Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 12.djvu/500



was an early Easter. They had just quit using sleighs. In the yards lay snow, and rills ran down the village. A large puddle had run down from a manure pile into a lane between two farms. And at this puddle two girls, one older than the other, had met. Both of them had been dressed by their mothers in new bodices. The little girl had a blue bodice, and the elder a yellow one with a design. Both had their heads wrapped in red kerchiefs. After mass the two girls went to the puddle, where they showed their new garments to each other, and began to play. They wanted to plash in the water. The little girl started to go into the puddle with her shoes on, but the older girl said to her:

"Don't go, Malasha, your mother will scold you. I will take off my shoes, and you do the same."

The girls took off their shoes, raised their skirts, and walked through the puddle toward each other. Malasha stepped in up to her ankles, and said: "It is deep, Akulka, I am afraid."

"Never mind," she replied, "it will not be any deeper. Come straight toward me!" They came closer to each other. Akulka said:

"Malasha, look out, and do not splash it up, but walk softly."

She had barely said that when Malasha plumped her foot into the water and bespattered Akiilka's bodice, and not only her bodice, but also her nose and eyes. When Akulka saw the spots on her bodice, she grew angry at Malasha, and scolded her, and ran after her, and wanted