Anna Karenina

Chapter 15
The place fixed on for the stand-shooting was not far above a stream in a
little aspen copse. On reaching the copse, Levin got out of the trap and led
Oblonsky to a corner of a mossy, swampy glade, already quite free from
snow. He went back himself to a double birch tree on the other side, and
leaning his gun on the fork of a dead lower branch, he took off his full
overcoat, fastened his belt again, and worked his arms to see if they were
free.
Gray old Laska, who had followed them, sat down warily opposite him and
pricked up her ears. The sun was setting behind a thick forest, and in the
glow of sunset the birch trees, dotted about in the aspen copse, stood out
clearly with their hanging twigs, and their buds swollen almost to bursting.
From the thickest parts of the copse, where the snow still remained, came
the faint sound of narrow winding threads of water running away. Tiny
birds twittered, and now and then fluttered from tree to tree.
In the pauses of complete stillness there came the rustle of last year's
leaves, stirred by the thawing of the earth and the growth of the grass.
"Imagine! One can hear and see the grass growing!" Levin said to himself,
noticing a wet, slate-colored aspen leaf moving beside a blade of young
grass. He stood, listened, and gazed sometimes down at the wet mossy
ground, sometimes at Laska listening all alert, sometimes at the sea of bare
tree tops that stretched on the slope below him, sometimes at the darkening
sky, covered with white streaks of cloud.
A hawk flew high over a forest far away with slow sweep of its wings;
another flew with exactly the same motion in the same direction and
vanished. The birds twittered more and more loudly and busily in the
thicket. An owl hooted not far off, and Laska, starting, stepped cautiously a
few steps forward, and putting her head on one side, began to listen
intently. Beyond the stream was heard the cuckoo. Twice she uttered her
usual cuckoo call, and then gave a hoarse, hurried call and broke down.
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"Imagine! the cuckoo already!" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, coming out from
behind a bush.
"Yes, In hear it," answered Levin, reluctantly breaking the stillness with his
voice, which sounded disagreeable to himself. "Now it's coming!"
Stepan Arkadyevitch's figure again went behind the bush, and Levin saw
nothing but the bright flash of a match, followed by the red glow and blue
smoke of a cigarette.
"Tchk! tchk!" came the snapping sound of Stepan Arkadyevitch cocking his
gun.
"What's that cry?" asked Oblonsky, drawing Levin's attention to a
prolonged cry, as though a colt were whinnying in a high voice, in play.
"Oh, don't you know it? That's the hare. But enough talking! Listen, it's
flying!" almost shrieked Levin, cocking his gun.
They heard a shrill whistle in the distance, and in the exact time, so well
known to the sportsman, two seconds later-- another, a third, and after the
third whistle the hoarse, guttural cry could be heard.
Levin looked about him to right and to left, and there, just facing him
against the dusky blue sky above the confused mass of tender shoots of the
aspens, he saw the flying bird. It was flying straight towards him; the
guttural cry, like the even tearing of some strong stuff, sounded close to his
ear; the long beak and neck of the bird could be seen, and at the very instant
when Levin was taking aim, behind the bush where Oblonsky stood, there
was a flash of red lightning: the bird dropped like an arrow, and darted
upwards again. Again came the red flash and the sound of a blow, and
fluttering its wings as though trying to keep up in the air, the bird halted,
stopped still and instant, and fell with a heavy splash on the slushy ground.
"Can I have missed it?" shouted Stepan Arkadyevitch, who could not see
for the smoke.
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"Here it is!" said Levin, pointing to Laska, who with one ear raised,
wagging the end of her shaggy tail, came slowly back as though she would
prolong the pleasure, and as it were smiling, brought the dead bird to her
master. "Well, I'm glad you were successful," said Levin, who, at the same
time, had a sense of envy that he had not succeeded in shooting the snipe.
"It was a bad shot from the right barrel," responded Stepan Arkadyevitch,
loading his gun. "Sh...it's flying!"
The shrill whistles rapidly following one another were heard again. Two
snipe, playing and chasing one another, and only whistling, not crying, flew
straight at the very heads of the sportsmen. There was the report of four
shots, and like swallows the snipe turned swift somersaults in the air and
vanished from sight.
The stand-shooting was capital. Stepan Arkadyevitch shot two more birds
and Levin two, of which one was not found. It began to get dark. Venus,
bright and silvery, shone with her soft light low down in the west behind
the birch trees, and high up in the east twinkled the red lights of Arcturus.
Over his head Levin made out the stars of the Great Bear and lost them
again. The snipe had ceased flying; but Levin resolved to stay a little
longer, till Venus, which he saw below a branch if birch, should be above
it, and the stars of the Great Bear should be perfectly plain. Venus had risen
above the branch, and the ear of the Great Bear with its shaft was now all
plainly visible against the dark blue sky, yet still he waited.
"Isn't it time to go home?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch.
It was quite still now in the copse, and not a bird was stirring.
"Let's stay a little while," answered Levin.
"As you like."
They were standing now about fifteen paces from one another.
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"Stiva!" said Levin unexpectedly; "how is it you don't tell me whether your
sister-in-law's married yet, or when she's going to be?"
Levin felt so resolute and serene that no answer, he fancied, could affect
him. But he had never dreamed of what Stepan Arkadyevitch replied.
"She's never thought of being married, and isn't thinking of it; but she's
very ill, and the doctors have sent her abroad. They're positively afraid she
may not live."
"What!" cried Levin. "Very ill? What is wrong with her? How has she...?"
While they were saying this, Laska, with ears pricked up, was looking
upwards at the sky, and reproachfully at them.
"They have chosen a time to talk," she was thinking. "It's on the wing....
Here it is, yes, it is. They'll miss it," thought Laska.
But at that very instant both suddenly heard a shrill whistle which, as it
were, smote on their ears, and both suddenly seized their guns and two
flashes gleamed, and two gangs sounded at the very same instant. The snipe
flying high above instantly folded its wings and fell into a thicket, bending
down the delicate shoots.
"Splendid! Together!" cried Levin, and he ran with Laska into the thicket to
look for the snipe.
"Oh, yes, what was it that was unpleasant?" he wondered. "Yes, Kitty's
ill.... Well, it can't be helped; I'm very sorry," he thought.
"She's found it! Isn't she a clever thing?" he said, taking the warm bird from
Laska's mouth and packing it into the almost full game bag. "I've got it,
Stiva!" he shouted.
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