Page:More Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/160

 VI.— THE CHILDREN WISER THAN THE ELDERS

Holy-Tide fell early. Only in sledges could one fare quickly along. The snow lay upon the houses, and in the country the little streams were trickling. A large puddle was oozing from a manure heap between two houses into an alley. And two little children from different houses, one very small and the other somewhat older, had been drawn towards this puddle. The mothers of both children had dressed them in new sarafans. The tinier child wore a blue one, the bigger child a yellow one with a nice pattern. Both had pretty kerchiefs tied round their heads. The children had gone out after dinner to the puddle, showed each other their pretty things, and begun to play. And then the desire seized them to go splashing about in the water. The little girl crept down in her slippers to the puddle, but the elder one said:

"Don't go, Malashka, mother will scold us. But if you like I'll take off my shoes and you take off your shoes too."

The children took off their shoes, tucked up their clothes, and went down to the puddle from different