Chapter XVIII
Lukasha returned to the cordon and at the same time Daddy Eroshkawhistled to his dogs and, climbing over his wattle fence, went toOlenin's lodging, passing by the back of the houses (he dislikedmeeting women before going out hunting or shooting). He found Oleninstill asleep, and even Vanyusha, though awake, was still in bed andlooking round the room considering whether it was not time to get up,when Daddy Eroshka, gun on shoulder and in full hunter's trappings,opened the door.
'A cudgel!' he shouted in his deep voice. 'An alarm! The Chechens areupon us! Ivan! get the samovar ready for your master, and get upyourself--quick,' cried the old man. 'That's our way, my good man! Whyeven the girls are already up! Look out of the window. See, she's goingfor water and you're still sleeping!'
Olenin awoke and jumped up, feeling fresh and lighthearted at the sightof the old man and at the sound of his voice.
'Quick, Vanyusha, quick!' he cried.
'Is that the way you go hunting?' said the old man. 'Others are havingtheir breakfast and you are asleep! Lyam! Here!' he called to his dog.'Is your gun ready?' he shouted, as loud as if a whole crowd were inthe hut.
'Well, it's true I'm guilty, but it can't be helped! The powder,Vanyusha, and the wads!' said Olenin.
'A fine!' shouted the old man.
'Du tay voulay vou?' asked Vanyusha, grinning.
'You're not one of us--your gabble is not like our speech, you devil!'the old man shouted at Vanyusha, showing the stumps of his teeth.
'A first offence must be forgiven,' said Olenin playfully, drawing onhis high boots.
'The first offence shall be forgiven,' answered Eroshka, 'but if youoversleep another time you'll be fined a pail of chikhir. When it getswarmer you won't find the deer.'
'And even if we do find him he is wiser than we are,' said Olenin,repeating the words spoken by the old man the evening before, 'and youcan't deceive him!'
'Yes, laugh away! You kill one first, and then you may talk. Now then,hurry up! Look, there's the master himself coming to see you,' addedEroshka, looking out of the window. 'Just see how he's got himself up.He's put on a new coat so that you should see that he's an officer. Ah,these people, these people!'
Sure enough Vanyusha came in and announced that the master of the housewished to see Olenin.
'L'arjan!' he remarked profoundly, to forewarn his master of themeaning of this visitation. Following him, the master of the house in anew Circassian coat with an officer's stripes on the shoulders and withpolished boots (quite exceptional among Cossacks) entered the room,swaying from side to side, and congratulated his lodger on his safearrival.
The cornet, Elias Vasilich, was an educated Cossack. He had been toRussia proper, was a regimental schoolteacher, and above all he wasnoble. He wished to appear noble, but one could not help feelingbeneath his grotesque pretence of polish, his affectation, hisself-confidence, and his absurd way of speaking, he was just the sameas Daddy Eroshka. This could also be clearly seen by his sunburnt faceand his hands and his red nose. Olenin asked him to sit down.
'Good morning. Father Elias Vasilich,' said Eroshka, rising with (or soit seemed to Olenin) an ironically low bow.
'Good morning. Daddy. So you're here already,' said the cornet, with acareless nod.
The cornet was a man of about forty, with a grey pointed beard, skinnyand lean, but handsome and very fresh-looking for his age. Having cometo see Olenin he was evidently afraid of being taken for an ordinaryCossack, and wanted to let Olenin feel his importance from the first.
'That's our Egyptian Nimrod,' he remarked, addressing Olenin andpointing to the old man with a self-satisfied smile. 'A mighty hunterbefore the Lord! He's our foremost man on every hand. You've alreadybeen pleased to get acquainted with him.'
Daddy Eroshka gazed at his feet in their shoes of wet raw hide andshook his head thoughtfully at the cornet's ability and learning, andmuttered to himself: 'Gyptian Nimvrod! What things he invents!'
'Yes, you see we mean to go hunting,' answered Olenin.
