Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/70

Tales from Tolstoi "Look, there lives a lazy old woman, or else she is dead, for she has not taken down her washing against the feast," said Nikita, looking at the fluttering shirts.

At the beginning of the street it was also windy, and the road was snowy, but in the middle of the village it was quiet, warm, and cheerful. At one house a dog was barking, in another courtyard an old woman with a handkerchief round her head was running home from somewhere or other, and when she reached the door of the hut she remained standing on the threshold to look at the travellers passing by. From the middle of the village resounded the songs of some girls. In the village itself the wind, the snow, and the frost seemed less than elsewhere.

"I suppose this is Grishkino," said Vasily Andreich.

"Yes, it is," replied Nikita.

And indeed Grishkino it was. It now appeared that they had taken a wrong turn to the left, and had gone eight versts, not precisely in the direction they had wanted to go, nevertheless they had been moving towards their destination; for Goryachkina was only five versts distance from Grishkino.

In the middle of the village they came upon a tall man driving in the middle of the street.

"Who goes there?" bellowed this man, stopping short, and immediately afterwards, perceiving Vasily Andreich, he caught hold of the shafts, and leaping 20