On one side of them stretched the sea, on the other side lay a small plot of land, and beyond it again stretched the same boundless sea. The Generals began to weep, for the first time since the registry office had been closed.
They began to gaze at each other, and they then perceived that they were clad only in their night-shirts, and on the neck of each hung an order.
"How good a little coffee would taste now!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed one General, but then he remembered what unprecedented adventure had happened to him, and he began to cry again.
"But what are we to do?" he continued, through his tears; "if we were to write a report, of what use would it be?"
"This is what we must do," replied the other General. "Do you go to the east, your Excellency, and I will go to the west, and in the evening we will meet again at this place; perhaps we shall find something."
So they began their search to find which was the east and which the west. They recalled to mind that their superior official had once said, "If you wish to find the east, stand with your eyes towards the north, and you will find what you want on your right hand." They began to seek the north, and placed themselves first in one position, then in another, and tried all quarters of the compa.s.s in turn, but as they had spent their whole lives in the registry office, they could decide on nothing.
"This is what we must do, your Excellency; do you go to the right, and I will go to the left; that will be better," said the General, who besides serving in the registry office had also served as instructor of calligraphy in the school for soldiers" sons, and consequently had more sense.
So said, so done. One General went to the right, and saw trees growing, and on the trees all sorts of fruits. The General tried to get an apple, but all the apples grew so high that it was necessary to climb for them. He tried to climb, but with no result, except that he tore his shirt to rags. The General came to a stream, the fish were swimming there in swarms, as though in a fish-shop on the Fontanka ca.n.a.l. "If we only had such fish in Pettifoggers Street!" said the General to himself, and he even changed countenance with hunger.
The General entered the forest, and there hazel-hens were whistling, blackc.o.c.ks were holding their bragging matches, and hares were running.
"Heavens! What victuals! What victuals!" said the General, and he felt that he was becoming fairly sick at his stomach with hunger.
There was nothing to be done; he was obliged to return to the appointed place with empty hands. He reached it but the other General was already waiting for him.
"Well, your Excellency, have you accomplished anything?"
"Yes, I have found an old copy of the "Moscow News"; that is all."
The Generals lay down to sleep again, but gnawing hunger kept them awake. They were disturbed by speculations as to who would receive their pension for them; then they recalled the fruits, fish, hazel-hens, blackc.o.c.k, and hares which they had seen that day.
"Who would have thought, your Excellency, that human food, in its original shape, flies, swims, and grows on trees?" said one General.
"Yes," replied the other General; "I must confess that until this day I thought that wheaten rolls came into existence in just the form in which they are served to us in the morning with our coffee."
"It must be that, for instance, if one desires to eat a partridge, he must first catch it, kill it, pluck it, roast it.... But how is all that done?"
"How is all that done?" repeated the other General, like an echo. They fell into silence, and tried to get to sleep; but hunger effectually banished sleep. Hazel-hens, turkeys, sucking-pigs flitted before their eyes, rosy, veiled in a slight blush of roasting, surrounded with cuc.u.mbers, pickles, and other salads.
"It seems to me that I could eat my own boots now!" said one General.
"Gloves are good also, when they have been worn a long time!"
sighed the other General.
All at once the Generals glanced at each other; an ominous fire glowed in their eyes, their teeth gnashed, a dull roar forced its way from their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. They began slowly to crawl toward each other, and in the twinkling of an eye they were exasperated to fury. Tufts of hair flew about, whines and groans resounded; the General who had been a teacher of calligraphy bit off his adversary"s Order, and immediately swallowed it. But the sight of flowing blood seemed to restore them to their senses.
"The power of the cross defend us!" they exclaimed simultaneously; "if we go on like this we shall eat each other!"
"And how did we get here? What malefactor has played us this trick?"
"We must divert our minds with some sort of conversation, your Excellency, or there will be murder!" said the other General.
"Begin!" replied the other General.
"Well, for instance, what do you think about this, Why does the sun rise first and then set, instead of acting the other way about?"
"You are a queer man, your Excellency; don"t you rise first, then go to the office, write there, and afterward go to bed?"
"But why not admit this reversal of the order; first I go to bed, have divers dreams, and then rise?"
"Hm, yes.... But I must confess that when I served in the department I always reasoned in this fashion: now it is morning, then it will be day, then supper will be served, and it will be time to go to bed."
But the mention of supper plunged them both into grief, and broke the conversation off short at the very beginning.
"I have heard a doctor say that a man can live for a long time on his own juices," began one of the Generals.
"Is that so?"
"Yes, sir, it is; it appears that, the juices proper produce other juices; these in their turn, engender still other juices, and so on, until at last the juices cease altogether...."
"What then?"
"Then it is necessary to take some sort of nourishment."
"Tfu!"
In short, no matter what topic of conversation the Generals started, it led inevitably to a mention of food, and this excited their appet.i.tes still more. They decided to cease their conversation, and calling to mind the copy of the "Moscow News"
which they had found, they began to read it with avidity.
"Yesterday," read one General, with a quivering voice, "the respected governor of our ancient capital gave a grand dinner.
The table was set for one hundred persons, with wonderful luxury. The gifts of all lands seemed to have appointed a rendezvous at this magical feast. There was the golden sterlet of the Sheksna, the pheasant, nursling of the Caucasian forests, and strawberries, that great rarity in our north in the month of February...."
"Tfu, heavens! Cannot your Excellency find some other subject?"
cried the other General in desperation, and taking the newspaper from his companion"s hand, he read the following: "A correspondent writes to us from Tula: "There was a festival here yesterday at the club, on the occasion of a sturgeon being caught in the river Upa (an occurrence which not even old residents can recall, the more so as private Warden B. was recognized in the sturgeon). The author of the festival was brought in on a huge wooden platter, surrounded with cuc.u.mbers, and holding a bit of green in his mouth. Doctor P., who was on duty that day as presiding officer, saw to it carefully that each of the guests received a piece. The sauce was extremely varied, and even capricious." ..."
"Permit me, your Excellency, you also seem to be not sufficiently cautious in your choice of reading matter!"
interrupted the first General, and taking the paper in his turn, he read: "A correspondent writes to us from Vyatka: "One of the old residents here has invented the following original method of preparing fish soup: Take a live turbot, and whip him as a preliminary; when his liver has become swollen with rage." ..."
The Generals dropped their heads. Everything on which they turned their eyes--everything bore witness to food. Their own thoughts conspired against them, for try as they would to banish the vision of beefsteak, this vision forced itself upon them.
And all at once an idea struck the General who had been a teacher of calligraphy....
"How would it do, your Excellency," he said joyfully, "if we were to find a peasant?"
"That is to say ... a muzhik?"
"Yes, exactly, a common muzhik ... such as muzhiks generally are. He would immediately give us rolls, and he would catch hazel-hens and fish!"
"Hm ... a peasant ... but where shall we find him, when he is not here?"
"What do you mean by saying that he is not to be found? There are peasants everywhere, and all we have to do is to look him up! He is certainly hiding somewhere about because he is too lazy to work!" This idea cheered the Generals to such a degree that they sprang to their feet like men who had received a shock, and set out to find a peasant.