Chapter 12

" о MY orphanhood ! " said Arina, drawing a deep breath.

She stopped, and angrily looked at her son. Davydka immediately wheeled around and, with difficulty lifting his fat leg, in an immense dirty bast shoe, over the threshold, was lost in the opposite door.

" What am I going to do with him, father ? " continued Arina, turning to the master. " You see yourself what he is ! He is not a bad peasant : he does not drink, is peace- ful, and would not harm a child, — it would be a sin to say otherwise ; there is nothing bad about him, and God only knows what it is that has befallen him that he has become his own enemy. He himself is not satisfied with it. Really, father, it makes my heart bleed when I see how he worries about it himself. Such as he is, my womb has borne him ; I am sorry, very sorry for him ! He would do no harm to me, or his father, or the authorities ; he is a timid man, I might say, like a child. How can he remain a widower ? Do something for us, benefactor," she repeated, evidently trying to correct the bad impression which her scolding might have produced on the master. " Your Grace," she continued, in a confidential whisper, " I have reasoned this way and that way, but I can't make out what has made him so. It cannot be otherwise but that evil people have bewitched him."

She was silent for a moment.

" If the man could be found, he might be cured."

" What nonsense you are talking, Arina ! How can one bewitch ? "

" Father, they can bewitch so as to make one a no-man for all his life ! There are many evil people in the world ! Out of malice they take out a handful of earth in one's track — or something else — and one is a no-man for ever. It is easy to sin ! I have been thinking of going to see old man Dundiik, who lives at Vorobevka: he knows all kinds of incantations, and he knows herbs, and he takes away the evil eye, and draws the dropsy out of the spine. Maybe he will help ! " said the woman. " Maybe he will cure him ! "

" Now that is wretchedness and ignorance ! " thought the young master, sorrowfully bending his head, and walking with long strides down the village. "What shall I do with him ? It is impossible to leave him in this state, on my account, and as an example for others, and for his own sake," he said to himself, counting out the causes on his fingers. " I cannot see him in this condition, but how am I to take him out of it ? He destroys all my best plans for the estate. If such peasants are left in it, my dreams will never be fulfilled," he thought, experiencing mortification and anger against the peasant for destroying his plans. " Shall I send him as a settler to Siberia, as Yakov says, when he does not want to be well off, or into the army ? That's it. I shall at least be rid of him, and shall thus save a good peasant," he reflected.

He thought of it with delight ; at the same time a certain indistinct consciousness told him that he was thinking with one side of his reason only, and something was wrong. He stopped. " Wait, what am I thinking about ? " he said to himself ; " yes, into the army, to Siberia. Tor what ? He is a good man, better than many others, and how do I know — Give him his liberty ? " he reflected, considering the question not with one side of his reason only, as before, " It is unjust, and impossible." Suddenly a thought came to him that gave him great pleasure ; he smiled, with the expression of a man who has solved a difficult problem. "I will take him to the manor," he said to himself. " I will watch over him myself, and with gentleness and persuasion, and proper selection of occupations, accustom him to work, and reform him."