Part Three: Chapter 8

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Towards the end of May, when everything had been more or lesssatisfactorily arranged, she received her husband's answer to hercomplaints of the disorganized state of things in the country.He wrote begging her forgiveness for not having thought ofeverything before, and promised to come down at the first chance.This chance did not present itself, and till the beginning ofJune Darya Alexandrovna stayed alone in the country.

　　On the Sunday in St. Peter's week Darya Alexandrovna drove tomass for all her children to take the sacrament. DaryaAlexandrovna in her intimate, philosophical talks with hersister, her mother, and her friends very often astonished them bythe freedom of her views in regard to religion. She had astrange religion of transmigration of souls all her own, in whichshe had firm faith, troubling herself little about the dogmas ofthe Church. But in her family she was strict in carrying out allthat was required by the Church--and not merely in order to setan example, but with all her heart in it. The fact that thechildren had not been at the sacrament for nearly a year worriedher extremely, and with the full approval and sympathy of MaryaPhilimonovna she decided that this should take place now in thesummer.

　　For several days before, Darya Alexandrovna was busilydeliberating on how to dress all the children. Frocks were madeor altered and washed, seams and flounces were let out, buttonswere sewn on, and ribbons got ready. One dress, Tanya's, whichthe English governess had undertaken, cost Darya Alexandrovnamuch loss of temper. The English governess in altering it hadmade the seams in the wrong place, had taken up the sleeves toomuch, and altogether spoilt the dress. It was so narrow onTanya's shoulders that it was quite painful to look at her. ButMarya Philimonovna had the happy thought of putting in gussets,and adding a little shoulder-cape. The dress was set right, butthere was nearly a quarrel with the English governess. On themorning, however, all was happily arranged, and towards teno'clock--the time at which they had asked the priest to wait forthem for the mass--the children in their new dresses, withbeaming faces stood on the step before the carriage waiting fortheir mother.

　　To the carriage, instead of the restive Raven, they hadharnessed, thanks to the representations of Marya Philimonovna,the bailiff's horse, Brownie, and Darya Alexandrovna, delayed byanxiety over her own attire, came out and got in, dressed in awhite muslin gown.

　　Darya Alexandrovna had done her hair, and dressed with care andexcitement. In the old days she had dressed for her own sake tolook pretty and be admired. Later on, as she got older, dressbecame more and more distasteful to her. She saw that she waslosing her good looks. But now she began to feel pleasure andinterest in dress again. Now she did not dress for her own sake,not for the sake of her own beauty, but simply that as the motherof those exquisite creatures she might not spoil the generaleffect. And looking at herself for the last time in thelooking-glass she was satisfied with herself. She looked nice.Not nice as she would have wished to look nice in old days at aball, but nice for the object which she now had in view.

　　In the church there was no one but the peasants, the servants andtheir women-folk. But Darya Alexandrovna saw, or fancied shesaw, the sensation produced by her children and her. Thechildren were not only beautiful to look at in their smart littledresses, but they were charming in the way they behaved.Aliosha, it is true, did not stand quite correctly; he keptturning round, trying to look at his little jacket from behind;but all the same he was wonderfully sweet. Tanya behaved like agrownup person, and looked after the little ones. And thesmallest, Lily, was bewitching in her naive astonishment ateverything, and it was difficult not to smile when, after takingthe sacrament, she said in English, "Please, some more."

　　On the way home the children felt that something solemn hadhappened, and were very sedate.

　　Everything went happily at home too; but at lunch Grisha beganwhistling, and, what was worse, was disobedient to the Englishgoverness, and was forbidden to have any tart. DaryaAlexandrovna would not have let things go so far on such a dayhad she been present; but she had to support the Englishgoverness's authority, and she upheld her decision that Grishashould have no tart. This rather spoiled the general good humor.Grisha cried, declaring that Nikolinka had whistled too, and hewas not punished, and that he wasn't crying for the tart--hedidn't care--but at being unjustly treated. This was really tootragic, and Darya Alexandrovna made up her mind to persuade theEnglish governess to forgive Grisha, and she went to speak toher. But on the way, as she passed the drawing room, she behelda scene, filling her heart with such pleasure that the tears cameinto her eyes, and she forgave the delinquent herself.

