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Updated: May 12, 2025
The forest formed a continuous bluish ring all round the sky-line; there was reckoned to be two hundred acres, no more, of ploughed land round Svyatoe; but one had to go some five miles to find good places for game. The elder's son was called Kondrat. He was a flaxen-haired, rosy-cheeked young fellow, with a good-natured, peaceable expression of face, obliging and talkative. He drove the horses.
In this 'Charred Wood, which is reckoned to be about nine miles from Svyatoe, there are all sorts of berries growing in great profusion, and it is a favourite haunt of grouse, who are very fond of strawberries and bilberries. We were driving along in silence, when suddenly Kondrat raised his head. 'Ah! he exclaimed: 'why, that's never Efrem standing yonder!
I wanted to get by daylight to Svyatoe, a hamlet lying in the very heart of the forest. Twice we met peasants with stripped bark or long logs on carts. 'Is it far to Svyatoe? I asked one of them. 'No, not far. 'How far? 'It'll be a little over two miles. Another hour and a half went by. We were still driving on and on. Again we heard the creak of a laden cart. A peasant was walking beside it.
'What sort of man is he? I questioned Kondrat, who, sitting in the front, kept shaking his head, as though deliberating with himself. 'That fellow? replied Kondrat, and he looked down. 'That fellow? he repeated. 'Yes. Is he of your village? 'Yes, he's a Svyatoe man. He's a fellow.... You wouldn't find the like of him, if you hunted for a hundred miles round. A thief and cheat good Lord, yes!
Last summer he came at night straight across from Altuhin to Svyatoe, and no one had ever been known to walk it it'll be over thirty miles. And he steals honey too; no one can beat him at that; and the bees don't sting him. There's not a hive he hasn't plundered. 'I expect he doesn't spare the wild bees either? 'Well, no, I won't lay a false charge against him.
Though, I must say, he doesn't touch his own people unless he's in a fix. If he meets a Svyatoe man: "Go along with you, brother," he'll shout, a long way away; "the forest devil's upon me: I shall kill you!" it's a bad business! 'What can you all be thinking about? A whole district can't get even with one man? 'Well, that's just how it is, any way. 'Is he a sorcerer, then? 'Who can say!
When I was in the town, the clerk said: "Give us up," says he, "'Lexandritch; you just get out of the district, we'll let you have a passport, first-class one ..." but there, I'd pity on you Svyatoe fellows: you'd never get another thief like me. Kondrat laughed. 'You will have your joke, uncle, you will, upon my word, he said, and he shook the reins. The horses started off. 'Wo, said Efrem.
'If it's shooting you've come after, sir, there are woodcocks at Moshnoy three coveys, and five of moorhens, he observed, and set to work again. With Yegor and with Kondrat I went out the next day in search of sport. We drove rapidly over the open ground surrounding Svyatoe, but when we got into the forest we crawled along at a walking pace once more.
'How far, brother, is it still to Svyatoe? 'What? 'How far to Svyatoe? 'Six miles. The sun was already setting when at last I got out of the forest and saw facing me a little village. About twenty homesteads were grouped close about an old wooden church, with a single green cupola, and tiny windows, brilliantly red in the evening glow. This was Svyatoe. I drove into its outskirts.
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