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It was not easy to wake him and still more difficult to explain to him why he was being awakened.... To all that she said to him Yefrem made the same answer. "He's gone away well, God bless him.... What business is it of mine? He's taken our knife and our pot well, God bless him, what has it to do with me?"
"Very well, come to me. And what about her?" Akim made no answer. "And me? Me?" Avdotya repeated with tears, "are you leaving me all alone? Where am I to go?" "You can go to him," answered Akim, without turning round, "the man you have given my money to.... Drive on, Yefrem!" Yefrem lashed the horse, the cart rolled off, Avdotya set up a wail....
It was only just getting light when he rode up to the inn but, already a cart and a horse were standing at the gate and one of Naum's labourers was sitting on the box holding the reins. "Where are you off to?" asked Yefrem. "To the town," the man answered reluctantly. "What for?" The man simply shrugged his shoulders and did not answer. Yefrem jumped off his horse and went into the house.
Akim went into the sacristan's hut. "Here, sit on the bench," said Yefrem. "Run away, you little rascals," he cried to three other children who suddenly came out of different corners of the room together with two lean cats covered with wood ashes. "Get along! Sh-sh! Come this way, Akim Semyonitch, this way!" he went on, making his guest sit down, "and won't you take something?"
Akim sat with his head bent while Yefrem muttered to himself, alternately urging on and holding back his horse. "Where have you been without your cap, Semyonitch?" he asked Akim suddenly and, without waiting for an answer, went on, "You've left it at some tavern, that's what you've done.
"I tell you what, Yefrem," Akim articulated at last, "could I have some vodka?" Yefrem pricked up his ears. "Vodka? You can. I've none in the house, but I will run this minute to Father Fyodor's. He always has it.... I'll be back in no time." And he snatched up his cap with earflaps. "Bring plenty, I'll pay for it," Akim shouted after him. "I've still money enough for that."
Akim sat without moving, turned a little away from Yefrem. At last they arrived. Yefrem was the first to get out of the cart. A little girl of six in a smock tied low round the waist ran out to meet him and shouted, "Daddy! daddy!" "And where is your mother?" asked Yefrem. "She is asleep in the shed." "Well, let her sleep. Akim Semyonitch, won't you get out, sir, and come indoors?"
Akim was no longer asleep; he was sitting on the stove with his legs hanging down; he, too, looked strange and unkempt. His face showed the effects the more as he was not used to drinking much. "Well, how have you slept, Akim Semyonitch?" Yefrem began. Akim looked at him with lustreless eyes. "Well, brother Yefrem," he said huskily, "could we have some again?"
But she only fell into a feverish doze towards morning and the tears trickled down her cheeks even in her sleep. Meanwhile Yefrem woke up earlier than usual in his lumber room and began knocking and asking to be let out.
Yefrem took a swift glance at Akim.... He felt a slight tremor at that moment; it was a tremor such as is felt by a sportsman when he hears the yap of his dog at the edge of the wood from which he had fancied all the game had been driven. "What, more?" he asked at last. "Yes, more." "My wife will see," thought Yefrem, "she won't let me out, most likely.
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