Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/265

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THE FRUITS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
245

Yákov. Yes, he! At the farther end.

Second Peasant. I know, the third farm.

Scene XIII. The same and Tánya (running in).

Tánya. Yákov Iványch! Don't take it easy here! She is calling!

Yákov. I am coming. What is up?

Tánya. Fifi is barking and wants to eat. She is scolding you. "What a bad man he is," she says. "He has no pity at all," says she. "It wants to eat, and he does not bring anything!" (Laughs.)

Yákov (about to go). Oh, she is angry? I hope there won't be anything bad!

Cook (to Yákov). Take the cabbage along!

Yákov. Let me have it! (Takes the cabbage, and exit.)

Scene XIV. The same, without Yákov.

First Peasant. Who is going to dine now?

Tánya. The dog. That is her dog. (Sits down and takes hold of the teapot.) Have you any tea? I have brought some more. (Pours it in.)

Second Peasant. Dinner for a dog?

Tánya. Why, of course! They prepare a special cutlet for the dog, one that is not too fat. I wash the dog's linen.

Third Peasant. O Lord!

Tánya. Like that gentleman who buried his dog.

Second Peasant. What about him?

Tánya. A man was telling that a gentleman's dog had died. It was in winter, and he drove out to bury him. He buried him, and he drove back again, and kept weeping. It was a biting frost, and the coachman's nose was running all the time, and he wiped it off— Let me fill you the glass. (Fills the glass.) His nose ran,