United States or Saint Martin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She rose from her bed of bear-skin furs, and naked, with swift, awkward, uncertain steps, went in to Demid. He was still asleep she put her burning arms about him and drew his head to her deep bosom, whispering to him softly: "A child ... it is the child...." Little by little, the night lifted and in through the windows came the daylight.
She placed an image of the God-Mother in the corner; she washed the floor; and her multi-coloured room smelling as before of the woods began to resemble a forest-chapel, where the forest folk pray to their gods. In the pale-greenish twilight of the illimitable night, when only horn-owls cried in the woods and bear-cubs snarled by the river, Demid went in to Marina.
Meanwhile he continued to suffuse my face with the hot, thick odour of spirituous liquor. "Father Demid!" again essayed the old woman with an imploring wail, but he cut her short with the menacing admonition: "How often have I told you that you must not address a deacon as 'Father'? Go to bed! Yes, be off with you, and let me mind my affairs myself! GO, I say!
The pine-trees and cedars stood starkly under their raiment of snow mighty forest giants beneath them clustered prickly firs, junipers and alders. The stillness was profound. Demid sped from trap to trap, from snare to snare, over the silent soundless snow. He strangled the beasts; he fired, and the crack of his gun resounded through the empty space.
Marina was installed in Makar's room, and he was transferred to Demid's. Makar greeted Marina with an inhospitable snarl when he saw her for the first time; then, showing his teeth, he struck her with his paw. Demid beat him for this behaviour, and he quieted down. Then Marina made friends with him. Demid went into the woods in the daytime, and Marina was left alone.
One was quite young, the other older; both fierce in words, and not bad specimens of Cossacks in action. They were followed by Demid Popovitch, a strongly built Cossack who had been hanging about the Setch for a long time, after having been in Adrianople and undergoing a great deal in the course of his life.
In the daytime she did her simple houskeeping chopped wood, heated the stove, cooked meat and fish, helped Demid to skin the beasts he had slain, and to weed their plot of land. During the long evenings she spun and wove clothes for the coming babe. As she sewed she thought of the child, and sung and smiled softly.
Makar licked Demid's hand, and laid his head knowingly on his forepaws. The night had gone; rays of lilac-coloured light illumined the snow and entered the house. Round, red, and distant rose the sun. Below the hill lay the blue, ice-bound river, and away beyond it stretched the ribbed outline of the vast, marshy Siberian forest. Demid did not enter it that day, nor on many of the following days.
Demid rose from his bench, took Marina tenderly and firmly in his arms, and led her to the bed. The lamp flickered, and in the half- light Makar's eyes glowed. He had grown up during the winter and he was now an adult bear with a sombre, solemn air and a kind of clumsy skill. He had a large flat nose and grave, good-natured eyes. It was the last days of December.
She could not think her mind moved slowly and awkwardly like a great lumbering animal she could only feel, and in those warm, voluptuous, star-drenched nights she yielded herself to Demid, desiring to become one with him, his strength, and his passion. The nights were pale, tremulous, and mysterious. There was a deep, heavy, nocturnal stillness. White spirals of mist drifted along the ground.
Word Of The Day