Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 08 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/118

106 "Aleksandr, come, little father, to the well; I have dropped the bucket"

Aleksandr replied:—

"You dropped it, and you must get it out."

The cattle-woman replied that she was going to climb down into the well, only she wanted him to hold her.

The elder said:—

"Very well, then; let us go; you have been fasting lately, so I can hold you; but if you had had dinner, it would be impossible."

The elder fastened a stake to the rope, and the woman sat astride of it, clinging to the rope, and she began to descend into the well, and the elder unwound the rope by means of the windlass. The well was about fourteen feet deep, and there was a third of a fathom of water in it.

The elder kept turning back the windlass slowly, and shouting to the woman:—

"Is that enough?"

And the cattle-woman kept crying:— "Just a little more."

Suddenly the elder felt the rope slacken; he shouted to the woman, but she gave no answer. The elder looked down into the well, and saw that the woman was lying with her head in the water and her feet in the air.

The elder began to shout and call the people, but there was no one to come. Only the hostler came running.

The elder bade him hold the windlass, and he himself pulled up the rope, got astride of the stake, and descended into the well.

As soon as the hostler let the elder down to the water's edge, the same thing happened. He let go of the rope, and fell head-first down on the cattle-woman.

The hostler began to cry for help; then he ran to the church for the people. Mass was over, and the people were returning from church. All the peasant men and women hastened to the well. They all stood around