“There are always a good many of them here,” answered
Pavel; “but they are only troublesome in the winter.
Pavel; “but they are only troublesome in the winter.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v26 - Tur to Wat
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IVAN TURGENEFF
for a little and turned away. Then we talked a little again. I
lay down under a bush, whose shoots had been nibbled off, and
began to look round. It was a marvelous picture: about the fire
a red ring of light quivered, and seemed to swoon away in the
embrace of a background of darkness; the flame, faring up from
time to time, cast swift flashes of light beyond the boundary of
this circle; a fine tongue of light licked the dry twigs and died
away at once; long thin shadows, in their turn breaking in for
an instant, danced right up to the very fires: darkness was
struggling with light. Sometimes when the fire burnt low and
the circle of light shrank together, suddenly out of the encroach-
ing darkness a horse's head was thrust in, — bay, with striped
markings, or all white,- stared with intent black eyes upon us,
nipped hastily the long grass, and drawing back again, vanished
instantly. One could only hear it still munching and snorting.
From the circle of light it was hard to make out what was
going on in the darkness: everything close at hand seemed shut
off by an almost black curtain; but farther away, hills and for-
ests were dimly visible in long blurs upon the horizon.
Scarcely a sound was to be heard around; only at times, in
the river near, the sudden splash of a big fish leaping, and the
faint rustle of a reed on the bank, swaying lightly as the rip-
ples reached it. The fires alone kept up a subdued crackling.
The boys sat round them; there too sat the two dogs, who had
been so eager to devour me. They could not for long after
reconcile themselves to my presence, and drowsily blinking and
staring into the fire, they growled now and then with an un-
wonted sense of their own dignity; first they growled, and then
whined a little, as though deploring the impossibility of carry-
ing out their desires. There were altogether five boys: Fedya,
Pavlusha, Ilyusha, Kostya, and Vanya. -- From their talk I learnt
their names, and I intend now to introduce them to the reader.
The first and eldest of all, Fedya, one would take to be about
fourteen. He was a well-made boy, with good-looking, delicate,
rather small features, curly fair hair, bright eyes, and a perpetual
half merry, half careless smile. He belonged by all appearances
to a well-to-do family; and had ridden out to the prairie not
through necessity, but for amusement.
He wore
a gay print
shirt, with a yellow border; a short new overcoat slung round
his neck was almost slipping off his narrow shoulders; a comb
hung from his blue belt. His boots, coming a little way up the
leg, were certainly his own - not his father's. The second boy,
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IVAN TURGENEFF
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-
Pavlusha, had tangled black hair, gray eyes, broad cheek-bones,
a pale face pitted with small-pox, a large but well-cut mouth;
his head altogether was large — "a beer-barrel head," as they
say — and his figure was square and clumsy. He was not a
good-looking boy - there's no denying it! - and yet I liked him:
he looked very sensible and straightforward, and there was a
vigorous ring in his voice. He had nothing to boast of in his
attire: it consisted simply of a homespun shirt and patched trou-
sers. The face of the third, Ilyusha, was rather uninteresting:
it was a long face, with short-sighted eyes and a hook nose; it
expressed a kind of dull, fretful uneasiness; his tightly drawn
lips seemed rigid; his contracted brow never relaxed; he seemed
continually blinking from the firelight. His flaxen — almost white
— hair hung out in thin wisps under his low felt hat, which he
kept pulling down with both hands over his ears. He had on
new bast-shoes and leggings; a thick string, wound three times
round his figure, carefully held together his neat black smock.
Neither he nor Pavlusha looked more than twelve years old.
The fourth, Kostya, a boy of ten, aroused my curiosity by his
thoughtful and sorrowful look. His whole face was small, thin,
freckled, pointed at the chin like a squirrel's; his lips were barely
perceptible: but his great black eyes, that shone with liquid
brilliance, produced a strange impression; they seemed trying to
express something for which the tongue - his tongue, at least - -
had no words. He was undersized and weakly, and dressed
rather poorly. The remaining boy, Vanya, I had not noticed at
first: he was lying on the ground, peacefully curled up under a
square rug, and only occasionally thrust his curly brown head out
from under it; this boy was seven years old at the most.
So I lay under the bush at one side and looked at the boys.
A small pot was hanging over one of the fires: in it potatoes
were cooking. Pavlusha was looking after them, and on his knees
he was trying them by poking a splinter of wood into the boiling
water. Fedya was lying leaning on his elbow, and smoothing
out the skirts of his coat. Ilyusha was sitting beside Kostya, and
still kept blinking constrainedly. , Kostya's head drooped despond-
ently, and he looked away into the distance. Vanya did not stir
under his rug.
I pretended to be asleep. Little by little, the
boys began talking again.
At first they gossiped of one thing and another, - the work
of to-morrow, the horses; but suddenly Fedya turned to Ilyusha,
-
## p. 15094 (#30) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
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and as though taking up again an interrupted conversation, asked
him :-
»
"Come then, so you've seen the domovoy? ”
“No, I didn't see him, and no one ever can see him," an-
swered Ilyusha, in a weak hoarse voice, the sound of which was
wonderfully in keeping with the expression of his face: “I heard
him. Yes, and not I alone. ”
“Where does he live - in your place ? ” asked Pavlusha.
“In the old paper-mill. ”
“Why, do you go to the factory ? ”
« Of course
we do.
My brother Avdushka and I, we are
paper-glazers. ”
"I say — factory hands! ”
"Well, how did you hear it, then ? ” asked Fedya.
"It was like this. It happened that I and my brother Av-
dushka, with Fyodor of Mihyevska, and Ivashka the Squint-
eyed, and the other Ivashka who comes from the Red Hills,
and Ivashka of Suhorukov too, and there were some other boys
there as well, – there were ten of us boys there altogether, -
the whole shift that is, – it happened that we spent the night at
the paper-mill; that's to say, it didn't happen, but Nazarov the
overseer kept us. Why,' said he, should you waste time
going home, boys? There's a lot of work to-morrow; so don't go
home, boys. ' So we stopped, and were all lying down together;
and Avdushka had just begun to say, I say, boys, suppose the
domovoy were to come ? ) And before he'd finished saying so, some
one suddenly began walking over our heads: we were lying down
below, and he began walking up-stairs overhead where the wheel
is. We listened: he walked; the boards seemed to be bending
under him, they creaked so; then he crossed over, above our
heads: all of a sudden the water began to drip and drip over the
wheel; the wheel rattled and rattled and again began to turn,
though the sluices of the conduit above had been let down. We
wondered who could have lifted them up so that the water could
run; anyway, the wheel turned and turned a little, and then
stopped. Then he went to the door overhead, and began coming
down-stairs, and came down like this, not hurrying himself; and
the stairs seemed to groan under him too.
