: the old man brought a lantern into the porch to
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: guide Vassili to the sledge. He tried to light him
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: with it, but it was blown out in a twinkling.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Even in the yard, it was easy to tell that
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: the storm was worse than ever. What fearful weather, thought
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Vassili to himself. Perhaps we shall never get there. However,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: there is business to be thought of. Besides, I have
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: got myself ready now, and my host's horse has been
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: put in. God send we get there. Though the old
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: man likewise was thinking that it would be better for
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: them not to set out. But he had already tried
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: to dissuade them, and they had not listened to him.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: It would be no use asking them again. Perhaps, too,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: it is only old age which makes me so nervous,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: and they will arrive safely, he thought. Let us ourselves
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: at least go to bed. In the meanwhile, enough of
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: talking for to night. Patrushka, at all events, had no
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: thought of danger. He knew the road and the whole
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: neighborhood too well for that. Moreover, he had been greatly
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: put upon his metal by the couplet about the whirlwind
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: and the snow, which seemed to him to describe with
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: extraordinary exactness what was to be seen in the yard.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: As for Nikita, he had no wish to go at all,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: but he had been too long accustomed not to have
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: his own way and to serve others, so that in
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: the end there was no one to prevent them from
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: setting out. This ends the fourth section. This is a
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Recording by Brooks Jensen. Anachordis Washington, Master and Man by
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Leo Tolstoy. Section five. Vassili walked through the porch, peered
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: about in the darkness till he discerned where the sledge was,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: took the reins, and climbed in all right in front,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: he cried, Patrushka, kneeling in his own sledge, started his horse,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: and Brownie, with a loud neigh as he scented the
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: mare in front of him, dashed away after her. They
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: issued thus into the village street, passed the outskirts, and
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: took the same road as before, the road which ran
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: past the yard with the frozen linen, although the linen
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: was quite invisible now past the barn heaped with snow,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: and from the gables of which a cloud of snow
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: dust kept blowing and passed the bending vines with their
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: mysterious murmurings and pipings. Then once more the travelers were
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: launched upon a sea of snow which raged both above
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: and below them. The wind was so strong that, when
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: it was upon their flank and their wrappings filled before it,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: it actually careened the sledge to one side and threw
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: the cob out of his stride. Patrushka kept shouting encouragement
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: as he drove his stout mare ahead of them, while
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: the cob followed her closely. After about ten minutes driving,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Patrushka turned aside and shouted something, but neither Vassili nor
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: Nikita could tell what he said, for the sound of
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: the wind. They guessed, however, that they had reached the turning.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: Sure enough, Patrushka had wheeled to the right, and the wind,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: which had hitherto been chief on their flank, now met
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: them full in the face, whilst something could be seen
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: showing black through the snow on their right hand. It
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: was the copse which marked the turning. God, go with you,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: cried Patrushka, Thank you, thank you, Patrushka. The lowering tempest
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: hides the sky, shouted the lad once more, and vanished. Goodness,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: what a poetry spouterer, remarked Vassili as he started the
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: cob again. Yes, he is a fine young fellow, a
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: real honest Mujique, returned Nikita, and they went on. In
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: order not to squander the warmth engendered by the tea
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: which he had drunken the hut, Nikita wrapped himself up well,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: hunched his shoulders until his short beard covered his throat,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: and sat perfectly silent in front of him. He could
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: see the two dark lines of the shafts, forever cheating
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: his eye and looking to him like the ruts of
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: a beaten road, the cobs tossing flank and knotted, wind
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: blown tail, and further ahead, the animal's lofty duga, nodding
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: head and neck and disheveled maine. At intervals, posts would
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: leap into sight, and he would know that the sledge
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: was still keeping the road, and that there was nothing
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: for him to do. Vasili held the reins loosely, leaving
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: it to the cob to guide himself. Nevertheless, although Brownie
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: had had a long rest in the village, he went
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: unwillingly and as though he would like to turn aside
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: at any moment, so that Vassili frequently had to straighten
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: him again. There goes a post on the right, two, three,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: counted Vassili, And there is the forest in front. And
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: he went on to himself as he gazed at something
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: showing dark ahead of them. However, what had seemed to
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: him a forest proved to be only a bush. This
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: they passed, and had covered another fifty yards or so,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: when behold there was neither forest nor a fourth post
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: to be seen. Never mind, we shall be at the
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: forest in a moment, thought Vassili. As excited by the
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: vodka and tea, he jerked the reins again instead of
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: pulling up. The willing, docile animal obeyed, and now at
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: an amble, and now at a moderate trot, went whither.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: He was driven, although he knew it was in the
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: wrong direction. Another ten minutes passed, and still there was
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: no forest. We have missed the road, again, exclaimed Vassili,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: at last, pulling up without speaking. Nikita descended from the sledge, and,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: after tucking up his halat, which sometimes clung to him
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: and sometimes flapped up and down according to the strength
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: of the gusts of wind, began to flounder about over
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: the snow. First he tried the one side, and then
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: the other, and thrice vanished all together. At last, however,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: he returned and took the reins from Vassili's hands. We
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: must go towards the right, he said, brusquely and decisively,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: as he turned the cob in that direction. Very well,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: if to the right, to the right, agreed Vassili, as
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: he surrendered the reins and thrust his numbed hands up
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: his sleeves. Nikita said nothing more beyond crying, now do
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: your best, my pet, to the cob. Nevertheless, the animal
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: moved forward, only at a foot's pace, in spite of
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: all Nikita's shaking of the reins. The snow was knee
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: deep in places, and the sledge moved through it in
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: jerks with each stride of the animal. Presently, Nikita took
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: up the whip which had been hanging over the splashboard,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: and used it once, whereupon the good cob, unused to
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: its lash, plunged forward and broke into a trot, only however,
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: to subside again into an alternate air amble and walk.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: They proceeded thus for about five minutes. It was so dark,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: and there was such a swirl of snow both around
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: them and on the ground that it was scarcely possible
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: for them to even see the COB's do ga sometimes. Indeed,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: it was almost as though the sledge were standing still
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: and the ground gliding backwards from it. Suddenly, the cob
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: stopped short, as though he had scented something in front
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: of him. Nikita threw down the reins and leapt lightly
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: out in order to go to the COB's head and
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: see what he was jibbing at. But hardly had he
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: taken a single stride ahead of the animal when his
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: legs shot up and he rolled down some steep declivity.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: Who whoo who, he kept exclaiming all the time he
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: was descending and trying in vain to stop himself. But
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: his course was only arrested when his legs plowed their
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: way into a deep snow drift at the bottom. While
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: shaken by his struggles, the drift overhanging the bank above him,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: descended upon his head and crammed a large portion of
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: its mass down the back of his neck. What a
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: one you are, then, said Nikita, reproachfully both to the
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: snow drift and to the ravine, as he attempted to
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: shake the snow out of his coat collar. Nikita Nikita
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: came in a shout from Vassili above, but Nikita sent
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: no answering call. He was too busy for that, for
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: he was employing all his energies in shaking himself and
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: searching for the whip, which had rolled away somewhere while
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: he was shooting down the declivity. Having found it at last,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: he tried to reascend at the spot where he had
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: come down, but found it impossible to do so, since
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: he merely slid back with each successive attempt, so that
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: finally he was forced to proceed along the bottom to
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: find a way out. Nevertheless, only a few yards from
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: the point where he had descended, he found a place
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: where he managed to creep up on all fours, after
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: which he began to walk along the edge towards the
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: spot where he judged the cob to be. Both cob
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: and sledge were wholly invisible, but inasmuch as he was
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: walking against the wind, he could hear Vassili's shouts and
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: Brownie's welcoming nay, some moments before he actually caught sight
