"What weather!" grumbles the head guard, shrugging his shoulders.
"You can't see your hand before your face.""Yes, it's vile weather."
From the window they can see the flaxen head of the telegraph clerk appear beside the green lamp and the telegraphic apparatus;soon after another head, bearded and wearing a red cap, appears beside it -- no doubt that of the station-master.The station-master bends down to the table, reads something on a blue form, rapidly passing his cigarette along the lines....
Malahin goes to his van.
The young man, his companion, is still half reclining and hardly audibly strumming on the accordion.He is little more than a boy, with no trace of a mustache; his full white face with its broad cheek-bones is childishly dreamy; his eyes have a melancholy and tranquil look unlike that of a grown-up person, but he is broad, strong, heavy and rough like the old man; he does not stir nor shift his position, as though he is not equal to moving his big body.It seems as though any movement he made would tear his clothes and be so noisy as to frighten both him and the cattle.
From under his big fat fingers that clumsily pick out the stops and keys of the accordion comes a steady flow of thin, tinkling sounds which blend into a simple, monotonous little tune; he listens to it, and is evidently much pleased with his performance.
A bell rings, but with such a muffled note that it seems to come from far away.A hurried second bell soon follows, then a third and the guard's whistle.A minute passes in profound silence; the van does not move, it stands still, but vague sounds begin to come from beneath it, like the crunch of snow under sledge-runners; the van begins to shake and the sounds cease.
Silence reigns again.But now comes the clank of buffers, the violent shock makes the van start and, as it were, give a lurch forward, and all the cattle fall against one another.
"May you be served the same in the world to come," grumbles the old man, setting straight his cap, which had slipped on the back of his head from the jolt."He'll maim all my cattle like this!"Yasha gets up without a word and, taking one of the fallen beasts by the horns, helps it to get on to its legs....The jolt is followed by a stillness again.The sounds of crunching snow come from under the van again, and it seems as though the train had moved back a little.
"There will be another jolt in a minute," says the old man.And the convulsive quiver does, in fact, run along the train, there is a crashing sound and the bullocks fall on one another again.
"It's a job!" says Yasha, listening."The train must be heavy.It seems it won't move.""It was not heavy before, but now it has suddenly got heavy.No, my lad, the guard has not gone shares with him, I expect.Go and take him something, or he will be jolting us till morning."Yasha takes a three-rouble note from the old man and jumps out of the van.The dull thud of his heavy footsteps resounds outside the van and gradually dies away.Stillness....In the next van a bullock utters a prolonged subdued "moo," as though it were singing.
Yasha comes back.A cold damp wind darts into the van.
"Shut the door, Yasha, and we will go to bed," says the old man.
"Why burn a candle for nothing?"
Yasha moves the heavy door; there is a sound of a whistle, the engine and the train set off.
"It's cold," mutters the old man, stretching himself on the cape and laying his head on a bundle."It is very different at home!
It's warm and clean and soft, and there is room to say your prayers, but here we are worse off than any pigs.It's four days and nights since I have taken off my boots."Yasha, staggering from the jolting of the train, opens the lantern and snuffs out the wick with his wet fingers.The light flares up, hisses like a frying pan and goes out.
"Yes, my lad," Malahin goes on, as he feels Yasha lie down beside him and the young man's huge back huddle against his own, "it's cold.There is a draught from every crack.If your mother or your sister were to sleep here for one night they would be dead by morning.There it is, my lad, you wouldn't study and go to the high school like your brothers, so you must take the cattle with your father.It's your own fault, you have only yourself to blame....Your brothers are asleep in their beds now, they are snug under the bedclothes, but you, the careless and lazy one, are in the same box as the cattle....Yes...."The old man's words are inaudible in the noise of the train, but for a long time he goes on muttering, sighing and clearing his throat....The cold air in the railway van grows thicker and more stifling The pungent odor of fresh dung and smoldering candle makes it so repulsive and acrid that it irritates Yasha's throat and chest as he falls asleep.He coughs and sneezes, while the old man, being accustomed to it, breathes with his whole chest as though nothing were amiss, and merely clears his throat.
To judge from the swaying of the van and the rattle of the wheels the train is moving rapidly and unevenly.The engine breathes heavily, snorting out of time with the pulsation of the train, and altogether there is a medley of sounds.The bullocks huddle together uneasily and knock their horns against the walls.
When the old man wakes up, the deep blue sky of early morning is peeping in at the cracks and at the little uncovered window.He feels unbearably cold, especially in the back and the feet.The train is standing still; Yasha, sleepy and morose, is busy with the cattle.
The old man wakes up out of humor.Frowning and gloomy, he clears his throat angrily and looks from under his brows at Yasha who, supporting a bullock with his powerful shoulder and slightly lifting it, is trying to disentangle its leg.
"I told you last night that the cords were too long," mutters the old man; "but no, 'It's not too long, Daddy.' There's no making you do anything, you will have everything your own way....
Blockhead!"
He angrily moves the door open and the light rushes into the van.
