Master and Man (annotated)

Master and Man is a classic Russian short story by the great Russian bard, Leo Tolstoy, which is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of ambition and greed. In this short story, a land owner named Vasili Andreevich Brekhunov takes along one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey to the house of the owner of a forest. He is impatient and wishes to get to the town more quickly 'for business' (purchasing the forest before other contenders can get there).