"Yes, I was sired by Liubeznuï I. Baba was my dam. According to
the genealogy my name is Muzhík I. Muzhík I., I am according to my
pedigree; but generally I am known as Kholstomír, on account of a long
and glorious gallop, the like of which never took place in Russia. In
lineage no horse in the world stands higher than I, for good blood.
I would never have told you this. Why should I? You would never have
known me as Viazopúrikha knew me when we used to be together at
Khrénova, and who only just now recognized me. You would not have
believed me had it not been for Viazopúrikha's witness, and I would
never have told you this. I do not need the pity of my kind. But you
insisted upon it. Well, I am that Kholstomír whom the amateurs are
seeking for and cannot find, that Kholstomír whom the count himself
named, and whom he let go from his stud because I outran his favorite
'Lebedi.'
.. .. .. .. .. .
.. .. .. .. .. .
"When I was born I did not know what they meant when they called me a
piebald;[7] I thought that I was a horse. The first remark made about
my hide, I remember, deeply surprised me and my dam.
"I must have been foaled in the night. In the morning, licked clean by
my dam's tongue, I stood on my legs. I remember all my sensations, and
that every thing seemed to me perfectly wonderful, and, at the same
time, perfectly simple. Our stalls were in a long, warm corridor, with
latticed gates, through which nothing could be seen.
"My dam tempted me to suckle; but I was so innocent as yet that I
bunted her with my nose, now under her fore-legs, now in other places.
Suddenly my dam gazed at the latticed gate, and, throwing her leg over
me, stepped to one side. One of the grooms was looking in at us through
the lattice.
"'See, Baba has foaled!' he exclaimed, and began to draw the bolt. He
came in over the straw bed, and took me up in his arms. 'Come and look,
Taras!' he cried; 'see what a piebald colt, a perfect magpie!'
"I tore myself away from him, and fell on my knees.
"'See, a perfect little devil!' he said.
"My dam became disquieted; but she did not take my part, and merely
drew a long, long breath, and stepped to one side. The grooms came, and
began to look at me. One ran to tell the equerry.
"All laughed as they looked at my spotting, and gave me various odd
names. I did not understand these names, nor did my dam either. Up to
that time in all my family there had never been a single piebald known.
We had no idea that there was any thing disgraceful in it. And then all
examined my structure and strength.
"See what a lively one!" said the hostler. 'You can't hold him.'
"In a little while came the equerry, and began to marvel at my
coloring. He also seemed disgusted.
"'What a nasty beast!' he cried. 'The general will not keep him in the
stud. Ekh! Baba, you have caused me much trouble,' he said, turning
to my dam. 'You ought to have foaled a colt with a star, but this is
completely piebald.'
"My dam vouchsafed no answer, and, as always in such circumstances,
merely sighed again.
"'What kind of a devil was his sire? A regular muzhík!' he went on to
say. 'It is impossible to keep him in the stud; it's a shame! But we'll
see, we'll see,' said he; and all said the same as they looked at me.
"After a few days the general himself came. He took a look at me, and
again all seemed horror-struck, and scolded me and my mother also on
account of my hide. 'But we'll see, we'll see,' said every one, as soon
as they caught sight of me.
"Until spring we young colts lived in separate cells with our dams;
only occasionally, when the snow on the roof of the sheds began to
melt in the sun, they would let us out into the wide yard, spread with
fresh straw. There for the first time I became acquainted with all my
kin, near and remote. There I saw how from different doors issued all
the famous mares of that time with their colts. There was the old
Holland mare, Mushka, sired by Smetankin, Krasnukha, the saddle-horse
Dobrokhotíkha, all celebrities at that time. All gathered together
there with their colts, walked up and down in the sunshine, rolled over
on the fresh straw, and sniffed of each other like ordinary horses.
"I cannot even now forget the sight of that paddock, full of the
beauties of that day. It may seem strange to you to think of me as
ever having been young and frisky, but I used to be. This very same
Viazopúrikha was there then, a yearling, whose mane had just been
cut,[8]--a kind, jolly, frolicsome little horse. But let it not be
taken as unkindly meant when I say, that, though she is now considered
a rarity among you on account of her pedigree, then she was only one of
the meanest horses of that stud. She herself will corroborate this.
"Though my coat of many colors had been displeasing to the men, it
was exceedingly attractive to all the horses. They all stood round
me, expressing their delight, and frisking with me. I even began to
forget the words of the men about my hide, and felt happy. But I soon
experienced the first sorrow of my life, and the cause of it was my
dam. As soon as it began to thaw, and the swallows chirped on the roof,
and the spring made itself felt more and more in the air, my dam began
to change in her behavior toward me.
"Her whole character was transformed. Suddenly, without any reason,
she began to frisk, galloping around the yard, which certainly did not
accord with her dignified growth; then she would pause and consider,
and begin to whinny; then she would bite and kick her sister mares;
then she began to smell of me, and neigh with dissatisfaction; then
trotting out into the sun she would lay her head across the shoulder
of my two-year-old sister Kúpchika, and long and earnestly scratch her
back, and push me away from nursing her. One time the equerry came,
commanded the halter to be put on her, and they led her out of the
paddock. She whinnied; I replied to her, and darted after her, but she
would not even look at me. The groom Taras seized me in both arms, just
as they shut the door on my mother's retreating form.
"I struggled, threw the groom on the straw; but the door was closed,
and I only heard my mother's whinnying growing fainter and fainter.
And in this whinnying I perceived that she called not for me, but I
perceived a very different expression. In reply to her voice, there was
heard in the distance a mighty voice.
"I don't remember how Taras got out of my stall; it was too grievous
for me. I felt that I had forever lost my mother's love; and wholly
because I was a piebald, I said to myself, remembering what the people
said of my hide; and such passionate anger came over me, that I began
to pound the sides of the stall with my head and feet, and I pounded
them until the sweat poured from me, and I could not stand up from
exhaustion.
"After some time my dam returned to me. I heard her as she came along
the corridor in a prancing trot, wholly unusual to her, and entered our
stall. The door was opened for her. I did not recognize her, so much
younger and handsomer had she grown. She snuffed at me, neighed, and
began to snort. But in her whole expression I could see that she did
not love me.
"Soon they led us to pasture. I now began to experience new pleasures
which consoled me for the loss of my mother's love. I had friends and
companions. We learned together to eat grass, to neigh like the old
horses, and to lift our tails and gallop in wide circles around our
dams. This was a happy time. Every thing was forgiven to me; all loved
me, and were loved by me, and looked indulgently on all that I did.
This did not last long.
"Here something terrible happened to me."
The gelding sighed deeply, deeply, and moved aside from the horses.
The dawn was already far advanced. The gates creaked. Nester came. The
horses scattered. The drover straightened the saddle on the gelding's
back, and drove away the horses.
[Footnote 7: _pyégi._]
[Footnote 8: All expressed in the word _strigúnchik._]