“Well, he came right down to our door, and waited and waited
and all of a sudden the door simply flew open. We were in a
fright; we looked – there was nothing. Suddenly what if the net
-
.
(
## p. 15095 (#31) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
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on one of the vats didn't begin moving; it got up, and went ris-
ing and ducking and moving in the air as though some one were
stirring with it, and then it was in its place again. Then at
another vat a hook came off its nail, and then was on its nail
again; and then it seemed as if some one came to the door, and
suddenly coughed and choked like a sheep, but so loudly! We
all fell down in a heap and huddled against one another. Just
weren't we in a fright that night! )
"I say! ” murmured Pavel, “what did he cough for ? »
"I don't know: perhaps it was the damp. ”
All were silent for a little.
"Well,” inquired Fedya, "are the potatoes done? ”
Pavlusha tried them.
“No, they are raw. - My, what a splash! ” he added, turning
his face in the direction of the river: “that must be a pike.
And there's a star falling. ”
«I say, I can tell you something, brothers,” began Kostya in
a shrill little voice: “listen what my dad told me the other day. ”
« Well, we are listening,” said Fedya with a patronizing air.
« You know Gavrila, I suppose, the carpenter up in the big
village ? ”
“ Yes, we know him. ”
“And do you know why he is so sorrowful always, never
speaks? do you know? I'll tell you why he's so sorrowful; he
went one day, daddy said, - he went, brothers, into the forest
nutting So he went nutting into the forest and lost his way;
he went on -God only can tell where he got to. So he went
on and on, brothers; but 'twas no good! he could not find the
way: and so night came on out of doors. So he sat down under
a tree. I'll wait till morning,' thought he. He sat down and
began to drop asleep. So as he was falling asleep, suddenly he
heard some one call him. He looked up: there was no one.
He
fell asleep again; again he was called. He looked and looked
again; and in front of him there sat a russalka on a branch,
swinging herself and calling him to her, and simply dying with
laughing, she laughed so. And the moon was shining bright, so
bright, the moon shone so clear,- everything could be seen plain,
brothers. So she called him, and she herself was as bright and
as white sitting on the branch as some dace or roach, or like
some little carp so white and silvery. Gavrila the carpenter
almost fainted, brothers; but she laughed without stopping, and
-
## p. 15096 (#32) ###########################################
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IVAN TURGENEFF
>
kept beckoning him to her like this. Then Gavrila was just get-
ting up; he was just going to yield to the russalka, brothers, but
- the Lord put it into his heart, doubtless — he crossed himself,
like this. And it was so hard for him to make that cross, broth-
ers: he said, "My hand was simply like a stone; it would not
move. '— Ugh! the horrid witch. — So when he made the cross,
brothers, the russalka she left off laughing, and all at once how
she did cry.
She cried, brothers, and wiped her eyes with her
hair, and her hair was green as any hemp. So Gavrila looked and
looked at her, and at last he fell to questioning her. Why are
you weeping, wild thing of the woods ? ' And the russalka began
to speak to him like this: “If you had not crossed yourself, man,'
she says, you should have lived with me in gladness of heart to
the end of your days; and I weep, I am grieved at heart, because
you crossed yourself: but I will not grieve alone; you too shall
grieve at heart till the end of your days. ' Then she vanished,
brothers, and at once it was plain to Gavrila how to get out of
the forest. Only since then he goes always sorrowful, as you
see. ”
“Ugh! ” said Fedya after a brief silence; but how can such
an evil thing of the woods ruin a Christian soul? - He did not
listen to her ! »
“And I say! ” said Kostya: “Gavrila said that her voice was
as shrill and as plaintive as a toad's. ”
“Did your father tell you that himself ? » Fedya went on.
Yes. I was lying in the loft. I heard it all. "
"It's a strange thing. Why should he be sorrowful? But I
suppose she liked him, since she called him. ”
“Ay, she liked him! ” put in Ilyusha. “Yes, indeed! she
wanted to tickle him to death, that's what she wanted. That's
what they do, those russalkas. ”
« There ought to be russalkas here too, I suppose,” observed
Fedya.
"No," answered Kostya: “this is a holy open place. There's
one thing, though: the river's near. ”
All were silent. Suddenly from out of the distance came a
prolonged, resonant, almost wailing sound,- one of those inex-
plicable sounds of the night, which break upon a profound still-
ness, rise upon the air, linger, and slowly die away at last. You
listen: it is as though there was nothing, yet it echoes still. It
is as though some one had uttered a long, long cry upon the
»
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## p. 15097 (#33) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
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(
very horizon; as though some other had answered him with shrill
harsh laughter in the forest: and a faint, hoarse hissing hovers
over the river. The boys looked round about, shivering.
“Christ's aid be with us! » whispered Ilyusha.
"Ah, you craven crows! ” cried Pavel, “what are you fright-
ened of? Look, the potatoes are done. ” (They all came up to
the pot and began to eat the smoking potatoes; only Vanya did
not stir. ) “Well, aren't you coming ? ” said Pavel.
But he did not creep out from under his rug. The pot was
soon completely emptied.
“Have you heard, boys,” began Ilyusha, “what happened with
us at Varnavitsi ? »
«Near the dam ? ” asked Fedya.
“Yes, yes, near the dam, the broken-down dam. That is a
haunted place, such a haunted place, and so lonely. All round
there are pits and quarries, and there are always snakes in
pits. ”
“Well, what did happen ? Tell us. ”
"Well, this is what happened. You don't know, perhaps,
Fedya, but there a drowned man was buried; he was drowned
long, long ago, when the water was still deep: only his grave
can still be seen, though it can only just be seen – like this — a
little mound. So one day the bailiff called the huntsman Yer-
mil, and says to him, “Go to the post, Yermil. Yermil always
goes to the post for us. He has let all his dogs die: they never
will live with him, for some reason, and they have never lived
with him, though he's a good huntsman, and every one liked him.
So Yermil went to the post, and he stayed a bit in the town; and
when he rode back, he was a little tipsy. It was night,-a fine
night; the moon was shining. So Yermil rode across the dam:
his way lay there. So as he rode along, he saw on the drowned
man's grave a little lamb, so white and curly and pretty, running
about. So Yermil thought, I will take him;' and he got down
and took him in his arms. But the little lamb didn't take any
notice. So Yermil goes back to his horse, and the horse stares
at him, and snorts and shakes his head; however, he said whoa
to him and sat on him with the lamb, and rode on again; he
held the lamb in front of him. He looks at him; and the lamb
looks him straight in the face, like this. Yermil the huntsman
felt upset. I don't remember,' he said, 'that lambs ever look
at any one like that;' however, he began to stroke it like this
>
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IVAN TURGENEFF
on its wool, and to say, 'Chucky! chucky! And the lamb sud-
denly showed its teeth and said too, Chucky! chucky! ) »
The boy who was telling the story had hardly uttered this
last word, when suddenly both dogs got up at once, and barking
convulsively, rushed away from the fire and disappeared in the
darkness. All the boys were alarmed. Vanya jumped up from
under his rug. Pavlusha ran shouting after the dogs. Their
barking quickly grew fainter in the distance. There was the
noise of the uneasy tramp of the frightened drove of horses.
