hunter notes

Chapter 16 Guo Fu (2)
"is it?"

"That's right, she was an actress... and even went on stage. Our hostess has a theater in her own home."

"What role have you played?"

"what did you say?"

"What are you doing on the stage?"

"Don't you know? They took me and dressed me up; and that's how I went on stage, either standing or sitting, as the case may be. I did as they told me to. One day Play me blind...they put a pea under each of my eyelids...no!"

"So what do you do next?"

"Then I became a chef again."

"Why have you been demoted to cook again?"

"Because my brother ran away."

"Well, then what were you doing at the father of your first mistress?"

"Observed in various errands, first as a boy, as a coachman, as a gardener, and later as a houndman."

"Houndman? . . . Do you ride with your hounds?"

"Yes, but I fell with the horse, and the horse was wounded. Our old master was very strict, sent me to be beaten, and made me apprentice to a shoemaker in Moscow."

"Why an apprentice? Were you a boy when you were the dog-hunter?"

"At that time, I should have been in my 20s."

"How can you still be an apprentice at the age of 20?"

"Of course the master ordered it, and it may always be possible. Luckily he died soon after, and they called me back."

"When did you learn to be a chef?" Su Rock raised his thin yellow face and smiled. "You still need to learn...women can cook!"

"Well," I said, "Kuzma, you've seen a lot in your life! But since you don't have fish here, what's your job doing now?"

"My lord, I don't complain. Thank God for making me a fisherman. And there's an old man like me—André Pourber—whom the mistress puts him to work drawing water in a paper mill. She said, you can't eat without working... Pourber was still hoping for mercy, and a cousin of his, who worked as a clerk in the mistress's office, promised to intercede for him. What kind of favor!... But I am I saw Puber kowtow to his cousin with his own eyes."

"Do you have any family? Are you married?"

"No, sir, not married. The dead Tatyana Vasilyevna—give her heaven!—forbids anyone to marry. Absolutely not! She used to say: 'I am not, too. Celibate? How bold! What are they marrying for?'”

"But what do you live on now? Have a wage?"

"My lord, there is no wages! . . . It is a kindness to have a mouthful of food! I am very content. God bless our mistress a long life!"

Ermolay is back.

"The boat is repaired," he said solemnly, "go get the pole-you! . . . "

Su Shaoke ran to get the pole.While I was talking to the poor old man, Vladimir the hunter looked at him from time to time with a contemptuous smile.

"This man is a fool," he said after the man had left, "a total uneducated man, just a country bumpkin. He can't be called a servant...he's all bragging...how can he do it Think, actor! You've wasted your time talking to him!"

A quarter of an hour later, we had already boarded Su Rock's gondola. (We left the dog in the house with Yegudil, the coachman.) We felt uncomfortable, but hunters are not demanding.Sushak stood on the blunt end of the boat and poled; Vladimir and I sat on the crossbar in the boat; Yermolay sat on the bow.Even with the hemp crumbs, the water quickly poured under our feet.Fortunately, the weather was stable and the pond seemed to be asleep.

Our boat held on very slowly.The old man tried his best to pull out the long pole covered with green threads covered with water plants from the slime; the dense round leaves of water lilies also hindered our boat from moving forward.Finally we arrived at the place where there were reeds, and it became lively all at once.The ducks, startled at the sudden appearance of us in their territory, flew up from the pond quickly, and the bullets shot behind them, and these short-tailed birds somersaulted in the air and fell heavily into the water , let's have a great time.Naturally, we couldn't pick up all the ducks that were shot, because some ducks were slightly injured and went into the water; Even sharp eyes cannot find them.Even so, by noon our boat was full of ducks.

