Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 02.djvu/56

38 that is the common rule among peasants. And I take the liberty of informing you that the old woman has troubled you in vain. She is a clever old woman and a good housekeeper; but why should she trouble the master for everything? I wi;; admit she may have quarrelled with her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law may have pushed her,—those are women's affairs. They might have made up again, without her troubling you. You deign to take it too much to heart," said the manager, looking with a certain gentleness and condescension at the master, who was silently walking, with long steps, up the street in front of him.

"Homeward bound, sir? " he asked.

"No, to Davýdka the White, or Kozlóv: is not that his name?"

"He, too, is a good-for-nothing, permit me to inform you. The whole tribe of the Kozlóvs is like that. No matter what you may do with them, it has no effect. I drove yesterday over the peasant field, and I saw he had not sowed any buckwheat; what are we to do with such a lot? If only the old man taught the son, but he is just such a good-for-nothing: he bungles everything, whether he works for himself or for the manor. The guardian and I have tried everything with him: we have sent him to the commissary's office, and have punished him at home,—but you do not like that—"

"Whom, the old man?"

"The old man, sir. The guardian has punished him often, and at the full gatherings of the Commune; but will you believe it, your Grace, it had no effect: he just shook himself, and went away, and did the same. And I must say, Davýdka is a peaceful peasant, and not at all stupid: he does not smoke, nor drink, that is," explained Yákov, "he does something worse than drink. All there is left to do is to send him to the army, or to Siberia, and nothing else. The whole tribe of the Kozlóvs is like that.