"I wanted to ask you something about my sons, your excellency," said the
old man, either pretending not to notice, or really not noticing, the
prince's angry face.
"What?"
"Well, we are well provided with horses, praise the Lord! and that's our
trade, and so we don't have to work on your land."
"What do you mean?"
"If you would only be kind enough to let my sons have leave of absence,
then Ilyushka and Ignát would take three troïkas, and go out teaming for
all summer. Maybe they'd earn something."
"Where would they go?"
"Just as it happened," replied Ilyushka, who at this moment, having put the
horses under the shed, joined his father. "The Kadminski boys went with
eight horses to Romen. Not only earned their own living, they say, but
brought back a gain of more than three hundred per cent. Fodder, they say,
is cheap at _Odest_."
"Well, that's the very thing I wanted to talk with you about," said the
prince, addressing the old man, and anxious to draw him shrewdly into a
talk about the farm. "Tell me, please, if it would be more profitable to go
to teaming than farming at home?"
"Why not more profitable, your excellency?" said Ilyushka, again putting in
his word, and at the same time quickly shaking back his hair. "There's no
way of keeping horses at home."
"Well, how much do you earn in the summer?"
"Since spring, as feed was high, we went to Kief with merchandise, and to
Kursk, and back again to Moscow with grits; and in that way we earned our
living. And our horses had enough, and we brought back fifteen rubles in
money."
"There's no harm in taking up with an honorable profession, whatever it
is," said the prince, again addressing the old man. "But it seems to me
that you might find another form of activity. And besides, this work is
such that a young man goes everywhere. He sees all sorts of people,--may
get wild," he added, quoting Karp's words.
"What can we peasants take up with, if not teaming?" objected the old man
with his sweet smile. "If you are a good driver, you get enough to eat, and
so do your horses; but, as regards mischief, they are just the same as at
home, thank the Lord! It isn't the first time that they have been. I have
been myself, and never saw any harm in it, nothing but good."
"How many other things you might find to do at home! with fields and
meadows"--
"How is it possible?" interrupted Ilyushka with animation. "We were born
for this. All the regulations are at our fingers' ends. We like the work.
It's the most enjoyable we have, your excellency. How we like to go
teaming!"
"Your excellency, will you not do us the honor of coming into the house?
You have not yet seen our new domicile," said the old man, bowing low, and
winking to his son.
Ilyushka hastened into the house, and Nekhliudof and the old man followed
after him.