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: of them. I am coming, I am coming, he exclaimed,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: Why make such a fuss about it. It was not
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: until he was almost upon the sledge that he was
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: able to distinguish the cob, with Vassili standing beside it,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: the latter looming very large in the obscurity. How the
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: devil did you manage to lose yourself? Began his master angrily.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: We must turn back and at least try to return
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: to Grishkino. I should be only too glad, retorted Nikita.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: But which way are we to go? If we fall
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: into this ravine, we might never get out of it again.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: I myself have just found it pretty hard to do so.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: Yet we cannot stay here, can we? We must go somewhere,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: retorted Vassili. Nikita said nothing, but sat down on the
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: rim of the sledge, pulled off his boots and shook
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: out the snow which had collected in them. That done,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: he gathered up a handful of straw and carefully plugged
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: a hole in the left one. Vassili also said nothing,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: as though he meant now to leave everything to Nikita.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: When the latter had finished pulling on his boots again,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: he tucked his legs into the sledge, put on his mittens,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: took up the reins and turned the cob parallel to
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: the ravine. They had not gone more than a hundred yards, however,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: before the animal pulled up short in front of them,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: lay the ravine again. Once more, Nikita got out and
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: went probing about over the snow. He was absent for
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: some time time, but at length reappeared on the opposite
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: side of the sledge to that which he had started from.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: Are you there andrage? He shouted? Yes, replied Vassili. Well
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: what now? There is no getting out this way. It
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: is too dark and there are too many ravines about.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: We must try driving back against the wind. After doing
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: so for a little while, they stopped, and Nikita once
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: more alighted and went creeping about over the snow. Then
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: he remounted, but only to alight again almost immediately, until
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: at length he came to a halt by the sledge
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: in a perfectly breathless condition. Well, what, inquired Vassili. Only
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: then I am fairly done, and the cob nearly so too.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: What are we to do? Then? Wait a minute? Nakita
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: departed again, but returned in a moment or two. Keep
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: close behind me, he cried, as he walked on before
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: the cob. Vassili had now ceased to give orders, but
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: humbly obeyed Nikita's directions. This way after me, cried the
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: latter again, as he turned sharply to the right, and
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: taking Brownie by the head, led him downwards towards the
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: snow drift. The cob held back at first, and then
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: made a plunge forward as though to leap the snow drift.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: Failing in the attempt, he sank in up to the collar.
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: Get out of the sledge, cried Nikita to Vassili, who
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: had retained his seat. Meanwhile, Then grasping one of the shafts,
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: he exerted all his strength to help the cob drag
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: the sledge out of the drift. Pull, my pet, he
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: cried to Brownie. One good pull and the thing is done. Now, now,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: just one good pole. The cob made a brave effort
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: and yet another, but failing to extricate himself, settled down
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: as though to reflect upon the situation. Come, come, my pet,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: this won't do. Nikita adjured Brownie. Now then once again,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: and he tugged at the shaft on his side, while
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: Vassili tugged at the other. The cob shook his head
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: for a moment, and then plunged forward suddenly in another attempt.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: That's it. You're not going to be buried this time, eh,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: cried Nikita encouragingly. Another plunge, a second, a third, and
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: the cob had cleared the drift and stopped short, shaking
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: himself all over and breathing heavily. Nikita was for dragging
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: the sledge a little further yet, but Vassili was so
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: exhausted with the weight of his two heavy coats that
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: he gave up and climbed in again. Let me rest
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: a minute, he said, as he loosened the handkerchief which
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: he had wound round his coat collar before leaving the village.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Very well, there is no great hurry, returned Nikita. Sit still,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: and I will lead the cob. Accordingly, Vassili remained in
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: the sledge while Nikita led the animal forward for about
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: ten yards down a slope and then up again a
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: little way, and finally came to a halt. The spot
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: where he had done so was not actually in the
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: ravine itself, where the snow blowing off the hillocks and
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: accumulating might have buried them entirely. But in a spot
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: partly sheltered by the lee side of the ravine. Occasionally
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: the wind seemed to drop a little, but it was
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: not for long whilst, as if to make up for
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: such lulls, the blizzard would increase tenfold after they were
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: over and tear and swirl around the travelers more cruelly
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: than ever. One of these violent gusts struck the sledge
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: just as Vassili was descending from it to go take
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: council with Nikita as to what they should do next,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: with the result that they could only cower down without
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: speaking until the fury of the squall was spent. As
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: for Brownie, he flattened his ears and shook his head
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: in disgust. When the squall had abeyed it a little,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: Nakita took off his mittens, tucked them into his belt,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: blew upon his hands, and set to work to unfasten
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: the bow rein from the duga. Why are you doing that,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: asked Vassili, Because there is nothing else to be done,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: replied Nikita, though half apologetically. I am absolutely tired out. Now,
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: then aren't we going to try and get any further? No,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: for we are only exhausting the cob for nothing, said Nikita,
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: pointing to the animal, where it stood patiently waiting for
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: what might be required of it, yet scarcely able to
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: hold itself upright on its stout, sweat belathered flanks. Brownie
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: is willing enough, but he can hardly stand on his legs.
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: There is nothing for it but to spend the night here.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: Nikita said this as if he were proposing to put
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: up in an inn yard, and went on unfastening the
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: collar throng until the two clasps of the caller fell apart.
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: But we shall freeze to death here, cried Vassili. Well
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: what if we do it cannot be helped, was all
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: that Nikita vouchsafed to reply. This ends Section five. This
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brooks Jensen, Anachordus, Washington Master
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: and Man by Leo Tolstoy. Section six. Celi was warm
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: enough in his two heavy coats, especially after his exertions
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: in the snow drift. Yet for all that the frost
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: seemed to breathe down his back when he understood that
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: they had to spend the night there. To calm his apprehensions,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: he sat down in the sledge and pulled out his
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: matches and cigarettes. Meanwhile, Nikita unharnessed the cob, He undid
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: the belly band and saddle piece, ran the reins out,
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: unfastened the traces, and took off the dugau, talking cheerily
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: to the animal. The while out you come, out you come,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: he said, as he let it out of the shafts.
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: Let me take off your bit and tie you up here,
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: and then you shall have some straw. He suited the
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: action to the word eat away, and you will feel
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: all the better for it. Nevertheless, Brownie did not seem
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: to grow easier under Nikita's touch, but kept fidgeting about
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: as he stood tail onwards to the wind. Every moment
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: he would shift his legs, press up to the sledge
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: and rub his head against Nikita's leeve. However, as if
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: unwilling to seem churlish about the meal of the straw
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: which Nikita had strewn before his nose, he took an
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: occasional straw from the sledge, but appeared at once to
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: come to the conclusion that straw did not meet the case,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: and threw it down again, whereupon the wind caught it
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: in a twinkling, whirled it away and buried it in
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: the snow. Suppose we make a signal of distress, said Nikita. Presently,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: he turned the sledge a little towards the wind, tied
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: the shafts together with the belly band, turned them up,
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: and rested them against the splashboard. Now, if any one
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: passes this way, they will be able to see us
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: by the shafts, and come and dig us out. I
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: learnt this trick from the old people. And he clapped
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: his mittens together and put them on. Meanwhile, Vassili had
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: unhooked his fur coat and made a shelter of its skirts.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: Then he struck match after match against the steel match box,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: but his hands were shaking so violently with the cold
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: that each successive match either failed to light at all
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: or was blown out by the wind. As he was
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: in the act of lifting it to his cigarette. At length,
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: a match did flare up properly, illuminating for a brief
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: second the pelt of his fur coat, his hand with
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: his gold ring on its curved index finger, and the
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: snow covered straw which projected from under the sacking. The
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: cigarette lighted, he drew a couple of greedy whiffs, swallowed
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: the smoke, and puffed it out again through his mustache.
