while he shifted forward once and again, threw a leg over, and finally
seated himself, supporting his feet on the loose breeching-straps. The
shaking of the sledge awoke Nikita. He raised himself, and it seemed to
Vasili Andreevich that he said something.

'Listen to such fools as you! Am I to die like this for nothing?'
exclaimed Vasili Andreevich. And tucking the loose skirts of his fur
coat in under his knees, he turned the horse and rode away from
the sledge in the direction in which he thought the forest and the
forester's hut must be.



VII

From the time he had covered himself with the sackcloth and seated
himself behind the sledge, Nikita had not stirred. Like all those who
live in touch with nature and have known want, he was patient and could
wait for hours, even days, without growing restless or irritable. He
heard his master call him, but did not answer because he did not want to
move or talk. Though he still felt some warmth from the tea he had drunk
and from his energetic struggle when clambering about in the snowdrift,
he knew that this warmth would not last long and that he had no strength
left to warm himself again by moving about, for he felt as tired as a
horse when it stops and refuses to go further in spite of the whip, and
its master sees that it must be fed before it can work again. The foot
in the boot with a hole in it had already grown numb, and he could no
longer feel his big toe. Besides that, his whole body began to feel
colder and colder.