Pavlusha shouted aloud, "Hey Gray! Beetle! ” In a few minutes
the barking ceased; Pavel's voice sounded still in the distance.
A little time more passed; the boys kept looking about in
perplexity, as though expecting something to happen. Suddenly
the tramp of a galloping horse was heard; it stopped short at
the pile of wood, and hanging on to the mane, Pavel sprang
nimbly off it. Both the dogs also leaped into the circle of light,
and at once sat down, their red tongues hanging out.
“What was it? what was it? " asked the boys.
“Nothing," answered Pavel, waving his hand to his horse; "I
suppose the dogs scented something. I thought it was a wolf,”
he added, calmly drawing deep breaths into his chest.
I could not help admiring Pavel. He was very fine at that
moment. His ugly face, animated by his swift ride, glowed with
hardihood and determination. Without even a switch in his hand,
he had, without the slightest hesitation, rushed out into the night
alone to face a wolf. “What a splendid fellow! ” I thought,
looking at him. ,
« Have you seen any wolves, then ? ” asked the trembling
Kostya.
“There are always a good many of them here,” answered
Pavel; “but they are only troublesome in the winter. ”
He crouched down again before the fire. As he sat down
on the ground, he laid his hand on the shaggy head of one of
the dogs. For a long while the flattered brute did not turn his
head, gazing sidewise with grateful pride at Pavlusha.
Vanya lay down under his rug again.
“What dreadful things you were telling us, Ilyusha! ” began
Fedya; whose part it was, as the son of a well-to-do peasant, to
lead the conversation. (He spoke little himself, apparently afraid
of lowering his dignity. ) "And then some evil spirit set the
dogs barking. Certainly I have heard that place was haunted. ”
## p. 15099 (#35) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
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>
«Varnavitsi ? I should think it was haunted! More than
once, they say, they have seen the old master there — the late
master. He wears, they say, a long-skirted coat, and keeps
groaning like this, and looking for something on the ground.
Once grandfather Trofimitch met him. What,' says he, your
Honor, Ivan Ivan'itch, are you pleased to look for on the
ground? ) »
“He asked him ? ” put in Fedya in amazement.
“Yes, he asked him. ”
«Well, I call Trofimitch a brave fellow after that. Well,
what did he say? ”
« I am looking for the herb that cleaves all things,' says
he. But he speaks so thickly, so thickly. —'And what, your
Honor, Ivan Ivan'itch, do you want with the herb that cleaves all
things ? '— 'The tomb weighs on me; it weighs on me, Trofim-
itch: I want to get away-
away. '
“My word! " observed Fedya: “he didn't enjoy his life enough,
I suppose. ”
«What a marvel! ” said Kostya. "I thought one could only
see the departed on All Hallows' day. ”
“One can see the departed any time,” Ilyusha interposed with
conviction. From what I could observe, I judged he knew the
village superstitions better than the others. “But on All Hal-
lows' day you can see the living too; those, that is, whose turn it
is to die that year.
You need only sit in the church porch, and
keep looking at the road. They will come by you along the road;
those, that is, who will die that year. Last year old Ulyana went
to the porch. "
“Well, did she see any one ? ” asked Kostya inquisitively.
« To be sure she did. At first she sat a long, long while,
and saw no one, and heard nothing; only it seemed as if some
dog kept whining and whining like this, somewhere. Suddenly she
looks up: a boy comes along the road with only a shirt on.
looked at him. It was Ivashka Fedosyev. ”
“He who died in the spring ? ” put in Fedya.
"Yes, he. He came along and never lifted up his head.
But
Ulyana knew him. And then she looks again: a woman came
along. She stared and stared at her. Ah, God Almighty! it was
herself coming along the road; Ulyana herself. ”
« Could it be herself? ” asked Fedya,
“Yes, by God, herself. ”
>
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## p. 15100 (#36) ###########################################
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IVAN TURGENEFF
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(
"Well, but she is not dead yet, you know?
"But the year is not over yet. And only look at her: her life
hangs on a thread. ”
All were still again. Pavel threw a handful of dry twigs
on to the fire. They were soon charred by the suddenly leaping
flame; they cracked and smoked, and began to contract, curling
up their burning ends. Gleams of light in broken flashes glanced
in all directions, especially upwards. Suddenly a white dove
flew straight into the bright light, fluttered round and round in
terror, bathed in the red glow, and disappeared with a whir of
its wings.
“It's lost its home, I suppose,” remarked Pavel. “Now it will
fly till it gets somewhere where it can rest till dawn. ”
"Why, Pavlusha,” said Kostya, "might it not be a just soul
flying to heaven ? »
Pavel threw another handful of twigs on to the fire.
"Perhaps," he said at last.
"But tell us, please, Pavlusha,” began Fedya, "what was seen
in your parts at Shalamovy at the heavenly portent ?
« When the sun could not be seen? Yes, indeed. ”
"Were you frightened then? ”
Yes; and we weren't the only ones. Our master, though he
talked to us beforehand, and said there would be a heavenly por-
tent, yet when it got dark, they say he himself was frightened
out of his wits. And in the house-serfs' cottage, the old woman,
directly it grew dark, broke all the dishes in the oven with the
poker. Who will eat now? ' she said: (the last day has come. '
So the soup was all running about the place. And in the village
there were such tales about among us: that white wolves would
run over the earth, and would eat men; that a bird of prey would
pounce down on us; and that they would even see Trishka. ” +
«What is Trishka ? ” asked Kostya.
“Why, don't you know ? ” interrupted Ilyusha warmly. “Why,
brother, where have you been brought up, not to know Trishka ?
You're a stay-at-home, one-eyed lot in your village, really!
Trishka will be a marvelous man, who will come one day, and
he will be such a marvelous man that they will never be able to
catch him, and never be able to do anything with him; he will
* This is what the peasants call an eclipse.
+ The popular belief in Trishka is probably derived from some tradition of
Antichrist.
## p. 15101 (#37) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15101
be such a marvelous man. The people will try to take him; for
example, they will come after him with sticks, they will surround
him, but he will blind their eyes so that they fall upon one
another. They will put him in prison, for example: he will
ask for a little water to drink in a bowl; they will bring him
the bowl, and he will plunge into it and vanish from their sight.
They will put chains on him, but he will only clap his hands-
they will fall off him. So this Trishka will go through villages
and towns; and this Trishka will be a wily man, — he will lead
astray Christ's people, and they will be able to do nothing to
him. He will be such a marvelous wily man.
