"Let me go," he repeated with melancholy despair. "Let me go, for G.o.d"s sake, let me go! I will pay, that I will, by G.o.d. By G.o.d, hunger drove me to it ... the children are squalling, thou knowest thyself how it is. It"s hard on a man, that it is."
"All the same, don"t go a-thieving."
"My horse," continued the peasant, "there"s my horse, take it if you choose ... it"s my only beast ... let me go!"
"Impossible, I tell thee. I also am a subordinate, I shall be held responsible. And it isn"t right, either, to connive at thy deed."
"Let me go! Poverty, Foma Kuzmitch, poverty, that"s what it is ... let me go!"
"I know thee!"
"But let me go!"
"Eh, what"s the use of arguing with you; sit still or I"ll give it to you, don"t you know? Don"t you see the gentleman?"
The poor fellow dropped his eyes.... The Wolf yawned, and laid his head on the table. The rain had not stopped. I waited to see what would happen.
The peasant suddenly straightened himself up. His eyes began to blaze, and the color flew to his face. "Well, go ahead, devour!
Go ahead, oppress! Go ahead," he began, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up his eyes, and dropping the corners of his lips, "go ahead, accursed murderer of the soul, drink Christian blood, drink!"
The forester turned round.
"I"m talking to thee, to thee, Asiatic blood-drinker, to thee!"
"Art thou drunk, that thou hast taken it into thy head to curse!" said the forester with amazement. "Hast thou gone crazy?"
"Drunk!... It wasn"t on thy money, accursed soul-murderer, wild beast, beast, beast!"
"Akh, thou ... I"ll give it to thee!"
"What do I care? It"s all one to me--I shall perish anyway; where can I go without a horse? Kill me--it comes to the same thing; whether with hunger or thus, it makes no difference.
Deuce take them all: wife, children--let them all perish....
But just wait, thou shalt hear from us!"
The Wolf half-rose to his feet.
"Kill, kill----" the peasant began again in a savage voice; "Kill, go ahead, kill...." (The little girl sprang up from the floor, and riveted her eyes on him.) "Kill, kill!"
"Hold thy tongue!" thundered the forester, and advanced a couple of strides.
"Enough, that will do, Foma," I shouted--"let him alone....
Don"t bother with him...."
"I won"t hold my tongue," went on the unfortunate man. "It makes no difference how he murders me. Thou soul-murderer, thou wild beast, hanging is too good for thee.... But just wait.
Thou hast not long to vaunt thyself! They"ll strangle thy throat for thee. Just wait a bit!"
The Wolf seized him by the shoulder.... I rushed to the rescue of the peasant.
"Don"t touch us, master!" the forester shouted at me.
I did not fear his threats, and was on the point of stretching out my arm, but to my extreme amazement, with one twist, he tore the girdle from the peasant"s elbow, seized him by the collar, banged his cap down over his eyes, flung open the door, and thrust him out.
"Take thyself and thy horse off to the devil!" he shouted after him; "and see here, another time I"ll...."
He came back into the cottage, and began to rake over the ashes.
"Well, Wolf," I said at last, "you have astonished me. I see that you are a splendid young fellow."
"Ekh, stop that, master," he interrupted me, with vexation.
"Only please don"t tell about it. Now I"d better show you your way," he added, "because you can"t wait for the rain to stop."
The wheels of the peasant"s cart rumbled through the yard.
"You see, he has dragged himself off," he muttered; "but I"ll give it to him!"
Half an hour later he bade me farewell on the edge of the forest.
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW
1. At what critical period of Russian history was Gontcharoff"s famous novel "Oblomoff" written?
2. Why did it furnish a new word to the Russian language?
3. What traits did this word represent?
4. What was the peculiar merit of the short stories of Grigorovitch?
5. What was the special strength of the "School of the Forties"?
6. Give an account of the life of Turgeneff.
7. What did he try to show in "Hamlet and Don Quixote"?
8. What opposition arose to his "Fathers and Children"?
9. What are the striking features of his style?
10. What characteristics of this style are shown in "The Wolf"?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The works of Turgeneff are easily accessible in several English translations.
FOOTNOTES: