Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/135

Rh he went He knew that the muzhiks did it not from malice, but from distress. "But," thought he, "I cannot let this sort of thing go on for ever. They will eat me out of house and home. I must give them a lesson once for all."

So be summoned first one and then another, and got them fined. The muzhiks, who were Pakhom's neighbours, took this much to heart, and now began to trespass wilfully. They broke into his wood at night, and stripped the bark off the young lindens. When Pakhom next strolled through the wood, he saw what had been done, and turned pale—the bark lay scattered on the ground, and the naked trunks stood gauntly forth. If they had even cut down a few bushes, or left one linden whole—well, even that would not have been so bad; but the miscreants had barked the whole lot. Pakhom was very angry.

"Alas!" he sighed, "if only I knew who it was, I'd make him pay through the nose for it," and he fell to thinking who it might be. "Simmy—it must be Simmy!"

So he went to Simeon's farm to sift the matter out; but he only came to high words with Simeon, who denied everything. But Pakhom was now more convinced than ever that Simeon had done it. He summoned him, and they went before the Court. The Court examined and cross-examined, and finally discharged the muzhik for want of evidence. Pakhom was now beside himself for rage. He reviled the magistrates themselves.

"You protect thieves and robbers," he cried. "If you were honest folk yourselves you would not acquit 85