What Men Live By, and Other Tales
not agree. So they decided to buy the land individually, each according
to his means; and the lady agreed to this plan as she had to the other.
Presently Pahom heard that a neighbor of his was buying fifty acres,
and that the lady had consented to accept one half in cash and to wait a
year for the other half. Pahom felt envious.
"Look at that," thought he, "the land is all being sold, and I shall get
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 roubles laid by. They sold a colt, and one
half of their bees; hired out one of their sons as a laborer, 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, Pahom 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 Pahom 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 Pahom was well contented, and everything would have been right if the
neighboring 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.
Pahom turned them out again and again, and forgave their owners, and
for a long time he forbore from prosecuting 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 Pahom's neighbours began
to bear him a grudge for this, and would now and then let their cattle
on his land on purpose. One peasant even got into Pahom's wood at night
and cut down five young lime trees for their bark. Pahom passing through
the wood one day noticed something white. He came nearer, and saw the
stripped trunks lying on the ground, and close by stood the stumps,
where the tree had been. Pahom was furious.
"If he had only cut one here and there it would have been bad enough,"
thought Pahom, "but the rascal has actually cut down a whole clump. If I
could only find out who did this, I would pay him out."
He racked his brains as to who it could be. Finally he decided: "It
must be Simon-no one else could have done it." Se he went to Simon's
homestead to have a look around, but he found nothing, and only had an
angry scene. However' he now felt more certain than ever that Simon had
done it, and he lodged a complaint. Simon was summoned. The case was
tried, and re-tried, and at the end of it all Simon was acquitted, there
being no evidence against him. Pahom felt still more aggrieved, and let
his anger loose upon the Elder and the Judges.
"You let thieves grease your palms," said he. "If you were honest folk
yourselves, you would not let a thief go free."
So Pahom quarrelled with the Judges and with his neighbors. Threats to
burn his building began to be uttered. So though Pahom had more land,
his place in the Commune was much worse than before.
About this time a rumor got about that many people were moving to new
parts.
"There's no need for me to leave my land," thought Pahom. "But some of
the others might leave our village, and then there would be more room
for us. I would take over their land myself, and make my estate a bit
bigger. I could then live more at ease. As it is, I am still too cramped
to be comfortable."
One day Pahom was sitting at home, when a peasant passing through the
village, happened to call in. He was allowed to stay the night, and
supper was given him. Pahom had a talk with this peasant and asked him
where he came from. The stranger answered that he came from beyond the
Volga, where he had been working. One word led to another, and the man
went on to say that many people were settling in those parts. He told
how some people from his village had settled there. They had joined the
Commune, and had had twenty-five acres per man granted them. The land
was so good, he said, that the rye sown on it grew as high as a horse,
and so thick that five cuts of a sickle made a sheaf. One peasant, he
said, had brought nothing with him but his bare hands, and now he had
six horses and two cows of his own.
Pahom's heart kindled with desire. He thought:
"Why should I suffer in this narrow hole, if one can live so well
elsewhere? I will sell my land and my homestead here, and with the money
I will start afresh over there and get everything new. In this crowded
place one is always having trouble. But I must first go and find out all
about it myself."
Towards summer he got ready and started. He went down the Volga on a
steamer to Samara, then walked another three hundred miles on foot, and
at last reached the place. It was just as the stranger had said. The
peasants had plenty of land: every man had twenty-five acres of Communal
land given him for his use, and any one who had money could buy,
besides, at fifty-cents an acre as much good freehold land as he wanted.
Having found out all he wished to know, Pahom returned home as autumn
came on, and began selling off his belongings. He sold his land at
a profit, sold his homestead and all his cattle, and withdrew from
membership of the Commune. He only waited till the spring, and then
started with his family for the new settlement.
IV
As soon as Pahom and his family arrived at their new abode, he applied
for admission into the Commune of a large village. He stood treat to the
Elders, and obtained the necessary documents. Five shares of Communal
land were given him for his own and his sons' use: that is to say--125
acres (not altogether, but in different fields) besides the use of
the Communal pasture. Pahom put up the buildings he needed, and bought
cattle. Of the Communal land alone he had three times as much as at his
former home, and the land was good corn-land. He was ten times better
off than he had been. He had plenty of arable land and pasturage, and
could keep as many head of cattle as he liked.
At first, in the bustle of building and settling down, Pahom was pleased
with it all, but when he got used to it he began to think that even here
he had not enough land. The first year, he sowed wheat on his share of
the Communal land, and had a good crop. He wanted to go on sowing
wheat, but had not enough Communal land for the purpose, and what he had
already used was not available; for in those parts wheat is only sown on
virgin soil or on fallow land. It is sown for one or two years, and
then the land lies fallow till it is again overgrown with prairie grass.
There were many who wanted such land, and there was not enough for all;
so that people quarrelled about it. Those who were better off, wanted it
for growing wheat, and those who were poor, wanted it to let to dealers,
so that they might raise money to pay their taxes. Pahom wanted to sow
more wheat; so he rented land from a dealer for a year. He sowed
much wheat and had a fine crop, but the land was too far from the
village--the wheat had to be carted more than ten miles. After a time
Pahom noticed that some peasant-dealers were living on separate farms,
and were growing wealthy; and he thought:
"If I were to buy some freehold land, and have a homestead on it, it
would be a different thing, altogether. Then it would all be nice and
compact."
The question of buying freehold land recurred to him again and again.
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 labor
was all lost. "If it were my own land," thought Pahom, "I should be
independent, and there would not be all this unpleasantness."
So Pahom 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. Pahom bargained and
haggled with him, and at last they settled the price at 1,500 roubles,
part in cash and part to be paid later. They had all but clinched the
matter, when a passing dealer happened to stop at Pahom's one day to get
a feed for his horse. He drank tea with Pahom, 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 roubles. Pahom questioned him further, and the tradesman said:
"All one need do is to make friends with the chiefs. I gave away about
one hundred roubles' worth of dressing-gowns 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 two cents an acre. And he showed Pahom the title-deeds,
saying:
"The land lies near a river, and the whole prairie is virgin soil."
Pahom 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 Pahom, "with my one thousand roubles, 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
Pahom inquired how to get to the place, and as soon as the tradesman
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 came to a place where the Bashkirs had pitched their
tents. It was all just as the tradesman had said. The people lived on
the steppes, by a river, in felt-covered tents. They neither tilled the