Put Out the Fire Or It Will Spread

There once was a Russian peasant by the name of Ivan. He was well off and the best worker in his village. He had three healthy sons who were good workers too. The eldest son was married, the middle son engaged, and the youngest son was good at riding horses and plowing. Ivan's wife was intelligent and thrifty, his daughter-in-law quiet and hard working. The only member of the family unable to work was Ivan's father; he had trouble breathing and had lain for seven years on the stove.

Ivan had everything he could want: three horses and a colt, a cow and a calf, and fifteen sheep. They had food to last them to the next harvest and beyond, oats to sell for taxes and all their needs. They should have had a good life. But in the farm next to them there lived a man named Gavrilo the Lame, and Gavrilo and Ivan hated each other.

Ivan's daughter-in-law had a hen that started laying early in the year. But one day the children must have frightened it and it flew over the fence into Gavrilo's yard and laid an egg there. She would have liked to ask the hen what happened to it, but the hen wouldn't have answered, so she went and talked to Gavrilo's mother.

"What do you want, young woman?"

“Well, granny, my hen flew over to your place today and I wondered if she'd laid an egg here."

"Can't say I've seen it," she said. " We don't go gathering other people's eggs."

The young woman was insulted and said a harsh word or two. The old woman responded in kind, and soon they were calling each other names. When Ivan's wife happened along carrying water, she got mixed up in the argument. Then Gavrilo's wife rushed out and told Ivan's wife off. When Gavrilo came home from the fields, he stood up for his wife. Then Ivan and his son rushed out and joined the fray, and the red-blooded Ivan sent them all flying and tore out a piece of Gavrilo's beard.

That is how it all began.

Gavrilo wrapped the hair from his beard in a piece of paper and set off for the District Court to lodge a complaint. His wife boasted to the neighbors that they would have Ivan sentenced and sent to Siberia.

Ivan's father tried to talk the young people out their folly, saying, "To think it all began with an egg. But now ask forgiveness and put an end to it. For if you persist in your anger, things will be the worse for you."

But the young people would not listen to him. They thought he was talking nonsense, merely grumbling as old men are wont to do. Ivan refused to humble himself before his neighbor"

So Ivan pulled Gabrilo into court. And while they were there, the coupling pin of Gavrilo's cart disappeared, and Gavrilo's wife and mother falsely accused Ivan's son of having stolen it.

Again they went to court, while at home not a day passed without a squabble or even a fight. At first they merely spoke ill of one another, but then they really did begin to steal anything they could lay their hands on. They taught the womenfolk and children to steal as well And so it continued for six years. The old man on the stove kept telling them “Settle your scores, stick to your work, bear no one ill will, and things will be better. The angrier you are, the worse things will be."

But they would not listen.

In the seventh year Ivan's daughter-in-law disgraced Gavrilo by telling everyone at a wedding that he had been caught stealing horses. Gavrilo was drunk and couldn't contain his temper, and he struck her, hit her so hard that she lay in bed for a week.

Ivan was pleased. He took a petition to the investigating judge.

But again Ivan's scheme did not work. The woman was examined. She got out of bed and there were no signs of wounds. So Ivan went to the Justice of the Peace, who referred the matter to the District Court. There Ivan bribed the officials and got them to agree to sentence Gavrilo to a flogging. The scribe read out the following verdict to Gavrilo. "The court sentences the peasant Gavrilo to twenty lashes."

When Gavrilo heard the verdict, he turned white as a sheet and left the court. Ivan went out after him, and as he was heading for his horse he heard Gavrilo say, "Fine. He will have me flogged and my back will burn. But see if something of his doesn't burn too!"

Having heard these words, Ivan went back to the judges at once.

"Righteous judges! Gavrilo has threatened to set my house on fire."

They sent for Gavrilo. "You know what, friends? Hitting a woman like that, Gavrilo, it isn't right. Own up to your guilt and ask Ivan to forgive you. He'll forgive you and we'll change the sentence. Because the law that stands above all others is: Remember God. And God commands people to live in peace."

The judge did everything he could to bring the peasants round, but he did not succeed.

Ivan got home late. He heard his father coughing on the stove

"Well, did they sentence him?" he asked.

"Yes," Ivan said, "to twenty lashes."

The old man shook his head. "You have done wrong," he said to Ivan, "and you have wronged yourself more than him. Hatred has bound your eyes. You can see his wickedness but not your own. Had he alone been bad and you good, there would have been no ill will. Think of your soul. You say a harsh word, I say two. You hit me, I hit you. No, my son. Christ did not walk the earth to teach us fools that. If someone says a harsh word to you, hold your tongue. His conscience will convict him. That is what Christ taught us, son. If someone hits you, let him hit you again. “He will make his peace with you and listen to you. That is what Christ told us to do, not to be proud."

