Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/145

Rh They promised to assemble again at dawn next morning, and go to the starting-point before sunrise.

Pakhom lay on his cushions, but he could not sleep. He kept thinking of the land. "Here," said he, "I am indeed in luck's way. I am about to drop into a huge domain, for in a day I can make a circuit of fifty miles easily, and the days are now at their longest. Now, in fifty miles there are at least 10,000 acres. I shall be independent of all the world. I will get two yoke of oxen and two labourers. I will plough up the parts I like best, and will graze cattle on the remainder."

Pakhom did not sleep a wink the whole night. It was only just before dawn that he dozed off, and then he dreamed a dream. He dreamed he lay in that very kibitka and heard someone laughing outside. A strong desire seized him to see who was laughing so much, and he went out of the kibitka. And he dreamed that the selfsame Bashkir chief was sitting by the kibitka, holding his sides with both hands, and shrieking with laughter at something or other. And he went up and asked him, "What are you laughing at so much?" And then he saw that it was not the Bashkir chief, but the merchant of a few days ago who had sojourned with him and told him of the land. And he asked the merchant, "Why, how long have you been here?" And then he saw that it was not the merchant, but the muzhik who had 95