Semyon Ivanonv was a track-walker.
His hut was ten versts away from a railroad station in one direction and twelve versts away in the other.
About four versts away there was a cotton mill that had opened the year before, and its tall chimney rose up darkly from behind the forest. The only dwellings around were the distant huts of the other track-walkers.
Semyon Ivanov's health had been completely shattered.
Nine years before he had served right through the war as servant to an officer.
The sun had roasted him, the cold frozen him, and hunger famished him on the forced marches of forty and fifty versts a day in the heat and the cold and the rain and the shine. The bullets had whizzed about him, but, thank God! none had struck him.
Semyon's regiment had once been on the firing line. For a whole week there had been skirmishing with the Turks, only a deep ravine separating the two hostile armies; and from morn till eve there had been a steady cross-fire.
Thrice daily Semyon carried a steaming samovar and his officer's meals from the camp kitchen to the ravine.
The bullets hummed about him and rattled viciously against the rocks. Semyon was terrified and cried sometimes, but still he kept right on.
The officers were pleased with him, because he always had hot tea ready for them.
He returned from the campaign with limbs unbroken but crippled with rheumatism.
He had experienced no little sorrow since then.
He arrived home to find that his father, an old man, and his little four-year-old son had died. Semyon remained alone with his wife.
They could not do much. It was difficult to plough with rheumatic arms and legs.
They could no longer stay in their village, so they started off to seek their fortune in new places.
They stayed for a short time on the line, in Kherson and Donshchina, but nowhere found luck.
Then the wife went out to service, and Semyon continued to travel about.
Once he happened to ride on an engine, and at one of the stations the face of the station-master seemed familiar to him.
Semyon looked at the station-master and the station-master looked at Semyon, and they recognised each other.
He had been an officer in Semyon's regiment.
"You are Ivanov?" he said.
"Yes, your Excellency."
"How do you come to be here?"
Semyon told him all.
"Where are you off to?"
"I cannot tell you, sir."
"Idiot! What do you mean by 'cannot tell you?'"
"I mean what I say, your Excellency. There is nowhere for me to go to.
I must hunt for work, sir."
The station-master looked at him, thought a bit, and said:
"See here, friend, stay here a while at the station. You are married, I think.
Where is your wife?"
"Yes, your Excellency, I am married. My wife is at Kursk, in service with a merchant."
"Well, write to your wife to come here.
I will give you a free pass for her.
There is a position as track-walker open. I will speak to the Chief on your behalf."
"I shall be very grateful to you, your Excellency," replied Semyon.
He stayed at the station, helped in the kitchen, cut firewood, kept the yard clean, and swept the platform.
In a fortnight's time his wife arrived, and Semyon went on a hand-trolley to his hut.
The hut was a new one and warm, with as much wood as he wanted. There was a little vegetable garden, the legacy of former track-walkers, and there was about half a dessiatin of ploughed land on either side of the railway embankment.
Semyon was rejoiced. He began to think of doing some farming, of purchasing a cow and a horse.
He was given all necessary stores--a green flag, a red flag, lanterns, a horn, hammer, screw-wrench for the nuts, a crow-bar, spade, broom, bolts, and nails; they gave him two books of regulations and a time-table of the train.
At first Semyon could not sleep at night, and learnt the whole time-table by heart. Two hours before a train was due he would go over his section, sit on the bench at his hut, and look and listen whether the rails were trembling or the rumble of the train could be heard.
He even learned the regulations by heart, although he could only read by spelling out each word.
It was summer; the work was not heavy; there was no snow to clear away, and the trains on that line were infrequent.
Semyon used to go over his verst twice a day, examine and screw up nuts here and there, keep the bed level, look at the water-pipes, and then go home to his own affairs.
There was only one drawback--he always had to get the inspector's permission for the least little thing he wanted to do.
Semyon and his wife were even beginning to be bored.
Two months passed, and Semyon commenced to make the acquaintance of his neighbours, the track-walkers on either side of him.
One was a very old man, whom the authorities were always meaning to relieve. He scarcely moved out of his hut.