human
I wanted to ask you something about my sons, your excellency,
gpt
What?
human
Well, we are well provided with horses, praise the Lord! and that's our trade, and so we don't have to work on your land.
gpt
What do you mean?
human
If you would only be kind enough to let my sons have leave of absence, then Ilyushka and Ignát would take three troïkas, and go out teaming for all summer. Maybe they'd earn something.
gpt
Where would they go?
human
Just as it happened, replied Ilyushka, who at this moment, having put the horses under the shed, joined his father.
gpt
The Kadminski boys went with eight horses to Romen. Not only earned their own living, they say, but brought back a gain of more than three hundred per cent. Fodder, they say, is cheap at _Odest_.
human
Well, that's the very thing I wanted to talk with you about, said the prince, addressing the old man, and anxious to draw him shrewdly into a talk about the farm.
gpt
Tell me, please, if it would be more profitable to go to teaming than farming at home?
human
Why not more profitable, your excellency? said Ilyushka, again putting in his word, and at the same time quickly shaking back his hair.
gpt
There's no way of keeping horses at home.
human
Well, how much do you earn in the summer?
gpt
Since spring, as feed was high, we went to Kief with merchandise, and to Kursk, and back again to Moscow with grits; and in that way we earned our living. And our horses had enough, and we brought back fifteen rubles in money.
human
There's no harm in taking up with an honorable profession, whatever it is, said the prince, again addressing the old man.
gpt
But it seems to me that you might find another form of activity. And besides, this work is such that a young man goes everywhere. He sees all sorts of people,--may get wild,
human
What can we peasants take up with, if not teaming? objected the old man with his sweet smile.
gpt
If you are a good driver, you get enough to eat, and so do your horses; but, as regards mischief, they are just the same as at home, thank the Lord! It isn't the first time that they have been. I have been myself, and never saw any harm in it, nothing but good.
human
How many other things you might find to do at home! with fields and meadows
gpt
How is it possible? interrupted Ilyushka with animation.
human
We were born for this. All the regulations are at our fingers' ends. We like the work. It's the most enjoyable we have, your excellency. How we like to go teaming!
gpt
Your excellency, will you not do us the honor of coming into the house? You have not yet seen our new domicile,