Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-02

|
 rays of the July sun or in the pouring rain
 of September, they pulled their barge st
 an even gait, singing the slow, sad boor-
 lak songs. At noon their employer would
 order halt and give them time to eat din-
 ner and rest for about an hour But, ex-
 hsusted with his hard, slow, monotonous
 work, his shoulders and spine sore from
 the pressure and friction of the line, the
 boorlak hardly cares for his dinner: hs
 falls asleep with the morsel in his mouth,
 The dinner hour passes almost unnoticed.
 The barge owner calls, and, taking the line
 again upon his sore shoulders, the boorlak
 tugs his barge until dark.
 Iu the winter Ivan worked in 6 lumber
 mill on the Kama. Here the work was es-
 sier, but the wages were small The own
 CT of the mill was ''koolsk," c close-fst-
 ed eItortionist. Paying the smallest
 wages. he insisted that his laborers should
 buy their provisions at his stores He
 charged them for their tobacco, shoes and
 otber articles of necessity three times as
 much as they were worth. When the | working season was over the balance in
 their fsyor was very small Still, adding
 the little which he received at the mill 10
 that which he had saved from his wares
 on the Volgs, Ivan managed to send home
 twenty roubles every year. For six years
 Ivan worked in that manner. He received | no news from home; but that did not vor- | " him While tugging the barge or work | ing the buzz saw in a lumber mill & man
 has no time to think of home.
 One day he received, with & passport. 6
 letter informing him thst he was wanted
 at home. That happened in the winter,
 when he was working in the lumber mill.
 He told his employer that he must leave. Tbat made the koolsk 50 angry that he curtailed his account in a most shameful | manner. Ivan had to mske his way home. about six hundred versts. on foot and al
 most without money Half begging and half starving, hs trudged on until he came
 back to his native village. Great changes
 had occurred at his home during his ab- sence. His father had died and his ssn- for brother, Mikolks, had been transported to Siberia for horse stealing. His greatest
 surprise was to find that his wife was a
 mother of three children, two boys and 6 girl But that did not trouble him. "To keep up respectable appearance" he
 gave his wife a beating, but at heart he
 was glad to be a father of two healthy
 boys. From the day he arrived Ivan was
 the recognized head of the household, which consisted of himself, his wife and
 three children, his younger brother and wife, and two unmarried sisters. There were mouths enough to feed and there was work enough to do, and Ivan was the only good lsborer in the house His younger brother could not do much be- canse he had disabled arm. Ivan set tied down to work for his household.
 In 1881 serfdom was abolished. The twenty-six peasants of the village of Poo stovka. of which Ivan was one, had no | cause to rejoice at their liberation. The | manor of their master, who had inheri- | ted the village from a distant relative, | stood always unoccupied. Their master | lived somewhere in foreign land, and | seemed to have forgotten about the will lage and the serfs that ne owned. The | serfs were, consequently, not oppressed | with socage or quit rents. Although they were told that they were free, they hardly | knew what it meant. Government sur veyors came and spportioned to them three | and half dessyatins of land for each | feeder That was less than they had | had when their master owned the estate. | They, consequently, felt that their liberty | had done them more harm than good | They were told, moreover, that, as a com munity of free men, they had to select Q | starosta foreman or alderman) to repre- sent them before the government author | ities. They called a meeting for that pur- pose. Ivan was the only man in the will lage who "knew letters. '" and he was unan- imously elected to the honorable position. He begged his fellow villagers to let him of, and demonstrated that an old man would be more fit than he to act as ''star- osta." He even put up a pail of brandy to b-ibe them that they should elect an other man. The brandy they drank, but his request was not needed; the communi- ty had elected him and he must serve. His principal duty was to collect the gov ernment taxes. But his fellow villagers were poor and could not pay them in full. When the nstchalnik (government agentl came in the autumn and the starosta had not the full amount of taxes to deliver he put him in prison for a month, or still longer, "for the neglect of duty" Ivan served as stasosta nine years, and every year he had to serve a term in prison be- cause he could not collect from his neigh bors the full amount of taxes which the government claimed.
 In the meantime Ivan's children grew up. His elest son was taken into the army and lost sight of, leaving wife and child at home. The second son went to tug the barge on the Yolga, as his father had done in his younger days. One daughter mar Iied and another one who could not find a match. stayed at home. His only real help was Petro, his youngest son.
 At the age of sixty years Iyan's strength gave out. He could work no longer in the field, and he busted himself with the light CT work around the house. His wife died Five years later he became more feeble and could not attend to work around the house with the usual energy. His son Petro, who was now the recognized head of the house hold, came to the conclusion that the old man consumed bread for nothing and must get out of the house. Fortunately the rec tor of the parish required a man to take care of his beehives. Ivan was able to at tend to that and he was employed. Grand pa Ivan, as he was called, felt good as a beekeeper. He could stretch himself and warm his old emsciated frame in the bright | summer day. He could inhzle the fragrance of the woods and meadows and listen to the chirping of the birds and the humming of the bees. But his happiness lasted on ly five years. He grew even too feeble to attend to the beehives, and the parson sent him home. One year later his eyes grew dim; he could hardly see a thing
 From that time his life was spent between his bed behind the oven and the little wooden stool at the door of his hut. In the morning, when the weather was clear, he felt his way to the door, sat on his little bench, and inhaled the fresh air. When tired of sitting outside he felt his way back to his couch behind the oven He was tol- erated with illgrace by his son, who often told him unreservedly. 'I wish thou vert dead. How long will thee continue eating bread for nothing, old devili" Very little bread did Grandpa Ivan eat, not even c pound day, which he soaked in water, but even that morsel was begrudged him.
 During the last week of his life Ivan was in his corner. He did not eat anything, but he felt rather good-restful. In the evening, when Petro came home, be stepped up to the couch and pulled of the coyerlet to see whether the old man was alive Ivan uttered a grosn of recognition. .'No, he is not dead yet" the son would say "He does not want to die, the old devill" and he sat down to his supper with an air of disappointment. Ivan passed away quiet ly. Neither his daughter-in-law, AIeniA, nor his granddaughter, Froshka, knew that he was dead. They sat in the dingy hut doing their needlework by the light of the pine link. Nor did Ivan himself know . that his life ceased. The same motionless thought which WAS in him while he lived lowered over his old bones. The door opened, and Petro entered. The red, smo- Ky flame of the pine link fiickered in the stream of fresh air from the opened door.
 "Is grandpa still HvingP Petro asked, and stepped up to the old mans couch He pulled the coverlet-no groan of rscogni- tion. He shook the old mAn-no sign of life. That time his father did not disap- point him; he was dead indeed.
 "Well, women," Petro said coolly, Che is dead. Tomorrow we will bury him. We must call the parson."
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