jacket. From this interesting spectacle my attention was distracted by
the yellow wings of a butterfly which was fluttering alluringly before
me. Yet I had scarcely noticed it before it flew away to a little
distance and, circling over some half-faded blossoms of white clover,
settled on one of them. Whether it was the sun's warmth that delighted
it, or whether it was busy sucking nectar from the flower, at all events
it seemed thoroughly comfortable. It scarcely moved its wings at all,
and pressed itself down into the clover until I could hardly see
its body. I sat with my chin on my hands and watched it with intense
interest.
Suddenly Gizana sprang up and gave me such a violent jerk that I nearly
rolled over. I looked round. At the edge of the wood a hare had just
come into view, with one ear bent down and the other one sharply
pricked. The blood rushed to my head, and I forgot everything else as
I shouted, slipped the dog, and rushed towards the spot. Yet all was in
vain. The hare stopped, made a rush, and was lost to view.
How confused I felt when at that moment Turka stepped from the
undergrowth (he had been following the hounds as they ran along the
edges of the wood)! He had seen my mistake (which had consisted in my
not biding my time), and now threw me a contemptuous look as he said,
"Ah, master!" And you should have heard the tone in which he said it! It
would have been a relief to me if he had then and there suspended me to
his saddle instead of the hare. For a while I could only stand miserably
where I was, without attempting to recall the dog, and ejaculate as I
slapped my knees, "Good heavens! What a fool I was!" I could hear the
hounds retreating into the distance, and baying along the further side
of the wood as they pursued the hare, while Turka rallied them with
blasts on his gorgeous horn: yet I did not stir.
VIII -- WE PLAY GAMES
THE hunt was over, a cloth had been spread in the shade of some young
birch-trees, and the whole party was disposed around it. The butler,
Gabriel, had stamped down the surrounding grass, wiped the plates in
readiness, and unpacked from a basket a quantity of plums and peaches
wrapped in leaves.
Through the green branches of the young birch-trees the sun glittered
and threw little glancing balls of light upon the pattern of my napkin,
my legs, and the bald moist head of Gabriel. A soft breeze played in
the leaves of the trees above us, and, breathing softly upon my hair and
heated face, refreshed me beyond measure. When we had finished the
fruit and ices, nothing remained to be done around the empty cloth, so,
despite the oblique, scorching rays of the sun, we rose and proceeded to
play.
"Well, what shall it be?" said Lubotshka, blinking in the sunlight and
skipping about the grass, "Suppose we play Robinson?"
"No, that's a tiresome game," objected Woloda, stretching himself lazily
on the turf and gnawing some leaves, "Always Robinson! If you want to
play at something, play at building a summerhouse."
Woloda was giving himself tremendous airs. Probably he was proud of
having ridden the hunter, and so pretended to be very tired. Perhaps,
also, he had too much hard-headedness and too little imagination
fully to enjoy the game of Robinson. It was a game which consisted of
performing various scenes from The Swiss Family Robinson, a book which
we had recently been reading.
"Well, but be a good boy. Why not try and please us this time?" the
girls answered. "You may be Charles or Ernest or the father, whichever
you like best," added Katenka as she tried to raise him from the ground
by pulling at his sleeve.
"No, I'm not going to; it's a tiresome game," said Woloda again, though
smiling as if secretly pleased.
"It would be better to sit at home than not to play at ANYTHING,"
murmured Lubotshka, with tears in her eyes. She was a great weeper.
"Well, go on, then. Only, DON'T cry; I can't stand that sort of thing."
Woloda's condescension did not please us much. On the contrary, his
lazy, tired expression took away all the fun of the game. When we sat
on the ground and imagined that we were sitting in a boat and either
fishing or rowing with all our might, Woloda persisted in sitting with
folded hands or in anything but a fisherman's posture. I made a remark
about it, but he replied that, whether we moved our hands or not, we
should neither gain nor lose ground--certainly not advance at all, and I
was forced to agree with him. Again, when I pretended to go out hunting,
and, with a stick over my shoulder, set off into the wood, Woloda only
lay down on his back with his hands under his head, and said that he
supposed it was all the same whether he went or not. Such behaviour and
speeches cooled our ardour for the game and were very disagreeable--the
more so since it was impossible not to confess to oneself that Woloda
was right, I myself knew that it was not only impossible to kill birds
with a stick, but to shoot at all with such a weapon. Still, it was
the game, and if we were once to begin reasoning thus, it would become
equally impossible for us to go for drives on chairs. I think that even
Woloda himself cannot at that moment have forgotten how, in the long
winter evenings, we had been used to cover an arm-chair with a shawl
and make a carriage of it--one of us being the coachman, another one the
footman, the two girls the passengers, and three other chairs the trio
of horses abreast. With what ceremony we used to set out, and with what
adventures we used to meet on the way! How gaily and quickly those long
winter evenings used to pass! If we were always to judge from reality,
games would be nonsense; but if games were nonsense, what else would
there be left to do?
IX -- A FIRST ESSAY IN LOVE
PRETENDING to gather some "American fruit" from a tree, Lubotshka
suddenly plucked a leaf upon which was a huge caterpillar, and throwing
the insect with horror to the ground, lifted her hands and sprang away
as though afraid it would spit at her. The game stopped, and we crowded
our heads together as we stooped to look at the curiosity.
I peeped over Katenka's shoulder as she was trying to lift the
caterpillar by placing another leaf in its way. I had observed before
that the girls had a way of shrugging their shoulders whenever they were
trying to put a loose garment straight on their bare necks, as well as
that Mimi always grew angry on witnessing this manoeuvre and declared
it to be a chambermaid's trick. As Katenka bent over the caterpillar she
made that very movement, while at the same instant the breeze lifted the
fichu on her white neck. Her shoulder was close to my lips, I looked at
it and kissed it. She did not turn round, but Woloda remarked without
raising his head, "What spooniness!" I felt the tears rising to my eyes,
and could not take my gaze from Katenka. I had long been used to her
fair, fresh face, and had always been fond of her, but now I looked at
her more closely, and felt more fond of her, than I had ever done or
felt before.
When we returned to the grown-ups, Papa informed us, to our great joy,
that, at Mamma's entreaties, our departure was to be postponed until
the following morning. We rode home beside the carriage--Woloda and