Through Russia...................................................................................................................................................1

Maxim Gorky ...........................................................................................................................................1

THE BIRTH OF A MAN........................................................................................................................1

THE ICEBREAKER ..............................................................................................................................10

GUBIN ...................................................................................................................................................30

NILUSHKA...........................................................................................................................................51

THE CEMETERY.................................................................................................................................70

ON A RIVER STEAMER.....................................................................................................................82

A WOMAN ..........................................................................................................................................101

IN A MOUNTAIN DEFILE ................................................................................................................128

KALININ .............................................................................................................................................156

THE DEAD MAN...............................................................................................................................178

The year was the year '92 the year of leannessthe scene a spot between Sukhum and Otchenchiri, on the

river Kodor, a spot so near to the sea that amid the joyous babble of a sparkling rivulet the ocean's

Also, the season being autumn, leaves of wild laurel were glistening and gyrating on the white foam of the

Kodor like a quantity of mercurial salmon fry. And as I sat on some rocks overlooking the river there

occurred to me the thought that, as likely as not, the cause of the gulls' and cormorants' fretful cries where the

surf lay moaning behind a belt of trees to the right was that, like myself, they kept mistaking the leaves for

Over my head hung chestnut trees decked with gold; at my feet lay a mass of chestnut leaves which

resembled the amputated palms of human hands; on the opposite bank, where there waved, tanglewise, the

stripped branches of a hornbeam, an orangetinted woodpecker was darting to and fro, as though caught in

the mesh of foliage, and, in company with a troupe of nimble titmice and blue treecreepers (visitors from the

fardistant North), tapping the bark of the stem with a black beak, and hunting for insects.

To the left, the tops of the mountains hung fringed with dense, fleecy clouds of the kind which presages rain;

and these clouds were sending their shadows gliding over slopes green and overgrown with boxwood and that

peculiar species of hollow beechstump which once came near to effecting the downfall of Pompey's host,

through depriving his ironbuilt legions of the use of their legs as they revelled in the intoxicating sweetness

of the " mead " or honey which wild bees make from the blossoms of the laurel and the azalea, and travellers

still gather from those hollow stems to knead into lavashi or thin cakes of millet flour.

On the present occasion I too (after suffering sundry stings from infuriated bees) was thus engaged as I sat on

the rocks beneath the chestnuts. Dipping morsels of bread into a potful of honey, I was munching them for

breakfast, and enjoying, at the same time, the indolent beams of the moribund autumn sun.

In the fall of the year the Caucasus resembles a gorgeous cathedral built by great craftsmen (always great

craftsmen are great sinners) to conceal their past from the prying eyes of conscience. Which cathedral is a

sort of intangible edifice of gold and turquoise and emerald, and has thrown over its hills rare carpets

silkembroidered by Turcoman weavers of Shemi and Samarkand, and contains, heaped everywhere, plunder

brought from all the quarters of the world for the delectation of the sun. Yes, it is as though men sought to say

to the Sun God: " All things here are thine. They have been brought hither for thee by thy people."

Yes, mentally I see longbearded, greyheaded supermen, beings possessed of the rounded eyes of happy

children, descending from the hills, and decking the earth, and sowing it with sheerly kaleidoscopic treasures,

and coating the tops of the mountains with massive layers of silver, and the lower edges with a living web of

trees. Yes, I see those beings decorating and fashioning the scene until, thanks to their labours, this gracious

And what a privilege it is to be human! How much that is wonderful leaps to the eyehow the presence of

beauty causes. the heart to throb with a voluptuous rapture that is almost pain!

And though there are occasions when life seems hard, and the breast feels filled with fiery rancour, and

melancholy dries and renders athirst the heart's blood, this is not a mood sent us in perpetuity. For at times

even the sun may feel sad as he contemplates men, and sees that, despite all that he has done for them, they

No, it is not that good folk are lacking. It is that they need to be rounded offbetter still, to be made anew.

Suddenly there came into view over the bushes to my left a file of dark heads, while through the surging of

the waves and the babble of the stream I caught the sound of human voices, a sound emanating from a party

of " famine people " or folk who were journeying from Sukhum to Otchenchiri to obtain work on a local road

The owners of the voices I knew to be immigrants from the province of Orlov. I knew them to be so for the

reason that I myself had lately been working in company with the male members of the party, and had taken

leave of them only yesterday in order that I might set out earlier than they, and, after walking through the

The members of the party comprised four men and a womanthe latter a young female with high

cheekbones, a figure swollen with manifest pregnancy, and a pair of greyishblue eyes that had fixed in

them a stare of apprehension. At the present moment her head and yellow scarf were just showing over the

tops of the bushes; and while I noted that now it was swaying from side to side like a sunflower shaken by the

wind, I recalled the fact that she was a woman whose husband had been carried off at Sukhum by a surfeit of

fruitthis fact being known to me through the circumstance that in the workmen's barraque where we had

shared quarters these folk had observed the good old Russian custom of confiding to a stranger the whole of

their troubles, and had done so in tones of such amplitude and penetration that the querulous words must have

And as I had talked to these forlorn people, these human beings who lay crushed beneath the misfortune

which had uprooted them from their barren and exhausted lands, and blown them, like autumn leaves,

towards the Caucasus where nature's luxuriant, but unfamiliar, aspect had blinded and bewildered them, and

with its onerous conditions of labour quenched their last spark of courage; as I had talked to these poor

people I had seen them glancing about with dull, troubled, despondent eyes, and heard them say to one

After which they had gone on to speak of their native haunts, where every handful of soil had represented to

them the dust of their ancestors, and every grain of that soil had been watered with the sweat of their brows,

Previously there had joined the party a woman who, tall and straight, had had breasts as flat as a board, and

jawbones like the jawbones of a horse, and a glance in her dull, sidelong black eyes like a gleaming,

And every evening this woman had been wont to step outside the barraque with the woman in the yellow

scarf and to seat herself on a rubbish heap, and, resting her cheeks on the palms of her hands, and inclining

Usually her companion, the woman in the yellow scarf, had, with head bent forward and eyes fixed upon her

stomach, remained silent; but on rare, unexpected occasions she had, in the hoarse, sluggish voice of a

Nor amid the stifling blackness of the southern night had these voices ever failed to bring back to my memory

the snowy wastes of the North, and the icy, wailing stormwind, and the distant howling of unseen wolves.

In time, the squinteyed woman had been taken ill of a fever, and removed to the town in a tilted ambulance;

and as she had lain quivering and moaning on the stretcher she had seemed still to be singing her little ditty

After I had finished my breakfast I thatched the honeypot with some leaves, fastened down the lid, and

indolently resumed my way in the wake of the party, my blackthorn staff tiptapping against the hard tread of

The track loomed a grey, narrow strip before me, while on my right the restless, dark blue sea had the

air of being ceaselessly planed by thousands of invisible carpenters; so regularly did the stress of a wind as

moist and sweet and warm as the breath of a healthy woman cause everrustling curls of foam to drift

towards the beach. Also, careening on to its port quarter under a full set of bellying sails, a Turkish felucca

was gliding towards Sukhum; and, as it held on its course, it put me in mind of a certain pompous engineer of

the town who had been wont to inflate his fat cheeks and say: " Be quiet, you, or I will have you locked up! "

This man had, for some reason or another, an extraordinary weakness for causing arrests to be made; and,

exceedingly do I rejoice to think that by now the worms of the graveyard must have consumed him down to

the very marrow of his bones. Would that certain other acquaintances of mine were similarly receiving

Walking proved an easy enough task, for I seemed to be borne on air, while a chorus of pleasant thoughts, of

manycoloured recollections, kept singing gently in my breasta chorus resembling, indeed, the

whitemaned billows in the regularity with which now it rose, and now it fell, to reveal in, as it were, soft,

peaceful depths the bright, supple hopes of youth, like so many silver fish cradled in the bosom of the ocean.

Suddenly, as it trended seawards, the road executed a halfturn, and skirted a strip of the sandy margin to

which the waves kept rolling in such haste. And in that spot even the bushes seemed to have a mind to look

the waves in the eyesso strenuously did they lean across the ribandlike path, and nod in the direction of

the blue, watery waste, while from the hills a wind was blowing that presaged rain.

But hark! From some point among the bushes a low moan arosethe sound which never fails to thrill the

Thrusting aside the foliage, I beheld before me the woman in the yellow scarf. Seated with her back resting

against the stem of a hazelbush, she had her head sunken deeply between her shoulders, her mouth

hideously agape, her eyes staring vaguely before her, her hands pressed to her swollen stomach, her breath

issuing with unnatural vehemence, and her abdomen convulsively, spasmodically rising and falling.

Meanwhile from her throat were issuing moans which at times caused her yellow teeth to show bare like

The only result was that, shuffling bare feet in the sand like a fly, she shook her nerveless hand, and gasped:

Then I understood what was the matter, for I had seen a similar case before. Yet for the moment a certain

feeling of shyness made me edge away from her a little; and as I did so, she uttered a prolonged moan, and

her almost bursting eyeballs vented hot, murky tears which trickled down her tense and livid features.

Thereupon I turned to her again, and, throwing down cookingpot, teapot, and wallet, laid her on her back,

and strove to bend her knees upwards in the direction of her body. Meanwhile she sought to repel me with

blows on face and breast, and at length rolled on to her stomach. Then, raising herself on all fours, she,

sobbing, gasping, and cursing in a breath, crawled away like a bear into a remoter portion of the thicket.

Yet, even as the words escaped her lips, her arms gave way beneath her, and she collapsed upon her face,

with legs stretched out, and her lips emitting a fresh series of convulsive moans.

Excited now to fever pitch, I hurriedly recalled my small store of knowledge of such cases and finally

decided to turn her on her back, and, as before, to strive to bend her knees upwards in the direction of her

"Lie still," I said, "and if you do that it will not be long before you are delivered of the child."

Whereafter, running down to the sea, I pulled up my sleeves, and, on returning, embarked upon my role, of

Scoring the earth with her fingers, uprooting tufts of withered grass, and struggling to thrust them into her

mouth, scattering soil over her terrible, inhuman face and bloodshot eyes, the woman writhed like a strip of

birch bark in a wood fire. Indeed, by this time a little head was coming into view, and it needed all my efforts

to quell the twitchings of her legs, to help the child to issue, and to prevent its mother from thrusting grass

down her distorted, moaning throat. Meanwhile we cursed one another she through her teeth, and I in an

undertone; she, I should surmise, out of pain and shame, and I, I feel certain, out of nervousness, mingled

"O Lord!" she gasped with blue lips flecked with foam as her eyes (suddenly bereft of their colour in the

sunlight) shed tears born of the intolerable anguish of the maternal function, and her body writhed and

"Away, you brute!" was her oftrepeated cry as with her weak hands, hands seemingly dislocated at the

wrists, she strove to thrust me to a distance. Yet all the time I kept saying persuasively: "You fool! Bring

forth as quickly as you can!" and, as a matter of fact, was feeling so sorry for her that tears continued to spurt

from my eyes as much as from hers, and my very heart contracted with pity. Also, never did I cease to feel

that I ought to keep saying something; wherefore, I repeated, and again repeated: "Now then! Bring forth as

And at last my hands did indeed hold a human creature in all its pristine beauty. Nor could even the mist of

tears prevent me from seeing that that human creature was red in the face, and that to judge from the manner

in which it kept kicking and resisting and uttering hoarse wails (while still bound to its mother by the

ligament), it was feeling dissatisfied in advance with the world. Yes, blueeyed, and with a nose absurdly

sunken between a pair of scarlet, rumpled cheeks and lips which ceaselessly quivered and contracted, it kept

Moreover, so slippery was it that, as I knelt and looked at it and laughed with relief at the fact that it had

arrived safely, I came near to letting it fall upon the ground: wherefore I entirely forgot what next I ought to

"Cut it!" at length whispered the mother with eyes closed, and features suddenly swollen and resembling

My pocketknife I had had stolen from me in the workmen's barraque; but with my teeth I severed the caul,

and then the child gave renewed tongue in true Orlovian fashion, while the mother smiled. Also, in some

curious fashion, the mother's unfathomable eyes regained their colour, and became filled as with blue fire as,

plunging a hand into her bodice and feeling for the pocket, she contrived to articulate with raw and

Upon that I set to, and managed to produce a piece of riband, and to fasten it in the required position.

Thereafter she smiled more brightly than ever. So radiantly did she smile that my eyes came near to being

"And now rearrange yourself," I said, "and in the meanwhile I will go and wash the baby."

"Yes, yes," she murmured uneasily. "But be very careful with himbe very gentle."

Yet it was little enough care that the rosy little homunculus seemed to require, so strenuously did he clench

his fists, and bawl as though he were minded to challenge the whole world to combat.

"Come, now!" at length I said. "You must have done, or your very head will drop off."

Yet no sooner did he feel the touch of the ocean spray, and begin to be sprinkled With its joyous caresses,

than he lamented more loudly and vigorously than ever, and so continued throughout the process of being

slapped on the back and breast as, frowning and struggling, he vented squall after squall while the waves

"Shout, young Orlovian!" said I encouragingly. "Let fly with all the power of your lungs!"

And with that, I took him back to his mother. I found her with eyes closed and lips drawn between her teeth

as she writhed in the torment of expelling the afterbirth. But presently I detected through the sighs and

And with tremulous, unsteady hands she unhooked the bosom of her bodice, and, freeing (with my

assistance) the breast which nature had prepared for at least a dozen children, applied the mutinous young

Orlovian to the nipple. As for him, he at once understood the matter, and ceased to send forth further

"O pure and holy Mother of God!" she gasped in a longdrawn, quivering sigh as she bent a dishevelled head

over the little one, and, between intervals of silence, fell to uttering soft, abrupt exclamations. Then, opening

her ineffably beautiful blue eyes, the hallowed eyes of a mother, she raised them towards the azure heavens,

while in their depths there was coming and going a flame of joy and gratitude. Lastly, lifting a languid hand,

she with a slow movement made the sign of the cross over both herself and her babe.

Then her eyes grew dim and vague again, and after a pause (during which she seemed to be scarcely

And whilst I was so engaged she continued to regard me with a steady gaze; but, when the task was

completed she smiled shamefacedly, and on her sunken cheeks and sweatflecked temples there dawned the

So I withdrew a little. In my breast a sort of weariness was lurking, but also in my breast there was echoing a

soft and glorious chorus of birds, a chorus so exquisitely in accord with the neverceasing splash of the sea

that for ever could I have listened to it, and to the neighbouring brook as it purled on its way like a maiden

Presently, the woman's yellowscarfed head (the scarf now tidily rearranged) reappeared over the bushes.

"Come, come, good woman!" was my exclamation. "I tell you that you must not move about so soon."

And certainly her attitude now was one of utter languor, and she had perforce to grasp the stem of a bush with

one hand to support herself. Yet while the blood was gone from her face, there had formed in the hollows

And, true enough, the child was sound asleep, though to my eyes he looked much as any other baby might

have done, save that the couch of autumn leaves on which he was ensconced consisted of leaves of a kind

"Oh, no," she replied with a shake of her head on its sinuous neck; "for I must be collecting my things before

Yes, she was to journey in the company of the Mother of God. So no more on the point required to be said.

Glancing again at the tiny, inchoate face under the bushes, her eyes diffused rays of warm and kindly light as,

licking her lips, she, with a slow movement, smoothed the breast of the little one.

Then I arranged sticks for a fire, and also adjusted stones to support the kettle.

"They have not deserted me. It was I that left them of my own accord. How could I have exposed myself in

And with a glance at me she raised a hand to her face as, spitting a gout of blood, she smiled a sort of bashful

Upon this she inclined her head towards her little son and listened for a moment to his breathing. Then she

"I too should like to have a wash, but I do not know what the water is like. What is it? Brackish or salt?"

"Yes, really. Moreover, it is warmer than the water of the streams hereabouts, which is as cold as ice."

Here a shaggyeared pony, all skin and bone, was seen approaching us at a foot's pace. Trembling, and

drooping its head, it scanned us, as it drew level, with a round black eye, and snorted. Upon that, its rider

pushed back a ragged fur cap, glanced warily in our direction, and again sank his head.

"The folk of these parts are ugly to look at," softly commented the woman from Orlov.

Then I departed in quest of water. After I had washed my face and hands I filled the kettle from a stream

bright and lively as quicksilver (a stream presenting, as the autumn leaves tossed in the eddies which went

leaping and singing over the stones, a truly enchanting spectacle), and, returning, and peeping through the

bushes, perceived the woman to be crawling on hands and knees over the stones, and anxiously peering

"What is it? " I inquired, and thereupon, turning grey in the face with confusion she hastened to conceal some

article under her person, although I had already guessed the nature of the article.

"How so? For, as a matter of fact, it ought to be buried under the floor in front of some stove."

"Ah, I was jesting. But really, I would rather not have it buried here, lest some wild beast should come and

That said, she, with averted eyes, handed me a moist and heavy bundle; and as she did so she said under her

"I beg of you for Christ's sake to bury it as well, as deeply, as you can. Out of pity for my son do as I bid

I did as she had requested; and, just as the task had been completed, I perceived her returning from the

margin of the sea with unsteady gait, and an arm stretched out before her, and a petticoat soaked to the

middle with the sea water. Yet all her face was alight with inward fire, and as I helped her to regain the spot

where I had prepared some sticks I could not help reflecting with some astonishment:

"Dear me! Well, your face is familiar to me. Yes, I remember that I noticed you in Sukhum when once you

were arguing with the barraque superintendent over the question of rations. As I did so the thought occurred

to me: 'Surely that bold young fellow must have gone and spent his means on drink? Yes, that is how it must

Then, as from her swollen lips she licked a drop of honey, she again bent her blue eyes in the direction of the

"You have helped me, and I thank you. Yes, my thanks are yours, though I cannot tell whether or not your

And, drinking the rest of her tea, she ate a morsel of bread, then made the sign of the cross. And

subsequently, as I was putting up my things, she continued to rock herself to and fro, to give little starts and

cries, and to gaze thoughtfully at the ground with eyes which had now regained their original colour. At last

And, after a contest for the honour, she yielded, and we walked away side by side.

"I only wish I were a little steadier on my feet," she remarked with an apologetic smile as she laid a hand

Meanwhile, the new citizen of Russia, the little human being of an unknown future, was snoring soundly in

my arms as the sea plashed and murmured, and threw off its white shavings, and the bushes whispered

In calm content it was that we walked; save that now and then the mother would halt, draw a deep breath,

raise her head, scan the sea and the forest and the hills, and peer into her son's face. And as she did so, even

the mist begotten of tears of suffering could not dim the wonderful brilliancy and clearness of her eyes. For

"O God, O Mother of God, how good it all is! Would that for ever I could walk thus, yes, walk and walk unto

the very end of the world! All that I should need would be that thou, my son, my darling son, shouldst, borne

On a frozen river near a certain Russian town, a gang of seven carpenters were hastily repairing an icebreaker

That year spring happened to be late in arriving, and youthful March looked more like October, and only at

noon, and that not on every day, did the pale, wintry sun show himself in the overcast heavens, or,

glimmering in blue spaces between clouds, contemplate the earth with a squinting, malevolent eye.

The day in question was the Friday in Holy Week, and, as night drew on, drippings were becoming congealed

into icicles half an arshin long, and in the snowstripped ice of the river only the dun hue of the wintry clouds

As the carpenters worked there kept mournfully, insistently echoing from the town the coppery note of bells;

and at intervals heads would raise themselves, and blue eyes would gleam thoughtfully through the same grey

fog in which the town lay enveloped, and an axe uplifted would hover a moment in the air as though fearing

Scattered over the spacious rivertrack were dark pine branches, projecting obliquely from the ice, to mark

paths, open spaces, and cracks on the surface; and where they reared themselves aloft, these branches looked

From the river came a whiff of gloom and depression. Covered over with sodden slush, it stretched with

irksome rigidity towards the misty quarter whence blew a languid, sluggish, damp, cold wind.

Suddenly the foreman, one Ossip, a cleanly built, upright little peasant with a neatly curling, silvery beard,

ruddy cheeks, and a flexible neck, a man everywhere and always in evidence, shouted:

"Inspector," he said, "what are you trying to poke out of the sky with that squat nose of yours? And why are

you here at all? You come from the contractor, you say? from Vasili Sergeitch? Well, well! Then your job

is to hurry us up, to keep barking out,' Mind what you are doing, suchandsuch gang! ' Yet there you

standblinking over your task like an object dried stiff! It's not to blink that you're here, but to play the

watchdog upon us, and to keep an eye open, and your tongue on the wag. So issue your commands, young

"Now, then! No shirking! Is the job going to be finished tonight, or is it not? "

As a matter of fact, he himself was the worst shirker in the artel [Workman's union]. True, he was also a

firstrate hand at his trade, and a man who could work quickly and well and with skill and concentration; but,

unfortunately, he hated putting himself out, and preferred to spend his time spinning arresting yarns. For

instance, on the present occasion he chose the moment when work was proceeding with a swing, when

everyone was busily and silently and wholeheartedly labouring with the object of running the job through to

And though for the first two or three minutes the men appeared not to hear him, and continued their planing

and chopping as before, the moment came when the soft tenor accents caught and held the men's attention, as

they trickled and burbled forth. Then, screwing up his bright eyes with a humorous air, and twisting his curly

beard between his fingers, Ossip gave a complacent click of his tongue, and continued measuredly, and with

"So he seized hold of the tench, and thrust it back into the cave. And as he turned to proceed through the

forest he thought to himself: 'Now I must keep my eyes about me.' And suddenly, from somewhere (no one

Here a tall, lanky Morduine named Leuka, with, as surname, Narodetz, a young fellow whose small eyes

wore always an expression of astonishment, laid aside his axe, and stood gaping.

"And from the cave a deep bass voice replied: 'Elesiaah!' while at the same moment the tench sprang from

Here an old soldier named Saniavin, a morose man, a tippler, and a sufferer from asthma and an inexplicable

All of which inspired Mokei Budirin, a greyheaded muzhik of a cast of countenance canine in the

prominence of his jaws and the recession of his forehead, and taciturn withal, though not otherwise

For never could anything be spoken of that was grim or marvellous or lewd or malicious, but Budirin at once

Presently work again underwent an interruption through the fact that Yakov Boev, a man who possessed both

a stammer and a squint, became similarly filled with a desire to tell us something about a fish. Yet from the

moment that he began his narrative everyone declined to believe it, and laughed at his broken verbiage as,

frequently invoking the Deity, and cursing, and brandishing his awl, and viciously swallowing spittle, he

"Onceonce upon a time there lived a man. Yes, other folk before YOU have believed my tale. Indeed, it is

no more than the truth that I'm going to tell you. Very well! Cackle away, and be damned!"

Here everyone without exception dropped his work to shout with merriment and clap his hands: with the

result that, doffing his cap, and thereby disclosing a silvered, symmetrically shaped head with one bald spot

"Hi, you Budirin! You've had your say, and given us some fun, and there must be no more of it."

"But I had only just begun what I want to say," the old soldier grumbled, spitting upon the palms of his

It is my opinion that in thus hindering the men from work through his taletelling, Ossip had some definite

end in view. I could not say precisely what that end was, but it must have been the object either of cloaking

his own laziness or of giving the men a rest. On the other hand, whenever the contractor was present he,

Ossip, bore himself with humble obsequiousness , and continued to assume a guise of simplicity which none

the less did not prevent him, on the advent of each Saturday, from inducing his employer to bestow a

And though this same Ossip was an artelui, and a director of the artel, his senior comembers bore him no

affection, but, rather, looked upon him as a wag or trifler, and treated him as of no importance. And,

similarly, the younger members of the artel liked well enough to listen to his tales, but declined to take him

seriously, and, in some cases, regarded him with illconcealed, or openly expressed, distrust.

Once the Morduine, a man of education with whom, on occasions, I held discussions on intimate subjects,

"Once a fellow named Mikhailo, a clever fellow who is now dead, insulted Ossip by saying to him: 'Do you

call yourself a man? Why, regarded as a workman, you're as lifeless as a doornail, while, seeing that you

weren't born to be a master, you'll all your life continue chattering in corners, like a plummet swinging at the

My own position among these men was a position of some awkwardness, for, a young fellow of only fifteen,

I had been appointed by the contractor, a distant relative of mine, to the task of superintending the

expenditure of material. That is to say, I had to see to it that the carpenters did not make away with nails, or

dispose of planks in return for drink. Yet all the time my presence was practically useless, seeing that the men

stole nails as though I were not even in existence and strove to show me that among them I was a person too

many, a sheer incubus, and seized every opportunity of giving me covert jogs with a beam, and similarly

This, of course, made my relations with them highly difficult, embarrassing, and irksome; and though

moments occurred when I longed to say something that might ingratiate me, and endeavoured to effect an

advance in that direction, the words always failed me at the necessary juncture, and I found myself lying

Again, if ever I tried to make an entry as to some material which had been used, Ossip would approach me,

"What a nice hand you write!" (He himself could write only in printing fashion, in the large scriptory

"'Good'? But what a slipknot of a thing! And what are those words THERE, on THAT line?"

"Oh! Well, I may tell you that he took the two pieces to the tavern to get drink with."

Then, glancing into my face with his cornflowerblue eyes and quiet, quizzical smile, he would say without

"Put down '6.' And see here, young cockerel. The weather has turned wet and cold, and the work is hard, and

sometimes folk need to have their spirits cheered and raised with a drop of liquor. So don't you be too hard

And as he thus talked to me in his slow and kindly, but semiaffected, fashionbespattering me, as it were,

with wordy sawdustI would suddenly grow blind of an eye and silently show him the corrected figure.

"That's itthat's right. And how fine the figure looks now, as it squats there like a merchant's buxom,

Then he would be seen triumphantly telling his mates of his success; then, I would find myself feeling

acutely conscious of the fact that everyone was despising me for my complacence Yes, grown sick beyond

endurance with a yearning for some thing which it could not descry, my fifteenyearold heart would

dissolve in a flood of mortified tears, and there would pass through my brain the despondent, aching thought:

"Oh, what a sad, uncomfortable world is this! How should Ossip have known so well that I should not

recorrect the 6 into a 5, or that I should not tell the contractor that the men have bartered a plank for liquor?"

Again, there befell an occasion when the men stole two pounds' weight of five vershok mandrels and bolts.

"All right," he agreed with a twitch of his grey eyebrows. "Though what such a trifle can matter I fail to see.

With snarls thereafter, the men eyed me covertly, until I began to feel that very likely I should not do as I had

"But look here," said I to Ossip. "I am going to give the contractor notice, and let all of you go to the devil.

Ossip stroked his beard awhile, and pondered. Then he seated himself beside me, and said in an undertone:

"But things are always so. The truth is that it's time you departed. What sort of a watchman, of a checker, are

you? In jobs of this kind what a man needs to know is the meaning of property. He needs to have in him the

spirit of a dog, so that he shall look after his master's stuff as he would look after the skin which his mother

has put on to his own body. But you, you young puppy, haven't the slightest notion of what property means.

In fact, were anyone to go and tell Vasili Sergeitch about the way in which you keep letting us off, he'd give

it you in the neck. Yes, you're no good to him at all, but just an expense: whereas when a man serves a master

"Smoke this," said he, "and perhaps it'll make your brain work easier. If only you had been of a less awkward,

uncomfortable nature, I should have said to you, 'Go and join the priests; but, as things are, you aren't the

right sort for thatyou're too stiff and unbending, and would never make headway even with an abbot. No,

you're not the sort to play cards with. A monk is like a jackdawhe chatters without knowing what he is

chattering about, and pays no heed to the root of things, so busy is he with stuffing himself full with the grain.

I say this to you with absolute earnestness, for I perceive you to be strange to our waysa cuckoo that has

And, doffing his cap, a gesture which he never failed to execute when he had something particularly

important to say, he added humbly and sonorously as he glanced at the grey firmament:

"In the sight of the Lord our ways are the ways of thieves, and such as will never gain of Him salvation."

"And that is true enough," responded Mokei Budirin after the fashion of a clarionet.

From that time forth, Ossip of the curly, silvered head, bright eyes, and shadowy soul became an object of

agreeable interest for me. Indeed, there grew up between us a species of friendship, even though I could see

that a civil bearing towards me in public was a thing that it hurt him to maintain. At all events, in the presence

of others he avoided my glance, and his eyes, clear, unsullied, and fight blue in tint, wavered unsteadily, and

his lips twitched and assumed an artificially unpleasant expression, while he uttered some such speech as:

"Hi, you Makarei, see that you keep your eyes open, and cam your pay, or that pig of a soldier will be making

But at other times, when we were alone together, he would speak to me kindly and instructively, while his

eyes would dance and gleam with a faint, grave, knowing smile, and dart blue rays direct into mine, while for

my part, as I listened to his words, I took every one of them to be absolutely true and balanced, despite their

"Yes, of course," assented Ossip, though the next moment he veiled his eyes with a smile, and added in an

undertone: "But what do you understand by the term 'good'? In my opinion, unless virtue be to their

advantage, folk spit upon that 'goodness,' that 'honourableness,' of yours. Hence, the better plan is to pay folk

court, and be civil to them, and flatter and cajole every mother's son of them. Yes, do that, and your

'goodness' will have a chance of bringing you in some return. Not that I do not say that to be 'good,' to be able

to look your own ugly jowl in the face in a mirror, is pleasant enough; but, as I see the matter, it is all one to

other people whether you be a cardsharper or a priest so long as you're polite, and let down your neighbours

For my part I never, at that period, grew weary of watching my fellows, for it was my constant idea that some

day one of them would be able to raise me to a higher level, and to bring me to an understanding of this

unintelligible and complicated existence of ours. Hence I kept asking myself the restless, the importunate

Certain souls, I thought, existed which seemed like balls of copper, for, solid and immovable, they reflected

things from their own point of view alone, in a dull and irregular and distorted fashion. And souls, I thought,

existed which seemed as flat as mirrors, and, for all intents and purposes, had no existence at all.

And in every case the human soul seemed formless, like a cloud, and as murkily mutable as an imitation opal,

Only as regarded the soul of the intelligent Ossip was I absolutely at a loss, absolutely unable to reach a

Pondering these and similar matters in my mind, I, on the day of which I speak, stood gazing at the river, and

at the town under the hill, as I listened to the bells. Rearing themselves aloft like the organ pipes in my

favourite PolishRoman Catholic church, the steeples of the town had their crosses dimly sparkling as though

the latter had been stars imprisoned in a murky sky. Yet it was as though those stars hoped eventually to

ascend into the purer firmament above the windtorn clouds that they sparkled; and as I stood watching the

clouds glide onward, and momentarily efface with their shadows, the town's multifarious hues, I marked the

fact that although, whenever darkblue cavities in their substance permitted the beams of the sun to

illuminate the buildings below, those buildings' roofs assumed tints of increased cheerfulness. The clouds

seemed to glide the faster to veil the beams, while the humid shadows grew more opaque and the scene

The buildings of the town (looking like heaps of muddy snow), the black, naked earth around those buildings,

the trees in the gardens, the hummocks of piledup soil, the dull grey glimmer of the window panes of the

housesall these things reminded me of winter, even though the misty breath of the northern spring was

Presently a young fellow with flaxen hair, a pendent underlip, and a tall, ungainly figure, by name Mishuk

And even Boev saw fit to take umbrage at the singing, and, threatening Diatlov with his fist, to rap out:

"What a rude, rough, primitive lot we Russians are!" commented Ossip, seating himself atop of the

icebreaker, and screwing up his eyes to measure its fall. "To speak plainly, we Russians are sheer barbarians.

Once upon a time, I may tell you, an anchorite happened to be on his travels; and as the people came pressing

around him, and kneeling to him, and tearfully beseeching him with the words, 'Oh holy father, intercede for

us with the wolves which are devouring our substance!' he replied: 'Ha! Are you, or are you not, Orthodox

Christians? See that I assign you not to condign perdition!' Yes, angry, in very truth he was. Nay, he even

spat in the people's faces. Yet in reality he was a kindly old man, for his eyes kept shedding tears equally with

Twenty sazheni below the icebreaker was a gang of barefooted sailors, engaged in hacking out the floes from

under their barges; and as they shattered the brittle, greyishblue crust on the river, the mattocks rang out,

and the sharp blades of the icecutters gleamed as they thrust the broken fragments under the surface.

Meanwhile, there could be heard a bubbling of water, and the sound of rivulets trickling down to the sandy

margin of the river. And similarly among our own gang was there audible a scraping of planes, and a

screeching of saws, and a clattering of iron braces as they were driven into the smooth yellow wood, while

through all the web of these sounds there ran the ceaseless song of the bells, a song so softened by distance as

to thrill the soul, much as though dingy, burdensome labour were holding revel in honour of spring, and

calling upon the latter to spread itself over the starved, naked surface of the gradually thawing ground.

And as they made themselves heard, the voices floated up turgidly into the sodden air, spread themselves

Meanwhile our men worked with industry and speed, but not without a fault or two, for their thoughts were

fixed upon the town and its washhouses and churches. And particularly restless was Sashok Diatlov, a man

whose hair, as flaxen as that of his brother, seemed to have been boiled in lye. At intervals, glancing

And, certainly, the ice had "moved" two nights ago, so that since yesterday morning the river watchmen had

refused to permit horsed vehicles to cross, and only a few beadlike pedestrians now were making their way

along the markedout ice paths, while, as they proceeded, one could hear the water slapping against the

"Yes, it IS cracking," at length Mishuk replied with a hoist of his ginger eyebrows.

"Pah! It is the dry squeak of the planes in your own hand that you keep hearing, so go on with your work, you

son of a beldame. And as for you, Inspector, do you help me to speed up the men instead of burying your

By this time there remained only two more hours for work, and the arch of the icebreaker had been wholly

sheathed in buttertinted scantlings, and nothing required to be added to it save the great iron braces.

Unfortunately, Boev and Saniavin, the men who had been engaged upon the task of cutting out the sockets

for the braces, had worked so amiss, and run their lines so straight, that, when it came to the point, the arms

"Oh, you cockeyed fool of a Morduine!" shouted Ossip, smiting his fist against the side of his cap. "Do you

At this juncture there came from somewhere on the bank a seemingly exultant shout of:

And almost at the same moment, there stole over the river a sort of rustle, a sort of quiet crunching which

made the projecting pine branches quiver as though they were trying to catch at something, while,

shouldering their mattocks, the barefooted sailors noisily hastened aboard their barges with the aid of rope

And then curious indeed was it to see how many people suddenly came into view on the riverto see how

they appeared to issue from below the very ice itself, and, hurrying to and fro like jackdaws startled by the

shot of a gun, to dart hither and thither, and to seize up planks and boathooks, and to throw them down again,

"Put the tools together," Ossip shouted. "And look alive there, and make for the bank."

Meanwhile, it was the river rather than the town that seemed to be motionlessthe latter had begun, as it

were, to quiver and reel, and, with the hill above it, to appear to be gliding slowly up stream, even as the grey,

sandy bank some ten sazheni from us was beginning to grow tremulous, and to recede.

"Run, all of you!" shouted Ossip, giving me a violent push as he did so. Then to myself in particular he

This caused a keen sense of danger to strike home in my heart, and to make my feet feel as though already the

ice was escaping their tread. So, automatically picking themselves up, those feet started to bear my body in

the direction of a spot on the sandy bank where the winterstripped branches of a willow tree were writhing,

and whither there were betaking themselves also Boev, the old soldier, Budirin, and the brothers Diatlov.

Meanwhile the Morduine ran by my side, cursing vigorously as he did so, and Ossip followed us, walking

"What cowards you all are! The bank was only fifteen sazheni from us, yet you ran as though possessed!"

"What were you all afraid of? Once upon a time Christ Himself, Our Little Father, died."

"And rose again," muttered the Morduine with a tinge of resentment. Which led Boev to exclaim:

"Besides, this is Good Friday, not Easter Day," the old soldier concluded with severe, didactical mien.

In a gap of blue between the clouds there was shining the March sun, and everywhere the ice was sparkling as

though in derision of ourselves. Shading his eyes, Ossip gazed at the dissolving river, and said:

Upon this the smooth, beardless face of the youthful Morduine, a face dark and angular like the skin of an

unpeeled potato, assumed a resentful frown, and, blinking his eyes, he muttered:

"Yes, here we may have to sithere where there's neither food nor money! Other folk will be enjoying

themselves, but we shall have to remain hugging our hungry stomachs like a pack of dogs! "

Meanwhile Ossip's eyes had remained fixed upon the river, for evidently his thoughts were far away, and it

"Hunger cannot be considered where necessity impels. By the way, what use are our damned icebreakers?

For the protection of barges and such? Why, the ice hasn't the sense to care. It just goes sliding over a barge,

From a barge a knot of sailors shouted something, and at the same moment the river sent forth a sort of whiff

of cruel chilliness and brooding calm. The disposition of the pine boughs now had changed. Nay, everything

in sight was beginning to assume a different air, as though everything were charged with tense expectancy.

"Yes, my lad, for the Lord has seen fit to prevent you from participating in His most holy festival."

And the old soldier, in support of his mate, extended his pipe towards the river, and muttered with a grin:

"You want to cross to the town, do you? Well, be off with you, and though the ice may give way beneath

your feet and drown you, at least you'll be taken to the police station, and so get to your festival. For that's

Then the sun went in, and the river grew darker, while the town stood out more clearly. Ceaselessly, the

younger men gazed towards the town with wistful, gloomy eyes, though silently they remained where they

Similarly, I myself was beginning to find things irksome and uncomfortable, as always happens when a

number of companions are thinking different thoughts, and contain in themselves none of that unity of will

which alone can join men into a direct, uniform force. Rather, I felt as though I could gladly leave my

Suddenly Ossip recovered his faculties. Rising, then doffing his cap and making the sign of the cross in the

direction of the town, he said with a quiet, simple, yet somehow authoritative, air:

Upon which all crowded together, and Boev, thrusting the tools into a hole in the bank, groaned:

"The order 'go' has been given, so go we MUST, well though a man in receipt of such an order might ask

Ossip seemed, in some way, to have grown younger and more active, while the habitually shy, though

goodhumoured, expression of his countenance was gone from his ruddy features, and his darkened eyes had

assumed an air of stern activity. Nay, even his indolent, rolling gait had disappeared, and in his step there was

"Let every man take a plank," he said, "and hold it in front of him. Then, should anyone fall in (which God

forbid!), the plankends will catch upon the ice to either side of him, and hold him up. Also, every man must

avoid cracks in the ice. Yes, and is there a rope handy? Here, Narodetz! Reach me that spiritlevel. Is

everyone ready? I will walk first, and next there must comewell, which is the heaviest?you, soldier, and

then Mokei, and then the Morduine, and then Boev, and then Mishuk, and then Sashok, and then Makarei, the

lightest of all. And do you all take off your caps before starting, and say a prayer to the Mother of God. Ha!

Readily did the men bare their tousled grey or flaxen heads as momentarily the sun glanced through a bank of

thin white vapour before again concealing himself, as though averse to arousing any false hopes.

"Now!" sharply commanded Ossip in his newfound voice. "And may God go with us! Watch my feet, and

don't crowd too much upon one another, but keep each at a sazhen's distance or morein fact, the more the

With which, stuffing his cap into his bosom, and grasping the spiritlevel in his hands, Ossip set foot upon

the ice with a sliding, cautious, shuffling gait. At the same moment, there came from the bank behind us a

"Never mind," said Ossip to ourselves. "Come along with you, and don't stand staring."

"No, no! come on!" was Ossip's countercommand. "And as you move think of God, or you'll never find

"Oh, that's the way, mate! Good! Yes, you know what to do. Now notice will have been given to the police

on the further bank, and, if we're not drowned, we shall find ourselves clapped in gaol when we get there.

In spite of this remonstrance, Ossip's sturdy voice drew his companions after him as though they had been

Our line of march was directed obliquely, and in the opposite direction to the current. Also, I, as the rearmost

of the party, found it pleasant to note how the wary little Ossip of the silvery head went looping over the ice

with the deftness of a hare, and practically no raising of the feet, while behind him there trailed, in

wildgoose fashion, and as though tied to a single invisible string, six dark and undulating figures the

shadows of which kept making themselves visible on the ice, from those figures' feet to points indefinitely

remote. And as we proceeded, all of us kept our heads lowered as though we had been descending from a

Also, though the shouting in our rear kept growing in volume, and we could tell that by this time a crowd had

In time our cautious march became for me a mere, mechanical, wearisome task, for on ordinary occasions it

was my custom to maintain a pace of greater rapidity. Thus, eventually I sank into the semiconscious

condition amid which the soul turns to vacuity, and one no longer thinks of oneself, but, on the contrary

issues from one's personality, and begins to see objects with unwonted clarity, and to hear sounds with

unwonted precision. Under my feet the seams in the bluegrey, leaden ice lay full of water, while as for the

ice itself, it was blinding in its expansive glitter, even though in places it had come to be either cracked or

bulbous, or had ground itself into powder with its own movement, or had become heaped into slushy

hummocks of pumicelike sponginess and the consistency of broken glass. And everywhere around me I

could discern the chilly, gaping smile of blue crevices which caught at my feet, and rendered the tread of my

bootsoles unstable. And ever, as we marched, could the voices of Boev and the old soldier be heard

speaking in antiphony, like two pipes being fluted by one and the same pair of lips.

"The only reason why I have come is that I was told to do so. That's all about it."

"One man gives an order, and another man, perhaps a man a thousand times more sensible than he, is forced

"Is any man, in these days, sensible, seeing what a racket we have to live among?"

By this time Ossip had tucked the skirts of his greatcoat into his belt, while beneath those skirts his legs (clad

in grey cloth gaiters of a military pattern) were shuffling along as lightly and easily as springs, and in a

manner that suggested that there was turning and twisting in front of him some person whom, though

desirous of barring to him the direct course, the shortest route, Ossip successfully opposed and evaded by dint

of dodges and deviations to right and left, and occasional turns about, and the execution of dance steps and

loops and semicircles. Meanwhile in the tones of Ossip's voice there was a soft, musical ring that struck

agreeably upon the ear, and harmonised to admiration with the song of the bells just when we were

approaching the middle of the river's breadth of four hundred sazheni. There resounded over the surface of

the ice a vicious rustle ' while a piece of ice slid from under my feet. Stumbling, and powerless to retain my

footing, I blundered down upon my knees in helpless astonishment; and then, as I glanced upstream, fear

gripped at my throat, deprived me of speech, and darkened all my vision. For the whole substance of the grey

icecore had come to life and begun to heave itself upwards! Yes, the hitherto level surface was thrusting

forth sharp angular ridges, and the air seemed full of a strange sound like the trampling of some heavy being

With a quiet trickle there came a swirl of water around me, while an adjacent pine bough cracked and

squeaked as though it too had come to life. My companions shouted, and collected into a knot; whereupon, at

once dominating and quelling the tense, painful hubbub of sounds, there rang forth the voice of Ossip.

"Mother of God!" he shouted. "Scatter, lads! Get away from one another, and keep each to himself! Now!

With that, springing towards us as though wasps had been after him, and grasping the spiritlevel as though it

had been a weapon, he jabbed it to every side, as though fighting invisible foes, while, just as the quivering

town began, seemingly, to glide past us, and the ice at my feet gave a screech and crumbled to fragments

beneath me, so that water bubbled to my knees. I leapt up from where I was, and rushed blindly in Ossip's

"Where are you coming to, fool?" was his shout as he brandished the spiritlevel. "Stand still where you are!"

Indeed, Ossip seemed no longer to be Ossip at all, but a person curiously younger, a person in whom all that

had been familiar in Ossip had become effaced. Yes, the once blue eyes had turned to grey, and the figure

added half an arshin to its stature as, standing as erect as a newly made nail, and pressing both feet together,

the foreman stretched himself to his full height, and shouted with his mouth open to its widest extent:

Then once more he shouted fullthroated words of encouragement to his men; and as he did so, his chest

Yet, crackling and cracking, the ice was breaking up; and soon it began slowly to bear us past the town.

'Twas as though some unknown force ashore had awakened, and was striving to tear the banks of the river in

two, so much did the portion of the landscape downstream seem to be standing still while the portion level

with us seemed to be receding in the opposite direction, and thus causing a break to take place in the middle

And soon this movement, a movement agonisingly slow, deprived me of my sense of being connected with

the rest of the world, until, as the whole receded, despair again gripped my heart and unnerved my limbs.

Roseate clouds were gliding across the sky and causing stray fragments of the ice, which, seemingly, yearned

to engulf me, to assume reflected tints of a similar hue. Yes, it was as though the birth of spring had

reawakened the universe, and was causing it to stretch itself, and to emit deep, hurried, broken pants that

cracked its bones as the river, embedded in the earth's stout framework, revivified the whole with thick,

And this sense of littleness, of impotence amid the calm, assured movement of the earth's vast bulk, weighed

upon my soul, and evoked, and momentarily fanned to flame in me, the shameless human question: "What if

I should stretch forth my hand and lay it upon the hill and the banks of the river, and say, 'Halt until I come to

Meanwhile the bells continued the mournful moaning of their resonant, coppery notes; and that moaning led

me to reflect that within two days (on the night of the morrow) they would be pealing a joyous welcome to

Before my vision there kept quavering seven dark figuresfigures shuffling over the ice, and brandishing

planks like oars. And, wriggling like a lamprey in front of them was a little old fellow, an old fellow

resembling Saint Nicholas the WonderWorker, an old fellow who kept crying softly, but authoritatively:

And ever the river was growing rougher and ruder; ever its backbone was beginning to puiver and flounder

like a whale underfoot, with its liquescent body of cold, grey, murky water bursting with increasing

Yes, we were human beings traversing, as it were, a slender pole over a bottomless abyss; and as we walked,

the water's soft, cantabile splash set me in mind of the depths below, of the infinite time during which a body

would continue sinking through dense, chilly bulk until sight faded and the heart stopped beating. Yes, before

my mind's eye there arose men drowned and devoured by crayfish, men with crumbling skulls and swollen

features, and glassy, bulging eyes and puffy hands and outstretched fingers and palms of which the skin had

The first to fall in was Mokei Budirin. He had been walking next ahead of the Morduine, and, as a man

habitually silent and absorbed, proceeding on his way more quietly than the rest. Suddenly something had

seemed to catch at his legs, and he had disappeared until only his head and his hands, as the latter clutched at

"Run and help him, somebody!" was Ossip's instant cry. "Yes, but not all of youjust one or two. Help him

And, sure enough, he did succeed in drawing himself out on to the ice without assistance. Whereafter he

And, in fact, at the moment he looked, with his chattering teeth and great tongue licking a dripping

Then I remembered how, a month earlier, he had accidentally driven the blade of his axe through the joint of

his left thumb, and, merely picking up the white fragment of flesh with the nail turning blue, and scanning it

with his unfathomable eyes, had remarked, as though it was he himself that had been at fault:

"How often before I have injured that thumb, I could not say. And when once I dislocated it, I went on

With which, carefully wrapping up the fragment in some shavings, he had thrust the whole into his pocket,

Similarly, after that, did Boev, the man next in order behind Mokei, contrive to wrest himself from the grasp

of the ice, though, on immersion, he started bawling, "Mates, I shall drown! I am dead already! Help me, help

me!" and became so cramped with terror as to be extricated only with great difficulty, while amid the general

"A narrow shave of saying Vespers tonight with the devils in Hell!" he remarked as he clambered back, and

The next moment Boev achieved a second plunge, and screamed, as before, for help.

