She paused for a moment.

"If we could find the man, we might cure him." "What nonsense you talk, Arina! How can he be spoiled?"

'My father, they spoil him so that we can never make a man of him! Many bad people in the world! Out of ill-will they take a handful of earth from out of one's path, or something of that sort; and one is made a no-man forever after. Isn't that a sin? I think to myself, Might I not go to the old man Dunduk, who lives at Vorobyevka? He knows all sorts of words; and he knows herbs, and he can make charms; and he finds water with a cross. Would n't he help me?" said the woman. "Maybe he will cure him."

"What abjectness and superstition!" thought the young prince, shaking his head gloomily, and walking back with long strides through the village.

"What's to be done with him? To leave him in this situation is impossible, both for myself and for the others and for him, impossible," he said to himself, counting off on his fingers these reasons.

"I cannot bear to see him in this plight; but how extricate him? He renders nugatory all my best plans for the management of the estate. If such peasants are allowed, none of my dreams will ever be realized," he went on, experiencing a feeling of despite and anger against the peasant in consequence of the ruin of his plans. "To send him to Siberia, as Yakof suggests, against his will, would that be good for him? or to make him a soldier? That is best. At least I should be quit of him; and I could replace him by a decent muzhik." Such was his decision.

He thought about this with satisfaction; but at the same time something obscurely told him that he was thinking with only one side of his mind, and not wholly right.

He paused.

"I will think about it some more," he To send him off as a soldier.... why?

1 Atyets tiu moï: thou my father.

said to himself. He is a good

man, better than many; and I know.... Shall I free him?" he asked himself, putting the question from a different side of his mind. "It would n't be fair. Yes, it's impossible."

But suddenly a thought occurred to him that greatly pleased him. He smiled with the expression of a man who has decided a difficult question.

"I will take him to the house," he said to himself. "I will look after him myself; and by means of kindness and advice, and selecting his employment, I will teach him to work, and reform him."

CHAPTER XIII

"THAT'S what I'll do," said Nekhliudof to himself, with a pleasant self-consciousness; and then, recollecting that he had still to go to the rich muzhik Dutlof, he directed his steps to a lofty and ample establishment, with two chimneys, standing in the midst of the village.

As he passed a neighboring cottage on his way thither, he stopped to speak with a tall, slatternly peasantwoman of forty summers, who came to meet him.

"Good-morning, father," she said, with some show of assurance, stopping at a little distance from him with a pleased smile and a low obeisance.

"Good-morning, nurse.

going to see your neighbor."

How are you? I was just

"Pretty well, sir, your excellency. It's a good thing. But won't you come in? I beg you to. My old man would be very pleased."

"Well, I'll come; and we'll have a little talk together, nurse. Is this your house?"

"It is, sir."

And the nurse led the way into the izba. Nekhliudof followed her into the entry, and sat down on a tub, and began to smoke a cigarette.

"It's hot inside. It's better to sit down here and

1 Spraznikom, batyushka: with a holiday, little father.

have our talk," he said, in reply to the woman's invitation to go into the izba.

The nurse was a well-preserved and handsome woman. In the features of her countenance, and especially in her big black eyes, there was a strong resemblance to the prince himself. She folded her hands under her apron, and, looking fearlessly at him, and incessantly moving her head, began to talk with him.

"Why is it, father? Why do you wish to visit

Dutlof?"

"Oh, I am anxious for him to take thirty desyatins 1 of land of me, and enlarge his domain; and moreover I want him to join me in buying some wood also. You see, he has money, so why should it be idle? What do you think about it, nurse?"

"Well, what can I say? Of course, the Dutlofs are strong people; he's the leading muzhik in the whole. estate," replied the nurse, shaking her head. "Last summer he built another building out of his own lumber. He did not demand anything at all of the estate. They have horses, and yearling colts besides, at least six trorkas, and cattle, cows, and sheep; so that it is a sight worth seeing when they are driven along the street from pasture, and the women of the house come out to get them into the yard. There is such a crush of animals at the gate that they can scarcely get through, so many of them there are. And two hundred beehives at the very least. He is a strong peasant, and must have money."

"But what do you think, has he much money?" asked the prince.

"Men say, out of spite of course, that the old man has no little money. But he does not go round talking about it, and he does not tell even his sons, but he must have. Why should n't he take hold of the woodland? Perhaps he is afraid of getting a reputation for letting money go. Five years ago he and Shkalik the dvornik 2

1 Eighty-one acres.

2 Dvornik sometimes means the owner as well as the caretaker of a dvor, or house and grounds.

went shares in getting a bit of meadow-land; and this Shkalik, some way or other, cheated him, so that the old man was three hundred rubles out of pocket. And from that time he has given it up. How can he help being forehanded, your excellency, father?" continued the nurse. "He has three farms, a big family, all workers; and besides, the old man - what harm in saying so?-is a capital manager. He is lucky in everything; it is surprising, in his grain and in his horses and in his cattle and in his bees, and he's lucky in his children.

Now

he has got them all married off. He has found husbands for his daughters; and he has just married Ilyushka, and given him his freedom. He himself bought the letter of enfranchisement. And so a fine woman has come into his house."

"Well, do they live harmoniously?" asked the prince. "As long as there's the right sort of a head to the house, they get along. Yet even the Dutlofs.... but of course that 's among the women. The daughters-in-law bark at each other a little behind the oven, but the old man generally holds them in hand; and the sons live harmoniously."

The nurse was silent for a little.

"Now, the old man, we hear, wants to leave his eldest son, Karp, as master of the house. 'I am getting old,' says he. 'It's my business to attend to the bees.' Well, Karp is a good muzhik, a careful muzhik; but he does n't manage to please the old man in the least. There's no sense in it."

"Well, perhaps Karp wants to speculate in land and wood. What do you think about it?" pursued the prince, wishing to learn from the woman all that she knew about her neighbors.

"Scarcely, sir," 1 continued the nurse. "The old man has n't disclosed his money to his son. As long as he lives, of course, the money in the house will be under the old man's control; and it will increase all the time too."

"But is n't the old man willing?" 1 Batyushka.

"He is afraid."

"What is he afraid of?"

"How is it possible, sir, for a seignorial peasant 1 to make a show of his money? And it's a hard question to decide what to do with money anyway. Here he went into business with the dvornik, and was cheated. Where was he to get redress? And so he lost his money. But with the proprietor he would have any loss made good immediately, of course."

"Yes, hence...." said Nekhliudof, reddening. "But good-by, nurse.'

Good-by, sir, your excellency. Greatly obliged to

you."

CHAPTER XIV

"HADN'T I better go home?" mused Nekhliudof, as he strode along toward the Dutlof inclosure, and felt a boundless melancholy and moral weariness.

But at this moment the new deal gates were thrown open before him with a creaking sound, and a handsome, light-haired ruddy fellow of eighteen in wagoner's attire appeared, leading a troika of powerful-limbed, shaggy, and still sweaty horses. He hastily brushed back his blond hair, and bowed to his barin.

"Tell me, is your father at home, Ilya?" asked Nekhliudof.

"At the beehouse, back of the yard," replied the youth, driving the horses, one after the other, through the half-opened gates.

"I will not give it up. I will make the proposal. I will do the best I can," reflected Nekhliudof; and, after waiting till the horses had passed on, he entered Dutlof's spacious yard.

It was plain to see that the manure had only recently been carried away. The ground was still black and damp; and in places, particularly in the hollows, were left red fibrous clots.

1 Muzhik gospodsky.