И смех, и беда

A Few Amusing Episodes from the Life of the Village of Golodranka One day, a young peasant named Stepan lost his mare, who ran off pulling a cart full of hay. Stepan spent the whole day scouring the forest roads in search of her—only to find the stubborn beast calmly standing in his own yard. Furious, he swore to chop her to pieces with an axe. Another fellow, Artyom, ran away from home to escape his quarrelsome wife. He climbed down into the deepest village well and flatly refused to come out until his wife swore never to scold or hit him again. But what truly amused the villagers—both men and women—was Roman Sotsky’s antics. With a straight face, he assured a frightened constable that the strange man who had appeared in the village was "clearly a pure-blooded Sicilist."