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A small pot was hanging over one of the fires; in it potatoes were cooking. Pavlusha was looking after them, and on his knees he was trying them by poking a splinter of wood into the boiling water. Fedya was lying leaning on his elbow, and smoothing out the skirts of his coat. Ilyusha was sitting beside Kostya, and still kept blinking constrainedly.
'And how does such an unclean brood come to exist in the world? said Pavel; 'it's a wonder. 'Don't speak ill of it; take care, it will hear you, said Ilyusha. Again there was a silence. 'Look, look, brothers, suddenly came Vanya's childish voice; 'look at God's little stars; they are swarming like bees!
'What dreadful things you were telling us, Ilyusha! began Fedya, whose part it was, as the son of a well-to-do peasant, to lead the conversation. 'Varnavitsi?... I should think it was haunted! More than once, they say, they have seen the old master there the late master. He wears, they say, a long skirted coat, and keeps groaning like this, and looking for something on the ground.
That someone really had three times called "Ilyusha" I could not doubt; that there was something plaintive and mysterious in the call, I was forced to own to myself.... But who knows, perhaps all this only appeared to be unaccountable and in reality could be explained as simply as the knocking which had agitated Tyeglev so much.
'Did your father tell you that himself? Fedya went on. 'Yes. I was lying in the loft; I heard it all. 'It's a strange thing. Why should he be sorrowful?... But I suppose she liked him, since she called him. 'Ay, she liked him! put in Ilyusha. 'Yes, indeed! she wanted to tickle him to death, that's what she wanted. That's what they do, those russalkas.
It is as though some one had uttered a long, long cry upon the very horizon, as though some other had answered him with shrill harsh laughter in the forest, and a faint, hoarse hissing hovers over the river. The boys looked round about shivering.... 'Christ's aid be with us! whispered Ilyusha. 'Ah, you craven crows! cried Pavel, 'what are you frightened of?
"So that was the 'Ilyusha," I thought, and I sank into philosophic reflections which I will not, however, intrude upon you as I don't want to prevent anyone from believing in fate, predestination and such like. When I was back in Petersburg I made inquiries about Masha. I even discovered the doctor who had treated her.
"Ilyusha ..." I fancied I heard a whisper from behind the hurdle. I glanced at Tyeglev but he seemed to have heard nothing and still held his head bowed. "Ilyusha ... ah, Ilyusha," sounded more distinctly than before so distinctly that one could tell that the words were uttered by a woman. We both started and stared at each other. "Well?" Tyeglev asked me in a whisper.
'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. 'No, I have not seen it, and God preserve me from seeing it; but others have seen it.
And in the village there were such tales about among us: that white wolves would run over the earth, and would eat men, that a bird of prey would pounce down on us, and that they would even see Trishka. '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?
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