He is a very stout, elderly man, with a puffy and discolored face.His fatness is unpleasant, flabby-looking, and he is sallow as people are who drink too much and sleep irregularly.
"And now we might have a second glass," says Malahin."It's cold now, it's no sin to drink.Please take some.So I can rely upon you, Mr.Guard, that there will be no hindrance or unpleasantness for the rest of the journey.For you know in moving cattle every hour is precious.To-day meat is one price; and to-morrow, look you, it will be another.If you are a day or two late and don't get your price, instead of a profit you get home -- excuse my saying it -- with out your breeches.Pray take a little....
I rely on you, and as for standing you something or what you like, I shall be pleased to show you my respect at any time."After having fed the guard, Malahin goes back to the van.
"I have just got hold of the troop train," he says to his son.
"We shall go quickly.The guard says if we go all the way with that number we shall arrive at eight o'clock to-morrow evening.
If one does not bestir oneself, my boy, one gets nothing....
That's so....So you watch and learn...."After the first bell a man with a face black with soot, in a blouse and filthy frayed trousers hanging very slack, comes to the door of the van.This is the oiler, who had been creeping under the carriages and tapping the wheels with a hammer.
"Are these your vans of cattle?" he asks.
"Yes.Why?"
"Why, because two of the vans are not safe.They can't go on, they must stay here to be repaired.""Oh, come, tell us another! You simply want a drink, to get something out of me....You should have said so.""As you please, only it is my duty to report it at once."Without indignation or protest, simply, almost mechanically, the old man takes two twenty-kopeck pieces out of his pocket and gives them to the oiler.He takes them very calmly, too, and looking good-naturedly at the old man enters into conversation.
"You are going to sell your cattle, I suppose....It's good business!"Malahin sighs and, looking calmly at the oiler's black face, tells him that trading in cattle used certainly to be profitable, but now it has become a risky and losing business.
"I have a mate here," the oiler interrupts him."You merchant gentlemen might make him a little present...."Malahin gives something to the mate too.The troop train goes quickly and the waits at the stations are comparatively short.
The old man is pleased.The pleasant impression made by the young man in the rough overcoat has gone deep, the vodka he has drunk slightly clouds his brain, the weather is magnificent, and everything seems to be going well.He talks without ceasing, and at every stopping place runs to the refreshment bar.Feeling the need of a listener, he takes with him first the guard, and then the engine-driver, and does not simply drink, but makes a long business of it, with suitable remarks and clinking of glasses.
"You have your job and we have ours," he says with an affable smile."May God prosper us and you, and not our will but His be done."The vodka gradually excites him and he is worked up to a great pitch of energy.He wants to bestir himself, to fuss about, to make inquiries, to talk incessantly.At one minute he fumbles in his pockets and bundles and looks for some form.Then he thinks of something and cannot remember it; then takes out his pocketbook, and with no sort of object counts over his money.He bustles about, sighs and groans, clasps his hands....Laying out before him the letters and telegrams from the meat salesmen in the city, bills, post office and telegraphic receipt forms, and his note book, he reflects aloud and insists on Yasha's listening.
And when he is tired of reading over forms and talking about prices, he gets out at the stopping places, runs to the vans where his cattle are, does nothing, but simply clasps his hands and exclaims in horror.
"Oh, dear! oh, dear!" he says in a complaining voice."Holy Martyr Vlassy! Though they are bullocks, though they are beasts, yet they want to eat and drink as men do....It's four days and nights since they have drunk or eaten.Oh, dear! oh, dear!"Yasha follows him and does what he is told like an obedient son.
He does not like the old man's frequent visits to the refreshment bar.Though he is afraid of his father, he cannot refrain from remarking on it.
"So you have begun already!" he says, looking sternly at the old man."What are you rejoicing at? Is it your name-day or what?""Don't you dare teach your father."
"Fine goings on!"
When he has not to follow his father along the other vans Yasha sits on the cape and strums on the accordion.Occasionally he gets out and walks lazily beside the train; he stands by the engine and turns a prolonged, unmoving stare on the wheels or on the workmen tossing blocks of wood into the tender; the hot engine wheezes, the falling blocks come down with the mellow, hearty thud of fresh wood; the engine-driver and his assistant, very phlegmatic and imperturbable persons, perform incomprehensible movements and don't hurry themselves.After standing for a while by the engine, Yasha saunters lazily to the station; here he looks at the eatables in the refreshment bar, reads aloud some quite uninteresting notice, and goes back slowly to the cattle van.His face expresses neither boredom nor desire; apparently he does not care where he is, at home, in the van, or by the engine.
