Part 52 (1/2)

And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

The servant therefore fell down, and wors.h.i.+pped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

Then the lord of that servant was moved with compa.s.sion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

Shouldest not thou also have had compa.s.sion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespa.s.ses.

(Matt. xviii. 21-35.)

There lived in a village a peasant, by the name of Ivan Shcherbakov. He lived well; he was himself in full strength, the first worker in the village, and he had three sons,--all of them on their legs: one was married, the second about to marry, and the third a grown-up lad who drove horses and was beginning to plough. Ivan's wife was a clever woman and a good housekeeper, and his daughter-in-law turned out to be a quiet person and a good worker. There was no reason why Ivan should not have led a good life with his family. The only idle mouth on the farm was his old, ailing father (he had been lying on the oven for seven years, sick with the asthma).

Ivan had plenty of everything, three horses and a colt, a cow and a yearling calf, and fifteen sheep. The women made the shoes and the clothes for the men and worked in the field; the men worked on their farms.

They had enough grain until the next crop. From the oats they paid their taxes and met all their obligations. An easy life, indeed, might Ivan have led with his children. But next door to him he had a neighbour, Gavrilo the Lame, Gordyey Ivanov's son. And there was an enmity between him and Ivan.

So long as old man Gordyey was alive, and Ivan's father ran the farm, the peasants lived in neighbourly fas.h.i.+on. If the women needed a sieve or a vat, or the men had to get another axle or wheel for a time, they sent from one farm to another, and helped each other out in a neighbourly way. If a calf ran into the yard of the thres.h.i.+ng-floor, they drove it out and only said: ”Don't let it out, for the heap has not yet been put away.” And it was not their custom to put it away and lock it up in the thres.h.i.+ng-floor or in a shed, or to revile each other.

Thus they lived so long as the old men were alive. But when the young people began to farm, things went quite differently.

The whole thing began from a mere nothing. A hen of Ivan's daughter-in-law started laying early. The young woman gathered the eggs for Pa.s.sion week. Every day she went to the shed to pick up an egg from the wagon-box. But, it seems, the boys scared away the hen, and she flew across the wicker fence to the neighbour's yard, and laid an egg there.

The young woman heard the hen cackle, so she thought:

”I have no time now, I must get the hut in order for the holiday; I will go there later to get it.”

In the evening she went to the wagon-box under the shed, to fetch the egg, but it was not there. The young woman asked her mother-in-law and her brother-in-law if they had taken it; but Taraska, her youngest brother-in-law, said:

”Your hen laid an egg in the neighbour's yard, for she cackled there and flew out from that yard.”

The young woman went to look at her hen, and found her sitting with the c.o.c.k on the perch; she had closed her eyes and was getting ready to sleep. The woman would have liked to ask her where she laid the egg, but she would not have given her any answer. Then the young woman went to her neighbour. The old woman met her.

”What do you want, young woman?”

”Granny, my hen has been in your yard to-day,--did she not lay an egg there?”

”I have not set eyes on her. We have hens of our own, thank G.o.d, and they have been laying for quite awhile. We have gathered our own eggs, and we do not need other people's eggs. Young woman, we do not go to other people's yards to gather eggs.”