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Balmuto heard tell what trouble Maggie had had to keep Janet Caird oot o' it, he daured her to put her foot inside; and Davie cam' himsel' not long after, and took her back to Dron Point in a whiff and a hurry, wi' nae words aboot it." "I am afraid David is much to blame about his sister. He should have let Maggie stay with him." "I'll no hear David Promoter blamed.
Dron got up and was about to say something, but Alpatych interrupted him. "What is it you have got into your heads, eh?... What are you thinking of, eh?" "What am I to do with the people?" said Dron. "They're quite beside themselves; I have already told them..." "'Told them, I dare say!" said Alpatych. "Are they drinking?" he asked abruptly.
She began asking Dron about the peasants' needs and what there was in Bogucharovo that belonged to the landlord. "But we have grain belonging to my brother?" she said. "The landlord's grain is all safe," replied Dron proudly. "Our prince did not order it to be sold." "Give it to the peasants, let them have all they need; I give you leave in my brother's name," said she.
An hour later Dunyasha came to tell the princess that Dron had come, and all the peasants had assembled at the barn by the princess' order and wished to have word with their mistress. "But I never told them to come," said Princess Mary. "I only told Dron to let them have the grain." "Only, for God's sake, Princess dear, have them sent away and don't go out to them.
Having glanced at Dron he at once understood that his answers did not express his personal views but the general mood of the Bogucharovo commune, by which the Elder had already been carried away.
Dron made no answer but sighed deeply. "Give them that corn if there is enough of it. Distribute it all. I give this order in my brother's name; and tell them that what is ours is theirs. We do not grudge them anything. Tell them so." Dron looked intently at the princess while she was speaking. "Discharge me, little mother, for God's sake! Order the keys to be taken from me," said he.
Though the peasants paid quitrent, Alpatych thought no difficulty would be made about complying with this order, for there were two hundred and thirty households at work in Bogucharovo and the peasants were well to do. But on hearing the order Dron lowered his eyes and remained silent. Alpatych named certain peasants he knew, from whom he told him to take the carts.
"We've been told to keep order, and that no one is to leave their homes or take away a single grain, and that's all about it!" cried another. "It was your son's turn to be conscripted, but no fear! You begrudged your lump of a son," a little old man suddenly began attacking Dron "and so they took my Vanka to be shaved for a soldier! But we all have to die." "To be sure, we all have to die.
Dron was one of those physically and mentally vigorous peasants who grow big beards as soon as they are of age and go on unchanged till they are sixty or seventy, without a gray hair or the loss of a tooth, as straight and strong at sixty as at thirty.
I'm not against the commune," said Dron. "That's it not against it! You've filled your belly...." The two tall peasants had their say. As soon as Rostov, followed by Ilyin, Lavrushka, and Alpatych, came up to the crowd, Karp, thrusting his fingers into his belt and smiling a little, walked to the front. Dron on the contrary retired to the rear and the crowd drew closer together.
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