shadows which the burning sun cast upon the yellowish-white cornland;
the purple forest in the distance; the white gossamer threads which were
floating in the air or resting on the soil-all these things I observed
and heard and felt to the core.
Arrived at the Kalinovo wood, we found the carriage awaiting us
there, with, beside it, a one-horse waggonette driven by the butler--a
waggonette in which were a tea-urn, some apparatus for making ices, and
many other attractive boxes and bundles, all packed in straw! There was
no mistaking these signs, for they meant that we were going to have tea,
fruit, and ices in the open air. This afforded us intense delight, since
to drink tea in a wood and on the grass and where none else had ever
drunk tea before seemed to us a treat beyond expressing.
When Turka arrived at the little clearing where the carriage was
halted he took Papa's detailed instructions as to how we were to divide
ourselves and where each of us was to go (though, as a matter of fact,
he never acted according to such instructions, but always followed his
own devices). Then he unleashed the hounds, fastened the leashes to
his saddle, whistled to the pack, and disappeared among the young birch
trees the liberated hounds jumping about him in high delight, wagging
their tails, and sniffing and gambolling with one another as they
dispersed themselves in different directions.
'Has anyone a pocket-handkerchief to spare?' asked Papa. I took mine
from my pocket and offered it to him.
'Very well. Fasten it to this greyhound here.'
'Gizana?' I asked, with the air of a connoisseur.
'Yes. Then run him along the road with you. When you come to a little
clearing in the wood stop and look about you, and don't come back to me
without a hare.'
Accordingly I tied my handkerchief round Gizana's soft neck, and set off
running at full speed towards the appointed spot, Papa laughing as he
shouted after me, 'Hurry up, hurry up or you'll be late!'
Every now and then Gizana kept stopping, pricking up his ears, and
listening to the hallooing of the beaters. Whenever he did this I was
not strong enough to move him, and could do no more than shout, 'Come
on, come on!' Presently he set off so fast that I could not restrain
him, and I encountered more than one fall before we reached our
destination. Selecting there a level, shady spot near the roots of a
great oak-tree, I lay down on the turf, made Gizana crouch beside me,
and waited. As usual, my imagination far outstripped reality. I fancied
that I was pursuing at least my third hare when, as a matter of fact,
the first hound was only just giving tongue. Presently, however, Turka's
voice began to sound through the wood in louder and more excited tones,
the baying of a hound came nearer and nearer, and then another, and then
a third, and then a fourth, deep throat joined in the rising and falling
cadences of a chorus, until the whole had united their voices in one
continuous, tumultuous burst of melody. As the Russian proverb expresses
it, 'The forest had found a tongue, and the hounds were burning as with
fire.'
My excitement was so great that I nearly swooned where I stood. My lips
parted themselves as though smiling, the perspiration poured from me in
streams, and, in spite of the tickling sensation caused by the drops as
they trickled over my chin, I never thought of wiping them away. I felt
that a crisis was approaching. Yet the tension was too unnatural to
last. Soon the hounds came tearing along the edge of the wood, and
then--behold, they were racing away from me again, and of hares there
