Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/179

Rh The muzhiks at last began to talk among themselves about these evil deeds. They met together, too, in some secluded nook, and the boldest of them said: "How much longer are we going to endure our tyrant? Let us fall upon him all together; 'tis no sin to kill such an one!"

Towards Easter the muzhiks had assembled in a wood; it was a wood belonging to their lord. The overseer had ordered them to clear it; they came together at the mid-day meal and began to talk.

"How is it possible to go on living like this?" they said. "He is destroying us root and branch. He is wearing us to death with work; neither night nor day does he give us or our wives any rest. Simeon died from his violence, Anisim is tortured in prison. What more must we look for? He will come here this evening and begin again to rate and revile us. Come, now, let us tear him from his horse and beat him on the head with our axes, and there's an end to the business. We'll dig a hole somewhere and chuck him into it like a dog, and we shall hear no more about it. Only let us be agreed, let us all stand together, let us keep our own counsel!"

It was Vasily Minaev who spoke thus. He had a bitterer grudge against the overseer than any of the others. For the overseer whipped him every week, and took away his wife to make her his cook.

So the muzhiks talked about it, and in the evening came the overseer. He was on horseback, and immediately began scolding them for the way they were clearing the wood. He hit upon a group of lindens.

"I did not tell you to clip the lindens," said he. 129