[adapted]

by
Leo Tolstoy

“Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” …. “So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, and if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” — ST. MATTHEW xviii., 21-35.

In a village there lived a farmer named Ivan Scherbakoff. He was doing well, strong, and energetic, and was considered the hardest worker in the whole village. He had three sons, who earned their own living by their own work. The oldest was married, the second was going to be married soon, and the youngest took care of the horses and sometimes did the plowing.

The farmer’s wife, Ivanovna, was smart and hard-working, while her son’s wife was a simple, quiet person, but a hard worker.

There was only one person who did not work in the family, and that was Ivan’s father, a very old man who had had asthma for seven years, and who spent most of his time lying on the brick oven.

Ivan had plenty of everything — three horses, with one young horse, a cow with a baby cow, and fifteen sheep. The women made the men’s clothes, and besides doing all the needed housework, also worked in the field; while the men’s work was only on the farm.

What was left of last year’s supply of food was enough for their needs, and they sold an amount of oats that was enough to pay their taxes and other costs.

So life went well for Ivan.

The peasant’s next-door neighbor was a son of Gordey Ivanoff, called “Gavryl the Lame.” It once happened that Ivan had an argument with him; but while old man Gordey was still alive, and Ivan’s father was the head of the house, the two peasants lived as good neighbors should. If the women of one house needed to use a strainer or bucket, they borrowed it from the people in the other house. It was the same with the men. They lived more like one family, one sharing his things with the other, and there was perfect peace between the two families.

If a wandering calf or cow came into the garden of one of the farmers, the other gladly chased it away, saying: “Be careful, neighbor, that your animals do not wander into my garden again; we should put up a fence.” In the same way they had no secrets from each other. The doors of their houses and barns had no bolts or locks, they were so sure of each other’s honesty. Not even a little suspicion spoiled their daily life together.

This is how the old people lived.

After some time the younger people in the two families started farming. Soon it was clear that they would not get along as peacefully as the old people did, because they began arguing without any reason.

A hen that belonged to Ivan’s daughter-in-law started laying eggs, which the young woman collected each morning, planning to keep them for the Easter holidays. She went to the barn every day, where, under an old wagon, she knew she would find the special egg.

One day the children scared the hen and she flew over their neighbor’s fence and laid an egg in their garden.

Ivan’s son’s wife heard the chicken making a noise, but said: “I am very busy right now, because this is the day before a church holiday, and I must clean and tidy this room. I will get the egg later on.”

When evening came, and she had finished her work, she went to the barn, and as usual looked under the old wagon, expecting to find an egg. But, sadly, no egg was seen in the usual place.

Very disappointed, she returned to the house and asked her mother-in-law and the other family members if they had taken it. “No,” they said, “we don’t know anything about it.”

Taraska, the youngest brother-in-law, came in soon after; she also asked him if he knew anything about the missing egg. “Yes,” he said, “your pretty hen with a crest laid her egg in our neighbors’ garden, and after she finished clucking she flew back again over the fence.”

The young woman, very surprised when she heard this, turned and looked for a long time and seriously at the hen, which was sitting with closed eyes beside the rooster in the corner by the chimney. She asked the hen where it laid the egg. When it heard her voice it only opened and closed its eyes, but could not answer.

She then went to the neighbors’ house, where she met an old woman, who said: “What do you want, young woman?”

Ivan’s son’s wife answered: “You see, grandmother, my hen flew into your yard this morning. Didn’t she lay an egg there?”

“We did not see any,” the old woman said; “we have our own hens — thank God! — and they have been laying for a long time. We look only for the eggs our own hens lay, and do not need the eggs other people’s hens lay. Another thing I want to tell you, young woman: we do not go into other people’s yards to look for eggs.”

Now this talk made the young woman very angry, and she answered in the same way she was spoken to, only using much stronger words and speaking for longer.

The neighbor answered in the same angry way, and finally the women began to shout at each other and call very bad names. At that time old Ivan’s wife, on her way to the well for water, heard the argument, and joined the others, taking her daughter-in-law’s side.

Gavryl’s maid, hearing the noise, could not stop herself from joining the others and speaking up. As soon as she came, she, too, began to insult her neighbor, reminding her of many unpleasant things that had happened (and many that had not happened) between them. She became so angry while she was shouting that she lost all control of herself, and ran around like a crazy person.

Then all the women began to shout at the same time, each trying to say two words for every one the other said, and using the worst words people use in an argument.

