Meeting the Fugitives
37
As if in the dark.
No one along the road knows:
—What is coming? How many? What to expect? For what must they be prepared?
The sun has risen higher and it has become quite warm.
Only the shadows of the trees are outlined upon the whitened grass. And in the shadow lies the hoarfrost.
God in one thing has had pity upon the poor earth.
He has sent a warm, and best of all, a dry, autumn.
What would it have been like in—mud? What will it be like when the rain pours down?
How will the fugitives go on then?
It's far on in autumn, and such weather!
The birch woods of fair and sweet Kaluga province stand all golden.