"Don't shout, you goat of a Yashka!" Ossip exclaimed as he threatened him with the spiritlevel. "Why scare

people? I'll give it you! Look here, lads. Let every man take off his belt and turn out his pockets. Then he'll

Toothed jaws gaped and crunched at us at every step, and vomited thick spittle; at every tenth step their keen

blue fangs reached for our lives. Meanwhile, the soaked condition of our boots and clothes had rendered us as

slimy as though smeared with paste. Also, it so weighed us down as to hinder any active movement, and to

cause each step to be taken cautiously, slowly, silently, and with ponderous diffidence.

Yet, soaked though we were, Ossip might verily have known the number of cracks in advance, so smooth and

harelike was his progress from floe to floe as at intervals he faced about, watched us, and cried sonorously:

Yes, he absolutely played with the river, and though it kept catching at his diminutive form, he always evaded

it, circumvented its movements, and avoided its snares. Nay, capable even of directing its trend did he seem,

"Ah, that brave Ossip!" the Morduine once ejaculated. "In very truth is he a man, and no mistake! Just look at

The closer we approached the further shore, the thinner and the more brittle did the ice become, and the more

liable we to break through it. By this time the town had nearly passed us, and we were bidding fair to be

carried out into the Volga, where the ice would still be sound, and, as likely as not, draw us under itself.

"By your leave, we are going to be drowned," the Morduine murmured as he glanced at the blue shadow of

And simultaneously, as though compassionating our lot, a large floe grounded upon the bank, glided upwards

"Run, all of you!" came a furious shout from Ossip. "Hurry up, now! Put your very best legs foremost!"

For myself, as I sprang upon the floe I lost my footing, and, falling headlong and remaining seated on the

hither end of the floe amid a shower of spray, saw five of my seven comrades rush past, pushing and jostling,

as they made for the shore. But presently the Morduine turned and halted beside me, with the intention of

Somehow in his face there was now a livid, uncertain air, while his eyes had lost their fire, and his mouth was

"Unfortunately, I have hurt my leg," he replied with his head bent down. "In fact, I am not sure that I can get

However, we contrived to raise him and carry him ashore with an arm of his resting on each of our necks.

"Aha, you river devils! Drown me if you can! But I've not given you a chance, the Lord be thanked! Hi, look

out! The ice won't bear the three of us. Mind how you step, and choose places where the ice is bare of snow.

That very moment, as we stepped from the stranded floe (in grounding, it had crushed and shattered a small

boat), such part of it as lay in the water gave a loud crack, and, swaying to and fro, and emitting a gurgling

"Ah!" was the Morduine's quizzical comment. "YOU knew well enough what needed to be done."

Wet, and chilled to the bone, though relieved in spirit, we stepped ashore to find a crowd of townspeople in

conversation with Boev and the old soldier. And as we deposited our charge under the lea of a pile of logs he

"Mates, Makarei's notebook is done for, soaked through!" And since the notebook in question was weighing

upon my breast like a brick, I pulled it out unseen, and hurled it far into the river with a plop like that of a

As for the Diatlovs, they lost no time in setting out in search of vodka in the tavern on the hill, and slapped

one another on the back as they ran, and could be heard shouting, "Hurrah, hurrah!"

Upon this, a tall old man with the beard of an apostle and the eyes of a brigand muttered:

"Besides," put in the old soldier, " even though we are Christians like yourself, we might as well have been

Meanwhile Ossip had remained lying on the ground with one leg stretched out at full length, and tremulous

"Holy Mother, how wet I am! My clothes, though I have only worn them a year, are ruined for ever!"

Moreover, he seemed now to have shrunken again in statureto have become crumpled up like a man run

over. Indeed, as he lay he seemed actually to be melting, so continuously was his bulk decreasing in size.

But suddenly he raised himself to a sitting posture, groaned, and exclaimed in highpitched, wrathful accents:

"May the devil take you all! Be off with you to your washhouses and churches! Yes, be off, for it seems that,

as God couldn't keep His holy festival without you, I've had to stand within an ace of death and to spoil my

Nevertheless, the men merely continued taking off their boots, and wringing out their clothes, and conversing

"What are you thinking of, you fools? The washhouse is the best place for you, for if the police get you,

"Aye," put in Budirin quietly, but incisively. And him the Morduine supported by saying in a sullen

"Yes, you started all this business," the old soldier corroborated, in dour, ponderous accents.

"How can you say such a thing? Well, let him not try to shift the responsibility on to othersthat's all!

To this Ossip made no reply, but gazed frowningly at his dripping, halfclad men.

All at once, with a curious outburst of mingled smiles and tears (it would be hard to say which), he shrugged

Ossip turned his eyes again to where the river was seething like a bowl of porridge, and, letting his eyes fall

"In a moment of forgetfulness I did it. Yet how is it that we were not all drowned? Well, you wouldn't

understand even if I were to tell you. No, by God, you wouldn't! . . . Don't be angry with me, mates. Pardon

me for the festival's sake, for I am feeling uneasy of mind. Yes, I it was that egged you on to cross the river,

"Aha!" exclaimed Boev. "But, had I been drowned, what should you have said THEN?"

In fact, by this time Ossip seemed conscious to the full of the futility and the senselessness of what he had

done: and in his state of sliminess, as he sat nodding his head, picking at the sand, looking at no one, and

emitting a torrent of remorseful words, he reminded me strongly of a newborn calf.

"Where now is the leader of men who could draw his fellows in his train with so much care and skill and

And into my soul there trickled an uneasy sense of something lacking. Seating myself beside Ossip (for I

desired still to retain a measure of my late impression of him), I said to him in an undertone:

The summit of the hill which lay crouching, like a great beast, on the brink of the river was standing out

clearly against the fast darkening sky; while a clump of trees thereon had grown black, and everywhere blue

shadows of the spring eventide were coming into view, and looming between the housetops where the houses

lay pressed like scabs against the hill's opaque surface, and peering from the moist, red jaws of the ravine

which, gaping towards the river, seemed as though it were stretching forth for a draught of water.

Also, by now the rustling and crunching of the ice on the similarly darkening river was beginning to assume a

deeper note, and at times a floe would thrust one of its extremities into the bank as a pig thrusts its snout into

the earth, and there remain motionless before once more beginning to sway, tearing itself free, and floating

And ever more and more swiftly was the water rising, and washing away soil from the bank, and spreading a

thick sediment over the dark blue surface of the river. And as it did so, there resounded in the air a strange

noise as of chewing and champing, a noise as though some huge wild animal were masticating, and licking

And still there continued to come from the town the melancholy, distancesoftened, sweettoned song of the

Presently, the brothers Diatlov appeared descending from the hill with bottles in their hands, and sporting like

a couple of joyous puppies, while to intercept them there could be seen advancing along the bank of the river

As for the townsfolk, they had no love for the police, so hastened to withdraw to a little distance, where they

silently awaited the officers' approach. Before long the sergeant, a little, withered sort of a fellow with

diminutive features and a sandy, stubby moustache, called out in gruff, stern, hoarse, laboured accents:

"It was I that contrived the idea of the thing, your Excellency; but, pray let me off in honour of the festival."

"What do you say, you?" the sergeant began, but his bluster was lost amid the swift flow of Ossip's further

"We are folk of this town," Ossip continued, "who tonight found ourselves stranded on the further bank, with

nothing to buy bread with, even though the day after tomorrow will be Christ's day, the day when Christians

like ourselves wish to clean themselves up a little, and to go to church. So I said to my mates, 'Be off with

you, my good fellows, and may God send that no mishap befall you!' And for this presumptuousness of mine

I have been punished already, for, as you can see, have as good as broken my leg."

"Yes," ejaculated the sergeant grimly. "But if you had been drowned, what then?"

"What then, do you say, your Excellency? Why, then, nothing, with your permission."

This led the officer to start railing at the culprit, while the crowd listened as silently and attentively as though

he had been saying something worthy to be heard and heeded, rather than foully and cynically miscalling

Lastly, our names having been noted, the police withdrew, while each of us drank a dram of vodka (and

thereby gained a measure of warmth and comfort), and then began to make for our several homes. Ossip

followed the police with derisive eyes; whereafter, he leapt to his feet with a nimble, adroit movement, and

"What?" sniggered Boev, now both disillusioned and astonished. "Do you really mean to say that that leg of

"Now," commanded Ossip, "do all of you be off, mates." And with that he pulled his wet cap on to his head.

I accompanied himwalking a little behind the rest. As he limped along, he said in an undertonesaid

"Whatsoever one may do, and whithersoever one may turn, one will find that life cannot be lived without a

measure of fraud and deceit. For that is what life IS, Makarei, the devil fly away with it! . . . I suppose you're

Darkness had fallen, but at a certain spot some red and yellow lamps, lamps the beams of which seemed to be

Meanwhile, as we proceeded in the direction of the bells that were ringing on the hill, rivulets of water

flowed with a murmur under our feet, and Ossip's kindly voice kept mingling with their sound.

"See," he continued, "how easily I befooled that sergeant! That is how things have to be done, Makareione

has to keep folk from knowing one's business, yet to make them think that they are the chief persons

Yet as I listened to his speech, while supporting his steps, I could make little of it.

Nor did I care to make very much of it, for I was of a simple and easygoing nature. And though at the

moment I could not have told whether I really liked Ossip, I would still have followed his lead in any

directionyes, even across the river again, though the ice had been giving way beneath me.

And as we proceeded, and the bells echoed and reechoed, I thought to myself with a spasm of joy:

The place where I first saw him was a tavern wherein, ensconced in the chimneycorner, and facing a table,

he was exclaiming stutteringly, "Oh, I know the truth about you all! Yes, I know the truth about you!" while

standing in a semicircle in front of him, and unconsciously rendering him more and more excited with their

sarcastic interpolations, were some tradesmen of the superior sortfive in number. One of them remarked

"How should you NOT know the truth about us, seeing that you do nothing but slander us?"

Shabby, in fact in rags, Gubin at that moment reminded me of a homeless dog which, having strayed into a

strange street, has found itself held up by a band of dogs of superior strength, and, seized with nervousness, is

sitting back on its haunches and sweeping the dust with its tail; and, with growls, and occasional barings of

its fangs, and sundry barkings, attempting now to intimidate its adversaries, and now to conciliate them.

Meanwhile, having perceived the stranger's helplessness and insignificance, the native pack is beginning to

moderate its attitude, in the conviction that, though continued maintenance of dignity is imperative, it is not

worthwhile to pick a quarrel so long as an occasional yelp be vented in the stranger's face.

I had long since grown familiar with tavern disputes concerning verities, and not infrequently seen those

disputes develop into open brawls; but never had I permitted myself to be drawn into their toils, or to be set

wandering amid their tangles like a blind man negotiating a number of hillocks. Moreover, just before this

encounter with Gubin, I had arrived at a dim surmise that when such differences were carried to the point of

madness and bloodshed. Really,they constituted an expression of the unmeaning, hopeless, melancholy life

that is lived in the wilder and more remote districts of Russiaof the life that is lived on swampy banks of

dingy rivers, and in our smaller and more Godforgotten towns. For it would seem that in such places men

have nothing to look for, nor any knowledge of how to look for anything; wherefore, they brawl and shout in

I myself was sitting near Gubin, but on the other side of the table. Yet, this was not because his outbursts and

the tradesmen's retorts thereto were a pleasure to listen to, since to me both the one and the other seemed

The windows of the tavern were open, while in the pendent, undulating cloud of blue smoke that the flames

of the lamps emitted, those lamps looked like so many yellow pitchers floating amid the waters of a stagnant

pond. Out of doors there was brooding the quiet of an August night, and not a rustle, not a whisper was there

to be heard. Hence, as numbed with melancholy, I gazed at the inky heavens and limpid stars I thought to

"Surely, never were the sky and the stars meant to look down upon a life like this, a life like this?"

Suddenly someone said with the subdued assurance of a person reading aloud from a written document:

"Unless the peasants of Kubarovo keep a watch upon their timber lands, the sun will fire them tomorrow, and

For a moment the dispute died down. Then, as it were cleaving the silence, a voice said stutteringly:

And the words heavy, jumbled, and clumsy filled me with despondent reflections. Then again the

voices rosethis time in louder and more venomous accents, and with their din recalled to me, by some

Presently I moved outside and, seating myself on the steps of the veranda, fell to contemplating the dull,

blurred windows of the Archpriest's house on the other side of the square, and to watching how black

shadows kept flitting to and fro behind their panes as the faint, lugubrious notes of a guitar made themselves

heard. And a highpitched, irritable voice kept repeating at intervals: "Allow me. Pray, permit me to speak,"

and being answered by a voice which intermittently shot into the silence, as into a bottomless sack, the

Surrounded by the darkness, the houses looked stunted like gravestones, with a line of black trees above their

roofs that loomed shadowy and cloudlike. Only in the furthest corner of the expanse was the light of a

solitary street lamp bearing a resemblance to the disk of a stationary, resplendent dandelion.

Over everything was melancholy. Far from inviting was the general outlook. So much was this the case that,

had, at that moment, anyone stolen upon me from behind the bushes and dealt me a sudden blow on the head,

I should merely have sunk to earth without attempting to see who my assailant had been.

Often, in those days, was I in this mood, for it clave to me as faithfully as a dognever did it wholly leave

"It was for men like THOSE that this fair earth of ours was bestowed upon us!" I thought to myself.

Suddenly, with a clatter, someone ran out of the door of the tavern, slid down the steps, fell headlong at their

foot, quickly regained his equilibrium, and disappeared in the darkness after exclaiming in a threatening

Whereafter two figures that also appeared in the doorway said as they stood talking to one another:

Presently, slinging my wallet upon my back, I pursued my onward way along a street that was fenced on

either side with a tall palisade. As I proceeded, long grasses kept catching at my feet and rustling drily. And

so warm was the night as to render the payment of a lodging fee superfluous; and the more so since in the

neighbourhood of the cemetery, where an advanced guard of young pines had pushed forward to the cemetery

wall and littered the sandy ground, with a carpet of red, dry cones, there were sleepingplaces prepared in

"Who is that? Who is it?" asked the hoarse, nervous voice of Gubin in dissipation of the deathlike stillness.

Which said, he and I fell into step with one another. As we proceeded he inquired whence I had come, and

why I was still abroad. Whereafter he extended to me, as to an old acquaintance, the invitation:

"Will you come and sleep at my place? My house is near here, and as for work, I will find you a job

tomorrow. In fact, as it happens, I am needing a man to help me clean out a well at the Birkins' place. Will

the job suit you? Very well, then. Always I like to settle things overnight, as it is at night that I can best see

The "house" turned out to be nothing more than an old oneeyed, hunchbacked washhouse or shanty which,

bulging of wall, stood wedged against the clayey slope of a ravine as though it would fain bury itself amid the

Without striking a light, Gubin flung himself upon some mouldy hay that littered a threshold as narrow as the

"I will sleep with my head towards the door, for the atmosphere here is a trifle confined."

And, true enough, the place reeked of elderberries, soap, burnt stuff, and decayed leaves. I could not conceive

The twisted branches of the neighbouring trees hung motionless athwart the sky, and concealed from view the

golden dust of the Milky Way, while across the Oka an owl kept screeching, and the strange, arresting

"Do not be surprised that I should live in a remote ravine," he said. "I, whose hand is against every man, can

Too dark was it for me to see my host's face, but my memory recalled his bald cranium, and the yellow light

of the lamps falling upon a nose as long as a woodpecker's beak, a pair of grey and stubbly cheeks, a pair of

thin lips covered by a bristling moustache, a mouth sharpcut as with a knife, and full of black, evillooking

stumps, a pair of pointed, sensitive, mouselike ears, and a cleanshaven chin. The last feature in no way

consorted with his visage, or with his whole appearance; but at least it rendered him worthy of remark, and

enabled one to realise that one had to deal with neither a peasant nor a soldier nor a tradesman, but with a

man peculiar to himself. Also, his frame was lanky, with long arms and legs, and pointed knees and elbows.

In fact, so like a piece of string was his body that to twist it round and round, or even to tie it into a knot,

For awhile I found his speech difficult to follow; wherefore, silently I gazed at the sky, where the stars

"Both Peter the Great and Nicholas I were wiser than you, for they ordained that whosoever should be

bearded should have his nose slit, and be fined a hundred roubles. Did you ever hear of that? "

His manner of speaking was too rapid to be articulate, and, in leaving his mouth, his words caused his lips to

bare stumps and gums amid which they lost their way, became disintegrated, and issued, as it were, in an

"Everyone," he continued, "knows that life is lived more easily with a beard than without one, since with a

beard lies are more easily toldthey can be told, and then hidden in the masses of hair. Hence we ought to

go through life with our faces naked, since such faces render untruthfulness more difficult, and prevent their

"What about women? Well, women can always lie to their husbands successfully, but not to all the town, to

all the world, to folk in general. Moreover, since a woman's real business in life is the same as that of the hen,

to rear young, what can it matter if she DOES cackle a few falsehoods, provided that she be neither a priest

nor a mayor nor a tchinovnik, and does not possess any authority, and cannot establish laws? For the really

important point is that the law itself should not lie, but ever uphold truth pure and simple. Long has the

The door of the shanty was standing open, and amid the outer darkness, as in a church, the trees looked like

pillars, and the white stems of the birches like silver candelabra tipped with a thousand lights, or dimlyseen

choristers with faces showing pale above sacramental vestments of black. All my soul was full of a sort of

painful restlessness. It was a feeling as though I should live to rise and go forth into the darkness, and offer

battle to the terrors of the night; yet ever, as my companion's torrential speech caught and held my attention,

"My father was a man of no little originality and character," he went on. "Wherefore, none of the townsfolk

liked him. By the age of twenty he had risen to be an alderman, yet never to the end could get the better of

folk's stubbornness and stupidity, even though he made it his custom to treat all and sundry to food and drink,

and to reason with them. No, not even at the last did he attain his due. People feared him because he

revolutionised everything, revolutionised it down to the very roots; the truth being that he had grasped the

one essential fact that law and order must be driven, like nails, into the people's very vitals."

Mice squeaked under the floor, and on the further side of the Oka an owl screeched, while amid the

pitchblack heavens I could see a number of blotches intermittently lightening to an elusive red and blurring

"It was one o'clock in the morning when my father died," Gubin continued." And upon myself, who was

seventeen and had just finished my course at the municipal school of Riazan, there devolved, naturally

enough, all the enmity that my father had incurred during his lifetime. 'He is just like his sire,' folk said. Also,

I was alone, absolutely alone, in the world, since my mother had lost her reason two years before my father's

death, and passed away in a frenzy. However, I had an uncle, a retired unterofficier who was both a

sluggard, a tippler, and a hero (a hero because he had had his eyes shot out at Plevna, and his left arm injured

in a manner which had induced paralysis, and his breast adorned with the military cross and a set of medals).

And sometimes, this uncle of mine would rally me on my learning. For instance, 'Scholar,' he would say,

'what does "tiversia " mean?' 'No such word exists,' would be my reply, and thereupon he would seize me by

the hair, for he was rather an awkward person to deal with. Another factor as concerned making me ashamed

of my scholarship was the ignorance of the townspeople in general, and in the end I became the common butt,

So greatly did these recollections move Gubin that he rose and transferred his position to the door of the hut,

where, a dark blur against the square of blue, he lit a gurgling pipe, and puffed thereat until his long, conical

"At twenty I married an orphan, and when she fell ill and died childless I found myself alone once more, and

without an adviser or a friend. However, still I continued both to live and to look about me. And in time, I

"Everything in life. For life is mere folly, mere fatuous nonsense. The truth is that our dogs do not bark

always at the right moment. For instance, when I said to folk, 'How would it be if we were to open a technical

school for girls?' They merely laughed and replied, 'Trade workers are hopeless drunkards. Already have we

enough of them. Besides, hitherto women have contrived to get on WITHOUT education.' And when next I

conceived a scheme for instituting a match factory, it befell that the factory was burnt down during its first

year of existence, and I found myself once more at a loose end. Next a certain woman got hold of me, and I

flitted about her like a martin around a belfry, and so lost my head as to live life as though I were not on earth

at allfor three years I did not know even what I was doing, and only when I recovered my senses did I

perceive myself to be a pauper, and my all, every single thing that I had possessed, to have passed into HER

white hands. Yes, at twentyeight I found myself a beggar. Yet I have never wholly regretted the fact, for

certainly for a time I lived life as few men ever live it. 'Take my alltake it!' I used to say to her. And, truly

enough, I should never have done much good with my father's fortune, whereas shewell, so it befell.

Somehow I think that in those days my opinions must have been different from nownow that I have lost

everything. . . . Yet the woman used to say, 'You have NOT lost everything,' and she had wit enough to fit out

"The wife of a merchant. Whenever she unrobed and said, 'Come! What is this body of mine worth?' I used to

make reply, 'A price that is beyond compute.' . . . So within three years everything that I possessed vanished

like smoke. Sometimes, of course, folk laughed at and jibed at me; nor did I ever refute them. But now that I

have come to have a better understanding of life's affairs, I see that life is not wholly lived as it should be. For

that matter, too, I do not hold my tongue on the subject, for that is not my waystill left to me I have a

tongue and my soul. The same reason accounts for the fact that no one likes me, and that by everyone I am

Without answering me at once, Gubin sucked at his pipe until his nose made a glowing red blur in the

"How life ought to be lived no one could say exactly. And this though I have given much thought to the

I found it no difficult matter to form a mental picture of the desolate existence which this man must be

leadingthis man whom all his fellows both derided and shunned. For at that time I too was bidding fair to

The truth is that of futile people Russia is overfull. Many such I myself have known, and always they have

attracted me as strongly and mysteriously as a magnet. Always they have struck me more favourably than the

provincialminded majority who live for food and work alone, and put away from them all that could

conceivably render their breadwinning difficult, or prevent them from snatching bread out of the hands of

their weaker neighbours. For most such folk are gloomy and selfcontained, with hearts that have turned to

wood, and an outlook that ever reverts to the past; unless, indeed, they be folk of spurious good nature, an

addition to talkativeness, and an apparent bonhomie which veils a frigid, grey interior, and conveys an

Always, in the end, I have detected in such folk something wintry, something that makes them seem, as it

were, to be spending spring and summer in expectation solely of the winter season, with its long nights, and

Yet seldom among this distasteful and wearisome crowd of wintry folk is there to be encountered a man who

has altogether proved a failure. But if he has done so, he will be found to be a man whose nature is of a more

thoughtful, a more truly existent, a more clearsighted cast than that of his fellowsa man who at least can

look beyond the boundaries of the trite and commonplace, and whose mentality has a greater capacity for

attaining spiritual fulfilment, and is more desirous of doing so, than the mentality of his compeers. That is to

say, in such a man one can always detect a striving for space, as a man who, loving light, carries light in

Unfortunately, all too often is that light only the fugitive phosphorescence of putrefaction; wherefore as one

contemplates him one soon begins to realise with bitterness and vexation and disappointment that he is but a

sluggard, but a braggart, but one who is petty and weak and blinded with conceit and distorted with envy, but

one between whose word and whose deed there gapes a disparity even wider and deeper than the disparity

which divides the word from the deed of the man of winter, of the man who, though he be as tardy as a snail,

at least is making some way in the world, in contradistinction from the failure who revolves ever in a single

Hence, as I listened to Gubin, there recurred to me more than one instance of his type.

"Yes, I have succeeded in observing life throughout," he muttered drowsily as his head sank slowly upon his

And sleep overtook myself with similar suddenness. Apparently that slumber was of a few minutes' duration

And as his bluishgrey eyes peered into my face, somehow I derived from their mournful expression a sense

of intellectuality. Beneath the hair on his hollow cheeks were reddish veins, while similar veins, bluish in tint,

covered with a network his temples, and his bare arms had the appearance of being made of tanned leather.

Dawn had not yet broken when we rose and proceeded through the slumbering streets beneath a sky that was

"Five days now has the forest been on fire," observed Gubin. "Yet the fools cannot succeed in putting it out."

Presently the establishment of the merchants Birkin lay before us, an establishment of curious aspect, since it

constituted, rather, a conglomeration of appendages to a main building of ground floor and attics, with four

windows facing on to the street, and a series of underpropping annexes. That series extended to the wing, and

was solid and permanent, and bade fair to overflow into the courtyard, and through the entrancegates, and

across the street, and to the very kitchengarden and flowergarden themselves. Also, it seemed to have been

stolen piecemeal from somewhere, and at different periods, and from different localities, and tacked at

haphazard on to the walls of the parent erection. Moreover, all the windows of the latter were small, and in

their green panes, as they confronted the world, there was a timid and suspicious air, while, in particular, the

three windows which faced upon the courtyard had iron bars to them. Lastly, there were posted, sentinellike

"What think you of the place?" Gubin muttered as he peered into the well. "Isn't it a barbarous hole? The

right thing would be to pull it down wholesale, and then rebuild it on larger and less restricted lines. Yet these

For awhile his lips moved as in an incantation. Then he frowned, glanced shrewdly at the structures in

And he pulled a grimace as though he had got the toothache before adding with an air of command:

"Come! I will pump out the water, and YOU shall carry it to the entrancesteps and fill the waterbutts. Here

Whereafter, with a considerable display of strength, he set about his portion of the task, whilst I myself took

pail in hand and advanced towards the steps to find that the waterbutts were so rotten that, instead of

retaining the water, they let it leak out into the courtyard. Gubin said with an oath:

"Fine masters thesemasters who grudge one a groat, and squander a rouble! What if a fire WERE to break

Presently, the proprietors in person issued into the courtyard the stout, bald Peter Birkin, a man whose face

was flushed even to the whites of his shifty eyes, and, close behind him, eke his shadow, Jonah Birkin a

"Good day, dear sir," said Peter Birkin thinly, as with a puffy hand he raised from his head a cloth cap, while

Jonah nodded. And then, with a sidelong glance at myself, asked in a deep bass voice:

Large and important like peacocks, the pair then shuffled across the wet yard, and in so doing, went to much

"Have you noticed that the waterbutts are rotted? Oh, that fine Yakinika! He ought long ago to have been

"The son of his father and mother," Gubin replied quietly, and without so much as a glance at the brothers.

"Well, come along," snuffled Peter with a drawling of his vowels. "It is high time that we were moving. It

And with that they slipslopped across to the entrance gates, while Gubin gazed after them with knitted

brows, and as the brothers were disappearing through the wicket said carelessly:

" The old sheep! They live solely by the wits of their stepmother, and if it were not for her, they would long

ago have come to grief. Yes, she is a woman beyond words clever. Once upon a time there were three

brothersPeter, Alexis, and Jonah; but, unfortunately, Alexis got killed in a brawl. A fine, tall fellow HE

was, whereas these two are a pair of gluttons, like everyone else in this town. Not for nothing do three loaves

Here there stepped on to the veranda a tall, wellgrown young woman in an open pink bodice and a blue skirt

who, shading blue eyes with her hand, scanned the courtyard and the steps, and said with some diffidence:

With a goodhumoured glance in response, and his mouth open, Gubin waved a hand in greeting:

Somehow this made her blush, and cross her arms upon her ample bosom, while her kindly, rounded,

eminently Russian face evinced the ghost of a shy smile. At the same time, it was a face wherein not a single

feature was of a kind to remain fixed in the memory, a face as vacant as though nature had forgotten to stamp

thereon a single wish. Hence, even when the woman smiled there seemed to remain a doubt whether the

Whereafter hesitantly, and with downcast eyes, she essayed to cross the courtyard. As she passed me I caught

Disappearing into the grey mist through a small door with iron staples, she soon reissued thence with a

hencoop, and, seating herself on the steps of the doorway, and setting the coop on her knees, took between

her two large palms some fluttering, chirping, downy, golden chicks, and raised them to her ruddy lips and

And in her voice, somehow, there was a note as of intoxication, of abandonment. Meanwhile dull, reddish

sunbeams were beginning to peer through the fence, and to warm the long, pointed staples with which it was

fastened together. While in a stream of water that was dripping from the eaves, and trickling over the floor of

the court, and around the woman's feet, a single beam was bathing and quivering as though it would fain

effect an advance to the woman's lap and the hencoop, and, with the soft, downy chicks, enjoy the caresses of

Upon that Gubin suddenly desisted from his task of hauling up the bucket, and, as he steadied the rope with

"Nadezhda Ivanovna, you ought indeed to have had some childrensix at the least! "

The rays of the sun were now spreading, smokelike and greyishyellow, over the silver river. Above the

river's calm bed a muslin texture of mist was coiling. Against the nebulous heavens the blue of the forest was

Yet still asleep amid its sheltering halfcircle of forest was the quiet little town of Miamlin, while behind it,

and encompassing it as with a pair of dark wings, the forest in question looked as though it were ruffling its

feathers in preparation for further flight beyond the point where, the peaceful Oka reached, the trees stood

darkening, overshadowing the water's clear depths, and looking at themselves therein.

Yet, though the hour was so early, everything seemed to have about it an air of sadness, a mien as though the

day lacked promise, as though its face were veiled and mournful, as though, not yet come to birth, it

Seating myself by Gubin on some trampled straw in the hut ordinarily used by the watchman of the Birkins'

extensive orchard, I found that, owing to the orchard being set on a hillside, I could see over the tops of the

apple and pear and fig trees, where their tops hung bespangled with dew as with quicksilver, and view the

whole town and its multicoloured churches, yellow, newlypainted prison, and yellowpainted bank.

And while in the town's lurid, foursquare buildings I could trace a certain resemblance to the aces of clubs

stamped upon convicts' backs, in the grey strips of the streets I could trace a certain resemblance to a number

of rents in an old, ragged, faded, dusty coat. Indeed, that morning all comparisons seemed to take on a tinge

of melancholy; the reason being that throughout the previous evening there had been moaning in my soul a

With nothing, however, were the churches of the town of which I am speaking exactly comparable, for many

of them had attained a degree of beauty the contemplation of which caused the town to assume throughout

a different, a more pleasing and seductive, aspect. Thought I to myself: "Would that men had fashioned all

One of the latter, an old, squat edifice the blank windows of which were deeply sunken in the stuccoed walls,

was known as the "Prince's Church," for the reason that it enshrined the remains of a local Prince and his

wife, persons of whom it stood recorded that "they did pass all their lives in kindly, unchanging love." . . .

The following night Gubin and I chanced to see Peter Birkin's tall, pale, timid young wife traverse the garden

on her way to a tryst in the washhouse with her lover, the precentor of the Prince's Church. And as clad in a

simple gown, and barefooted, and having her ample shoulders swathed in an old, gold jacket or shawl of

some sort, she crossed the orchard by a path running between two lines of apple trees; she walked with the

unhasting gait of a cat which is crossing a yard after a shower of rain, and from time to time, whenever a

puddle is encountered, lifts and shakes fastidiously one of its soft paws. Probably, in the woman's case, this

came of the fact that things kept pricking and tickling her soles as she proceeded. Also, her knees, I could see,

were trembling, and her step had in it a certain hesitancy, a certain lack of assurance.

Meanwhile, bending over the garden from the warm night sky, the moon's kindly visage, though on the wane,

was shining brightly; and when the woman emerged from the shadow of the trees I could discern the dark

patches of her eyes, her rounded, halfparted lips, and the thick plait of hair which lay across her bosom.

Also, in the moonlight her bodice had assumed a bluish tinge, so that she looked almost phantasmal; and

when soundlessly, moving as though on air, she stepped back into the shadow of the trees, that shadow

All this happened at midnight, or thereabouts, but neither of us was yet asleep, owing to the fact that Gubin

had been telling me some interesting stories concerning the town and its families and inhabitants. However,

as soon as he descried the woman looming like a ghost, he leapt to his feet in comical terror,then subsided on

to the straw again, contracted his body as though he were in convulsions, and hurriedly made the sign of the

"Phew! The scene seems like a dream. Just in the same way, and in the very same place, did her

motherinlaw, Petrushka's stepmother, use to come and walk. Yes, it was just like this."

Then, rolling over, face downwards, he broke into subdued, malicious chuckles; whereafter, seizing my hand

"I expect Petrushka is asleep, for probably he has taken too much liquor at the Bassanov's smotrini. [A

festival at which a fiance pays his first visit to the house of the parents of his betrothed.] Aye, he will be

asleep. And as for Jonah, HE will have gone to Vaska Klochi. So tonight, until morning, Nadezhda will be

I too had begun to surmise that the woman was come thither for purposes of her own. Yet the scene was

almost dreamlike in its beauty. It thrilled me to the soul to watch how the woman's blue eyes gazed about

hergazed as though she were ardently, caressingly whispering to all living creatures, asleep or awake:

"You must know that she is Petrushka's THIRD wife, a woman whom he took to himself from the family of a

merchant of Murom. Yet the town has it that not only Petrushka, but also Jonah, makes use of herthat she

acts as wife to both brothers, and therefore lacks children. Also has it been said of her that one Trinity Sunday

she was seen by a party of women to misconduct herself in this garden with a police sergeant, and then to sit

on his lap and weep. Yet this last I do not wholly believe, for the sergeant in question is a veteran scarcely

able to put one foot before the other. Also, Jonah, though a brute, lives in abject fear of his stepmother."

Here a wormeaten apple fell to the ground, and the woman paused; whereafter, with head a little raised, she

As for Gubin, he continued, unchecked, though with a trifle less animosity, rather as though he were reading

"See how a man like Peter Birkin may pride himself upon his wealth, and receive honour during his lifetime,

Then he, Gubin, kept silent awhile, and merely breathed heavily, and twisted his body about. But suddenly,

"Fifteen years agono, surely it was longer ago than that? Madame Nadkin, Nadezhda's motherinlaw,

made it her practice to come to this spot to meet her lover. And a fine gallant HE was!"

Somehow, as I watched the woman creeping along, and looking as though she were intending to commit a

theft, or as though she fancied that at any moment she might see the plump brothers Birkin issue from the

courtyard into the garden and come shuffling ponderously over the darkened ground, with ropes and cudgels

grasped in coarse, red hands which knew no pity; somehow, as I watched her, I felt saddened, and paid little

heed to Gubin's whispered remarks, so intently were my eyes fixed upon the granary wall as, after gliding

along it awhile, the woman bent her head and disappeared through the dark blue of the washhouse door. As

"Life is all falsity. Husbands, wives, fathers, childrenall of them practise deceit."

In the east, portions of the sky were turning to light purple, and other portions to a darker hue, while from

time to time I could see, looming black against those portions, coils of smoke the density of which kept being

stabbed with fiery spikes of flame, so that the vague, towering forest looked like a hill on the top of which a

fiery dragon was crawling about, and writhing, and intermittently raising tremulous, scarlet wings, and as

often relapsing into, becoming submerged in, the bank of vapour. And, in contemplating the spectacle, I

seemed actually to be able to hear the cruel, hissing din of combat between red and black, and to see pale,

frightened rabbits scudding from underneath the roots of trees amid showers of sparks, and panting,

halfsuffocated birds fluttering wildly amid the branches as further and further afield, and more and more

triumphantly, the scarlet dragon unfurled its wings, and consumed the darkness, and devoured the

Presently from the dark, blurred doorway in the wall of the washhouse there emerged a dark figure which

went flitting away among the trees, while after it someone called in a sharp, incisive whisper:

And as the woman disappeared from view the other person sauntered across the garden, and scaled the fence

That night I could not sleep, but, until dawn, lay watching the burning forest as gradually the weary moon

declined, and the lamp of Venus, cold and green as an emerald, came into view over the crosses on the

Prince's Church. Indeed was the latter a fitting place for Venus to illumine if really it had been the case that

Gradually, the dew cleared the trees of the night darkness, and caused the damp, grey foliage to smile once

more with aniseed and red raspberry, and to sparkle with the gold of their mildew. Also, there came hovering

about us goldfinches with their little redhooded crests, and fussy tomtits in their cravats of yellow, while a

nimble,dark, blue woodpecker scaled the stem of an apple tree. And everywhere, yellow leaves fluttered to

earth, and, in doing so, so closely resembled birds as to make it not always easy to distinguish whether a leaf

Gubin awoke, sighed, and with his gnarled knuckles gave his puffy eyes a rub. Then he raised himself upon

allfours, and, crawling, much dishevelled with sleep, out of the watchman's hut, snuffed the air (a process in

which his movements approximated comically to those of a keennosed watchdog). Finally he rose to his

feet, and, in the act, shook one of the trees so violently as to cause a bough to shed its burden of ripe fruit, and

disperse the apples hither and thither over the dry surface of the ground, or cause them to bury themselves

among the long grass. Three of the juiciest apples he duly recovered, and, after examination of their exterior,

probed with his teeth, while kicking away from him as many of the remainder as he could descry.

"Oh, so you are NOT asleep?" he countered with a nod of his melonshaped cranium. "As a matter of fact, a

few apples won't be missed, for there are too many of them about. My own father it was that planted the trees

"What about that Nadezhda? Ah, she is a clever woman indeed! Yet I have a surprise in store for her and her

"Because I desire to benefit mankind at large" (this was said didactically, and with a frown). "For, no matter

where I detect evil or underhandedness, it is my duty I feel it to be my duty to expose that evil, and to

lay it bare. There exist people who need to be taught a lesson, and to whom I long to cry: 'Sinners that you

From behind some clouds the sun was rising with a disk as murky and mournful as the face of an ailing child.

It was as though he were feeling conscious that he had done amiss in so long delaying to shed light upon the

world, in so long dallying on his bed of soft clouds amid the smoke of the forest fire. But gradually the

cheering beams suffused the garden throughout, and evoked from the ripening fruit an intoxicating wave of

Simultaneously there rose into the sky, in the wake of the sun, a dense stratum of cloud which, blue and

snowwhite in colour, lay with its soft hummocks reflected in the calm Oka, and so wrought therein a

"Now then, Makar!" was Gubin's command, and once more I posted myself at the bottom of the well. About

three sazheni in depth, and lined with cold, damp mud to above the level of my middle, the orifice was

charged with a stifling odour both of rotten wood and of something more intolerable still. Also, whenever I

had filled the pail with mud, and then emptied it into the bucket and shouted "Right away!" the bucket would

start swinging against my person and bumping it, as unwillingly it went aloft, and thereafter discharge upon

my head and shoulders clots of filth and drippings of watermeanwhile screening, with its circular bottom,

the glowing sun and now scarce visible stars. In passing, the spectacle of those stars' waning both pained and

cheered me, for it meant that for a companion in the firmament they now had the sun. Hence it was until my

neck felt almost fractured, and my spine and the nape of my neck were aching as though clamped in a cast of

plaster of paris, that I kept my eyes turned aloft. Yes, anything to gain a sight of the stars! From them I could

not remove my vision, for they seemed to exhibit the heavens in a new guise, and to convey to me the joyful

Yet though, meanwhile, I tried to ponder on something great, I never failed to find myself cherishing the

absurd, obstinate apprehension that soon the Birkins would leave their beds, enter the courtyard, and have

And throughout there kept descending to me from above the latter's inarticulate, as it were dampsodden,

"Another rat!" I heard him exclaim. "To think that those two fellows, men of money, should neglect for two

whole years to clean out their well! Why, what can the brutes have been drinking meanwhile? Look out

And once more, with a creaking of the pulley, the bucket would descendbumping and thudding against the

lining of the well as it did so, and bespattering afresh my head and shoulders with its filth. Rightly speaking,

"Gee up!" exclaimed Gubin to the old horse which supplied the leverage power for the bucket; whereupon I

seated myself upon the edge of the receptacle and went aloft, where everything was looking so bright and

So now it was Gubin's turn to stand at the bottom of the well. And soon, in addition to the odour of decay,

and a subdued sound of splashing, and the rumblings and bumpings of the iron bucket against its chain, there

And the bucket ascended with, among its contents, a sodden and most ancient hat. With the passage of time

"If I SHOULD find a baby here," next he exclaimed, "I shall report the matter to the police, and get those

Each movement of the leathernhided, walleyed steed which did our bidding was accompanied by a

swishing of a sandy tail which had for its object the brushing away of autumn's harbingers, the bluebottles.

Almost with the tranquil gait of a religious did the animal accomplish its periodical journeys from the wall to

the entrance gates and back again; after which it always heaved a profound sigh, and stood with its bony crest

Presently, from a corner of the yard that lay screened behind some rank, pale, withered, trampled herbage a

door screeched. Into the yard there issued Nadezhda Birkin, carrying a bunch of keys, and followed by a lady

who, elderly and rotund of figure, had a few dark hairs growing on her full and rather haughty upper lip. As

the two walked towards the cellar (Nadezhda being clad only in an underpetticoat, with a chemise

halfcovering her shoulders, and slippers thrust on to bare feet), I perceived from the languor of the younger

"Why do you look at us like that?" her senior inquired of me as she drew level. And as she did so the eyes

that peered at me from above the full and, somehow, displacedlooking cheeks bid in them a dim, misty,

At the door of the cellar Nadezhda handed the keys to her companion, and with a slow step which set her

ample bosom swaying, and increased the disarray of the bodice on her round, but broad, shoulders,

"Please open the guttersluice and let out the water into the street, or the yard will soon be flooded. Oh, the

smell of it! What is that thing there? A rat? Oh batinshka, what a horrible mess!"

Her face had about it a drawn look, and under her eyes there were a pair of dark patches, and in their depths

the dry glitter of a person who has spent a night of waking. True, it was a face still fresh of hue; yet beads of

sweat were standing on the forehead, and her shoulders looked grey and heavyas grey and heavy as

unleavened bread which the fire has coated with a thin crust, yet failed to bake throughout.

"Please, also, open the wicket," she continued. "And, in case a lame old beggarwoman should call, come

and tell me. I am the Nadezhda Ivanovna for whom she will inquire. Do you understand?"

"What did he say?" the woman asked tensely as she raised her dark, thinly pencilled brows, and made as

though to go and lean over the well. Independently of my own volition I forestalled what Gubin might next

"Indeed? " she ejaculated, and drew herself to her full height. Yet in doing so she blushed to her shoulders,

and, clapping plump hands to her bosom, and opening dark eyes to their fullest, said in a hasty and confused

whisper as, again paling and shrinking in stature, she subsided like a piece of pastry that is turning heavy:

"Good Lord! WHAT did he see? . . . If the lame woman should call, you must not admit her. No, tell her that

she will not be wanted, that I cannot, that I must notBut see here. Here is a rouble for you. Oh, good

By this time even louder and more angry exclamations had begun to ascend from Gubin. Yet the only sound

to reach my ears was the woman's muttered whispering, and as I glanced into her face I perceived that its

hitherto highcoloured and rounded contours had fallen in, and turned grey, and that her flushed lips were

trembling to such an extent as almost to prevent the articulation of her words. Lastly, her eyes were frozen

Suddenly she shrugged her shoulders, straightened her form, put away from her the expression of terror, and

And with a swaying step she departeda step so short as almost to convey the impression that her legs were

bound together. Yet while the gait was the gait of a person full of suppressed fury, it was also the gait of a

I hauled him up in a state of cold and wet; whereafter he fell to stamping around the coping of the well,

"What have you been thinking of all this time?" he vociferated. "Why, for ever so long I shouted and shouted

"I have been telling Nadezhda that last night you saw her walking in the garden."

"Wait a moment. I said that it was only in a dream, that you saw her crossing the garden to the washhouse."

Somehow, as, barelegged and dripping with mud, he stood blinking his eyes at me with a most disagreeable

"See here," I remarked, "you have only to go and tell her husband about her for me to go and tell him the

"Why?" cried Gubin, now almost beside himself. Presently, however, he recovered sufficient selfpossession

I explained to him that my sole reason for what I had done had been that I pitied the woman, and feared lest

the brothers Birkin should do an injury to one who at least ought not to be betrayed. Gubin began by

declining to believe me, but eventually, after the matter had been thought out, said:

"Acceptance of money for doing what is right is certainly irregular; but at least is it better than acceptance of

money for conniving at sin. Well, you have spoilt my scheme, young fellow. Hired only to clean out the well,

I would nevertheless have cleaned out the establishment as a whole, and taken pleasure in doing so."

Then once more he relapsed into fury, and muttered as he scurried round and round the well:

"How DARED you poke your nose into other people's affairs? Who are YOU in this establishment?"

The air was hot and arid, yet still the sky was as dull as though coated throughout with the dust of summer,

and, as yet, one could gaze at the sun's purple, rayless orb without blinking, and as easily as one could have

Seated on the fence, a number of rooks were directing intelligent black eyes upon the heaps of mud which lay

around the coping of the well. And from time to time they fluttered their wings impatiently, and cawed.

"I got you some work," Gubin continued in a grumbling tone, "and put heart into you with the prospect of

At this point I caught the sound of a horse trotting towards the entrancegates, and heard someone shout, as

Instantly, frightened by the shout, the rooks took to their wings and flew away. Also, a window sash

squeaked, and the courtyard resounded with sudden bustlethe culinary regions vomiting the elderly lady

and the tousled, halfclad Jonah; and an open window the upper half of the redheaded Peter.

"Men, harness up as quickly as possible!" the latter cried, his voice charged with a plaintive note.

And, indeed, he had hardly spoken before Gubin led out a fat roan pony, and Jonah pulled from a shelter a

The elderly lady then unfastened the gates; whereupon a stunted, oldish muzhik in a red shirt limped into the

Immediately the company pressed around him with groans and ejaculations, and Gubin alone continued to

harness the pony with swift and dexterous handssaying to me through his teeth as he did so, and without

The next person to present herself at the entrance gates was a beggarwoman. Screwing up her eyes in a

"God will give you alms! God will give you alms!" was Nadezhda's reply as, turning pale, she flung out her

arms in the old woman's direction. "You see, a terrible thing has happened our timber lands have caught

Upon that Peter's bulky form (which had entirely filled the window from which it had been leaning),

disappeared with a jerk, and in its stead there came into view the figure of a woman. Said she

"See the visitation with which God has tried us, you men of faint hearts and indolent hands!"

The woman's hair was grey at the temples, and had resting upon it a silken cap which so kept changing colour

in the sunlight as to convey to one. the impression that her head was bonneted with steel, while in her face,

picturesque but dark (seemingly blackened with smoke), there gleamed two pupilless blue eyes of a kind

"Fools," she continued, "how often have I not pointed out to you the necessity of cutting a wider space

From a furrow above the woman's small but prominent nose, a pair of heavy brows extended to temples that

were silvered over. As she spoke there fell a strange silence amid which save for the pony's pawing of the

mire no sound mingled with the sarcastic reproaches of the deep, almost masculine voice.

