Ivan Turgenev

“ Before I had walked two miles, already all around me, over the wide dew-drenched prairie, and in front, from forest to forest, where the hills were growing green again, and behind, over the long dusty road and the sparkling bushes, flushed with the red glow, and the river faintly blue now under the lifting mist, flowed fresh streams of burning light, first pink, then red and golden. . . . All things began to stir, to awaken, to sing, to flutter, to speak. On all sides thick drops of dew sparkled in glittering diamonds ”

“ I lay down under a bush, whose shoots had been nibbled off, and began to look round. It was a marvellous picture; about the fire a red ring of light quivered and seemed to swoon away in the embrace of a background of darkness; the flame flaring up from time to time cast swift flashes of light beyond the boundary of this circle; a fine tongue of light licked the dry twigs and died away at once; long thin shadows, in their turn breaking in for an instant, danced right up to the very fires; darkness was struggling with light. ”

“ We all fell down in a heap and huddled against one another. Just weren't we in a fright that night!"
"I say!" murmured Pavlusha, "what did he cough for?"
"I don't know; perhaps it was the damp." All were silent for a little.
"Well," inquired Fedya, "are the potatoes done?"
Pavlusha tried them.
"No, they are raw. . . . My, what a splash!" he added, turning his face in the direction of the river; "that must be a pike. . . . And there's a star falling."
"I say, I can tell you something, brothers," began Kostya in a shrill little voice; "listen what my Dad told us the other day." ”

“ From earliest morning the sky is clear; the sunrise does not glow with fire; it is suffused with a soft roseate flush. The sun, not fiery, not red-hot as in time of stifling drought, not dull purple as before a storm, but with a bright and genial radiance, rises peacefully behind a long and narrow cloud, shines out freshly, and plunges again into its lilac mist. The delicate upper edge of the strip of cloud flashes in little gleaming snakes; their brilliance is like beaten silver. ”

“ A fresh breeze passed over my face. I opened my eyes; the morning was beginning. The dawn had not yet flushed the sky, but already it was growing light in the east. Everything had become visible, though dimly visible, around. The pale-grey sky was growing light and cold and bluish; the stars twinkled with a dimmer light, or disappeared; the earth was wet, the leaves covered with dew, and from the distance came sounds of life and voices, and a light morning breeze went fluttering over the earth. ”

“ In the evening these clouds disappear; the last of them, blackish and undefined as smoke, lie streaked with pink, facing the setting sun; in the place where it has gone down, as calmly as it rose, a crimson glow lingers briefly over the darkening earth, and, softly flashing like a candle carried carelessly, the evening star flickers in the sky. On such days all the colours are softened, bright but not glaring; everything is suffused with a kind of touching tenderness. On such days the heat is sometimes very great ”

“ Shouldn't I have been frightened if I'd known!"
"But they say there are little, tiny frogs," continued Pavlusha, "who cry piteously like that."
"Frogs? Oh, no, it was not frogs, certainly not." (The heron again uttered a cry above the river.) "Ugh, there it is!" Kostya cried involuntarily; "it is just like a wood-spirit shrieking."
"The wood-spirit does not shriek, it is dumb," put in Ilyusha; "it only claps its hands and rattles."
"And have you seen it then, the wood-spirit?" Fedya asked him ironically. ”

“ Sometimes, when the fire burnt low and the circle of light shrank together, suddenly out of the encroaching darkness a horse's head was thrust in, bay, with striped markings, or all white, stared with intent blank eyes upon us, nipped hastily the long grass, and drawing back again, vanished instantly. ”

“ So Gavrila looked and looked at her, and at last he fell to questioning her. 'Why are you weeping, wild thing of the woods?' And the mermaid began to speak to him like this: 'If you had not crossed yourself, man,' she says, 'you should have lived with me in gladness of heart to the end of your days; and I weep, I am grieved at heart because you crossed yourself; but I will not grieve alone; you, too, shall grieve at heart to the end of your days.' Then she vanished, brothers, and at once it was plain to Gavrila how to get out of the forest. ”

“ He was playing on the bank, and his mother was there haymaking; suddenly she hears as though someone was blowing bubbles through the water, and behold! there was only Vasya's little cap to be seen swimming on the water. You know since then Feklista has not been right in her mind: she goes and lies down at the place where he was drowned; she lies down, brothers, and sings a song--you remember Vasya was always singing a song like that--so she sings it, too, and weeps and weeps, and bitterly rails against God."
"Here is Pavlusha coming," said Fedya. ”

“ You don't know, perhaps, Fedya, but there a drowned man was buried; he was drowned long, long ago, when the water was still deep; only his grave can still be seen, though it can only just be seen . . . just a little mound. . . . So one day the bailiff called the huntsman Yermil, and says to him, 'Go to the post, Yermil.' Yermil always goes to the post for us; he has let all his dogs die; they never will live with him, for some reason, and they have never lived with him, though he's a good huntsman, and everyone likes him. ”

