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excited whisper said, “Fetch it, Laska.”
“Well, if that’s what he wishes, I’ll do it, but I can’t answer for
myself now,” she thought, and darted forward as fast as her legs would
carry her between the thick bushes. She scented nothing now; she
could only see and hear, without understanding anything.
Ten paces from her former place a grouse rose with a guttural cry
and the peculiar round sound of its wings. And immediately after the
shot it splashed heavily with its white breast on the wet mire. Another
bird did not linger, but rose behind Levin without the dog. When
Levin turned towards it, it was already some way off. But his shot
caught it. Flying twenty paces further, the second grouse rose up-
wards, and whirling round like a ball, dropped heavily on a dry place.
“Come, this is going to be some good!” thought Levin, packing the
warm and fat grouse into his game bag. “Eh, Laska, will it be good?”
When Levin, after loading his gun, moved on, the sun had fully
risen, though unseen behind the storm-clouds. The moon had lost all
of its luster, and was like a white cloud in the sky. Not a single star could
be seen. The sedge, silvery with dew before, now shone like gold. The
stagnant pools were all like amber. The blue of the grass had changed
to yellow-green. The marsh birds twittered and swarmed about the
brook and upon the bushes that glittered with dew and cast long
shadows. A hawk woke up and settled on a haycock, turning its head
from side to side and looking discontentedly at the marsh. Crows were
flying about the field, and a bare-legged boy was driving the horses to
an old man, who had got up from under his long coat and was combing
his hair. The smoke from the gun was white as milk over the green of
the grass.
One of the boys ran up to Levin.
“Uncle, there were ducks here yesterday!” he shouted to him, and
he walked a little way off behind him.
And Levin was doubly pleased, in sight of the boy, who expressed
his approval, at killing three snipe, one after another, straight off.