Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 08 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/65

Rh control of my snow-shoes; my legs gave way under me. Suddenly Demyan stopped in front of me and waved his arm. I caught up with him. Demyan bent over, and said in a whisper, pointing with his hand:—

"Hear the magpie screaming on yonder stump; the bird scents the bear from a long distance. He is there."

We set out again, and, after going another verst, we came upon our old track. Thus we had made a complete circuit around the bear, and the bear remained in the middle of our ring.

We paused.

I took off my cap also, and unbuttoned my coat. I was as hot as if I had been in a Russian bath, and my clothes were just as wet as a drowned rat. Demyan also was red with exertion, and wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Well," says he, "barin, we have finished the job; now we must rest."

The twilight was already beginning to throw its purple glow across the trees. We squatted down on our snow-shoes to get breath.

We took out the bread and salt from our bag; first I ate a little snow, and then my bread. And that bread was more delicious than anything I had ever eaten before in my life.

Thus we rested, and the nightfall was already beginning. I asked Demyan if it was far to the village.

"It will be about a dozen versts. We can get there to-night; but now we must rest. Put on your shuba, barin, or you will get cold."

Demyan broke off some fir boughs, brushed away the snow, made a bed, and he and I lay down together, side by side, with our arms for pillows. I don't remember how I fell off to sleep. But I woke up about two hours later. Something snapped.

I had been so sound asleep that I had forgotten where I was. I looked about me—what a marvelous spectacle! Where was I? I was in a strange white palace; there were white columns, and above all