« Well, then," continued Pavel, in his deliberate voice, “that's
what he's like. And so they expected him in our parts. The
old men declared that directly the heavenly portent began,
Trishka would come. So the heavenly portent began. All
the people were scattered over the street, in the fields, waiting to
see what would happen. Our place, you know, is open country.
They look: and suddenly down the mountain-side from the big
village comes a man of some sort; such a strange man, with such
a wonderful head, that all scream, Oy, Trishka is coming! Oy,
Trishka is coming! ' and all run in all directions! Our elder
crawled into a ditch; his wife stumbled on the door-board and
screamed with all her might; she terrified her yard-dog, so that
he broke away from his chain and over the hedge and into
the forest; and Kuzka's father, Dorofyitch, ran into the oats, lay
down there, and began to cry like a quail. Perhaps,' says he,
(the Enemy, the Destroyer of Souls, will spare the birds at least. '
So they were all in such a scare! But he that was coming was
our cooper Vavila; he had bought himself a new pitcher, and had
put the empty pitcher over his head. ”
All the boys laughed; and again there was a silence for a
while, as often happens when people are talking in the open air.
I looked out into the solemn, majestic stillness of the night: the
dewy freshness of late evening had been succeeded by the dry
heat of midnight; the darkness still had long to lie in a soft
curtain over the slumbering fields; there was still a long while
left before the first whisperings, the first dewdrops of dawn.
There was no moon in the heavens: it rose late at that time.
Countless golden stars, twinkling in rivalry, seemed all running
softly towards the Milky Way; and truly, looking at them, you
were almost conscious of the whirling, never-resting motion of
(
## p. 15102 (#38) ###########################################
15102
IVAN TURGENEFF
»
the earth. A strange, harsh, painful cry sounded twice together
over the river, and a few moments later was repeated farther
down.
Kostya shuddered. What was that ? »
« That was a heron's cry,” replied Pavel tranquilly.
“A heron,” repeated Kostya. "And what was it, Pavlusha, I
heard yesterday evening ? ” he added after a short pause: you
perhaps will know. ”
“What did you hear ? ”
"I will tell you what I heard. I was going from Stony Ridge
to Shashkino; I went first through our walnut wood, and then
passed by a little pool, - you know where there's a sharp turn
down to the ravine,- there is a water-pit there, you know; it is
quite overgrown with reeds; so I went near this pit, brothers,
and suddenly from this came a sound of some one groaning, and
piteously, so piteously: (00-00, 00-00! ! I was in such a fright,
my brothers: it was late, and the voice was so miserable. I felt
as if I should cry myself. What could that have been, eh ? ”
“It was in that pit the thieves drowned Akim the forester
last summer, observed Pavel; (so perhaps it was his soul la-
menting. ”
"Oh dear, really, brothers," replied Kostya, opening wide his
eyes, which were round enough before, "I did not know they
had drowned Akim in that pit. Shouldn't I have been fright-
ened if I'd known ! »
“But they say there are little tiny frogs," continued Pavel,
"who cry piteously like that. ”
“Frogs ? Oh, no, it was not frogs; certainly not. ” (A heron
again uttered a cry above the river. ) "Ugh, there it is. ” Kostya
!
cried involuntarily: "it is just like a wood-spirit shrieking. ”
« The wood-spirit does not shriek: it is dumb," put in Ilyusha;
“it only claps its hands and rattles. ”
"And have you seen it, then,- the wood-spirit ? ” Fedya
asked him ironically.
“No, I have not seen it, and God preserve me from seeing it;
but others have seen it. Why, one day it misled a peasant in
our parts, and led him through the woods, and all in a circle
in one field. He scarcely got home till daylight. ”
“Well, and did he see it ? »
« Yes. He says it was a big, big creature, dark, wrapped up,
just like a tree: you could not make it out well; it seemed to
>
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## p. 15103 (#39) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
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The eyes
»
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>
hide away from the moon, and kept staring and staring with its
great eyes, and winking and winking with them. ”
"Ugh! ” exclaimed Fedya, with a slight shiver and a shrug of
the shoulders: pfoo! ”
And how does such an unclean brood come to exist in the
world? » said Pavel: “it's a wonder. ”
"Don't speak ill of it: take care, it will hear you,” said
Ilyusha.
Again there was a silence.
“Look, look, brothers,” suddenly came Vanya's childish voice;
“look at God's little stars,— they are swarming like bees! ”
He put his fresh little face out from under his rug, leaned on
his little fist, and slowly lifted up his large soft eyes
of all the boys were raised to the sky, and they were not lowered
quickly.
“Well, Vanya,” began Fedya caressingly, “is your sister An-
yutka well ?
“Yes, she is very well,” replied Vanya with a slight lisp.
“You ask her, why doesn't she come to see us ? »
“I don't know. ”
« You tell her to come. ”
“Very well. "
Tell her I have a present for her. ”
"And a present for me too ? ”
“Yes, you too. "
Vanya sighed.
“No; I don't want one. Better give it to her: she is so kind
to us at home. »
And Vanya laid his head down again on the ground. Pavel
got up and took the empty pot in his hand.
"Where are you going ? ” Fedya asked him.
To the river, to get water: I want some water to drink. ”
The dogs got up and followed him.
« Take care you don't fall into the river! ” Ilyusha cried after
him.
“Why should he fall in ? ” said Fedya. “He will be careful. ”
“Yes, he will be careful. But all kinds of things happen:
he will stoop over, perhaps, to draw the water, and the water-
spirit will clutch him by the hand, and drag him to him. Then
they will say, "The boy fell into the water. Fell in, indeed! -
'
—
There, he has crept in among the reeds,” he added, listening.
(
## p. 15104 (#40) ###########################################
15104
IVAN TURGENEFF
»
(
The reeds certainly shished,” as they call it among us, as
«
they were parted.
“But is it true,” asked Kostya, “that crazy Akulina has been
mad ever since she fell into the water ? »
“Yes, ever since. How dreadful she is now! But they say
she was a beauty before then. The water-spirit bewitched her.
I suppose he did not expect they would get her out so soon.
So down there at the bottom he bewitched her. ”
(I had met this Akulina more than once.
Covered with rags,
fearfully thin, with face as black as a coal, blear-eyed and for
ever grinning, she would stay whole hours in one place in the
road, stamping with her feet, pressing her feshless hands to
her breast, and slowly shifting from one leg to the other, like a
wild beast in a cage.
She understood nothing that was said to
her, and only chuckled spasmodically from time to time. )
“But they say,” continued Kostya, «that Akulina threw her-
self into the river because her lover had deceived her. ”
“Yes, that was it. ”
"And do you remember Vasya ? ” added Kostya mournfully.