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: Then he was about to take a third whiff when
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: the wind caught the lighted end of the cigarette and
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: carried it away to join the wisps of straw. Never
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: the less, even these meager mouthfuls of smoke had exercised
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: a cheering effect upon him. If we must spend the
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: night here, well we must, that's all, he said, undauntedly.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, and I will rig up a flag.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: Picking up the handkerchief which he had unwound from his
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: neck and thrown down upon the floor of the sledge,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: he took off his mittens, climbed onto the splashboard, stretched
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: himself up on tiptoe to reach the belly band, and
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: tied the handkerchief round one end of it and of
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: the shaft in a stout knot. The handkerchief at once
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: began to wave wildly, now clinging to the shaft, now
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: suddenly filling out again, and straining at the knot as
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: its folds cracked in the wind. Is that not clever
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: of me, said Vassili, as he stepped down again, much
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: pleased with his handiwork. Now. If we could lie together,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: that would be the warmest way. But I'm afraid there
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: isn't room for both of us. Never, I will find
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: a place for myself, answered Nikito. Only I must cover
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: the cob over first, for he has been sweating a
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: lot and is tired out. Wait a minute, and diving
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: into the sledge, he dragged the sacking from under Vassili.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: Possessed of this, he folded it double, and, removing the
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: saddle piece and crouper from Brownie's back, covered him over.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: You will be warmer like this, little fool, he said,
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: as he replaced the saddle piece and crouper. And now
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: he said to Vassili, I will take the apron if
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: you don't want it to night, give me some straw too,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: And thus taking one thing and another from beneath Vassili,
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: he went to the back of the sledge, dug a
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: hole in the snow there, and lined it with the straw.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: Then he pulled his cap over his eyes, wrapped his
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: hallot about him, with the apron over all, and squatted
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: down upon the straw with his back resting against the
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: bark tail board of the sledge, that it might protect
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: him from the wind and snow. Vassili shook his head
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: in disapproval of Nikita's proceedings. It was contrary to his
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: habit to encourage the peasantry in their rude, uncouth ways,
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: and then set about making his own preparations for the night.
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: First of all, he smoothed out what straw was left
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: in the sledge, patting it a little thicker where his
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: thigh bone was to rest. Then he pulled on his
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: mittens and lay down with his head in one of
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: the corners near the splash board, that the latter might
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: protect him from the wind. Somehow, He did not feel sleepy,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: but lay thinking. He thought chiefly of the one thing
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: which constituted his whole pride, ideal, aim and joy in life,
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: namely the making of money, and yet more money. He
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: thought of the means by which certain acquaintances of his
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: had made their money, how they were using it, and
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: the means by which he like they might make a
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: great deal more than he already possessed. The purchase of
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: the Goviatchkinsky Forest seemed to him a matter of vast importance,
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: since out of this forest he hoped to make at
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: one stroke a sum possibly of ten thousand roubles. He
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: mentally reckoned up the value of the timber which he
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: had viewed in the autumn, and on the basis of
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: the two desiatins he had then inspected, went on to
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: calculate the whole. Here the translator inserts a footnote that
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: a desiatin is two and four fifths acres. The oak
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: wood will do for sledge runners if cut up, and
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: for beams as they stand, he said to himself, And
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: after they are felled, there should be left about thirty
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: sagens of firewood to the desiatin. Here the translator inserts
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: another footnote that a sizen is about seven English feet.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: Thus calculating, he could see that the total value of
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: the forest worked out to about two thousand roubles, but
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: could not reckon to an exact figure in the absence
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: of tables. All the same, he went on, I am
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: not going to give even so much as ten thousand
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: for it, only eight thousand, and that subject to deductions
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: for open spaces, I will grease the surveyor's palm with
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: a hundred roubles, or perhaps a hundred fifty, and he
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: will measure me off the clearings at at least five deciatins. Yes,
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: the owner will be glad to let the forest go
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: at eight thousand roubles. I have three thousand ready for
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: him here, thought Vassili as he felt for his pocket
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: book with the inside of his forearm. And that should
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: melt him. How on earth we came to miss that turning.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: God only knows. There must be a forest and a
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: forest keeper somewhere about there. His dog ought to have
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: heard us. The cursed brutes never bark when they're wanted to.
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: He turned back his coat collar from his ear and listened.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: Nothing was to be heard but the whistling of the wind,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: the rustling and cracking of the handkerchief on the shafts,
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: and the swish of the snow as it lashed the
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: bark sides of the sledge. He covered his ear over again.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: If only I had known that we should have to
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: spend the night here, he thought, Well, we shall get
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: there tomorrow, all the same, It will only mean one
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: day lost. Besides, those other fellows wouldn't come either, not
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: in such weather. Suddenly he remembered that on the ninth
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: of the month he was to be paid some money
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: for weathers by the butcher. I ought to be back
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: by then to receive it. He couldn't take me in
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: over the price. Whereas my wife doesn't in the least
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: know how to bargain. In fact, she doesn't understand how
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: to talk to any one, He went on as he
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: remembered her failure to make conversation to the Stanovoi, who
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: had been one of their guests of yesterday for the festival.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: Here the translator inserts a footnote that a stan of
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: voy is the local magistrate. She is a woman, that
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: is the long and the short of it. Moreover, what
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: had she ever seen before I married her? Her father
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: was only a well to do moujique, a shabby little
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: farm that was all his property. But what have I
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: not acquired in fifteen years a store, two taverns, a mill,
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: a granary, two rented holdings, and an iron roofed villa
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: and warehouse combined. He swelled with pride rather different to
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: her father. I think, in fact, who is the chief
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: man of the district to day? Why Vassili Bruchanoff, of course,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: and why so he continued presently, Because I devote my
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: whole attention to business and work hard, not like some
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: people who lie abed and play the fool. I don't
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: sleep whole nights away, no blizzard or no blizzard out,
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: I go if necessary, and my business gets done. They
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: think me a fool and laugh at my money making.
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: But never mind, Vassili. Go on working hard, even if
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: it makes your headache. If necessary, spend a night in
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: the open like this rather than lose time. Never mind
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: if you cannot sleep either. To be able to think
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: such thoughts is a pillow in itself, he concluded proudly.
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: Some people seem to think that riches come to one
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: by chance. Pooh, there is only one Miranov and a million.
