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Elective English–I

Notes When Iván came to his father, there was only the Elder’s wife in the hut, besides some little
children on the top of the oven. All the rest were still at the fire. The old man, who was lying
on a bench holding a wax candle (Wax candles are much used in the services of the Russian
Church, and it is usual to place one in the hand of a dying man, especially when he receives
unction) in his hand, kept turning his eyes towards the door. When his son entered, he moved
a little. The old woman went up to him and told him that his son had come. He asked to have
him brought nearer. Iván came closer.

‘What did I tell you, Iván?’ began the old man ‘Who has burnt down the village?’
‘It was he, father!’ Iván answered. ‘I caught him in the act. I saw him shove the firebrand into
the thatch. I might have pulled away the burning straw and stamped it out, and then nothing
would have happened.’
‘Iván,’ said the old man, ‘I am dying, and you in your turn will have to face death. Whose is
the sin?’
Iván gazed at his father in silence, unable to utter a word.

‘Now, before God, say whose is the sin? What did I tell you?’
Only then Iván came to his senses and understood it all. He sniffed and said, ‘Mine, father!’
And he fell on his knees before his father, saying, ‘Forgive me, father; I am guilty before you
and before God.’
The old man moved his hands, changed the candle from his right hand to his left, and tried
to lift his right hand to his forehead to cross himself, but could not do it, and stopped.
‘Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!’ said he, and again he turned his eyes towards his son.
‘Iván! I say, Iván!’

‘What, father?’
‘What must you do now?’
Iván was weeping.

‘I don’t know how we are to live now, father!’ he said.
The old man closed his eyes, moved his lips as if to gather strength, and opening his eyes
again, said: ‘You’ll manage. If you obey God’s will, you’ll manage!’ He paused, then smiled,
and said: ‘Mind, Iván! Don’t tell who started the fire! Hide another man’s sin, and God will
forgive two of yours!’ And the old man took the candle in both hands and, folding them on
his breast, sighed, stretched out, and died.

Iván did not say anything against Gabriel, and no one knew what had caused the fire.
And Ivan’s anger against Gabriel passed away, and Gabriel wondered that Iván did not tell
anybody. At first Gabriel felt afraid, but after awhile he got used to it. The men left off
quarrelling, and then their families left off also. While rebuilding their huts, both families
lived in one house; and when the village was rebuilt and they might have moved farther
apart, Iván and Gabriel built next to each other, and remained neighbours as before.
They lived as good neighbours should. Iván Stcherbakóf remembered his old father’s command
to obey God’s law, and quench a fire at the first spark; and if any one does him an injury he
now tries not to revenge himself, but rather to set matters right again; and if any one gives
him a bad word, instead of giving a worse in return, he tries to teach the other not to use evil
words; and so he teaches his womenfolk and children. And Iván Stcherbakóf has got on his
feet again, and now lives better even than he did before.

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