'Yes, sir, exactly,' said the cornet, 'but I have a small business withyou.'
'What do you want?'
'Seeing that you are a gentleman,' began the cornet, 'and as I mayunderstand myself to be in the rank of an officer too, and therefore wemay always progressively negotiate, as gentlemen do.' (He stopped andlooked with a smile at Olenin and at the old man.) 'But if you have thedesire with my consent, then, as my wife is a foolish woman of ourclass, she could not quite comprehend your words of yesterday's date.Therefore my quarters might be let for six rubles to the RegimentalAdjutant, without the stables; but I can always avert that from myselffree of charge. But, as you desire, therefore I, being myself of anofficer's rank, can come to an agreement with you in everythingpersonally, as an inhabitant of this district, not according to ourcustoms, but can maintain the conditions in every way....'
'Speaks clearly!' muttered the old man.
The cornet continued in the same strain for a long time. At last, notwithout difficulty, Olenin gathered that the cornet wished to let hisrooms to him, Olenin, for six rubles a month. The latter gladly agreedto this, and offered his visitor a glass of tea. The cornet declined it.
'According to our silly custom we consider it a sort of sin to drinkout of a "worldly" tumbler,' he said. 'Though, of course, with myeducation I may understand, but my wife from her human weakness...'
'Well then, will you have some tea?'
'If you will permit me, I will bring my own particular glass,' answeredthe cornet, and stepped out into the porch.
'Bring me my glass!' he cried.
In a few minutes the door opened and a young sunburnt arm in a printsleeve thrust itself in, holding a tumbler in the hand. The cornet wentup, took it, and whispered something to his daughter. Olenin poured teafor the cornet into the latter's own 'particular' glass, and forEroshka into a 'worldly' glass.
'However, I do not desire to detain you,' said the cornet, scalding hislips and emptying his tumbler. 'I too have a great liking for fishing,and I am here, so to say, only on leave of absence for recreation frommy duties. I too have the desire to tempt fortune and see whether someGifts of the Terek may not fall to my share. I hope you too will comeand see us and have a drink of our wine, according to the custom of ourvillage,' he added.
The cornet bowed, shook hands with Olenin, and went out. While Oleninwas getting ready, he heard the cornet giving orders to his family inan authoritative and sensible tone, and a few minutes later he saw himpass by the window in a tattered coat with his trousers rolled up tohis knees and a fishing net over his shoulder.
'A rascal!' said Daddy Eroshka, emptying his 'worldly' tumbler. 'Andwill you really pay him six rubles? Was such a thing ever heard of?They would let you the best hut in the village for two rubles. What abeast! Why, I'd let you have mine for three!'
'No, I'll remain here,' said Olenin.
'Six rubles! ... Clearly it's a fool's money. Eh, eh, eh! answered theold man. 'Let's have some chikhir, Ivan!'
Having had a snack and a drink of vodka to prepare themselves for theroad, Olenin and the old man went out together before eight o'clock.
At the gate they came up against a wagon to which a pair of oxen wereharnessed. With a white kerchief tied round her head down to her eyes,a coat over her smock, and wearing high boots, Maryanka with a longswitch in her hand was dragging the oxen by a cord tied to their horns.
'Mammy,' said the old man, pretending that he was going to seize her.
Maryanka flourished her switch at him and glanced merrily at them bothwith her beautiful eyes.
Olenin felt still more light-hearted.
'Now then, come on, come on,' he said, throwing his gun on his shoulderand conscious of the girl's eyes upon him.
'Gee up!' sounded Maryanka's voice behind them, followed by the creakof the moving wagon.
As long as their road lay through the pastures at the back of thevillage Eroshka went on talking. He could not forget the cornet andkep
t on abusing him.
'Why are you so angry with him?' asked Olenin.
'He's stingy. I don't like it,' answered the old man. 'He'll leave itall behind when he dies! Then who's he saving up for? He's built twohouses, and he's got a second garden from his brother by a law-suit.And in the matter of papers what a dog he is! They come to him fromother villages to fill up documents. As he writes it out, exactly so ithappens. He gets it quite exact. But who is he saving for? He's onlygot one boy and the girl; when she's married who'll be left?'