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: No work hard, and God will give you the rest.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: If only he give you health and strength, that alone
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: should be sufficient. And the mere thought that he might
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: one day become such a millionaire as Miranov, who had
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: risen from nothing, so fired Vassili with ecstasy that he
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: yearned to have someone to speak to. Yet there was
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: no one. Ah, But once he could win to Goviatchkine,
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: he would have a landowner to speak to and to
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: bamboozle as well. Good heavens, how it blows he can
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: cantinued as he listened to a squall of wind which
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: was beating against the splashboard and bending it inwards as
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: it lashed the bark planking with snow. It is drifting
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: the snow so much that perhaps we shall never get
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: out in the morning. Nothing could be seen in the
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: white swirl of obscurity but Brownie's dark head and tail,
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: and the sack covering his back. At intervals, the wind
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: would toss the corners of the sackleoft, while in front
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: and behind and on the other side of the sledge
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: whirled the same uniform mass of whiteness, now lightening a little,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: now suddenly becoming denser. I was a fool to have
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: ever listened to Nikita. He thought we ought to have
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: gone on again, and we should have landed somewhere. We
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: might have reached Grishkino again and been able to put
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: up at Tarasa's place after all, Yet here we have
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: to stick all night. What is the good of that
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: God gives to those who help themselves, but not to loafers,
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: sluggards and fools. I must try smoking again. He sat up,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: got out a cigarette, and then rolled over on his stomach.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: To shield the flame of the match from the wind
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: with the flap of his coat. Yet the wind found
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: an entry somehow and blew out the matches one by one.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: At length, he contrived to keep one alight and started smoking.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: He felt greatly pleased with his success, and although the
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: wind got more of the smoke than he did, he
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: managed to draw three whiffs and was much cheered by them.
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: He rolled himself back into a sitting posture, wrapped himself
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: up again, and started once more to think over and
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: consider matters, until suddenly, and without warning, he lost consciousness
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: and went off into a doze. All at once, something
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: seemed to jostle him, and he awoke. It might have
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: been Brownie pulling away straw from beneath him, or it
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: might have been the result of some internal distur turbans,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: But at all events, he awoke, and with his heart
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: beating so fast and so furiously that the very sledge
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: seemed to be shaking under him. He opened his eyes.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: The scene around him appeared exactly the same, except that
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: it seemed lighter. It must be dawn, he thought to himself,
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: It will soon be morning. Now, then, all at once
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: he remembered that the fact of its getting lighter could
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: only mean that the moon was rising. He raised himself
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: again and looked at the cob. Brownie was standing with
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: his hind quarters to the wind and shaking all over
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: the snow heaped sacking was turned up over his back
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: on the windward side, and the crouper was slipping down
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: over his flank, while his snow powdered head and wind
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: tossed mane and forehead tuft were more clearly visible than before.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: As for Nikita, he was still squatting in the same
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: position as when he had first sat down, with his
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: feet and the apron with which he had covered his
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: head all piled with snow. A moujique never freezes, thought
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: Vassili as he bent over the back of the sledge
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: and looked at him. No, not for all his poor clothes.
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: He can be trusted for that. Yet the moujiques are
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: a stupid lot, a mere welter of ignorance. For a moment,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: he thought of taking the sacking off the COB's back
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: and covering Nikita over with it, but it was too
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: cold to get up and make the effort. Moreover, he
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: was afraid of the cobs starving. If he did, what
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: on earth did I take Nikita for? He reflected, I
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: have her stupidity to thank for it. All he was
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: thinking of his wife. Then he rolled back into his
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: former position by the splashboard. My uncle spent a night
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: in the snow like this, he went on, Yet he
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: took no harm. Sebastian, too, once had to be dug out.
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: He continued, as another instance occurred to him. Sebastian died though,
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: for he was frozen stiff as a carcass. If only
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: we had stayed at Grishkeno. Wrapping his coat more carefully
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: about him, so that the protection of the fir should
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: not be wasted at any point, but keep him warm
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: from head to heels. He closed his eyes and tried
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: to sleep again. Yet for all his efforts he could
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: not succeed, But on the contrary, continued absolutely alert and wakeful.
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: Once more, he began to make business calculations and to
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: run over his outstanding debts. Once more, too, he began
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: to appraise himself and to congratulate himself on his position
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: in the world. None the less, his every thought seemed
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: to be broken in upon by a sort of haunting fear,
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: as well as by a feeling of vexation that they
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: had not stayed at Grishkenox. To think of it, he murmured,
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: why at this moment I might have been lying in
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: a warm bed. More than once, he turned himself over
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: and resettled himself in a vain endeavor to find an
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: easier position and one more protected from the wind. But
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: each new posture proved more uncomfortable than the last. At length,
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: he raised himself again, changed his position altogether, wrapped his
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: legs up, carefully, closed his eyes, and tried to lie
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: perfectly still. Yet either his feet squeezed into their stiff
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: top boots, had begun to ache, or the wind was
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: catching him somewhere. But at all events, he had not
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: been lying long in this position before he found himself
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: angrily remembering that at this very moment he might have
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: been lying in a warm hut at Grishkeno. Again, he
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: raised himself again. He wrapped his coat about him, and
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: resettled himself. Once he thought he heard the far off
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: sound of cocks crowing, whereupon he turned down the collar
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: of his coat in a tremor of joy, and listened attentively.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: Yet for all his straining of his ears. He could
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: hear nothing but the whistling of the wind through the shafts,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: the flapping of the handkerchief, and the lashing of the
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: snow against the bark sides of the sledge. As for Nikita,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: he remained squatting as he had done since the previous evening.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: Never once had he stirred nor returned any answer to
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: Vassili's shouts, although the latter had called him more than once.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: He seems to have no difficulty in sleeping, thought Vassili
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: with irritation, as he leant over the back of the
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: sledge and looked at the snow covered Nikita. In all,
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: Vassili must have got up and lain down again at
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: least twenty times. It seemed to him as if the
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: night would never end. Surely it must be morning now,
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: he thought once, as he raised himself and glanced about him.
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: How would it be to look at my watch? But no,
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: I might get frozen if I unhooked my coat. Yet
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: once I knew that it was drawing towards morning, things
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: would seem better, and we would set about harnessing the cob.
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: In the depths of his soul, however, Vassili knew quite
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: well that it could not be near morning. Yet the
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: truth was that his nervous panic was increasing to such
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: an extent that he wished both to verify his supposition
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: and to deceive himself. In the end, he finished by
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: carefully unhooking his fur coat, thrusting his hand in, and
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: groping about till he dug down to his waistcoat. A
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: further series of efforts enabled him to draw out his
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: silver watch with its enameled chasing of flowers. Then he
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: tried to look at it, but nothing could be seen
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: without a light. Once more, he lay down upon his
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: elbows and stomach, as he had done when getting ready
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: to smoke, pulled out his matches and set about striking one.
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: By this time he had grown more expert at the business,
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: and feeling for the match with the largest head of sulfur,
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: He contrived to light it at the first attempt. Then,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: thrusting the dial of the watch under the light, he
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: looked at it and could hardly believe his eyes. It
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: was only ten minutes past one. The whole night lay
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: before him, Oh, the long long night. He groaned, feeling
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: as though the frost were striking down his back. Already,
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: then hooking up his coat again and wrapping it about him,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: He sat back in the corner of the sledge and
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: prepared to wait with what patience he might. Suddenly, above
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: the monotonous wail of the wind, he heard a new sound,
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: a sound made by some living creature. It grew steadily louder,
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: attained its maximum, and began to steadily die away again.
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: There could be no doubt what it was. It was
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: a wolf, Nor was the beast so far off that
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: the wind could drown the gradations of tone in its
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: howl as it moved its jaws from side to side.
