Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Anton Chekhovwell. On the 6th of May towards daybreak I was being driven withtwo horses by a very nice old man. It was a little chaise, I was drowsy,and, to while away the time, watched the gleaming of zigzagginglights in the fields and birch copses—it was last year’s grass on fire;it is their habit here to burn it. Suddenly I hear the swift rattle ofwheels, a post-cart at full speed comes flying towards us like a bird,my old man hastens to move to the right, the three horses dash by,and I see in the dusk a huge heavy post-cart with a driver for thereturn journey in it. It was followed by a second cart also going atfull speed. We made haste to move aside to the right. To my greatamazement and alarm the approaching cart moved not to its right,but its left … I hardly had time to think, “Good heavens! we shallrun into each other,” when there was a desperate crash, the horseswere mixed up in a dark blur, the yokes fell off, my chaise reared upinto the air, and I flew to the ground, and my luggage on the top ofme. But that was not all … A third cart was dashing upon us. Thisreally ought to have smashed me and my luggage to atoms but,thank God! I was not asleep, I broke no bones in the fall, and managedto jump up so quickly that I was able to get out of the way.“Stop,” I bawled to the third cart, “Stop!” The third dashed up tothe second and stopped. Of course if I were able to sleep in a chaise,or if the third cart had followed instantly on the second, I shouldcertainly have come back a cripple or a headless horseman. Theresults of the collision were broken shafts, torn traces, yokes andluggage scattered on the ground, the horses scared and harassed,and the alarming feeling that we had just been in danger. It turnedout that the first driver had lashed up the horses; while in the othertwo carts the drivers were asleep, and the horses followed the firstteam with no one controlling them. On recovering from the shock,my old man and the other three men fell to abusing each otherferociously. Oh, how they swore! I thought it would end in a fight.You can’t imagine the feeling of isolation in the middle of that savageswearing crew in the open country, just before dawn, in sight ofthe fires far and near consuming the grass, but not warming thecold night air! Oh, how heavy my heart was! One listened to theswearing, looked at the broken shafts and at one’s tormented luggage,and it seemed as though one were cast away in another world,155