Viy — Страница 13

The
philosopher, however, wanted to look the master's mansion over a little; but
however wide he opened his eyes, he could see nothing clearly: instead of
the house, he saw a bear; the chimney turned into a rector. The philosopher
waved his hand and went to sleep.
When the philosopher woke up, the whole house was astir: during the
night the master's daughter had died. Servants ran to and fro in a flurry.
Some old woman cried. A crowd of the curious looked through the fence into
the master's yard, as if there was anything to be seen there.
The philosopher began leisurely to examine the places he had been
unable to make out at night. The masters house was a small, low building
such as was commonly built in Little Russia in the old days. It had a
thatched roof. The sharp and high little pediment, with a small window
resembling an upturned eye, was painted ail over with blue and yellow
flowers and red crescents. It was held up by oak posts, the upper half
rounded and the lower hexagonal, with fancy turning at the tops. Under this
pediment was a small porch with benches on both sides. At the ends of the
house were shed roofs on the same sort of posts, some of them twisted. A
tall pear tree with a pyramidal top and trembling leaves greened in front of
the house. Several barns stood in two rows in the yard, forming a sort of
wide street leading to the house. Beyond the barns, toward the gates, the
triangles of two cellars stood facing each other, also roofed with thatch.
The triangular wall of each was furnished with a door and painted over with
various images. On one of them a Cossack was portrayed sitting on a barrel,
holding a mug over his head with the inscription: "I'll Drink It All." On
the other, a flask, bottles, and around them, for the beauty of it, an
upside-down horse, a pipe, tambourines, and the inscription: "Drink--the
Cossack's Delight." From the loft of one of the barns, through an enormous
dormer window, peeked a drum and some brass trumpets. By the gates stood two
cannon. Everything showed that the master of the house liked to make merry
and that the yard often resounded with the noise of feasting. Outside the
gates were two windmills. Behind the house ran the gardens; and through the
treetops one could see only the dark caps of chimneys hiding in the green
mass of cottages. The entire settlement was situated on a wide and level
mountain ledge. To the north everything was screened off by a steep
mountain, the foot of which came right down to the yard. Looked at from
below, it seemed steeper still, and on its high top the irregular stems of
skimpy weeds stuck out here and there, black against the bright sky. Its
bare and clayey appearance evoked a certain despondency.