good lesson, and set seriously to work at once. One peasant was sent to
prison for stealing wood; to another he gave a thrashing for not having
made way for him on the road with his cart, and for not having lifted
his cap to salute him. As to the pasture ground which was a subject of
dispute, and was considered by the peasants as their property, Peter
Nikolaevich informed the peasants that any of their cattle grazing on it
would be driven away by him.

The spring came and the peasants, just as they had done in previous
years, drove their cattle on to the meadows belonging to the landowner.
Peter Nikolaevich called some of the men working on the estate and
ordered them to drive the cattle into his yard. The peasants were
working in the fields, and, disregarding the screaming of the women,
Peter Nikolaevich's men succeeded in driving in the cattle. When they
came home the peasants went in a crowd to the cattle-yard on the estate,
and asked for their cattle. Peter Nikolaevich came out to talk to them
with a gun slung on his shoulder; he had just returned from a ride of
inspection. He told them that he would not let them have their cattle
unless they paid a fine of fifty kopeks for each of the horned cattle,
and twenty kopeks for each sheep. The peasants loudly declared that
the pasture ground was their property, because their fathers and
grandfathers had used it, and protested that he had no right whatever to
lay hand on their cattle.

"Give back our cattle, or you will regret it," said an old man coming up
to Peter Nikolaevich.

"How shall I regret it?" cried Peter Nikolaevich, turning pale, and
coming close to the old man.