Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Six/Chapter 13
CHAPTER XIII
The superstition of hunters, that if the first shot brings down bird or beast, the field will be good, was justified.
Tired and hungry, but delighted, Levin returned about ten o'clock, after a run of thirty versts, having brought down nineteen snipe and woodcock and one duck, which, for want of room in his game-bag, he hung at his belt. His companions had been long up; and after waiting till they were famished, they had eaten breakfast.
"Hold on, hold on! I know there are nineteen," cried Levin, counting for the second time his woodcock and snipe, with their bloodstained plumage, and their drooping heads all laid one over the other, so different from what they were on the marsh.
The count was verified, and Stepan Arkadyevitch's envy was delightful to Levin.
It was also delightful to him, on returning to his lodging, to find there a messenger who had just come from Kitty, bringing him a letter.
I am perfectly well and happy, and if you fear lest I shall not be sufficiently cared for, you may be reassured. I have a new body-guard in the person of Marya Vlasyevna. [She was a midwife, a new and very important personage in Levin's family.] She came over to see me. She thinks I am wonderfully well, and we shall keep her till you get back. We are all well and happy, and if you are enjoying yourself and the hunting is good you may stay another day.
These two pleasures—his successful hunt and the letter from his wife—were so great, that they effaced from Levin's mind two less agreeable incidents. The first was the fact that his fast horse, who had apparently been overworked the evening before, refused to eat and was out of sorts. The coachman said that she was used up.
"They abused her last evening, Konstantin Dmitritch," said he. "The idea! They drove her ten versts at full speed!"
The second unpleasantness, which for the first moment put an end to his happy frame of mind, but which afterward caused him no end of amusement, arose from the fact that not a thing was left for him from all the abundant store of provisions which Kitty had put up for them, and which it seemed ought to have lasted them a whole week. As he returned from his long and weary tramp. Levin had indulged his imagination in certain tarts, so that when he entered the izba he actually felt the taste of them in his mouth just as Laska scented the game, and he immediately ordered Filipp to serve them to him. It then transpired that not only the tarts, but all the cold chicken, had disappeared.
"There! talk of appetites," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing and nodding at Vasenka Veslovsky; "I cannot complain of mine, but this is marvelous."
"Well! what shall I do?" cried Levin, glowering at Veslovsky. "Filipp, give me some cold beef."
"Beef's all gone and the dogs have got the bones!" replied Filipp.
Levin was so irritated that he could not help exclaiming, "I should think you might have left something for me!" and he felt like crying.
"Then cook me a woodcock," he said, with trembling voice, to Filipp, trying not to look at Vasenka, "and bring me some milk."
But after he drank his milk he was mortified because he had shown his disappointment so plainly and before a stranger, and he began to laugh at himself for his anger.
In the afternoon they went out into the fields again, and even Veslovsky shot several birds, and at night they went home.
They were as gay on their return as they had been while going. Veslovsky now sang songs, and now told of his adventures with the muzhiks who gave him his vodka and bade him drink it down quick. Then he related his nocturnal experiences with the nuts and the farm girl, and the muzhik who asked him if he was married or not, and who, when he found that he was not married, said to him: "Well, you'd better not be running after other folks' women; first of all go home and get a wife for yourself."
This advice greatly amused Veslovsky.
"Well, on the whole, I am awfully glad we went, aren't you, Levin?"
"Very glad," replied Levin, sincerely, and he was especially happy because he no longer felt that animosity which he had felt at home toward Vasenka Veslovsky; but, on the other hand, had conceived a genuine friendship for him.