"U^j' don't you bathe?" Egorooshka asked Vassia.
"Oh! . . . so . . . don't like it . . ." answered Vassia.
"Why is that swelling on your chin?"
"It hurts. • . . You see, little sir, I worked in a match- factory • . . the doctor said it was from that my jaw tumefied. The atmosphere is unwholesome. Besides myself t.hree children had swollen jaws, one of them rotted away altogether."
Soon Stepka returned with the rasting-net. Dimov and
Kiruha were getting quite violet and ochreous from staying so long in the water, but they set about catching fish with great zest. First they went to a deep place by the reeds. Dimov was up to his neck in the water and squat Kiruha up to his chin, he choked and blew bubbles, while Dimov stum- bling on the spinous roots fell and got mixed in the casting- net. They both floundered about and made so much noise that their fishing turned into a frolic.
"It's so deep," said Kiruha in a hoarse voice, "you can't catch anything."
"Don't pull, you devil!" shouted Dimov, striving to lay the casting-net. "Hold it with your hands!"
"You won't catch any there!" Panteli shouted to them from the bank. "Only bad ones— Try to the left. It is shal- lower."
Once a large fish appeared over the casting-net; everyone held their breath, but Dimov with a look of annoyance hit with his fist on the place where it had disappeared.
"Eh!" croaked Panteli, stamping his feet. "They have let him slip. It's gone!"
l\Ioving more leftwards, Dimov and Kiruha litth by little made a cast for small fish, and began to fish more seriously. They floundered on about three hundred feet farthe!"; one could see them choosing the deepest parts nearest the ;reeds, dragging the net after them, beating on the water with their hands, and shaking the reeds to drive the fish into the net. From the reeds they got on to the farther bank, and dragged up their net; then, with a very disenchanted look on their faces, they went back to the reeds. They were talking about something; what it was no one could hear. Meanwhile the sun was scorching their backs, the flies were stinging, and their flesh had now turned purple instead of violet. Behind them walked Stepka with a bucket in his lmnds, and with his shirt tucked up under his arms and held in his teeth. After each lucky haul, he raised in the air some kind of fisb which glittered in the sun, and shouted:
"Just look—what a catch! We have five like thati"
Each time they dragged up the net, Dimov, Kiruha, and Stepka rummaged a long time in the mud, put some things in the bucket, and threw away others. Occasionally some- thing found in the net was passed from hand to hand; they each looked at it with curiosity, then it also was thrown away.
"What have you got?" they shouted from the bank.
Stepka answered something, but it was difficult to hear what.
And now he emerged from the water holding the bucket in both hands, and, forgetting to let down his shirt, ran towards the waggons.
"It's already full!" he cried, panting. "Give us another!"
Egorooshka looked into the bucket; it was quite full. A young pike's ugly nose was sticking out of the water: there were also cray-fish and other small fish stirring about. Egorooshka put his hand to the bottom, and stirred up the water; the pike disappeared under the cray-fish, and in its place a perch and a tench swam to the surface. Vassia looked into the buc.ket. His eyes glistened, and his expression soft- ened as it did when he saw the fox. He picked something out of the bucket, carried it to his mouth, and there was a sound of crunching.
"Mates," said Stepka in surprise. "Vassia is eating live minnow! Ugh! "
"It is not a minnow, it's bean-pod," calmly answered Vassia, and he continued to crunch.
He pulled a fish's tail out of his mouth, looked sweetly at it, and put it back. As he chewed and crunched, it seemed to Egorooshka it was not a man he saw standing before him; Vassia's swollen chin, lustreless eyes, unusual keen-sighted- ness, the fish's tail in his mouth and the relish with which he ate the minnow. gave him more the resemblance to a wild mimal.
Egorooshka was bored in his company—besides the fish- ing was over, so he walked past the waggons, and, not feeling amused, wandered towards the village.
A few moments later he was standing in the church close to someone who smelt of hemp, and listening to the singing. Mass was nearly over. Egorooshka understood nothing about church-singing, and felt quite indifferent towards it. He listened for a little while, yawned, and began to examine the backs and napes of the people. He recognised one nape which was ruddy and wet from recent bathing—it was Emilian's. His hair was shaved so close that his ears stood out like lop^ ears on either side, and seemed to feel out of place. As he studied the back of his head and his ears, Egorooshka some- how realised what a very unhappy person Emilian was. He thought of his conducting, his hoarse voice, timid glances when he was bathing, and felt an immense pity for him. He- wanted to say something kind.
"I am here too," he said, gently pulling his sleeve.
People who have sung in the choir, either as bass or as tenor, and especially those who have conducted, even if only once in their lives, are accustomed to look at little boys in a severe and unfriendly manner. They do not give up this habit even after they have ceased to be in the choir. Emilian, half turning round and looking at Egorooshka over his shoul- der, said:
"Don't chatter in church!"
So then Egorooshka made his way up closer to the ikonstase. Here he saw some quite interesting people. Right in the fore- front, on a carpet to the right, he saw a gentleman and a lady. The gentleman, in a well-pressed blue suit, was standing stiffly, like a soldier saluting, and was holding his dark clean- shaven chin well in the air. By his stand-up collar, his well- poised chin, his slight baldness, and his walking-stick, you felt he was a person of great merit. From the excess of his merit did his neck and chin strain upwards with such vigour that his head seemed ready any minute to make away and fly aloft. The lady, who was plump and middle-aged, was wearlng a white silk shawl, and, holding her head on one side, she looked as if she had just conferred a favour on some- one, and was about to say, "Oh! don't bother to thank me, I don't like it." All around the carpet stood a thick wall of "top- knots."
Egorooshka went up to the ikonstase, and began kissing the ikons thereon. Before each image he slowly made a low bow to the ground, and without rising looked back at the people, then rose and kissed the image. The contact of the cold floor with his forehead was very pleasant. When the warden came from behind the altar with a long pair of snuffers to put out the candles, Egorooshka quickly rose from the ground and went towards him.
"Have they given the wafers?" he asked.
"Aren't any—aren't any," gruffly mumbled the old man; "no use looking. . . ."
The Mass was over. Egorooshka slowly left the church, and started to wander round the open squares. In his time he had seen not a few villages and squares and moujiks, and all the things which now came under his notice did not at all interest him. Having nothing to do, and so as to kill time somehow, he went up to a shop over the doors of which hung a broad red fustian stripe. The shop consisted of two spacious and badly lit halves; in the one half they sold red wares and grocery, and in the other half stood barrels of tar, and it was hung with horse-collars up to the roof. In both halves there was a good smell of leather and tar. The floor of the shop had been watered, and he who had watered it was evidently a great fantast and free-thinker, for it was all covered with patterns and cabalistic signs. Behind the counter, and leaning on it, was a fat si.lopman with a broad face and a rounded beard; he was probably a Great Russian. He was drinking tea and eating a bit of sugar with it, and after each gulp breathed a deep sigh. His expression was one of complete indifferencf' but every sigh seemed to say, "Just wait. I'll e;ive it you!" "Give me a kopeck's worth of dry sunflower seeds," Ego- rooshka said, addressing him.