“What Vasya ? ” asked Fedya.
15092
IVAN TURGENEFF
for a little and turned away. Then we talked a little again. I
lay down under a bush, whose shoots had been nibbled off, and
began to look round. It was a marvelous picture: about the fire
a red ring of light quivered, and seemed to swoon away in the
embrace of a background of darkness; the flame, faring up from
time to time, cast swift flashes of light beyond the boundary of
this circle; a fine tongue of light licked the dry twigs and died
away at once; long thin shadows, in their turn breaking in for
an instant, danced right up to the very fires: darkness was
struggling with light. Sometimes when the fire burnt low and
the circle of light shrank together, suddenly out of the encroach-
ing darkness a horse's head was thrust in, — bay, with striped
markings, or all white,- stared with intent black eyes upon us,
nipped hastily the long grass, and drawing back again, vanished
instantly. One could only hear it still munching and snorting.
From the circle of light it was hard to make out what was
going on in the darkness: everything close at hand seemed shut
off by an almost black curtain; but farther away, hills and for-
ests were dimly visible in long blurs upon the horizon.
Scarcely a sound was to be heard around; only at times, in
the river near, the sudden splash of a big fish leaping, and the
faint rustle of a reed on the bank, swaying lightly as the rip-
ples reached it. The fires alone kept up a subdued crackling.
The boys sat round them; there too sat the two dogs, who had
been so eager to devour me. They could not for long after
reconcile themselves to my presence, and drowsily blinking and
staring into the fire, they growled now and then with an un-
wonted sense of their own dignity; first they growled, and then
whined a little, as though deploring the impossibility of carry-
ing out their desires. There were altogether five boys: Fedya,
Pavlusha, Ilyusha, Kostya, and Vanya. -- From their talk I learnt
their names, and I intend now to introduce them to the reader.
The first and eldest of all, Fedya, one would take to be about
fourteen. He was a well-made boy, with good-looking, delicate,
rather small features, curly fair hair, bright eyes, and a perpetual
half merry, half careless smile. He belonged by all appearances
to a well-to-do family; and had ridden out to the prairie not
through necessity, but for amusement.
He wore
a gay print
shirt, with a yellow border; a short new overcoat slung round
his neck was almost slipping off his narrow shoulders; a comb
hung from his blue belt. His boots, coming a little way up the
leg, were certainly his own - not his father's. The second boy,
## p. 15093 (#29) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15093
-
Pavlusha, had tangled black hair, gray eyes, broad cheek-bones,
a pale face pitted with small-pox, a large but well-cut mouth;
his head altogether was large — "a beer-barrel head," as they
say — and his figure was square and clumsy. He was not a
good-looking boy - there's no denying it! - and yet I liked him:
he looked very sensible and straightforward, and there was a
vigorous ring in his voice. He had nothing to boast of in his
attire: it consisted simply of a homespun shirt and patched trou-
sers. The face of the third, Ilyusha, was rather uninteresting:
it was a long face, with short-sighted eyes and a hook nose; it
expressed a kind of dull, fretful uneasiness; his tightly drawn
lips seemed rigid; his contracted brow never relaxed; he seemed
continually blinking from the firelight. His flaxen — almost white
— hair hung out in thin wisps under his low felt hat, which he
kept pulling down with both hands over his ears. He had on
new bast-shoes and leggings; a thick string, wound three times
round his figure, carefully held together his neat black smock.
Neither he nor Pavlusha looked more than twelve years old.
The fourth, Kostya, a boy of ten, aroused my curiosity by his
thoughtful and sorrowful look. His whole face was small, thin,
freckled, pointed at the chin like a squirrel's; his lips were barely
perceptible: but his great black eyes, that shone with liquid
brilliance, produced a strange impression; they seemed trying to
express something for which the tongue - his tongue, at least - -
had no words. He was undersized and weakly, and dressed
rather poorly. The remaining boy, Vanya, I had not noticed at
first: he was lying on the ground, peacefully curled up under a
square rug, and only occasionally thrust his curly brown head out
from under it; this boy was seven years old at the most.
So I lay under the bush at one side and looked at the boys.
A small pot was hanging over one of the fires: in it potatoes
were cooking. Pavlusha was looking after them, and on his knees
he was trying them by poking a splinter of wood into the boiling
water. Fedya was lying leaning on his elbow, and smoothing
out the skirts of his coat. Ilyusha was sitting beside Kostya, and
still kept blinking constrainedly. , Kostya's head drooped despond-
ently, and he looked away into the distance. Vanya did not stir
under his rug.
I pretended to be asleep. Little by little, the
boys began talking again.
At first they gossiped of one thing and another, - the work
of to-morrow, the horses; but suddenly Fedya turned to Ilyusha,
-
## p. 15094 (#30) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15094
and as though taking up again an interrupted conversation, asked
him :-
»
"Come then, so you've seen the domovoy? ”
“No, I didn't see him, and no one ever can see him," an-
swered Ilyusha, in a weak hoarse voice, the sound of which was
wonderfully in keeping with the expression of his face: “I heard
him. Yes, and not I alone. ”
“Where does he live - in your place ? ” asked Pavlusha.
“In the old paper-mill. ”
“Why, do you go to the factory ? ”
« Of course
we do.
My brother Avdushka and I, we are
paper-glazers. ”
"I say — factory hands! ”
"Well, how did you hear it, then ? ” asked Fedya.
"It was like this. It happened that I and my brother Av-
dushka, with Fyodor of Mihyevska, and Ivashka the Squint-
eyed, and the other Ivashka who comes from the Red Hills,
and Ivashka of Suhorukov too, and there were some other boys
there as well, – there were ten of us boys there altogether, -
the whole shift that is, – it happened that we spent the night at
the paper-mill; that's to say, it didn't happen, but Nazarov the
overseer kept us. Why,' said he, should you waste time
going home, boys? There's a lot of work to-morrow; so don't go
home, boys. ' So we stopped, and were all lying down together;
and Avdushka had just begun to say, I say, boys, suppose the
domovoy were to come ? ) And before he'd finished saying so, some
one suddenly began walking over our heads: we were lying down
below, and he began walking up-stairs overhead where the wheel
is. We listened: he walked; the boards seemed to be bending
under him, they creaked so; then he crossed over, above our
heads: all of a sudden the water began to drip and drip over the
wheel; the wheel rattled and rattled and again began to turn,
though the sluices of the conduit above had been let down. We
wondered who could have lifted them up so that the water could
run; anyway, the wheel turned and turned a little, and then
stopped. Then he went to the door overhead, and began coming
down-stairs, and came down like this, not hurrying himself; and
the stairs seemed to groan under him too.
“Well, he came right down to our door, and waited and waited
and all of a sudden the door simply flew open. We were in a
fright; we looked – there was nothing. Suddenly what if the net
-
.
