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 made by tearing stiff cloth, rang in his ears; then he distinguished the long bill and the long neck of the bird, but hardly had he caught sight of it when a red flash shone out from behind Oblonsky's bush. The bird darted off like an arrow and rose into the air again; but again the light flashed and a report was heard, and the bird, vainly striving to rise, flapped its wings for a second, and fell heavily to the wet earth.

"Did I miss?" asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, who could see nothing through the smoke.

"Here she is," cried Levin, pointing to Laska, who, with one ear erect, and waving the tip end of her hairy tail, slowly, as if to lengthen out the pleasure, came back with the bird in her mouth, seeming almost to smile as she laid the game down at her master's feet.

"Well now, I am glad you succeeded," said Levin, though he felt a slight sensation of envy, because he himself had not killed this snipe.

"The right barrel missed, curse it!" replied Stepan Arkadyevitch, reloading his gun. "Sh! .... Here's another .... "

In fact, the whistles came thicker and thicker, rapid and sharp. Two snipe flew over the hunters, playing, chasing each other, and only whistling, not clucking. Four shots rang out; and the snipe, making a sudden turn like swallows, disappeared from sight.

The sport was excellent. Stepan Arkadyevitch killed two others, and Levin also two, one of which was lost. It grew darker and darker. Venus, with silvery light, shone out low in the west from behind the birches; and high in the east, Arcturus gleamed, with his somber, reddish fire. Above his head, Levin found and lost the stars of the Great Bear. The snipe had now ceased to fly, but Levin resolved to wait until Venus, which was visible above the birch trees, should stand clear above the lower branches, and till all the stars of the Great Bear should be entirely visible. The star had passed beyond the birch trees, and the wain of the Bear with