Gubin finished the harnessingthen said to Jonah in the tone of a superior addressing a servant:

Nevertheless, the Birkins drove out of the yard precisely as they were, while the peasant mounted his

belathered steed and followed them at a trot; and the elderly lady disappeared from the window, leaving its

panes even darker and blacker than they had previously been. Gubin, slipslopping through the puddles with

bare feet, said to me with a sharp glance as he moved to shut the entrance gates:

Whereafter, padding on bare soles, he ascended the steps. Nadezhda, standing at their top, turned away with a

As she pouted her displeasure her round and vacant face looked almost childlike.

Meanwhile the heavens were becoming overspread with dark grey clouds, and presaging a flood of autumn

rain, while from the window near the steps the voice of Peter's motherinlaw was issuing in a steady stream.

At first, however, nothing was distinguishable save a sound like the humming of a spindle.

"It is my mother that is speaking," Nadezhda explained softly. "She'll give it him! Yes, SHE will protect me!"

Yet I scarcely heard Nadezhda's words, so greatly was I feeling struck with the quiet forcefulness, the

"Enough, enough! " said the voice. "Only through lack of occupation have you joined the company of the

Upon this I made a move to approach closer to the window; whereupon Nadezhda whispered:

"Similarly your revolt against mankind has come of idleness, of lack of an interest in life. To you the world

has been wearisome, so, while devising this revolt as a resource, you have excused it on the ground of service

of God and love of equity, while in reality constituting yourself the devil's workman."

"You see, I have made a full confession to her. I went and said to her: 'Mamenka, I have had a misfortune.'

And her only reply as she stroked my hair was, 'Ah, little fool! ' Thus you see that she pities me. And what

makes her care the less that I should stray in that direction is that she yearns for me to bear her a child, a

"An offence is not always an offence of moment, since sometimes a person outgrows the law, and finds it too

restrictive. No one person ought to be rated against another. For whom alone ought we to fear? Only the God

And though in the elderly lady's voice there was weariness and distaste, the words were spoken slowly and

incisively. Upon this Gubin tried to murmur something or another, but again his utterance failed to edge its

"No great achievement is it," she said, "to condemn a fellow creature. For always it is easy to sit in judgment

upon our fellows. And even if a fellow creature be allowed to pursue an evil course unchecked, his offence

may yet prove productive of good. Remember how in every case the Saints reached God. Yet how truly

sanctified, by the time that they did so reach Him, were they? Let this ever be borne in mind, for we are

"In former days, Natalia Vassilievna, you took away from me my substance, you took my all. Also, let me

"Thereafter, I ceased to be able to bear the contemplation of myself; I ceased to consider myself as of any

Then she recollected herself and, clapping her hands to her face, cried through her fingers:

"Oh good Lord! What have I said? No, no, you must not believe these tales. They are only slanders, for she is

"When evil has been done," continued the quiet voice within the window, "it can never be set right by

recounting it to others. He upon whom a burden has been laid should try to bear it. And, should he fail to bear

"But to that which you lost I added movement. Nothing in life is ever lost; it merely passes from one hand to

anotherfrom the unskilled hand to the experienced so that even the bone picked of a dog may ultimately

"Now, depart in peace, and make no further attempt against this woman. Nay, do not even speak ill of her if

you can help it, but consider everything that you saw to have been seen in a dream."

"Ah!" was Gubin's contrite cry. "It shall be as you say. Yet, though I should hate, I could not bear, to grieve

"Nothing; save that of all souls in this world you are, without exception, the best."

"Yakov Petrovitch, in this world you and I might have ended our lives together in honourable partnership.

All became quiet within the window, except that after a prolonged silence there came from the woman a deep

Treading softly, like a cat, Nadezhda darted away towards the steps; whereas I, less fortunate, was caught by

the departing Gubin in the very act of leaving the neighbourhood of the window. Upon that he inflated his

cheeks, ruffled up his sandy hair, turned red in the face like a man who has been through a fight, and cried in

"Hi! What were you doing just now? Longlegged devil that you are, I have no further use for youI do not

At the same moment the dim face, with its great blue eyes, showed itself at the window, and the stem voice

"You must not, if you wish to create a disturbance, do it anywhere but in the street. It must not be created

At this point, the cook rushed out with a toastingfork and militantly ranged herself by Nadezhda's side,

I now prepared to withdraw, but, in doing so, glanced once more at the features of the elderly lady, and saw

that the blue pupils were dilated so as almost to fill the eyes in their entirety, and to leave only a bluish

margin. And strange and painful were those eyeseyes fixed blindly, eyes which seemed to have strayed

from their orbits through yielding to emotion and a consequent overstrain while the apple of the throat had

swelled like the crop of a bird, and the sheen of the silken headdress become as the sheen of metal.

By this time Gubin had penitently subsided, and was exchanging harmless remarks with the cook, while

To which she added an inclination of the head which resembled nothing so much as a hammer which much

The timberbuilt town of Buev, a town which has several times been burnt to the ground, lies huddled upon a

hillock above the river Obericha. Its houses, with their manycoloured shutters, stand so crowded together as

to form around the churches and gloomy law courts a perfect mazethe streets which intersect the dark

masses of houses meandering aimlessly hither and thither, and throwing off alleyways as narrow as sleeves,

and feeling their way along plotfences and warehouse walls, until, viewed from the hillock above, the town

looks as though someone has stirred it up with a stick and dispersed and confused everything that it contains.

Only from the point where Great Zhitnaia Street takes its rise from the river do the stone mansions of the

local merchants (for the most part German colonists) cut a grim, direct line through the packed clusters of

buildings constructed of wood, and skirt the green islands of gardens, and thrust aside the churches;

whereafter, continuing its way through Council Square (still running inexorably straight), the thoroughfare

stretches to, and traverses, a barren plain of scrub, and so reaches the pine plantation belonging to the

Monastery of St. Michael the Archangel where the latter is lurking behind a screen of old red spruces of

which the denseness seems to prop the very heavens, and which on clear, sunny days can be seen rising to

mark the spot whence the monastery's crosses, like the gilded birds of the forest of eternal silence, scintillate

At a distance of some ten houses before Zhitnaia Street debouches upon the plain which I have mentioned

there begin to diverge from the street and to trend towards a ravine, and eventually to lose themselves in the

latter's recesses, the small, squat shanties with one or two windows apiece which constitute the suburb of

Tolmachikha. This suburb, it may be said, had as its original founders the menials of a landowner named

Tolmacheva landowner who, after emancipating his serfs some thirteen years before all serfs were legally

emancipated, [In the year 1861] was, for his action, visited with such bitter revilement that, in dire offence at

the same, he ended by becoming an inmate of the monastery, and there spending ten years under the vow of

silence, until death overtook him amid a peaceful obscurity born of the fact that the authorities had forbidden

It is in the very cots originally apportioned to Tolmachev's menials, at the time, fifty years ago, when those

menials were converted into citizens, that the present inhabitants of the suburb dwell. And never have they

been burnt out of those homes, although the same period has seen all Buev save Zhitnaia Street consumed,

and everywhere that one may delve within the township one will be sure to come across undestroyed

The suburb, as I have said, stands at the hither end and on the sloping side of one of the arms of a deep,

wooded ravine, with its windows facing towards the ravine's yawning mouth, and affording a view direct to

the Mokrie (certain marshes beyond the Obericha) and the swampy forest of firs into which the dim red sun

declines. Further on, the ravine trends across the plain,then bends round towards the western side of the town,

cats away the clayey soil with an appetite which each spring increases, and which, carrying the soil down to

the river, is gradually clogging the river's flow, diverting the muddy water towards the marshes, and

converting those marshes into a lagoon outright. The fissure in question is named " The Great Ravine," and

has its steep flanks so overgrown with chestnuts and laburnums that even in summertime its recesses are cool

and moist, and so serve as a convenient trysting place for the poorer lovers of the suburb and the town, and

witness their tea drinkings and frequently fatal quarrels, as well as being used by the more welltodo for a

Pleasantly singing, there scours the bottom of the ravine the brook known as the Zhandarmski Spring, a

brook celebrated throughout Buev for its crystalcold water, which is so icy of temperature that even on a

burning day it will make the teeth ache. This water the denizens of Tolmachikha account to be their peculiar

property; wherefore they are proud of it, and drink it to the exclusion of any other, and so live to a green old

age which in some cases cannot even reckon its years. And by way of a livelihood, the men of the suburb

indulge in hunting, fishing, fowling, and thieving (not a single artisan proper does the suburb contain, save

the cobbler Gorkova thin, consumptive skeleton of surname Tchulan); while, as regards the women, they,

in winter, sew and make sacks for Zimmel's mill, and pull tow, and in summer they scour the plantation of

the monastery for truffles and other produce, and the forest on the other side of the river for huckleberries.

Also, two of the suburb's women practise as fortune tellers, while two others conduct an easy and highly

The result is that the town, as distinguished from the suburb, believes the men of the latter to be one and all

thieves, and the women and girls of the suburb to be one and all disreputable characters. Hence the town

strives always to restrict and extirpate the suburb, while the suburbans retaliate upon the townsfolk with

robbery and arson and murder, while despising those townsfolk for their parsimony, decorum, and avarice,

So poor, for that matter, is the suburb that never do even beggars resort thither, save when drunk. No, the

only creatures which resort thither are dogs which subsist no one knows how as predatorily they roam from

court to court with tails tucked between their flanks, and bloodless tongues hanging down, and legs ever

prepared, on sighting a human being, to bolt into the ravine, or to let down their owners upon subservient

In short, every cranny of every cot in the place, with the grimy panes of their windows, and their lathed roofs

overgrown with velvety moss, breathes forth the universal, deadly hopelessness induced by Russia's crushing

In the Tolmachikhans' backyards grow only alders, elders, and weeds. Everywhere docks thrust up heads

through cracks in the fences to catch at the legs or the skirts of passersby, while masses of nettles squeeze

their way under fences to sting little children. Apropos, the latter are all thin and hungry, in the highest degree

quarrelsome, and addicted to prolonged lamentation. Also, each spring sees a certain proportion of their

number carried off by diphtheria, while scarlatina and measles are as epidemic among them as is typhoid

Thus the sounds of life most to be heard throughout the suburb are the sounds either of weeping or of mad

cursing. In general, however, life in Tolmachikha is lived quietly and lethargically. So much is this the case

that in spring even the cats forbear to squall save in crushed and subdued accents. The only local person to

sing is Felitzata; and even she does so only when she is drunk. It may be said that Felitzata is a saucy,

cunning procuress, and does her singing in a peculiarly thick and rasping voice which, with many croaks and

hiatuses, necessitates much closing of the eyes, and a great protruding of the apple of the throat. Indeed, it is

only the women of the place who, turbulently quarrelsome and hysterically noisy, spend most of the day in

scouring the streets with skirts tucked up, and never cease begging for pinches of salt or flour or spoonfuls of

oil as they rail and screech at and beat their children, and thrust withered breasts into their babies' mouths,

and rush and fling themselves about, and bawl in a constant endeavour to right their woebegone condition.

Yes, all are dishevelled and dirty, and have wizened, bony faces, and the restless eyes of thieves. Never,

indeed, is a woman plump of figure, save at the period when she is ill, and her eyes are dim, and her gait is

laboured. Yet until they are forty, the majority of the women become pregnant with every winter, and on the

arrival of spring may be seen walking abroad with large stomachs and blue hollows under the eyes. And even

this does not prevent them from working with the same desperate energy as when they are not with child. In

short, the inhabitants of the place resemble needles and threads with which some rough, clumsy, and

impatient hand is for ever trying to darn a ragged cloth which as constantly parts and rends.

The chief person of repute in the suburb is my landlord, one Antipa Vologonova little old man who keeps

Unfortunately, Antipa is a sufferer from a longstanding tendency to rheumatism, which has left him

bowlegged, and has twisted and swollen his fingers to the extent that they will not bend. Hence, he always

keeps his hands tucked into his sleeves, though seemingly he has the less use for them in that, even when he

withdraws them from their shelter, he does so as cautiously as though he were afraid of their becoming

"Neither of those things suits me," he will say, "for my heart is dilated, and might at any moment fail."

As for his face, it has high cheekbones which in places blossom into dark red blotches; an expression as calm

as that of the face of a Khirghiz; a chin whence dangle wisps of mingled grey, red, and flaxen hair of a

perpetually moist appearance; oblique and everchanging eyes which are permanently contracted; a pair of

thick, particoloured eyebrows which cast deep shadows over the eyes; and temples whereon a number of

blue veins struggle with an irregular, sparse coating of bristles. Finally, about his whole personality there is

Also, his gait is irritatingly slow; and the more so owing to his coat, which, of a cut devised by himself,

consists, as it were, of cassock, sarafan [jacket], and waistcoat in one. As often as not he finds the skirts of the

garment cumbering his legs; whereupon he has to stop and give them a kick. And thus it comes about that

"No need for hurry," is his customary remark. "Always, in time, does one win to one's pitch in the

His speech is cast in rounded periods, and displays a great love for ecclesiastical terms. On the occurrence of

one such term, he pauses thereafter as though mentally he were adding to the term a very thick, a very black,

full stop. Yet always he will converse with anyone, and at great lengthhis probable motive being a desire

In his shanty are three windows facing on to the street, and a partitionwall which divides it into two rooms

of unequal size. In the larger room, which contains a Russian stove, he himself lives; in the smaller room I

have my abode. By a passage the two are separated from a storeroom where, closeted behind a door to which

there are a heavy, oldfashioned bolt and many iron and brass screws, Antipa preserves pledges left by his

neighbours, such as samovars, ikons, winter clothing and the like. Of this storeroom he always carries the

great indentated key at the back of the strap which upholds his cloth breeches; and, whenever the police call

to ascertain whether he is harbouring any stolen goods, a long time ensues whilst he is shifting the key round

to his stomach, and again a long time whilst he is unfastening it from the belt. Meanwhile, he says pompously

"Never do I take in goods of that kind. Of the truth of what I say, your honour, you have more than once

Also, whenever Antipa sits down the key rattles against the back or the seat of his chair; whereupon he bends

his arm with difficulty, and feels to see whether or not the key has come unslung. This I know for the reason

that the partitionwall is not so thick but that I can hear his every breath drawn, and divine his every

Of an evening, when the misty sun is slanting across the river towards the auburn belt of pines, and distilling

pink vapours from the sombre vista to be seen through the shaggy mouth of the ravine, Antipa Vologonov

sets out a squat samovar that is dinted of side, and plated with green oxide on handle, turncock, and spout.

At intervals I hear the evening stillness broken by questions put in a tone which implies always an

"He has gone to the spring for water." The answer is given whiningly, and in a thin voice.

Giving a slight cough to clear his throat, the old man begins to sing in a quavering falsetto:

Once a bullet smote my breast, And scarce the pang I felt. But ne'er the pang could be express'd Which love's

As the samovar hisses and bubbles, heavy footsteps resound in the street, and an indistinct voice says:

"The poor man's anger... Minika! Hi, you! Come in here, and I will give you a bit of sugar. How is your

Softly there next presents herself before the window Felitzata, a woman of about forty with a hawklike

gleam in her coldly civil eyes, and a pair of handsome lips compressed into a covert smile. She is well known

throughout the suburb, and once had a son, Nilushka, who was the local " God's fool." Also she has the

reputation of knowing what is correct procedure on all and sundry occasions, as well as of being skilled in

lamentations, funeral rites, and festivities in connection with the musterings of recruits. Lastly she has had a

Her fellow women say of her that her veins contain "a drop of gentle blood"; but probably the statement is

inspired by no more than the fact that she treats everyone with the same cold civility. Nevertheless, there is

something peculiar about her, for her hands are slender and have long fingers, and her head is haughtily

poised, and her voice has a metallic ring, even though the metal has, as it were, grown dull and rusty. Also,

she speaks of everyone, herself included, in the most rough and downright terms, yet terms which are so

simple that, though her talk may be disconcerting to listen to, it could never be called obscene.

For instance, once I overheard Vologonov reproach her for not leading a more becoming life:

"You ought to have more selfrestraint," said he, "seeing that you are a lady, and also your own mistress."

"That is played out, my friend," she replied. "You see, I have had very much to bear, for there was a time

when such hunger used to gnaw at my belly as you would never believe. It was then that my eyes became

dazzled with the tokens of shame. So I took my fill of love, as does every woman. And once a woman has

become a lighto'love she may as well doff her shift altogether, and use the body which God has given her.

And, after all, an independent life is the best life; so I hawk myself about like a pot of beer, and say, 'Drink of

"It makes one feel ashamed to hear such talk," said Vologonov with a sigh. In response she burst out

Until now Antipa had spoken cautiously, and in an undertone, whereas the woman had replied in loud accents

"Will you come in and have some tea? " he said next as he leant out of the window.

Whereafter the pair whispered together awhile. Then Felitzata disappeared as suddenly as she had come,

leaving the old man sitting motionless. At length he heaved a profound sigh, and muttered to himself.

"Into that Eve's ears be there poured the poison of the asp! . . . Yet pardon me, Oh God! Yea, pardon me!"

The words contained not a particle of genuine contrition. Rather, I believe, he uttered them because he had a

weakness not for words which signified anything, but for words which, being out of the way, were not used

Sometimes Vologonov knocks at the partitionwall with a superannuated arshin measure which has only

During the early days of our acquaintanceship he regarded me with marked and constant suspicion. Clearly

he deemed me to be a police detective. But subsequently he took to scanning my face with critical curiosity,

This led him to wag his particoloured beard in token that 'be disagreed with my choice', and to observe:

"The reason why Adam lost Paradise is that he allowed Eve to corrupt him. And never did the Lord permit

him to regain it. For who is worthy to return to the gates of Paradise? Not a single human being."

And, indeed, I found it a waste of time to dispute the matter, for he merely listened to what I had to say, and

then, without an attempt at refutation, repeated in the same tone as before, and exactly in the same words, his

statement that " Adam lost Paradise for the reason that he allowed Eve to corrupt him."

"You are young," once he said, " and therefore a human being bound to find forbidden fruit blocking your

way at every step. This because the human race is a slave to its love of sin, or, in other words, to love of the

Serpent. Yes, woman constitutes the prime impediment to everything in life, as history has many times

affirmed. And first and foremost is she the source of restlessness. 'Charged with poison, the Serpent shall

plunge in thee her fangs.' Which Serpent is, of course, our desire of the flesh, the Serpent at whose instigation

the Greeks razed towns to the ground, and ravaged Troy and Carthagena and Egypt, and the Serpent which

caused an amorous passion for the sister of Alexander Pavlovitch [The Emperor Alexander I] to bring about

Napoleon's invasion of Russia. On the other hand, both the Mohammedan nations and the Jews have from

earliest times grasped the matter aright, and kept their women shut up in their back premises; whereas WE

permit the foulest of profligacy to exist, and walk hand in hand with our women, and allow them to graduate

as female doctors and to pull teeth, and all the rest of it. The truth is that they ought not to be allowed to

advance beyond midwife, since it is woman's business either to serve as a breeding animal or opprobriously

to be called neiskusobrachnaia neviesta [Maid who hast never tasted of marriage.] Yes, woman's business

Near the stove there ticks and clicks on the grimy wall that is papered with "rules and regulations " and sheets

of yellow manuscript the pendulum of a small clock, with, hanging to one of its weights, a hammer and a

horseshoe, and, to the other, a copper pestle. Also, in a corner of the room a number of ikons make a

glittering show with their silver applique and the gilded halos which surmount their figures' black visages,

while a stove with a ponderous grate glowers out of the window at the greenery in Zhitnaia Street and beyond

the ravine (beyond the ravine everything looks bright and beautiful), and the dusty, dimly lighted storeroom

across the passage emits a perennial odour of dried mushroom, tobacco leaves, and hemp oil.

Vologonov stirs his strong, stewed tea with a battered old teaspoon, and says with a sigh as he sips a little:

"All my life I have been engaged in gaining experience so that now I know most things, and ought to be

listened to with attention. Usually folk do so listen to me, but though here and there one may find a living

soul, of the rest it may be said: 'In the House of David shall terrible things come to pass, and fire shall

The words resemble bricks in that they seem, if possible, to increase the height of the walls of strange and

"For example," continues the old man, "why is Mitri Ermolaev Polukonov, our exmayor, lying dead before

his time? Because he conceived a number of arrogant projects. For example, he sent his eldest son to study at

Kazan with the result that during the son's second year at the University he, the son, brought home with

him a curlyheaded Jewess, and said to his father: 'Without this woman I cannot livein her are bound up

my whole soul and strength.' Yes, a pass indeed! And from that day forth nothing but misfortune befell in that

Yashka took to drink, the Jewess gave way to repining, and Mitri had to go perambulating the town with

piteous invitations to 'come and see, my brethren, to what depths I have sunk!' And though, eventually, the

Jewess died of a bloody flux, of a miscarriage, the past was beyond mending, and, while the son went to the

bad, and took to drink for good and all, the father 'fell a victim by night to untimely death.' Yes, the lives of

two folk were thus undone by 'the thornbearing company of Judaea.' Like ourselves, the Hebrew has a

destiny of his own. And destiny cannot be driven out with a stick. Of each of us the destiny is unhasting. It

moves slowly and quietly, and can never be avoided. 'Wait,' it says. ' Seek not to press onward.'"

As he discourses, Vologonov's eyes ceaselessly change colournow turning to a dull grey, and wearing a

tired expression, and now becoming blue, and assuming a mournful air, and now (and most frequently of all)

"Similarly, the Kapustins, once a powerful family, came at length to dustbecame as nothing. It was a family

the members of which were ever in favour of change, and devoted to anything that was new. In fact, they

went and set up a piano! Well, of them only Valentine is still on his legs, and he (he is a doctor of less than

forty years of age) is a hopeless drunkard, and saturated with dropsy, and fallen a prey to asthma, so that his

cancerous eyes protrude horribly. Yes, the Kapustins, like the Polukonovs, may be 'written down as dead.'"

Throughout, Vologonov speaks in a tone of unassailable conviction, in a tone implying that never could

things happen, never could things have happened, otherwise than as he has stated. In fact, in his hands even

the most inexplicable, the most grievous, phenomena of life become such as a law has inevitably decreed.

"And the same thing will befall the Osmukhins," he next remarks. "Let them be a warning to you never to

make friends with Germans, and never to engage in business with them. In Russia any housewife may brew

beer; yet our people will not drink itthey are more used to spirits. Also, Russian folk like to attain their

object in drinking AT ONCE; and a shkalik of vodka will do more to sap wit than five kruzhki of beer. Once

our people liked uniform simplicity; but now they are become like a man who was born blind, and has

suddenly acquired sight. A change indeed! For thirtythree years did Ilya of Murom [Ilya Murometz, the

legendary figure most frequently met with In Russian bilini (folk songs), and probably identical with Elijah

the Prophet, though credited with many of the attributes proper, rather, to the pagan god Perun the

Thunderer.] sit waiting for his end before it came; and all who cannot bide patiently in a state of humility..."

Meanwhile clouds shaped like snowwhite swans are traversing the roseate heavens and disappearing into

space, while below them, on earth, the ravine can be seen spread out like the pelt of a bear which the broad

shoulders of some fabulous giant have sloughed before taking refuge in the marshes and forest. In fact the

landscape reminds me of sundry ancient tales of marvels, as also does Antipa Vologonov, the man who is so

strangely conversant with the shortcomings of human life, and so passionately addicted to discussing them.

For a moment or two he remains silent as sibilantly he purses his lips and drinks some saffroncoloured tea

from the saucer which the splayed fingers of his right hand are balancing on their tips. Whereafter, when his

wet moustache has been dried, his level voice resumes its speech in tones as measured as those of one reading

"Have you noticed a shop in Zhitnaia Street kept by an old man named Asiev? Once that man had ten sons.

Six of them, however, died in infancy. Of the remainder the eldest, a fine singer, was at once extravagant and

a bookworm; wherefore, whilst an officer's servant at Tashkend, he cut the throats of his master and mistress,

and for doing so was executed by shooting. As a matter of fact, the tale has it that he had been making love to

his mistress, and then been thrown over in favour of his master once more. And another son, Grigori, after

being given a high school education at St. Petersburg, became a lunatic. And another, Alexei, entered the

army as a cavalryman, but is now acting as a circus rider, and probably has also become a drunkard. And the

youngest son of all, Nikolai, ran away as a boy, and, eventually arriving in Norway with a precious scheme

for catching fish in the Arctic Ocean, met with failure through the fact that he had overlooked the

circumstance that we Russians have fish of our own and to spare, and had to have his interest assigned by his

father to a local monastery. So much for fish of the Arctic Seas! Yet if Nikolai had only waited, if he had

Here Vologonov lowers his voice, and continues with something of the growl of an angry dog:

"I too have had sons, one of whom was killed at Kushka (a document has certified to that effect), another was

drowned whilst drunk, three more died in infancy, and only two are still alive. Of these last, I know that one

is acting as a waiter in a hotel at Smolensk, while the other, Melenti, was educated for the Church, sent to

study in a seminary, induced to abscond and get into trouble, and eventually dispatched to Siberia. There

now! Yes, the Russian is what might be called a 'lightweighted' individual, an individual who, unless he holds

himself down by the head, is soon carried off by the wind like a chicken's feather for we are too

selfconfident and restless. Before now, I myself have been a gull, a man lacking balance: for never does

Dissertations of the kind drop from the old man like water from a leaky pipe on a cold, blustery day in

autumn. Wagging his grey beard, he talks and talks, until I begin to think that he must be an evil wizard, and

master of this remote, barren, swampy, ravinepitted regionthat he it is who originally planted the town in

this uncomfortable, clayey hollow, and has thrown the houses into heaps, and entangled the streets, and

wantonly created the town's unaccountably rude and rough and deadly existence, and addled men's brains

with disconnected nonsense, and consumed their hearts with a fear of life. Yes, it comes to me that it must be

he who, during the long six months of winter, causes cruel snowstorms from the plain to invade the town, and

with frost compresses the buildings of the town until their rafters crack, and stinging cold brings birds to the

ground. Lastly, I become seized with the idea that it must be he who, almost every summer, envelops the

town in those terrible visitations of heat by night which seem almost to cause the houses to melt.

However, as a rule he maintains complete silence, and merely makes chewing motions with his

strongtoothed jaws as he sits wagging his beard from side to side. At such times there is in his eyes a bluish

fire like the gleam of charcoal, while his crooked fingers writhe like worms, and his outward appearance

For a while he sat clasping his beard, and, with contracted eyes, gazing as at something behind me. Then he

"Someday there will arise a Strange Man who will proclaim to the world the Word to which there never was a

beginning. But to which of us is the hour when that Man will arise known? To none of us.. And to which of

Once upon a time there used to glide past the window of my room the fair, curly, wavering, golden head of

Nilushka the idiot, a lad looking like a thing which the earth has begotten of love. Yes, Nilushka was like an

angel in some sacred picture adorning the southern or the northern gates of an ancient church, as, with his

flushed face smeared with waxsmoke and oil, and his light blue eyes gleaming in a cold, unearthly smile,

and a frame clad in a red smock reaching to below his knees, and the soles of his feet showing black (always

he walked on tiptoe), and his thin calves, as straight and white as the calves of a woman, covered with golden

Sometimes hopping along on one leg, and smiling, and waving his arms, and causing the ample folds and

sleeves of his smock to flutter until he seemed to be moving in the midst of a nimbus, Nilushka would sing in

Meanwhile, he would diffuse a cheering atmosphere of happiness with which no one in the locality had

anything in common. For he was ever a lighthearted, winning, essentially pure innocent of the type which

never fails to evoke goodnatured smiles and kindly emotions. Indeed, as he roamed the streets, the suburb

seemed to live its life with less clamour, to appear more decent of outward guise, since the local folk looked

upon the imbecile with far more indulgence than they did upon their own children; and he was intimate with,

and beloved by, even the worst. Probably the reason for this was that the semblance of flight amid an

atmosphere of golden dust which was his combined with his straight, slender little figure to put all who

beheld him in mind of churches, angels, God, and Paradise. At all events, all viewed him in a manner

A curious fact was the circumstance that whenever Nilushka sighted a stray gleam from a piece of glass, or

the glitter of a morsel of copper in sunlight, he would halt dead where he was , turn grey with the ashiness of

death, lose his smile, and remain dilating to an unnatural extent his clouded and troubled eyes. And so, with

his whole form distorted with horror, and his thin hand crossing himself, and his knees trembling, and his

smock fluttering around his frail wisp of a body, and his features growing stonelike, he would, for an hour or

more, continue to stand, until at length someone laid a hand in his, and led him home.

The tale had it that, in the first instance, born "softheaded," he finally lost his reason, five years before the

period of which I am writing, when a great fire occurred, and that thenceforth anything, save sunlight, that in

any way resembled fire plunged him into this torpor of dumb dread. Naturally the people of the suburb

"There goes God's fool," would be their remark. "It will not be long before he dies and becomes a Saint, and

Yet there were persons who would go so far as to crack rude jests at his expense. For instance, as he would be

skipping along, with his childish voice raised in his little ditty, some idler or another would shout from a

Whereupon the angelfaced imbecile would sink to earth as though his legs had been cut away at the knee

from under him, and he would huddle, frantically clutching his golden head in his permanently soiled hands,

Only then would the person who had given him the fright repent, and say with a laugh:

And, should that person have been asked why he had thus terrified the boy, he would probably have replied:

"Because it is such sport to do so. As a lad who cannot feel things as other human beings do, he inclines folk

As for the omniscient Antipa Vologonov, the following was his frequent comment on Nilushka:

"Christ also had to walk in terror. Christ also was persecuted. Why so? Because ever He endured in rectitude

and strength. Men need to learn what is real and what is unreal. Many are the sins of earth come of the fact

that the seeming is mistaken for the actual, and that men keep pressing forward when they ought to be

Hence Vologonov, like the rest, bestowed much attention upon Nilushka, and frequently held conversations

"Do you now pray to God," he said once as he pointed to heaven with one of his crooked fingers, and with

Whereupon Nilushka glanced fearfully at the mysteriously pointing finger, and, plucking sharply at his

forehead, shoulders, and stomach with two fingers and a thumb, intoned in thin, plaintive accents:

"Ah, well! God will understand. He is the friend of all blessed ones." [Idiots; since persons mentally deficient

Again, great was Nilushka's interest in anything spherical. Also, he had a love for handling the heads of

children; when, softly approaching a group from behind, he would, with his bright, quiet smile, lay slender,

bony fingers upon a closecropped little poll; with the result that the children, not relishing such fingering,

would take alarm at the same, and, bolting to a discreet distance, thence abuse the idiot, put out their tongues

"Nilka, the bottleneck, the neck without a nape to it" [Probably the attractiveness of this formula lay rather

in the rhyming of the Russian words: "Nilka, butilka, bashka bez zatilka!" than in their actual meaning].

Yet their fear of him was in no way reciprocated, nor, for that matter, did they ever assault him, despite the

fact that occasionally they would throw an old boot or a chip of wood in his directionthrow it aimlessly, and

Also, anything circularfor example, a plate or the wheel of a toy, engaged Nilushka's attention and led him

to caress it as eagerly as he did globes and balls. Evidently the rotundity of the object was the point that

excited his interest. And as he turned the object over and over, and felt the flat part of it, he would mutter:

What "the other one " meant I could never divine. Nor could Antipa. Once, drawing the idiot to him, he said:

Troubled and nervous, Nilushka merely muttered some unintelligible reply as his fingers turned and turned

"Ah, he is too foolish to understand," said Vologonov with a sigh as his eyes darkened in meditative fashion.

"Yes, though it may seem foolish to say so," he added, "some people would envy him."

"For more than one reason. To begin with, he lives a life free from carehe is kept comfortably, and even

held in respect. Since no one can properly understand him, and everyone fears him, through a belief that folk

without wit, the 'blessed ones of God,' are more especially the Almighty's favourites than persons possessed

of understanding. Only a very wise man could deal with such a matter, and the less so in that it must be

remembered that more than one 'blessed one' has become a Saint, while some of those possessed of

And, thoughtfully contracting the bushy eyebrows which looked as though they had been taken from the face

of another man, Vologonov thrust his hands up his sleeves, and stood eyeing Nilushka shrewdly with his

Never did Felitzata say for certain who the boy's father had been, but at least it was known to me that in

vague terms she had designated two men as suchthe one a young " survey student," and the other a

merchant by name Viporotkov, a man notorious to the whole town as a most turbulent rake and bully. But

once when she and Antipa and I were seated gossiping at the entrancegates, and I inquired of her whether

Felitzata, as usual, licked her faded, but still comely, lips with the tip of her tongue before she replied:

"Ah!" Vologonov exclaimed with unexpected animation. "That, then, explains things. At all events, we have

Whereafter, he expounded to us at length, and with no sparing of details, the reason why a monk should have

been Nilushka's father rather than either the merchant or the young "survey student." And as Vologonov

proceeded he grew unwontedly enthusiastic, and went so far as to clench his fists until presently he heaved a

sigh, as though mentally hurt, and said frowningly and reproachfully to the woman:

Felitzata looked at the old man with sarcasm and sauciness gleaming in her brown eyes. Suddenly, however,

"Ah, I was goodlooking then, and desired of all. In those days I had both a good heart and a happy nature."

"But the monk may prove to have been an important factor in the question," was Antipa's thoughtful remark.

"Yes, and many another man than he has run after me for his pleasure," continued Felitzata in a tone of

reminiscence. This led Vologonov to cough, rise to his feet, lay his hand upon the woman's claretcoloured

As she complied she smiled and winked at me. And so the pair departedhe shuffling carefully with his

bandy legs, and she watching her steps as though at any moment she might collapse on to her left side.

Thenceforth, Felitzata visited Vologonov almost daily; and once during the time of two hours or so that the

pair were occupied in drinking tea I heard, through the partitionwall, the old man say in vigorous, level,

"These tales and rumours ought not to be dismissed save with caution. At least ought they to be given the

benefit of the doubt. For, though all that he says may SEEM to us unintelligible, there may yet be enshrined

"Yes, a meaning which, eventually, will be vouchsafed to you in a vision. For example, you may one day see

issue from a dense forest a man of God, and hear him cry aloud: Felitzata, Oh servant of God, Oh sinner most

"Be silent! No nonsense! Do you blame yourself rather than sing your own praises. And in that vision you

may hear the man of God cry: 'Felitzata, go you forth and do that which one who shall meet you may request

you to perform!' And, having gone forth, you may find the man of God to be the monk whom we have

Similarly, on another occasion, did I hear Antipa mutter confidentially to his companion:

"The fact that all his sayings are so simple is not a favourable sign. For, you see, they do not harmonise with

the affair in its entiretyin such a connection words should be mysterious, and so, able to be interpreted in

more than one way, seeing that the more meanings words possess, the more are those words respected and

"Why so?" reechoed Vologonov irritably. "Are we not, then, to respect ANYONE or ANYTHING? Only he

is worthy of respect who does not harm his fellows; and of those who do not harm their fellows there are but

few. To this point you must pay attentionyou must teach him words of variable import, words more

"I will repeat to you a few, and every night, when he goes to bed, you shall repeat them to HIM. For example:

'Adom ispolneni, pokaites'[Do ye people who are filled with venom repent]. And mark that the exact words

of the Church be adhered to. For instance, 'Dushenbitzi, pozhaleite Boga, okayannie,' [Murderers of the soul,

accursed ones, repent ye before God.] must be said rather than 'Dushenbitzi, pozhaleite Boga, okayanni,'

since the latter, though the shorter form, is also not the correct one. But perhaps I had better instruct the lad

So from that time onwards Vologonov fell to stopping Nilushka in the street, and repeating to him something

or another in his kindly fashion. Once he even took him by the hand, and, leading him to his room, and giving

"There is no need for that, though presently you shall sing it. For the moment your task is to learn the correct

"O Loord, have mercy!" came in a quiet, thoughtful chant from the idiot. Whereafter he added in the

"Yes, but come, come! " expostulated Vologonov. " What are you blurting out NOW? That much I know

without your telling mealways have I known, little friend, that each of us is hastening towards his death.

"Dogs run like chickens. They run here, in the ravine," continued Nilushka in the murmuring accents of a

"Nevertheless," mused Vologonov, "even that seeming nothing of his may mean something. Yes, there may

lie in it a great deal. Now, say: 'Perdition will arise before him who shall hasten.'"

And with that he fell to pacing the floor with long, thoughtful strides as the idiot's voice cried in quavering

Thus the winsome Nilushka proved indispensable to the foul, mean, unhealthy life of the suburb. Of that life

he coloured and rounded off the senselessness, the ugliness, the superfluity. He resembled an apple hanging

forgotten on a gnarled old wormeaten tree, whence all the fruit and the leaves have fallen until only the

branches wave in the autumn wind. Rather, he resembled a solesurviving picture in the pages of a ragged,

soiled old book which has neither a beginning nor an ending, and therefore can no longer be read, is no

And as smiling his gracious smile, the lad's pathetic, legendary figure flitted past the mouldy buts and

cracked fences and riotous beds of nettles, there would readily recur to the memory, and succeed one another,

visions of some of the finer and more reputable personages of Russian lorethere would file before one's

mental vision, in endless sequence, men whose biographies inform us how, in fear for their souls, they left the

life of the world, and, hieing them to the forests and the caves, abandoned mankind for the wild things of

nature. And at the same time would there recur to one's memory poems concerning the blind and the poorin

particular, the poem concerning Alexei the Man of God, and all the multitude of other fair, but unsubstantial,

forms wherein Russia has embodied her sad and terrified soul, her humble and protesting grief. Yet it was a

Once, forgetting that Nilushka was imbecile, I conceived an irrepressible desire to talk with him, and to read

him good poetry, and to tell him both of the world's youthful hopes and of my own personal thoughts.

The occasion happened on a day when, as I was sitting on the edge of the ravine, and dangling my legs over

the ravine's depths, the lad came floating towards me as though on air. In his hands, with their fingers as

slender as a girl's, he was holding a large leaf; and as he gazed at it the smile of his clear blue eyes was, as it

With a start he raised his head and eyes heavenward. Then timidly he glanced at the blue shadow of the

ravine, and extended to me his leaf, over the veins of which there was crawling a ladybird.

He glanced at the ravine againhis pink nostrils quivering and dilating then sighed as though he was

weary, and in all unconsciousness muttered a foul expression. As he did so I noticed that on the portion of his

neck below his right ear there was a large birthmark, and that, covered with golden down like velvet, and

resembling in shape a bee, it seemed to be endowed with a similitude of life, through the faint beating of a

Presently the ladybird raised her upper wings as though she were preparing for flight; whereupon Nilushka

sought with a finger to detain her, and, in so doing, let fall the leaf, and enabled the insect to detach itself and

fly away at a low level. Upon that, bending forward with arms outstretched, the idiot went softly in pursuit,

much as though he himself were launching his body into leisurely flight, but, when ten paces away, stopped,

raised his face to heaven, and, with arms pendent before him, and the palms of his hands turned outwards as

though resting on something which I could not see, remained fixed and motionless.

From the ravine there were tending upwards towards the sunlight some green sprigs of willow, with dull

yellow flowers and a clump of grey wormwood, while the damp cracks which seamed the clay of the ravine

were lined with round leaves of the "motherstepmother plant," and round about us little birds were hovering,

and from both the bushes and the bed of the ravine there was ascending the moist smell of decay. Yet over

our heads the sky was clear, as the sun, now sole occupant of the heavens, declined slowly in the direction of

the dark marshes across the river; only above the roofs of Zhitnaia Street could there be seen fluttering about

in alarm a flock of snowwhite pigeons, while waving below them was the black besom which had, as it

were, swept them into the air, and from afar one could hear the sound of an angry murmur, the mournful,

Whiningly, like an old man, a child of the suburb was raising its voice in lamentation; and as I listened to the

sound, it put me in mind of a clerk reading Vespers amid the desolation of an empty church. Presently a

brown dog passed us with shaggy head despondently pendent, and eyes as beautiful as those of a drunken

And, to complete the picture, there was standing outlined against the nearest shanty of the suburb, a shanty

which lay at the extreme edge of the ravinethere was standing, face to the sun, and back to the town, as

though preparing for flight, the straight, slender form of the boy who, while alien to all, caressed all with the

eternally incomprehensible smile of his angellike eyes. Yes, that golden birthmark so like a bee I can see to

Two weeks later, on a Sunday at midday, Nilushka passed into the other world. That day, after returning

home from late Mass, and handing to his mother a couple of wafers which had been given him as a mark of

"Mother, please lay out my bed on the chest, for I think that I am going to lie down for the last time."

Yet the words in no way surprised Felitzata, for he had often before remarked, before retiring to rest:

At the same time, whereas, on previous occasions, Nilushka had never gone to sleep without first of all

singing to himself his little song, and then chanting the eternal, universal "Lord, have mercy upon us! " he, on

this occasion, merely folded his hands upon his breast, closed his eyes, and relapsed into slumber.

That day Felitzata had dinner, and then departed on business of her own; and when she returned in the

evening, she was astonished to find that her son was still asleep. Next, on looking closer at him, she perceived

"I looked," she related plaintively to some of the suburban residents who came running to her cot, "and

perceived his little feet to be blue; and since it was only just before Mass that I had washed his hands with

soap, I remarked the more readily that his feet were become less white than his hands. And when I felt one of

On Felitzata's face, as she recounted this, there was manifest a nervous expression. Likewise, her features

were a trifle flushed. Yet gleaming also through the tears in her languorous eyes there was a sense of

"Next," continued she, "I looked closer still, and then fell on my knees before the body, sobbing: 'Oh my

darling, whither art thou fled? Oh God, wherefore hast Thou taken him from me?' "

Here Felitzata inclined her head upon her left shoulder contracted her brows over her mischievous eyes,

Oh, gone is my dove, my radiant moon! O star of mine eyes, thou hast set too soon! In darksome depths thy

light lies drown'd, And time must yet complete its round, And the trump of the Second Advent sound, Ere

For myself, I had, that day, been walking in the forest, until, as I returned, I was brought up short before the

windows of Felitzata's cot by the fact that some of the erstwhile turbulent denizens of the suburb were

whispering softly together as, with an absence of all noise, they took turns to raise themselves on tiptoe, and,

craning their necks, to peer into one of the black windowspaces. Yes, like bees on the step of a hive did they

look, and on the great majority of faces, and in the great majority of eyes, there was quivering an air of tense,

Only Vologonov was nudging Felitzata, and saying to her in a loud, authoritative tone:

"Very ready are you to weep, but I should like first to hear the exact circumstances of the lad's death."

Thus invited, the woman wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her bodice, licked her lips, heaved a prolonged

sigh, and fell to regarding Antipa's red, hardbitten face with the cheerful, unabashed glance of a person who

is under the influence of liquor. From under her white headband there had fallen over her temples and her

right cheek a few wisps of golden hair; and indeed, as she drew herself up, and tossed her head and bosom,

and smoothed out and stretched the creases in her bodice, she looked less than her years. Everyone now fell

to eyeing her in an attentive silence, though not, it would seem, without a touch of envy.

"Well, I cannot answer for anyone else, but at least had he no mark on his body, seeing that when I lifted the

Her tone now had in it a new ring, a ring of increased assurance, and when she had finished she closed her

bright eyes languidly before heaving a soft, as it were, voluptuous, and, withal, very audible sigh.

This led to the putting of a further dozen or so of leading questions; whereafter Antipa, for a while, preserved

a suggestive silence, and the crowd too remained silent, as though it had suddenly been lulled to slumber.

"Friends, we must suppose that God, of His infinite Mercy, has vouchsafed to us here a special visitation, in

that, as all of us have perceived, a lad bereft of wit, the same radiant lad whom all of us have known, has here

abided in the closest of communion with the Blessed Dispenser of life on earth."

Then I moved away, for upon my heart there was pressing a burden of unendurable sorrow, and I was

The back portion of Felitzata's cot stood a little sunken into the ground, so that the front portion had its cold

window panes and raised sash tilted a trifle towards the remote heavens. I bent my head, and entered by the

open door. Near the threshold Nilushka was lying on a narrow chest against the wall. The folds of a darkred

pillow of fustian under the head set off to perfection the pale blue tint of his round, innocent face under its

corona of golden curls; and though the eyes were closed, and the lips pressed tightly together, he still seemed

to be smiling in his old quiet, but joyous, way. In general, the tall, thin figure on the mattress of dark felt,

with its bare legs, and its slender hands and wrists folded across the breast, reminded me less of an angel than

of a certain image of the Holy Child with which a blackened old ikon had rendered me familiar from my

Everything amid the purple gloom was still. Even the flies were forbearing to buzz. Only from the street was

there grating through the shaded window the strong, roguish voice of Felitzata as it traced the strange,

Suddenly I caught sight of Antipa standing in the doorway. He was wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

"It is all very fine for you to weep, good woman, but the present is not the right moment to sing such verses

as thosethey were meant, rather, to be sung in a graveyard at the side of a tomb. Well, tell me everything

Whereafter, having crossed himself with a faltering hand, he carefully scrutinised the corpse, and at last let

"How extraordinarily he has grown! Yes, death has indeed enlarged him! Ah, well, so be it! Soon I too shall

Then with cautious movements of his deformed fingers he straightened the folds of the lad's smock, and drew

it over the legs. Whereafter he pressed his flushed lips to the hem of the garment.

"What is it that you have been wanting of him? Why is it that you have been trying to teach him strange

"What is it that I have been wanting of him?" To the repetition he added with manifest sincerity, though also

"To tell the truth, I scarcely know WHAT it is that I have been wanting of him. By God I do not. Yet, as one

speaking the truth in the presence of death, I say that never during my long lifetime had I so desired aught

else. . . . Yes, I have waited and waited for fortune to reveal it to me; and ever has fortune remained mute and

tongueless. Foolish was it of me to have expected otherwise, to have expected, for instance, that some day

With a short laugh, he indicated the corpse with his eyes, and continued more firmly:

"Yes, bootless was it to have expected anything from such a source as that. Never, despite one's wishes, was

anything possible of acquisition thence. . . This is usually the case. Felitzata, as a clever woman indeed (albeit

one cold of heart), was for having her son accounted a God's fool, and thereby gaining some provision against

"Yes, I DID wish it. Why not, indeed, seeing that at least it would have brought comfort to the poor people of

this place? Sometimes I feel very sorry for them with their bitter, troublous liveslives which may be the

lives of rogues and villains, yet are lives which have produced amongst us a pravednik," [A "just person," a

All the evening sky was now aflame. Upon the ear there fell the mournful lament:

"These are mere accesses of impulse which come upon her. And that is only what might be expected. Even as

in song or in vice there is no holding her, so remorse, when it has fastened upon such a woman's heart, will

know no bounds. I may tell you that on one occasion two young merchants took her, stripped her stark naked,

and drove her in their carriage down Zhitnaia Street, with themselves sitting on the seats of the vehicle, and

Felitzata standing upright between themyes, in a state of nudity! Thereafter they beat her almost to death."

