文档介绍：Master and Man
Master and Man
by Leo Tolstoy Trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude
1
Master and Man
CHAPTER I
It happened in the 'seventies in winter, on the day after St. Nicholas's
Day. There was a fete in the parish and the innkeeper, Vasili Andreevich
Brekhunov, a Second Guild merchant, being a church elder had to go to
church, and had also to entertain his relatives and friends at home.
But when the last of them had gone he at once began to prepare to
drive over to see a neighbouring proprietor about a grove which he had
been bargaining over for a long time. He was now in a hurry to start, lest
buyers from the town might forestall him in making a profitable purchase.
The youthful landowner was asking ten thousand rubles for the grove
simply because Vasili Andreevich was offering seven thousand. Seven
thousand was, however, only a third of its real value. Vasili Andreevich
might perhaps have got it down to his own price, for the woods were in his
district and he had a long-standing agreement with the other village
dealers that no one should run up the price in another's district, but he had
now learnt that some timber-dealers from town meant to bid for the
Goryachkin grove, and he resolved to go at once and get the matter settled.
So as soon as the feast was over, he took seven hundred rubles from his
strong box, added to them two thousand three hundred rubles of church
money he had in his keeping, so as to make up the sum to three thousand;
carefully counted the notes, and having put them into his pocket-book
made haste to start.
Nikita, the only one of Vasili Andreevich's labourers who was not
drunk that day, ran to harness the horse. Nikita, though an habitual
drunkard, was not drunk that day because since the last day before the fast,
when he had drunk his coat and leather boots, he had sworn off drink and
had kept his vow for two months, and was still keeping it despite the
temptation of the vodka that had been drunk everywhe