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: Vassili put back his coat, collar from his ear and
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: listened strainedly. Brownie was doing the same, his ears sharply pricked,
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: and when the howl ceased, he changed his legs and
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: snorted uneasily. After this, Vassili found it more than ever
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: impossible to sleep, found it impossible to steady his nerves
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: for a moment. The more he tried to think of
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: his business affairs and accounts, his reputation, dignity, and wealth,
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: the more did terror begin to master him. While above
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: all other thoughts, and yet mixed up with them, floated
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: the persistent question, why did we not stop the night
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: at GRISHKENO? God be with that landowner and his forest,
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: he thought to himself. Yet I wish I had never
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: come across lost either of them, to have to spend
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: the night here. They say that men who have been
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: drinking always freeze readily, and I have been drinking tonight.
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: Listening thus to his own suggestions, he could feel himself
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: beginning to tremble, though he hardly knew why, whether from cold,
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: that is to say, or from fear. He tried to
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: cover himself up and lie down as before, but found
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: this impossible. He could not remain still even for a second,
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: but felt as if he must be up and doing
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: something to stifle the terror which was rising in him,
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: and against which he felt himself powerless. He got out
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: his matches and cigarettes once more, but of the former
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: there remained but three, and they were of the sorrriest kind. Indeed,
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: all of them fizzled out without lighting. When struck the devil,
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: take you, you cursed bit of rubbish, go on and
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: be hanged to you, he burst out, though we hardly
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: know what he was swearing at, as he hurled the
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: battered cigarette away the match box was about to follow
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: when he stayed his hand and thrust the box into
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: his pocket. Such a fit of restlessness now seized upon
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: him that he could stay no longer where he was.
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: Leaping from the sledge and standing with his back to
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: the wind, he began lowering and tightening up his belt again.
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: Why should we lie here waiting for death to come,
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, as a new idea suddenly struck him. Why
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: not mount the cob and ride away with only a
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: man on his back? He would never stick fast, then
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: he thought of Nikita. Oh, but it would be nothing
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: to him to die, he went on, What can life
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: matter to him? He has nothing much to lose with it,
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: whereas I have much to gain with mine. So he
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: untied the cob, threw the halter over it, and tried
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: to mount, but his fur coat and boots weighed him down,
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: and he slipped back every time. Then he climbed onto
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: the sledge and tried to mount from there, but the
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: sledge kept rocking under his weight, and he failed again.
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: At length, and for the third time, he drew the
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: cob close to the sledge, balanced himself cautiously on the rim,
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: and succeeded so far as to find himself stretched face
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: down athwart the animal's back. Lying. Thus, he wriggled himself
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: forward once or twice until he had got his leg
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: over and seated himself, his toes resting in the trace
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: loops of the saddle piece. But the jolting of the
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: sledge as it shook under Vassili's weight had awakened Nikita,
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: who now raised himself and seemed to Vassili to be
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: saying something. Look here, you fool, shouted Vassili, it's all
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: through you that we have got into this plight, got
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: into it for nothing. Two, And tucking the flapping skirts
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: of his greatcoat beneath his knees, he turned the cob
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: round and rode away from the sledge in the direction
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: where he thought the forest and the forest keeper's lodge
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: must be. This ends Section six. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: by Brooks Jensen, Anacordis Washington, Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy.
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: Section seven. Up to this moment, Nikita had never once stirred,
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: since he first squatted down behind the sledge and covered
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: himself over with the apron. Like all people who live
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: in close contact with nature and are familiar with hardship,
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: he was patient and could sit waiting for hours or
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: even for days, without growing restless or losing his temper.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: He had heard his master call out to him twice,
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: yet he had returned no answer, for the sole reason
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: that he did not feel inclined to stir or go
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: to the trouble of raising his voice. Although he was
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: warm enough at the time he had sat down, both
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: with the tea which he had drunk and with the
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: exertion of plunging through snow drifts, he knew that that
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: would not last long, and he would be powerless to
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: restore the warmth by exercising himself, since he felt as
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: utterly worn out as a horse feels when he stops
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: and can go no further despite the severest whipping, and
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: his master sees that no further work can be got
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: out of him until he has been rested and fed. Moreover,
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: one of his feet had got frost bitten through its
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: ragged boot, so that the big toe had lost all
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: sensation and his whole body was becoming steadily colder and colder. Consequently,
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: in time, the thought began to enter his head that
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: he might have to die that night. Yet the thought
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: was neither particularly unwelcome nor particularly awe inspiring. It was
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: not particularly unwelcome for the reason that his life had
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: not been exactly an uninterrupted holiday, but, on the contrary,
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: a life of ceaseless servitude, of which he was beginning
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: to grow weary. Nor did the thought seem to him
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: particularly awe inspiring, for the reason that, over and above
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: the masters whom he had served on Earth, masters such
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: as Vassiliandretch, he had always felt himself dependent upon the
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: great Master who had sent him into this life, and
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: knew that in dying he would still remain that master's servant,
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: and that that Master would be good to him. Should
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: I be sorry to leave the life in which I
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: am settled and which I am accustomed to, he thought, Well,
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: even if I have to go, I cannot help myself,
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: and it were best to prepare for the new one
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: my sins. He went on presently, as he remembered his
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: drunken orgies, the money squandered on drink, his insults, to
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: his wife, his frequent oaths, his neglect of church going,
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: his non observance of fast days, and all the many
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: things for which the priest had reproved him at confession time. Well,
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: of course they were sins. I have never denied that.
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: But it was God who made me what I am.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: Yet what terrible sins they have been? What will become
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: of me for such sins? Then, from thinking of what
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: might be in store for him, the night he passed
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: without recurring to that thought, to memories which came into
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: his head at random. He thought of Martha's arrival, of
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: the workman's carous of his refusal to share their liquor,
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: of the present expedition, of Tarasa's hut, of the talk
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: about family separations, of his little lad of Brownie, now
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: doubtless growing warm under his sacking, And of the master
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: who was making the sledge creak above him as he
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: tossed and turned. Well, I had plenty of tea to
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: drink there and was tired, he thought. I had no
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: wish to start out again. I had no wish to
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: leave such good living to come and die in this hole.
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: Yet he wished otherwise. Then, all these memories swam together
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: and jumbled themselves up in his head, and he went
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: off into a doze. From this doze, he was awakened
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: by Vasili shaking the sledge as he mounted the cob,
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: shaking it so violently that it slewed right around and
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: struck Nikit in the back with one of its runners,
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: forcing him willy nilly to shift his position, stretching out
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: his legs with some difficulty and sweeping the snow off them.
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: He raised himself a little and at once felt a
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: pang shoot through his body. Understanding at the first glance
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: what Vassili intended to do, he begged him to leave
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: the sacking behind, since the cob no longer needed it
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: and it would make an additional covering for himself. He
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: shouted to Vassili to that effect, but the latter disappeared
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: in the snow dust without heeding him. Left alone, Nakita
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: considered what he had better do. He felt that he
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: had not sufficient strength also to go off in search
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: of a human habitation. While it was impossible for him
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: to resume his old seat since the snow had filled
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: up the hole already, even if he got into the sledge,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: things would not mend for he had no extra covering,
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: and his halot and fur jacket no longer kept him warm.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: He could not have felt colder if he had been
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: clad only in a shirt. The situation was becoming one
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: of positive agony. Little Father, our little father in heaven.
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: He cried aloud, and the knowledge that he was not alone,
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: but that there was one who could hear him and
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: would never abandon him, brought him comfort. He drew a
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: deep sigh, and with the apron still covering his head,
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: crept into the sledge and lay down where his master
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: had been. Even there, however, he could not grow warm.
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: At first, he kept shivering all over. Then the shivering
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: fit passed away, and he began to lose consciousness. He
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: might have been dead or asleep, for all he could tell,
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: yet felt prepared for either eventuality. This ends section seven.