(
## p. 15095 (#31) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15095
on one of the vats didn't begin moving; it got up, and went ris-
ing and ducking and moving in the air as though some one were
stirring with it, and then it was in its place again. Then at
another vat a hook came off its nail, and then was on its nail
again; and then it seemed as if some one came to the door, and
suddenly coughed and choked like a sheep, but so loudly! We
all fell down in a heap and huddled against one another. Just
weren't we in a fright that night! )
"I say! ” murmured Pavel, “what did he cough for ? »
"I don't know: perhaps it was the damp. ”
All were silent for a little.
"Well,” inquired Fedya, "are the potatoes done? ”
Pavlusha tried them.
“No, they are raw. - My, what a splash! ” he added, turning
his face in the direction of the river: “that must be a pike.
And there's a star falling. ”
«I say, I can tell you something, brothers,” began Kostya in
a shrill little voice: “listen what my dad told me the other day. ”
« Well, we are listening,” said Fedya with a patronizing air.
« You know Gavrila, I suppose, the carpenter up in the big
village ? ”
“ Yes, we know him. ”
“And do you know why he is so sorrowful always, never
speaks? do you know? I'll tell you why he's so sorrowful; he
went one day, daddy said, - he went, brothers, into the forest
nutting So he went nutting into the forest and lost his way;
he went on -God only can tell where he got to. So he went
on and on, brothers; but 'twas no good! he could not find the
way: and so night came on out of doors. So he sat down under
a tree. I'll wait till morning,' thought he. He sat down and
began to drop asleep. So as he was falling asleep, suddenly he
heard some one call him. He looked up: there was no one.
He
fell asleep again; again he was called. He looked and looked
again; and in front of him there sat a russalka on a branch,
swinging herself and calling him to her, and simply dying with
laughing, she laughed so. And the moon was shining bright, so
bright, the moon shone so clear,- everything could be seen plain,
brothers. So she called him, and she herself was as bright and
as white sitting on the branch as some dace or roach, or like
some little carp so white and silvery. Gavrila the carpenter
almost fainted, brothers; but she laughed without stopping, and
-
## p. 15096 (#32) ###########################################
15096
IVAN TURGENEFF
>
kept beckoning him to her like this. Then Gavrila was just get-
ting up; he was just going to yield to the russalka, brothers, but
- the Lord put it into his heart, doubtless — he crossed himself,
like this. And it was so hard for him to make that cross, broth-
ers: he said, "My hand was simply like a stone; it would not
move. '— Ugh! the horrid witch. — So when he made the cross,
brothers, the russalka she left off laughing, and all at once how
she did cry.
She cried, brothers, and wiped her eyes with her
hair, and her hair was green as any hemp. So Gavrila looked and
looked at her, and at last he fell to questioning her. Why are
you weeping, wild thing of the woods ? ' And the russalka began
to speak to him like this: “If you had not crossed yourself, man,'
she says, you should have lived with me in gladness of heart to
the end of your days; and I weep, I am grieved at heart, because
you crossed yourself: but I will not grieve alone; you too shall
grieve at heart till the end of your days. ' Then she vanished,
brothers, and at once it was plain to Gavrila how to get out of
the forest. Only since then he goes always sorrowful, as you
see. ”
“Ugh! ” said Fedya after a brief silence; but how can such
an evil thing of the woods ruin a Christian soul? - He did not
listen to her ! »
“And I say! ” said Kostya: “Gavrila said that her voice was
as shrill and as plaintive as a toad's. ”
“Did your father tell you that himself ? » Fedya went on.
Yes. I was lying in the loft. I heard it all. "
"It's a strange thing. Why should he be sorrowful? But I
suppose she liked him, since she called him. ”
“Ay, she liked him! ” put in Ilyusha. “Yes, indeed! she
wanted to tickle him to death, that's what she wanted. That's
what they do, those russalkas. ”
« There ought to be russalkas here too, I suppose,” observed
Fedya.
"No," answered Kostya: “this is a holy open place. There's
one thing, though: the river's near. ”
All were silent. Suddenly from out of the distance came a
prolonged, resonant, almost wailing sound,- one of those inex-
plicable sounds of the night, which break upon a profound still-
ness, rise upon the air, linger, and slowly die away at last. You
listen: it is as though there was nothing, yet it echoes still. It
is as though some one had uttered a long, long cry upon the
»
(
c
## p. 15097 (#33) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15097
(
very horizon; as though some other had answered him with shrill
harsh laughter in the forest: and a faint, hoarse hissing hovers
over the river. The boys looked round about, shivering.
“Christ's aid be with us! » whispered Ilyusha.
"Ah, you craven crows! ” cried Pavel, “what are you fright-
ened of? Look, the potatoes are done. ” (They all came up to
the pot and began to eat the smoking potatoes; only Vanya did
not stir. ) “Well, aren't you coming ? ” said Pavel.
But he did not creep out from under his rug. The pot was
soon completely emptied.
“Have you heard, boys,” began Ilyusha, “what happened with
us at Varnavitsi ? »
«Near the dam ? ” asked Fedya.
“Yes, yes, near the dam, the broken-down dam. That is a
haunted place, such a haunted place, and so lonely. All round
there are pits and quarries, and there are always snakes in
pits. ”
“Well, what did happen ? Tell us. ”
"Well, this is what happened. You don't know, perhaps,
Fedya, but there a drowned man was buried; he was drowned
long, long ago, when the water was still deep: only his grave
can still be seen, though it can only just be seen – like this — a
little mound. So one day the bailiff called the huntsman Yer-
mil, and says to him, “Go to the post, Yermil. Yermil always
goes to the post for us. He has let all his dogs die: they never
will live with him, for some reason, and they have never lived
with him, though he's a good huntsman, and every one liked him.
So Yermil went to the post, and he stayed a bit in the town; and
when he rode back, he was a little tipsy. It was night,-a fine
night; the moon was shining. So Yermil rode across the dam:
his way lay there. So as he rode along, he saw on the drowned
man's grave a little lamb, so white and curly and pretty, running
about. So Yermil thought, I will take him;' and he got down
and took him in his arms. But the little lamb didn't take any
notice. So Yermil goes back to his horse, and the horse stares
at him, and snorts and shakes his head; however, he said whoa
to him and sat on him with the lamb, and rode on again; he
held the lamb in front of him. He looks at him; and the lamb
looks him straight in the face, like this. Yermil the huntsman
felt upset. I don't remember,' he said, 'that lambs ever look
at any one like that;' however, he began to stroke it like this
>
-
## p. 15098 (#34) ###########################################
15098
IVAN TURGENEFF
on its wool, and to say, 'Chucky! chucky! And the lamb sud-
denly showed its teeth and said too, Chucky! chucky! ) »
The boy who was telling the story had hardly uttered this
last word, when suddenly both dogs got up at once, and barking
convulsively, rushed away from the fire and disappeared in the
darkness. All the boys were alarmed. Vanya jumped up from
under his rug. Pavlusha ran shouting after the dogs. Their
barking quickly grew fainter in the distance. There was the
noise of the uneasy tramp of the frightened drove of horses.
