side, was somewhat agitated, although he strove not to show it. The day was grey; the greenery shone brightly; the birds twittered rather discordantly. They glanced back as they rode away. Their farm seemed to have sunk into the earth. All that was visible above the surface was the two chimneys of their modest cottage, and the crests of the trees up which they had been wont to climb like squirrels; before them still stretched the meadow by which they could recall the whole history of their lives, from the years when they had rolled in its dewey grass, up to the years when they had awaited in it a black-bowed kazák maiden, who ran timidly across it with her quick, young feet. And now only one pole above the well, with the cart-wheel fastened on top, rises solitary against the sky; already the plain across which they have been riding appears a hill in the distance, and has concealed everything. Farewell childhood, and games, and everything—farewell!
