Page:Korolenko - Makar's Dream and Other Stories.djvu/52

28 but long as Makar and the priest stood still, the Tartar did not budge an inch from their side.

He spat angrily and turned to Makar.

"Listen, friend, haven't you a bit of mahorka with you? I do want to smoke so badly, and I finished all mine five years ago."

"You're a friend of dogs but no friend of mine," retorted Makar in a rage. "You have stolen my horse and now you ask for mahorka! Confound you altogether, I'm not sorry for you one bit!"

With these words Makar moved on.

"You made a mistake not to give him a little mahorka," said Father Ivan. "The Toyon would have forgiven you at least one hundred sins for that at the Judgment."

"Then why didn't you tell me that before?" snapped Makar.

"Ah, it is too late to teach you anything now. You should have learnt it from your priest while you were alive."

Makar was furious. He saw no sense in priests who took their tithes and did not even teach a man when to give a leaf of mahorka to a Tartar in order to gain forgiveness for his sins. One hundred sins were no joke! And all for a leaf of tobacco! The mistake had cost him dear.

"Wait a moment!" he exclaimed. "One leaf will do very well for us two. Let me give the other four