Page:Chekhov - The Witch and Other Stories.djvu/104

Rh from it! You are a robber and treated like a robber—worse than any dog. You can't sleep, you can't eat or even say your prayers. But it's not like that in a settlement. In a settlement I shall be a member of a commune like other people. The authorities are bound by law to give me my share ye-es! They say the land costs nothing, no more than snow; you can take what you like! They will give me corn land and building land and garden I shall plough my fields like other people, sow seed. I shall have cattle and stock of all sorts, bees, sheep, and dogs A Siberian cat, that rats and mice may not devour my goods I will put up a house, I shall buy ikons Please God, I'll get married, I shall have children"

The tramp muttered and looked, not at his listeners, but away into the distance. Naïve as his dreams were, they were uttered in such a genuine and heartfelt tone that it was difficult not to believe in them. The tramp's little mouth was screwed up in a smile. His eyes and little nose and his whole face were fixed and blank with blissful anticipation of happiness in the distant future. The constables listened and looked at him gravely, not without sympathy. They, too, believed in his dreams.

"I am not afraid of Siberia," the tramp went on muttering. "Siberia is just as much Russia and has the same God and Tsar as here. They are just as orthodox Christians as you and I. Only there is more freedom there and people are better off. Everything is better there. Take the rivers there, for instance; they are far better than those here.