As I stepped out into the dark, narrow vestibule, Antipa, who was following me, muttered:

We found Felitzata in front of the hut, with her back covering the window. There, with hands pressed to her

bosom, and her skirt all awry, she was straining her dishevelled head towards the heavens, while the evening

breeze, stirring her fine auburn hair, scattered it promiscuously over her flushed, sharplydefined features

and wildly protruding eyes. A bizarre, pitiable, and extraordinary figure did she cut as she wailed in a throaty

Before her there was posted a knot of women, compassionate contemplators of the singer's distracted,

griefwrought features. Through the ravine's dark opening I could see the sun sinking below the suburb

before plunging into the marshy forest and having his disk pierced by sharp, black tips of pine trees. Already

everything around him was red. Already, seemingly, he had been wounded, and was bleeding to death.

In a town of the steppes where I found life exceedingly dull, the best and the brightest spot was the cemetery.

Often did I use to walk there, and once it happened that I fell asleep on some thick, rich, sweetsmelling

From that sleep I was awakened with the sound of blows being struck against the ground near my head. The

concussion of them jarred me not a little, as the earth quivered and tinkled like a bell. Raising myself to a

sitting posture, I found sleep still so heavy upon me that at first my eyes remained blinded with unfathomable

darkness, and could not discern what the matter was. The only thing that I could see amid the golden glare of

the June sunlight was a wavering blur which at intervals seemed to adhere to a grey cross, and to make it give

Presently, howeveragainst my wish, indeedthat wavering blur resolved itself into a little, elderly man.

Sharpfeatured, with a thick, silvery tuft of hair beneath his under lip, and a bushy white moustache curled in

military fashion, on his upper, he was using the cross as a means of support as, with his disengaged hand

outstretched, and sawing the air, he dug his foot repeatedly into the ground, and, as he did so, bestowed upon

"A snake," he replied in an educated bass voice, and with a rugged forefinger he pointed downwards;

whereupon I perceived that wriggling on the path at his feet and convulsively whisking its tail, there was an

The old man pushed away the dull, iridescent, ropelike thing with the toe of his boot, raised a straw hat in

The steppe wind was sighing over the tombs, and causing long stems of grass to rock to and fro, and

freighting the heated air with the silken rustling of birches and limes and other trees, and leading one to detect

amid the humming of summer a note of quiet grief eminently calculated to evoke lofty, direct thoughts

Veiling with greenery, grey and white tombstones worn with the snows of winter, crosses streaked with

marks of rain, and the wall with which the graveyard was encircled, the rank vegetation served to also

conceal the propinquity of a slovenly, clamorous town which lay coated with rich, sooty grime amid an

As I set off for a ramble among the tombs and tangled grass, I could discern through openings in the curtain

of verdure a belfry's gilded cross which reared itself solemnly over crosses and memorials. At the foot of

those memorials the sacramental vestment of the cemetery was studded with a kaleidoscopic sheen of flowers

over which bees and wasps were so hovering and humming that the grass's sad, prayerful murmur seemed

charged with a song of life which yet did not hinder reflections on death. Fluttering above me on noiseless

wing were birds the flight of which sometimes made me start, and stand wondering whether the object before

my gaze was really a bird or not: and everywhere the shimmer of gilded sunlight was setting the

closepacked graveyard in a quiver which made the mounds of its tombs reminiscent of a sea when, after a

storm, the wind has fallen, and all the green level is an expanse of smooth, foamless billows.

Beyond the wall of the cemetery the blue void of the firmament was pierced with smoky chimneys of

oilmills and soap factories, the roofs of which showed up like particoloured stains against the darker rags

and tatters of other buildings; while blinking in the sunlight I could discern clatteremitting, windows which

looked to me like watchful eyes. Only on the nearer side of the wall was a sparse strip of turf dotted over with

ragged, withered, tremulous stems, and beyond this, again, lay the site of a burnt building which constituted a

black patch of earthheaps, broken stoves, dull grey ashes, and coal dust. To heaven gaped the black,

noisome mouths of burningpits wherein the more economical citizens were accustomed nightly to get rid of

the contents of their dustbins. Among the tall stems of steppe grass waved large, glossy leaves of ergot; in the

sunlight splinters of broken glass sparkled as though they were laughing; and, from two spots in the dark

brown plot which formed a semicircle around the cemetery, there projected, like teeth, two buildings the new

yellow paint of which nevertheless made them look mean and petty amid the tangle of rubbish, pigweed,

Indolently roaming hither and thither, a few speckled hens resembled female pedlars, and some pompous red

cockerels a troupe of firemen; in the orifices of the burningpits a number of mournfuleyed, homeless dogs

were lying sheltered; among the shoots of the steppe scrub some lean cats were stalking sparrows; and a band

of children who were playing hideandseek among the orifices abovementioned presented, a pitiful sight

as they went skipping over the filthy earth, disappearing in the crevices among the piles of heapedup dirt.

Beyond the site of the burntout building there stretched a series of mean, closepacked huts which,

crammed exclusively with needy folk, stood staring, with their dim, humble eyes of windows, at the

crumbling bricks of the cemetery wall, and the dense mass of trees which that wall enclosed. Here, in one

such hut, had I myself a lodging in a diminutive attic, which not only smelt of lampoil, but stood in a

position to have wafted to it the least gasp or ejaculation on the part of my landlord, Iraklei Virubov, a clerk

in the local treasury. In short, I could never glance out of the window at the cemetery on the other side of the

strip of dead, burnt, polluted earth without reflecting that, by comparison, that cemetery was a place of sheer

And ever, that day, as though he had been following me, could there be sighted among the tombs the dark

figure of the old man who had so abruptly awakened me from slumber; and since his straw hat reflected the

sunlight as brilliantly as the disk of a sunflower as it meandered hither and thither, I, in my turn, found myself

following him, though thinking, all the while, of Iraklei Virubov. Only a week was it since Iraklei's wife, a

thin, shrewish, longnosed woman with green and catlike eyes, had set forth on a pilgrimage to Kiev, and

Iraklei had hastened to import into the hut a stout, squinteyed damsel whom he had introduced to me as his "

"She was baptised Evdokia," he had said on the occasion referred to. "Usually, however, I call her Dikanka.

Pray be friendly with her, but remember, also, that she is not a person with whom to take liberties."

Large, roundshouldered, and cleanshaven like a chef, Virubov was for ever hitching up breeches which

had slipped from a stomach ruined with surfeits of watermelon. And always were his fat lips parted as though

athirst, and perpetually had he in his colourless eyes an expression of insatiable hunger.

"Dikanka, pray come and scratch my back. Yes, between the shoulderblades. Oooh, that is it. My word,

Whereat Dikanka had laughed shrilly. And only when I had moved my chair, and thrown down my book, had

the laughter and unctuous whispering died away, and given place to a whisper of:

"Holy Father Nicholas, pray for us unto God! Is the supper kvas ready, Dikanka?"

And softly the pair had departed to the kitchenthere to grunt and squeal once more like a couple of pigs....

The old man with the grey moustache stepped over the turf with the elastic stride of youth, until at length he

halted before a large monument in drab granite, and stood reading the inscription thereon. Featured not

altogether in accordance with the Russian type, he had on a darkblue jacket, a turneddown collar, and a

black stock finished off with a large bowthe latter contrasting agreeably with the thick, silvery, as it were

molten, chintuft. Also, from the centre of a fierce moustache there projected a long and gristly nose, while

over the grey skin of his cheeks there ran a network of small red veins. In the act of raising his hand to his hat

(presumably for the purpose of saluting the dead), he, after conning the dark letters of the inscription on the

tomb, turned a sidelong eye upon myself; and since I found the fact embarrassing, I frowned, and passed

onward, full, still, of thoughts of the street where I was residing and where I desired to fathom the mean

As usual, the tombs were also being patrolled by Pimesha, otherwise Pimen Krozootov, a bibulous,

brokendown exmerchant who used to spend his time in stumbling and falling about the graves in search of

the supposed restingplace of his wife. Bent of body, Pimesha had a small, birdlike face overgrown with

grey down, the eyes of a sick rabbit, and, in general, the appearance of having undergone a chewing by a set

of sharp teeth. For the past three years he had thus been roaming the cemetery, though his legs were too weak

to support his undersized, shattered body; and whenever he caught his foot he fell, and for long could not rise,

but lay gasping and fumbling among the grass, and rooting it up, and sniffing with a nose as sharp and red as

though the skin had been flayed from it. True, his wife had been buried at Novotchevkassk, a thousand versts

away, but Pimen refused to credit the fact, and always, on being told it, stuttered with much blinking of his

Also, there used to visit the spot, wellnigh daily, a Madame Christoforov, a tall old lady who, wearing black

spectacles and a plain grey, shroudlike dress that was trimmed with black velvet, never failed to have a stick

between her abnormally long fingers. Wizened of face, with cheeks hanging down like bags, and a knot of

grey, rather, greygreen, hair combed over her temples from under a lace scarf, and almost concealing her

ears, this lady pursued her way with deliberation, and entire assurance, and yielded the path to no one whom

she might encounter. I have an idea that there lay buried there a son who had been killed in a roisterers'

Another habitual visitor was thinlegged, shortsighted Aulic Councillor Praotzev, exschoolmaster. With a

book stuffed into the pocket of his canvas peajacket, a white umbrella grasped in his red hand, and a smile

extending to ears as sharp and pointed as a rabbit's, he could, any Sunday after dinner, be seen skipping from

tomb to tomb, with his umbrella brandished like a white flag soliciting terms of peace with death.

And, on returning home before the bell rang for Vespers, he would find that a crowd of boys had collected

outside his garden wall; whereupon, dancing about him like puppies around a stork, they would fall to

"The Councillor, the Councillor! Who was it that fell in love with Madame Sukhinikh, and then fell into the

Losing his temper, and opening a great mouth, until he looked like an old rook which is about to caw, the

Councillor would stamp his foot several times, as though preparing to dance to the boys' shouting, and lower

his head, grasp his umbrella like a bayonet, and charge at the lads with a panting shout of:

As for the Madame Sukhinikh, referred to, she was an old beggarwoman who, the year round, and in all

weathers, sat on a little bench beside the cemetery wicket, and stuck to it like a stone. Her large face, a face

rendered bricklike by years of inebriety, was covered with dark blotches born of frostbite, alcoholic

inflammation, sunburn, and exposure to wind, and her eyes were perpetually in a state of suppuration. Never

did anyone pass her but she proffered a wooden cup in a suppliant hand, and cried hoarsely, rather as though

Once an unexpected storm blew in from the steppes, and brought a downpour which, overtaking the old

woman on her way home, caused her, her sight being poor, to fall into a pond, whence Praotzev attempted to

rescue her, and into which, in the end, he slipped himself. From that day onwards he was twitted on the

Other frequenters of the cemetery I see before medark, silent figures, figures of persons whom still

unsevered cords of memory seemed to have bound to the place for the rest of their lives, and compelled to

wander, like unburied corpses, in quest of suitable tombs. Yes, they were persons whom life had rejected, and

Also, at times there would emerge from the long grass a homeless dog with large, sullen eyes, eyes startling

at once in their intelligence and in their absolute Ishmaelitism until one almost expected to hear issue from

And sometimes the dog would still remain halted in the cemetery as, with tail lowered, it swayed its

shelterless, shaggy head to and fro with an air of profound reflection, while occasionally venting a subdued,

Again, among the dense old lime trees, there would be scurrying an unseen mob of starlings and jackdaws

whose young would, meanwhile, maintain a soft, hungry piping, a sort of gently persuasive, chirruping

chorus; until in autumn, when the wind had stripped bare the boughs, these birds' black nests would come to

look like mouldy, ragswathed heads of human beings which someone had torn from their bodies and flung

into the trees, to hang for ever around the white, sugarloafshaped church of the martyred St. Barbara.

During that autumn season, indeed, everything in the cemetery's vicinity looked sad and tarnished, and the

wind would wail about the place, and sigh like a lover who has been driven mad through bereavement . . . .

Suddenly the old man halted before me on the path, and, sternly extending a hand towards a white stone

"'Under this cross there lies buried the body of the respected citizen and servant of God, Diomid Petrovitch

Whereafter the old man replaced his hat, thrust his hands into the pockets of his peajacket, measured me

with eyes dark in colour, but exceptionally clear for his time of life, and said:

"It would seem that folk could find nothing to say of this man beyond that he was a 'servant of God.' Now,

"Possibly he was an ascetic," was my hazarded conjecture; whereupon the old man rejoined with a stamp of

And with the long, firm stride of a soldier my interlocutor passed onwards towards a more remote portion of

the cemeterymyself walking, this time, beside him. His stature placed his head on a level with my shoulder

only, and caused his straw hat to conceal his features. Hence, since I wished to look at him as he discoursed, I

found myself forced to walk with head bent, as though I had been escorting a woman.

"No, that is not the way to do it," presently he continued in the soft, civil voice of one who has a complaint to

present. "Any such proceeding is merely a mark of barbarismof a complete lack of observation of men and

"Its meaning is death," was my diffident reply, made with a shrug of the shoulders.

A shake of his head disclosed to me a keen, agreeable, finely cut face as he pronounced the following

"'Smertu smert vsekonechnie pogublena bwist.'" [Death hath been for ever overthrown by death."]

Yet it was in silence that we walked the next ten paceshe threading his way along the rough, grassy path at

considerable speed. Suddenly he halted, raised his hat from his head, and proffered me a hand.

"Young man," he said, "let us make one another's better acquaintance. I am Lieutenant Savva Yaloylev

Khorvat, formerly of the State Remount Establishment, subsequently of the Department of Imperial Lands. I

am a man who, after never having been found officially remiss, am living in honourable retirementa man

"ViceGovernor Khorvat of Tambov is my brothera younger brother; he being fiftyfive, and I sixtyone,

His speech was rapid, but as precise as though no mistake was permissible in its delivery.

"Also," he continued, "as a man cognisant of every possible species of cemetery, I am much dissatisfied with

Here he brandished his fist in the air, and described a large arc over the crosses.

So, after that we had seated ourselves on a bench beside a white oratory, and Lieutenant Khorvat had taken

off his hat, and with a blue handkerchief wiped his forehead and the thick silvery hair which bristled from the

"Mark you well the word kladbistche." [The word, though customarily used for cemetery, means, primarily, a

treasurehouse.] Here he nudged me with his elbowcontinuing, thereafter, more softly: "In a kladbisiche

one might reasonably look for kladi, for treasures of intellect and enlightenment. Yet what do we find? Only

that which is offensive and insulting. All of us does it insult, for thereby is an insult paid to all who, in life,

are bearing still their 'cross and burden.' You too will, one day, be insulted by the system, even as shall I. Do

you understand? I repeat, 'their cross and burden'the sense of the words being that, life being hard and

difficult, we ought to honour none but those who STILL are bearing their trials, or bearing trials for you and

Each time that the old man waved his hat in his excitement, its small shadow, birdlike, flew along the

narrow path, and over the cross, and, finally, disappeared in the direction of the town.

Next, distending his ruddy cheeks, twitching his moustache, and regarding me covertly out of boylike eyes,

"Probably you are thinking, 'The man with whom I have to deal is old and halfwitted.' But no, young fellow;

that is not so, for long before YOUR time had I taken the measure of life. Regard these memorials. ARE they

memorials? For what do they commemorate as concerns you and myself? They commemorate, in that

respect, nothing. No, they are not memorials; they are merely passports or testimonials conferred upon itself

by human stupidity. Under a given cross there may lie a Maria, and under another one a Daria, or an Alexei,

or an Evsei, or someone elseall 'servants of God,' but not otherwise particularised. An outrage this, sir! For

in this place folk who have lived their difficult portion of life on earth are seen robbed of that record of their

existences, which ought to have been preserved for your and my instruction. Yes, A DESCRIPTION OF THE

LIFE LIVED BY A MAN is what matters. A tomb might then become even more interesting than a novel.

"It should be easy enough," was his remark. "To begin with, I am NOT a 'servant of God.' Rather, I am a man

intelligently, of set purpose, keeping God's holy commandments so far as lies within my power. And no one,

not even God, has any right to demand of me more than I can give. That is so, is it not?"

"There!" the Lieutenant cried briskly as, cocking his hat, he assumed a still more truculent air. Then,

At this moment, for some reason or another, there occurred to me an incident which involved the figure of

Iraklei Virubov, the figure which had carpet slippers on its ponderous feet, thick lips, a greedy mouth,

deceitful eyes, and a frame so huge and cavernous that the dapper little Lieutenant could have stepped into it

The day had been a Sunday, and the hour eventide. On the burnt plot of ground some broken glass had been

emitting a reddish gleam, shoots of ergot had been diffusing their gloss, children shouting at play, dogs

trotting backwards and forwards, and all things, seemingly, faring well, sunken in the stillness of the portion

of the town adjoining the rolling, vacant steppe, with, above them, only the sky's level, dullblue canopy, and

With Virubov, I had been sitting on a bench near the wicketgate of his hut, as intermittently he had screwed

his lecherous eyes in the direction of the stout, oxeyed lacemaker, Madame Ezhov, who, after disposing of

her form on a bank hardby, had fallen to picking lice out of the curls of her eightyearold Petka

Koshkodav. Presently, as swiftly she had rummaged the boy's hair with fingers grown used to such rapid

movement, she had said to her husband (a dealer in secondhand articles), who had been seated within doors,

"Oh, yes, you baldheaded old devil, you! Of course you got your price. Yees. Then, fool, you ought to

have had a slipper smacked across that Kalmuck snout of yours. Talk of my price, indeed!"

"To grant the serfs emancipation was a sheer mistake. I am a humble enough servant of my country, yet I can

see the truth of what I have stated, since it follows as a matter of course. What ought to have been done is that

all the estates of the landowners should have been conveyed to the Tsar. Beyond a doubt that is so. Then both

the peasantry and the townsfolk, the whole people, in short, would have had but a single landlord. For never

can the people live properly so long as it is ignorant of the point where it stands; and since it loves authority,

it loves to have over it an autocratic force, for its control. Always can it be seen seeking such a force."

Then, bending forward, and infusing into each softly uttered word a perfect lusciousness of falsity, Virubov

"How do I stand free of anything?" the neighbour had retorted, in complete readiness for a quarrel.

"Oh, I am not speaking in your despite, Pavlushka, but to your credit," hastily Virubov had protested.

"Then keep your blandishments for that heifer, your 'niece,'" had been Madame Ezhov's response.

Upon this Virubov had risen heavily, and remarked as he moved away towards the courtyard:

Thereafter had followed a bout of choice abuse between his neighbour and his " niece,"while Virubov

himself, framed in the wicketgate, and listening to the contest, had smacked his lips as he gazed at the pair,

and particularly at Madame Ezhov. At the beginning of the bout Dikanka had screeched:

"Don't treat me to any of YOUR slop!" the longfanged Pavla had interrupted for the benefit of the street in

Lieutenant Khorvat blew the fagend of his cigarette from his mouthpiece, glanced at me, and said with

"You ought not to find that difficult," was his rejoinder as again he doffed his hat, and fanned his face with it.

"The whole thing may be summed up in two words. It is that we lack respect both for ourselves and for our

His eyes had grown once more young and clear, and, seizing my hand in his strong and agreeably warm

"Why so? For the very simple reason that I cannot respect myself when I can learn nothing, simply nothing,

"In this Russia of ours none of us really knows why he has come into existence. True, each of us knows that

he was born, and that he is alive, and that one day he will die; but which of us knows the reason why all that

Through renewed excitement, its colour had come back to the Lieutenant's face, and his gestures became so

rapid as to cause the ring on his finger to flash through the air like the link of a chain. Also, I was able to

detect the fact that on the small, neat wrist under his left cuff, there was a bracelet finished with a medallion.

"All this, my good sir, is because (partially through the fact that men forget the point, and partially through

the fact that that point fails to be understood aright) the WORK done by a man is concealed from our

knowledge. For my own part, I have an idea, a schemeyes, a schemein two words, a, a"

"Nnou, nnou!" the bell of the monastery tolled over the tombs in languid, chilly accents.

"a scheme that every town and every village, in fact, every unit of homogeneous population, should keep a

record of the particular unit's affairs, a, so to speak, 'book of life.' This 'book of life' should be more than a list

of the results of the unit's labour; it should also be a living narrative of the workaday activities accomplished

by each member of the unit. Eh? And, of course, the record to be compiled without official

interferencesolely by the town council or district administration, or by a special 'board, of life and works'

or some such body, provided only that the task be not carried out by nominees of the GOVERNMENT. And

in that record there should be entered everythingthat is to say, everything of a nature which ought to be

made public concerning every man who has lived among us, and has since gone from our midst."

"My right it is," he added, "to know how those folk there spent their lives. For it is by their labours and their

thoughts, and even on the product of their bones, that I myself am now subsisting. You agree, do you not?"

"Ah! You see, do you? Yes, an indispensable point is it, that whatsoever a man may have done, whether good

or evil, should be recorded. For example, suppose he has manufactured a stove specially good for heating

purposes; record the fact. Or suppose he has killed a mad dog; record the fact. Or suppose he has built a

school, or cleansed a dirty street, or been a pioneer in the teaching of sound farming, or striven, by word and

deed, his life long, to combat official irregularities... record the fact. Again, suppose a woman has borne ten,

or fifteen, healthy children; record the fact. Yes, and this last with particular care, since the conferment of

Further, pointing to a grey headstone with a worn inscription, he shouted (or almost did so):

"Under that stone lies buried the body of a man who never in his life loved but one woman, but ONE woman.

Now, THAT is a fact which ought to have been recorded about him for it is not merely a string of names that

is wanted, but a narrative of deeds. Yes, I have not only a desire, but a RIGHT, to know the lives which men

have lived, and the works which they have performed; and whenever a man leaves our midst we ought to

inscribe over his tomb full particulars of the 'cross and burden' which he bore, as particulars ever to be held in

remembrance, and inscribed there both for my benefit and for the benefit of life in general, as constituting a

clear and circumstantial record of the given career. Why did that man live? To the question write down,

This led the Lieutenant's enthusiasm to increase still more as, for the third time waving his hand in the

"The folk of that town are liars pure and simple, for of set purpose they conceal the particulars of careers that

they may depreciate those careers in our eyes, and, while showing us the insignificance of the dead, fill the

living with a sense of similar insignificance, since insignificant folk are the easiest to manage. Yes, it is a

scheme thought out with diabolical ingenuity. Yet, for myselfwell, try and make me do what I don't intend

To which, with his face wrinkled with disgust, he added in a tone like a shot from a pistol:

Curious was it to watch the old man's excitement as one listened to the strong bass voice amid the stillness of

the cemetery. Once more over the tombs, there came floating the languid, metallic notes of " Nnou!

The oily gloss on the withered grass had vanished, faded, and everything turned dull, though the air remained

charged with the spring perfume of the geraniums, stocks, and narcissi which encircled some of the graves.

"You see," continued the Lieutenant, "one could not deny that each of us has his value. By the time that one

has lived threescore years, one perceives that fact very clearly. Never CONCEAL things, since every life

lived ought to be set in the light. And is capable of being so, in that every man is a workman for the world at

large, and constitutes an instructor in good or in evil, and that life, when looked into, constitutes, as a whole,

the sum of all the labour done by the aggregate of us petty, insignificant individuals. That is why we ought

not to hide away a man's work, but to publish it abroad, and to inscribe on the cross over his tomb his deeds,

his services, in their entirety. Yes, however negligible may have been those deeds, those services, hold them

up for the perusal of those who can discover good even in what is negligible. NOW do you understand me?"

The bell of the monastery struck two hasty beatsthen became silent, so that only the sad echo of its voice

remained reverberating over the cemetery. Once more my interlocutor drew out his cigarettecase, silently

offered it to myself, and lighted and puffed industriously at another cigarette. As he did so his hands, as small

and brown as the claws of a bird, shook a little, and his head, bent down, looked like an Easter egg in plush.

Still smoking, he looked me in the eyes with a selfdiffident frown, and muttered:

"Only through the labour of man does the earth attain development. And only by familiarising himself with,

In speaking, the Lieutenant lowered his arm; whereupon on to his wrist there slipped the broad golden

bracelet adorned with a medallion, and there gazed at me thence the miniature of a fairhaired woman: and

since the hand below it was freckled, and its flexible fingers were swollen out of shape, and had lost their

symmetry, the woman's finedrawn face looked the more full of life, and, clearly picked out, could be seen to

"My God! My God!" was, with a subdued sigh, the only response vouchsafed. Then the Lieutenant raised his

Over the town the columns of curling smoke were growing redder, and the clattering windows blushing to a

tint of pink that recalled to my memory the livid cheeks of Virubov's "niece," of the woman in whom, like her

Next, there scaled the cemetery wall and stealthily stretched themselves on the ground, so that they looked

not unlike the farflung shadows of the cemetery's crosses, a file of dark, tattered figures of beggars, while on

the further side of the slowly darkening greenery a cantor drawled in sluggish, careless accents:

"Eternal memory of what?" exclaimed Lieutenant Khorvat with an angry shrug of his shoulders. "Suppose, in

his day, a man has been the best cucumbersalter or mushroompickler in a given town. Or suppose he has

been the best cobbler there, or that once he said something which the street wherein he dwelt can still

remember. Would not THAT man be a man whose record should be preserved, and made accessible to my

And again the Lieutenant's face wreathed itself in solid rings of pungent tobacco smoke.

Blowing softly for a moment, the wind bent the long stems of grass in the direction of the declining sun, and

died away. All that remained audible amid the stillness was the peevish voices of women saying:

Expelling a fresh cloud of tobacco smoke in cylindrical form, the old man muttered:

"It would seem that those women have forgotten the precise spot where their relative or friend happens to lie

As a hawk flew over the sunreddened belfrycross, the bird's shadow glided over a memorial stone near the

spot where we were sitting, glanced off the corner of the stone, and appeared anew beyond it. And in the

"I say that a graveyard ought to evince the victory of life, the triumph of intellect and of labour, rather than

the power of death. However, imagine how things would work out under my scheme. Under it the record of

which I have spoken would constitute a history of a town's life which, if anything, would increase men's

respect for their fellows. Yes, such a history as THAT is what a cemetery ought to be. Otherwise the place is

useless. Similarly will the past prove useless if it can give us nothing. Yet is such a history ever compiled? If

it is, how can one say that events are brought about by, forsooth, 'servants of God'?"

Pointing to the tombs with a gesture as though he were swimming, he paused for a moment or two.

"You are a good man," I said, "and a man who must have lived a good and interesting life."

"At least a man ought to be his fellows' friend, seeing that to them he is beholden for everything that he

Here, with a contraction of his brows, he fell to gazing about him, as though he were seeking the necessary

"Men need to be brought closer together, until life shall have become better adjusted. Never forget those who

are departed, for anything and everything in the life of a 'servant of God' may prove instructive and of

On the white sides of the memorialstones, the setting sun was casting warm lurid reflections, until the

stonework looked as though it had been splashed with hot blood. Moreover, every thing around us seemed

curiously to have swelled and grown larger and softer and less cold of outline; the whole scene, though as

motionless as ever, appeared to have taken on a sort of brightred humidity, and deposited that humidity in

purple, scintillating, quivering dew on the turf's various spikes and tufts. Gradually, also, the shadows were

deepening and lengthening, while on the further side of the cemetery wall a cow lowed at intervals, in a gross

and drunken fashion, and a party of fowls cackled what seemed to be curses in response, and a saw grated

Suddenly the Lieutenant burst into a peal of subdued laughter, and continued to do so until his shoulders

shook. At length he said through the paroxysms, as, giving me a push, he cocked his hat boyishly:

"I must confess that, thatthat the view which I first took of you was rather a tragic one. You see, when I

saw a man lying prone on the grass I said to myself: 'H'm! What is that?' Next I saw a young fellow roaming

about the cemetery with a frown settled on his face, and his breeches bulging; and again I said to myself"

"Ah! Then I understand. Yes, I made a mistake, but a very, welcome one. However, as I say, when I first saw

you, I said to myself: 'There is a man lying near that tomb. Perhaps he has a bullet, a wound, in his temple?'

He stopped to wink at me with another outburst of soft, goodhumoured laughter. Then he continued.

"Nevertheless, the scheme of which I have told you cannot really be called a scheme, since it is merely a

"Unfortunately," he continued at last, "the latter is a desire which I have conceived too late. If only I had done

so fifteen years ago, when I was filling the post of Inspector of the prison at Usman"

His left arm stretched itself out, and once more there slid on to his wrist the bracelet. For a moment he

touched its gold with a rapid, but careful, delicate, movementthen he restored the trinket to its retreat, rose

suddenly, looked about him for a second or two with a frown, and said in dry, brisk tones as he gave his

For a while I accompanied him on his way, for I had a keen desire to hear him say something more in that

pleasant, powerful bass of his; but though he stepped past the gravestones with strides as careful and regular

Just as we passed the chapel of the monastery there floated forth into the fair evening stillness, from the bars,

of a window, while yet not really stirring that stillness, a hum of gruff, lazy, peevish ejaculations. Apparently

they were uttered by two persons who were engaged in a dispute, since one of them muttered:

The water of the river was smooth, and dull silver of tint. Also, so barely perceptible was the current that it

seemed to be almost stagnant under the mist of the noontide heat, and only by the changes in the aspect of the

banks could one realise how quietly and evenly the river was carrying on its surface the old yellowhulled

steamer with the whiterimmed funnel, and also the clumsy barge which was being towed in her wake.

Dreamily did the floats of the paddlewheels slap the water. Under the planks of the deck the engines toiled

without ceasing. Steam hissed and panted. At intervals the engineroom bell jarred upon the car. At intervals,

also, the tillerchains slid to and fro with a dull, rattling sound. Yet, owing to the somnolent stillness settled

Through the dryness of the summer the water was low. Periodically, in the steamer's bow, a deck hand like a

king, a man with a lean,, yellow, blackavised face and a pair of languishing eyes, threw overboard a

Meanwhile, the steamer kept turning her stearletlike [The stearlet is a fish of the salmon species] prow

deliberately and alternately towards either bank as the barge yawed behind her, and the grey hawser kept

tautening and quivering, and sending out showers of gold and silver sparkles. Ever and anon, too, the captain

Under the stem of the barge a wave ran which, divided into a pair of white wings, serpentined away towards

In the meadowed distance peat seemed to be being burnt, and over the black forest there had gathered an

To the right, the bank of the river towered up into lofty, precipitous, clayey slopes intersected with ravines

Everything ashore had about it a restful, sultry, deserted look. Even in the dull blue, torrid sky there was

In endless vista were meadows studded with treestrees sleeping in lonely isolation, and, in places,

surmounted with either the cross of a rural church which looked like a day star or the sails of a windmill;

while further back from the banks lay the tissue cloths of ripening crops, with, here and there, a human

Throughout, the scene was indistinct. Everything in it was calm, touchingly simple, intimate, intelligible,

grateful to the soul. So much so that as one contemplated the slowlyvarying vistas presented by the loftier

bank, the immutable stretches of meadowland, and the green, timbered dancerings where the forest

approached the river, to gaze at itself in the watery mirror, and recede again into the peaceful distance; as one

gazed at all this one could not but reflect that nowhere else could a spot more simply, more kindly, more

Yet already a few shrubs by the river's margin were beginning to display yellow leaves, though the landscape

as a whole was smiling the doubtful, meditative smile of a young bride who, about to bear her first child, is

The hour was past noon, and the thirdclass passengers, languid with fatigue induced by the heat, were

engaged in drinking either tea or beer. Seated mostly on the bulwarks of the steamer, they silently scanned

the banks, while the deck quivered, crockery clattered at the buffet, and the deck hand in the bows sighed

From the engineroom a grimy stoker emerged. Rolling along, and scraping his bare feet audibly against the

deck, he approached the boatswain's cabin, where the said boatswain, a fairhaired, fairbearded man from

Kostroma was standing in the doorway. The senior official contracted his rugged eyes quizzically, and

With a wave of his black hand the stoker resumed his way, while the boatswain, yawning, fell to casting his

eyes about him. On a locker near the companion of the engineroom a small man in a buff peajacket, a new

Through lack of diversion the boatswain began to feel inclined to hector somebody, so cried sternly to the

The man on the locker turned aboutturned nervously, and much as a bullock turns. That is to say, he turned

"Why have you gone and put yourself THERE?" inquired the boatswain. "Though there is a notice to tell you

Rising, the passenger inspected not the notice, but the locker. Then he replied:

"Well, it's hot there anyway, and the smell of oil comes up from the engines. . . . Whence have you come?"

The passenger lowered his head, extended cautiously first one foot, and then the other, scrutinised them both,

With a roar of laughter that caused his brilliant beard to project from his chin, the boatswain retorted:

The passenger said nothing more, but retreated quietly, and with short strides, to the stem. From the fact that

the sleeves of his peajacket reached far below his wrists, it was clear that the garment had originated from

As for the boatswain, on noting the circumspection and diffidence with which the passenger walked, he

frowned, sucked at his beard, approached a sailor who was engaged in vigorously scrubbing the brass on the

"Did you happen to notice the gait of that little man there in the light peajacket and dirty boots? "

At a table near the hatchway of the firstclass cabin, a fat man in grey was drinking beer. Already he had

reached a state of moderate fuddlement, for his eyes were protruding sightlessly and staring unwinkingly at

the opposite wall. Meanwhile, a number of flies were swarming in the sticky puddles on the table, or else

crawling over his greyish beard and the brickred skin of his motionless features.

Here the drunken man sneezed: with the result that a cloud of flies were blown over the table. Looking at

them, and sighing as his companion had done, the boatswain thoughtfully observed:

The restingplace which I myself had selected was a stack of firewood over the stokehole shoot; and as I lay

upon it I could see the hills gradually darkening the water with a mourning veil as calmly they advanced to

meet the steamer; while in the meadows, a last lingering glow of the sunset's radiance was reddening the

stems of the birches, and making the newly mended roof of a hut look as though it were cased in red

fustian communicating to everything else in the vicinity a semblance of floating amid fire and effacing

all outline, and causing the scene as a whole to dissolve into streaks of red and orange and blue, save where,

on a hill above the hut, a black grove of firs stood thrown into tense, keen, and clearcut relief.

Under a hill a party of fishermen had lit a wood fire, the flames of which could be seen playing upon, and

picking out, the white hull of a boat the dark figure of a man therein, a fishing net suspended from some

stakes, and a woman in a yellow bodice who was sitting beside the fire. Also, amid the golden radiance there

could be distinguished a quivering of the leaves on the lower branches of the tree whereunder the woman sat

All the river was calm, and not a sound occurred to break the stillness ashore, while the air under the awning

of the thirdclass portion of the vessel felt as stifling as during the earlier part of the day. By this time the

conversation of the passengers, damped by the shadow of dusk, had merged into a single sound which

resembled the humming of bees; and amid it one could not distinguish nor divine who was speaking, nor the

subject of discussion, since every word therein seemed disconnected, even though all appeared to be talking

amicably, and in order, concerning a common topic. At one moment a suppressed laugh from a young woman

would reach the ear; in the cabin, a party who had agreed to sing a song of general acceptation were failing to

hit upon one, and disputing the point in low and dispassionate accents; and in each, such sound there was

From behind the firewood near me a thick, rasping voice said in deliberate tones:

"At first he was a useful young fellow enough, and clean and spruce; but lately, he has become shabby and

"Besides, he is a fool, and that is worse still. By the way, he is a relative of yours, isn't he?"

At this moment I saw the passenger in the buff peajacket approach the sallyport, grasp with his left hand a

stanchion, and step on to the grating under which one of the paddlewheels was churning the water to foam.

There he stood looking over the bulwarks with a swinging motion akin to that of a bat when, grappling some

object or another with its wings, it hangs suspended in the air. The fact that the man's cap was drawn tightly

Presently he turned and peered into the gloom under the awning, though, seemingly, he failed to distinguish

myself reposing on the firewood. This enabled me to gain a clear view of a face with a sharp nose, some tufts

of lightcoloured hair on cheeks and chin, and a pair of small, muddylooking eyes. He stood there as though

All of a sudden he stepped firmly to the sallyport, swiftly unlashed from the iron toprail a mop, and threw

With a start the man turned round, clapped a hand to his forehead to discover my whereabouts, and replied

"For what you have done the sailors will make you pay right enough," I remarked.

He tucked up the sleeves of his peajacket as though he were preparing for a fight. Then, stamping his foot

"I perceived the mop to have come untied, and to be in danger of falling into the water through the vibration.

Upon that I tried to secure it, and failed, for it slipped from my hands as I was doing so."

"But," I remarked in amazement, "my belief is that you WILLFULLY untied the mop, to throw it overboard!"

"Come, come!" he retorted. "Why should I have done that? What an extraordinary thing it would have been

Here he dodged me with a dexterous movement, and, rearranging his sleeves, walked away. The length of the

peajacket made his legs look absurdly short, and caused me to notice that in his gait there was a tendency to

Returning to my retreat, I stretched myself upon the firewood once more, inhaled its resinous odour, and fell

"Ah, good sir," a gruff, sarcastic voice began at my side but instantly a yet gruffer voice intervened with:

"Oh, nothing, except that to ask a question is easy, and to answer it may be difficult."

At length night fell, and as folk relapsed into slumber the babel of tongues became stilled. The car, as it grew

used to the boisterous roar of the engines and the measured rhythm of the paddlewheels, did not at first

notice the new sound born of the fact that into the sounds previously made familiar there began to intrude the

snores of slumberers, and the padding of soft footsteps, and an excited whisper of:

The banks had disappeared from view. Indeed, one continued to be reminded of their existence only by the

slow passage of the scattered fires ashore, and the fact that the darkness lay blacker and denser around those

fires than elsewhere. Dimly reflected in the river, the stars seemed to be absolutely motionless, whereas the

trailing, golden reproductions of the steamer's lights never ceased to quiver, as though striving to break adrift,

and float away into the obscurity. Meanwhile, foam like tissue paper was licking our dark hull, while at our

stern, and sometimes overtaking it, there trailed a barge with a couple of lanterns in her prow, and a third on

her mast, which at one moment marked the reflections of the stars, and at another became merged with the

On a bench under a lantern near the spot where I was lying a stout woman was asleep. With one hand resting

upon a small bundle under her head, she had her bodice torn under the armpit, so that the white flesh and a

tuft of hair could be seen protruding. Also, her face was large, dark of brow, and full of jowl to a point that

caused the cheeks to roll to her very ears. Lastly, her thick lips were parted in an ungainly, corpselike smile.

From my own position on a level higher than hers, I looked dreamily down upon her, and reflected: "She is a

little over forty years of age, and (probably) a good woman. Also, she is travelling to visit either her daughter

and soninlaw, or her son and daughterinlaw, and therefore is taking with her some presents. Also, there

Suddenly something near me flashed as though a match had been struck, and, opening my eyes, I perceived

the passenger in the curious peajacket to be standing near the woman spoken of, and engaged in shielding a

lighted match with his sleeve. Presently, he extended his hand and cautiously applied the particle of flame to

the tuft of hair under the woman's armpit. There followed a faint hiss, and a noxious smell of burning hair

Turning in my grasp he whispered with a scarcely audible, but exceedingly repulsive, giggle:

For a moment or two his blinking eyes continued to glance at something over my shoulder. Then they

"Pray let me go. The truth is that, unable to sleep, I conceived that I would play this woman a trick. Was there

As I thrust him away his short legs, legs which might almost have been amputated, staggered under him.

"No, I was NOT wrong. He DID of set purpose throw the mop overboard. What a fellow! "

Upon that, steam issued with such resounding shrillness that the woman awoke with a jerk of her head; and as

she put up her left hand to feel her armpit, her crumpled features gathered themselves into wrinkles. Then she

glanced at the lamp, raised herself to a sitting position, and, fingering the place where the hair had been

Presently the steamer drew to a wharf, and, with a loud clattering, firewood was dragged forth and cast into

the stokehole with uncouth, warning cries of " Truussha! " [The word means ship' s hold or stokehole, but

Over a little town which had its back pressed against a hill the waning moon was rising and brightening all

the black river, causing it to gather life as the radiance laved, as it were, the landscape in warm water.

Walking aft, I seated myself among some bales and contemplated the town's frontage. Over one end of it

rose, tapering like a walkingstick, a factory chimney, while at the other end, as well as in the middle, rose

belfries, one of which had a gilded steeple, and the other one a steeple either green or blue, but looking black

Opposite the wharf there was stuck in the wide gable of a twostoried building a lantern which, flickering,

diffused but a dull, anaemic light from its dirty panes, while over the long strip of the broken signboard of the

building there could be seen straggling, and executed in large yellow letters, the words, "Tavern and " No

Lanterns were hanging in two or three other spots in the drowsy little town; and wherever their murky stains

of light hung suspended in the air there stood out in relief a medley of gables, drabtinted trees, and false

Meanwhile the vessel continued to emit steam as she rocked to and fro with a creaking of wood, a

slapslapping of water, and a scrubbing of her sides against the wharf. At length someone ejaculated surlily:

"Fool, you must be asleep! The winch, you say? Why, the winch is at the stern, damn you!"

"Off again, thank the Lord!" added the rasping voice already heard from behind the bales, while to it an

Hastily and inarticulately, with a great deal of smacking of the lips and stuttering, someone replied:

"He shouted: 'Kinsmen, do not kill me! Have some mercy, for Christ's sake, and I will make over to you

everythingyes, everything into your good hands for ever! Only let me go away, and expiate my sins, and

save my soul through prayer. Aye, I will go on a pilgrimage, and remain hidden my life long, to the very end.

Never shall you hear of me again, nor see me.' Then Uncle Peter caught him a blow on the head, and his

blood splashed out upon me. As he fell Iwell, I ran away, and made for the tavern, where I knocked at the

door and shouted: 'Sister, they have killed our father!' Upon that, she put her head out of the window, but

only said: 'That merely means that the rascal is making an excuse for vodka.' . . . Aye, a terrible time it

waswas that night! And how frightened I felt! At first, I made for the garret, but presently thought to

myself: 'No; they would soon find me there, and put me to an end as well, for I am the heir direct, and should

be the first to succeed to the property.' So I crawled on to the roof, and there lay hidden behind the

chimneystack, holding on with arms and legs, while unable to speak for sheer terror."

"In such an hour one has not time to thinkone just kills a man because one can't help oneself, or because it

"True," the hoarser voice commented in dull and ponderous accents. "When once blood has flowed the fact

leads to more blood, and if a man has started out to kill, he cares nothing for any reasonhe finds good

"But if this young fellow is speaking the truth, he had a BUSINESS reasonthough, properly speaking, even

"Similarly one ought not to kill just when one chooses. Folk who commit such crimes should have justice

"Yes, but it is difficult always to obtain such justice. For instance, this young fellow seems to have spent over

"'For nothing'? Why, did he not entice his father into the hut, and then shut the door upon him, and throw a

Upon this the rapid stream of sobbed, disconnected words, which I had heard before from some speaker

poured forth anew. Somehow, I guessed that it came from the man in the dirty boots, as once more he

"I do not wish to justify myself," he said. "I say merely that, inasmuch as I was promised a reprieve at the

trial, I told everything, and was therefore allowed to go free, while my uncle and my brother were sentenced

"Well, it is my idea that at first they intended only to give him a good fright. Never did my father recognise

"Why shouldn't I? My father brought tears to the eyes of many an innocent person."

"A fig for people's tears! If our causes of tears were one and all to be murdered, what would the state of

things become? Shed tears, but never blood; for blood is not yours to shed. And even if you should believe

your own blood to be your own, know that it is not so, that your blood does not belong to you, but to

"The point in question was my father's property. It all shows how a man may live awhile, and earn his living,

and then suddenly go amiss, and lose his wits, and even conceive a grudge against his own father. . . . Now I

Behind the bales all grew quiet. Presently I rose to peer in that direction. The passenger in the buff peajacket

was sitting huddled up against a coil of rope, with his hands thrust into his sleeves, and his chin resting upon

his arms. As the moon was shining straight into his face, I could see that the latter was as livid as that of a

Beside him, and close to my head, there was lying stretched on the top of the coil of rope a broadshouldered

peasant in a short smock and a pair of patched boots of white felt. The ringlets of the wearer's curly beard

were thrust upwards, and his hands clasped behind his head, and with oxlike eyes he stared at the zenith

At length, in a trumpetlike voice (though he seemed to do his best to soften it) the peasant asked:

The dark barge, towed against the steamer's bluesilver wash of foam, was cleaving it like a plough, while

under the moon the lights of the barge showed white, and the hull and the prisoners' cage stood raised high

out of the water as to our right the black, indentated bank glided past in sinuous convolutions.

From the whole, soft, liquescent fluid scene, the impression which I derived was melancholy. It evoked in my

"Then look here, my young fellow. Drop it allboth your uncle and the property, and betake yourself to a

monastery, and there live and pray. For if you have shed blood, and especially if you have shed the blood of a

kinsman, you will stand for ever estranged from all, while, moreover, bloodshed is a dangerous thingit

On the younger man's face the down twitched as though a wind had stirred it. He yawned, and looked about

Here the big peasant opened his eyes, and, with a glance first at the man, and then at myself, growled:

As I retired to my nook and lay down, I reflected that what the big peasant had said was apposite enoughthat

the young fellow's face did in very truth resemble an old and shabby woollen mitten.

Presently I dreamt that I was painting a belfry, and that, as I did so, huge, goggleeyed jackdaws kept flying

around the belfry's gables, and flapping at me with their wings and hindering my work: until, as I sought to

beat them off, I missed my footing, fell to earth, and awoke to find my breath choking amid a dull, sick,

painful feeling of lassitude and weakness, and a kaleidoscopic mist quavering before my eyes till it rendered

Rising with some difficulty to my feet, I stepped aft to a pump, washed my head under a jet of cold water,

bound it with my handkerchief, and, returning, inspected my restingplace in a state of bewilderment as to

On the deck near the spot where I had been asleep, there was standing stacked a pile of small logs prepared

for the cook's galley; while, in the precise spot where my head had rested there was reposing a birch faggot of

which the withytie had come unfastened. As I raised the fallen faggot I perceived it to be clean and

composed of silky loppings of birchbark which rustled as I fingered them; and, consequently, I reflected that

the ceaseless vibration of the steamer must have caused the faggot to become jerked on to my head.

Reassured by this plausible explanation of the unfortunate, but absurd, occurrence of which I have spoken, I

next returned to the stern, where there were no oppressive odours to be encountered, and whence a good view

The hour was the turn of the night, the hour of maximum tension before dawn, the hour when all the world

seems plunged in a profundity of slumber whence there can be no awakening, and when the completeness of

the silence attunes the soul to special sensibility, and when the stars seem to be hanging strangely close to

earth, and the morning star, in particular, to be shining as brightly as a miniature sun. Yet already had the

heavens begun to grow coldly grey, to lose their nocturnal softness and warmth, while the rays of the stars

were drooping like petals, and the moon, hitherto golden, had turned pale and become dusted over with silver,

and moved further from the earth as intangibly the water of the river sloughed its thick, viscous gleam, and

swiftly emitted and withdrew, stray, pearly reflections of the changes occurring in the heavenly tints.

In the east there was rising, and hanging suspended over the black spears of the pine forest, a thin pink mist

the sensuous hue of which was glowing ever brighter, and assuming a density ever greater, and standing forth

more boldly and clearly, even as a whisper of timid prayer merges into a song of exultant thankfulness.