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All librevotrex recordings are in
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: visit librevox dot org. Recording by Brooks Jensen. An accordis Washington,
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy. Section eight. Meanwhile, Vassili
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: was using his heels and the spare end of the
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: halter to urge the cob in the direction where, for
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: some reason or another he supposed the forest and the
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: forest keeper to be. The snow blinded his eyes, and
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: the wind seemed as if it were struggling to stop him.
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: But bending forward at times to double the skirts of
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: his coat and tuck them between his knees and the
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: icy saddle piece, which made his seat such an uncomfortable one,
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: he pressed the cob onwards unceasingly. The animal moved with difficulty,
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: proceeded whither it was directed in its usual docile manner.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: For what seemed to him some five minutes. Vasili rode
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: straight ahead, seeing nothing in front of him but the
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: cobs head and ears and a sea of whiteness, and
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: hearing nothing but the whistling of the wind over the
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: COB's ears and round the collar of his fur coat. Suddenly, however,
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: something black showed up before him. His heart began to
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: beat hopefully, and he rode towards the object, imagining that
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: he already discerned in its outlines the walls of the
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: houses forming a village. The object did not keep still, however,
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: but was forever waving from side to side, In fact,
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: it turned out to be not a village but a
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: tall piece of wormwood, which, growing out of the boundary
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: ridge and projecting above the snow, bent violently over to
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: one side each time the wind struck it and went
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: whistling through its stems. Somehow, the sight of this wormwood,
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: thus tortured by the cruel wind, caused Vassili to shudder,
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: and he restarted the cob in haste, without noticing that
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: in turning aside to the wormwood, he had deviated from
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: his former direction and was now riding at a tangent
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: to it. None the less, he imagined himself still to
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: be bearing in the fancied direction of the forest keeper's hut,
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: and although the cob kept trying to swerve to the right,
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: he has often straightened it again to the left. For
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: the second time, a dark object loomed up before him,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: filling his heart with joy, since he felt certain that
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: this time here was a village at last. Yet it
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: proved to be only another boundary ridge topped with wormwood,
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: as in the case of the first one. The sound
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: of the wind wailing through the dried stems seemed to
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: fill Vassili with fear. This piece of wormwood was exactly
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: similar to the the other piece in all respects save one,
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: namely that beside this second piece ran the track of
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: a horse's hoofs slightly powdered over with snow. Vassili pulled up,
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: leaned forward, and looked at the track carefully. It was
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: the track of a small sized hoof, and the covering
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: of snow upon it was as yet a mere sprinkling.
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: In short, it was the track of his own cob.
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: He had described a complete circle, and that not a
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: large one. So this is how I am to perish,
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: he thought. Then, lest he should yield to his terror,
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: he started forward again and urged the cob even more
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: strenuously than before. At every moment, as he strained his
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: eyes into the swirl of whiteness before him, he seemed
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: to see dark points stand out for a second and
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: then vanish as soon as he looked at them. Once,
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: he thought he heard what might have been either the
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: barking of a dog or the howl of a wolf,
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: but the sound was so faint and uncertain that he
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: could not be sure whether he had really heard anything,
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: or whether it had only been his fancy. He stopped
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: and listened attentively. Suddenly a weird, startling cry sounded in
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: his very ears, and everything beneath him seemed to heave
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: and tremble. He clutched the COB's mane, yet found that
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: it too was quivering, while the cry grew ever more
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: and more piercing. For some seconds, Vassili could not frame
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: a thought or understand in the least what was happening.
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: Yet all that had happened was that the cob had
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: been seized with the idea either of inspiriting himself or
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: calling for help, and had neighed loudly in his raucous
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: guttural tones. How the beast frightened me, be hanged to it,
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: gasped Vassili to himself. Yet although he understood now the
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: cause of his terror, he could not shake himself free
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: from it. I must consider things a moment and steady myself.
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: He thought it was all to no purpose, for he
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: could not master himself, could not keep from urging the
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: cob on taking no heed the while that he was
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: now riding before the wind instead of against it. His
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: body was chilled and aching all over, but especially in
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: the lower part next to the saddle piece, where his
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: coat was unhooked, whilst his hands and feet were shaking violently,
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: and his breath came in gasps. He felt sure now
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: that he was to perish in the midst of this
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: fearful waste of snow, and that nothing could save him.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: Suddenly the cob gave a groan as it stuck fast
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: in a snow drift, and, struggling violently, began to sink
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: sideways on to its flank. Vasili leaped off, displacing as
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: he did so the trace loops in which his feet
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: had been resting, and so also the saddle piece on
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: which he had been seated. Yet he had no sooner
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: dismounted than the cob righted himself, lurched forward, took a
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: couple of plunges, and disappeared, with a loud neigh trailing
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: behind him. The sacking and the harness, and leaving Vassili
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: stranded in the snow drift. Vassili made a rush to
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: catch him, but the snow was so deep and his
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: fur coat so heavy, that he sank knee deep at
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: every step, and had taken no more than twenty strides
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: when his breath failed him and he had to stop.
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: The timber, the weathers for the butcher, the rent hold, land,
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: the store, the taverns, the iron roof, villa and warehouse,
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: My little heir am I to leave them all? He thought?
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: Is it to end like this? No? No, it cannot be.
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: For some reason or another, there came into his mind
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: at that moment a picture of the wormwood waving in
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 1: the wind, and of himself, twice riding up to it.
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: Such terror seized upon him that he could hardly believe
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: in the reality of what was happening. I must be
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: dreaming at all, he thought, and tried, as it were,
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: to awake from his dream. Yet there was no awakening
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: for him. It was a real snow that was lashing
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: his face, heaping his form over, and chilling his right hand,
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: which had lost its mitten. It was a real desert, too,
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: in which he was now left lonely, as lonely as
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: the wormwood, and in which he must await an imminent,
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: a swift and an unthinkable death. O Queen of Heaven,
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: Oh holy Father, Saint Nicholas, who teaches us abstinence. He
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: began with a dim recollection of the Thanksgiving service of yesterday,
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: and the icon with its blackened face and gold vestment,
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: and the candles for that icon which he had sold
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: and which returned to him straightway he had replaced in
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: his locker after lighting them for a brief moment. Again
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: and again he besought the wonder working Saint Nicholas to
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: save him from his fate, promising in return a thanksgiving
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 1: and many candles. Yet all the time he knew, beyond
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: the possibility of doubt, that although that blackened face and
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: gold investment, as well as the candles, the priest and
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: the thanksgivings were all of them very important and necessary
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: there in the church, they could do nothing for him here,
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: and that between those candles and thanksgivings on one hand
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: and his present forlorn plight on the other, there could
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: be no real connection whatever. Still, I must not despair,
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: he thought, I have only to follow the COB's track
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: before it gets snowed over, and it will bring me
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: out somewhere. Only I must not hurry too much, or
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: I might plunge into another snowdrift and be worse all
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: than ever. Nevertheless, for all his determination to go quietly,
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: he could not help quickening his pace, breaking into a run,
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: tumbling down continually picking himself up again and once more
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: falling moreover, the COB's track was almost invisible where the
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: snow was not deep. I am done for, he said
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: at last. I am not following the COB's track at all,
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: but only losing myself. Just as he said this, however,
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: he happened to glance ahead and caught sight of something dark. There.
