Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 02.djvu/72

54 everything, so that the people are all wondering; he has luck with the grain, with the horses, the cattle, the bees, and his children. He has married them all off. He found wives for them among his own, and now he has married Ilyúshka to a free girl,—he has himself paid for her emancipation. And she has turned out to be a fine woman."

"Do they live peaceably?" asked the master.

"As long as there is a real head in the house, there will be peace. Though with the Dutlóvs it is as elsewhere with women: the daughters-in-law quarrel behind the oven, yet the sons live peacefully together under the old man."

The nurse grew silent for a moment.

"Now the old man wants to make his eldest son, Karp, the master of the house. He says he is getting too old and that his business is with the bees. Well, Karp is a good man, an accurate man, but he will not be such a manager as the old man, by a good deal. He has not his intellect."

"Maybe Karp will be willing to take up land and forests, what do you think?" said the master, wishing to find out from his nurse what she knew about her neighbours.

"I doubt it, sir," continued the nurse; "the old man has not disclosed his money to his son. As long as the old man is alive, and the money is in his house, his mind will direct affairs; besides, they are more interested in teaming."

"And the old man will not consent?"

"He will be afraid."

"What will he be afraid of?"

"How can a manorial peasant declare his money, sir? There might be an unlucky hour, and all his money would be lost! There, he went into partnership with the porter, and he made a mistake. How could he sue him? And