Another moment, and the spiked tops of the pines blazed into points of red fire resembling festival candles in

Next, an unseen hand threw over the water, drew along its surface, a transparent and manycoloured net of

silk. This was the morning breeze, herald of dawn, as with a coating of tissuelike, silvery scales it rippled

the river until the eye grew weary of trying to follow the play of gold and motherofpearl and purple and

Next, like a fan there unfolded themselves the first swordshaped beams of day, with their tips blindingly

white; while simultaneously one seemed to hear descending from an iilimitable height a dense soundwave

of silver bells, a soundwave advancing triumphantly to greet the sun as his roseate rim became visible over

the forest like the rim of a cup that, filled with the essence of life, was about to empty its contents upon the

earth, and to pour a bounteous flood of creative puissance upon the marshes whence a reddish vapour as of

incense was arising. Meanwhile on the more precipitous of the two banks some of the trees near the river's

margin were throwing soft green shadows over the water, while giltlike dew was sparkling. on the herbage,

and birds were awakening, and as a white gull skimmed the water's surface on level wings, the pale shadow

of those wings followed the bird over the tinted expanse, while the sun, suspended in flame behind the forest,

like the Imperial bird of the fairytale, rose higher and higher into the greenishblue zenith, until silvery

Here and there on the yellow strip of sand by the river's margin, longlegged snipe were scurrying about.

Two fishermen were rocking in a boat in the steamer's wash as they hauled their tackle. Floating from the

shore there began to reach us such vocal sounds of morning as the crowing of cocks, the lowing of cattle, and

Similarly the buffcoloured bales in the steamer's stem gradually reddened, as did the grey tints in the beard

of the large peasant where, sprawling his ponderous form over the deck, he was lying asleep with mouth

open, nostrils distended with stertorous snores, brows raised as though in astonishment, and thick moustache

Someone amid the piles of bales was panting as he fidgeted, and as I glanced in that direction I encountered

the gaze of a pair of small, narrow, inflamed eyes, and beheld before me the ragged, mittenlike face, though

now it looked even thinner and greyer than it had done on the previous evening. Apparently its owner was

feeling cold, for he had hunched his chin between his knees, and clasped his hirsute arms around his legs, as

his eyes stared gloomily, with a hunted air, in my direction. Then wearily, lifelessly he said:

"Yes,you have found me. And now you can thrash me if you wish to do soyou can give me a blow, for I

The words came in hoarse, croaked, suppressed accents, with a separation of the hands, and an upthrow of the

head and projecting cars which had such a comical look of being crushed beneath the weight of the

batteneddown cap. Next, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his peajacket, the man repeated in a tone

I could discern in him something at once helpless and froglike which evoked in me a strong feeling of

repulsion; and since, with that, I had no real wish to converse with him, or even to revenge myself upon him

But a moment later I looked at him again, and saw that he was seated in his former posture, with his arms

embracing his knees, his chin resting upon them, and his red, sleepless eyes gazing lifelessly at the barge

which the steamer was towing between wide ribbons of foaming waterribbons sparkling in the sunlight

And those eyes, that dead, alienated expression, the gay cheerfulness of the morning, and the clear radiance

of the heavens, and the kindly tints of the two banks, and the vocal sounds of the June day, and the bracing

freshness of the air, and the whole scene around us served but to throw into the more tragic relief.

Just as the steamer was leaving Sundir the man threw himself into the water;in the sight of everybody he

sprang overboard. Upon that all shouted, jostled their neighbours as they rushed to the side, and fell to

The whistle sounded in fitful alarm, the sailors threw lifebelts overboard, the deck rumbled like a drum under

the crowd's surging rush, steam hissed afflightedly, a woman vented an hysterical cry, and the captain bawled

"Avast heaving lifebelts! By now the fool will have got one! Damn you, calm the passengers!"

An unwashed, untidy priest with timid, staring eyes thrust back his long, dishevelled hair, and fell to

repeating, as his fat shoulder jostled all and sundry, and his feet tripped people up.

By the time that I had made my way to the stern the man had fallen far behind the stern of the barge, and his

head looked as small as a fly on the glassy surface of the water. However, towards that fly a fishingboat was

already darting with the swiftness of a water beetle, and causing its two oars to show quiveringly red and

grey, while from the marshier of the two banks there began hastily to put out a second boat which leapt in the

Suddenly there broke into the painful hubbub on the steamer's deck a faint, heartrending cry of "Aaah!"

In answer to it a sharpnosed, blackbearded, welldressed peasant muttered with a smack of his lips:

"Ah! That is him shouting. What a madman he must have been! And an ugly customer too, wasn't he?"

The peasant with the curly beard rejoined in a tone of conviction engulfing all other utterances:

"It is his conscience that is catching him. Think what you like, but never can conscience be suppressed."

Therewith, constantly interrupting one another, the pair betook themselves to a public recital of the tragic

story of the fairhaired young fellow, whom the fishermen had now lifted from the water, and were

"Besides," the other peasant interrupted, "the property was not to be divided after the death of the father."

With which the bearded muzhik eagerly recounted the history of the murder done by the brother, the nephew,

and a son, while the spruce, spare, welldressed peasant interlarded the general buzz of conversation with

words and comments cheerfully and stridently delivered, much as though he were driving in stakes for the

"Then it will be the Devil that will be drawing him, since the direction of Hell is always the easiest."

"Well, YOU will not be going that way, I suppose? You don't altogether fancy it?"

Whereupon, setting nose to nose, the pair plunged into a quarrel still more heated as they expounded in

simple, but often curiously apposite, language opinions intelligible to themselves alone. The one peasant, a

lean fellow with lengthy limbs, cold, sarcastic eyes, and a dark, bony countenance, spoke loudly and

sonorously, with frequent shrugs of the shoulders, while the other peasant, a man stout and broad of build

who until now had seemed calm, selfassured of demeanour, and a man of settled views, breathed heavily,

while his oxlike eyes glowed with an ardour causing his face to flush patchily, and his beard to stick out from

"Look here, for instance," he growled as he gesticulated and rolled his dull eyes about. "How can that be?

Here there broke into the dispute a shout of: "They are just getting him aboard!" and the crowd, rushing away

from the stern, carried with it the two disputantsthe sparer peasant; lowering his shoulders, and buttoning

up his jacket as he went; while the bearded peasant, following at his heels, thrust his head forward in a surly

With a ponderous beating of paddles against the current the steamer heaved to, and the captain shouted

through a speakingtrumpet, with a view to preventing a collision between the barge and the stem of the

Soon the fishingboat came alongside, and the halfdrowned man, with a form as limp as a halfempty sack,

and water exuding from every stitch, and his hitherto haggard face grown smooth and simplelooking, was

Next, on the sailors laying him upon the hatchway of the baggage hold, he sat up, leaned forward, smoothed

his wet hair with the palms of his hands, and asked dully, without looking at anyone:

Upon this he hiccuped loudly and freely, like a camel, and emitted a stream of turgid water from his mouth.

In answer, the boatswain sternly bade him stretch himself out, and this the young fellow did, with his hands

clasped under his head, and his eyes closed, while the boatswain added brusquely to the onlookers:

"Move away, move away, good people. What is there to stare at? This is not a show. . . . Hi, you muzhik!

As for the boatswain, he squatted upon his heels, and proceeded to subject the rescued man to a course of

With the full power of his trumpetlike lungs the bearded peasant (evidently he had lost his temper) broke in:

"Though his uncle and his brother have been sentenced to penal servitude and are travelling together on that

barge, hewell, he has received his discharge! That is only a personal matter, however. In spite of what

judges may say, one ought never to kill, since conscience cannot bear the thought of blood. Even nearly to

By this time more and more passengers had collected as they awakened from sleep and emerged from the

first and secondclass cabins. Among them was the mate, a man with a black moustache and rubicund

features who inquired of someone amid the confusion: "You are not a doctor, I suppose?" and received the

"Why is a doctor needed? Surely the man is a fellow of no particular importance?"

Over the river the radiance of the summer daylight had gathered increased strength, and, since the date was a

Sunday, bells were sounding seductively from a hill, and a couple of women in gala apparel who were

following the margin of the river waved handkerchiefs towards the steamer, and shouted some greeting.

Meanwhile the young fellow lay motionless, with his eyes closed. Divested of his peajacket, and wrapped

about with wet, clinging underclothing, he looked more symmetrical than previouslyhis chest seemed

Yet though the passengers gazed at him with compassion or distaste or severity or fear, as the case might be,

For instance, a gaunt gentleman in a grey frockcoat said to a lady in a yellow straw hat adorned with a pink

"At our place, in Riazan, when a certain masterwatchmaker went and hanged himself to a ventilator, he first

of all stopped every watch and clock in his shop. Now, the question is, why did he stop them?"

On the other hand, a darkbrowed woman who had her hands hidden beneath her shawl stood gazing at the

rescued man in silence, and with her side turned towards him. As she did so tears were welling in her

Presently two sailors appeared. One of them bent over the young fellow, touched him on the shoulder, and

When, after an interval, he reappeared on deck, he was clean and dry, and clad in a cook's white jumper and a

sailor's blue serge trousers. Clasping his hands behind his back, hunching his shoulders, and bending his head

forward, he walked swiftly to the stern, with a throng of idlersat first one by one, and then in parties of

The man seated himself upon a coil of rope, and, craning his neck in wolflike fashion to eye the bystanders,

frowned, let fall his temples upon hands thrust into his flaxen hair, and fixed his gaze upon the barge.

Standing or sitting about in the hot sunshine, people stared at him without stint. Evidently they would have

liked, but did not dare, to engage him in conversation. Presently the big peasant also arrived on the scene,

and, after glancing at all present, took off his hat, and wiped his perspiring face. Next, a greyheaded old man

with a red nose, a thin wisp of beard, and watery eyes cleared his throat, and in honeyed tones took the

Taking a red handkerchief from his bosom, the old man shook it out and applied it cautiously to his eyes.

Then he said through its folds in the quiet accents of a man who is determined to persevere:

"Why, you say? For the reason that the occasion is one when all ought to know the tru"

"Yes, do you tell us all about it, and things will become easier for you. For a sin always needs to be made

Upon this the young fellow raised his brows a little, and retorted in an undertone:

"The rascal!" the crowd commented, while the old man, neatly folding and replacing his handkerchief, raised

"Possibly it is not merely out of idle curiosity that folk are making this request."

"Go and be damned to you!" the young fellow exclaimed with a grim snap. Whereupon the big peasant

Whereafter the same speaker continued to hold forth on humanity, God, and the human consciencestaring

wildly around him as he did so, waving his arms about, and growing ever more frantic, until really it was

At length the crowd grew similarly excited, and took to encouraging the speaker with cries of "True! That is

As for the young fellow, he listened awhile in silence, without moving. Then, straightening his back, he rose,

thrust his hands into the pockets of his trousers, and, swaying his body to and fro, began to glare at the crowd

with greenish eyes which were manifestly lightening to a vicious gleam. At length, thrusting forth his chest,

"So you ask me whither I am bound? I am bound for the brigands' lair, for the brigands' lair, where, unless

you first take and put me in fetters, I intend to cut the throat of every man that I meet. Yes, a hundred murders

will I commit, for all folk will be the same to me, and not a soul will I spare. Aye, the end of my tether is

His breath was issuing with difficulty, and as he spoke his shoulders heaved, and his legs trembled beneath

Upon this, the crowd broke into a gruff, ugly, resentful roar, and edged away from the man. Yet, in doing so,

many of its members looked curiously like the man himself in the way that they lowered their heads, caught

at their breath, and let their eyes flash. Clearly the man was in imminent danger of being assaulted.

Suddenly he recovered his subdued demeanourhe, as it were, thawed in the sunlight: until, as suddenly, his

legs gave way beneath him, and, narrowly escaping injury to his face from the corner of a bale, he fell

forward upon his knees as though felled with an axe. Thereafter, clutching at his throat, he shouted in a

"Tell me what I am to do. Is all of it my fault? Long I lay in prison before I was tried and told to go free...

Tearing at his ears and cheeks, he rocked his head to and fro as though seeking to rend it from its socket.

"Yet I am NOT free. Nor is it in my power to say what will become of me. For me there remains neither life

"Aha!" exclaimed the big peasant; and at the sound the crowd drew back as in consternation, while some

hastened to depart altogether. As for the remainder (numbering a dozen or so), they herded sullenly,

nervously, involuntarily into a mass as the young fellow continued in distracted tones and with a trembling

"Oh that I could sleep for the next ten years! For then could I prove myself, and decide whether I am guilty or

not. Last night I struck a man with a faggot. As I was walking about I saw asleep a man who had angered me,

and thereupon thought, 'Come! I should like to deal him a blow, but can I actually do it?' And strike him I

did. Was it my fault? Always I keep asking myself, 'Can I, or can I not, do a thing?' Aye, lost, lost am I!"

Apparently this outburst caused the man to reach the end of his power, for presently he sank from knees to

heelsthen on to his side, with hands clasping his head, and his tongue finally uttering the words, "Better

A hush fell, for all now stood confounded and silent, with, about them, a greyer, a more subdued, look which

made all more resemble their fellows. In fact, to all had the atmosphere become oppressive, as though

everyone's breast had had clamped into it a large, soft clod of humid, viscid earth. Until at last someone said

"Let God judge him, but men suffer him. Of judging of one another there has been enough."

"What are we to make of this? To judge by the book, the young fellow is at once guilty and not guilty."

At length the darkbrowed woman stepped forward. Letting her shawl to her shoulders, straightening hair

streaked with grey under a bright blue scarf, and deftly putting aside a skirt she so seated herself beside the

young fellow as to screen from the crowd with the height of her figure. Then, raising kindly face, she said

"There! Just as I foretold has the matter turned out. Conscience HAS asserted itself."

Yet the words were spoken without selfcomplacency, rather, thoughtfully, and with a sense of awe.

As for the rednosed old man who was walking like a shadow behind the last speaker, he opened his

snuffbox, peered therein with his moist eyes, and drawled to no one in particular:

"How often does one see a man play with conscience, yes, even though he be a rogue! He erects that

conscience as a screen to his knaveries and tricks and wiles, and masks the whole with a cloud of words. Yes,

we know how it is done, even though folk may stare at him, and say to one another, 'How fervently his soul is

glowing!' Aye, all the time that he is holding his hand to his heart he will be dipping the other hand into your

The lover of proverbs, for his part, unbuttoned his jacket, thrust his hands under his coattails, and said in a

"There is a saying that you can trust any wild beast, such as a fox or a hedgehog or a toad, but not"

"No, they are overcramped," was the big peasant's raspedout comment. "They have no room for

"Yes, they DO grow, but only as regards beard and moustache, as a tree grows to branch and sap."

With a glance at the purveyor of proverbs the old man assented by remarking: "Yes, true it is that the

common folk are cramped." Whereafter he thrust a pinch of snuff into his nostrils, and threw back his head in

anticipation of the sneeze which failed to come. At length, drawing a deep breath through his parted lips, he

In front of us now, was Kazan, with the pinnacles of its churches and mosques piercing the blue sky, and

looking like garlands of exotic blooms. Around them lay the grey wall of the Kremlin, and above them soared

I glanced towards the stern once more. The darkbrowed woman was breaking off morsels from a wheaten

"Presently we will have a cup of tea, and then keep together as far as Christopol."

In response the young fellow edged nearer to her, and thoughtfully eyed the large hands which, though inured

Breathing upon a morsel of the scone, the woman offered it him with the quiet words:

"You have had much to bear. Now, shall I tell you my history, or shall we first have tea? "

On the bank there was now to be seen the frontage of the gay, wealthy suburb of Uslon, with its

brightlydressed, rainbowtinted women and girls tripping through the streets, and the water of its foaming

The wind is scudding over the steppe, and beating upon the rampart of the Caucasian heights until their

backbone seems to be bellying like a huge sail, and the earth to be whirling and whizzing through

unfathomable depths of blue, and leaving behind it a rack of windtorn clouds which, as their shadows glide

over the surface of the land, seem ever to be striving to keep in touch with the onrush of the gale, and, failing

The trees too are bending in the attitude of flighttheir boughs are brandishing their foliage as a dog worries

a fleece, and littering the black soil with leaves among which runs a constant querulous hissing and rustling.

Also, storks are uttering their snapping cry, sleek rooks cawing, steppe grasshoppers maintaining their tireless

chirp, sturdy, wellgrown husbandmen uttering shouts like words of command, the threshingfloors of the

rolling steppe diffusing a rain of golden chaff, and eddying whirlwinds catching up stray poultry feathers,

driedonion strips, and leaves yellowed with the heat, to send them dancing again over the trim square of the

Similarly does the sun keep appearing and disappearing as though he were pursuing the fugitive earth, and

ever and anon halting through weariness before his decline into the dark, shadowy vista where the snowclad

peaks of the western mountains are rearing their heads, and fastreddening clouds are reminding one of the

At times those clouds part their bulk to reveal in blinding splendour the silvery saddle of Mount Elburz, and

the crystal fangs of other peaksall, apparently, striving to catch and detain the scudding vapours. And to

such a point does one come to realise the earth's flight through space that one can scarcely draw one's breath

for the tension, the rapture, of the thought that with the rush of that dear and beautiful earth oneself is keeping

pace towards, and ever tending towards, the region where, behind the eternal, snowclad peaks, there lies a

boundless ocean of bluean ocean beside which there may lie stretched yet other proud and marvellous

lands, a void of azure amid which one may come to descry fardistant, manytinted spheres of planets as yet

Meanwhile from the steppe slow, ponderous grey oxen with sharp horns are drawing an endless succession of

wagonloads of threshed grain through rich, black, sootlike dust. Patiently the beasts' round eyes regard the

earth, while on the top of each load there lolls a Cossack who, with face sunburnt to the last pitch of

swarthiness, and eyes reddened with exposure to the wind, and beard matted, seemingly solidified, with dust

and sweat, is clad in a shirt drab with grime, and has a shaggy Persian cap thrust to the back of his head.

Occasionally, also, he may he seen riding on the pole in front of his team, and being buffeted from behind by

the wind which inflates his shirt. And as sleek and comfortable as the carcasses of the bullocks are these

Cossacks' frames in proportion their eyes are sluggishly intelligent, and in their every movement is the

"Tsob, tsobe!" such fellows shout to their teams. This year they are reaping a splendid harvest.

Yet though these folk, one and all, look fat and prosperous, their mien is dour, and they speak reluctantly, and

through their teeth. Possibly this is because they are overweary with toil. However that may be, the fullfed

In the centre of the hamlet soars the red brick church of the placean edifice which, with its five pinnacles,

its belfry over its porch, and its yellow plaster windowmouldings, looks like an edifice that has been

fashioned of meat, and cemented with grease. Nay, its very shadow seems so richly heavy as to be the

shadow of a fane erected by men endowed with a plethora of this world's goods to a god otiose in his

grandeur. Ranged around the building in ring fashion, the hamlet's squat white huts stand girdled with belts of

plaited wattle, shawled in the gorgeous silken scarves of gardens, and crowned with a flowered brocadework

of reedthatched roofs. In fact, they resemble a bevy of buxom babi, [Peasant women] as over and about

them wave silver poplar trees, with quivering, lacelike leaves of acacias, and darkleaved chestnuts (the

leaves of the latter like the palms of human hands) which rock to and fro as though they would fain seize, and

detain the driving clouds. Also, from court to court scurry Cossack women who, with skirttails tucked up to

reveal muscular legs bare to the knee, are preparing to array themselves for the morrow's festival, and,

meanwhile, chattering to one another, or shouting to plump infants which may be seen bathing in the dust like

Sheltered from the wind by the churchyard wall, there may be seen also, as they sprawl on the dry, faded

herbage, a score of " strollers for work "that is to say, of folk who, a community apart, consist of "nowhere

people," of dreamers who live constantly in expectation of some stroke of luck, some kindly smile from

fortune, and of wastrels who, intoxicated with the abundant bounty of the opulent region, have fallen passive

victims to the Russian craze for vagrancy. These folk tramp from hamlet to hamlet in parties of two or three,

and, while purporting to seek employment, merely contemplate that employment lethargically, express

astonishment at the plenitude which it produces, and then decline to put their hands to toil save when dire

necessity renders it no longer possible to satisfy hunger's pangs through the expedients of mendicancy and

theft. Dull, or cowed, or timid, or furtive of eye, these folk have lost all sense of the difference between that

The morrow being the Feast of the Assumption, these people have, in the present instance, gathered from

every quarter of the country, for the reason that they hope to be provided with food and drink without first

For the most part they are Russians from the central provinces, vagabonds whose faces are blackened, and

heads blanched with the unaccustomed sunshine of the South, but whose bodies are clad merely in rags

tossed and tumbled by the wind. True, the wearers of those rags declare themselves to be peaceful,

respectable citizens whom toil and life's buffetings have exhausted, and compelled to seek temporary rest and

prayer; yet never does a creaking, groaning, ponderous grain wagon, with its Cossack driver, pass them by

without their according the latter a humble, obsequious salute as, with straw in mouth, and omitting, always,

to raise his cap, the man glances at them askance and with contempt, or, more frequently, does not even

descry these tattered, grimy hulks between whom and himself there is absolutely nothing in common.

Lower even, and more noticeably, more pretentiously, than the rest does a certain " needy " native of Tula

named Konev salute each Cossack. A hardbitten muzhik as sunburnt as a stick of ergot, he has a black beard

distributed irregularly over a lean face, a fawning smile, and eyes deepsunken in their sockets.

Most of these persons I have met for the first time today; but Konev is an old acquaintance of mine, for he

and I have more than once encountered one another on the road between Kursk and the province of Ter. An

"artelni," that is to say, a member of a workman's union, he cultivates his fellows' good graces for the reason

that he is also an arrant coward, and accustomed, everywhere save in his own village (which lies buried

"Certainly, this countryside is rich, yet I cannot hit things off with its inhabitants. In my own part of the

country folk are more spiritual, more truly Russian, by far than herethey are folk with whom the natives of

this region are not to be compared, since in the one locality the population has a human soul, whereas in the

And with a certain quiet reflectiveness, he loves also to recount a marvellous example of unlookedfor

"Maybe you do not believe in the virtue of horseshoes? Yet I tell YOU that once, when a certain peasant of

Efremov found a horseshoe, the next three weeks saw it befall that that peasant's uncle, a tradesman of

Efremov, was burnt to death with all his family, and the property devolved to the peasant. Did you ever hear

of such a thing? What is going to happen CANNOT be foretold, for at any moment fortune may pity a man,

As Konev says this his dark, pointed eyebrows will go shooting up his forehead, and his eyes come

protruding out of their sockets, as though he himself cannot believe what he has just related.

Again, should a Cossack pass him without returning his salute, he will mutter as he follows the man with his

"An overfed fellow, thata fellow who can't even look at a human being! The souls of these folk, I tell you,

On the present occasion he has arrived on the scene in company with two women. One of them, aged about

twenty, is gentle looking, plump, and glassy of eye, with a mouth perpetually half open, so that the face

looks like that of an imbecile, and though the exposed teeth of its lower portion may seem to be set in a smile,

you will perceive, should you peer into the motionless eyes under the overhanging brows, that she has

recently been weeping in the terrified, hysterical fashion of a person of weak intellect.

I have come here with that man and other strangers thus I heard her narrate in low, querulous tones as with a

A fatfaced youth with high cheekbones and the small eyes of a Mongol here nudged her, and said

"You mean, rather, that your own man has cast you off. Probably he was the only man you ever saw."

"Aye," Konev drawled thoughtfully as he felt in his wallet. Nowadays folk need think little of deserting a

Upon this the woman frownedthen blinked her eyes timidly, and would have opened her lips to reply, but

The woman's companion, some five or six years her senior, has a face exceptional in the constant change and

movement of its great dark eyes as at one moment they withdraw themselves from the street of the Cossack

hamlet, to gaze fixedly and gravely towards the steppe where it lies scoured with the scudding breeze, and at

another moment fall to scanning the faces of the persons around her, and, at another, frown anxiously, or send

a smile flitting across her comely lips as she bends her head, until her features are concealed. Next, the head

is raised again, for the eyes have taken on another phase, and become dilated with interest, while a sharp

furrow is forming between the slender eyebrows, and the finely moulded lips and trim mouth have

compressed themselves together, and the thin nostrils of the straight nose are snuffing the air like those of a

In fact, in the woman there is something nonpeasant in its origin. For instance, let one but watch her sharply

clicking feet as, in walking, they peep from under her blue skirt, and one will perceive that they are not the

splayed feet of a villager, but, rather, feet arched of instep, and at one time accustomed to the wearing of

boots. Or, as the woman sits engaged in embroidering a blue bodice with a pattern of white peas, one will

perceive that she has long been accustomed to plying the needle so dexterously; swiftly do the small,

sunburnt hands fly in and out under the tumbled material, eagerly though the wind may strive to wrest it from

her. Again, as she sits bending over her work, one will descry through a rent in her bodice a small, firm

bosom which might almost have been that of a virgin, were it not for the fact that a projecting teat proclaims

that she is a woman preparing to suckle an infant. In short, as she sits among her companions she looks like a

Most of the people in whose society I wander neither rise to great heights nor sink to great depths, but are as

colourless as dust, and wearisomely insignificant. Hence is it that whenever I chance upon a person whose

soul I can probe and explore for thoughts unfamiliar to me and words not hitherto heard I congratulate

myself, seeing that though it is my desire to see life grow more fair and exalted, and I yearn to bring about

that end, there constantly reveals itself to me merely a vista of sharp angles and dark spaces and poor crushed,

defrauded people. Yes, never do I seek to project a spark of my own fire into the darkness of my neighbour's

Hence the woman of whom I have just spoken particularly excites my fancy, and leads me to attempt

divinations of her past, until I find myself evolving a story which is not only of vast complexity, but has got

painted into it merely the colours of my own hopes and aspirations. It is a story necessarily illusory,

necessarily bound to make life seem even worse than before. Yet it is a grievous thing NEVER to distort

actuality, NEVER to envelop actuality in the wrappings of one's imagination . . . .

Closing his eyes, and picking his words with difficulty, a tall, fair peasant drawls in thick, gluelike tones:

"'Very well,' I said: and off we set. On the way I said again: 'Gubin, though you may not like to be told so,

The o's uttered by this peasant are uniformly round and firmthey roll forward as a cartwheel trundles along

The youth with the high cheekbones fixes the whites of his porcine eyes (eyes the pupils of which are as

indeterminate as the eyes of a blind man) upon the woman in the green scarf. Then, having, like a calf,

plucked and chewed some stalks of the withered grass, he rolls up the sleeves of his shirt, bends one fist into

the crook of the elbow, and says to Konev with a glance at the welldeveloped muscle:

"No, you can hit yourself. Hit yourself over the head. Then, perhaps, you'll grow wiser."

"Eh?" cries the young fellow truculently as he raises himself to a kneeling posture. "How know you what I

"If you yourself have forgotten to what province you belong, you had better try and loosen your wits."

The woman who has been sewing drops her work to shrug one rounded shoulder as though she were cold,

"I? " the young fellow reechoes as he subsides on to his heels. "I belong to Penza. Why do you ask?"

The young fellow squats down before her, as before a wood fire, stretches out his hands, and says in an

"What a fine place is our cantonal town! What churches and shops and stone houses there are in it! In fact,

one shop sells a machine on which you can play anything you like, any sort of a tune!"

"As well as, probably, the fool," comments Konev in an undertone, though the young fellow is too enthralled

with the memory of the amenities of his cantonal capital to notice the remark. Next, smacking his lips, and

Here the woman drops her sewing a second time to inquire: "Is there a convent there?"

And the young fellow pauses uncouthly to scratch his neck. Only after a while does he answer:

"A convent? Well, I do not know, for only once, to tell the truth, have I been in the town, and that was when

The vagabonds, huddled against the churchyard wall, look like litter driven thither by the steppe wind, and as

liable to be whirled away again whenever the wind shall choose. Three of the party are sleeping, and the

remainder either mending their clothing, or killing fleas, or lethargically munching bread collected at the

windows of the Cossacks' huts. I find the sight of them weary me as much as does the young fellows fatuous

babble. Also, I find that whenever the elder of the two women lifts her eyes from her work, and half smiles,

the faint half smile in question vexes me intensely. Consequently, I end by departing in Konev's wake.

Guarding the entrance of the churchyard, four poplar trees stand erect, save when, as the wind harries them,

they bow alternately to the arid, dusty earth and towards the dim vista of tow coloured steppe and

snowcapped mountain peaks. Yet, oh how that steppe, bathed in golden sunshine, draws one to itself and its

smooth desolation of sweet, dry grasses as the parched, fragrant expanse rustles under the soughing wind!

"You ask about that woman, eh? " queries Konev, whom I find leaning against one of the poplar trunks, and

"No. In fact, it was only this morning, some thirty versts from here, that I overtook her and her companion.

However, I have seen her before, at MaikoponLaba, during the season of hay harvest, when she had with

her an elderly, smoothfaced muzhik who might have been a soldier, and certainly was either her lover or an

uncle, as well as a bully and a drunkard of the type which, before it has been two days in a place, starts about

as many brawls. At present, however, she is tramping with none but this female companion, for, after that the

'uncle' had drunk away his very bellyband and reins, he was clapped in gaol. The Cossack, you know, is an

Although Konev speaks without constraint, his eyes are fixed upon the ground in a manner suggestive of

some disturbing thought. And as the breeze ruffles his dishevelled beard and ragged peajacket it ends by

robbing his head of his cap of the tattered, peakless clout which, with rents in its lining, so closely

resembles a tchepchik [Woman's mobcap], as to communicate to the picturesque features of its wearer an

"Yees," expectorating, and drawling the words between his teeth, he continues: "She is a remarkable

woman, a regular, so to speak, highstepper. Yet it must have been the Devil himself that blew this young oaf

with the bloated jowl on to the scene. Otherwise I should soon have fixed up matters with her. The cur that he

Here there comes limping across the square a moustachioed Cossack. In one hand he is holding a bunch of

keys, and in the other hand a battered Cossack cap, peak in front. Behind him, sobbing and applying his

knuckles to his eyes, there is creeping a curlyheaded urchin of eight, while the rear is brought up by a

shaggy dog whose dejected countenance and lowered tail would seem to show that he too is in disgrace. Each

time that the boy whimpers more loudly than usual the Cossack halts, awaits the lad's coming in silence, cuffs

him over the head with the peak of the cap, and, resuming his way with the gait of a drunken man, leaves the

boy and the dog standing where they arethe boy lamenting, and the dog wagging its tail as its old black

muzzle sniffs the air. Somehow I discern in the dog's mien of holding itself prepared for anything that may

turn up, a certain resemblance to Konev's bearing, save that the dog is older in appearance than is the

"You mentioned my wife, I think?" presently he resumes with a sigh. "Yes, I know, but not EVERY malady

The rest is wellknown to me, for all too frequently have I heard it and similar tales. Unfortunately, I cannot

now take the trouble to stop him; so once more I am forced to let his complaints come oozing tediously into

"The wench was plump," says Konev, "and panting for love; so we just got married, and brats began to come

"In fact, I could scarcely turn round for them. Even now seven of them are alive, though originally the stud

numbered thirteen. And what was the use of such a gang? For, consider: my wife is fortytwo, and I am

fortythree. She is elderly, and I am what you behold. True, hitherto I have contrived to keep up my spirits;

yet poverty is wearing me down, and when, last winter, my old woman went to pieces I set forth (for what

else could I do?) to tour the towns. In fact, folk like you and myself have only one job availablethe job of

licking one's chops, and keeping one's eyes open. Yet, to tell you the truth, I no sooner perceive myself to be

growing superfluous in a place than I spit upon that place, and clear out of it."

Never to this sturdy, inveterate rascal does it seem to occur to insinuate that he has been doing work of any

kind, or that he in the least cares to do any; while at the same time all selfpity is eschewed in his narrative,

and he relates his experiences much as though they are the experiences of another man, and not of himself.

Presently, as the Cossack and the boy draw level with us, the former, fingering his moustache, inquires

Thereafter, with a gesture of disdain, this man of the abnormally broad nose, eyes floating in fat, and flaxen

head shaped like a flounder's, resumes his way towards the porch of the church. As for the boy, he wipes his

nose and follows him while the dog sniffs at our legs, yawns, and stretches itself by the churchyard wall.

"Did you see?" mutters Konev. "Oh yes, I tell you that the folk here are far less amiable than our own folk in

To our ears there have come from behind the corner of the churchyard wall a woman's scream and the sound

of dull blows. Rushing thither, we behold the fairheaded peasant seated on the prostrate form of the young

fellow from Penza, and methodically, gruntingly delivering blow after blow upon the young fellow's ears

with his ponderous fists, while counting the blows as he does so. Vainly, at the same time, the woman from

Riazan is prodding the assailant in the back, whilst her female companion is shrieking, and the crowd at large

has leapt to its feet, and, collected into a knot, is shouting gleefully, "THAT'S the way! THAT'S the way!"

The smacking, smashing blows fall in regular cadence as, prone on his face, the young fellow kicks, struggles

and puffs up the dust. Meanwhile a tall, dour man in a straw hat is rolling up a shirtsleeve, and alternately

bending and stretching a long arm, whilst a lithe, whiteheaded young stripling is hopping, sparrow like,

Presently the tall man strides towards the fairheaded peasant, deals him a single blow which knocks him

from the back of the young fellow, and, turning to the crowd, says with an informing air:

"Brutes! Villains!" screams the woman from Riazan, as she bends over the young fellow. Her cheeks are

livid, and as she wipes the flushed face of the beaten youth with the hem of her gown, her dark eyes are

flashing with dry wrath, and her lips quivering so painfully as to disclose a set of fine, level teeth.

Upon this the fairheaded muzhik, rising to his knees, stretches a fist towards the man from Tambov, and

Upon this the onlookers plunge into a heated debate as to who was actually the beginner of the disturbance,

"DON'T make so much noise about it! Remember that we are in a strange land, and that the folk hereabouts

So queerly do his ears project from his head that he would seem to be able, if he pleased, to fold them right

Suddenly from the roseate heavens comes the vibrant note of a bell; whereupon, the hubbub ceases and at the

same moment a young Cossack with a face studded with freckles, and, in his hands, a cudgel, makes his

"They have been beating a man," the woman from Riazan replies. As she does so she looks comely in spite of

"Then you must notsomeone might break into the church. Go, rather, to the Ataman [Cossack headman or

"As is everywhere the way," he comments. "It is but one thing more laid to our charge. Caution decides

In front of us walks the woman from Riazan, in company with the young fellow of the bloated features. He is

downcast of mien, and at length mutters something which I cannot catch, but in answer to which she tosses

The bell of the church is slowly beating, and from the huts there keep coming neat old men and women who

make the hitherto deserted street assume a brisk appearance, and the squat huts take on a welcoming air.

The wind has fallen, but reddish clouds still are gliding over the hamlet, and the mountain peaks blushing

until they seem, thawing, to be sending streams of golden, liquid fire on to the steppes, where, as though cast

in stone, a stork, standing on one leg, is listening, seemingly, to the rustling of the heat exhausted herbage.

In the forecourt of the Ataman's hut we are deprived of our passports, while two of our number, found to be

without such documents, are led away to a night's lodging in a dark storehouse in a corner of the premises.

Everything is executed quietly enough, and without the least fuss, purely as a matter of routine; yet Konev

"A passport. Surely a decent, peaceable man ought to be able to travel WITHOUT a passport? So long as he

Almost until the vigil service is over are we kept kicking our heels about that forecourt, like sheep in a

slaughterhouse. Then Konev, myself, the two women, and the fatfaced young fellow are led away towards

the outskirts of the village, and allotted an empty hut with brokendown walls and a cracked window.

"No going out will be permitted," says the Cossack who has conducted us thither. "Else you will be arrested."

"Then give us a morsel of bread," Konev says with a stammer. "Have you done any work here?" the Cossack

"What else was to be expected?" grumbles Konev with his eyebrows elevated to the middle of his forehead.

As for the women, they withdraw to the darkest corner of the hut, and lie down, while the young fellow

disappears after probing the walls and floor, and returns with an armful of straw which he strews upon the

hard, beaten clay. Then he stretches himself thereon with hands clasped behind his battered head.

"See the resourcefulness of that fellow from Penza!" comments Konev enviously. "Hi, you women! There is,

Nevertheless Konev merely remains sitting on the windowsill, and discoursing on the subject of certain needy

folk who do but desire to go and say their prayers in church, yet are banded into barns.

"Yes, and though you may say that folk, the world over, have a soul in common, I tell you that this is not

sothat, on the contrary, we Russian strangers find it a hard matter here to get looked upon as respectable."

The young fellow's sleep is restlesshe keeps tossing about, with his fat arms and legs sprawling over the

floor, and grunting, and snoring. Under him the straw makes a crackling sound, while the two women

whisper together in the darkness, and the reeds of the dry thatch on the roof rustle (the wind is still drawing

an occasional breath), and ever and anon a twig brushes against an outside wall. The scene is like a scene in a

Out of doors the myriad tongues of the pitchblack, starless night seem to be debating something in soft, sad,

pitiful tones which ever keep growing fainter; until, when the hour of ten has been struck on the watchman's

gong, and the metal ceases to vibrate, the world grows quieter still, much as though all living things, alarmed

by the clang in the night, have concealed themselves in the invisible earth or the equally invisible heavens.

I seat myself by the window, and watch how the earth keeps exhaling darkness, and the darkness enveloping,

drowning the grey, blurred huts in black, tepid vapour, though the church remains invisibleevidently

something stands interposed between it and my viewpoint. And it seems to me that the wind, the seraph of

many pinions which has spent three days in harrying the land, must now have whirled the earth into a

blackness, a denseness, in which, exhausted, and panting, and scarcely moving, it is helplessly striving to

remain within the encompassing, all pervading obscurity where, helpless and weary in like degree, the wind

has sloughed its thousands of wingfeathersfeathers white and blue and golden of tint, but also broken,

And as I think of our petty, grievous human life, as of a drunkard's tune on a sorry musical instrument, or as

of a beautiful song spoilt by a witless, voiceless singer, there begins to wail in my soul an insatiable longing

to breathe forth words of sympathy with all mankind, words of burning love for all the world, words of

appreciation of, for example, the sun's beauty as, enfolding the earth in his beams, and caressing and

fertilising her, he bears her through the expanses of blue. Yes, I yearn to recite to my fellowmen words

which shall raise their heads. And at length I find myself compounding the following jejune lines:

Meanwhile from the women's corner there comes a soft, intermittent whispering; and as it continues to filter

through the darkness, I strain my ears until I succeed in catching a few of the words uttered, and can

"Ah, but never mind. PRETEND. That is to say, when he beats you, make light of it, and treat it as a joke."

"Well, YOU can never have been beaten, for you do not seem to know what it is like."

"Oh, but I have, my dearI do know what it is like, for my experience of it has been large. Do not be afraid,

A dog yelps, pauses a moment to listen, and then barks more angrily than ever. Upon that other dogs reply,

and for a moment or two I am annoyed to find that I cannot overhear the women's conversation. In time,

however, the dogs cease their uproar, for want of breath, and the suppressed dialogue filters once more to my

"Never forget, my dear, that a muzhik's life is a hard one. Yes, for us plain folk life is hard. Hence, one ought

"And particularly should a woman so face things; for upon her everything depends. For one thing, let her take

to herself, in place of her mother, a husband or a sweetheart. Yes, try that, and see. And though, at first, your

husband may find fault with you, he will afterwards take to boasting to other muzhiks that he has a wife who

can do everything, and remain ever as bright and loving as the month of May. Never does she give in; never

Again, to my annoyance, the dialogue is interruptedthis time by the sound of uncertain footsteps in the

street without. Thus the next words of the women's conversation escape me. Then I hear:

"Then you had better ask some older woman than myself to tell you about it, for it is a good book to become

"Is that our lot in there? Yes? Thank God, then, for I had nearly lost my way after stirring up a lot of dogs,

With which, handing me a large watermelon, he clambers through the window with a great clattering and

"I have managed also to gee a good supply of bread," he continues. "Perhaps you believe that I stole it? But

no. Indeed, why should one steal when one can bega game at which I am particularly an old hand, seeing

that always, on any occasion, I can make up to people? It happened like this. When I went out I saw a fire

glowing in a hut, and folk seated at supper. And since, wherever many people are present, one of them at

least has a kind heart, I ate and drank my fill, and then managed to make off with provender for you as well.

"All right, but you needn't make so much noise about it. You see how dark it is, and I"

"I possess but a quarter of a match, for matches are not over plentiful, and even if I did catch hold of you no

great harm can have been done. For instance, when your husband used to beat you he must have hurt you far

There ensues a prolonged altercation amid which I can hear epithets of increasing acerbity and opprobrium

Whereupon follows a scrimmage amid which I can distinguish slappings, gross chuckles from Konev, and a

Striking a match, I approach the spot, and pull Konev away. He is in no way abashed, but merely cooled in

his ardour as, seated on the floor at my feet, and panting and expectorating, he says reprovingly to the

"When folk wish merely to have a game with you, you ought not to let yourself lose your temper. Fie, fie!"

"And as for you, you go catching at the first thing you find, and have torn my coat."

Whereafter, with a mean chuckle, the fellow goes on to discourse upon the ease with which peasant women

After a while the young fellow springs to his feet, and grates his teeth. Then, reseating himself, and clutching

"I intend to leave here tomorrow, and go home. I do not care WHAT becomes of me."

Amid the darkness a black shape rises. It does so as soundlessly as a fish in a pond, glides to the door, and

"That was she," remarks Konev. "What a strong woman! However, if you had not pulled me away, I should

"No," after a moment's reflection he rejoins. "Out there she might get hold of a stick, or a brick, or some such

thing. However, I'LL get even with her. As a matter of fact, you wasted your time in stopping me, for she

And he renews his wearisome boastings of his conquests; until suddenly, he stops as though he has

All becomes quiet; everything seems to have come to a halt, and to be pressing close in sleep to the

motionless earth. I too grow drowsy, and have a vision amid which my mind returns to the donations which I

have received that day, and sees them swell and multiply and increase in weight until I feel their bulk

pressing upon me like a tumulus of the steppes. Next, the coppery notes of a bell jar in my ears, and, struck at

Soon, scattered drops of rain begin to patter down upon the dry thatch of the hut and the dust in the street

outside, while a cricket continues chirping as though it were hurriedly relating a tale. Also, I hear filtering

"Think," says one of the voices, " what it must mean to have to go tramping about without work, or only with

"I want NOTHING. It is merely that I am sorry for you as a man yet young and strong. You seewell, I

"To the coast, where I know there to be beautiful plots of land for the asking. You yourself can see how good

"More softly, more softly!" again urges the woman. "Moreover, I am not badlooking, and can manage

things well, and do any sort of work. Hence you and I might live quite peacefully and happily, and come,

eventually, to have a place of our own. Yes, and I could bear and rear you a child. Only see how fit I am.

The young fellow snorts, and I begin to find the situation oppressive, and to long to let the couple know that I

am not asleep. Curiosity, however, prevents me, and I continue listening to the strange, arresting dialogue.

"Wait a little," whispers the woman with a gasp. "Do not play with me, for I am not that sort of woman. Yes,

"Then don't run after me. A woman who runs after a man, and plays the whore with him, is"

"Less noise, pleaseless noise, I beg of you, or we shall be heard, and I shall be put to shame!"

A silence ensues, save that the young fellow goes on snorting and fidgeting, and the raindrops continue to fall

with the same reluctance, the same indolence, as ever. Then once more the woman's voice is heard through

"Perhaps," says the voice, "you have guessed that I am seeking a husband? Yes, I AM seeking onea good,

"What?" he sniggers. "A husband for you? The impudence of you! A 'husband'! Go along!"

In these last words I can detect the note of tears. By this time the situation has become intolerable, for I am

yearning to rise and kick the young fellow out of the hut, and then to have a long and earnest talk with his

companion. "Oh that I could take her to my arms," I reflect, "and cherish her as I would a poor lost child!"

"And don't you make any attempt upon me! I am not the sort of woman to be forced."

With an answering exclamation I spring to my feet, for my feelings have become those of a wild beast.

At once everything grows quiet again, save that someone, crawls over the floor and, in leaving the hut, jars

"It was not my fault," grumbles the young fellow. "It all came of that stinking woman offering herself to me.

By now the rain has ceased, and such air as filters through the window seems increasedly stifling.

Momentarily the hush grows deeper, until the breast feels filled with a sense of oppression, and the face and

eyes as though they were glued over with a web. Even when I step into the yard I find the place to be like a

cellar on a summer's day, when the very ice has melted in the dark retreat, and the latter's black cavity is

Somewhere near me a woman is gulping out sobs. For a moment or two I listen; then I approach her, and

come upon her seated in a corner with her head in her hands, and her body rocking to and fro as though she

Yet I feel angry, somehow, and remain standing before her without speaking until at length I ask:

Yet she speaks the words absentmindedly rather than angrily. Around us the dim, blurred walls are peering

in our direction with sightless eyes, while in the vicinity a bullock is drawing deep breaths.

"Should you remain much longer in that position," I remark, "you will have a headache."

"Oh no; not at all." And, lowering her hands, she looks at me. "Whence do you come?"

Not for a moment or two does she answer; and when she does so she answers as though the words have been

"Not particularly. It is that he is a strong young fellow who has lost his way, and is too much of a fool (as you

too must have seen) to find it again. So I am very sorry for him. A good muzhik ought to be well placed."

On the bell of the church there strikes the hour of two. Without interrupting herself, the woman crosses her

"Always," she continues, "I feel sorry when I see a fine young fellow going to the dogs. If I were able, I

"Yes, he did strike mehe struck me on the breast, and would have overpowered me had it not been that I

cannot, I will not, do things heartlessly, like a cat. Oh, the brutes that men can be!"

Here the conversation undergoes an interruption through the fact that someone has come out to the hut door,

"No, no!" she exclaims, catching at my knees. "No need is there for that, no need is there for that!"

Her shoulders heave, and presently she bursts into tears, with a whisper, between the pitiful sobs, of:

"How, on such a night as this, one remembers all that one has ever seen, and the folk that ever one has

known! And oh, how wearisome, wearisome it all is! And how I should like to cry throughout the

That feeling I can understand as well as she, for all too often has it seemed to crush my soul with voiceless

Then, as I stroke her bowed head and quivering shoulder, I ask her who she is; and presently, on growing a

She is, it appears, the daughter of a carpenter and beekeeper. On her mother's death, this man married a

young woman, and allowed her, as stepmother, to persuade him to place the narrator, Tatiana, in a convent,

where she (Tatiana) lived from the age of nine till adolescence, and, meanwhile, was taught her letters, and

also a certain amount of manual labour; until, later, her father married her off to a friend of his, a wellto do

As the woman relates this, I feel vexed that I cannot see her faceonly a dim, round blur amid which there

looms what appears to be a pair of closed eyes. Also, so complete is the stillness, that she can narrate her

story in a barely audible whisper; and I gain the impression that the pair of us are sitting plunged in a void of

"However, the man was a libertine and a drunkard, and many a riotous night did he spend with his cronies in

the porter's lodge of the convent. Also, he tried to arouse a similar taste in myself; and though for a time I

resisted the tendency, I at length, on his taking to beating me, yielded. Only for one man, however, had I

really a liking; and with him it was, and not with my husband, that I first learnt the meaning of spousehood. .