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: It was Brownie, and not Brownie alone, but also the
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: shafts and the handkerchief. The cob was standing beside the sledge,
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: with the harness and sacking still dangling down his flank,
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: but standing in a different position to before, since he
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: was just under the shafts and had his head, which
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: he kept shaking at intervals, drawn close to the ground
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: by the halter which had caught round his pastern. It
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: seemed that Vasili had stuck fast in the same ravine
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: as that into which Nikita and he had previously blundered, that,
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, the cob had been carrying
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: him straight back to the sledge, and that at the
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: moment when he jumped off, he had been only fifty
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: paces from it. This ends section eight. This is a
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: Recording by Brooks Jensen, Anachordus Washington, Master and Man by
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: Leo Tolstoy, Section nine. Staggering up to the sledge, Vassili
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: grasped hold of it and stood for a long time
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: without moving, as he endeavored to steady himself and regain
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: his breath. There was nothing to be seen of Nikita
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: in his old position, but in the sledge there lay
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: something heaped with snow, which Vassili guessed to be his servant.
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: Vassili's terrors had now vanished, or if any were left,
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: it was merely lest he should have a return of
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: the horrible panic which he had experienced on the COB's back,
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: and still more when he found himself left in the
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: snow drift. At all costs, he must not give way
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: to that panic again, And if he would avoid that,
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: he must be up and doing. Something. Must be occupying
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: his thoughts with something. First of all, he planted himself
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: with his back to the wind, and unfastened his fur
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: coat to cool himself. Then, when he had regained his
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: breath a little, he shook the snow off his boots
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: and left hand mitten, the other one was hopelessly lost
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: and probably lying somewhere a couple of inches below the snow,
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: and refastened his belt tightly, much as he was accustomed
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: to do when he was about to step out of
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: his store to buy cart loads of grain which the
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: moujiques had brought. This done, he set about exerting himself.
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: The first thing which had occurred to him to do
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: was to disentangle the COB's leg and the halter. Thus freed,
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: he tied Brownie up to the rim of the splashboard,
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: where he had been tied before. Next, he had just
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: gone behind the cob to straighten the crouper sacking and
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: saddle piece on his back when he saw something stir
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: in the sledge, and then the head of Nikita emerged
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: from beneath the snow which covered it. The frozen man
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: raised himself a little, though evidently with a great effort,
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: and made a strange gesture with his hand in front
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: of his face, as though he were brushing away a fly.
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: As he did this, he seemed to Vassili to be
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: saying something, probably Vassili's name, so the latter left the
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: sacking unstraightened and stepped up to the sledge. How is
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: it with you now, he asked? And what are you
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: trying to say? Only that I I am dying, answered Nikita,
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: with difficulty and in gasps. Give my wages to the
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 1: little lad or to the wife. It does not matter
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: which are you frozen, then, said Vassili. Yes and dying.
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: I know it quite well, replied Nikita, in a choking voice,
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: and still fluttering his hand before his face, as though
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: to brush away a fly. Pardon me, for Christ's sake.
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: For about half a minute, Vassili stood without moving and
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: in silence, and then all at once and with the
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: same air of decision as marked him when he had
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: struck hands over a good bargain. He took a step backwards,
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: tucked up the sleeves of his coat, and began with
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: both hands to rake the snow off Nikita and out
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: of the sledge. This done, he unhooked his belt, opened
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: his fur coat, pushed Nikita hastily into a straight posture,
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: and lay down upon him in such a way that
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: the latter should be covered not only with the coat
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: but with Vassili's own warm overheated body, with one skirt
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: of the coat tucked between Nikita's form and the side
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: of the sledge, and the tail of it grasped between
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: his ankles. Vassili remained lying prone, with his head resting
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: upon the splashboard, and his ears deaf either to the
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: movements of the cob or to the howling of the wind,
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: but intent only on listening to Nikita's breathing. For a
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: long time, Nikita lay without moving. Then he gave a
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: deep sigh and stirred faintly. There you are, you see,
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: And yet you talk of dying, began Vassili. Just you
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: lie still and grow warm and we To his great surprise,
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: Vassili found that he could say no more, for tears
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 1: were welling from his eyes, and his lower jaw was working.
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 1: He broke off short and swallowed a lump in his throat.
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: How absurdly weak and nervous I have made myself, he thought.
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: Yet not only did he find this weakness far from unpleasant,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: but it actually gave him a sensation of joy as
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: he had never yet experienced. Yes, we shall manage it
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: all right like this, he said to himself, conscious of
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: a rapturous feeling of emotion. After this, he lay for
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: a long time in silence, merely wiping his eyes against
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: the fur of the coat and tucking back its right
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: hand skirt as the wind blew it up at intervals.
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: But at length he felt as though he must communicate
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: his joy to a fellow creature, Nikita. He said, that
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: is better. I am getting warm now, came from underneath him. Nakita,
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: my old friend. I thought we were done, for you
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: would have been frozen. And I once more. Vassili's cheeks
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: started quivering and his eyes filled with tears, so that
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: he could say no more. No, it is no good,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: he said to himself. Yet I know what I know,
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: and he remained silent. Still he lay there. Warmth seemed
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: to be passing into his body from Nikita below and
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: from the fur coat above. Only the hands with which
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: he held the skirts of the coat against Nikita's sides,
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: and his feet, from between which the wind kept blowing
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: the skirts away, were beginning to feel frozen. His mittenless
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: right hand in particular, felt numbed. Yet he never thought
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: of his hands or feet, only how he could best
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: warm the peasant who was lying beneath him. More than once.
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: He glanced at the cob and saw that its back
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: was uncovered, since the sacking had now slipped off all together,
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: and was lying in the snow. He felt as if
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: he ought to go and cover the animal over again,
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: yet could not make up his mind to leave Nikita
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: even for a moment and thus break the spell of
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: that rapturous joy which now possessed him. As for his terrors,
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: they had long since fled away by heavens. I am
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: not going to be beaten, he said to himself, with
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: reference to his efforts to warm Nikita, speaking indeed in
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: just the same boastful tone in which he had been
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: accustomed to speak of his sails or purchases. He lay
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: for an hour, for two, for three, but took no
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: heed of the passing time. At first, there danced before
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: his vision dim pictures of the storm, of the shafts
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: of the cob under his high dugas. Then these pictures
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: became exchanged for jumbled memories of the festival of his wife,
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: of the Stanovoi, and of the candle locker. But beneath
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: the picture of the candle locker lay Nikita. Then again
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: he saw the moujiques trading with him and the white
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: iron roofed walls of his house. But beneath the picture
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: of those walls again lay Nikita. Then everything became confused.
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: One thing ran into another, until at last these various
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: scattered impressions came together as the colors of a rainbow
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: merged into a beam of white light, and he fell asleep.
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: For long, he slept without dreaming, but just before the
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: dawn came, there also came some sleep visions. He seemed
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: to be standing by the candle locker while old mother
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: to Koneva was asking him for a five copek candle
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 1: for the festival. He tried to take the candle out
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: and give it to her, but his hands remained glued
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: in his pockets. Then he tried to walk round the locker,
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 1: but his legs refused to move, and his new clean
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: shoes stuck fast to the stone floor, so that he
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: could not even raise his feet to take the shoes off.
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: Then suddenly the locker was not a locker at all,
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: but a bed, and on that bed Vassili could see
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: himself lying face downwards, lying on his own bed at home.
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: He was lying on the bed and could not rise,
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: although it was necessary for him to do so, seeing
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: that Ivan Matveitch, the Stanovoi, was coming to see him presently,
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: and he must go with Ivan, either to buy some
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: timber or to put the crouper straight on the COB's back.
