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

necessary, make a mark. At every turning, dig a hole and pile up the turf;
then afterwards we will go round with a plough from hole to hole. You make
as large a circuit as you please, but before the sun sets you must return
to the place you started from. All the land you cover will be yours."

Pakhom was delighted. It was decided to start early next morning. They
talked a while, and after drinking some more kumiss and eating some more
mutton, they had tea again, and then the night came on. They gave Pakhom a
feather-bed to sleep on, and the Bashkirs dispersed for the night,
promising to assemble the next morning at day-break and ride out before
sunrise to the appointed spot.

VII

Pakhom lay on the feather-bed, but could not sleep. He kept thinking about
the land.

"What a large tract I will mark off!" thought he. "I can easily do
thirty-five miles in a day. The days are long now, and within a circuit of
thirty-five miles what a lot of land there will be! I will sell the poorer
land, or let it to peasants, but I'll pick out the best and farm it. I will
buy two ox-teams, and hire two more labourers. About a hundred and fifty
acres shall be plough-land, and I will pature cattle on the rest."

Pakhom lay awake all night, and dozed off only just before dawn. Hardly
were his eyes closed when he had a dream. He thought he was lying in that
same tent and heard somebody chuckling outside. He wondered who it could
be, and rose and went out, and he saw the Bashkir chief sitting in front of
the tent holding his sides and rolling about with laughter. Going nearer to
the chief, Pakhom asked: "What are you laughing at?" But he saw that it was
no longer the chief, but the dealer who had recently stopped at his house
and had told him about the land. Just as Pakhom was going to ask, "Have you
been here long?" he saw that it was not the dealer, but the peasant who had
come up from the Volga, long ago, to Pakhom's old home. The he saw that it
was not the peasant either, but the Devil himself with hoofs and horns,
sitting there and chuckling, and before him lay a man barefoot, prostrate
on the ground, with only trousers and a shirt on. And Pakhom dreamt that he
looked more attentively to see what sort of a man it was that was lying
there, and he saw that the man was dead, and that it was himself! He awoke
horror-struck.

"What things one does dream," thought he.

Looking round he saw through the open door that the dawn was breaking.

"It's time to wake them up," thought he. "We ought to be starting."

He got up, roused his man (who was sleeping in his cart), bade him harness;
and went to call the Bashkirs.