Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/138

Tales from Tolstoi community, allotted him land for five souls, to wit fifty acres in different fields, with right of pasturage on the communal lands. Pakhom built him a house and bought much cattle. His own lot of land was double as much as before, and a fat land it was. He lived ten times as well upon it as heretofore. Of arable and pasturage land there was no lack, and he could keep as many cattle as he chose.

So at first, while he was building his house and buying his cattle, everything seemed good in his eyes; but when he got a little used to the place, he began to feel straitened there also. Pakhom, like the rest of them, wanted to sow Turkish wheat. But there was very little of such wheat land in the communal domains. They had to sow wheat in the grass land or fallow. They sowed the land one year, and then let it lie for two, till it was overgrown with grass again. There was any amount of light soil, but in light soil only rye will grow; wheat requires richer soil. Very many desired strong soil, but not everyone could get it. Thus quarrels arose. The richer muzhiks kept a tight hold on what they had got, while the poorer ones had to sell theirs to pay their taxes. The first year Pakhom sowed his allotted land with wheat, and the crop was good. Then he would hear of nothing but sowing more wheat, but there was very little wheat land allotted, and what there was was not worth much. He longed for more. He went to a merchant and hired land for a year. He sowed wheat again, this time much more abundantly. Again the crop was good, but the field was far from the village. You had to go fifteen miles to get to it. As 88