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 rilly firing recklessly, never killing anything and never in the slightest degree abashed at his ill luck. Levin moved forward hotly, growing more and more excited, and finally he came not to have much hope of bringing down his game. Laska seemed to understand this state of things. She began to follow the scent more lazily, and looked at the huntsmen with almost an air of doubt and reproach. Shot followed shot. The gunpowder smoke hung round the sportsmen, but in the great wide meshes of the hunting-bag lay only three light little woodcock. And of those one was killed by Veslovsky, and one of them they both brought down.

Meantime on the other side of the swamp Stepan Arkadyevitch's shots were heard, not very frequently, but, as it seemed to Levin, very significantly, and at almost each one he would hear him cry:—

"Krak, Krak, apporte."

This still more excited Levin. The woodcock kept flying up into the air over the high grass. The drumming on the ground and the cries of the birds in the air continued incessantly on all sides, and the woodcock, which flew up before them and swept through the air, kept settling down again in front of the huntsmen. Now instead of two hawks there were dozens of them screaming over the marsh.

After they had shot over the larger half of the swamp, Levin and Veslovsky directed their steps to a place where there were alternating strips of meadow-land, which the peasants were accustomed to mow. Half of these strips had already been mown.

Although there was less hope of finding game where the grass was tall than where it had been cut, Levin had agreed with Stepan Arkadyevitch to join him there, and so he proceeded with his companion across the mown and unmown strips.

"Hi! sportsmen," cried a muzhik, who with several others were sitting around an unharnessed cart. "Come and have a bite with us. We'll give you some wine."

Levin looked round.

"Come on, we 've plenty," shouted a jolly bearded