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

He went on in the same way for three years, renting land and sowing wheat.
The seasons turned out well and the crops were good, so that he began to
lay money by. He might have gone on living contentedly, but he grew tired
of having to rent other people's land every year, and having to scramble
for it. Wherever there was good land to be had, the peasants would rush for
it and it was taken up at once, so that unless you were sharp about it you
got none. It happened in the third year that he and a dealer together
rented a piece of pasture land from some peasants; and they had already
ploughed it up, when there was some dispute and the peasants went to law
about it, and things fell out so that the labour was all lost.

"If it were my own land," thought Pakhom, "I should be independent, and
there would not be all this unpleasantness."

So Pakhom began looking out for land which he could buy; and he came across
a peasant who had bought thirteen hundred acres, but having got into
difficulties was willing to sell again cheap. Pakhom bargained and haggled
with him, and at last they settled the price at 1,500 rubles, part in cash
and part to be paid later. They had all but clinched the matter when a
passing dealer happened to stop at Pakhom's one day to get a feed for his
horses. He drank tea with Pakhom and they had a talk. The dealer said that
he was just returning from the land of the Bashkirs, far away, where he had
bought thirteen thousand acres of land, all for 1,000 rubles. Pakhom
questioned him further, and the tradesman said:

"All one need do is to make friends with the chiefs. I gave away about one
hundred rubles worth of silk robes and carpets, besides a case of tea, and
I gave wine to those who would drink it; and I got the land for less than a
penny an acre." And he showed Pakhom the title-deeds, saying:

"The land lies near a river, and the whole prairie is virgin soil."

Pakhom plied him with questions, and the tradesman said:

"There is more land there than you could cover if you walked a year, and it
all belongs to the Bashkirs. They are as simple as sheep, and land can be
got almost for nothing."

"There now," thought Pakhom, "with my one thousand rubles why should I get
only thirteen hundred acres, and saddle myself with a debt besides? If I
take it out there, I can get more than ten times as much for the money."

V

Pakhom inquired how to get to the place, and as soon as the tradesmen had
left him, he prepared to go there himself. He left his wife to look after
the homestead, and started on his journey taking his man with him. They
stopped at a town on their way and bought a case of tea, some wine, and
other presents, as the tradesman had advised. On and on they went until
they had gone more than three hundred miles, and on the seventh day they