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129 A Day in a Famine-Stricken Village.
" But will you not get it from the official committee ? "
" I have no horse, little father. They gave me no rye in the
autumn, and I could not sow. They frighten me by saying I
shall get nothing. What shall I do—perish ? We are eight
in family. Don’t forsake me, little Jcormiletz " (one who gives
food), adds the peasant, with quivering voice. I see him sink
upon his knees. I get him up with difficulty, inquire into his
case, write down his need, and send him away.
The same moment comes another peasant with rolling gait,
clumsy, rough, pale, and exhausted.
" I come to your worthiness—I beg your pardon ; I don’t
know by what title to address you—to ask your grace for
seedcorn."
" Do you get anything from the committee ? "
"Your worship, what can I get from that quarter? We
are seven in family; my wife, four girls, and the boy one year
old, who is not yet registered on the committee’s books, and I
hear they are to give two pud (80 pounds) for each ’ male soul/
So I shall only get two pud. How can I keep my family on
that? Everything is sold and eaten up. I have no horse nor
cow. I have hired myself out to a rich peasant to plough his
field, and for this I shall plough my own little plot with his
oxen, but I have no seed to sow with." I write his name on
the list for further consideration.
A fresh applicant enters. He holds himself upright like a
soldier, looks with a frightened and vacant stare before him,
with one hand at his side in military fashion, while the other
holds his cap.
" What have you to say ? "
" I come to your high nobility to ask for-"
" Seed-corn ? "
" Just so, your high nobility, because our family is—so to
speak—large; and because I served as a soldier after—so to
speak—we had been on the other side of the Danube."
" How much do you get from the Zematvo ? " I interrupt him.
" I am not aware, your high nobility, because when they
sent me on military service my wife did not understand how to
obtain help from the Government for her sustenance "—and for
9
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