Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 08 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/108

96 her. The mother went into the cottage, changed her clothes, and went out with her towel and milk-pail. She sat down under the cow and began to wipe the udder. The Lord be praised! The cow gave milk, and the children stood around and watched the milk straining into the pail, and listened to its sound under the mother's fingers. When the mother had milked the pail half full, she carried it down cellar, and each of the children had a mug for supper.

there was a little boy whose name was Filipp. All the children were going to school. Filipp took his hat and wanted to go too.

But his mother said to him:—

"Where are you going, Filipok?"

"To school."

"You are too small; you can't go," and his mother kept him at home.

The children went off to school. Their father had gone early in the morning to the woods; the mother was engaged in her daily work.

Filipok and his grandmother were left in the cottage, on the oven. Filipok began to feel lonely; his grandmother was asleep, and he began to search for his hat. When he could not find his own, he took an old one, made of sheepskin, and started for school.

School was kept at the village church. When Filipp walked along his own street, the dogs did not meddle with him, for they knew him; but when he reached the street in the next estate, a black dog came bounding out and barking, and behind this dog came another still bigger, named Wolfie, and Filipp started to run, the dogs after him.