Ivan sighed and thought, "Father is speaking the truth," and his heart melted entirely. But he did not know how to go about making peace.

His father was about to say something more when in came the womenfolk chattering like magpies. They had heard the news about how Gavrilo had been sentenced to flogging and how he had threatened to burn them out. Listening to what they had to say, Ivan's heart grew hard.

“Let me have a look around the house," he thought. He stole along so softly in his bast shoes that he couldn't hear his own footsteps. When he got to the far corner, what did he see but something flash near the plow and then vanish. He stood stock still, as if his heart had been struck a blow. At that moment something flashed more brightly in the same spot, and he could make out the back of a man in a cap squatting and lighting a bundle of straw.

Suddenly he saw a much brighter light in a different spot. It was no mere flash either: the straw under the eaves had burst into flame. By the time the flames spread to the roof, he could see Gavrilo standing there. There was no mistaking him.

Ivan swooped down on him like a hawk on a lark. He was about to seize him by the collar when Gavrilo slipped out of his grasp. Ivan grabbed hold of his coat, but it tore and Ivan fell. He jumped up shouting, "Stop! Police!" and dashed after him.

Gavrilo was almost in his own yard by then, but Ivan caught up with him. Then, just as he reached out to grab him, something came down on his head like a stone. Gavrilo had picked up an oak stake and struck Ivan with all his might. By the time he had come to, Gavrilo was gone. It was as bright as day and he could hear something rumbling and crackling like a machine. He turned in the direction the noise was coming from and saw that the back barn was aflame, the side barn had caught fire too, and fire, smoke, and sparks of thatch were whisking towards the hut.

"What have I done, friends?" he cried. "If only I'd pulled the burning straw out of the eaves and stamped it out."

Many people came running up, but it was too late. The neighbors dragged everything out of their huts and drove all the livestock out of their yards. Gavrilo's property caught fire after Ivan's, and the wind carried the flames across the rode as well. Half the village was destroyed.

The fire burned a long time, all night. Ivan stood by watching and repeating, "What have I done, friends? All I had to do was pull out the straw and stamp on it."

Towards morning the village elder sent his son to Ivan. "Your father is dying," he said. "He wants you to come and say good-bye."

But Ivan had forgotten all about his father and did not understand.

"He wants you to come and say good-bye. He's in our hut. He's dying. Come with me."

The old man lay on a bench with a candle in his hand, looking over at the door. When his son entered he stirred and said, "What did I tell you, my son? Who burnt down the village?"

"He did, Father," said Ivan. "He did. I caught him at it. But if I had grabbed the burning straw and stamped on it, nothing would have happened."

"Ivan," the old man said. "I am near death. You shall die one day too. Whose sin is this?"

Not until then did Ivan see his error and understand everything. He sniveled and said, "Mine, Father." And he fell on his knees before his father and wept, saying, "Forgive me, Father. I am guilty before you and before God."

The old man's hands started moving. He shifted the candle to his left hand, raised the right to his forehead: he was trying to cross himself.

"Praise be to Thee, O Lord!" he cried. "Praise be to Thee!" And turning his eyes upon his son once more, he said, "What must you do now?"

"I don't know, Father," he said.

"This is what you must do, Ivan. Tell no one who lit the fire. Hide the sin of another and God will pardon two of your own." And the old man took the candle in both hands, folded his hands on his chest, sighed, stretched his full length, and died.

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Ivan never told on Gavrilo, and no one ever learned how the fire had started. Ivan's ill will towards Gavrilo vanished, and Gavrilo wondered why Ivan told no one about him. At first Gavrilo was afraid, but then he saw there was no reason to be. Both the men and the women gave up quarreling, and while they were rebuilding, the two families lived in one house. Ivan and Gavrilo lived like neighbors, as their fathers had lived.

Ivan remembered his father's bidding and the divine command to put out the fire before it spreads. If anyone did him an injustice, he did not take vengeance but tried to set things right. If anyone said a harsh word to him, he did not respond with a harsher one but tried to teach the person not to use harsh words. And he taught the same to his womenfolk and children. Thus Ivan recovered and lived even better than before.

Translated by Michael Henry Heim

What was the reason for the quarrel between Ivan's daughter and Granny? How important was it?
Was it justified to argue over an egg? What do you think makes people argue over little things like this?
How could Ivan’s daughter have responded differently to Granny’s remarks?
What might have happened if Ivan's daughter had ignored Granny's remarks? Changed the subject? Spoken in a friendly manner? What difference might such a response have made to their families? To the rest of the village?
Would it have been possible to stop the argument between the families? If so, how might you go about doing this?
When did Ivan and Gavrilo begin to feel differently? Why? What helped them understand each other?
What might have happened if Ivan had told everyone that Gavrilo started the fire? How might the story have ended then?
In what way was Ivan responsible for the disaster, even though he had not actually lit the fire?

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