Waking up at earliest dawn, Levin tried to wake his companions.

Vassenka, lying on his stomach, with one leg in a stocking thrust

out, was sleeping so soundly that he could elicit no response.

Oblonsky, half asleep, declined to get up so early. Even Laska,

who was asleep, curled up in the hay, got up unwillingly, and

lazily stretched out and straightened her hind legs one after the

other. Getting on his boots and stockings, taking his gun, and

carefully opening the creaking door of the barn, Levin went out

into the road. The coachmen were sleeping in their carriages,

the horses were dozing. Only one was lazily eating oats, dipping

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its nose into the manger. It was still gray out-of-doors.

"Why are you up so early, my dear?" the old woman, their hostess,

said, coming out of the hut and addressing him affectionately as

an old friend.

"Going shooting, granny. Do I go this way to the marsh?"

"Straight out at the back; by our threshing floor, my dear, and

hemp patches; there's a little footpath." Stepping carefully

with her sunburnt, bare feet, the old woman conducted Levin, and

moved back the fence for him by the threshing floor.

"Straight on and you'll come to the marsh. Our lads drove the

cattle there yesterday evening."

Laska ran eagerly forward along the little path. Levin followed

her with a light, rapid step, continually looking at the sky. He

hoped the sun would not be up before he reached the marsh. But

the sun did not delay. The moon, which had been bright when he

went out, by now shone only like a crescent of quicksilver. The

pink flush of dawn, which one could not help seeing before, now

had to be sought to be discerned at all. What were before

undefined, vague blurs in the distant countryside could now be

distinctly seen. They were sheaves of rye. The dew, not visible

till the sun was up, wetted Levin's legs and his blouse above his

belt in the high growing, fragrant hemp patch, from which the

pollen had already fallen out. In the transparent stillness of

morning the smallest sounds were audible. A bee flew by Levin's

ear with the whizzing sound of a bullet. He looked carefully,

and saw a second and a third. They were all flying from the

beehives behind the hedge, and they disappeared over the hemp

patch in the direction of the marsh. The path led straight to

the marsh. The marsh could be recognized by the mist which rose

from it, thicker in one place and thinner in another, so that the

reeds and willow bushes swayed like islands in this mist. At the

edge of the marsh and the road, peasant boys and men, who had

been herding for the night, were lying, and in the dawn all were

asleep under their coats. Not far from them were three hobbled

horses. One of them clanked a chain. Laska walked beside her

master, pressing a little forward and looking round. Passing the

sleeping peasants and reaching the first reeds, Levin examined

his pistols and let his dog off. One of the horses, a sleek,

dark-brown three-year-old, seeing the dog, started away, switched

its tail and snorted. The other horses too were frightened, and

splashing through the water with their hobbled legs, and drawing

their hoofs out of the thick mud with a squelching sound, they

bounded out of the marsh. Laska stopped, looking ironically at

the horses and inquiringly at Levin. Levin patted Laska, and

whistled as a sign that she might begin.




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