　　The culprit was sitting at the window in the corner of thedrawing room; beside him was standing Tanya with a plate. On thepretext of wanting to give some dinner to her dolls, she hadasked the governess's permission to take her share of tart to thenursery, and had taken it instead to her brother. While stillweeping over the injustice of his punishment, he was eating thetart, and kept saying through his sobs, "Eat yourself; let's eatit together...together."

　　Tanya had at first been under the influence of her pity forGrisha, then of a sense of her noble action, and tears werestanding in her eyes too; but she did not refuse, and ate hershare.

　　On catching sight of their mother they were dismayed, but,looking into her face, they saw they were not doing wrong. Theyburst out laughing, and, with their mouths full of tart, theybegan wiping their smiling lips with their hands, and smearingtheir radiant faces all over with tears and jam.

　　"Mercy! Your new white frock; Tanya! Grisha!" said theirmother, trying to save the frock, but with tears in her eyes,smiling a blissful, rapturous smile.

　　The new frocks were taken off, and orders were given for thelittle girls to have their blouses put on, and the boys their oldjackets, and the wagonette to be harnessed; with Brownie, to thebailiff's annoyance, again in the shafts, to drive out formushroom picking and bathing. A roar of delighted shrieks arosein the nursery, and never ceased till they had set off for thebathing-place.

　　They gathered a whole basketful of mushrooms; even Lily found abirch mushroom. It had always happened before that Miss Hoolefound them and pointed them out to her; but this time she found abig one quite of herself, and there was a general scream ofdelight, "Lily has found a mushroom!"

　　Then they reached the river, put the horses under the birchtrees, and went to the bathing-place. The coachman, Terenty,fastened the horses, who kept whisking away the flies, to a tree,and, treading down the grass, lay down in the shade of a birchand smoked his shag, while the never-ceasing shrieks of delightof the children floated across to him from the bathing-place.

　　Though it was hard work to look after all the children andrestrain their wild pranks, though it was difficult too to keepin one's head and not mix up all the stockings, little breeches,and shoes for the different legs, and to undo and to do up againall the tapes and buttons, Darya Alexandrovna, who had alwaysliked bathing herself, and believed it to be very good for thechildren, enjoyed nothing so much as bathing with all thechildren. To go over all those fat little legs, pulling on theirstockings, to take in her arms and dip those little naked bodies,and to hear their screams of delight and alarm, to see thebreathless faces with wide-open, scared, and happy eyes of allher splashing cherubs, was a great pleasure to her.

　　When half the children had been dressed, some peasant women inholiday dress, out picking herbs, came up to the bathing-shed andstopped shyly. Marya Philimonovna called one of them and handedher a sheet and a shirt that had dropped into the water for herto dry them, and Darya Alexandrovna began to talk to the women.At first they laughed behind their hands and did not understandher questions, but soon they grew bolder and began to talk,winning Darya Alexandrovna's heart at once by the genuineadmiration of the children that they showed.

　　"My, what a beauty! as white as sugar," said one, admiringTanitchka, and shaking her head; "but thin..."

　　"Yes, she has been ill."

　　"And so they've been bathing you too," said another to the baby.

　　"No; he's only three months old," answered Darya Alexandrovnawith pride.

　　"You don't say so!"

　　"And have you any children?"

　　"I've had four; I've two living--a boy and a girl. I weaned herlast carnival."

　　"How old is she?"

　　"Why, two years old."

　　"Why did you nurse her so long?"

　　"It's our custom; for three fasts..."

　　And the conversation became most interesting to DaryaAlexandrovna. What sort of time did she have? What was thematter with the boy? Where was her husband? Did it oftenhappen?

　　Darya Alexandrovna felt disinclined to leave the peasant women,so interesting to her was their conversation, so completelyidentical were all their interests. What pleased her most of allwas that she saw clearly what all the women admired more thananything was her having so many children, and such fine ones.The peasant women even made Darya Alexandrovna laugh, andoffended the English governess, because she was the cause of thelaughter she did not understand. One of the younger women keptstaring at the Englishwoman, who was dressing after all the rest,and when she put on her third petticoat she could not refrainfrom the remark, "My, she keeps putting on and putting on, andshe'll never have done!" she said, and they all went off intoroars.