. . Unfortunately, my lover himself was married; and in time his wife came to hear of me, and procured my

husband's dismissal. The chief reason was that the lady, a person of great wealth, was herself handsome,

albeit stout, and did not care to see her place assumed by a nobody. Next, my husband died of drink; and as

my father had long been dead, and I found myself alone, I went to see and consult my stepmother. All that

she said, however, was: 'Why come to me? Go and think things out for yourself.' And I too then reflected:

'Yes, why should I have gone to her? ' and repaired to the convent. Yet even there there seemed to be no place

left for me, and eventually old Mother Taisia, who had once been my governess, said: 'Tatiana, do you return

to the world, for there, and only there, will you have a chance of happiness. So to the world I returned and

By now the darkness has ceased to keep spread over us, as it were, the stretched web of a heavy curtain, but

has grown thinner and more transparent with the tension, save that, in places (for instance, in the window of

the hut), it still lies in thick folds or clots as it peers at us with its sightless eyes.

Over the hummocklike roofs of the huts rise the church's steeple and the poplar trees; while hither and

thither on the wall of the hut, the cracks and holes in the crumbling plaster have caused the wall to resemble

Glancing at the woman's dark eyes, I perceive them to be shining as pensively, innocently as the eyes of a

"Perhaps I am," she replies as she moistens her lips with a slender, almost feline tongue.

"I have considered the matter, and know, at last, my mind. It is this: I hope some day to fall in with a good

muzhik with whom to go in search of land. Probably land of the kind, I mean, is to be found in the

neighbourhood of New Athos, [A monastery in the Caucasus, built on the reputed site of a cave tenanted by

Simeon the Canaanite] for I have been there already, and know of a likely spot for the purpose. And there we

shall set our place in order, and lay out a garden and an orchard, and prepare as much plough land as we may

"And when we have put everything in order, other folk may join us; and then, as the oldest settlers in the

place, we shall hold the position of honour. And thus things will continue until a new village, really a fine

settlement, will have become formeda settlement of which my husband will be selected the warden until

such time as I shall have made of him a barin [Gentleman or squire] outright. Also, children may one day

play in that garden, and a summerhouse be built there. Ah, how delightful such a life appears!"

In fact, she has planned out the future so thoroughly that already she can describe the new establishment in as

"Yes, I yearn indeed for a nice home!" she continues. "Oh that such a home could fall to my lot! But the first

Her gentle face and eyes peer into the waning night as though they aspire to caress everything upon which

And all the while I am feeling sorry for hersorry almost to tears. To conceal the fact I murmur:

With a finger tapping upon the mouldy, gnarled old oaken stump on which we are sitting, she adds:

"Somehow they repel me. True, much of everything is theirs; yet also they have ways which alienate me."

"And never ought a woman to be discouraged," she retorts. "Woman's proper round is to wish for a child, and

to nurse it, and, when it has been weaned, to get herself ready to have another one. That is how woman

I find it a pleasure to watch the play of the woman's intellectual features; and though, also, I long to take her

in my arms, I feel that my better plan will be to seek once more the quiet, empty steppe, and, bearing in me

the recollection of this woman, to resume my lonely journey towards the region where the silver wall of the

mountains merges with the sky, and the dark ravines gape at the steppe with their chilly jaws. At the moment,

however, I cannot so do, for the Cossacks have temporarily deprived me of my passport.

"What are you yourself seeking?" she asks suddenly as again she edges towards me.

By this time the cattle are awakening from slumber, and, with their soft lowings, reminding one of a pipe

which I used to hear played by a certain blind old man. Next, four times, with unsteady touch, the drowsy

watchman strikes his gongtwice softly, once with a vigour that clangs the metal again, and a fourth time

"See, dawn is breaking, yet never this night have my eyes closed. Often I am like that; often I keep thinking

and thinking until I seem to be the only human being in the world, and the only human being destined to

"Many folk live unworthy lives. They live them amid discord, abasement, and wrongs innumerable, wrongs

And as the words leave my lips my mind loses itself in recollections of all the dark and harrowing and

"Listen," I say. "You may approach a man with nothing but good in your heart, and be prepared to surrender

both your freedom and your strength; yet still he may fail to understand you aright. And how shall he be

She lays a hand upon my shoulder, and looks straight into my eyes as she parts her comely lips.

"True," she rejoins"But, dear friend, it is also true that goodness never bargains."

Together she and I seem to be drifting towards a vista which is coming to look, as it sloughs the shadow of

night, ever clearer and clearer. It is a vista of white huts, silvery trees, a red church, and dewbespangled

earth. And as the sun rises he reveals to us clustered, transparent clouds which, like thousands of snowwhite

"Yes," she whispers again as gently she gives me a nudge. "As one pursues one's lonely way one thinks and

thinksbut of what? Dear friend, you have said that no one really cares what is the matter. Ah, HOW true

Here she springs to her feet, and, pulling me up with her, glues herself to my breast with a vehemence which

causes me momentarily to push her away. Upon this, bursting into tears, she tends towards me again, and

kisses me with lips so dry as almost to cut meshe kisses me in a way which penetrates to my very soul.

"You have been oh, so good!" she whispers softly. As she speaks, the earth seems to be sinking under my

Then she tears herself away, glances around the courtyard, and darts to a corner where, under a fence, a

Then, with a confused smile, as, crouching among the herbage as though it had been a small cave, she

Astonished, feeling that I must be dreaming, I gaze at her with gratitude, for I sense an extraordinary

lightness to be present in my breast, a radiant void through which joyous, intangible words and thoughts keep

Yet as I glance at the woman's bosom, whereon moist beads are standing like dewdrops on the outer earth; as

I glance at that bosom, whereon the sun's rays are finding a roseate reflection, as though the blood were

oozing through the skin, my rapture dies away, and turns to sorrow, heartache, and tears. For in me there is a

presentiment that before the living juice within that bosom shall have borne fruit, it will have become dried

Presently, in a tone almost of selfexcuse, and one wherein the words sound a little sadly, she continues:

"Times there are when something comes pouring into my soul which makes my breasts ache with the pain of

it. What is there for me to do at such moments save reveal my thoughts to the moon, or, in the daytime, to a

river? Oh God in Heaven! And afterwards I feel as ashamed of myself! . . . Do not look at me like that. Why

"Soon the time will be five o'clock, when the bell will ring for Mass. To Mass I must go today, for I have a

She straightens her attire, and rises. As she does so I perceive that her hips are narrower than her shoulders,

"I? As yet I do not know. True, I had thought of proceeding to Naltchik, but now, perhaps, I shall not do so,

Upon that she extends to me a pair of strong, capable arms, and proposes with a blush:

She clasps me with the one arm, and with the other makes the sign of the cross, adding:

"Goodbye, dear friend, and may Christ requite you for all your words, for all your sympathy!"

"Not so. Never would I consent to such a plan. Of course, had you been a muzhikbut no. Even then what

would have been the use of it, seeing that life is to be measured, not by a single hour, but by years?"

And, quietly smiling me a farewell, she moves away towards the hut, whilst I, remaining seated, lose myself

in thoughts of her. Will she ever overtake her quest in life? Shall I ever behold her again?

The bell for early Mass begins, though for some time past the hamlet has been astir, and humming in a sedate

I enter the hut to fetch my wallet, and find the place empty. Evidently the whole party has left by the gap in

I repair, next, to the Ataman's office, where I receive back my passport before setting out to look for my

In similar fashion to yesterday those "folk from Russia " are lolling alongside the churchyard wall, and also

have seated among them, leaning his back against a log, the fatjowled youth from Penza, with his bruised

face looking even larger and uglier than before, for the reason that his eyes are sunken amid purple

Presently there arrives a newcomer in the shape of an old man with a grey head adorned with a faded velvet

skullcap, a pointed beard, a lean, withered frame, prominent cheekbones, a red, porouslooking, cunningly

"And why are YOU? " the old man retorts in nasal tones as, looking at no one, he proceeds to mend the

"We are travelling in search of work, and therefore living as we have been commanded to live."

"Take heed lest upon you, some day, God vomit all the dust and litter which you are raising by tramping His

"Yes, CHRIST," is the old man's meaning reply as he raises his sharp eyes to those of his opponent. "But

what are you talking of, you fools? With whom are you daring to compare yourselves? Take care lest I report

I have listened to many such arguments, and always found them distasteful, even as I have done discussions

At this moment, however, Konev makes his appearance. His mien is dejected, and his body perspiring, while

"Has any one seen Tankathat woman from Riazan?" he inquires. "No? Then the bitch must have bolted

during the night. The fact is that, overnight, someone gave me a drop or two to drink, a mere dram, but

enough to lay me as fast asleep as a bear in winter time. And in the meantime, she must have run away with

"Oh, he is, is he? Well, as what has the company registered itself? As a set of ikonpainters, I should think!"

Nevertheless, when Mass comes to an end, and, to the sound of a merry peal of bells, the welldressed local

Cossacks file out of church, and distribute themselves in gaudy streams about the hamlet, no Tatiana makes

"Then she IS gone," says Konev ruefully. "But I'll find her yet! I'LL come up with her!"

Five years later I am pacing the courtyard of the Metechski Prison in Tiflis, and, as I do so, trying to imagine

for what particular offence I have been incarcerated in that place of confinement.

Picturesquely grim without, the institution is, inwardly, peopled with a set of cheerful, but clumsy,

humourists. That is to say, it would seem as though, " by order of the authorities," the inmates are presenting

a stage spectacle in which they are playing, willingly and zealously, but with a complete lack of experience,

For instance, today, when a warder and a gendarme came to my cell to escort me to exercise, and I said to

them, " May I be excused exercise today? I am not very well, and do not feel like, etcetera, etcetera," the

gendarme, a tall, handsome man with a red beard, held up to me a warning finger.

"NO ONE," he said, "has given you permission to feel, or not to feel, like doing things."

To which the warder, a man as dark as a chimneysweep, with large blue "whites" to his eyes, added

"To no one here has permission been given to feel, or not to feel, like doing things. You hear that?"

In this stonepaved yard the air is as hot as in an oven, for overhead there lours only a small, flat patch of

dull, drab tinted sky, and on three sides of the yard rise high grey walls, with, on the fourth, the

Over the roof of the building there comes floating the dull roar of the turbulent river Kura, mingled with

shouts from the hucksters of the Avlabar Bazaar (the town's Asiatic quarter) and as a cross motif thrown into

these sounds, the sighing of the wind and the cooing of doves. In fact, to be here is like being in a drum

Through the bars of the double line of windows on the second and the third stories peer the murky faces and

towsled heads of some of the inmates. One of the latter spits his furthest into the yardevidently with the

intention of hitting myself: but all his efforts prove vain. Another one shouts with a mordant expletive:

"Hi, you! Why do you keep tramping up and down like an old hen? Hold up your head!"

Meanwhile the inmates continue to intone in concert a strange chant which is as tangled as a skein of wool

after serving as a plaything for a kitten's prolonged game of sport. Sadly the chant meanders, wavers, to a

high, wailing note. Then, as it were, it soars yet higher towards the dull, murky sky, breaks suddenly into a

snarl, and, growling like a wild beast in terror, dies away to give place to a refrain which coils, trickles forth

from between the bars of the windows until it has permeated the free, torrid air.

As I listen to that refrain, long familiar to me, it seems to voice something intelligible, and agitates my soul

Presently, while pacing up and down in the shadow of the building, I happen to glance towards the line of

windows. Glued to the framework of one of the iron windowsquares, I can discern a blueeyed face.

Overgrown with an untidy sable beard it is, as well as stamped with a look of perpetually grieved surprise.

Konev it isKonev of the wellremembered eyes. Even at this moment they are regarding me with puckered

I throw around me a hasty glance. My own warder is dozing on a shady bench near the entrance. Two more

warders are engaged in throwing dice. A fourth is superintending the pumping of water by two convicts, and

superciliously marking time for their lever with the formula, "Mashkam, dashkam! Dashkam, mashkam!"

"It is," he mutters as he thrusts his head a little further through the grating. "Yes, Konev I am, but who you

"For a matter of base coin, though, to be truthful, I am here accidentally, without genuine cause."

The warder rouses himself, and, with his keys jingling like a set of fetters, utters drowsily the command:

"Do not stand still. Also, move further from the wall. To approach it is forbidden."

"Everywhere it is hot," retorts the man reprovingly, and his head subsides again. From above comes the

"DO I remember her?" Konev's voice has in it a touch of subdued resentment. "DO I remember her? Why, I

"Yes. Why should she not have been? She was merely the victim of an accident, even as I was."

As I resume my walk in the stifling shade I detect that, from the windows of the basement there is issuing a

smell of, in equal parts, rotten leather, mouldy grain, and dampness. To my mind there recur Tatiana's words:

"Amid a great sorrow even a small joy becomes a great felicity," and, "I should like to build a village on

And to my recollection there recur also Tatiana's face and yearning, hungry breast. As I stand thinking of

these things, there come dropping on to my head from above the lowspoken, ashengrey words:

"The chief conspirator in the matter was her lover, the son of a priest. He it was who engineered the plot. He

"Tatiana Vasilievna? To the same, and I also. I leave for Siberia the day after tomorrow. The trial was held at

Kutair. In Russia I should have got off with a lighter sentence than here, for the folk in these parts are, one

"How could she have while living such a rough life as this? Of course not! Besides, the priest's son is a

"So I expect." And in Konev's tone there would seem to be a touch of meaning. "The woman was a foolof

that there can be no doubt; but also she was comely, as well as a person out of the common in her pity for

"Oh no. It was only during the following winter that I came up with her. At the time she was serving as

Something snaps behind mesomething sounding like the hammer of a revolver. However, it is only the

warder closing the lid of his huge watch before restoring the watch to his pocket, giving himself a stretch, and

"You see, she had money, and, but for her restlessness, might have lived a comfortable life enough. As it was,

"Who are you?" adds Konev hastily. "Somehow I seem to remember your face; but 1 cannot place it."

Yet so stung am I with what I have heard that I move away in silence: save that just as I reach the top of the

The corridor is dim, and filled with an oppressive odour. The warder swings his keys with a dry, thin clash,

and I, to dull the pain in my heart, strive to imitate him. But the attempt proves futile; and as the warder

Entering, I move towards the window. Between some grey spikes on a wall I can just discern the boisterous

current of the Kura, with sakli [warehouses] and houses glued to the opposite bank, and the figures of some

workmen on the roof of a tanning shed. Below, with his cap pushed to the back of his head,a sentry is pacing

Wearily my mind recalls the many scores of Russian folk whom it has seen perish to no purpose. And as it

does so it feels crushed, as in a vice, beneath the burden of great and inexorable sorrow with which all life is

In a mountain defile near a little tributary of the Sunzha, there was being built a workman's barraque a low,

The building was approaching completion, and, meanwhile, a score of carpenters were employed in

fashioning thin planks into doors of equal thinness, knocking together benches and tables, and fitting

Also, to assist these carpenters in the task of protecting the barraque from tribesmen's nocturnal raids, the

shrillvoiced young student of civil engineering who had been set in charge of the work had sent to the place,

as watchman, an exsoldier named Paul Ivanovitch, a man of the Cossack type, and myself.

Yet whereas we were outatelbows, the carpenters were sleek, respectable, monied, wellclad fellows.

Also, there was something dour and irritating about them, since, for one thing, they had failed to respond to

our greeting on our first appearance, and eyed us with nothing but dislike and suspicion. Hence, hurt by their

chilly attitude, we had withdrawn from their immediate neighbourhood, constructed a causeway of stepping

stones to the eastern bank of the rivulet, and taken up our abode beneath the chaotic grey mists which

Also, over the carpenters there was a foremana man whose bony frame, clad in a white shirt and a pair of

white trousers, looked always as though it were readyattired for death. Moreover, he wore no cap to conceal

the yellow patch of baldness which covered most of his head, and, in addition, his nose was squat and grey,

his neck and face had over them skin of a porous, pumicelike consistency, his eyes were green and dim, and

upon his features there was stamped a dead and disagreeable expression. To be candid, however, behind the

dark lips lay a set of fine, close teeth, while the hairs of the grey beard (a beard trimmed after the Tartar

Never did this man put a hand actually to the work; always he kept roaming about with the large,

rigidlooking fingers of his hands tucked into his belt, and his fixed and expressionless eyes scanning the

"What on earth can be in the man's mind?" once remarked the ex soldier, with a frowning glance at the

As for our duties, my mates and I had nothing to do, and soon began to find the time tedious. For his part, the

man with the Cossack physiognomy scaled the mountain side; whence he could be heard whistling and

snapping twigs with his heavy feet, while the exsoldier selected a space between two rocks for a shelter of

acerose boughs, and, stretching himself on his stomach, fell to smoking strong mountain tobacco in his large

meerschaum pipe as dimly, dreamily he contemplated the play of the mountain torrent. Lastly, I myself

selected a seat on a rock which overhung the brook, dipped my feet in the coolness of the water, and

At intervals, the defile would convey to our ears a dull echo of sounds so wholly at variance with the locality

as muffled hammer blows, a screeching of saws, a rasping of planes, and a confused murmur of human

Also, a moist breeze blew constantly from the darkblue depths of the defile, and caused the stiff, upright

larches on the knoll behind the barraque to rustle their boughs, and distilled from the rank soil the voluptuous

scents of acerose and pitchpine, and evoked in the trees' quiet gloom a soft, crooning, somnolent lullaby.

About a sazhen [Fathom] below the level of the barraque there coursed noisily over its bed of stones a rivulet

white with foam. Yet though of other sounds in the vicinity there were but few, the general effect was to

suggest that everything in the neighbourhood was speaking or singing a tale of such sort as to shame the

On our own side of the valley the ground lay bathed in sunshine lay scorched to the point of seeming to

have spread over it a tissuecloth. Old gold in colour, while from every side arose the sweet perfume of dried

grasses, and in dark clefts there could be seen sprouting the long, straight spears and fiery, reddish,

coneshaped blossoms of that bold, hardy plant which is known to us as saxifragethe plant of which the

contemplation makes one long to burst into music, and fills one's whole body with sensuous languor.

Laced with palpitating, snowwhite foam, the beautiful rivulet pursued its sportive way over tessellated

stones which flashed through the eddies of the glassy, sunlit, ambercoloured water with the silken sheen of a

Through the mouth of the defile one could reach the valley of the Sunzha, whence, since men were ther,

building a railway to Petrovsk on the Caspian Sea, there kept issuing and breaking against the crags a dull

rumble of explosions, of iron rasped against stone, of whistles of works locomotives, and of animated human

From the barraque the distance to the point where the defile debouched upon the valley was about a hundred

paces, and as one issued thence one could see, away to the left, the level steppes of the CisCaucasus, with a

boundary wall of blue hills, topped by the silverhewn saddle of Mount Elburz behind it. True, for the most

part the steppes had a dry, yellow, sandy look, with merely here and there dark patches of gardens or black

poplar clumps which rendered the golden glare more glaring still; yet also there could be discerned on the

expanse farm buildings shaped like lumps of sugar or butter, with, in their vicinity, toylike human beings and

diminutive cattle the whole shimmering and melting in a mirage born of the heat. And at the mere sight of

those steppes, with their embroidery of silk under the blue of the zenith, one's muscles tightened, and one felt

inspired with a longing to spring to one's feet, close one's eyes, and walk for ever with the soft, mournful

To the right also of the defile lay the winding valley of the Sunzha, with more hills; and above those hills

hung the blue sky, and in their flanks were clefts which, full of grey mist, kept emitting a ceaseless din of

Yet almost at the same moment would that hurlyburly so merge with the echo of our defile, so become

buried in the defile's verdure and rock crevices, that once more the place would seem to be singing only its

And, should one turn to glance up the defile, it could be seen to grow narrower and narrower as it ascended

towards the mists, and the latter to grow thicker and thicker until the whole defile was swathed in a dark blue

pall. Higher yet there could be discerned the brilliant gleam of blue sky. Higher yet one could distinguish the

icecapped peak of Kara Dagh, floating and dissolving amid the ( from here) invisible sunlight. Highest of all

Also, everything was bathed in a strange tint of bluish grey: to which circumstance must have been due the

fact that always one's soul felt filled with restlessness, one's heart stirred to disquietude, and fired as with

intoxication, charged with incomprehensible thoughts, and conscious as of a summons to set forth for some

The foreman of the carpenters shaded his eyes to gaze in our direction; and as he did so, he drawled and

"DID you hear that?" the exsoldier growled through clenched teeth. "'Palm in hand' indeed! Why, the fellow

must be a Mennonite or a Molokan, though the two, really, are one, and absolutely indistinguishable, as well

Similarly could I understand the exsoldier's indignation, for, like him, I felt that such dreary, monotonous

singing was altogether out of place in a spot where everything could troll a song so delightful as to lead one

to wish to hear nothing more, to hear only the whispering of the forest and the babbling of the stream. And

Yet I had no great love for the exsoldier. Somehow he jarred upon me. Middleaged, squat, square, and

bleached with the sun, he had faded eyes, flattenedout features, and an expression of restless moroseness.

Never could I make out what he really wanted, what he was really seeking. For instance, once, after

reviewing the Caucasus from KhassavUrt to Novorossisk, and from Batum to Derbent, and, during the

review, crossing the mountain range by three different routes at least, he remarked with a disparaging smile:

A native of Kaluga, he had served in Tashkend, and, in fighting with the Chechintzes of that region,had been

wounded in the head with a stone. Yet as he told me the story of this incident, he smiled shamefacedly, and,

"Though I am ashamed to confess it," he said, "once a woman chipped a piece out of me. You see, the women

of that region are shrieking devilsthere is no other word for it; and when we captured a village called

AkhalTiapa a number of them had to be cut up, so that they lay about in heaps, and their blood made

walking slippery. Just as our company of the reserve entered the street, something caught me on the head.

Afterwards, I learnt that a woman on a roof had thrown a stone, and, like the rest, had had to be put out of the

"Yet all that folk used to say about those women, about their having beards to shave, turned out to be so

much gossip, as I ascertained for myself. I did so by lifting the woman's skirt on the point of my bayonet,

when I perceived that, though she was lean, and smelt like a goat, she was quite as regular as, as"

"I do not know for certain, since, though men who took an actual part in the expedition's engagements have

said that they were so (the Chechintze is a vicious brute, and never gives in), I myself know but little of the

affair, since I spent my whole time in the reserve, and never once did my company advance to the assault.

No, it merely lay about on the sand, and fired at long range. In fact, nothing but sand was to be seen

thereabouts; nor did we ever succeed in finding out what the fighting was for. True, if a piece of country be

good, it is in our interest to take it; but in the present case the country was poor and bare, with never a river in

sight, and a climate so hot that all one thought of was one's mortal need of a drink. In fact, some of our

fellows died of thirst outright. Moreover, in those parts there grows a sort of millet called dzhugar millet

which not only has a horrible taste, but proves absolutely delusive, since the more one eats of it, the less one

As the exsoldier told me the tale colourlessly and reluctantly, with frequent pauses between the sentences

(as though either he found it difficult to recall the experience or he were thinking of something else), he never

once looked me straight in the face, but kept his eyes shamefacedly fixed upon the ground.

Unwieldily and unhealthily stout, he always conveyed to me the impression of being charged with a vague

"Absolutely unfit for settlement is this country " he continued as he glanced around him. "It is fit only to do

nothing in. For that matter, one doesn't WANT to do anything in it, save to live with one's eyes bulging like a

drunkard's for the climate is too hot, and the place smells like a chemist's shop or a hospital."

Nevertheless, for the past eight years had he been roaming this "too hot" country, as though fascinated!

"Nothing would there be there for me to do," he replied through his teeth, and with an odd division of his

My first encounter with him had been at the railway station at Armavir, where, purple in the face with

excitement, he had been stamping like a horse, and, with distended eyes, hissing, or, rather, snarling, at a

Meanwhile the two lean, withered, ragged, identically similar denizens of Hellas had been baring their sharp

Finally, regardless of the Greeks' words, the exsoldier had beat his breast like a drum, and shouted in

"Now, where are you living? In Russia, do you say? Then who is supporting you there? Ahaaa! Russia, it

And, lastly, he had approached a fat, greyheaded, bemedalled gendarme, and complained to him:

"Everyone curses us born Russians, yet everyone comes to live with usGreeks, Germans, Songs, and the

lot. And while they get their livelihood here, and cat and drink their fill, they continue to curse us. A scandal,

The third member of our party was a man of about thirty who wore a Cossack cap over his left ear, and had a

Cossack forelock, rounded features, a large nose, a dark moustache, and a retrousse lip. When the volatile

young engineering student first brought him to us and said, "Here is another man for you," the newcomer

glanced at me through the lashes of his elusive eyesthen plunged his hands into the pockets of his Turkish

overalls. Just as we were departing, however, he withdrew one hand from the left trouser pocket, passed it

Upon this the newcomer twisted his righthand moustache then replaced his hand in his pocket.

Broadshouldered, sturdy, and wellbuilt throughout, he walked with the stride of a man who is accustomed

to cover long distances. Yet with him he had brought neither wallet nor gripsack, and somehow his

supercilious, retrousse upper lip and thickly fringed eyes irritated me, and inclined me to be suspicious of,

Suddenly, while we were proceeding along the causeway by the side of the rivulet, he turned to us, and said,

The exsoldier hoisted his bleached eyebrows, and gazed around him for a moment in bewilderment. Then he

But, for my own part, I considered that what the man had said was apposite; that the rugged, boisterous little

river did indeed resemble some fussy, lighthearted old lady who loved to arrange affaires du coeur both for

her own private amusement and for the purpose of enabling other folk to realise the joys of affection amid

which she was living, and of which she would never grow weary, and to which she desired to introduce the

Similarly, when we arrived at the barraque this man with the Cossack face glanced at the rivulet, and then at

the mountains and the sky, and, finally, appraised the scene in one pregnant, comprehensive exclamation of "

The exsoldier, who was engaged in ridding himself of his knapsack, straightened himself, and asked with

For a moment or two the newcomer merely eyed the squat figure of his questionera figure upon which

"Cannot you see for yourself? Take that mountain there, and that cleft in the mountain are they not good to

"I have heard that occasionally they send fever patients hither for their health."

The same evening saw two sturdy women arrive with supper for the carpenters; whereupon the clatter of

labour ceased, and therefore the rustling of the forest and the murmuring of the rivulet became the more

Next, deliberately, and with many coughs, the exsoldier set to work to collect some twigs and chips for the

purpose of lighting a fire. After which, having arranged a kettle over the flames, he said to me suggestively:

"You too should collect some firewood, for in these parts the nights are dark and chilly."

I set forth in search of chips among the stones which lay around the barraque, and, in so doing, stumbled

across the newcomer, who was lying with his body resting on an elbow, and his head on his hand, as he

conned a manuscript spread out before him. As he raised his eyes to gaze vaguely, inquiringly into my face, I

Evidently he divined that he interested me, for he smiled. Yet so taken aback by this was I, that I passed on

Meanwhile the carpenters, disposed in two circles around the barraque (a circle to each woman), partook of a

Deeper and deeper grew the shadow of night over the defile. Warmer and warmer, denser and denser, grew

the air, until the twilight caused the slopes of the mountains to soften in outline, and the rocks to seem to

swell and merge with the bluish blackness which overhung the bed of the defile, and the superimposed

heights to form a single apparent whole, and the scene in general to resolve itself into, become united into,

Quietly then did tints hitherto red extinguish their tremulous glowsoftly there flared up, dusted purple in

the sunset's sheen, the peak of Kara Dagh. Vice versa, the foam of the rivulet now blushed to red, and,

seemingly, assuaged its vehemenceflowed with a deeper, a more pensive, note; while similarly the forest

hushed its voice, and appeared to stoop towards the water while emitting ever more powerful, intoxicating

The exsoldier squatted down before the little blaze, and rearranged some fuel under the kettle.

I departed for the purpose, and, on my way, heard one of the carpenters in the neighbourhood of the barraque

True, the women pronounced their words distinctly enough; yet always they prolonged the final "u" sound of

the stanza's first and third lines until, as the melody floated away into the darkness, and, as it were, sank to

In answer to my invitation to come to supper, the newcomer sprang to his feet, folded up his manuscript,

"I had just been going to resort to the carpenters, for they would have given us some bread, I suppose? Long

The same words he repeated on our approaching the exsoldier; much as though he took a pleasure in their

"You suppose that they would have given us bread?" echoed the ex soldier as he unfastened his wallet. "Not

"Us hereyou and myselfall Russian folk who may happen to be in these parts. From the way in which

those fellows keep singing about palms, I should judge them to be sectarians of the sort called Mennonites."

"Or Molokans, rather?" the other man suggested as he seated himself in front of the fire.

"Yes, or Molokans. Molokans or Mennonites they're all one. It is a German faith and though such fellows

Upon this the man with the Cossack forelock took a slice of bread which the exsoldier cut from a loaf, with

an onion and a pinch of salt. Then, as he regarded us with a pair of goodhumoured eyes, he said, balancing

"There is a spot on the Sunzha, near here, where those fellows have a colony of their own. Yes, I myself have

visited it. True, those fellows are hard enough, but at the same time to speak plainly, NO ONE in these parts

has any regard for us since only too many of the sort of Russian folk who come here in search of work are not

"What you say is cant, sheer Jesuitism. It is fellows like THOSE, rather, that ought to have a poor opinion of

To this the other made no replymerely he put a piece of bread into his mouth. For a moment or two the

The last reply came only after a pause, and reluctantly; wherefore, perceiving that the Kurskan had no

particular desire to discuss his own affairs, the exsoldier said no more on the subject, but lifted the kettle

The Molokans also had kindled a blaze behind the corner of the barraque, and now its glow was licking the

yellow boards of the structure until they seemed almost to be liquescent, to be about to dissolve and flow over

Presently, as their fervour increased, the carpenters, invisible amid the obscurity, fell to singing hymnsthe

basses intoning monotonously, " Sing, thou Holy Angel! " and voices of higher pitch responding, coldly and

"Sing ye! Sing glory unto Christ, thou Angel of Holiness! Sing ye! Our singing will we add unto Thine, Thou

And though the chorus failed altogether to dull the splashing of the rivulet and the babbling of the bycut

over a bed of stones, it seemed out of place in this particular spot;it aroused resentment against men who

could not think of a lay more atune with the particular living, breathing objects around us.

Gradually darkness enveloped the defile until only over the mouth of the pass, over the spot where, gleaming

a brilliant blue, the rivulet escaped into a cleft that was overhung with a mist of a deeper shade, was there not

Presently, the gloom caused one of the rocks in our vicinity to assume the guise of a monk who, kneeling in

prayer, had his head adorned with a pointed skullcap, and his face buried in his hands. Similarly, the stems

of the trees stirred in the firelight until they developed the semblance of a file of friars entering, for early

To my mind there then recurred a certain occasion when, on just such a dark and sultry night as this, I had

been seated tale telling under the boundarywall of a row of monastic cells in the Don country. Suddenly I

had heard a window above my head open, and someone exclaim in a kindly, youthful voice:

And though the window had closed again before I had had time to discern the speaker, I had known that there

was resident in the monastery a friar who had large eyes, and a limp, and just such a face as had Vasili here;

wherefore, in all probability it had been he who had breathed the benediction upon mankind at large, for the

reason that moments there are when all humanity seems to be one's own body, and in oneself there seems to

Vasili consumed his food deliberately as, breaking off morsels from his slice, and neatly parting his

moustache, he placed the morsels in his mouth with a curious stirring of two globules which underlay the

The exsoldier, however, merely nibbled at his foodhe ate but little, and that lazily. Then he extracted a

pipe from his breast pocket, filled it with tobacco, lit it with a faggot taken from the fire, and said as he set

"They are filled full, and have started bleating. Always folk like them seek to be on the right side of the

"No, but I do not respect themthey are less saints than humbugs, than prevaricators whose first word is

"How do you know that?" cried Vasili amusedly. "And even if their first word IS God, and their second word

rouble, we had best not be too hard upon them, since if they chose to be hard upon US, where should WE be?

Yes, we have only to open our mouths to speak a word or two for ourselves, and we should find every fist at

" Quite so," the exsoldier agreed as, taking up a square of scantling, he examined it attentively.

"I respect," the exsoldier said with some emphasis, "only the Russian people, the true Russian people, the

folk who labour on land whereon labour is hard. Yet who are the folk whom you find HERE? In this part of

the world the business of living is an easy one. Much of every sort of natural produce is to be had, and the

soil is generous and lightyou need but to scratch it for it to bear, and for yourself to reap. Yes, it is

indulgent to a fault. Rather, it is like a maiden. Do but touch her, and a child will arrive."

"Agreed," was Vasili's remark as he drank tea from a tin mug. "Yet to this very part of the world is it that I

The exsoldier took his pipe from his mouth, let fall the hand which held it, and smoothed his plain features

"Had I not better consider WHY it is my lot, and so forth? Why, damn it, the causes are many. For one thing,

if one has neighbours who neither live nor see things as oneself does, but are uncongenial, what does one do?

One just leaves them, and clears outmore especially if one be neither a priest nor a magistrate. Yet YOU

say that I had better consider why this is my lot. Do you think that YOU are the only man able to consider

And in an access of fury the speaker replaced his pipe, and sat frowning in silence. Vasili eyed his

interlocutor's features as the firelight played red upon them, and, finally, said in an undertone:

"Yes, it is always so. We fail to get on with our neighbours, yet lack a charter of our own, so, having no roots

In answer the exsoldier merely emitted a cloud of smoke which completely concealed his form. Yet Vasili's

voice had in it an agreeable note, and was flexible and ingratiating, while enunciating its words roundly and

A mountain owl, one of those splendid brown creatures which have the crafty physiognomy of a cat, and the

sharp grey ears of a mouse, made the forest echo with its obtrusive cry. A bird of this species I once

encountered among the defile's crags, and as the creature sailed over my head it startled me with the glassy

eyes which, as round as buttons, seemed to be lit from within with menacing fire. Indeed, for a moment or

two I stood half stupefied with terror, for I could not conceive what the creature was.

"Whence did you get that splendid pipe?" next asked Vasili as he rolled himself a cigarette. "Surely it is a

"You need not fear that I stole it," the exsoldier responded as he removed it from his lips and regarded it

"Tell me how it happened," said Vasili softly. Then he flung up his arms, and stretched himself with a

"Ah, these nights here! Never again may God send me such bad ones! Try to sleep as one may, one never

succeeds. Far easier, indeed, is it to sleep during the daytime, provided that one can find a shady spot. During

The exsoldier, who had listened with mouth agape and eyebrows raised even higher than usual, responded

This last was addressed to myself, who had been about to remark, "The same with me also," but on seeing the

pair exchanging a strange glance (as though involuntarily they had surprised one another), had left the words

unspoken. My companions then set themselves to a mutually eager questioning with respect to their

respective identities, past experiences, places of origin, and destinations, even as though they had been two

kinsmen who, meeting unexpectedly, had discovered for the first time their bond of relationship.

Meanwhile the black, fringed boughs of the pine trees hung stretched over the flames of the Molokans' fire as

though they would catch some of the fire's glow and warmth, or seize it altogether, and put it out. And when,

at times, their red tongues projected beyond the corner of the barraque, they made the building look as though

it had caught alight, and extended their glow even to the rivulet. Constantly the night was growing denser and

more stifling; constantly it seemed to embrace the body more and more caressingly, until one bathed in it as

in an ocean. Also, much as a wave removes dirt from the skin, so the softly vocal darkness seemed to refresh

and cleanse the soul. For it is on such nights as that that the soul dons its finest raiment, and trembles like a

"You say that she had a squint?" presently I heard Vasili continue in an undertone, and the exsoldier slowly

"Yes, she had one from childhood upwardsshe had one from the day when a fall from a cart caused her to

injure her eyes. Yet, if she had not always gone about with one of her eyes shaded, you would never have

guessed the fact. Also, she was so neat and practical! And her kindnesswell, it was kindness as

inexhaustible as the water of that rivulet there; it was kindness of the sort that wished well to all the world,

and to all animals, and to every beggar, and even to myself! So at last there gripped my heart the thought,

'Why should I not try a soldier's luck? She is the master's favouritetrue; yet none the less the attempt shall

be made by me.' However, this way or that, always the reply was 'No'; always she put out at me an elbow,

Vasili, lying prone upon his back, twitched his moustache, and chewed a stalk of grass. His eyes were fully

open, and for the second time I perceived that one of them was larger than the other. The exsoldier, seated

near Vasili's shoulder, stirred the fire with a bit of charred stick, and sent sparks of gold flying to join the

midges which were gliding to and fro over the blaze. Ever and anon nightmoths subsided into the flames

with a plop, crackled, and became changed into lumps of black. For my own part, I constructed a couch on a

pile of pine boughs, and there lay down. And as I listened to the exsoldier's familiar story, I recalled persons

whom I had on one and another occasion remembered, and speeches which on one and another occasion had

"But at last," the exsoldier continued, "I took heart of grace, and caught her in a barn. Pressing her into a

corner, I said: 'Now let it be yes or no. Of, course it shall be as you wish, but remember that I am a soldier

with a small stock of patience.' Upon that she began to struggle and exclaim: 'What do you want? What do

you want?' until, bursting into tears like a girl, she said through her sobs: 'Do not touch me. I am not the sort

of woman for you. Besides, I love anothernot our master, but another, a workman, a former lodger of ours.

Before he departed he said to me: "Wait for me until I have found you a nice home, and returned to fetch

you"; and though it is seventeen years since I heard speech or whisper of him, and maybe he has since

forgotten me, or fallen in love with someone else, or come to grief, or been murdered, you, who are a map,

will understand that I must bide a little while longer.' True, this offended me (for in what respect was I any

worse than the other man?); yet also I felt sorry for her, and grieved that I should have wronged her by

thinking her frivolous, when all the time there had been THIS at her heart. I drew back, thereforeI could

not lay a finger upon her, though she was in my power. And at last I said: 'Goodbye! I am going away.' 'Go,'

she replied. 'Yes, go for the love of Christ!' . . . Wherefore, on the following evening I settled accounts with

our master, and at dawn of a Sunday morning packed my wallet, took with me this pipe, and departed. 'Yes,

take the pipe, Paul Ivanovitch,' she said before my departure. 'Perhaps it will serve to keep you in

remembrance of meyou whom henceforth I shall regard as a brother, and whom I thank.' . . . As I walked

away I was very nigh to tears, so keen was the pain in my heart. Aye, keen it was indeed! "

"Things must always so befall. Always must it be a case either of 'Yes?' 'Yes,' and of folk coming together, or

of 'No' 'No,' and of folk parting. And invariably the one person in the case grieves the other. Why should that

"Generally such fortune falls to the lot of people who have tender consciences. He who values himself also

values his fellows; but, unfortunately a man all too seldom values even himself."

"Then you cannot have very much respect for Russia." The ex soldier's tone had taken on a curious note. He

The other, however, did not reply; and after a few moments the exsoldier softly concluded:

By this time the carpenters had ceased singing around the barraque, and let their fire die down until quivering

on the wall of the edifice there was only a fieryred patch, a patch barely sufficient to render visible the

shadows of the rocks; while beside the fire there was seated only a tall figure with a black beard which had,

grasped in its hands, a heavy cudgel, and, lying near its right foot, an axe. The figure was that of a watchman

set by the carpenters to keep an eye upon ourselves, the appointed watchmen; though the fact in no way

Over the defile, in a ragged strip of sky, there were gleaming stars, while the rivulet was bubbling and

purling, and from the obscurity of the forest there kept coming to our ears, now the cautious, rustling tread of

some night animal, and now the mournful cry of an owl, until all nature seemed to be instinct with a secret

vitality the sweet breath of which kept moving the heart to hunger insatiably for the beautiful.

Also, as I lay listening to the voice of the exsoldier, a voice reminiscent of a distant tambourine, and to

Vasili's pensive questions, I conceived a liking for the men, and began to detect that in their relations there

was dawning something good and human. At the same time, the effect of some of Vasili's dicta on Russia

was to arouse in me mingled feelings which impelled me at once to argue with him and to induce him to

speak at greater length, with more clarity, on the subject of our mutual fatherland. Hence always I have loved

that night for the visions which it brought to mevisions which still come back to me like a dear, familiar

I thought of a student of Kazan whom I had known in the days of the past, of a young fellow from Viatka

who, palebrowed, and sententious of diction, might almost have been brother to the ex soldier himself.

And once again I heard him declare that "before all things must I learn whether or not there exists a God;

And I thought, too, of a certain accoucheuse named Velikova who had been a comely, but reputedly gay,

woman. And I remembered a certain occasion when, on a hill overlooking the river Kazan and the Arski

Plain, she had stood contemplating the marshes below, and the far blue line of the Volga; until suddenly

turning pale, she had, with tears of joy sparkling in her fine eyes, cried under her breath, but sufficiently

"Ah, friends, how gracious and how fair is this land of ours! Come, let us salute that land for having deemed

Whereupon all present, including a deaconstudent from the Ecclesiastical School, a Morduine from the

Foreign College, a student of veterinary science, and two of our tutors, had done obeisance. At the same time

I recalled the fact that subsequently one of the party had gone mad, and committed suicide.

Again, I recalled how once, on the Piani Bor [Liquor Wharf] by the river Kama, a tall, sandy young fellow

with intelligent eyes and the face of a ne'erdowell had caught my attention. The day had been a hot,

languorous Sunday on which all things had seemed to be exhibiting their better side, and telling the sun that it

was not in vain that he was pouring out his brilliant potency, and diffusing his living gold; while the man of

whom I speak had, dressed in a new suit of blue serge, a new cap cocked awry, and a pair of brilliantly

polished boots, been standing at the edge of the wharf, and gazing at the brown waters of the Kama, the

emerald expanse beyond them and the silverscaled pools left behind by the tide. Until, as the sun had begun

to sink towards the marshes on the other side of the river, and to become dissolved into streaks, the man had

smiled with increasing rapture, and his face had glowed with creasing eagerness and delight; until finally he

had snatched the cap from his head, flung it, with a powerful throw far out into the russet waters, and

And the last, and also the best, recollection of things seen before the night of which I speak was the

recollection of an occasion when, one late autumn, I had been crossing the Caspian Sea on an old

twomasted schooner laden with dried apricots, plums, and peaches. Sailing on her also she had had some

hundred fishermen from the Bozhi Factory, men who, originally forest peasants of the Upper Volga, had been

wellbuilt, bearded, healthy, goodhumoured, animalspirited young fellows, youngsters tanned with the

wind, and salted with the sea water; youngsters who, after working hard at their trade, had been rejoicing at

the prospect of returning home. And careering about the deck like youthful bears as ever and anon lofty,

sharppointed waves had seized and tossed aloft the schooner, and the yards had cracked, and the tautrun

rigging had whistled, and the sails had bellied into globes, and the howling wind had shaved off the white

And seated on the deck with his broad back resting against the mainmast there had been one young giant in

particular. Clad in a white linen shirt and a pair of blue serge trousers, and innocent alike of beard and

moustache, this young fellow had had full, red lips, blue, boyish, and exceedingly translucent eyes, and a face

intoxicated in excelsis with the happiness of youth; while leaning across his knees as they had rested

sprawling over the deck there had been a young female trimmer of fish, a wench as massive and tall as the

young man himself, and a wench whose face had become tanned to roughness with the sun and wind,

eyebrows dark, full, and as large as the wings of a swallow, breasts as firm as stone, and teats around which,

as they projected from the folds of a red bodice, there had lain a pattern of blue veins.

The broad, ironblack palm of the young fellow's long, knotted hand had been resting on the woman's left

breast, with the arm bare to the elbow; while in his right hand, as he had sat gazing pensively at the woman's

robust figure, there had been grasped a tin mug from which some of the red liquor had scattered stains over

Meanwhile, around the pair there had been hovering some of the youngster's comrades, who, with coats

buttoned to the throat, and caps gripped to prevent their being blown away by the wind, had employed

themselves with scanning the woman's figure with envious eyes, and viewing her from either side. Nay, the

shaggy green waves themselves had been stealing occasional glimpses at the picture as clouds had swirled

across the sky, gulls had uttered their insatiable scream, and the sun, dancing on the foamflecked waters,

had vested the billows, now in tints of blue, now in natural tints as of flaming jewels.

In short, all the passengers on the schooner had been shouting and laughing and singing, while the great

bearded peasants had also been paying assiduous court to a large leathern bottle which had lain ensconced on

a heap of peachsacks, with the result that the scene had come to have about it something of the antique,

At length the buffeting of the wind had caused an old man with a crooked nose set on a hairy, faunlike face

to stumble over one of the woman's feet; whereupon he had halted, thrown up his head with nonsenile vigour,

"May the devil fly away with you, you shameless hussy! Why lie sprawling about the deck like this? See, too,

The woman had not stirred at the wordsshe had not even opened an eye; only over her lips there had

passed a faint tremor. Whereas the young fellow had straightened himself, deposited his tin mug upon the

"Ah, you envy me, do you, Yakim Petrov? Never mind, though you have done no great harm. But run no

risks; do not look for needless trouble, for your day for sucking sugarplums is past."

Whereafter, raising both his hands, the young fellow had softly let them sink again upon the woman's bosom

Then, and only then, had the woman smiled a long, slow smile. And as she had done so everything in the

vicinity had seemed to smile in unison, and to rise and fall in harmony with her bosomyes, the whole

vessel, and the vessel's freight. And at the moment when a particularly large wave had struck the bulwarks,

and besprinkled all on board with spray, the woman had opened her dark eyes, looked kindly at the old man,

and at the young fellow, and at the scene in generalthen set herself to recover her bosom.

"Nay," the young fellow had cried as he interposed to remove her hands. "There is no need for that, there is

Such the memories that came back to my recollection that night. Gladly I would have recounted them to my

companions, but, unfortunately, these had, by now, succumbed to slumber. The ex soldier, resting in a

sitting posture, and snoring loudly, had his back prised against his wallet, his head sloped sideways, and his

hands clasped upon his knees, while Vasili was lying on his back with his face turned upwards, his hands

clasped behind his head, his dark, finely moulded brows raised a little, and his moustache erect. Also, he was

weeping in his sleeptears were coursing down his brown, sunburnt cheeks; tears which, in the moonlight,

had in them something of the greenish tint of a chrysolite or sea water, and which, on such a manly face,

Still the rivulet was purling as it flowed, and the fire crackling; while bathed in the red glow of the flames

there was sitting, bent forward, the dark, stonelike figure of the Molokans' watchman, with the axe at his feet

All the earth seemed to be sleeping as ever the waning stars seemed to draw nearer and nearer. . . .

