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 away from him a snipe was sitting. With head raised it was listening. Then, slightly spreading and closing its wings and awkwardly wagging its tail, it hid behind its nook.

"At him, at him!" cried Levin, pushing Laska from behind.

"But I can't move," thought Laska. "Where shall I go? From here I smell 'em, but if I stir I shan't find anything, or know what they are or where they are."

But Levin again pushed the dog with his knee, and in an excited whisper he cried again, "At him, Lasotchka, at him!"

"Well, if he wants me to do it, I will, but I won't answer for the consequences now," she said to herself, and she darted forward with all her might between the tussocks! She no longer went by scent, but only by her eyes and ears, and did not know what she was doing.

Ten paces from the first place a second snipe arose with a loud squawking and a characteristic drumming of wings. Instantly the shot rang out and the bird fell heavily with its white breast on the moist ground. Still another immediately flew up, not even roused by the dog.

When Levin aimed at it it was already a long shot, but he brought it down. After flying twenty feet or more the second snipe rose high into the air, then, spinning like a top, fell heavily to the ground on a dry spot.

"That is the talk," thought Levin, thrusting the fat snipe, still warm, into his hunting-bag. "Ha, Lasotchka, there's some sense in this, hey?"

When Levin, having reloaded, went still farther into the swamp, the sun was already up, though it was as yet hidden behind masses of clouds. The moon, which had now lost all its brilliancy, looked like a white cloud against the sky; not a star was to be seen. The swampy places, which before had been silvered with the dew, were now yellow. The whole swamp was amber. The blue of the grass changed into yellowish green. The