University of Virginia Library

2.
CHAPTER II.

ONE evening Polikey was sitting on his bed
beside the table, preparing some medicine for
the cattle, when suddenly the door was thrown
wide open, and Aksiutka, a young girl from the
court, rushed in. Almost out of breath, she
said: "My mistress has ordered you, Polikey

Illitch
[son of Ilia], to come up to the court at
once!"

The girl was standing and still breathing
heavily from her late exertion as she continued:

"Egor Mikhailovitch, the superintendent, has
been to see our lady about having you drafted
into the army, and, Polikey Illitch, your name
was mentioned among others. Our lady has
sent me to tell you to come up to the court
immediately."

As soon as Aksiutka had delivered her mes-

sage she left the room in the same abrupt man-
ner in which she had entered.

Akulina, without saying a word, got up and
brought her husband's boots to him. They
were poor, worn-out things which some soldier
had given him, and his wife did not glance at
him as she handed them to him.

"Are you going to change your shirt, Ill-
itch?" she asked, at last.

"No," replied Polikey.

Akulina did not once look at him all the time
he was putting on his boots and preparing to go
to the court. Perhaps, after all, it was better
that she did not do so. His face was very pale
and his lips trembled. He slowly combed his
hair and was about to depart without saying a
word, when his wife stopped him to arrange the
ribbon on his shirt, and, after toying a little with
his coat, she put his hat on for him and he left
the little home.

Polikey's next-door neighbors were a joiner
and his wife. A thin partition only separated

the two families, and each could hear what the
other said and did. Soon after Polikey's de-
parture a woman was heard to say: "Well,
Polikey Illitch, so your mistress has sent for
you!"

The voice was that of the joiner's wife on the
other side of the partition. Akulina and the
woman had quarrelled that morning about some
trifling thing done by one of Polikey's children,
and it afforded her the greatest pleasure to
learn that her neighbor had been summoned
into the presence of his noble mistress. She
looked upon such a circumstance as a bad omen.

She continued talking to herself and said: "Per-
haps she wants to send him to the town to make
some purchases for her household. I did not
suppose she would select such a faithful man as
you are to perform such a service for her. If it
should prove that she
does
want to send you to
the next town, just buy me a quarter-pound of
tea. Will you, Polikey Illitch?"

Poor Akulina, on hearing the joiner's wife

talking so unkindly of her husband, could hardly
suppress the tears, and, the tirade continuing,
she at last became angry, and wished she could
in some way punish her.

Forgetting her neighbor's unkindness, her
thoughts soon turned in another direction, and
glancing at her sleeping children she said to
herself that they might soon be orphans and she
herself a soldier's widow. This thought greatly
distressed her, and burying her face in her
hands she seated herself on the bed, where sev-
eral of her progeny were fast asleep. Presently
a little voice interrupted her meditations by
crying out, "
Mamushka
[little mother], you are
crushing me," and the child pulled her night-
dress from under her mother's arms.

Akulina, with her head still resting on her
hands, said: "Perhaps it would be better if we
all should die. I only seem to have brought
you into the world to suffer sorrow and mis-
ery."

Unable longer to control her grief, she burst

into violent weeping, which served to increase
the amusement of the joiner's wife, who had
not forgotten the morning's squabble, and she
laughed loudly at her neighbor's woe.