like? Just a rich peasant's house: just an oatmill and an inn--that was
the whole property. But what have I done in these fifteen years? A shop,
two taverns, a flour-mill, a grain-store, two farms leased out, and a
house with an iron-roofed barn,' he thought proudly. 'Not as it was in
Father's time! Who is talked of in the whole district now? Brekhunov!
And why? Because I stick to business. I take trouble, not like others
who lie abed or waste their time on foolishness while I don't sleep of
nights. Blizzard or no blizzard I start out. So business gets done. They
think money-making is a joke. No, take pains and rack your brains! You
get overtaken out of doors at night, like this, or keep awake night
after night till the thoughts whirling in your head make the pillow
turn,' he meditated with pride. 'They think people get on through luck.
After all, the Mironovs are now millionaires. And why? Take pains and
God gives. If only He grants me health!'

The thought that he might himself be a millionaire like Mironov, who
began with nothing, so excited Vasili Andreevich that he felt the need
of talking to somebody. But there was no one to talk to. . . . If only
he could have reached Goryachkin he would have talked to the landlord
and shown him a thing or two.

'Just see how it blows! It will snow us up so deep that we shan't be
able to get out in the morning!' he thought, listening to a gust of wind
that blew against the front of the sledge, bending it and lashing the
snow against it. He raised himself and looked round. All he could see
through the whirling darkness was Mukhorty's dark head, his back covered
by the fluttering drugget, and his thick knotted tail; while all round,
in front and behind, was the same fluctuating whity darkness, sometimes
seeming to get a little lighter and sometimes growing denser still.