"Checkov, Anton - The Wife And Other Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chekhov Anton)

" 'There was a battle at Pol . . . Poltava,' " he brought out,
gesticulating with both hands in protest against the laughter and
coughing which prevented him from speaking. " 'There was a battle
at Poltava!' When three years after the Emancipation we had
famine in two districts here, Fyodor Fyodoritch came and invited
me to go to him. 'Come along, come along,' he persisted, and
nothing else would satisfy him. 'Very well, let us go,' I said.
And, so we set off. It was in the evening; there was snow
falling. Towards night we were getting near his place, and
suddenly from the wood came 'bang!' and another time 'bang!' 'Oh,
damn it all!' . . . I jumped out of the sledge, and I saw in the
darkness a man running up to me, knee-deep in the snow. I put my
arm round his shoulder, like this, and knocked the gun out of his
hand. Then another one turned up; I fetched him a knock on the
back of his head so that he grunted and flopped with his nose in
the snow. I was a sturdy chap then, my fist was heavy; I disposed
of two of them, and when I turned round Fyodor was sitting
astride of a third. We did not let our three fine fellows go; we
tied their hands behind their backs so that they might not do us
or themselves any harm, and took the fools into the kitchen. We
were angry with them and at the same time ashamed to look at
them; they were peasants we knew, and were good fellows; we were
sorry for them. They were quite stupid with terror. One was
crying and begging our pardon, the second looked like a wild
beast and kept swearing, the third knelt down and began to pray.
I said to Fedya: 'Don't bear them a grudge; let them go, the
rascals!' He fed them, gave them a bushel of flour each, and let
them go: 'Get along with you,' he said. So that's what he did.. .
. The Kingdom of Heaven be his and everlasting peace! He
understood and did not bear them a grudge; but there were some
who did, and how many people they ruined! Yes. . . Why, over the
affair at the Klotchkovs' tavern eleven men were sent to the
disciplinary battalion. Yes. . . . And now, look, it's the same
thing. Anisyin, the investigating magistrate, stayed the night
with me last Thursday, and he told me about some landowner. . . .
Yes. . . . They took the wall of his barn to pieces at night and
carried off twenty sacks of rye. When the gentleman heard that
such a crime had been committed, he sent a telegram to the
Governor and another to the police captain, another to the
investigating magistrate! . . . Of course, every one is afraid of
a man who is fond of litigation. The authorities were in a
flutter and there was a general hubbub. Two villages were
searched."

"Excuse me, Ivan Ivanitch," I said. "Twenty sacks of rye were
stolen from me, and it was I who telegraphed to the Governor. I
telegraphed to Petersburg, too. But it was by no means out of
love for litigation, as you are pleased to express it, and not
because I bore them a grudge. I look at every subject from the