Master and Man

«It was in the seventies, the day after the winter Nikolay. In the parish they were celebrating a holiday, and the village elder, Vasily Andreich Brekhunov—a second-guild merchant—was not allowed to go anywhere: he had to be at service in the church—he was the church elder—after which, at home, he had to receive, feed, and drink his relatives and acquaintances. But once the last guests had left, Vasily Andreich immediately began getting ready to go. He wanted to leave at once to the neighboring landed proprietor to buy from him the grove that negotiations had been going on for a long time. Brekhunov hurried, fearing that the city merchants would intercept this profitable deal. The young proprietor offered ten thousand for the grove only because Vasily Andreich was offering seven. And seven thousand was only a third of its actual price…»