In the evening, Yermolai and I went hunting woodcocks. Yermolai is a hunter, a man of about 45 years old, tall, thin, with a long nose, narrow forehead, gray eyes and wide mocking lips. All year round he wore a German-style caftan and blue trousers. Yermolai had an old flintlock gun and a dog nicknamed Valetka, which he never fed. Yermolai belonged to my neighbor, a landowner of old style. The landowner abandoned him as a man who was not fit for any work. His only duty was to deliver several pairs of black grouse and partridge to the master's kitchen once a month.
Yermolai was as carefree as a bird. He constantly got into various alterations, and always returned home unscathed with a gun and a dog. Not being a merry fellow, he was always in a good mood and loved to talk. Yermolai also had a wife who lived in a dilapidated hut and suffered hardships. He appeared at home once a week and treated his wife cruelly and rudely. He never stayed at home for more than a day, and on the side of the house tyrant again turned into Yermolka, who was known a hundred miles in the district.
We went hunting in a large birch grove on the shore of Ista. Wanting to try our luck the next morning, we decided to spend the night at the nearest mill. When we approached the mill, it was already dark, and the owners did not want to let us in. In the end, we decided to buy straw from the miller and spend the night on the street under a canopy. The miller brought us food. While Yermolai baked potatoes in ash, I dozed off.
A slight whisper woke me up. I looked up and saw a woman whose pale face still showed traces of her former beauty. By reprimand, I recognized her as a yard woman. It was the miller Arina. She spoke quietly with Yermolaus. He called her to "stay" and promised to expel his wife. I got up and spoke to her. I learned from Arina that she was a maid of Count Zverkov’s wife.
In Petersburg, I was familiar with Count Zverkov, who occupied a rather important place. From him I heard the story of Arina. Zverkov’s wife was plump, sensitive and angry. She had a firm rule: not to keep married maids. After 10 years of faithful service, the beautiful Arina, the daughter of an elder, began to ask Zverkov for permission to marry. She was denied. After some time, it turned out that Arina was pregnant from the footman Petra. Zverkov ordered the girl to be shorn, dressed in rags, and exiled to the village.
From Yermolai I learned that Arina’s child died. For two years she was married to a miller who bought her from the master. The lackey Petrushka was sent to the soldiers.
