The village. [Translation from the original Russian text by Isabel Hapgood] by 1870-1953 Ivan Alekseevich Bunin Read Free Book Online

restive horse. "Sta-and still!"
    And, from afar, first shouts, then songs, were wafted to him. And among all the voices the voice of Vanka Krasny, who had already been twice in the mines of the Donetz Basin, was distinguishable above the rest. And then, suddenly, a dark-fiery. column rose above the manor-house: the peasants had shaken off all the immature fruit in the orchard and set fire to the watchman's hut. A pistol which the gardener, a petty burgher, had left behind him in the hut began to discharge itself, out of the fire.
    It became known, later on, that in truth a remarkable thing had taken place. On one and the same day, the peasants had risen through almost the entire county. The inns in the town were crowded for a long time thereafter with land-owners who had sought protection of the authorities. Afterwards, Tikhon Hitch recalled with shame that he also had sought it— with shame, because the whole uprising had been limited to the Durnovka people's shouting for a while, doing a lot of damage, and then quieting down. The

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    harness-maker began, before long, to present himself in the shop at Vorgol as though nothing whatever had happened, and doffed his cap on the threshold as if he did not perceive that Tikhon Hitch's face darkened at his appearance. Nevertheless, rumours were still in circulation to the effect that the Durnovka folk intended to murder Tikhon Hitch. And he, afraid to be caught out after dark on the road from Durnovka, fumbled in his pocket for his bulldog revolver, which weighed down the pocket of his full trousers in an annoying manner, and registered a vow that he would burn Durnovka to the ground some fine night, or poison the water in the Durnovka wells. Then even these rumours died away. But Tikhon Hitch began to think seriously of ridding himself of Durnovka. "Real money is the money in your pocket, not the money you're going to inherit from your grandmother!" Moreover, the peasants had become impudent in their manner to him, and they seemed peculiarly well-informed. The Durnovka folks knew "all the ins and outs of things," and for that reason alone, if for no other, it was stupid to entrust the oversight and management of affairs at the manor to any of the Durnovka labourers. More than that, Rodka was the village Elder.
    That year—the most alarming of all recent years— Tikhon Hitch reached the age of fifty. But he had not abandoned his dream of becoming a father. And, lo and behold, precisely that was what brought him into collision with Rodka.

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    X
    RODKA, a tall, thin, sullen young fellow from Ulianovka, had gone two years previously to live with Fedot, the brother of Yakoff; he had married, and had buried Fedot, who had died from over-drinking at the wedding; and he had then gone away to do his military service. But the bride, a young woman with fine figure, an extremely white, soft skin faintly tinged with crimson, and eyelashes for ever downcast, began to work for daily wages at the farm. And those eyelashes perturbed Tikhon Hitch terribly. The peasant women of Durnovka wear "horns" on their heads: immediately after the wedding they coil their braided hair on the crown of the head and cover it with a kerchief, which produces a queer effect, similar to the horns of a cow. They wear dark-blue skirts of the antique pattern, trimmed with galloon, a white apron not unlike a sarafan x in shape, and bast-slippers. But the Bride—that name stuck to her—was beautiful in that garb. And one evening in the dark barn, where the Bride was alone and finishing the clearing up of the rye-ears, Tikhon Hitch, after casting a precautionary glance around him, entered, went up to her, and said hastily: "You shall
    1 A straight, loose gown, falling from the armpits, worn by unmarried girls,— trans.

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    have pretty shoes and silk kerchiefs. I shall not begrudge a twenty-five-ruble banknote!"
    But the Bride remained silent as death.
    "Do you hear what I say?" cried