Part Six: Chapter 9

by Leo Tolstoy

　　"Well, now what's our plan of campaign? Tell us all about it,"said Stepan Arkadyevitch.

　　"Our plan is this. Now we're driving to Gvozdyov. In Gvozdyovthere's a grouse marsh on this side, and beyond Gvozdyov comesome magnificent snipe marshes where there are grouse too. It'shot now, and we'll get there--it's fifteen miles or so--towardsevening and have some evening shooting; we'll spend the nightthere and go on tomorrow to the bigger moors."

　　"And is there nothing on the way?"

　　"Yes; but we'll reserve ourselves; besides it's hot. There aretwo nice little places, but I doubt there being anything toshoot."

　　Levin would himself have liked to go into these little places,but they were near home; he could shoot them over any time, andthey were only little places--there would hardly be room forthree to shoot. And so, with some insincerity, he said that hedoubted there being anything to shoot. When they reached alittle marsh Levin would have driven by, but Stepan Arkadyevitch,with the experienced eye of a sportsman, at once detected reedsvisible from the road.

　　"Shan't we try that?" he said, pointing to the little marsh.

　　"Levin, do, please! how delightful!" Vassenka Veslovsky beganbegging, and Levin could but consent.

　　Before they had time to stop, the dogs had flown one before theother into the marsh.

　　"Krak! Laska!..."

　　The dogs came back.

　　"There won't be room for three. I'll stay here," said Levin,hoping they would find nothing but peewits, who had been startledby the dogs, and turning over in their flight, were plaintivelywailing over the marsh.

　　"No! Come along, Levin, let's go together!" Veslovsky called.

　　"Really, there's not room. Laska, back, Laska! You won't wantanother dog, will you?"

　　Levin remained with the wagonette, and looked enviously at thesportsmen. They walked right across the marsh. Except littlebirds and peewits, of which Vassenka killed one, there wasnothing in the marsh.

　　"Come, you see now that it was not that I grudged the marsh,"said Levin, "only it's wasting time."

　　"Oh, no, it was jolly all the same. Did you see us?" saidVassenka Veslovsky, clambering awkwardly into the wagonette withhis gun and his peewit in his hands. "How splendidly I shotthis bird! Didn't I? Well, shall we soon be getting to the realplace?"

　　The horses started off suddenly, Levin knocked his head againstthe stock of someone's gun, and there was the report of a shot.The gun did actually go off first, but that was how it seemed toLevin. It appeared that Vassenka Veslovsky had pulled only onetrigger, and had left the other hammer still cocked. The chargeflew into the ground without doing harm to anyone. StepanArkadyevitch shook his head and laughed reprovingly at Veslovsky.But Levin had not the heart to reprove him. In the first place,any reproach would have seemed to be called forth by the dangerhe had incurred and the bump that had come up on Levin'sforehead. And besides, Veslovsky was at first so naivelydistressed, and then laughed so good-humoredly and infectiouslyat their general dismay, that one could not but laugh with him.

　　When they reached the second marsh, which was fairly large, andwould inevitably take some time to shoot over, Levin tried topersuade them to pass it by. But Veslovsky again overpersuadedhim. Again, as the marsh was narrow, Levin, like a good host,remained with the carriage.

　　Krak made straight for some clumps of sedge. Vassenka Veslovskywas the first to run after the dog. Before Stepan Arkadyevitchhad time to come up, a grouse flew out. Veslovsky missed it andit flew into an unmown meadow. This grouse was left forVeslovsky to follow up. Krak found it again and pointed, andVeslovsky shot it and went back to the carriage. "Now you go andI'll stay with the horses," he said.

　　Levin had begun to feel the pangs of a sportsman's envy. Hehanded the reins to Veslovsky and walked into the marsh.

　　Laska, who had been plaintively whining and fretting against theinjustice of her treatment, flew straight ahead to a hopefulplace that Levin knew well, and that Krak had not yet come upon.

　　"Why don't you stop her?" shouted Stepan Arkadyevitch.

　　"She won't scare them," answered Levin, sympathizing with hisbitch's pleasure and hurrying after her.

　　As she came nearer and nearer to the familiar breeding placesthere was more and more earnestness in Laska's exploration. Alittle marsh bird did not divert her attention for more than aninstant. She made one circuit round the clump of reeds, wasbeginning a second, and suddenly quivered with excitement andbecame motionless.

　　"Come, come, Stiva!" shouted Levin, feeling his heart beginningto beat more violently; and all of a sudden, as though some sortof shutter had been drawn back from his straining ears, allsounds, confused but loud, began to beat on his hearing, losingall sense of distance. He heard the steps of StepanArkadyevitch, mistaking them for the tramp of the horses in thedistance; he heard the brittle sound of the twigs on which he hadtrodden, taking this sound for the flying of a grouse. He heardtoo, not far behind him, a splashing in the water, which he couldnot explain to himself.

　　Picking his steps, he moved up to the dog.

　　"Fetch it!"

　　Not a grouse but a snipe flew up from beside the dog. Levin hadlifted his gun, but at the very instant when he was taking aim,the sound of splashing grew louder, came closer, and was joinedwith the sound of Veslovsky's voice, shouting something withstrange loudness. Levin saw he had his gun pointed behind thesnipe, but still he fired.

　　When he had made sure he had missed, Levin looked round and sawthe horses and the wagonette not on the road but in the marsh.

　　Veslovsky, eager to see the shooting, had driven into the marsh,and got the horses stuck in the mud.

　　"Damn the fellow!" Levin said to himself, as he went back to thecarriage that had sunk in the mire. "What did you drive in for?"he said to him dryly, and calling the coachman, he began pullingthe horses out.

　　Levin was vexed both at being hindered from shooting and at hishorses getting stuck in the mud, and still more at the fact thatneither Stepan Arkadyevitch nor Veslovsky helped him and thecoachman to unharness the horses and get them out, since neitherof them had the slightest notion of harnessing. Withoutvouchsafing a syllable in reply to Vassenka's protestations thatit had been quite dry there, Levin worked in silence with thecoachman at extricating the horses. But then, as he got warm atthe work and saw how assiduously Veslovsky was tugging at thewagonette by one of the mud-guards, so that he broke it indeed,Levin blamed himself for having under the influence ofyesterday's feelings been too cold to Veslovsky, and tried to beparticularly genial so as to smooth over his chilliness. Wheneverything had been put right, and the carriage had been broughtback to the road, Levin had the lunch served.

　　"Bon appetit--bonne conscience! Ce poulet va tomber jusqu'aufond de mes bottes," Vassenka, who had recovered his spirits,quoted the French saying as he finished his second chicken."Well, now our troubles are over, now everything's going to gowell. Only, to atone for my sins, I'm bound to sit on the box.That's so? eh? No, no! I'll be your Automedon. You shall seehow I'll get you along," he answered, not letting go the rein,when Levin begged him to let the coachman drive. "No, I mustatone for my sins, and I'm very comfortable on the box." And hedrove.

　　Levin was a little afraid he would exhaust the horses, especiallythe chestnut, whom he did not know how to hold in; butunconsciously he fell under the influence of his gaiety andlistened to the songs he sang all the way on the box, or thedescriptions and representations he gave of driving in theEnglish fashion, four-in-hand; and it was in the very best ofspirits that after lunch they drove to the Gvozdyov marsh.