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: He could not be sure which. He kept asking his wife,
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: Has he not come yet, Mikholovna, And she kept answering him, no,
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: not yet. Then he could hear some one driving up
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: to the steps outside. Surely it must be he, But no,
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 1: the vehicle had driven past. Is he not come yet, Mikhylovna,
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 1: He asked his wife once more, and once more she replied, no,
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: not yet. Thus he lay and lay upon the bed,
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: unable to rise, and ever waiting waiting. And the waiting
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: was at once painful and joyous. Suddenly the joy of
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: it was filled to the full. He for whose coming
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 1: he had been waiting was now at hand. And it
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: was not Ivan Matveyitch, nor any one else. Yet still,
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: it was the man for whom he had been waiting.
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: He entered, did that man and called him, And this
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: man who had called him cried out to him again
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: and made him go and lie down upon Nikita. And
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 1: Vassili was glad that this some one had come. Yes,
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: I will go, he cried in his joy, and with
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: that cry Vassili awoke. Yes, he awoke, but awoke a
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: very different man to what he had been when he
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: fell asleep. He tried to rise and could not. He
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: tried to move his hand and could not. He tried
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: to move his leg and could not. Then he tried
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: to turn his head, but that also he could not do.
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: This surprised him, yet in no way troubled him. Then
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: he remembered that Nikita was lying beneath him, and that
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: Nikita was growing warm and coming back to life. It
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: seemed to him that he was Nakita, and Nikita he,
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: and that his life was no longer within himself, but
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: within Nikita. He strained his ears till he caught the
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: sound of breathing. Yes, the faint, deep breathing of Niki
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: Nikita is alive, he cried to himself in triumph, And
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: therefore so also am I. Then he began to think
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: about his money, his store, his house, his sales and purchases,
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: and Mironov's millions. He could not understand how that man,
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: whom men called Vassili Brukenoff, could bear to interest himself
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: in such things as he did. That man can never
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: have known what is the greatest thing of all? He
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: thought of this, Vassili brookenoff. He can never have known
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: what I know. Yes, I know it for certain. Now
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: at last I know. Once again He heard the man
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: calling him who had called to him before, and his
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: whole being seemed to respond in joy and loving kindness,
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: as he replied, I am coming. I am coming, For
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: he felt that he was free at last, and that
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: nothing could hold him further. And indeed, nothing further than
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: that did Vasili Andreitch see, or hear or feel in
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: this world around him. The tempest still kept on the
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: same swirlings of snow kept circling in eddies and covering
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: the coats of the dead Vasili Andreech, and the trembling Brownie,
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: and the sledge, now almost invisible and stretched out upon
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: its floor, the now reviving Nikita as he lay prone
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: beneath the body of his dead master. This ends section nine.
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Brooks Jensen, an Accordis Washington,
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy, Section ten. Just before morning,
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: Nikita awoke. It was the frost making its way down
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: his back which aroused him. He had just been dreaming
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: that he was driving from the mill with the load
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: of his master's flour, and that instead of taking the
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: bridge over the stream, he went by the ford and
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: stuck fast. He could see himself getting under the load
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: and trying to lift it as he straightened his back. Yet,
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: strange to say, the load would not move, but clung
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: always to his back, so that he could neither move
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: the cart nor withdraw himself from beneath it. It seemed
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: to be breaking his very loins, and how cold it felt.
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: At all costs, he must get away from beneath it.
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: Hold on, he found himself, saying to the some one
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: who was causing the load to break his back, take
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: off some of the sacks. Yet the load kept growing
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: colder and colder, and pressing more and more heavily upon him.
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 1: Then suddenly something gave a loud bang, and he became
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: fully awake and remembered all that had happened that chilly load.
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: It was his dead, frozen master that loud bang. It
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: had been caused by Brownie striking his hoofs against the sledge. Andreitch, Andraitch,
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: He cried cautiously to his master, though he half guessed
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: the truth already, as he raised his back stiffly, but
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 1: andreach returned no answer. While his body and legs were
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: cold and stiff and heavy as weights. There is no
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: doubt that he is dead, thought Nikita. He turned his
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: head round, pushed the snow away from in front of
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: his face, and opened his eyes. It was quite light now,
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: the wind was still humming through the shafts, and the
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: snow streaming down, but with this difference that the snow
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: was no longer dashing itself against the sides of the sledge,
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: but piling itself up in silence over sledge and cob
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 1: from the ladder of which not even the sound of
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: breathing was now to be heard. Brownie too must be frozen,
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: thought Nikita. And indeed those two loud hoof strokes upon
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: the sledge which had wakened him, had been the last
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: efforts of the now dead and frozen animal to keep
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: upon his legs. O, God, little father of ours, surely
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: thou wilt call me also said Nakita. And if so
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 1: thy will be done, it would be hard that the
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: two of us should be taken and the other left.
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: Let death come when it will. And he drew his
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 1: hand in again, closed his eyes, and fell asleep, firmly,
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: convinced that this time he was really and truly dead.
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: It was about the time of the midday meal next
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: day when some moujiques dug out Vasili and Nikita, seventy
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 1: yards only from the road and half a verst from
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: the village. The snow had drifted completely over the sledge,
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: but the shafts with the handkerchief on them were still visible.
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: Brownie belly deep in the snow stood a white, frozen mass,
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 1: his dead muzzle pressed tightly inwards against his rigid neck,
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: his nostrils fringed with icicles, and his eyes coated over
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: and glazed with ice as with frozen tears. Moreover, he
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: had so wasted away in that one night that there
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 1: remained of him but skin and bones. As for Vasili,
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: he too was stiff as a frozen carcass, and when
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 1: his legs were pulled aside, the corpse rolled off Nikita
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: in a solid lad, his prominent hawk like eyes were
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: frozen hard, and his mouth open a little under his
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: cropped mustache filled with snow. Nakita only was alive, though
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 1: frostbitten all over. Yet when brought to himself, he could
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: not be persuaded that he was not dead and that
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: all that was now happening to him was not taking
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: place in the next world instead of this. Indeed, his
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: first feeling when he heard the moujiques shouting above him
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 1: as they dug out the sledge and then rolled the
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: stiffened vassili off him, was one of surprise that moujiques
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: shouted in the next world, even as they had shouted
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: in this and had similar bodies. When at length he
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: understood that he was really here here in this present world,
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: he felt vexed rather than pleased, especially as he could
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: feel that the fingers of both his hands were frostbitten.
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: For about two months he lay in home hospital. Three
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: of his fingers had to be amputated, but the others
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 1: healed so that he was able to go to work
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: again and to live twenty years longer, first as a laborer,
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: then in his old age as a watchman. Indeed, he
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 1: died only this year at home and under the icons
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: with a lighted wax candle in his hands, just as
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: he had always wished before his death. He took leave
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: of his old wife and pardoned her for the cooper.
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: He took leave also of his son and grandchildren, and
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: died thoroughly happy to think that his death left his
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 1: son and daughter in law freed from the burden of
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: having a supernumerary mouth to feed, and that this time
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: he himself would really pass from a life which had
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: grown wearisome to him to that other life which had
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 1: been growing more and more familiar and alluring to him
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: each year and hour. Is he better or worse off
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: now where he has awakened after his death, the death
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: which really came that time? Is he disillusioned? Or has
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: he really found what he expected? Soon we shall all know.
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 1: This ends Section ten and ends the book Master and
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 1: Man by Leo Tolstoy