The Dark Valley Read Online Free PDF Page A

wrote, “Why do we have to fight the Germans? What good is it to us?”
    “You brute! You have been made a soldier and you dare ask these questions?” the Isans’ son exclaimed as he read the letter.
    And then one day news came from the city. A telegram was wired saying that the army had started a rebellion and dethroned the Czar. The villagers did not believe it at first. Landlords, the penman, and even Zaki-the-Messenger stood in the middle of the main square and told the villagers that the news was false. Father Gevorg, who knew Solomon’s Song by heart, was convinced that without a shepherd there could be no sheep, that the people needed a leader, and that those who were spreading the news were mere meddlers, or worse, German agents.
    Two days later two men from the city arrived in the village with a piece of red cloth around their arms. One of them was Minas-the-Teacher and the other was a young man. The villagers were well acquainted with Minas-the-Teacher.
    Minas-the-Teacher began to give a speech, saying that the Czar was gone, that there was freedom now, that the land will be given to the villager, that the people are hungry, and that that is the reason why they must defeat the Germans in the war to the bitter end. The young man also spoke, and then they decided to elect a leader.
    The elder of the Isans’ brothers, Khachums’ Ohan, and one of the landlords turned to the committee. One of the villagers in the crowd complained that he did not want the landlord to be the leader because he was an extortionist. Zaki-the-Messenger glared at him in such away that the poor man lost his heart. Father Gevorg noted that the landlord was a man with a conscience, compassionate and thoughtful.
    After the meeting, the new committee, along with Father Gevorg, Minas-the-Teacher, the young man, the penman, Zaki-the-Messenger, and several others, joined at the Isans’ house for dinner. They ate and they drank, and at the end of the evening, the teacher and the young man returned to the city quite tipsy.
    Hatam’s daughter told her husband everything that had been said that day. Vands’ Badi did not believe it at first and considered the news to be nothing more than thin air, but then he started to get his hopes up.
    “Could it be possible that the war will end and Habud will be able to come home?”
    Hatam’s daughter was unable to get her head around it all. Haphazard news made its way to her ears, but she only heard incomprehensible jabber. Apparently the city’s leader had been arrested and put to jail. Now they were looking for new recruits to join the army—freedom or death. There was no Czar, but there was war.
    The village committee had begun its work. The Isans’ shop raised the price of its products and collected wheat and cheese for loans, which they proceeded to send to the city.
    Minas-the-Teacher came to the village once more. He organized a meeting in which he spoke about the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, cursed the Mensheviks, and said that whoever was not a member of the Federation was not an Armenian. The villagers gasped and the literate people signed a piece of paper that the penman and the teacher had prepared.
    Minas-the-Teacher said that soon people will come to measure the lands, steal from the rich and give to the poor. They will also distribute cloth and start a cooperative society in every village. Every village will also be provided with two doctors and three teachers. Minas-the-Teacher finished by saying that it was only sensible to vote for the Federation, because it would defend all their pains in the greatest assembly of all, where all of Russia’s nations merge.
    The villagers did as Minas-the-Teacher said. They took the elder of the Isans’ brothers more seriously, looking attentively into his eyes. Who could speak against him or win an argument? Some owed him grain, and others had no choice but to get their cloth and sugar from his shop. Who was crazy enough to argue with