“ The popular belief in Trishka is probably derived from some tradition of Antichrist--Author's Note. "What is Trishka?" asked Kostya.
"Why, don't you know?" interrupted Ilyusha warmly. "Why, brother, where have you been brought up, not to know Trishka? You're a stay-at-home, one-eyed lot in your village, really! Trishka will be a marvellous man, who will come one day, and he will be such a marvellous man that they will never be able to catch him, and never be able to do anything with him; he will be such a marvellous man. The people will try to take him ”

“ Better give it to her; she is so kind to us at home."
And Vanya laid his head down again on the ground. Pavlusha got up and took the empty pot in his hand.
"Where are you going?" Fedya asked him.
"To the river, to get water; I want some water to drink."
The dogs got up and followed him.
"Take care you don't fall into the river!" Ilyusha cried after him.
"Why should he fall in?" said Fedya. "He will be careful."
"Yes, he will be careful. But all kinds of things happen; he will stoop over, perhaps, to draw the water, and the water-spirit will clutch him by the hand, and drag him into the depths. ”

“ They were simply peasant boys from a neighbouring village, who were in charge of a drove of horses. In hot summer weather they drive the horses out at night to graze in the open country: the flies and gnats would give them no peace in the daytime; they drive out the drove towards evening, and drive them back in the early morning: it's a great treat for the peasant boys. Bare-headed, in old sheepskin coats, they bestride the most spirited nags, and scurry along with merry cries and hooting and ringing laughter, swinging their arms and legs and leaping into the air. ”

“ Covered with rags, fearfully thin, with face as black as coal, blear-eyed and for ever grinning, she would stay whole hours in one place in the road, stamping with her feet, pressing her fleshless hands to her breast, and slowly shifting from one leg to the other, like a wild beast in a cage. ”

“ The fine dust is stirred up in yellow clouds and moves along the road; the tramp of hoofs in unison resounds afar; the horses race along, pricking up their ears; in front of all, with his tail in the air and thistles in his tangled mane, prances some shaggy chestnut, constantly shifting his paces as he goes. ”

“ He will be such a marvellous wily man."
"Well, then," continued Pavlusha in his deliberate voice, "that's what he's like. And so they expected him in our parts. The old men declared that directly the heavenly portent began, Trishka would come. So the heavenly portent began. All the people were scattered over the street, in the fields, waiting to see what would happen. Our place, you know, is open country. They look; and suddenly down the mountain-side from the big village comes a man of some sort; such a strange man, with such a wonderful head that all scream, 'Oy, Trishka is coming! ”

“ Look, the potatoes are done." (They all came up to the pot and began to eat the smoking potatoes; only Vanya did not stir.) "'Well, aren't you coming?" said Pavlusha.
But he did not creep out from under his mat. The pot was soon completely emptied.
"Have you heard, boys," began Ilyusha, "what happened with us at Varnavitsi?"
"Near the dam?" asked Fedya.
"Yes, yes, near the dam, the broken-down dam. That is a haunted place, such a haunted place, and so lonely. All round there are pits and quarries, and there are always snakes in pits." ”

“ I want to get away--away.
"My word!" observed Fedya, "he didn't get enough out of life, I suppose."
"What a marvel!" said Kostya. "I thought one could only see the departed on All Hallows' Day."
"One can see the departed any time," Ilyusha interposed with conviction. From what I could observe, I judged he knew the village superstitions better than the others. "But on All Hallows' Day you can see the living too; those, that is, whose turn it is to die that year. You need only sit in the church porch and keep looking at the road. They will come by you along the road ”

“ And do you know why he is so sorrowful always, never speaks? do you know? I'll tell you why he's so sorrowful; he went one day, Daddy said, he went, brothers, into the forest nutting. So he went nutting into the forest and lost his way; he went on--God only can tell where he got to. So he went on and on, brothers--but 'twas no good!--he could not find the way; and so night came on out of doors. So he sat down under a tree. 'I'll wait till morning,' thought he. He sat down and began to drop asleep. So, as he was falling asleep, suddenly he heard someone call him. He looked up; there was no one. ”

“ Kostya shuddered. "What was that?"
"That was a heron's cry," replied Pavlusha tranquilly. "A heron," repeated Kostya. . . . "And what was it, Pavlusha, I heard yesterday evening?" he added, after a short pause; "you perhaps will know."
"What did you hear?"
"I will tell you what I heard. I was going from Stony Ridge to Shashkino; I went first through our walnut wood, and then passed by a little pool--you know where there's a sharp turn down to the ravine--there is a water-pit there, you know; it is quite overgrown with reeds ”

“ They will put him in prison, for example; he will ask for a little water to drink in a bowl; they will bring him the bowl, and he will plunge into it and vanish from their sight. They will put chains on him, but he will only clap his hands--they will fall off him. So this Trishka will go through villages and towns; and this Trishka will be a wily man; he will lead astray Christ's people . ”