Pavlusha shouted aloud, "Hey Gray! Beetle! ” In a few minutes
the barking ceased; Pavel's voice sounded still in the distance.
A little time more passed; the boys kept looking about in
perplexity, as though expecting something to happen. Suddenly
the tramp of a galloping horse was heard; it stopped short at
the pile of wood, and hanging on to the mane, Pavel sprang
nimbly off it. Both the dogs also leaped into the circle of light,
and at once sat down, their red tongues hanging out.
“What was it? what was it? " asked the boys.
“Nothing," answered Pavel, waving his hand to his horse; "I
suppose the dogs scented something. I thought it was a wolf,”
he added, calmly drawing deep breaths into his chest.
I could not help admiring Pavel. He was very fine at that
moment. His ugly face, animated by his swift ride, glowed with
hardihood and determination. Without even a switch in his hand,
he had, without the slightest hesitation, rushed out into the night
alone to face a wolf. “What a splendid fellow! ” I thought,
looking at him. ,
« Have you seen any wolves, then ? ” asked the trembling
Kostya.
“There are always a good many of them here,” answered
Pavel; “but they are only troublesome in the winter. ”
He crouched down again before the fire. As he sat down
on the ground, he laid his hand on the shaggy head of one of
the dogs. For a long while the flattered brute did not turn his
head, gazing sidewise with grateful pride at Pavlusha.
Vanya lay down under his rug again.
“What dreadful things you were telling us, Ilyusha! ” began
Fedya; whose part it was, as the son of a well-to-do peasant, to
lead the conversation. (He spoke little himself, apparently afraid
of lowering his dignity. ) "And then some evil spirit set the
dogs barking. Certainly I have heard that place was haunted. ”
## p. 15099 (#35) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15099
-
(
>>>
>
«Varnavitsi ? I should think it was haunted! More than
once, they say, they have seen the old master there — the late
master. He wears, they say, a long-skirted coat, and keeps
groaning like this, and looking for something on the ground.
Once grandfather Trofimitch met him. What,' says he, your
Honor, Ivan Ivan'itch, are you pleased to look for on the
ground? ) »
“He asked him ? ” put in Fedya in amazement.
“Yes, he asked him. ”
«Well, I call Trofimitch a brave fellow after that. Well,
what did he say? ”
« I am looking for the herb that cleaves all things,' says
he. But he speaks so thickly, so thickly. —'And what, your
Honor, Ivan Ivan'itch, do you want with the herb that cleaves all
things ? '— 'The tomb weighs on me; it weighs on me, Trofim-
itch: I want to get away-
away. '
“My word! " observed Fedya: “he didn't enjoy his life enough,
I suppose. ”
«What a marvel! ” said Kostya. "I thought one could only
see the departed on All Hallows' day. ”
“One can see the departed any time,” Ilyusha interposed with
conviction. From what I could observe, I judged he knew the
village superstitions better than the others. “But on All Hal-
lows' day you can see the living too; those, that is, whose turn it
is to die that year.
You need only sit in the church porch, and
keep looking at the road. They will come by you along the road;
those, that is, who will die that year. Last year old Ulyana went
to the porch. "
“Well, did she see any one ? ” asked Kostya inquisitively.
« To be sure she did. At first she sat a long, long while,
and saw no one, and heard nothing; only it seemed as if some
dog kept whining and whining like this, somewhere. Suddenly she
looks up: a boy comes along the road with only a shirt on.
looked at him. It was Ivashka Fedosyev. ”
“He who died in the spring ? ” put in Fedya.
"Yes, he. He came along and never lifted up his head.
But
Ulyana knew him. And then she looks again: a woman came
along. She stared and stared at her. Ah, God Almighty! it was
herself coming along the road; Ulyana herself. ”
« Could it be herself? ” asked Fedya,
“Yes, by God, herself. ”
>
»
## p. 15100 (#36) ###########################################
15100
IVAN TURGENEFF
>
(
"Well, but she is not dead yet, you know?
"But the year is not over yet. And only look at her: her life
hangs on a thread. ”
All were still again. Pavel threw a handful of dry twigs
on to the fire. They were soon charred by the suddenly leaping
flame; they cracked and smoked, and began to contract, curling
up their burning ends. Gleams of light in broken flashes glanced
in all directions, especially upwards. Suddenly a white dove
flew straight into the bright light, fluttered round and round in
terror, bathed in the red glow, and disappeared with a whir of
its wings.
“It's lost its home, I suppose,” remarked Pavel. “Now it will
fly till it gets somewhere where it can rest till dawn. ”
"Why, Pavlusha,” said Kostya, "might it not be a just soul
flying to heaven ? »
Pavel threw another handful of twigs on to the fire.
"Perhaps," he said at last.
"But tell us, please, Pavlusha,” began Fedya, "what was seen
in your parts at Shalamovy at the heavenly portent ?
« When the sun could not be seen? Yes, indeed. ”
"Were you frightened then? ”
Yes; and we weren't the only ones. Our master, though he
talked to us beforehand, and said there would be a heavenly por-
tent, yet when it got dark, they say he himself was frightened
out of his wits. And in the house-serfs' cottage, the old woman,
directly it grew dark, broke all the dishes in the oven with the
poker. Who will eat now? ' she said: (the last day has come. '
So the soup was all running about the place. And in the village
there were such tales about among us: that white wolves would
run over the earth, and would eat men; that a bird of prey would
pounce down on us; and that they would even see Trishka. ” +
«What is Trishka ? ” asked Kostya.
“Why, don't you know ? ” interrupted Ilyusha warmly. “Why,
brother, where have you been brought up, not to know Trishka ?
You're a stay-at-home, one-eyed lot in your village, really!
Trishka will be a marvelous man, who will come one day, and
he will be such a marvelous man that they will never be able to
catch him, and never be able to do anything with him; he will
* This is what the peasants call an eclipse.
+ The popular belief in Trishka is probably derived from some tradition of
Antichrist.
## p. 15101 (#37) ###########################################
IVAN TURGENEFF
15101
be such a marvelous man. The people will try to take him; for
example, they will come after him with sticks, they will surround
him, but he will blind their eyes so that they fall upon one
another. They will put him in prison, for example: he will
ask for a little water to drink in a bowl; they will bring him
the bowl, and he will plunge into it and vanish from their sight.