The slow length of the next day was dragged along amid an inertia born of the moist heat, the song of the

river, and the intoxicating scents of forest and flowers. In short, one felt inclined to do nothing, from morn till

night, save roam the defile without the exchanging of a word, the conceiving of a desire, or the formulating of

At sunset, when we were engaged in drinking tea by the fire, the exsoldier remarked:

"I hope that life in the next world will exactly resemble life in this spot, and be just as quiet and peaceful and

immune from work. Here one needs but to sit and melt like butter and suffer neither from wrong nor anxiety."

"Aye! If I could but feel sure that life in the next world will be like life here, I would pray to God: 'For

"What might suit YOU would not suit ME," Vasili thoughtfully observed. "I would not always live such a life

In every way the evening resembled the previous one; there were to be observed the same luscious flooding

of the defile with dovecoloured mist, the same flashing of the silver crags in the roseate twilight, the same

rocking of the dense, warm forest's soft, leafy treetops, the same softening of the rocks' outlines in the

gloom, the same gradual uplift of shadows, the same chanting of the "matchmaking" river, the same routine

on the part of the big, sleek carpenters around the barraquea routine as slow and ponderous in its course as

More than once during the off hours of the day had we sought to make the carpenters' acquaintance, to start a

conversation with them, but always their answers had been given reluctantly, in monosyllables, and never had

a discussion seemed likely to get under way without the whiteheaded foreman shouting to the particular

member of the gang concerned: " Hi, you, Pavlushka! Get back to work, there! " Indeed, he, the foreman, had

outdone all in his manifestations of dislike for our friendship, and as monotonously as though he had been

minded to rival the rivulet as a songster, he had hummed his pious ditties, or else raised his snuffling voice to

sing them with an everimportunate measure of insistence, so that all day long those ditties had been

coursing their way in a murky, melancholycompelling flood. Indeed, as the foreman had stepped cautiously

on thin legs from stone to stone during his ceaseless inspection of the work of his men, he had come to seem

to have for his object the describing of an invisible, circular path, as a means of segregating us more securely

Personally, however, I had no desire to converse with him, for his frozen eyes chilled and repelled me and

from the moment when I had approached him, and seen him fold his hands behind him, and recoil a step as he

inquired with suppressed sternness, "What do you want?" there had fallen away from me all further ambition

"The old wizard and pilferer! Take my word for it that a lump of piety like that has got a pretty store put

Whereafter, as he lit his pipe and squinted in the direction of the carpenters, he added with stifled wrath:

"It is always so," commented Vasili with a resentment equal to the last speaker's. "Yes, no sooner, with us,

does a man accumulate a little money than he sticks his nose in the air, and falls to thinking himself a real

Upon that (not for the first time) the pair plunged into a discussion which had come so to weary them that

"The word 'faults' is, I consider, an insult," began the ex soldier as he puffed at his pipe. "Besides, you don't

A new sound floated into the defile as from some point on the steppe the sound of a bell summoning folk to

the usual Saturday vigil service. Removing his pipe from his mouth, the exsoldier listened for a moment or

two. Then, at the third and last stroke of the bell, he doffed his cap, crossed himself with punctilious piety,

Vasili looked at him, twisted a lefthand moustache, smoothed it again, regarded for a moment the sky and

"The trouble with me," he remarked in an undertone, "is that I can never remain very long in one

placealways I keep fancying that I shall meet with better things elsewhere, always I keep hearing a bird

"'In the heart of every man'? " he repeated. "Why, such a statement is absurd. For it means, does it not, that

every one of us is an idler, every one of us is constantly waiting for something to turn upthat, in fact, no

one of us is any better than, or able to do any better than, the folk whose sole utterance is 'Give unto us, pray

And again he laughed. Yet his eyes were sorrowful, and as the fingers of his right hand lay upon his knee

The exsoldier frowned and snorted. For my own part, however, I felt troubled for, and sorry for, Vasili.

Presently he rose, broke into a soft whistle, and moved away by the side of the stream.

"His head is not quite right," muttered the exsoldier as he winked in the direction of the retreating figure.

"Yes, I tell you that straight, for from the first it was clear to me. Otherwise, what could his words in

depredation of Russia mean, when of Russia nothing the least hard or definite can be said? Who really knows

her? What is she in reality, seeing that each of her provinces is a soul to itself, and no one could state which

of the two Holy Mothers stands nearest to Godthe Holy Mother of Smolensk, or the Holy Mother of

For a while the speaker sat scraping greasy deposit from the bottom and sides of the kettle; and all that while

he grumbled as though he had a grudge against someone. At length, however, he assumed an attitude of

What then followed, followed as unexpectedly as when, like an evil bird, a summer whirlwind suddenly

sweeps up from the horizon, and discharges a bluishblack cloud in torrents of rain and hail, until everything

That is to say, with much din of whistling and other sounds there now came pouring into the defile, and

began to ascend the trail beside the stream, a straggling procession of some thirty workmen with, gleaming

dully in the hands of their leading files, flagons of vodka, and, suspended on the backs and shoulders of

others, wallets and bags of bread and other comestibles, and, in two instances, poised on the heads of yet

other processionists, large black cauldrons the effect of which was to make their bearers look like

"A vedro [2 3/4 gallons] and a half to the cauldron!" whispered the exsoldier with a computative grunt as he

"Yes, a vedro and a half," he repeated. As he spoke the tip of his tongue protruded until it rested on the

underlip of his halfopened mouth. In his face there was a curiously thirsty, gross expression, and his

attitude, as he stood there, was that of one who had just received a blow, and was about to cry out in

Meanwhile the defile rumbled like a barrel into which heavy weights are being dropped, for one of the

newcomers was beating an empty tin pail, and another one whistling in a manner the tossed echoes of which

drowned even the rivulet's murmur as nearer and nearer came the mob of men, a mob clad variously in black,

grey, or russet, with sleeves rolled up, and heads, in many cases, bare save for their own towsled, dishevelled

locks, and bodies bent with fatigue, or carried stumblingly along on legs bowed outwards. Meanwhile, as the

dull, polyphonous roar of voices swept through the neck of the defile, a man shouted in broken, but truculent,

"I say no! Fiddlesticks! Not a man is there who could drink more than a vedro of 'bloodandsweat' in a

"Aye, a vedro and a half." And the exsoldier, as he repeated the words, spoke both as though he were an

expert in the matter and as though he felt for the matter a touch of respect. Then, lurching forward like a man

pushed by the scruff of the neck, he crossed the rivulet, intercepted the crowd, and became swallowed up in

Around the barraque the carpenters (the foreman ever glimmering among them) were hurriedly collecting

tools. Presently Vasili returnedhis right hand thrust into his pocket, and his left holding his cap.

"Before long those fellows will be properly drunk! " he said with a frown. "Ah, that vodka of ours! It is a

"Thank God for that! If one does not drink one will never really get into trouble."

For a moment he gazed gloomily in the direction of the newcomers. Then he said without moving, without

"You have remarkable eyes, young fellow. Also, they seem familiar to meI have seen them somewhere

before. Possibly that happened in a dream, though I cannot be sure. Where do you come from?"

"No," he remarked. "I have never visited that part of the country, or indeed, been so far from home."

"I must tell you the truth," he said. "I am not a Kurskan at all, but a Pskovian. The reason why I told the

exsoldier that I was from Kursk was that I neither liked him nor cared to tell him the whole truthhe was not

worth the trouble. And as for my real name, it is Paul, not VasiliPaul Nikolaev Silantiev and is so

marked on my passport (for a passport, and a passport quite in order, I have got)."

"For the reason that I am soI can say no more. I look back from a given place, and wave my hand, and am

"Silence!" a threatening voice near the barraque broke in. "I am the foreman here."

"What workmen are these of yours? They are mere sectarians, fellows who are for ever singing hymns."

"Besides, old devil that you are, aren't you bound to finish all building work before the beginning of a

"Yes, and start a riot," was Silantiev's comment as he squatted before the embers of the fire.

Around the barraque, picked out against the yellow of its framework, a number of dark figures were surging

to and fro as around a conflagration. Presently we heard something smashed to piecesat all events, we

heard the cracking and scraping of wood against stone, and then the strident, hilarious command:

"Hold on there! I'LL soon put things to rights! Carpenters, just hand over the saw!"

Apparently there were three men in charge of the proceedings: the one a redbearded muzhik in a seaman's

blouse; the second a tall man with hunched shoulders, thin legs, and long arms who kept grasping the

foreman by the collar, shaking him, and bawling, "Where are your lathes? Bring them out!" (while noticeable

also was a broadshouldered young fellow in a ragged red shirt who kept thrusting pieces of scantling

through the windows of the barraque, and shouting, "Catch hold of these! Lay them out in a row!"); and the

third the exsoldier himself. The lastnamed, as he jostled his way among the crowd, kept vociferating,

"Ahaa, raabble, sectaarians. Yoou would have nothing to say to me, you Seerbs! Yet I say to YOU: Go

along, my chickens, for the reest of us are tiired of you, and come to saay so!"

"What does he want?" asked Silantiev quietly as he lit a cigarette. "Vodka? Oh, THEY'LL give him vodka! . .

Through the blue tobaccosmoke he gazed into the glowing embers; until at last he took a charred stick, and

collected the embers into a heap glowing redgold like a bouquet of fiery poppies; and as he did so, his

handsome eyes gleamed with just such a reverent affection, such a prayerful kindliness, as must have lurked

in the eyes of primeval, nomadic man in the presence of the dancing, beneficent source of light and heat.

"At least I am sorry for such fellows," Vasili continued. "Aye, the very thought of the many, many folk who

A touch of daylight was still lingering on the tops of the mountains, but in the defile itself night was

beginning to loom, and to lull all things to sleepto incline one neither to speak oneself nor to listen to the

dull clamour of those others on the opposite bank, where even to the murmur of the rivulet the distasteful din

There the crowd had lit a huge bonfire, and then added to it a second one which, crackling, hissing, and

emitting coils of bluishtinted smoke, had fallen to vying with its fellow in lacing the foam of the rivulet with

muslinlike patterns in red. As the mass of dark figures surged between the two flares an hilarious voice

Upon which followed a clatter as of the smashing of a drinking vessel, while from the redbearded muzhik

Almost at the same moment the foreman of the carpenters broke his way clear of the crowd, and, carefully

crossing the rivulet by the steppingstones which we had constructed, squatted down upon his heels by the

margin, and with much puffing and blowing fell to rinsing his face, a face which in the murky firelight looked

And when the foreman rose to approach us this proved to be the case, for then we saw that dripping from his

nose, and meandering over his moustache and soaked white beard, there was a stream of dark blood which

"Peace to this gathering!" he said gravely as, pressing his left hand to his stomach, he bowed.

"And we pray your indulgence," was Silantiev's response, though he did not raise his eyes as he spoke. "Pray

Small, withered, and, for all but his bloodstained shirt, scrupulously clean, the old man reminded me of

certain pictures of oldtime hermits, and the more so since either pain or shame or the gleam of the firelight

had caused his hitherto dead eyes to gather life and grow brighteraye, and sterner. Somehow, as I looked at

A cough twisted his broad nose. Then he wiped his beard on the palm of his hand, and his hand on his knee;

whereafter, as he stretched forth the pair of senile, darkcoloured hands, and held them over the embers, he

"No. Merely a man caught me a blow on the bridge of the nose, where the blood flows readily. Yet, as God

knows, he will gain nothing by his act, whereas the suffering which he has caused me will go to swell my

As the man spoke he glanced across the rivulet. On the opposite bank two men were staggering along, and

"Aye, long is it since I received a blow," the old man continued, scanning the two revellers from under his

hand. "Twenty years it must be since last I did so. And now the blow was struck for nothing, for no real

fault.. You see, I have been allowed no nails for the doing of the work, and have been obliged to make use of

wooden clamps for most of it, while battens also have not been forthcoming; and, this being so, it was

through no remissness of mine that the work could not be finished by sunset tonight. I suspect, too, that, to

eke out its wages, that rabble has been thieving, with the eldest leading the rest. And that, again, is not a thing

for which I can be held responsible. True, this is a Government job, and some of those fellows are young, and

young, hungry fellows such as they will (may they be forgiven!) steal, since everyone hankers to get

something in return for a very little. But, once more, how is that my fault? Yes, that rabble must be a regular

set of rascals! Just now they deprived my eldest son of a saw, of a brandnew saw; and thereafter they spilt

Here his small, grey face contracted into wrinkles, and, closing his eyes, he sobbed a dry, grating sob.

Silantiev fidgetedthen sighed. Presently the old man looked at him, blew his nose, wiped his hand upon his

"That is so. You saw me one evening when I visited your settlement for the mending of a thresher."

"Yes, yes. That is where I DID see you. It was you, was it not? Well, do you still disagree with me? "

"See how well I remember your words! You are, I imagine, still of the same opinion?"

And the old man stretched his hands over the fire once more, discoloured hands the thumbs of which were

curiously bent outwards and splayed, and, seemingly, unable to move in harmony with the fingers.

"The land here is easy to work, and makes the people lazy. Who would care to live in such a region? Who

would care to come to it? Much rather would I go and earn a living on difficult land."

The old man paid no heed, but said to Silantievsaid to him with an austere, derisive smile:

"Do you STILL think it necessary to struggle against what has been ordained of God? Do you STILL think

that longsuffering is bad, and resistance good? Young man, your soul is weak indeed: and remember that it

In response Silantiev rose to his feet, shook his fist at the old man, and shouted in a rough, angry voice, a

"All that I have heard before, and from others besides yourself. The truth is that I hold all you

fatherconfessors in abhorrence. "Moreover," (this last was added with a violent oath) "it is not Satan that

Which said, he kicked a stone away from the fire, thrust his hands into his pockets, and turned slowly on his

heel, with his elbows pressed close to his sides. Nevertheless the old man, still smiling, said to me in an

Breaking off short, he turned his head upon his shoulder, and sat listening to some shouting that was going on

across the river. Everyone in that quarter was drunk, and, in particular, someone could be heard bawling in a

Silantiev, stepping lightly from stone to stone, crossed the river. Then he mingleda conspicuous figure

(owing to his apparent handlessness)with the crowd. Somehow, on his departure, I felt ill at ease.

Twitching his fingers as though performing a conjuring trick, the old man continued to sit with his hands

stretched over the embers. By this time his nose had swollen over the bridge, and bruises risen under his eyes

which tended to obscure his vision. Indeed, as he sat there, sat mouthing with dark, bestreaked lips under a

covering of hoary beard and moustache, I found that his bloodstained, disfigured, wrinkled, as it were

"antique" face reminded me more than ever of those of great sinners of ancient times who abandoned this

"I have seen many proud folk," he continued with a shake of his hatless head and its sparse hairs. "A fire may

burn up quickly, and continue to burn fiercely, yet, like these embers, become turned to ashes, and. so lie

smouldering till dawn. Young man, there you have something to think of. Nor are they merely my words.

Ever descending, ever weighing more heavily upon us, the night was as black and hot and stifling as the

previous one had been, albeit as kindly as a mother. Still the two fires on the opposite bank of the rivulet were

Folding his arms upon his breast, the old man tucked the palms of his hands into his armpits, and settled

himself more comfortably. Nevertheless, when I made as though to add more twigs and shavings to the

"Because that would cause the fire to be seen, and bring some of those men over here."

Presently, there approached us through the shimmering fire light on the opposite bank two carpenters with

"But a task ought not to be left unfinished. At dinnertime I sent Olesha to say that none of those fellows had

better be released from work; but released they have been, and now the result is apparent! Presently, when

Every time that the first of the two carpenters inhaled the smoke of my cigarette he spat into the embers,

while the other man, a young fellow as plump as a female baker, sank his towsled head upon his breast as

Next, the clamour across the rivulet subsided for awhile. But suddenly I heard the exsoldier exclaim in

"Hi, do you answer me! How comes it that you have no respect for Russia? Is not Riazan a part of Russia?

"A tavern," the foreman commented quietly; whereafter, turning to me, he added more loudly:

"I say this of such fellows that a tavern... But what a noise those roisterers are making, to be sure!"

"Here, answer me!" was the next shouted utteranceit came from the exsoldier whereupon the old man

Rising, I moved in the direction of the uproar. As I did so, I heard the old man say softly to his companions:

Suddenly there surged towards me from the opposite bank a crowd of men. Belching, hiccuping, and

grunting, they seemed to be carrying or dragging in their midst some heavy weight. Presently a woman's

voice screamed, "Yaavsha!" and other voices raised mingled shouts of "Throw him in! Give him a

The next moment we saw Silantiev break out of the crowd, straighten himself, swing his right fist in the air,

and hurl himself at the crowd again. As he did so the young fellow in the red shirt raised a gigantic arm, and

there followed the sound of a muffled, grisly blow. Staggering backwards, Silantiev slid silently into the

For a moment or two the clamour subsided a little, and during that moment or two one's ears once more

became laved with the sweet singsong of the river. Shortly afterwards someone threw into the water a huge

As I was bending to look at Silantiev some of the men jostled me. Nevertheless, I continued to struggle to

raise him from the spot where, half in and half out of the water, he lay with his head and breast resting against

"You have killed him!" next I shoutednot because I believed the statement to be true, but because I had a

As for the young fellow in the red shirt, he passed me by with a braggart, resentful shout of:

"Well? He had no right to insult me. Why should he have said that I was a nuisance to the whole country?"

Yet all these voices were more sober, more subdued, more restrained than they had been, and presently a little

muzhik whose poll was swathed in a red handkerchief stooped and raised Silantiev's head. But almost as

instantly he let it fall again, and, dipping his hands into the water, said gravely:

At the moment I did not believe the words; but presently, as I stood watching how the water coursed between

Silantiev's legs, and turned them this way and that, and made them stir as though they were striving to divest

themselves of the shabby old boots, I realised with all my being that the hands which were resting in mine

were the hands of a corpse. And, true enough, when I released them they slapped down upon the surface like

Until now, about a dozen men had been standing on the bank to observe what was toward, but as soon as the

little muzhik's words rang out these men recoiled, and, with jostlings, began to vent, in subdued, uneasy

As for myself, I felt stunned and hurt as I seated myself upon the steppingstones; and though everything was

plain to my sight, nothing was plain to my understanding, while in my breast a strange emptiness was

present, save that the clamour of the bystanders aroused me to a certain longing to outshout them all, to send

Presently two other men approached us. In the hand of the first was a torch which he kept waving to and fro

to prevent its being extinguished, and whence, therefore, he kept strewing showers of golden sparks. A

fairheaded little fellow, he had a body as thin as a pike when standing on its tail, a grey, stonelike

countenance that was deeply sunken between the shoulders, a mouth perpetually halfagape, and round,

As he approached the corpse he bent forward with one hand upon his knee to throw the more light upon

Silantiev's bruised head and body. That head was resting turned upon the shoulder, and no longer could I

recognise the once handsome Cossack face, so buried was the jaunty forelock under a clot of blackred mud,

and concealed by a swelling which had made its appearance above the left ear. Also, since the mouth and

moustache had been bashed aside the teeth lay bared in a twisted, truly horrible smile, while, as the most

horrible point of all, the left eye was hanging from its socket, and, become hideously large, gazing,

seemingly, at the inner pocket of the flap of Silantiev's pea jacket, whence there was protruding a white

Slowly the torch holder described a circle of fire in the air, and thereby sprinkled a further shower of sparks

over the poor mutilated face, with its streaks of shining blood. Then he muttered with a smack of the lips:

As he spoke a few more sparks descended upon Silantiev's scalp and wet cheeks, and went out, while the

flare's reflection so played in the ball of Silantiev's eye as to communicate to it an added appearance of death.

Finally the torch holder straightened his back, threw his torch into the river, expectorated after it, and said to

his companion as he smoothed a flaxen poll which, in the darkness, looked almost greenish:

"I will accompany you," he said. Then he added disgustedly as he scraped his foot against a stone:

"How horrible the blood smells! It would seem that my very foot is smeared with it."

With a frown the fairheaded muzhik eyed him, while the foreman returned the muzhik's gaze with a scrutiny

Not only were the pair strangely alike, but both of them strangely resembled wizards, in that both were short

of stature, as sharpfinished as gimlets, and as greentinted by the darkness as tufts of lichen.

And, omitting even to inquire who had been killed, or even to glance at the corpse, or even to pay it the last

salute demanded of custom, the foreman departed down the stream, while in his wake followed the

messenger, a man who kept stumbling as he picked his way from stone to stone. Amid the gloom the pair

The narrowchested, fairheaded little muzhik then raked me with his eyes; whereafter he produced a

cigarette from a tin box, snappedto the lid of the box, struck a match (illuminating once more the face of the

The reply came only after a pause; when the little muzhik asked: " What did you say? I did not quite catch it."

"Well, be they human beings or machinery or lightning or anything else, they are all one. One of my mates

was caught in some machinery at Bakhmakh. Another one had his throat cut in a brawl. Another one was

Carefully though the man counted, he ended by erring in his reckoning to the extent of making his total

"five." Accordingly he recomputed the listand this time succeeded in making the total amount to "seven."

"Never mind," he remarked with a sigh as he blew his cigarette into a red glow which illuminated the whole

of his face. "The truth is that I cannot always repeat the list correctly, just as I should like. Were I older than I

am, I too should contrive to get finished off; for oldage is a far from desirable thing. Yes, indeed! But, as

things are, I am still alive, nor, thank the Lord, does anything matter very much."

"Even now HIS kinsfolk or his wife may be looking for news of him, or a letter from him. Well, never again

will he write, and as likely as not his kinsfolk will end by saying to themselves: 'He has taken to bad ways,

By this time the clamour around the barraque had ceased, and the two fires had burnt themselves out, and

most of the men dispersed. From the smooth yellow walls of the barraque dark, round, knotholes were

gazing at the rivulet like eyes. Only in a single window without a frame was there visible a faint light, while

At this juncture we saw approaching us softly from across the rivulet a young carpenter who wore a

"Would you mind giving me something to smoke?" the carpenter asked. The obscurity caused him to look

"Christ reward you! Today my wife forgot to bring my tobacco, and my grandfather has strict ideas on the

Over the defile the jagged strip of sky which roofed it looked like a river of blue flowing at an immense

height above the nightenveloped earth, and bearing the brilliant stars on its smooth current.

Quieter and quieter was everything growing; more and more was everything becoming part of the night....

Whistling from off the sea, the wind was charged with moist, salt spray, and dashing foaming billows ashore

with their white manes full of snakelike, gleaming black ribands of seaweed, and causing the rocks to rumble

angrily in response, and the trees to rustle with a dry, agitated sound as their tops swayed to and fro, and their

trunks bent earthwards as though they would fain reeve up their roots, and betake them whither the mountains

Over the sea the clouds were hurrying towards the land as ever and anon they rent themselves into strips, and

revealed fathomless abysses of blue wherein the autumn sun burned uneasily, and sent cloudshadows

gliding over the puckered waste of waters, until, the shore reached, the wind further harried the masses of

vapour towards the sharp flanks of the mountains, and, after drawing them up and down the slopes, relegated

There was about the whole scene a louring appearance, an appearance as though everything were contending

with everything, as now all things turned sullenly dark, and now all things emitted a dull sheen which almost

blinded the eyes. Along the narrow road, a road protected from the sea by a line of wave washed dykes,

some withered leaves of oak and wild cherry were scudding in mutual chase of one another; with the general

result that the combined sounds of splashing and rustling and howling came to merge themselves into a single

din which issued as a song with a rhythm marked by the measured blows of the waves as they struck the

"Zmiulan, the King of the Ocean, is abroad!" shouted my fellow traveller in my ear. He was a tall,

roundshouldered man of childishly chubby features and boyishly bright, transparent eyes.

The extent to which the wind buffeted us might have led one to suppose that its primary objective was to

deflect our steps, and turn them in the direction of the mountains. Indeed, at times its pressure was so strong

that we had no choice but to halt, to turn our backs to the sea, and, with feet planted apart, to prise ourselves

against our sticks, and so remain, poised on three legs, until we were past any risk of being overwhelmed

with the soft incubus of the tempest, and having our coats torn from our shoulders.

At intervals such gasps would come from my companion that he might well have been standing on the

dryingboard of a bath. Nor, as they did so, was his appearance aught but comical, seeing that his ears,

appendages large and shaggy like a dog's, and indifferently shielded with a shabby old cap, kept being pushed

forward by the wind until his small head bore an absurd resemblance to a china bowl. And that, to complete

the resemblance, his long and massive nose, a feature grossly disproportionate to the rest of his diminutive

Yet a face out of the common it was, like the whole of his personality. And this was the fact which had

captivated me from the moment when I had beheld him participating in a vigil service held in the

neighbouring church of the monastery of New Athos. There, spare, but with his withered form erect, and his

head slightly tilted, he had been gazing at the Crucifix with a radiant smile, and moving his thin lips in a sort

of whispered, confidential, friendly conversation with the Saviour. Indeed, so much had the man's smooth,

round features (features as beardless as those of a Skopetz [A member of the Skoptzi, a nonOrthodox sect

the members of which "do make of themselves eunuchs for the Lord's sake."], save for two bright tufts at the

corners of the mouth) been instinct with intimacy, with a consciousness of actually being in the presence of

the Son of God, that the spectacle, transcending anything of the kind that my eyes had before beheld, had led

me, with its total absence of the customary laboured, servile, pusillanimous attitude towards the Almighty

which I had generally found to be the rule, to accord the man my whole interest, and, as long as the service

had lasted, to keep an eye upon one who could thus converse with God without rendering Him constant

obeisance, or again and again making the sign of the cross, or invariably making it to the accompaniment of

Again had I encountered the man when I had had supper at the workmen's barraque, and then proceeded to

the monastery's guest chamber. Seated at a table under a circle of light falling from a lamp suspended from

the ceiling, he had gathered around him a knot of pilgrims and their women, and was holding forth in low,

cheerful tones that yet had in them the telling, incisive note of the preacher, of the man who frequently

"One thing it may be best always to disclose," he was saying, "and another thing to conceal. If aught in

ourselves seems harmful or senseless, let us put to ourselves the question: 'Why is this so?' Contrariwise

ought a prudent man never to thrust himself forward and say: 'How discreet am I!' while he who makes a

parade of his hard lot, and says, 'Good folk, see ye and hear how bitter my life is,' also does wrong."

Here a pilgrim with a black beard, a brigand's dark eyes, and the wasted features of an ascetic rose from the

further side of the table, straightened his virile frame, and said in a dull voice:

"My wife and one of my children were burnt to death through the falling of an oil lamp. On THAT ought I to

"What? Again?": until the first speaker, the speaker seated near the corner of the table, launched into the

"That of which you speak may be taken to have been a punishment by God for sin."

"What? For a sin committed by one three years of age (for, indeed, my little son was no more)? The accident

happened of his pulling down a lamp upon himself, and of my wife seizing him, and herself being burnt to

death. She was weak, too, for but eleven days had passed since her confinement."

"No. What I mean is that in that accident you see a punishment for sins committed by the child's father and

This reply from the corner came with perfect confidence. The blackbearded man, however, pretended not to

hear it, but spread out his hands as though parting the air before him, and proceeded hurriedly, breathlessly to

detail the manner in which his wife and little one had met their deaths. And all the time that he was doing so

one had an inkling that often before had he recounted his narrative of horror, and that often again would he

repeat it. His shaggy black eyebrows, as he delivered his speech, met in a single strip, while the whites of his

eyes grew bloodshot, and their dull, black pupils never ceased their nervous twitching.

Presently the gloomy recital was once more roughly, unceremoniously broken in upon by the cheerful voice

"It is not right, brother," the voice said, "to blame God for untoward accidents, or for mistakes and follies

"The main point, the point why MY wife had to be burnt rather than my neighbour's?"

"Oh ho, ho! This man comes to a monastery, and starts railing as soon as he gets there!"

Flashing his eyes angrily, the blackbearded man lowered his head like a bull. Then, thinking better of his

position, and contenting himself with a gesture, he strode swiftly, heavily towards the door. Upon this the

Christloving pilgrim rose with a swaying motion, bowed to everyone present, and set about following his

"It has all come of a broken heart," he said with a smile as he passed me. Yet somehow the smile seemed to

"Yes, and to no purpose does he do so," added the Christloving pilgrim as he halted in the doorway. "All

that he accomplishes by it is to weary himself and others alike. Such experiences are far better put behind

Presently I followed the pair into the forecourt, and near the entrancegates heard a voice say quietly:

"Nevertheless" (the second voice was that of the porter of the monastery, Father Seraphim, a strapping

"Who comes there?" Seraphim inquired as he thrust a hairy and uncouth, but infinitely kindly, face close to

mine. "Oh, it is the young fellow from Nizhni Novgorod! You are wasting your time, my good sir, for the

Beyond the wall of the forecourt the stillness of the autumn night was the languid inertia of a world exhausted

by summer, and the withered grass and other objects of the season were exhaling a sweet and bracing odour,

and the trees looking like fragments of cloud where motionless they hung in the moist, sultry air. Also, in the

darkness the halfslumbering sea could be heard soughing as it crept towards the shore while over the sky lay

a canopy of mist, save at the point where the moon's opallike blur could be descried over the spot where that

blur's counterfeit image glittered and rocked on the surface of the dark waters.

Under the trees there was set a bench whereon I could discern there to be resting a human figure.

A Russian is never adverse to talking about himself. It would seem as though he is never sure of his

personality, as though he is ever yearning to have that personality confirmed from some source other than,

extraneous to, his own ego. The reason for this must be that we Russians live diffused over a land of such

vastness that, the more we grasp the immensity of the same, the smaller do we come to appear in our own

eyes; wherefore, traversing, as we do, roads of a length of a thousand versts, and constantly losing our way,

we come to let slip no opportunity of restating ourselves, and setting forth all that we have seen and thought

Hence, too, must it be that in conversations one seems to hear less of the note of "I am I" than of the note of

"Come, then, namesake. 'I have mortar, and you have water, so together let us paint the town.'"

Murmuring amid the silence could be heard small, light waves that were no more than ripples. Behind us the

busy clamour of the monastery had died down, and even Kalinin's cheery voice seemed subdued by the

influence of the nightit seemed to have in it less of the note of selfconfidence.

"My mother was a wetnurse," he went on to volunteer, and I her only child. When I was twelve years of age

I was, owing to my height, converted into a footman. It happened thus. One day, on General Stepan (my

mother's then employer) happening to catch sight of me, he exclaimed: 'Evgenia, go and tell Fedor' (the

exsoldier who was then serving the General as footman) 'that he is to teach your son to wait at table! The

boy is at least tall enough for the work.' And for nine years I served the General in this capacity. And then,

and thenoh, THEN I was seized with an illness. . . . Next, I obtained a post under a merchant who was then

mayor of our town, and stayed with him twentyone months. And next I obtained a situation in an hotel at

Kharkov, and held it for a year. And after that I kept changing my places, for, steady and sober though I was,

I was beginning to lack taste for my profession, and to develop a spirit of the kind which deemed all work to

be beneath me, and considered that I had been created to serve only myself, not others."

Along the high road to Sukhum which lay behind us there were proceeding some invisible travellers whose

scraping of feet as they walked proclaimed the fact that they were not overused to journeying on foot. Just

as the party drew level with us, a musical voice hummed out softly the line "Alone will I set forth upon the

road," with the word "alone" plaintively stressed. Next, a resonant bass voice said with a sort of indolent

"Aphon or aphonia means loss of speech to the extent of, to the extent ofoh, to WHAT extent, most

"To the extent of total loss of power of articulation," replied a voice feminine and youthful of timbre.

Just at that moment we saw two dark, blurred figures, with a paler figure between them, come gliding into

"That so many names proper to these parts should also be so suggestive. Take, for instance, Mount

Nakopioba. Certainly folk hereabouts seem to have " amassed " things, and to have known how to do so."

"For my part, I always fail to remember the name of Simon the Canaanite. Constantly I find myself calling

"Look here," interrupted the musical voice in a tone of chastened enthusiasm. "As I contemplate all this

beauty, and inhale this restfulness, I find myself reflecting: 'How would it be if I were to let everything go to

At this point all further speech became drowned by the sound of the monastery's bell as it struck the hour.

To the foregoing dialogue my companion had listened with his head tilted to one side, much as though the

dialogue had deflected it in that direction: and now, as the voices died away into the distance, he sighed,

"Clearly those people were educated folk. And see too how, as they talked of one thing and another, there

"Can it be that you did not hear it? Did you not hear one of those people remark: 'I have a mind to surrender

Whereafter, bending forward, and peering at me as a blind man would do, Kalinin added in a halfwhisper:

"More and more are folk coming to think to themselves: 'Now must I forsake everything.' In the end I myself

came to think it. For many a year did I increasingly reflect: 'Why should I be a servant? What will it ever

profit me? Even if I should earn twelve, or twenty, or fifty roubles a month, to what will such earnings lead,

and where will the man in me come in? Surely it would be better to do nothing at all, but just to gaze into

"Ah, THAT man I did not likeI have no fancy at all for fellows who strew their grief about the world, and

leave it to be trampled upon by every chancecomer. For how can the tears of my neighbour benefit me?

True, every man has his troubles; but also has every man such a predilection for his particular woe that he

ends by deeming it the most bitter and remarkable grief in the universeyou may take my word for that."

"Now I must seek my bed," he remarked. "You see, I shall have to leave here very early tomorrow."

Now, the day being a Saturday, I had drawn my week's earnings from the monastery's payoffice just before

the vigil service. Also, Novorossisk did not really lie in my direction. Thirdly, I had no particular wish to

exchange the monastery for any other lodging. Nevertheless, despite all this, the man interested me to such an

extent (of persons who genuinely interest one there never exist but two, and, of them, oneself is always one)

At dawn, therefore, we set forth to foot the road in company. At times I mentally soared aloft, and viewed the

scene from that vantagepoint. Whenever I did so, I beheld two tall men traversing a narrow track by a

seashorethe one clad in a grey military overcoat and a hat with a broken crown, and the other in a drab

kaftan and a plush cap. At their feet the boundless sea was splashing white foam, saltdried ribands of

seaweed were strewing the path, golden leaves were dancing hither and thither, and the wind was howling at,

and buffeting, the travellers as clouds sailed over their heads. Also, to their right there lay stretched a chain of

mountains towards which the clouds kept wearily, nervelessly tending, while to their left there lay spread a

whitelaced expanse over the surface of which a roaring wind kept ceaselessly driving transparent columns

On such stormy days in autumn everything near a seashore looks particularly cheerful and vigorous, seeing

that, despite the soughing of wind and wave, and the swift onrush of cloud, and the fact that the sun is only

occasionally to be seen suspended in abysses of blue, and resembles a drooping flower, one feels that the

apparent chaos has lurking in it a secret harmony of mundane, but imperishable, forcesso much so that in

time even one's puny human heart comes to imbibe the prevalent spirit of revolt, and, catching fire, to cry to

Yes, at such times one desires to taste life to the full, and so to live that the ancient rocks shall smile, and the

sea's white horses prance the higher, as one's mouth acclaims the earth in such a paean that, intoxicated with

the laudation, it shall unfold its riches with added bountifulness and display more and more manifest beauty

under the spur of the love expressed by one of its creatures, expressed by a human being who feels for the

earth what he would feel for a woman, and yearns to fertilise the same to everincreasing splendour.

Nevertheless,words are as heavy as stones, and after felling fancy to the ground, serve but to heap her grey

coffinlid, and cause one, as one stands contemplating the tomb, to laugh in sheer selfderision. . . .

Suddenly, plunged in dreams as I walked along, I heard through the plash of the waves and the sizzle of the

"Is He HOSTILE to them? How could He be? Devils of that kind are devils to themselvesdevils of a decent

sort. Besides, to no one is Christ hostile" .............................. . . . . . . [In the Russian this hiatus occurs as

As though unable any longer to brave the assault of the billows, the path suddenly swerved towards the

bushes on our right, and, in doing so, caused the cloudwrapped mountains to shift correspondingly to our

immediate front, where the masses of vapour were darkening as though rain were probable.

Kalinin's discourse proved instructive as with his stick he from time to time knocked the track clear of

"The locality is not without its perils," once he remarked. "For hereabouts there lurks malaria. It does so

because long ago Maliar of Kostroma banished his evil sister, Fever, to these parts. Probably he was paid to

So thickly was the surface of the sea streaked with cloudshadows that it bore the appearance of being in

mourning, of being decked in the funeral colours of black and white. Afar off, Gudaout lay lashed with foam,

"I say that I know everything about those devils for the reason that for my mother I had a most remarkable

woman, a woman cognisant of each and every species of proverb, anathema, and item of hagiology. You

must know that, after spreading my bed beside the kitchen stove each night, and her own bed on the top of the

stove (for, after her wetnursing of three of the General's children, she lived a life of absolute ease, and did

Here Kalinin halted, and, driving his stick into the ground, glanced back along the path before resuming his

"I may tell you that the General had a niece named Valentina Ignatievna. And she too was a most remarkable

At this moment there came floating over our heads through the dampsaturated air a cormorantone of

those voracious birds which so markedly lack intelligence. And somehow the whistling of its powerful

And each night, as I lay on the floor (I may mention that never did I climb on to the stove, and to this day I

dislike the heat of one), it was her custom to sit with her legs dangling over the edge of the top, and tell me

stories. And though the room would be too dark for me to see her face, I could yet see the things of which she

would be speaking. And at times, as these tales came floating down to me, I would find them so horrible as to

be forced to cry out, 'Oh, Mamka, Mamka, DON'T! . . .' To this hour I have no love for the bizarre, and am

but a poor hand at remembering it. And as strange as her stories was my mother. Eventually she died of an

attack of bloodpoisoning and, though but forty, had become greyheaded. Yes, and so terribly did she smell

after her death that everyone in the kitchen was constrained to exclaim at the odour."

Ever as we proceeded, clinging, fantastic branches kept closing in upon the path, so that we appeared to be

walking through a sea of murmuring verdure. And from time to time a bough would flick us as though to say:

If anything, however, my companion slackened his pace as in measured, singsong accents he continued:

"When Jesus Christ, God's Son, went forth into the wilderness to collect His thoughts, Satan sent devils to

subject Him to temptation. Christ was then young; and as He sat on the burning sand in the middle of the

desert, He pondered upon one thing and another, and played with a handful of pebbles which He had

collected. Until presently from afar, there descried Him the devils Hymen, Demon, Igamon, and

"Drawing near unto Him, they said, 'Pray suffer us to sport with Thee.' Whereupon Christ answered with a

smile: 'Pray be seated.' Then all of them did sit down in a circle, and proceed to business, which business was

to see whether or not any member of the party could so throw a stone into the air as to prevent it from falling

back upon the burning sand. .............................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Christ Himself was the first to throw a stone; whereupon His stone became changed into a sixwinged dove,

and fluttered away towards the Temple of Jerusalem. And, next, the impotent devils strove to do the same;

until at length, when they saw that Christ could not in any wise be tempted, Zmiulan, the senior of the devils,

"'Oh Lord, we will tempt Thee no more; for of a surety do we avail not, and, though we be devils, never shall

"'Aye, never shall ye!' Christ did agree. 'And, therefore, I will now fulfil that which from the first I did

conceive. That ye be devils I know right well. And that, while yet afar off, ye did, on beholding me, have

compassion upon me I know right well. While also ye did not in any wise seek to conceal from me the truth

as concerning yourselves. Hence shall ye, for the remainder of your lives, be GOOD devils; so that at the last

shall matters be rendered easier for you. Do thou, Zmiulan, become King of the Ocean, and send the winds of

the sea to cleanse the land of foul air. And do thou, Demon, see to it that the cattle shall eat of no poisonous

herb, but that all herbs of the sort be covered with prickles. Do thou, Igamon, comfort, by night, all

comfortless widows who shall be blaming God for the death of their husbands? And do thou, Hymen, as the

"'Then cause thou folk to laugh. Only, mark thou, see to it that they laugh not IN CHURCH.'

" 'God go with you!' at length He said. 'Then let folk laugh even in churchbut QUIETLY.'

"In such wise did Christ convert those four evil devils into devils of goodness."

Soaring over the green, bushy sea were a number of old oaks. On them the yellow leaves were trembling as

though chilled; here and there a sturdy hazel was doffing its withered garments, and elsewhere a wild cherry

was quivering, and elsewhere an almost naked chestnut was politely rendering obeisance to the earth.

"Always and everywhere He is so," Kalinin proudly rejoined. "But do you also know what an old woman of

Halting, my strange traveller chanted in a feignedly senile and tremulous voice, as he beat time with his foot:

Each successive line seemed to inspire Kalinin's voice with added youthfulness, until, indeed, the concluding

Suddenly a flash of lightning blazed before us, while dull thunder crashed among the mountains, and sent its

hundredvoiced echoes rolling over land and sea. In his consternation, Kalinin opened his mouth until a set

of fine, even teeth became bared to view. Then, with repeated crossings of himself, he muttered.

"Oh dread God, Oh beneficent God, Oh God who sittest on high, and on a golden throne, and under a gilded

canopy, do Thou now punish Satan, lest he overwhelm me in the midst of my sins!"

Whereafter, turning a small and terrified face in my direction, and blinking his bright eyes, he added with

"Come, brother! Come! Let us run on ahead, for thunderstorms are my bane. Yes, let us run with all possible

speed, run ANYWHERE, for soon the rain will be pouring down, and these parts are full of lurking fever."

Off, therefore, we started, with the wind smiting us behind, and our kettles and teapots jangling, and my

wallet, in particular, thumping me about the middle of the body as though it had been wielding a large, soft

fist. Yet a far cry would it be to the mountains, nor was any dwelling in sight, while ever and anon branches

caught at our clothes, and stones leapt aloft under our tread, and the air grew steadily darker, and the

Once more from the black cloudmasses, heaven belched a fiery dart which caused the sea to scintillate with

blue sapphires in response, and, seemingly, to recoil from the shore as the earth shook, and the mountain

"Oh Holy One! Oh Holy One! Oh Holy One!" screamed Kalinin as he dived into the bushes.

In the rear, the waves lashed us as though they had a mind to arrest our progress; from the gloom to our front

came a sort of scraping and rasping; long black hands seemed to wave over our heads; just at the point where

the mountain crests lay swathed in their dense coverlet of cloud ,there rumbled once more the deafening iron

chariot of the thundergod; more and more frequently flashed the lightning as the earth rang, and rifts cleft

by the blue glare disclosed, amid the obscurity, great trees that were rustling and rocking and, to all

The occasion was a harassing but bracing one, for as the fine bands of rain beat upon our faces, our bodies

felt filled with a heady vigour of a kind to fit us to run indefinitelyat all events to run until this storm of

This was because the fitful illumination of a flash had just shown up in front of us the trunk of an oak tree

which had a large black hollow let into it like a doorway. So into that hollow we crawled as two mice might

"Here there is room for THREE persons," my companion remarked. "Evidently it is a hollow that has been

burnt outthough rascals indeed must the burners have been to kindle a fire in a living tree!"

However, the space within the hollow was both confined and redolent of smoke and dead leaves. Also, heavy

drops of rain still bespattered our heads and shoulders, and at every peal of thunder the tree quivered and

creaked until the strident din around us gave one the illusion of being afloat in a narrow caique. Meanwhile at

every flash of the lightning's glare, we could see slanting ribands of rain cutting the air with a network of

Presently, the wind began to whistle less loudly, as though now it felt satisfied at having driven so much

productive rain into the ground, and washed clean the mountain tops, and loosened the stony soil.

By this time the air was feeling chilly, and a bright grey fog had streamed over us, and wrapped a

semitransparent veil about the gnarled, barrellike trunks with their outgrowing shoots and the few

Far and wide the monotonous din continued to rageit did so until conscious thought began almost to be

impossible. Yet even as one strained one's attention, and listened to the rain lashing the fallen leaves, and

pounding the stones, and bespattering the trunks of the trees, and to the murmuring and splashing of rivulets

racing towards the sea, and to the roaring of torrents as they thundered over the rocks of the mountains, and

to the creaking of trees before the wind, and to the measured thudthud of the waves; as one listened to all

this, the thousand sounds seemed to combine into a single heaviness of hurried clamour, and involuntarily

one found oneself striving to disunite them, and to space them even as one spaces the words of a song.

Nevertheless he had taken far more care than I to make himself comfortable, for he had edged himself right

into the hollow, and, by squatting on his haunches, reduced his frame to the form of a ball. Moreover, the

raindrippings scarcely or in no wise touched him, while, in general, he appeared to have developed to the

full an aptitude for vagrancy as a permanent condition, and for the allowing of no unpleasant circumstance to

debar him from invariably finding the most convenient vantageground at a given juncture. Presently, in fact,

"Yes; despite the rain and cold and everything else, I consider life to be not quite intolerable."

"Not quite intolerable in the fact that at least I am bound to the service of no one save God. For if

disagreeablenesses have to be endured, at all events they come better from Him than from one's own species."

"One loves one's neighbour as the dog loves the stick." To which, after a pause, the speaker added:

It puzzled me to cite a reason offhand, but, fortunately, Kalinin did not wait for an answerrather, he went

"Then let me tell you that it is peculiarly difficult for a footman to love his neighbour."

"Go and be a footman; THEN you will know. In fact, it is never the case that, if one serves a man, one can

Indeed, on every hand there was in progress a trickling and a splashing sound as though the weeping earth

were venting soft, sorrowful sobs over the departure of summer before winter and its storms should arrive.

"Merely through the fact that my walking and walking has brought me hither," was the reply. "For that

"Why NOT, seeing that from one's earliest years one hears of nothing but the Caucasus, the Caucasus? Why,

even our old General used to harp upon the name, with his moustache bristling, and his eyes protruding, as he

did so. And the same as regards my mother, who had visited the country in the days when, as yet, the General

was in command but of a company. Yes, everyone tends hither. And another reason is the fact that the

country is an easy one to live in, a country which enjoys much sunshine, and produces much food, and has a

winter less long and severe than our own winter, and therefore presents pleasanter conditions of life."

"What of the country's people? Oh, so long as you keep yourself to yourself they will not interfere with you."

"What a dullard you are to ask about such simple things! Were you never given any sort of an education?

Then, with a change of subject, and subduing his tone to one of snuffling supplication, he added in the

"'Oh Lord, suffer me not to become bound unto the clergy the priesthood, the diaconate, the tchinovstvo, [The

official class] or the intelligentsia!' This was a petition which my mother used often to repeat."

The raindrops now were falling more gently, and in finer lines and more transparent network, so that one

could once more descry the great trunks of the blackened oaks, with the green and gold of their leaves. Also,

our own hollow had grown less dark, and there could be discerned its smoky, satinbright walls. From those

"It was shepherds that fired the place. See where they dragged in hay and dead leaves! A shepherd's fife

Lastly, clasping his head as though he were about to fall asleep, he sank his chin between his knees, and

Presently a brilliant, sinuous little rivulet which had long been laving the bare roots of our tree brought

"How pretty," I thought, "that leaf will look from a distance when reposing on the surface of the sea! For, like

the sun when he is in solitary possession of the heavens, that leaf will stand out against the blue, silky

After awhile my companion began, catlike, to purr to himself a song. Its melody, the melody of "the moon

Kalinin straightened himself, gave a wriggle to a form that was as lithe as a lizard's, and passed one hand over

"It is a certain composition," he replied presently. "It is a composition that was composed by a military clerk

who afterwards died of consumption. He was my friend his life long, and my only friend, and a true one,

Evidently Kalinin had no particular wish to discuss the subject, for he hugged himself together, buried his

"I should like to kindle a fire, were it not that everything in the place is too damp for the purpose."

