"Tolstoy, Leo - How Much Land Does A Man Need" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolstoy Leo)

none of it." So he spoke to his wife.

"Other people are buying," said he, "and we must also buy twenty acres or
so. Life is becoming impossible. That steward is simply crushing us with
his fines."

So they put their heads together and considered how they could manage to
buy it. They had one hundred rubles laid by. They sold a colt and one half
of their bees, hired out one of their sons as a labourer and took his wages
in advance; borrowed the rest from a brother-in-law, and so scraped
together half the purchase money.

Having done this, Pakhom chose out a farm of forty acres, some of it
wooded, and went to the lady to bargain for it. They came to an agreement,
and he shook hands with her upon it and paid her a deposit in advance. Then
they went to town and signed the deeds; he paying half the price down, and
undertaking to pay the remainder within two years.

So now Pakhom had land of his own. He borrowed seed, and sowed it on the
land he had bought. The harvest was a good one, and within a year he had
managed to pay off his debts both to the lady and to his brother-in-law. So
he became a landowner, ploughing and sowing his own land, making hay on his
own land, cutting his own trees, and feeding his cattle on his own pasture.
When he went out to plough his fields, or to look at his growing corn, or
at his grass meadows, his heart would fill with joy. The grass that grew
and the flowers that bloomed there seemed to him unlike any that grew
elsewhere. Formerly, when he had passed by that land, it had appeared the
same as any other land, but now it seemed quite different.

III

So Pakhom was well-contented, and everything would have been right if the
neighbouring peasants would only not have trespassed on his corn-fields and
meadows. He appealed to them most civilly, but they still went on: now the
communal herdsmen would let the village cows stray into his meadows, then
horses from the night pasture would get among his corn. Pakhom turned them
out again and again, and forgave their owners, and for a long time he
forbore to prosecute any one. But at last he lost patience and complained
to the district court. He knew it was the peasants' want of land, and no
evil intent on their part, that caused the trouble, but he thought:

"I cannot go on overlooking it or they will destroy all I have. They must
be taught a lesson."

So he had them up, gave them one lesson, and then another, and two or three
of the peasants were fined. After a time Pakhom's neighbour began to bear
him a grudge for this, and would now and then let their cattle on to his
land on purpose. One peasant even got into Pakhom's wood at night and cut
down five young lime trees for their bark. Pakhom passing through the wood
one day noticed something white. He came nearer and saw the stripped trunks