They will put chains on him, but he will only clap his hands-
they will fall off him. So this Trishka will go through villages
and towns; and this Trishka will be a wily man, — he will lead
astray Christ's people, and they will be able to do nothing to
him. He will be such a marvelous wily man.
« Well, then," continued Pavel, in his deliberate voice, “that's
what he's like. And so they expected him in our parts. The
old men declared that directly the heavenly portent began,
Trishka would come. So the heavenly portent began. All
the people were scattered over the street, in the fields, waiting to
see what would happen. Our place, you know, is open country.
They look: and suddenly down the mountain-side from the big
village comes a man of some sort; such a strange man, with such
a wonderful head, that all scream, Oy, Trishka is coming! Oy,
Trishka is coming! ' and all run in all directions! Our elder
crawled into a ditch; his wife stumbled on the door-board and
screamed with all her might; she terrified her yard-dog, so that
he broke away from his chain and over the hedge and into
the forest; and Kuzka's father, Dorofyitch, ran into the oats, lay
down there, and began to cry like a quail. Perhaps,' says he,
(the Enemy, the Destroyer of Souls, will spare the birds at least. '
So they were all in such a scare! But he that was coming was
our cooper Vavila; he had bought himself a new pitcher, and had
put the empty pitcher over his head. ”
All the boys laughed; and again there was a silence for a
while, as often happens when people are talking in the open air.
I looked out into the solemn, majestic stillness of the night: the
dewy freshness of late evening had been succeeded by the dry
heat of midnight; the darkness still had long to lie in a soft
curtain over the slumbering fields; there was still a long while
left before the first whisperings, the first dewdrops of dawn.
There was no moon in the heavens: it rose late at that time.
Countless golden stars, twinkling in rivalry, seemed all running
softly towards the Milky Way; and truly, looking at them, you
were almost conscious of the whirling, never-resting motion of
(
## p. 15102 (#38) ###########################################
15102
IVAN TURGENEFF
»
the earth. A strange, harsh, painful cry sounded twice together
over the river, and a few moments later was repeated farther
down.
Kostya shuddered. What was that ? »
« That was a heron's cry,” replied Pavel tranquilly.
“A heron,” repeated Kostya. "And what was it, Pavlusha, I
heard yesterday evening ? ” he added after a short pause: you
perhaps will know. ”
“What did you hear ? ”
"I will tell you what I heard. I was going from Stony Ridge
to Shashkino; I went first through our walnut wood, and then
passed by a little pool, - you know where there's a sharp turn
down to the ravine,- there is a water-pit there, you know; it is
quite overgrown with reeds; so I went near this pit, brothers,
and suddenly from this came a sound of some one groaning, and
piteously, so piteously: (00-00, 00-00! ! I was in such a fright,
my brothers: it was late, and the voice was so miserable. I felt
as if I should cry myself. What could that have been, eh ? ”
“It was in that pit the thieves drowned Akim the forester
last summer, observed Pavel; (so perhaps it was his soul la-
menting. ”
"Oh dear, really, brothers," replied Kostya, opening wide his
eyes, which were round enough before, "I did not know they
had drowned Akim in that pit. Shouldn't I have been fright-
ened if I'd known ! »
“But they say there are little tiny frogs," continued Pavel,
"who cry piteously like that. ”
“Frogs ? Oh, no, it was not frogs; certainly not. ” (A heron
again uttered a cry above the river. ) "Ugh, there it is. ” Kostya
!
cried involuntarily: "it is just like a wood-spirit shrieking. ”
« The wood-spirit does not shriek: it is dumb," put in Ilyusha;
“it only claps its hands and rattles. ”
"And have you seen it, then,- the wood-spirit ? ” Fedya
asked him ironically.
“No, I have not seen it, and God preserve me from seeing it;
but others have seen it. Why, one day it misled a peasant in
our parts, and led him through the woods, and all in a circle
in one field. He scarcely got home till daylight. ”
“Well, and did he see it ? »
« Yes. He says it was a big, big creature, dark, wrapped up,
just like a tree: you could not make it out well; it seemed to
>
»
(
»
»
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The eyes
»
(
>
hide away from the moon, and kept staring and staring with its
great eyes, and winking and winking with them. ”
"Ugh! ” exclaimed Fedya, with a slight shiver and a shrug of
the shoulders: pfoo! ”
And how does such an unclean brood come to exist in the
world? » said Pavel: “it's a wonder. ”
"Don't speak ill of it: take care, it will hear you,” said
Ilyusha.
Again there was a silence.
“Look, look, brothers,” suddenly came Vanya's childish voice;
“look at God's little stars,— they are swarming like bees! ”
He put his fresh little face out from under his rug, leaned on
his little fist, and slowly lifted up his large soft eyes
of all the boys were raised to the sky, and they were not lowered
quickly.
“Well, Vanya,” began Fedya caressingly, “is your sister An-
yutka well ?
“Yes, she is very well,” replied Vanya with a slight lisp.
“You ask her, why doesn't she come to see us ? »
“I don't know. ”
« You tell her to come. ”
“Very well. "
Tell her I have a present for her. ”
"And a present for me too ? ”
“Yes, you too. "
Vanya sighed.
“No; I don't want one. Better give it to her: she is so kind
to us at home. »
And Vanya laid his head down again on the ground. Pavel
got up and took the empty pot in his hand.
"Where are you going ? ” Fedya asked him.
To the river, to get water: I want some water to drink. ”
The dogs got up and followed him.
« Take care you don't fall into the river! ” Ilyusha cried after
him.
“Why should he fall in ? ” said Fedya. “He will be careful. ”
“Yes, he will be careful. But all kinds of things happen:
he will stoop over, perhaps, to draw the water, and the water-
spirit will clutch him by the hand, and drag him to him. Then
they will say, "The boy fell into the water. Fell in, indeed! -
'
—
There, he has crept in among the reeds,” he added, listening.
(
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(
The reeds certainly shished,” as they call it among us, as
«
they were parted.
“But is it true,” asked Kostya, “that crazy Akulina has been
mad ever since she fell into the water ? »
“Yes, ever since. How dreadful she is now! But they say
she was a beauty before then. The water-spirit bewitched her.
I suppose he did not expect they would get her out so soon.
So down there at the bottom he bewitched her. ”
(I had met this Akulina more than once.
Covered with rags,
fearfully thin, with face as black as a coal, blear-eyed and for
ever grinning, she would stay whole hours in one place in the
road, stamping with her feet, pressing her feshless hands to
her breast, and slowly shifting from one leg to the other, like a
wild beast in a cage.
She understood nothing that was said to
her, and only chuckled spasmodically from time to time. )
“But they say,” continued Kostya, «that Akulina threw her-
self into the river because her lover had deceived her. ”
“Yes, that was it. ”
"And do you remember Vasya ? ” added Kostya mournfully.
“What Vasya ? ” asked Fedya.
