Christianity and Patriotism
I translated this answer to my visitor.
"Dites lui que nous aimons les Russes," he said.
These words struck Prokofy evidently more than the proposition about hemming in the Germans, and aroused a certain feeling of suspicion.
"What sort of man may he be?" Prokofy asked me, distrustfully indicating my visitor with a movement of his head.
I said that he was a Frenchman, a wealthy man.
"What business is he here upon?" asked Prokofy.
When I explained that he had come to rouse the Russians to form an alliance with France in case of war with the Germans, Prokofy, it was evident, was thoroughly displeased, and turning to the peasant women who were sitting on a hayrick he shouted to them in a stern voice that unconsciously betrayed the feelings roused by the conversation, telling them to go and rake up the rest of the hay.
"Come, you crows, you are dreaming. Get to work. We needn't be in a hurry about crushing the German. Here they have not carried the hay yet. And it seems they are to go to crush him by Wednesday,"[1] he said.
- ↑ An untranslatable pun, as the words also mean: "It seems they are to go reaping by Wednesday."—Translator's Note.
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