Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-07-16

/ was ordered by his father to return home
/ forthwith Submissive boy as he always
was. he Obeyed. He found his father
! driver. leaner, more yellow, and more OF
/ a skinflint than ever He saw the ole
! house with its narrow windows anC
| greenish windOw-panes, some OF the lat.
/ ter gone and the holes which they had
4 left stuffed with old dishclOths and
shreds of paper. The planks of the
! roof. once red. were sprung and worm
! eaten He saw in the large yard the
/ same nuddles in which when a child he
| had dabbIed with ducks and geese; the
same garden overrun with weeds and net
| Ties. He went into the ante-chamber and
! aroused a swarm Of flies which buzzed
/ about. knocking against the wall and
/ CEILING. in the room were old shoes run
/ down at the heel, bits OF leather, rakes
/ with broken teeth, battered spades
/ scraps of rusty iron, jug of kwas in a
/ corner. and in the middle Of all an ema
/ ciated child in tatters who was winding
/ off thread into skeins.
/ His father received him in silence
with bantering look which seemed Ia
say, Here you are back again, my boy,
! eli? Now that YOU have inherited, Won
will recommence here your life lust
where you left off eight years ago. Leave
| books and writings for others; as for
| YOU, you shall be, as | have always de
sired YOU to be, a serious man, and YOU
will inherit from me with more difficulty
than YOU did from your uncle
The uncIe's estate was distant one
davis Journey from old RaZoumofs
house. Razoumof leased it out, and i'm
mediateIy placed a spade and a pillow
in the hands of Sergius. These hands.
like his mind, had become delicate This
paternal persistence and self-will was a
terrible blow to Sergius. He saw crushed
to earth all his dreams of higher life
which had already begun to dawn
study, the interchange of thought with
distinguished minds, poetry-but he did
not dare to revolt.
Whatever may be the misery of the
remainder of my days, he said to him
self, | at least will have lived eight
years
9 He had brought a few books with
him; his father opened his trunk, saw
them, and carried them away. An hour
afterward Sergius detected a strange
smell Of burnt paper. RazOumof, who
had for a long time done his own cook
inc, was warming over by the flame of
the burning books q dish which he had
cooked on the day before. Sergius re-
sumcd his work in the fields and kept
down the bitterness Of his sorrow
And thus two years passed away.
Ill.
One autumn morning, with pickaX
on shoulder, wearing a shabby black
coat, the sole remaining garment left
from his wardrobe ut Moscow, he was
passing through a grove Of fir trees on
his way to the fields He met a young
Girl who was gathering mushrooms. She
wore a white and blue striped petticoat,
a cloak Of dark cloth, and an embroid-
cred apron. Her blonde tresses escaped
from under Il wide brimmed straw hat.
The lightness Of her movements, the
graceful curves Of her young form, at
tractcd him. She was not a peasant
girl He paused in his walk blushed,
and saluted her She also blushed and
returned his salute, and then they stood
for a little while gazing at each other like
two children. The young girl first turned
and continued on herWay. Reaching the
verge of the woods she disappeared in
hemp field.
e" The same hour on the next day found
Sergius in the same place. At q dis
lance he recognized the young girls
straw hat Hanging to her arm was the
little basket which he had seen on the
morning before. She was STOPPING and
was gathering, or pretending to gather,
mushrooms. He walked toward her,
lifted his hat, and passed quickly by
without turning around This mancu-
yerin@ lasted for eight days. Then he
said TO himself that there would soon be
I, 1-F+ !
ing lie would find himself alone in the
woods. On the following day as if actu-
ated by deSpairing resolve he spoke to
the young girl He learned from her
that she was poor orphan who had been
adopted by a childless widow residing III
the neighbOrhood. Reared in a convent,
with her benefactress.
"Tatiana, without being beautiful,
possessed a certain charm. AS is gener
ally the case with Russian women the
animation of her features cOntrasted
with the tiXity and depth of her gaze.
Endless dreams passed across her face.
Her eyes were green, with shade OF
gold in them; her shape undulating; her
eXtremities delicate
Sergius soon made the acquaintance
of Theclc Matrimonial, the mother by
adoption of the young girl. From that
time forth he passed his days not in the
field, but with them.
In the morning he would go to
Thecle MartinOvna's house and would
find Tatiana in grove of willows on the
border of a pond near the house, whence
she was watching for his coming. From
there they would go into the woods,
breathing the rOSin'S delicious and pene-
tlating odOr, listening to the drumming
of the green woodpeckers, and gathering
mulberries and hazlenutS. Sometimes
they would sit in the clearings between
two birch-trees, and while Tatiana would
make necklaces of wild berries which
resembled grains of coral in the moist
verdure Segius would cut Tatiana's
name with penknife in the silver bark
of the trees.
"Then they would return across the
fields, enveloped in the luminous autumn
nal sun, at every step soaring up Innu-
merable criCkets. Reaching the house
they would follow Thecle Martinovna
into the barns among the chickens, IN
the Enclosure where were ranged the
bee-hives, from which they would take
delicious combs of perfumed and trans
parent honey
In the evening Tatiana would serve
the repast in a clump of raspberry
bushes. The bowls of cream were sur
rounded with branches of holly, the
cheese and butter were spread out on
vine leaves; there were golden cakes,
amber-colored honey, dried figs. They
would eat heartily, and laugh without
the shadow of care upon them.