FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>  
king silently at the baby. Akulina did not notice this proceeding, and with her cakes on the board went to place them in a corner. Polikey quickly hid the rope beneath his coat, and again seated himself on the bed. "What is it that troubles you, Illitch?" inquired Akulina. "You are not yourself." "I have not slept," he answered. Suddenly a dark shadow crossed the window, and a minute later the girl Aksiutka quickly entered the room, exclaiming: "The boyarinia commands you, Polikey Illitch, to come to her this moment!" Polikey looked first at Akulina and then at the girl. "This moment!" he cried. "What more is wanted?" He spoke the last sentence so softly that Akulina became quieted in her mind, thinking that perhaps their mistress intended to reward her husband. "Say that I will come immediately," he said. But Polikey failed to follow the girl, and went instead to another place. From the porch of his house there was a ladder reaching to the attic. Arriving at the foot of the ladder Polikey looked around him, and seeing no one about, he quickly ascended to the garret. ***** Meanwhile the girl had reached her mistress's house. "What does it mean that Polikey does not come?" said the noblewoman impatiently. "Where can he be? Why does he not come at once?" Aksiutka flew again to his house and demanded to see Polikey. "He went a long time ago," answered Akulina, and looking around with an expression of fear on her face, she added, "He may have fallen asleep somewhere on the way." About this time the joiner's wife, with hair unkempt and clothes bedraggled, went up to the loft to gather the linen which she had previously put there to dry. Suddenly a cry of horror was heard, and the woman, with her eyes closed, and crazed by fear, ran down the ladder like a cat. "Illitch," she cried, "has hanged himself!" Poor Akulina ran up the ladder before any of the people, who had gathered from the surrounding houses, could prevent her. With a loud shriek she fell back as if dead, and would surely have been killed had not one of the spectators succeeded in catching her in his arms. Before dark the same day a peasant of the village, while returning from the town, found the envelope containing Polikey's money on the roadside, and soon after delivered it to the boyarinia. THE CANDLE. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: but I sa
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>  



Top keywords:
Polikey
 

Akulina

 

ladder

 

Illitch

 

quickly

 
Aksiutka
 
mistress
 

boyarinia

 
Suddenly
 

looked


moment

 

answered

 
fallen
 

closed

 
crazed
 

asleep

 
unkempt
 
gather
 

clothes

 

bedraggled


previously

 

horror

 

joiner

 

returning

 

envelope

 

village

 

peasant

 

Before

 

CANDLE

 

roadside


delivered

 
catching
 

succeeded

 

surrounding

 

houses

 
prevent
 

gathered

 
people
 

surely

 
killed

spectators
 

shriek

 
hanged
 
exclaiming
 

commands

 

entered

 
shadow
 

crossed

 
window
 

minute