own strength and powers that he is not afraid of putting himself to
severe strain; he takes little interest in his past, and looks boldly
forward. What is good he likes, what is sensible he will have, and
where it comes from he does not care. His vigorous sense is fond of
ridiculing the thin theorising of the German; but, in Hor's words, 'The
Germans are curious folk,' and he was ready to learn from them a
little. Thanks to his exceptional position, his practical independence,
Hor told me a great deal which you could not screw or--as the peasants
say--grind with a grindstone, out of any other man. He did, in fact,
understand his position. Talking with Hor, I for the first time
listened to the simple, wise discourse of the Russian peasant. His
acquirements were, in his own opinion, wide enough; but he could not
read, though Kalinitch could. 'That ne'er-do-weel has school-learning,'
observed Hor, 'and his bees never die in the winter.' 'But haven't you
had your children taught to read?' Hor was silent a minute. 'Fedya can
read.' 'And the others?' 'The others can't.' 'And why?' The old man
made no answer, and changed the subject. However, sensible as he was,
he had many prejudices and crotchets. He despised women, for instance,
from the depths of his soul, and in his merry moments he amused himself
by jesting at their expense. His wife was a cross old woman who lay all
day long on the stove, incessantly grumbling and scolding; her sons
paid no attention to her, but she kept her daughters-in-law in the fear
of God. Very significantly the mother-in-law sings in the Russian
ballad: 'What a son art thou to me! What a head of a household! Thou
dost not beat thy wife; thou dost not beat thy young wife....' I once
attempted to intercede for the daughters-in-law, and tried to rouse
Hor's sympathy; but he met me with the tranquil rejoinder, 'Why did I
want to trouble about such ... trifles; let the women fight it out. ...
If anything separates them, it only makes it worse ... and it's not
worth dirtying one's hands over.' Sometimes the spiteful old woman got