“You are such and such,” shouted one of the women. “You are a thief, a schlukha (a mean, dirty, low person); your father-in-law is still starving, and you have no shame. You beggar, you borrowed my strainer and you broke it. You made a large hole in it, and did not buy me another.”

“You have our scale-beam,” shouted another woman, “and must give it back to me;” then she grabbed the scale-beam and tried to take it from the shoulders of Ivan’s wife.

In the fight which followed they knocked over the buckets of water. They pulled the cover from each other’s head, and a big fight began.

Gavryl’s wife had by this time joined in the fight, and he, crossing the field and seeing the trouble, came to help her.

Ivan and his son, seeing that their women were being treated badly, jumped into the middle of the fight, and a terrible fight followed.

Ivan was the strongest farmer in the whole area around, and it did not take him long to break up the crowd, for they ran in all directions. During the fight Ivan pulled out a lot of Gavryl’s beard.

By this time a large crowd of farmers had gathered, and it was very hard for them to get the two families to stop arguing.

This was the beginning.

Gavryl took the piece of his beard which Ivan had torn out, and, wrapping it in paper, went to the village court and made a complaint against Ivan.

Holding up the hair, he said, “I did not grow this for that bear Ivan to pull out!”

Gavryl’s wife went around to the neighbors, telling them that they must not repeat what she had told them, but that she and her husband were going to win against Ivan, and that he was going to be sent to Siberia.

And so the arguing went on.

The poor old grandfather, sick with asthma and lying on the brick oven all the time, tried from the beginning to stop them from arguing, and begged them to live in peace; but they would not listen to his good advice. He said to them: “You children are making a big fuss and much trouble about nothing. I beg you to stop and think how a small thing has caused all this trouble. It has come from only one egg. If our neighbors’ children picked it up, it is all right. God bless them! One egg is of little value, and even without it God will give enough for all our needs.”

Ivan’s son’s wife here interrupted and said, “But they called us bad names.”

The old grandfather again spoke, saying: “Well, even if they did call you bad names, it would have been better to answer evil with good, and by your example show them how to speak better. Such behavior from you would have been the best for everyone.” He continued: “Well, you had a fight, you bad people. Such things sometimes happen, but it would be better if you went later and asked for forgiveness and buried your bad feelings out of sight. Throw them to the four winds of heaven, because if you do not do so it will be worse for you in the end.”

The younger members of the family, still stubborn, refused to follow the old man’s advice, and said he was wrong, and that he only liked to complain in his old way.

Ivan would not go to his neighbor, as the grandfather wanted, and said: “I did not pull out Gavryl’s beard. He did it himself, and his son tore my shirt and pants to pieces.”

Ivan sued Gavryl. He first went to the village judge, and not getting help from him he took his case to the village court.

While the neighbors were arguing over the matter, each taking the other to court, it happened that a bolt from Gavryl’s wagon was lost; and the women in Gavryl’s household said that Ivan’s son stole it.

They said: “We saw him at night pass by our window, on his way to where the wagon stood.” “And my sponsor,” said one of them, “told me that Ivan’s son had tried to sell it at the tavern.”

This accusation made them go to court again to solve their complaints.

While the leaders of the families were trying to get their problems solved in court, their home arguments happened all the time, and often ended in fights. Even the little children copied the older people and argued all the time.

The women, when they met by the river to wash the family’s clothes, instead of doing their work spent the time shouting at each other, and quite often they started to fight.

At first the men in the families were okay with blaming each other for different crimes, like stealing and other mean things. But this small trouble did not last long.

They soon used other ways. They began to take one another’s things without asking permission, while many items disappeared from both houses and could not be found. This was done to get revenge.

After the men set this example, the women and children also followed, and life soon became hard for all who took part in the fighting.

Ivan Scherbakoff and “Gavryl the Lame” at last brought their problem to the mir (village meeting), besides going to court and asking the justice of the peace. Both of these were tired of them and their constant arguing. Sometimes Gavryl was able to have Ivan fined, and if he could not pay it he would be locked up in the cold, dark prison for days. Then it would be Ivan’s turn to get Gavryl punished in the same way, and the more harm the one could do to the other the more joy he took in it.

The success of each of them in getting the other punished only made their anger against each other grow, until they were like mad dogs in their fight.

If anything went wrong with one of them he at once accused his enemy of planning to harm him, and tried to get revenge without stopping to find out who was right.

When the poor farmers went to court, and made each other pay fines and go to jail, it did not make them kinder at all. They would only make fun of each other at such times, saying: “Never mind; I will pay you back for all this.”

This situation lasted for six years.