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'If it's shooting you've come after, sir, there are woodcocks at Moshnoy three coveys, and five of moorhens, he observed, and set to work again. With Yegor and with Kondrat I went out the next day in search of sport. We drove rapidly over the open ground surrounding Svyatoe, but when we got into the forest we crawled along at a walking pace once more.

Directly the noonday heat was over, it became cold and dark so rapidly in the forest that one felt no desire to remain in it. 'Away, restless mortals, it seemed whispering sullenly from each pine. We came out, but it was some time before we could find Kondrat. We shouted, called to him, but he did not answer.

The sick beast plunges into the thicket and expires there alone: he seems to feel that he no longer has the right to look upon the sun that is common to all, nor to breathe the open air; he has not the right to live; and the man who from his own fault or from the fault of others is faring ill in the world ought, at least, to know how to keep silence. 'Well, Yegor! cried Kondrat all at once.

I even noticed, more than once, an oak-bush, with dry hanging leaves, hemmed in all round and yet untouched, except for a slight singeing at its base. I must own I could not understand why the dry leaves were not burned. Kondrat explained to me that it was owing to the fact that the fire was overground, 'that's to say, not angry. 'But it's fire all the same, I protested.

We got out; Kondrat led the cart into the bushes, so that the gnats should not bite the horses. Yegor examined the cock of his gun and crossed himself: he never began anything without the sign of the cross. The forest into which we had come was exceedingly old.

'Morning to you, Alexandritch, he added, raising his voice, and lifting his cap. A short peasant in a short, black smock, with a cord round the waist, came out from behind a tree, and approached the cart. 'Why, have they let you off? inquired Kondrat. 'I should think so! replied the peasant, and he grinned. 'You don't catch them keeping the likes of me.

'I've seen a lot of woodcocks, the peasant went on, seeming all the while to be laughing, and making Kondrat no answer. 'But you'll never get there; as the crow flies it'll be fifteen miles. Why, even Yegor here not a doubt but he's as at home in the forest as in his own back-yard, but even he won't make his way there. Hullo, Yegor, you honest penny halfpenny soul! he shouted suddenly.

'What sort of man is he? I questioned Kondrat, who, sitting in the front, kept shaking his head, as though deliberating with himself. 'That fellow? replied Kondrat, and he looked down. 'That fellow? he repeated. 'Yes. Is he of your village? 'Yes, he's a Svyatoe man. He's a fellow.... You wouldn't find the like of him, if you hunted for a hundred miles round. A thief and cheat good Lord, yes!

"Come along," says he, "Kondrat, don't be afraid. Let me show you how to live in the forest, and to keep dry in the rain." I went up to him, and he was sitting under a fir-tree, and he'd made a fire of damp twigs: the smoke hung about in the fir-tree, and kept the rain from dripping through. I was astonished at him then.

'Look, there's a wood-pigeon, said Kondrat suddenly, turning to me: 'better knock it over! Yegor looked in the direction Kondrat pointed, but said nothing. The wood-pigeon was over a hundred paces from us, and one can't kill it at forty paces; there is such strength in its feathers.