Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/151

Rh to his body; his mouth was parched and dry. His breast seemed to be a blacksmith's bellows; his heart beat like a hammer; his feet bent beneath him and no longer seemed his own. Pakhom thought no more of his land, what he thought was this: "Suppose I were to die of fatigue!" He feared to die, but he could not find it in his heart to stop. "After running such a distance, to stop now!" he thought. "No! they would call me a fool! What was that?" He listened. The Bashkirs were shouting and bellowing to him to come on, and their shouts kindled his courage once more. Pakhom ran with all the strength he still had left in him, and just then the sun dipped on the horizon. But he was now quite close to the goal. Pakhom saw the people on the mound waving their hands to him, and it goaded him on. And now he saw the fox-skin cap on the ground, and the money in it, and he saw the chief sitting on the ground and holding his sides. And Pakhom recollected his dream. "The land is plenteous," thought he, "most plenteous, but will God let me live upon it? Alas! I have lost my very self," thought he. And still he kept on running. He looked back upon the sun. It was large and red, and quite close to the ground; it was on the point of disappearing. Pakhom reached the foot of the mound and the sun went down. Pakhom groaned. He already thought that he had lost everything; but then it suddenly occurred to him that 'twas only he, below there, who could not see the sun, from the top of the mound it must still be visible. Pakhom dashed towards the mound. He scaled it at a gallop, and saw the fox-skin cap—yes! 101