The wind shook the trees, and whistled despondently, while the fine, persistent rain still whipped the earth.

sang Kalinin softly as, flinging up his head with an unexpected movement, he added meaningly:

"Yes, it is a mournful song, a song which could move to tears. Only to two persons has it ever been known; to

my friend the clerk and to myself. Yes, and to HER, though I need hardly add that at once she forgot it."

"I think that, as a young man, you had better learn forthwith where the greatest danger lurks in life. Let me

And upon that a very human tale filtered through the silken monotonous swish of the downpour, with, for

"Lukianov was NEVER in love with her," he narrated. "Only I was that. All that Lukianov did in the matter

was to write, at my request, some verses. When she first appeared on the scene (I mean Valentina Ignatievna)

I was just turned nineteen years of age; and the instant that my eyes fell upon her form I realised that in her

alone lay my fate, and my heart almost stopped beating, and my vitality stretched out towards her as a speck

of dust flies towards a fire. Yet all this I had to conceal as best I might; with the result that in the company's

presence I felt like a sentry doing guard duty in the presence of his commanding officer. But at last, though I

strove to pull myself together, to steady myself against the ferment that was raging in my breast, something

happened. Valentina Ignatievna was then aged about twentyfive, and very beautifulmarvellous, in fact!

Also, she was an orphan, since her father had been killed by the Chechentzes, and her mother had died of

smallpox at Samarkand. As regards her kinship with the General, she stood to him in the relation of niece by

marriage. Goldenlocked, and as skinfair as enamelled porcelain, she had eyes like emeralds, and a figure

wholly symmetrical, though as slim as a wafer. For bedroom she had a little corner apartment situated next to

the kitchen (the General possessed his own house, of course), while, in addition, they allotted her a bright

little boudoir in which she disposed her curios and knickknacks, from cutglass bottles and goblets to a

copper pipe and a glass ring mounted on copper. This ring, when turned, used to emit showers of glittering

sparks, though she was in no way afraid of them, but would sing as she made them dance:

"'Alexei, please never touch anything in my room, for my things are too fragile.'

"Meanwhile her song about 'Not for me' used to make me feel sorry for her. 'Not for you? ' I used to say to

myself. 'Ought not EVERYTHING to be for you? ' And this reflection would cause my heart to yearn and

stretch towards her. Next, I bought a guitar, an instrument which I could not play, and took it for instruction

to Lukianov, the clerk of the Divisional Staff, which had its headquarters in our street. In passing I may say

that Lukianov was a little Jewish convert with dark hair, sallow features, and gimletsharp eyes, but beyond

all things a fellow with brains, and one who could play the guitar unforgettably.

"Once he said: 'In life all things are attainablenothing need we lose for want of trying. For whence does

everything come? From the plainest of mankind. A man may not be BORN in the rank of a general, but at

least he may attain to that position. Also, the beginning and ending of all things is woman. All that she

requires for her captivation is poetry. Hence, let me write you some verses, that you may tender them to her

"These, mind you, were the words of a man in whom the heart was absolutely single, absolutely

Until then Kalinin had told his story swiftly, with animation; but thereafter he seemed, as it were, to become

extinguished. After a pause of a few seconds he continuedcontinued in slower, to all appearances more

"At the time I believed what Lukianov said, but subsequently I came to see that things were not altogether as

he had representedthat woman is merely a delusion, and poetry merely fiddlefaddle; and that a man

cannot escape his fate, and that, though good in war, boldness is, in peace affairs, but naked effrontery. In

this, brother, lies the chief, the fundamental law of life. For the world contains certain people of high station,

and certain people of low; and so long as these two categories retain their respective positions, all goes well;

but as soon as ever a man seeks to pass from the upper category to the inferior category, or from the inferior

to the upper, the fat falls into the fire, and that man finds himself stuck midway, stuck neither here nor there,

and bound to abide there for the remainder of his life, for the remainder of his life. . . . Always keep to your

own position, to the position assigned you by fate.. . . . Will the rain NEVER cease, think you?"

By this time, as a matter of fact, the raindrops. were falling less heavily and densely than hitherto, and the wet

clouds were beginning to reveal bright patches in the moisturesoaked firmament, as evidence that the sun

"As I have said, I trusted Lukianov implicitly, and begged of him to write the verses. And write them he

didhe wrote them the very next day. True, at this distance of time I have forgotten the words in their

entirety, but at least I remember that there occurred in them a phrase to the effect that 'for days and weeks

have your eyes been consuming my heart in the fire of love, so pity me, I pray.' I then proceeded to copy out

"The next morning, when I was tidying her boudoir, she made an unexpected entry, and, clad in a loose, red

dressinggown, and holding a cigarette between her lips, said to me with a kindly smile as she produced my

"'What a pity that such a fancy should have entered your head! For, you see, I am engaged alreadymy

uncle is intending to marry me to Doctor Kliachka, and I am powerless in the matter.'

"The very fact that she could address me with so much sympathy and kindness struck me dumb. As regards

Doctor Kliachka, I may mention that he was a goodlooking, blotchyfaced, heavyjowled fellow with a

moustache that reached to his shoulders, and lips that were for ever laughing and vociferating. 'Nothing has

"Nay, even the General could, at times, make sport of the fellow, and say as he shook with merriment:

"Now, at the period of which I am speaking I was as straight as a dart, and had a shock of luxuriant hair over

a set of ruddy features. Also, I was living a life clean in every way, and maintaining a cautious attitude

towards womenfolk, and holding prostitutes in a contempt born of the fact that I had higher views with regard

to my life's destiny. Lastly, I never indulged in liquor, for I actually disliked it, and gave way to its influence

only in days subsequent to the episode which I am narrating. Yes, and, last of all, I was in the habit of taking

"The same evening Kliachka and the rest of the party went out to the theatre (for, naturally, the General had

horses and a carriage of his own), and I, for my part, went to inform Lukianov of what had happened.

"He said: 'I must congratulate you, and am ready to wager you two bottles of beer that your affair is as good

as settled. In a few seconds a fresh lot of verses shall be turned out, for poetry constitutes a species of

"And, sure enough, he then and there composed the piece about 'the wondrous Valentina.' What a tender

And, with a thoughtful shake of his bead, Kalinin raised his boyish eyes towards the blue patches in the

"Duly she found the verses," he continued after a while, and with a vehemence that seemed wholly

"She was but halfdressed, and practically the whole of her bosom was visible to my sight. Also, her naked

feet had on them only slippers, and as she sat in her chair she kept rocking one foot to and fro in a maddening

"'What am I to say about it, at length I replied, 'save that I feel as though I were not really existing on earth?'

"I noddednothing else could I compass, for further speech had become impossible. Whereupon, rising with

brows puckered, she fetched a couple of small phials, and, with the aid of ingredients thence, mixed a powder

"'Only one way of escape offers from the Plagues of Egypt. Here I have a certain powder. Tonight the doctor

is to dine with us. Place the powder in his soup, and within a few days I shall be free!yes, free for you!'

"I crossed myself, and duly took from her the paper, whilst a mist rose, and swam before my eyes, as I did so,

and my legs became perfectly numb. What I next did I hardly know, for inwardly I was swooning. Indeed,

until Kliachka's arrival the same evening I remained practically in a state of coma."

Here Kalinin shudderedthen glanced at me with drawn features and chattering teeth, and stirred uneasily.

"Suppose we light a fire?" he ventured. "I am growing shivery all over. But first we must move outside."

The torn clouds were casting their shadows wearily athwart the sodden earth and glittering stones and

silverdusted herbage. Only on a single mountain top had a blur of mist settled like an arrested avalanche,

and was resting there with its edges steaming. The sea too had grown calmer under the rain, and was

splashing with more gentle mournfulness, even as the blue patches in the firmament had taken on a softer,

warmer look, and stray sunbeams were touching upon land and sea in turn, and, where they chanced to fall

upon herbage, causing pearls and emeralds to sparkle on every leaf, and kaleidoscopic tints to glow where the

darkblue sea reflected their generous radiance. Indeed, so goodly, so full of promise, was the scene that one

might have supposed autumn to have fled away for ever before the wind and the rain, and beneficent summer

Presently through the moist, squelching sound of our footsteps, and the cheerful patter of the raindrippings,

"When, that evening, I opened the door to the doctor I could not bring myself to look him in the faceI

could merely hang my head; whereupon, taking me by the chin, and raising it, he inquired:

"Yes, a kindhearted man was he, and one who had never failed to tip me well, and to speak to me with as

"'Come, come!' was his interjection. 'After dinner I must look you over, and in the meanwhile, do keep up

"Then I realised that poison him I could not, but that the powder must be swallowed by myselfyes, by

myself! Aye, over my heart a flash of lightning had gleamed, and shown me that now I was no longer

"Rushing away to my room, I poured out a glass of water, and emptied into it the powder; whereupon the

water thickened, fizzed, and became topped with foam. Oh, a terrible moment it was! . . . Then I drank the

mixture. Yet no burning sensation ensued, and though I listened to my vitals, nothing was to be heard in that

quarter, but, on the contrary, my head began to lighten, and I found myself losing the sense of selfpity

which had brought me almost to the point of tears. . . . Shall we settle ourselves here?"

Before us a large stone, capped with green moss and climbing plants, was goodhumouredly thrusting

upwards a broad, flat face beneath which the body had, like that of the hero Sviatogov, sunken into the earth

through its own weight until only the face, a visage worn with aeons of meditation, was now visible. On

every side, also, had oaktrees overgrown and encompassed the bulk of the projection, as though they too

had been made of stone, with their branches drooping sufficiently low to brush the wrinkles of the ancient

monolith. Kalinin seated himself on his haunches under the overhanging rim of the stone, and said as he

Whereafter, further withdrawing his spare frame under the stone, so that he might stretch himself at full

"I walked to the pantry quietly enough, though my legs were tottering beneath me, and I had a cold sensation

in my breast. Suddenly I heard the diningroom echo to a merry peal of laughter from Valentina Ignatievna,

"'Ah, that man! Ah, these servants of ours! Why, the fellow would do ANYTHING for a piatak '[A silver

Here, closing his eyes, Kalinin remained silent for a moment, whilst the moist breeze sighed as it drove

"At first my feeling was one of overwhelming joy at the thought that at least not DEATH was to be my fate.

For I may tell you that, so far from being harmful, soda and tartaric acid are frequently taken as a remedy

against drunken headache. Then the thought occurred to me: 'But, since I am not a tippler, why should such a

joke have been played upon ME?' However, from that moment I began to feel easier, and when the company

had sat down to dinner, and, amid a general silence, I was handing round the soup, the doctor tasted his

"' Ah!' I inwardly reflected. 'Soon, good gentlefolk, you will see how your jest has miscarried.'

Upon this the General and his wife, who were still in ignorance that the jest had gone amiss, began to titter,

but the others said nothing, though Valentina Ignatievna's eyes grew rounder and rounder, until in an

Kalinin's small face had become painfully contracted, and grown old and haggardlooking. Rolling over on

to his breast before the languishing fire, he waved a hand to dissipate the smoke which was lazily drifting

"For seventeen days did I remain stretched on a sickbed, and was attended by the doctor in person. One day,

"Yes, merely THAT was what he called mea 'foolish fellow.' Yet indeed, what was I to him? Only an

entity which might become food for dogs, for all he cared. Nor did Valentina Ignatievna herself pay me a

single visit, and my eyes never again beheld her. Before long she and Dr. Kliachka were duly married, and

departed to Kharkov, where he was assigned a post in the Tchuguerski Camp. Thus only the General

remained. Rough and ready, he was, nevertheless, old and sensible, and for that reason, did not matter;

wherefore I retained my situation as before. On my recovery, he sent for me, and said in a tone of reproof:

"'Look here. You are not wholly an idiot. What has happened is that those vile books of yours have corrupted

your mind' (as a matter of fact, I had never read a book in my life, since for reading I have no love or

inclination). 'Hence you must have seen for yourself that only in tales do clowns marry princesses. You

know, life is like a game of chess. Every piece has its proper move on the board, or the game could not be

Kalinin rubbed his hands over the fire (slender, nonworkmanlike hands they were), and winked and smiled.

"I took the General's words very seriously, and proceeded to ask myself: 'To what do those words amount?

To this: that though I may not care actually to take part in the game, I need not waste my whole existence

through a disinclination to learn the best use to which that existence can be put.'

"So, brother, I set myself to WATCH the game in question; with the result that soon I discovered that the

majority of men live surrounded with a host of superfluous commodities which do but burden them, and have

in themselves no real value. What I refer to is books, pictures, china, and rubbish of the same sort. Thought I

to myself: 'Why should I devote my life to tending and dusting such commodities while risking, all the time,

their breakage? No more of it for me! Was it for the tending of such articles that my mother bore me amid the

agonies of childbirth? Is it an existence of THIS kind that must be passed until the tomb be reached? No,

noa thousand times no! Rather will I, with your good leave, reject altogether the game of life, and subsist

Now, as Kalinin spoke, his eyes emitted green sparks, and as he waved his hands over the fire, as though to

"Of course, not all at a stroke did I arrive at this conclusion; I did so but gradually. The person who finally

confirmed me in my opinion was a friar of Baku, a sage of preeminent wisdom, through his saying to me:

'With nothing at all ought a man to fetter his soul. Neither with bondservice, nor with property, nor with

womankind, nor with any other concession to the temptations of this world ought he to constrain its action.

Rather ought he to live alone, and to love none but Christ. Only this is true. Only this will be for ever lasting.'

"And," added Kalinin with animation and inflated cheeks and flushed, suppressed enthusiasm, "many lands

and many peoples have I seen, and always have I found (particularly in Russia) that many folk already have

reached an understanding of themselves, and, consequently, refused any longer to render obeisance to

absurdities. 'Shun evil, and you will evolve good.' That is what the friar said to me as a parting wordthough

long before our encounter had I grasped the meaning of the axiom. And that axiom I myself have since

True enough, that luminary, large and round, was declining into rather, towardsthe sea, while suspended

"Soon nightfall will be overtaking us," continued Kalinin as he fumbled in his kaftan. "And in these parts

In particular did I notice three clouds that looked like Turks in white turbans and robes of a dusky red colour.

And as these cloud Turks bent their heads together in private converse, suddenly there swelled up on the back

of one of the figures a hump, while on the turban of a second there sprouted forth a pale pink feather which,

becoming detached from its base, went floating upwards towards the zenith and the now rayless, despondent,

moonlike sun. Lastly the third Turk stooped forward over the sea to screen his companions, and as he did so,

developed a huge red nose which comically seemed to dip towards, and sniff at, the waters.

"Sometimes," continued Kalinin's even voice through the crackling and hissing of the wood fire, "a man who

is old and blind may cobble a shoe better than cleverer men than he, can order their whole lives."

But no longer did I desire to listen to Kalinin, for the threads which had drawn me, bound me, to his

personality had now parted. All that I desired to do was to contemplate in silence the sea, while thinking of

some of those subjects which at eventide never fail to stir the soul to gentle, kindly emotion. Bombers,

"Nowadays everybody is a busybody. Nowadays everyone inquires of his fellowman, 'How is your life

ordered?' To which always there is added didactically, 'But you ought not to live as you are doing. Let me

show you the way.' As though anyone can tell me how best my life may attain full development, seeing that

no one can possibly have such a matter within his knowledge! Nay, let every man live as best he pleases,

without compulsion. For instance, I have no need of you. In return, it is not your business either to require or

to expect aught of me. And this I say though Father Vitali says the contrary, and avers that throughout should

In the vague, wide firmament a bloodred cluster of clouds was hanging, and as I contemplated it there

occurred to me the thought, "May not those clouds be erstwhile righteous worldfolk who are following an

unseen path across that expanse, and dyeing it red with their good blood as they go, in order that the earth

To right and left of that strip of living flame the sea was of a curious wine tint, while further off, rather, it was

as soft and black as velvet, and in the remote east sheetlightning was flashing even as though some giant

hand were fruitlessly endeavouring to strike a match against the sodden firmament.

Meanwhile Kalinin continued to discourse with enthusiasm on the subject of Father Vitali, the Labour

Superintendent of the monastery of New Athos, while describing in detail the monk's jovial, clever features

with their pearly teeth and contrasting black and silver beard. In particular he related how once Vitali had

knitted his fine, almost womanlike eyes, and said in a bass which stressed its "o's":

"On our first arrival here, we found in possession only prehistoric chaos and demoniacal influence.

Everywhere had clinging weeds grown to rankness; everywhere one found one's feet entangled among

bindweed and other vegetation of the sort. And now see what beauty and joy and comfort the hand of man

And, having thus spoken, the monk had traced a great circle with his eye and doughty hand, a circle which

had embraced as in a frame the mount, and the gardens fashioned and developed by ridgings of the rock, and

the downy soil which had been beaten into those ridgings, and the silver streak of waterfall playing almost at

Vitali's feet, and the stonehewn staircase leading to the cave of Simeon the Canaanite, and the gilded

cupolas of the new church where they had stood flashing in the noontide sun, and the snowwhite,

shimmering blocks of the guesthouse and the servants' quarters, and the glittering fishponds, and the trees of

"Brethren," the monk had said in triumphant conclusion, "wheresoever man may be, he will, as he so desires,

"And then I pressed him further," Kalinin added. " Yes, I said to him: 'Nevertheless Christ, our Lord, was not

like you, for He was homeless and a wanderer. He was one who utterly rejected your life of intensive

cultivation of the soil'" (as he related the incident Kalinin gave his head sundry jerks from side to side which

made his ears flap, to and fro). "'Also neither for the lowly alone nor for the exalted alone did Christ exist.

Rather, He, like all great benefactors, was one who had no particular leaning. Nay, even when He was

roaming the Russian Land in company with Saints Yuri and Nikolai, He always forbore to intrude Himself

into the villages' affairs, just as, whenever His companions engaged in disputes concerning mankind, He

never failed to maintain silence on the subject.' Yes, thus I plagued Vitali until he shouted at my head, 'Ah,

By this time, the air under the lee of the stone was growing smoky and oppressive, for the fire, with its flames

looking like a bouquet compounded of red poppies or azaleas and blooms of an aureate tint, had begun fairly

to live its beautiful existence, and was blazing, and diffusing warmth, and laughing its bright, cheerful,

intelligent laugh. Yet from the mountains and the cloudmasses evening was descending, as the earth emitted

profound gasps of humidity, and the sea intoned its vague, thoughtful, resonant song.

Previously to this, Kalinin had squatted down upon his haunches, and taken some bread and a few pears from

his wallet; but now, on hearing my decision, he replaced the viands in his receptacle, snappedto the lid of it

"Because I wanted to have a talk with youI had found you an interesting character."

"Perhaps you have." After which utterance, doubtfully drawled, the speaker added more sticks to the fire.

Eventide was falling with tardy languor, but, as yet, the sun, though become a gigantic, dull, red lentil in

appearance, was not hidden, and the waves were still powerless to besprinkle his downward road of fire.

Presently, however, he subsided into a cloud bank; whereupon darkness flooded the earth like water poured

from an empty basin, and the great kindly stars shone forth, and the nocturnal profundity, enveloping the

"Goodbye!" I said as I pressed my companion's small, yielding hand: whereupon he looked me in the eyes

So we set forth once more to traverse the land which I, so alien to its inhabitants, yet so at one with all that it

contained, loved so dearly, and of which I yearned to fertilise the life in return for the vitality with which it

For daily, the threads with which my heart was bound to the world at large were growing more numerous;

daily my heart was storing up something which had at its root a sense of love for life, of interest in my

And that evening,as we proceeded on our way, the sea was singing its vespertinal hymn, the rocks were

rumbling as the water caressed them, and on the furthermost edge of the dark void there were floating dim

white patches where the sunset's glow had not yet faded though already stars were glowing in the zenith.

Meanwhile every slumbering treetop was aquiver, and as I stepped across the scattered rainpools, their

Yes, that night I was a torch unto myself, for in my breast a red flame was smouldering like a living beacon,

and leading me to long that some frightened, belated wayfarer should, as it were, sight my little speck of

One evening I was sauntering along a soft, grey, dusty track between two breasthigh walls of grain. So

narrow was the track that here and there tarbesmeared cars were lyingtangled, broken, and crushedin

Field mice squeaked as a heavy car first swayedthen bent forwards towards the sunbaked earth. A

number of martins and swallows were flitting in the sky, and constituting a sign of the immediate proximity

of dwellings and a river; though for the moment, as my eyes roved over the sea of gold, they encountered

naught beyond a belfry rising to heaven like a ship's mast, and some trees which from afar looked like the

dark sails of a ship. Yes, there was nothing else to be seen save the brocaded, undulating steppe where gently

it sloped away southwestwards. And as was the earth's outward appearance, so was that of the skyequally

Invariably, the steppe makes one feel like a fly on a platter. Invariably, it inclines one to believe, when the

centre of the expanse is reached, that the earth lies within the compass of the sky, with the sun embracing it,

Presently the sun's huge, rosyred disk impinged upon the blue shadows of the horizon before preparing to

sink into a snowwhite cloudbank; and as it did so it bathed the ears of grain around me in radiance and

caused the cornflowers to seem the darker by comparison; and the stillness, the herald of night, to accentuate

Fanwise then spread the ruddy beams over the firmament; and, in so doing, they cast upon my breast a shaft

of light like Moses' rod, and awoke therein a flood of calm, but ardent, sentiments which set me longing to

embrace all the evening world, and to pour into its ear great, eloquent, and never previously voiced,

Now, too, the firmament began to spangle itself with stars; and since the earth is equally a star, and is peopled

with humankind, I found myself longing to traverse every road throughout the universe, and to behold,

dispassionately, all the joys and sorrows of life, and to join my fellows in drinking honey mixed with gall.

Yet also there was upon me a feeling of hunger, for not since the morning had my wallet contained a morsel

of food. Which circumstance hindered the process of thought, and intermittently vexed me with the reflection

that, rich though is the earth, and much thence though humanity has won by labour, a man may yet be forced

Suddenly the track swerved to the right, and as the walls of grain opened out before me, there lay revealed a

steppe valley, with, flowing at its bottom, a blue rivulet, and spanning the rivulet, a newlyconstructed bridge

which, with its reflection in the water, looked as yellow as though fashioned of rope. On the further side of

the rivulet some seven white huts lay pressed against a small declivity that was crowned with a cattlefold,

and amid the silvergrey trunks of some tall black poplars whose shadows, where they fell upon the hamlet,

seemed as soft as down a kneehaltered horse, was stumping with swishing tail. And though the air, redolent

of smoke and tar and hemp ensilage, was filled with the sounds of poultry cackling and a baby crying during

the process of being put to bed, the hubbub in no way served to dispel the illusion that everything in the

valley was but part of a sketch executed by an artistic hand, and cast in soft tints which the sun had since

In the centre of the semicircle of huts there stood a brick kiln, and next to it, a high, narrow red chapel

which resembled a oneeyed watchman. And as I stood gazing at the scene in general, a crane stooped with a

faint and raucous cry, and a woman who had come out to draw water looked as though, as she raised bare

arms to stretch herself upwards cloudlike, and whiterobed from head to foot she were about to float

Also, near the brickkiln there lay a patch of black mud in the glistening, crumpledvelvet blue substance of

which two urchins of five and three were, breechless, and naked from the waist upwards, kneading yellow

feet amid a silence as absorbed as though their one desire in life had been to impregnate the mud with the red

radiance of the sun. And so much did this laudable task interest me, and engage my sympathy and attention,

that I stopped to watch the strapping youngsters, seeing that even in mire the sun has a rightful place, for the

reason that the deeper the sunlight's penetration of the soil, the better does that soil become, and the greater

Viewed from above, the scene lay, as it were, in the palm of one's hand. True, by no manner of means could

such lowly farm cots provide me with a job, but at least should I, for that evening, be able to enjoy the luxury

of a chat with the cots' kindly inhabitants. Hence, with, in my mind, a base and mischievous inclination to

retail to those inhabitants tales of the marvellous kind of which I knew them to stand wellnigh as much in

As I did so, there arose from the groundlevel an animated clod of earth in the shape of a sturdy individual.

Unwashed and unshaven, he had hanging on his frame an open canvas shirt, grey with dust, and baggy blue

On the man's large, round head there was a shock of bristling, grizzled curls, while pendent to the moustache

below it were ends like those of the moustache of a Chinaman. Also, as his small eyes scanned me with an air

of impudent distrust, I could detect that they were engaged in counting the holes and dams in my raiment.

Only after a long interval did he draw a deep breath as from his pocket he produced a clay pipe with a cane

mouthpiece, and, knitting his brows attentively, fell to peering into the pipe's black bowl. Then he said:

For awhile he continued to contemplate the sun where that luminary hung suspended above a cloudbank

So both of us lit up; after which he rested his elbows upon the balustrade of the bridge, leant back against the

central stanchions, and for some time continued merely to emit and inhale blue coils of smoke. Then his nose

"Oh!" And as the wrinkles of his nose straightened themselves again he added: "Then of course it is good

To enter a dwelling in advance of one's host is a breach of decorum; wherefore, I found myself forced to

remain standing where I was until my interlocutor's tale of questions as to my precise identity, my exact place

of origin, my true destination, and my real reasons for travelling should tardily win its way to a finish.

Greatly the process vexed me, for I was eager, rather, to learn what the steppe settlement might have in store

"Work?" the fellow drawled through his teeth. "Oh no, there is no work to be got here. How could there be at

On the further bank of the latter, a goose was strutting importantly at the head of a string of round, fluffy,

yellow goslings, whilst driving the brood were two little girlsthe one a child but little larger than the goose

itself, dressed in a red frock, and armed with a switch; and the other one a youngster absolutely of a size with

the bird, pale of feature, plump of body, bowed of leg, and grave of expression.

"Ufim!" came at this moment in the strident voice of a woman unseen, but incensed; upon which my

companion bestowed upon me a sidelong nod, and muttered with an air of appreciation:

Whereafter, he fell to twitching the toes of a chafed and blackened foot, and to gazing at their nails. His next

And so proud, apparently, was he of the proposal that a faint smile crossed his flaccid countenance.

"You see, it would be work," he added with his brown eyes veiled, "whilst, in addition, you would be paid ten

As we proceeded, shadows of trees glided along the soft road to meet us, while behind a clump of bushes on

the further bank of the rivulet some children were shouting at their play. Thus, what with the children's

voices, and the purling of the water, and the noise of someone planing a piece of wood, the air seemed full of

"Once we did have a reader here. An old woman she was, a regular old witch who at last had to be removed

to the town for amputation of the feet. They might well have cut off her tongue too whilst they were about it,

Presently a black puppy, a creature of about the size of a toad, came ambling, threelegged fashion, under our

feet. Upon that it stiffened its tail, growled, and snuffed the air with its tiny pink nose.

Next there popped up from somewhere or another a barefooted young woman. Clapping her hands, she

By way of reply, my conductor silently pointed in my direction with the stem of his pipe. Then he led me into

the forecourt of the hut next to the one whence the young woman had issued, whilst she proceeded to project

In the little doorway of the dwelling next to hers, we found seated two old women. One of them was as

rotund and dishevelled as a battered, leathern ball, and the other one was a woman bony and crooked of back,

swarthy of skin, and irritable of feature. At the women's feet lay, lolling out a raglike tongue, a shaggy dog

which, red and pathetic of eye, could boast of a frame nearly as large as a sheep's.

First of all, Ufim related in detail how he had fallen in with myself. Then he stated the purpose for which he

conceived it was possible that I might prove useful. And all the time that he was speaking, two pairs of eyes

contemplated him in silence; until, on the completion of his recital, one of the old women gave a jerk to a

thin, dark neck, and the other old dame invited me to take a seat whilst she prepared some supper.

Amid the tangled herbage of the forecourt, a spot overgrown with mallow and bramble shoots, there was

standing a cart which, lacking wheels, had its axlepoints dark with mildew. Presently a herd of cattle was

driven past the hut, and over the hamlet there seemed to arise, drift, and float, a perfect wave of sound. Also,

as evening descended, I could see an everincreasing number of grey shadows come creeping forth from the

"One day all of us must die," remarked Ufim, with empressement as he tapped the bowl of his pipe against a

The next moment the barefooted, redcheeked young woman showed herself at the gate, and asked in tones

For supper I was given a hunch of bread and a bowl of milk; whereupon the dog rose, laid its aged,

slobbering muzzle upon my knee, and gazed into my face with its dim eyes as though it were saying, "May I

Next, like an eventide breeze among withered herbage, there floated across the forecourt the hoarse voice of

"Let us pray," she said. "Oh God, take away from us all sorrow, and receive therefore requitement in twofold

As she recited the prayer with a mien as dark as fate, the supplicant rolled her long neck from side to side,

and nodded her ophidianshaped head in accordance with a sort of regular, lethargic rhythm. Next I heard

"Some folk need work just as much as they wish, and others need do no work at all. Yet OUR folk have to

work beyond their strength, and to work without any recompense for the toil which they undergo."

Then a dead silence fella weighty silence, a silence seemingly fraught with matters of import, and inspiring

in one an assurance that presently there would be brought forth impressive reflections there would reach

"I may tell you," at length the crookbacked old woman remarked as she attempted to straighten herself, "that

though my husband was not without enemies, he also had a particular friend named Andrei, and that when

failing strength was beginning to make life difficult for us in our old home on the Don, and folk took to

reviling and girding at my husband, Andrei came to us one day, and said: 'Yakov, let not your hands fail you,

for the earth is large, and in all parts has been given to men for their use. If folk be cruel, they are so through

stupidity and prejudice, and must not be judged for being so. Live your own life. Let theirs be theirs, and

yours yours, so that, dwelling in peace, while yielding to none, you shall in time overcome them all.'"

"That is what Vasil too used to say. He used to say: 'Let theirs be theirs, and ours ours.'"

"Aye, never a good word dies, but, wheresoever it be uttered, flies thence through the world like a swallow."

"True indeed!" he remarked. "Though also it has been said that a good word is Christ's, and a bad word the

"The badness lies not in any word of a priest, but in what you yourself have just said. You are greyheaded,

Presently Ufim's wife reappeared, and, waving her hands as though she were brandishing a sieve, began to

"My God," she cried, "what sort of a man is that? Why, a man who neither speaks nor listens, but for ever

Westward there were arising, and soaring skyward, clouds of such a similarity to blue smoke and bloodred

flame that the steppe seemed almost to be in danger of catching fire thence. Meanwhile a soft evening breeze

was caressing the expanse as a whole, and causing the grain to bend drowsily earthward as goldenred

ripples skimmed its surface. Only in the eastern quarter whence night's black, sultry shadow was stealthily

At intervals there came vented from the window above my head the hot odour of a dead body; and, whenever

that happened, the dog's grey nostrils and muzzle would quiver, and its eyes would blink pitifully as it gazed

Faster and faster the southern night went on descending, and wiping the land clean of heat, as though that

heat had been dust. Upon me there came a feeling that I should like to go and bury myself in some

"Maybe Panek has one of those things?" hazarded Ufim after a long pause. "At any rate he has dealings with

After that, the company held further converse in whispers. Then all save the more rotund of the old women

Small and gentle looked the woman's meekly lowered head as, folding her hands across her breast, she added

In contrast to her expression, that on the face of the dead man was stem and, as it were, fraught with

importance where thick grey eyebrows lay parted over a large nose, and the latter curved downwards towards

a moustache which divided introspective, partially closed eyes from a mouth that was set halfopen. Indeed,

it was as though the man were pondering something of annoyance, so that presently he would make shift to

deliver himself of a final and urgent injunction. The blue smoke of a meagre candle quivered meanwhile,

over his head, though the wick diffused so feeble a light that the death blurs under the eyes and in the cheek

furrows lay uneffaced, and the dark hands and wrists, disposed, lumplike, on the front of the greyishblue

shroud, seemed to have had their fingers twisted in a manner which even death had failed to rectify. And ever

and anon, streaming from door to window, came a draught variously fraught with the odours of wormwood,

Presently the old woman's whispering grew more animated and intelligible, while constantly, amid the

wheezed mutterings, sheet lightning cut the black square of the window space with menacing flashes, and

seemed, with their blue glare, as it shot through the tomblike hut, to cause the candle's flickering flame to

undergo a temporary extinction, a temporary withdrawal, and the grey bristles on the dead man's face to

gleam like the scales of a fish, and his features to gather themselves into a grim frown. Meanwhile, like a

stream of cold, bitter water dripping upon my breast, the old woman's whispered soliloquy maintained its

At length there recurred, somehow, to my mind the words which, impressive though they be, never can

Presently the bony old woman returned with a report that nowhere among the huts could a Psalter be found,

The other book turned out to be a grammar of the Church Slavonic dialect, with the first pages torn out, and

beginning with the words, "Drug, drugi, druzhe." ["A friend, of a friend, O friend."]

"What, then, are we to do? " vexedly asked the smaller of the dames when I had explained to her that a

grammar could work no benefit to a corpse. As she put the query, her small, childlike face quivered with

"My man has lived his life," she said with a sob, "and now he cannot even be given proper burial! "

And, similarly, when next I offered to recite over her husband each and every prayer and psalm that I could

contrive to recall to my recollection, on condition that all present should meanwhile leave the hut (for I felt

that, since the task would be one novel to me, the attendance of auditors might hinder me from mustering my

entire stock of petitions), she so disbelieved me, or failed to understand me, that for long enough she could

only stand tottering in the doorway as, with twitching nose, she drew her sleeve across her worn, diminutive

Low over the steppe, stray flashes of summer lightning still gleamed against the jet black sky as they flooded

the hut with their lurid shimmer; and each time that the darkness of the sultry night swept back into the room,

the candle flickered, and the corpse's prone figure seemed to open its halfclosed eyes and glance at the

shadows which palpitated on its breast, and danced over the white walls and ceiling.

Similarly did I glance from time to time at HIM, yet glance with a guarded eye, and with a feeling in me that

when a corpse is present anything may happen; until finally I rallied conscience to my aid, and recited under

"Pardon Thou all who have sinned, whether they be men, or whether they, being not men, do yet stand higher

However, the only result of the recitation was to bring to my mind a thought directly at variance with the

import of the words, the thought that "it is not sin that is hard and bitter to ensue, but righteousness."

"Sins wilful and of ignorance," I continued. "Sins known and unknown. Sins committed through imprudence

"Though to YOU, brother," mentally I added to the corpse, "none of this, of course, applies."

Again, glancing at the blue stars, where they hung glittering in the fathomless obscurity of the sky, I

Presently, with a pattering of claws over the beaten clay of the floor, there entered the dog. Once or twice it

paced the length of the room. Then, with a sniff at my legs, and a grumble to itself, it departed as it had come.

Perhaps the creature felt too old to bay a dirge to its master after the manner of its kind. In any case, as it

vanished through the doorway, the shadows so I fanciedsought to slip out after it, and, floating in that

direction, fanned my face with a breath as of ice, while the flame of the candle flickered the more as

though it too were seeking to wrest itself from the candlestick, and go floating upwards to join the band of

stars a band of luminaries which it might well have deemed to be of a brilliance as small and as pitiful as

its own. And I, for my part, since I had no wish to see what light there was disappear, followed the struggles

of the tiny flame with a tense anxiety which made my eyes ache. Oppressed and uneasy all over as I stood by

the dead man's shoulder, I strained my ears and listened, listened ever, to the silence encompassing the hut.

Eventually, drowsiness began to steal over me, and proved a feeling hard to resist. Yet still with an effort did

I contrive to recall the beautiful prayers of Saints Makari Veliki, Chrysostom, and Damarkin, while at the

same time something resembling a swarm of mosquitos started to hum in my head, the words wherein the

Sixth Precept issues its injunction to: " all persons about to withdraw to a couch of rest."

And next, to escape falling asleep, I fell to reciting the kondak [Hymn for the end of the day] which begins:

Still engaged in this manner, suddenly I heard something rustle outside the door. Then a dry whisper

Upon that, the fancy occurred to me that probably the old woman's soul was as grey and timid as a linnet, and

that when it should fly up to the throne of the Mother of God, and the Mother should extend to that little soul

her tender, white, and gracious hand, the newcomer would tremble all over, and flutter her gentle wings until

"Son, pray see the fearfulness of Thy people on earth, and their estrangement from joy! Oh Son, is that well?"

And suddenly, so I fancied, a voice answered mine out of the brooding hush, as though it too were reciting a

prayer. Yet so complete, so profound, was the stillness, that the voice seemed far away, submerged,

unreala mere phantom of an echo, of the echo of my own voice. Until, on my desisting from my recital,

and straining my cars yet more, the sound seemed to approach and grow clearer as shuffling footsteps also

"Why is it that the dogs have failed to bark?" I reflected, rubbing my eyes, and fancying as I did so that the

"What do you say, old woman? Yes, that he must die I knew all along,so you can cease your chattering?

Men like him keep up to the last, then lay them down to rise to more... WHO is with him? A stranger?

And, the next moment, a bulk so large and shapeless that it might well have been the darkness of the night

embodied, stumbled against the outer side of the door, grunted, hiccuped, and lurching head foremost into the

hut, grew wellnigh to the ceiling. Then it waved a gigantic hand, crossed itself in the direction of the candle,

and, bending forward until its forehead almost touched the feet of the corpse, queried under its breath:

Thereafter, the figure vented a sob whilst a strong smell of vodka arose in the room, and from the doorway

And a heavy hand laid itself upon my shoulder, while a great hairy face bent over mine, and inquired:

So covered with tufts of auburn hair was the enormous head above metufts the sheen of which even the

semiobscurity of the pale candlelight failed to render inconspicuousthat the mass, as a whole, resembled

a mop. And as its owner lurched to and fro, he made me lurch responsively by now drawing me towards

himself, now thrusting me away. Meanwhile he continued to suffuse my face with the hot, thick odour of

"Father Demid!" again essayed the old woman with an imploring wail, but he cut her short with the menacing

"How often have I told you that you must not address a deacon as 'Father'? Go to bed! Yes, be off with you,

and let me mind my affairs myself! GO, I say! But first light me another candle, for I cannot see a single

With which, throwing himself upon a bench, the deacon slapped his knee with a book which he had in his

"Indeed?" the deacon cried, unabashed. "But come, a bottle of the stuff is here, in my very pocket."

"True, true. So let us adjourn to the forecourt. . . . Yes, what you say is no more than the truth."

"No, I am going to do no such thing. YOU shall do the reading. Tonight I, Iwell I am not very well, for I

And, thrusting the book into my stomach, he sank his head upon his breast, and fell to swaying it ponderously

"Folk die," was his next utterance, "and the world remains as full of grief as ever. Yes, folk die even before

"I see that your book is not a Psalter," here I interposed after an inspection of the volume.

He grabbed the book by its cover, and, by dint of holding the candle close to its pages, discovered,

"What can the fact mean?" he exclaimed. "Oh, I know what has happened. The mistake has come of my

being in such a hurry. The other book, the true Psalter, is a fat, heavy volume, whereas this one is"

For a moment he seemed sobered by the shock. At all events, he rose and, approaching the corpse, said, as he

Then he straightened himself again, threw back his curls, and, drawing a bottle from his pocket, and thrusting

the neck of the bottle into his mouth, took a long draught, with a whistling of his nostrils as he did so.

"Who would wish you to mumble words which you would not be comprehending as you uttered them?"

The deacon reseated himself upon the bench, leaned forward, buried his face in his hands and remained

Fast the July night was waning. Fast its shadows were dissolving into corners, and allowing a whiff of fresh

dewy morningtide to enter at the window. Already was the combined light of the two candles growing paler,

"You have lived your life, Vasi," at length the deacon muttered, "and though once I had a place to which to

resort, now I shall have none. Yes, my last friend is dead. Oh Lord where is Thy justice?"

For myself, I went and took a seat by the window, and, thrusting my head into the open air, lit a pipe, and

"Folk used to gird at my wife," he went on, "and now they are gnawing at me as pigs might gnaw at a

Again the bottle made its appearance. Again the deacon took a draught. Again he wiped his beard. Then he

"Goodbye, friend of mine!" he said. Then to myself he added with unlookedfor clarity and vigour:

"My friend here was but a plain mana man as inconspicuous among his fellows as a rook among a flock of

rooks. Yet no rook was he. Rather, he was a snowwhite dove, though none but I realised the fact. And now

he has been withdrawn from the 'grievous bondage of Pharaoh.' Only I am left. Verily, after my passing, shall

"All of us have known much sorrow. In some cases we have known more than was rightfully our due. I

certainly, have known much. But go to sleep, for only in sleep do we recover what is ours."

"I have a longing to sing something. Yet I feel that I had best not, for song at such an hour awakens folk, and

At this point the sharp bristles of his beard so tickled my neck as to cause me to edge further away.

He reflected awhilethen subsided on to the floor with a sniff and an angry exclamation of:

"Read, you, whilst I sleep. And see to it that you do not make off with the book, for it belongs to the church,

and is very valuable. Yes. I know you hardups! Why do you go roaming about as you dowhat is it you

hope to gain by your tramping? . . . However, tramp as much as you like. Yes, be off, and tell people that a

deacon has come by misfortune, and is in need of some good person to take pity upon his plight. . . . Diomid

"A land unapportioned that shall produce a nourisher of humanity, a being that shall put forth the bounty of

"A nourisher of humanity." Before my eyes that "nourisher" lay outspread, a nourisher overlaid with dry and

fragrant herbage. And as I gazed, in the haze of a vision, upon that nourisher's dark and enigmatical face, I

saw also the thousands of men who have seamed this earth with furrows, to the end that dead things should

become things of life. And in particular, there uprose before me a picture strange indeed. In that picture I saw

marching over the steppe, where the expanse lay bare and voidyes, marching in circles that increasingly

embraced a widening areaa gigantic, thousandhanded being in whose train the dead steppe gathered unto

itself vitality, and became swathed in juicy, waving verdure, and studded with towns and villages. And ever,

as the being receded further and further into the distance, could I see him sowing with tireless hands that

which had in it life, and was part of himself, and human as, with thoughts intent upon the benefiting of

humanity, he summoned all men to put forth the mysterious force that is in them, and thus to conquer death,

and eternally and invincibly to convert, dead things into things of life, while traversing in company the road

of death towards that which has no knowledge of death, and ensuring that, in swallowing up mankind, the

And this caused my heart to beat with emotions the pulsing wings of which at once gladdened me, and cooled

my fervour... And how greatly, at that moment, did I feel the need of someone able to respond to my

questions without passion, yet with truth, and in the language of simplicity! For beside me there lay but a

man dead and a man drunken, while without the threshold there was stationed one who had far outlived her

span of years. No matter, however. If not today, then tomorrow, should I find a fellow creature with whom

Mentally I left the hut, and passed on to the steppe, that I might contemplate thence the little dwelling in

which alone, though lost amid the earth's immensity, the windows were not blind and black as in its fellow

huts, but showed, burning over the head of a dead human being, the fire which humanity had conquered for

And that heart which had ceased to beat in the dead manhad everything conceived in life by that heart

found due expression in a world poverty, stricken of heartconceived ideas? I knew that the man just passed

away had been but a plain and insignificant mortal, yet as I reflected upon even the little that he had done, his

labour loomed before me as greater than prowess of larger magnitude. Yes, to my mind there recurred the

immature, battered ears of corn lying in the ruts of the steppe track, the swallows traversing the blue sky

above the golden, brocaded grain, the kite hovering in the void over the landscape's vast periphery.. . . .

And along with these thoughts, there struck upon my ears a whistling of pinions as the shadow of a bird

flitted across the brilliant, dewbespangled green of the forecourt, and five cocks crowed in succession, and a

flock of geese announced the fact of their awakening, and a cow lowed, and the gate of the cattlepen

And with that I fell to thinking how I should like really to go out on to the steppe, and there to fall asleep

As for the deacon, he was still slumbering at my feetslumbering with his breast, the breast of a

prizefighter, turned uppermost, and his fine, golden shock of hair falling like a nimbus around his head, and

hot, fat, flushed red features and gaping mouth and ceaselessly twitching moustache. In passing, I had noticed

Next I found myself imagining the scene as the powerful figure of this man embraced a woman. Probably her

face would become lost to sight in his beard, until nothing of her features remained visible. Then, when the

beard began to tickle her, she would throw back her head, and laugh. And the children that such a man might

All this only made it the more painful and disagreeable to me to reflect that the breast of a human being of

such a type should be bearing a burden of sorrow. Surely naught but joy should have been present therein!

Meanwhile, the old woman's gentle face was still peering at me through the doorway, and presently the first

beam of sunlight came glancing through the windowspace. Above the rivulet's silky glimmer, a transparent

mist lay steaming, while trees and herbage alike were passing through that curiously inert stage when at any

moment (so one fancied) they might give themselves a shake, and burst into song, and in keys intelligible to

"What a good man he is!" the old woman whispered plaintively as she gazed at the deacon's gigantic frame.

Whereafter, as though reading aloud from a book invisible to my sight, she proceeded quietly and simply to

"You see," she went on "his lady committed a certain sin with a certain man; and folk remarked this, and,

after setting the husband on to the couple, derided himyes, him, our Demid!for the reason that he

persisted in forgiving the woman her fault. At length the jeers made her take to her room and him to liquor,

and for two years past he has been drinking, and soon is going to be deprived of his office. One who scarcely

drank at all, my poor husband, used to say: 'Ah, Demid, yield not to these folk, but live your own life, and let

With the words, tears welled from the old woman's dim, small eyes, and became merged with the folds and

wrinkles on her grief stained cheeks. And in the presence of that little head, a head shaking like a dead leaf

in the autumn time, and of those kindly features so worn with age and sorrow, my eyes fell, and I felt smitten

with shame to find that, on searching my soul for at least a word of consolation to offer to the poor

But at length there recurred to my mind some strange words which I had encountered in I know not what

"Let not the servants of the Gods lament but, rather, rejoice, in that weeping and lamentation grieve both the

"What?" was her hasty exclamation, an exclamation uttered as though the words had affrighted her.

Whereafter, with quivering lips, she began hesitantly and uncertainly to fumble in her bodice.

"No, I have no need of money," I interposed. "Only, if you should be so willing, give me a piece of bread."

"Well, well!" she said after a thoughtful pause. "Then be it as you wish, andand I thank you."

The sun, as he rose and ascended towards the blue of the firmament, was spreading over the earth a braggart,

peacocklike tail of beams. And as he did so, I winked at him, for by experience I knew that some two hours

later his smiles would be scorching me with fire. Yet for the time being he and I had no fault to find with one

another. Wherefore, I set myself to search for a bank whence I might sing to him, as to the Lord of Life: