Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/52

Tales from Tolstoi wood happened to be in his district, and there had long been an understanding between him and the local merchants, that one merchant should not bid against another of the same district; but Vasily Andreich was aware that the Government forest contractors were after the Goryachkinsky wood, so he resolved to set out immediately and settle the business with the squire. So, as soon as the feast was over, he got out of his strong box 700 roubles, added to them the 2,300 bank-notes he had by him, making together 3,000 roubles, and, after carefully counting them all over, placed them in his pocketbook, and prepared to go.

Day-labourer Nikita, the only one of Vasily Andreich's labourers who was not drunk to-day, hastened to put the horse to. Nikita was not drunk to-day, because he had been a drunkard, and since the flesh-eating days had begun, previous to which he had drunk everything down to his clothes and his leather boots, he had solemnly renounced drink; and indeed he had drunk nothing during the second month; and now too he had not drunken despite the temptations of the wine flowing everywhere during the first two days of the feast.

Nikita was a muzhik of about fifty years of age, from the neighbouring village; no householder, as people said — living for the greater part of his life not at home, but amongst the people. Everywhere was he prized for his painstaking and his skill and strength as a workman, but principally for his good, friendly character. But he never stayed long in one place, because twice in the year, and now and then