Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/113

Rh and struck Nikita in the back with its curved top, he awoke, and was compelled, willy-nilly, to change his position. With difficulty he straightened out his legs, and brushing the snow off them, rose to his feet; and immediately the murderous cold ran through his whole body. Understanding now what was the matter, he wanted Vasily Andreich to leave him the big sack which was no longer necessary for the horse, so that he might cover himself therewith; it was about that that he had called to his master.

But Vasily Andreich did not stop, but disappeared in the snowy dust. Abandoned thus, Nikita thought for a moment what he should do. He no longer felt able to go and seek a dwelling; to sit down in his old place was impossible, it was covered with snow already. In the sledge itself he was sensible he could not get warm, because he had nothing to cover himself with—for any warming purposes his kaftan and furs were quite useless. He was as cold as if he were standing there in nothing but his shirt. He stood there pondering a little while, then heaved a sigh, and, without taking the coarse cloth web from off his head, rolled into the sledge in the place where his master had lain.

He squeezed himself into a ball at the very bottom of the sledge, but nohow could he get warm. Thus he lay for five minutes shivering all over; then the shivering feeling passed away, and he began to lose consciousness. Whether he were dying or slumbering he did not know, but he felt just as ready for one as for the other. If God bade him wake up again alive in this world to live as before by the labour of 63