Hasan Vokine

“ Painfully he spoke: "Dmitri—good-bye."
The son was unable to answer. He kissed his father and arose. Moving from the pile of straw he slid aside a block of wood, and exposed a small hole in the door. The moon shone down on a silver carpet, crossed and recrossed by the sinister shadows of wolves. He studied the glistening fur which covered their lithe bodies, beautiful despite the shudder they caused.
They seldom congregated in such numbers around a solitary hut save when a man was dead or dying. ”

“ Dmitri dreamed, as he leaned against the wall, that the cold which crept slowly up his boots from the dirt floor was a pack of wolves, gnawing, gnawing at him, and he drew his long cherkeska more tightly about him.
THE sun arose, and each beam chased away another wolf. Soon the whole world was glorious and golden, save for the two within the hut. ”

“ This is a superstitious story, typical of the Russian peasant. The son's story was taken as an omen that Andrey had been forgiven by the Great Father as well as by their "Little Father" the tsar. Had he not been allowed to visit the misty world of after death? ”