'Well then, he's saving up for her dowry,' said Olenin.
'What dowry? The girl is sought after, she's a fine girl. But he's sucha devil that he must yet marry her to a rich fellow. He wants to get abig price for her. There's Luke, a Cossack, a neighbour and a nephew ofmine, a fine lad. It's he who killed the Chechen--he has been wooingher for a long time, but he hasn't let him have her. He's given oneexcuse, and another, and a third. "The girl's too young," he says. ButI know what he is thinking. He wants to keep them bowing to him. He'sbeen acting shamefully about that girl. Still, they will get her forLukashka, because he is the best Cossack in the village, a brave, whohas killed an abrek and will be rewarded with a cross.'
'But how about this? When I was walking up and down the yard lastnight, I saw my landlord's daughter and some Cossack kissing,' saidOlenin.
'You're pretending!' cried the old man, stopping.
'On my word,' said Olenin.
'Women are the devil,' said Eroshka pondering. 'But what Cossack wasit?'
'I couldn't see.'
'Well, what sort of a cap had he, a white one?'
'Yes.'
'And a red coat? About your height?'
'No, a bit taller.'
'It's he!' and Eroshka burst out laughing. 'It's himself, it's Mark. Heis Luke, but I call him Mark for a joke. His very self! I love him. Iwas just such a one myself. What's the good of minding them? Mysweetheart used to sleep with her mother and her sister-in-law, but Imanaged to get in. She used to sleep upstairs; that witch her motherwas a regular demon; it's awful how she hated me. Well, I used to comewith a chum, Girchik his name was. We'd come under her window and I'dclimb on his shoulders, push up the window and begin groping about. Sheused to sleep just there on a bench. Once I woke her up and she nearlycalled out. She hadn't recognized me. "Who is there?" she said, and Icould not answer. Her mother was even beginning to stir, but I took offmy cap and shoved it over her mouth; and she at once knew it by a seamin it, and ran out to me. I used not to want anything then. She'd bringalong clotted cream and grapes and everything,' added Eroshka (whoalways explained things practically), 'and she wasn't the only one. Itwas a life!'
'And what now?'
'Now we'll follow the dog, get a pheasant to settle on a tree, and thenyou may fire.'
'Would you have made up to Maryanka?'
'Attend to the dogs. I'll tell you tonight,' said the old man, pointingto his favourite dog, Lyam.
After a pause they continued talking, while they went about a hundredpaces. Then the old man stopped again and pointed to a twig that layacross the path.
'What do you think of that?' he said. 'You think it's nothing? It's badthat this stick is lying so.'
'Why is it bad?'
He smiled.
'Ah, you don't know anything. Just listen to me. When a stick lies likethat don't you step across it, but go round it or throw it off the paththis way, and say "Father and Son and Holy Ghost," and then go on withGod's blessing. Nothing will happen to you. That's what the old menused to teach me.'
'Come, what rubbish!' said Olenin. 'You'd better tell me more aboutMaryanka. Does she carry on with Lukashka?'
'Hush ... be quiet now!' the old man again interrupted in a whisper:'just listen, we'll go round through the forest.'
And the old man, stepping quietly in his soft shoes, led the way by anarrow path leading into the dense, wild, overgrown forest. Now andagain with a frown he turned to look at Olenin, who rustled andclattered with his heavy boots and, carrying his gun carelessly,several times caught the twigs of trees that grew across the path.
'Don't make a noise. Step softly, soldier!' the old man whisperedangrily.
There was a feeling in the air that the sun had risen. The mist wasdissolving but it still enveloped the tops of the trees. The forestlooked terribly high. At every step the aspect changed: what hadappeared like a tree proved to be a bush, and a reed looked like a tree.
The Cossacks: A Tale of 1852 Page 18