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Unit 5: The Spark Neglected Burns the House by Leo Tolstoy

Iván sat silent and listened. Notes

The old man coughed, and having with difficulty cleared his throat, began again: ‘You think
Christ taught us wrong? Why, it’s all for our own good. Just think of your earthly life; are you
better off, or worse, since this Plevna began among you? Just reckon up what you’ve spent on
all this law business—what the driving backwards and forwards and your food on the way
have cost you! What fine fellows your sons have grown; you might live and get on well; but
now your means are lessening. And why? All because of this folly; because of your pride. You
ought to be ploughing with your lads, and do the sowing yourself; but the fiend carries you
off to the judge, or to some pettifogger or other. The ploughing is not done in time, nor the
sowing, and mother earth can’t bear properly. Why did the oats fail this year? When did you
sow them? When you came back from town! And what did you gain? A burden for your own
shoulders. . . . Eh, lad, think of your own business! Work with your boys in the field and at
home, and if some one offends you, forgive him, as God wished you to. Then life will be easy,
and your heart will always be light.’
Iván remained silent.
‘Iván, my boy, hear your old father! Go and harness the roan, and go at once to the Government
office; put an end to all this affair there; and in the morning go and make it up with Gabriel
in God’s name, and invite him to your house for to-morrow’s holiday’ (it was the eve of the
Virgin’s Nativity). ‘Have tea ready, and get a bottle of vódka and put an end to this wicked
business, so that there should not be any more of it in future, and tell the women and children
to do the same.’
Iván sighed, and thought, ‘What he says is true,’ and his heart grew lighter. Only he did not
know how, now, to begin to put matters right.
But again the old man began, as if he had guessed what was in Ivan’s mind.
‘Go, Iván, don’t put it off! Put out the fire before it spreads, or it will be too late.’
The old man was going to say more, but before he could do so the women came in, chattering
like magpies. The news that Gabriel was sentenced to be flogged, and of his threat to set fire
to the house, had already reached them. They had heard all about it and added to it something
of their own, and had again had a row, in the pasture, with the women of Gabriel’s household.
They began telling how Gabriel’s daughter-in-law threatened a fresh action: Gabriel had got
the right side of the examining magistrate, who would now turn the whole affair upside
down; and the schoolmaster was writing out another petition, to the Tsar himself this time,
about Iván; and everything was in the petition—all about the coupling-pin and the kitchen-
garden—so that half of Ivan’s homestead would be theirs soon. Iván heard what they were
saying, and his heart grew cold again, and he gave up the thought of making peace with
Gabriel.
In a farmstead there is always plenty for the master to do. Iván did not stop to talk to the
women, but went out to the threshing-floor and to the barn. By the time he had tidied up
there, the sun had set and the young fellows had returned from the field. They had been
ploughing the field for the winter crops with two horses. Iván met them, questioned them
about their work, helped to put everything in its place, set a torn horse-collar aside to be
mended, and was going to put away some stakes under the barn, but it had grown quite dusk,
so he decided to leave them where they were till next day. Then he gave the cattle their food,
opened the gate, let out the horses. Tarás was to take to pasture for the night, and again closed
the gate and barred it. ‘Now,’ thought he, ‘I’ll have my supper, and then to bed.’ He took the
horse-collar and entered the hut. By this time he had forgotten about Gabriel and about what
his old father had been saying to him. But, just as he took hold of the door-handle to enter
the passage, he heard his neighbour on the other side of the fence cursing somebody in a

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