A Spark Neglected Burns the house – I

This is a story by great Russian writer and thinker, Leo Tolstoy (1828-

1910). He gave up a life of wealth and pleasure in order to help poor. He

believed in love and non-violence, and taught that all forms of violence were

bad. Gandhiji was very much interested in his teachings and writings, and for

some time the two wrote letters to each other.

I

Once there lived a peasant named Ivan in a village in Russia. He had three

sons; the eldest of them was married. Ivan was quite well off because he and his

sons were hard workers. His wife and his daughter-in-law managed the home

well, besides helping in the field. They had only one idle mouth to feed; that was

Ivan’s old father who suffered from asthma and had been lying ill in his bed for

seven years. They had all they needed, and the family might have lived quite

comfortably if there had not been a quarrel between them and their next-door

neighbour, Limping Gabriel.

As long as Gabriel’s old father was

alive and Ivan’s father was still able to manage his home, the two families lived as

neighbours should. They trusted and helped each other gladly and never quarrelled over

little things. If one family needed a bucket or a plough, the other would gladly lend it;

and if a cow happened to wonder in to the neighbours yard , they just drove it out, and

never thought of quarrelling about the

matter. But when the sons became heads of the families, every thing changed.

II

A small matter started all the trouble. Ivan’s daughter-in-law had a hen that

used to lay its eggs in the cart-shed. One day, probably frightened by the children,

it flew over the fence into the neighbour’s yard and laid its egg there. Ivan’s

daughter-in-law looked for the egg in the cart-shed as usual. Taras, her youngest

brother-in-law, said, “Your hen flew over the fence and laid its egg in the

neighbour’s yard. Then it flew back across the fence again.” So Ivan’s daughter-

in-law went to Gabriel’s house.

“What do you want, young woman?” Gabriel’s mother asked her.

“One of my hens flew across the fence this morning. Did it not lay an egg

here?”

The old woman’s reply was not very polite. “We didn’t see anything of it,”

she said. “We collect our own eggs and have no need for other people’s. And we

don’t go looking for eggs in other people’s yards!”

The young woman was offended and said more than she should have done.

Gabriel’s mother answered back, and soon the woman were shouting and abusing

each other. Ivan’s wife happened to pass by, carrying a bucket of water, and she

joined in. Gabriel’s wife rushed out and they all began abusing and accusing

each other. “You are a dirty woman.” “You are starving your father-in-law.”

“Just give us back our bucket.” And so on. Then they caught hold of the bucket

and began pulling at it and pushing each other. Gabriel, coming home from the

fields, stopped there to take his wife’s part. Ivan rushed out and joined in. Ivan

was a strong fellow; he scattered the whole lot of them and pulled a handful of

hair out of Gabriel’s beard. Then their neighbours came and separated the fighters

with difficulty.

III

Gabriel wrapped the hair torn from his beard in a piece of paper and went

to court. His wife went about saying that Ivan would be condemned and sent to

Siberia as a punishment.

“I never pulled out his beard,” said Ivan; “he pulled it out himself. But his

son has torn my shirt and pulled the buttons off.” So Ivan went to law too, and the

quarrel grew. The longer they quarrelled, the harder life became for them. At

first they abused one another, and then they began to snatch anything they saw

lying about. The children followed the example of the older folk. Almost every

day there was a quarrel or a fight.

Ivan’s old father, lying in his sickbed, tried to persuade his family to make

peace.

“What are you doing?” he said. “What is the value of an egg? Why, God

sends enough for all! Suppose your neighbour did offend you by saying an impolite

or unkind word – put it right; show her how to say a better one. Stop trying to pay

back, and be reconciled with your neighbour. The more you hate, the worse it

will be for you.”

But the younger folk would not listen to him. Ivan and Gabriel kept going to

law until all the judges got disgusted with both of them. Now Gabriel got Ivan

imprisoned or fined, and then Ivan in his turn managed to get the same thing done

to Gabriel. The longer this went on, the angrier they grew.

IV

In the seventh year, at a marriage, Ivan’s daughter-in-law accused Gabriel,

in front of everyone there, of horse-stealing. Gabriel had been drinking; he gave

the woman such a blow that she laid up for a week. She was expecting a baby at

the time.

Ivan was delighted. “Now that he has beaten a pregnant woman, I will get

rid of him!” he said to himself. But the magistrate dismissed the complaint because

the woman showed no signs of injury. Then Ivan took the case to a higher court.

He bribed the clerk and the elders of the court, and got Gabriel condemned to be

beaten publicly. Gabriel turned pale when he heard the sentence. And he turned

his face to the wall. As he went out Ivan overheard him say, “He will have my

back beaten. That will make it burn; but something of his may burn worse than

that!” Ivan complained to the judges at once. But Gabriel denied having said

anything about burning.

The old judge tried to reconcile them. “Don’t go on with this quarrel,” he

said. “Was it right on your part, Gabriel, to hit a woman who was expecting a

baby? You ought not to have done that. Think what might have happened. Why

not confess, and ask him to forgive you? If you are reconciled, we will change

the sentence.” But the judge could not persuade them to make peace.

“I shall be fifty next year,” said Gabriel. “I have never been beaten in my

life. Now that I am going to be beaten because of Ivan, am I to go and ask for his

forgiveness? Never! He shall have cause to remember me!” He went out trembling

with anger .