United States or Morocco ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The girls laughed at Daddy Eroshka, and it was past ten when they all went out into the porch. The old men invited themselves to finish their merry-making at Olenin's. Ustenka ran off home and Eroshka led the old Cossack to Vanyusha. The old woman went out to tidy up the shed. Maryanka remained alone in the hut. Olenin felt fresh and joyous, as if he had only just woke up.
Ustenka was a pretty girl, small, plump, rosy, with merry brown eyes, and red lips which were perpetually smiling and chattering. Maryanka on the contrary was certainly not pretty but beautiful.
It was already late in the night when Olenin came out of Beletski's hut following Maryanka and Ustenka. He saw in the dark street before him the gleam of the girl's white kerchief. The golden moon was descending towards the steppe. A silvery mist hung over the village. All was still; there were no lights anywhere and one heard only the receding footsteps of the young women.
'Oh, just chattering what came into his head, answered Ustenka. 'What does mine not say! Just as if he was possessed! Maryanka dropped her hand on her folded beshmet, threw her arm over Ustenka's shoulder, and shut her eyes. 'He wanted to come and work in the vineyard to-day: father invited him, she said, and after a short silence she fell asleep.
Ustenka tore herself away, and swinging her arm gave him such a blow on the back that she hurt her hand. "Well, are you going to have another turn?" he asked. "The other girls may if they like," answered Ustenka, "but I am going home and Maryanka was coming to our house too." With his arm still round her, Lukashka led Maryanka away from the crowd to the darker corner of a house.
She nudged Ustenka and smilingly pointed him out to her. 'I went yesterday and didn't find a single one, Olenin was saying as he looked about uneasily, not seeing Maryanka through the branches.
'Now then, girls, up with you! she cried. Maryanka and Ustenka under the cart were whispering and could hardly restrain their laughter. Since it had become known that Olenin had given a horse worth fifty rubles to Lukashka, his hosts had become more amiable and the cornet in particular saw with pleasure his daughter's growing intimacy with Olenin.
'Do you know, said Beletski, 'if one were to dress Ustenka up and clean and polish her up a bit, she'd be better than all our beauties. Have you ever seen that Cossack woman who married a colonel; she was charming! Borsheva? What dignity! Where do they get it... 'I have not seen Borsheva, but I think nothing could be better than the costume they wear here.
Although there was no escape from the heat and the mosquitoes swarmed in the cool shadow of the wagons, and her little brother tossing about beside her kept pushing her, Maryanka having drawn her kerchief over her head was just falling asleep, when suddenly their neighbour Ustenka came running towards her and, diving under the wagon, lay down beside her.
Lukashka turned towards Ustenka, and Maryanka sat down next to a woman with a baby in her arms. The baby stretched his plump little hands towards the girl and seized a necklace string that hung down onto her blue beshmet. Maryanka bent towards the child and glanced at Lukashka from the corner of her eyes.
Word Of The Day