They knew everything, and added of their own to what they knew, and had already managed to quarrel again with Gabriel's women-folk as they drove the cattle home. They began to tell how Gabriel's daughter-in-law had threatened them with the magistrate. This magistrate, they said, held a protecting hand over Gabriel. He was now going to quash the proceedings, and the schoolmaster, they said, was going to write another petition to the Tsar himself against Ivan; in this petition everything which had happened was to be set down, and there was all about the tethering-peg, arid the kitchen garden, and half of Ivan's property was to be handed over to Gabriel. Ivan listened to all their chattering, and again his heart grew cold within him, and he began thinking of making it up with Gabriel.
The master of a farm has always a lot to do. Ivan did not talk with the women, but got up, went out of the hut, and went to the barn and stables. By the time he had finished what he had to do there, the bright little sun had disappeared behind the farm, and the children had come home from the fields. They ploughed up the soil twice during the winter for the summer crops. Ivan met them, and began to question them about their work. He lent a hand, helped them to put away things, laid aside a ragged harness for mending, and would even have put the stable-poles to rights, but meanwhile it had grown quite dark. So Ivan left the poles for the morrow, and threw fodder to the cattle, opened the gate and let out Taraska with the horses that they might go along the lane to their night-quarters, and again
153
