The roan horses dashed away, making the snow fly in clouds.
What a wonderful thing ! It grew lighter and lighter, and the road became as glare as ice, and we flew so fast that it took away my breath, and the twigs lashed my face. It began to be painful.
I looked ahead; there was a steep mountain, a very steep mountain, and at the foot of the mountain a ravine. The roans were flying straight for the ravine.
I was frightened, and cried :
“Heavens and earth! slow up, you, slow up; you will kill us ! “
But the men only laughed, and urged on the horses the more. I saw there was no saving us; the ravine was under our very runners. But I saw a bough right over my head.
“ Well,” I said to myself, “you may go over alone.”
I stood up and seized the bough, and there I hung !
As I caught it I shouted :
“ Hold on ! “ And then I heard women shouting :
“ Uncle Semyon ! what is the matter ? Start up the fire, you women ! Something is wrong with Uncle Semyon ! he is screaming ! Stir up the fire ! “
I woke up, and there I was in my cottage, clinging to the loft, and screaming at the top of my voice. And all that I had seen had been a dream !
Chapter IX
COW
widow Mary a lived with her mother and six children. Their means of life were small. But they used their last money in the purchase of a red cow, so as to have milk for the children. The eldest children pastured Brownie 1 in the field, and gave her slops at home.
One-time while the mother was away from home, the oldest son, Misha, in climbing on the shelf after bread, knocked over a tumbler and broke it.
Misha was afraid that his mother would chide him. So he gathered up the large pieces of broken glass, carried them into the yard, and buried them in the dung-heap, but the little pieces he threw into the basin. The mother missed the glass, and made in-quiries; but Misha said nothing, and so the matter rested.
On the next day, after dinner, when the mother went to give Brownie the swill from the basin, she found that Brownie was ailing and would not eat her food. They tried to give her medicine, and they called the babka. 2 The babka said that the cow would not live; it was best to slaughter her for beef.
They called a peasant and proceeded to slaughter the cow. The children heard Brownie lowing in the yard; they all climbed upon the oven and began to weep.
After they had slaughtered Brownie, they took off the hide and cut the carcass in pieces, and there, in the throat, they found a piece of glass. And so they knew that her death was caused by her swallowing the glass in the slops.
When Misha heard this he began to weep bitterly, and confessed to his mother that he broke the glass. The mother said nothing, but also wept. Then she said :
“ We have killed our Brownie, and have nothing to get another cow with. How will the little ones live without milk ? “
Misha kept howling louder and louder, and would not come down from the oven when they ate the jelly made from the cow’s head. Every time when he went to sleep, he saw in his dreams how Uncle Vasili brought the red cow by the horns, Brownie, with her wide eyes and beautiful neck.
From that time the children had no more milk. Only on holidays they had milk, for then Marya asked her neighbor for a mug of it.
It happened that the lady of that estate needed a child’s nurse. And the grandmother said to the daughter :
“ Let me go; I will take the place as nurse, and maybe God will let you get along with the children alone. And if God spares me, I can earn enough in a year to buy a cow.”
Thus they did. The grandmother went to the lady; but it grew still more hard for Marya and the children. The children lived a whole year without having milk. They had nothing but kisel jelly and tiuria l to eat and they grew thin and pale.
After the year was over, the grandmother came home, bringing twenty rubles.
“ Well, daughter,” says she, “ now we will buy a cow.”
Marya was delighted; all the children were delighted. Marya and the grandmother went to market to buy their cow. They asked a neighbor to stay with the children, and they asked another neighbor, Uncle Zakhar, to go with them and help them to select the cow.
After saying their prayers they went to town. In the afternoon the children kept running into the street to see if they could see the cow. They amused them-selves guessing what kind of a cow she would be red or black. They kept telling one another how they would feed her. All day long they waited and waited. They walked a verst to meet the cow, but as it was already growing dark, they turned back.
Suddenly they saw coming along the road a cart, and in it sat their grandmother, and beside the hind wheel walked a brindle cow tied by the horn, and their mother was walking behind urging her on with a dry stick.
The children ran to them and began to examine the cow. They brought bread and grass and tried to feed her. The mother went into the cottage, changed her clothes, and went out with her towel and milk-pail. She sat down under the cow and began to wipe the udder. The Lord be praised ! The cow gave milk, and the children stood around and watched the milk straining into the pail, and listened to its sound under the mother’s fingers. When the mother had milked the pail half full, she carried it down cellar, and each of the children had a mug for supper.
Chapter X
FILIPOK
ONCE there was a little boy whose name was Filipp. All the children were going to school. Filipp took his hat and wanted to go too.
But his mother said to him :
“ Where are you going, Filipok ? “
“ To school.”
“ You are too small; you can’t go,” and his mother kept him at home.
The children went off to school. Their father had gone early in the morning to the woods; the mother was engaged in her daily work.
Filipok and his grandmother were left in the cottage, on the oven. Filipok began to feel lonely; his grand-mother was asleep, and he began to search for his hat. When he could not find his own, he took an old one, made of sheepskin, and started for school.
School was kept at the village church. When Filipp walked along his own street, 1 the dogs did not meddle with him, for they knew him; but when he reached the street in the next estate, a black dog 2 came bounding out and barking, and behind this dog came another still bigger, named Wolfie, 3 and Filipp started to run, the dogs after him.
Filipok began to cry; then he stubbed his toe and fell. A peasant came out and called off the dogs, and asked :
“ Where are you going all sole alone, you little rascal? “
Filipok made no answer, pulled up his skirt, and started to run with all his might. He ran to the school. There was no one on the steps, but in school the voices of the children could be heard in a confused murmur.
Filipp was now filled with fear :
“ Suppose the teacher should drive me away ? “
And he began to consider what he should do. If he should go back, the dogs might bite him; but if he went into school, he was afraid of the teacher.
A peasant woman passed the school, with a pail, and she said :
“ All the rest are studying, and what are you standing there for?”
So Filipok went into school. In the entry he took off his cap and opened the door. The room was full of children. All were talking at once, and the teacher, in a red scarf, was walking up and down in the midst of them.
“ Who are you ? “ he demanded of Filipok.
Filipok clutched his cap and said nothing.
“Who are you?”
Filipok said never a word.
“Are you dumb?”
Filipok was so scared that he could not speak.
“Well, then, go home if you can’t speak.”
Now Filipok would have been glad to say something, but his throat was all parched with terror.
He looked at the teacher and burst into tears.
Then the teacher felt sorry for him. He caressed his head, and inquired of the children who the little fellow was.
“This is Filipok, Kostiushka’s l brother; he has been wanting for a long time to go to school, but his mother would not let him, and he must have run away to school.”
“ Well, sit down on the bench next your brother, and I will ask your mother to let you come to school.”
The teacher began to teach Filipok his letters; but
Filipok already knew them, and could even read a little. “ Very well; spell your name, then.” Filipok said, “ Khve-i, khvi le-i, li peok, pok.” Everybody laughed.
“Bravo!” said the teacher; “who taught you to read?” Filipok summoned courage, and said : “ Kostiushka. I am mischievous. I learned them
all at once. I am terribly smart! “ The teacher laughed, and asked : “ And do you know