Yermolay was greatly relieved that Vladimir's marksmanship was not very good. After each failed shot, he would be surprised, check the gun, blow it, look puzzled, and finally turned to us. Explain why he missed.Yermolai shot, as usual, always successfully, and I still shot very badly.Su Rock often looked at us with the eyes he was accustomed to serving his master since he was a child, and sometimes shouted: "Over there, there is a duck over there!" scratch.The weather was fine, some white clouds moved high and slowly over our heads, and were clearly reflected in the water; the reeds rustled all around;We were about to go back to the village when something bad happened suddenly.

We've seen it already: the water has been slowly soaking into our punt.Vladimir was assigned to scoop out the water with a ladle my prescient hunter had stolen from an unwary peasant woman just in case.Things went smoothly while Vladimir did not forget his mission.But towards the end of the hunt, the ducks seemed to be saying goodbye to us, and so many flocks flew up that we had no time to reload.In the tense moment of the exchange of bullets, we did not pay attention to the condition of our punt - suddenly, due to a violent movement of Yermolai (he tried to pull a dead duck, leaning his whole weight on the One side of the boat), our rotten boat tilted, filled with water, and sank directly to the bottom of the pond, fortunately not in the deep water.We yelled, but it was too late, and in an instant we were all in the water up to our throats, surrounded by floating carcasses of dead ducks.Now I think of the frightened, pale faces of my companions (perhaps mine was not ruddy then either), and I can't help laughing; only then, to be honest, I didn't think of being ridiculous at all.We all raised our guns to our heads, and Su Rock, perhaps because he was used to imitating his master, also raised his pole to his head.Yermolay was the first to break the silence.

"Bah, what a bad luck!" He spat into the water and said in a low voice, "How can such a thing happen! It's all your fault, you old ghost!" He said to Su Rock angrily: " What is your boat made of?"

"I'm sorry." The old man said vaguely. "You're not right either," my hunter continued, turning his head to Vladimir, "what are you in charge of? Why don't you scoop up water? You, you, you..." But Vladimir could no longer speak, he Trembling like a leaf, chattering teeth, smiling meaninglessly.His eloquence, his refined manners, his self-respect, all gone!
The damn punt rocked gently under our feet.At the moment when the ship sank, we felt that the water was very cold, but we quickly got used to it.After the initial fear was over, I looked up and saw that ten steps away from us were all reeds; in the distance, on top of the reeds, I could see the shore. "Unlucky!" I thought.

"What shall we do next?" I asked Yermolai. "Let's find a way so we don't spend the night here."

he answered. "Hey, you have a gun," he said to Vladimir.Vladimir immediately obeyed him. "I'm going to find the ford," continued Yermolay confidently, as if there should be a ford in any pond. ——He took Su Rock's pole, carefully explored the bottom of the water, and walked towards the shore.

"Can you swim?" I asked him. "No, I can't swim." His voice came from behind the reed. "Well, he will drown." Su Rock said indifferently.He was not afraid of danger before, but he was afraid of our anger. Now he has completely calmed down, but sometimes he is panting, and he doesn't seem to feel the need to change his status quo. "And it's a useless loss," added Vladimir sadly.

An hour later Yermolay did not come back.This hour seems like forever to us.At first we echoed him constantly, but then he responded less and less to our calls, and finally there was no response at all.The village bells rang for Vespers.We didn't speak a word to each other, and we tried to avoid looking at each other.Ducks flew over our heads, and some tried to land beside us, but finally they flew up in a straight line and flew away screaming.Gradually we feel paralyzed.Su Rock blinked his eyes, as if he was going to sleep.Yermolay has finally returned, and we are overjoyed. "How is it?" "I've reached the shore and found the ford. Let's go."

We wanted to go right away, but first he took out a rope from his pocket that was submerged in the water, tied the feet of the ducks, took both ends of the rope with his teeth, and walked forward slowly go.Vladimir walked behind Yermolay, and I after him.Su Rock was at the end of the line.About 200 steps from the shore, Yermolay continued boldly (he knew the paths well), sometimes shouting: "Keep left, there is a hole on the right!" or "Keep right, go left and you will sink..." Occasionally the water came up to our throats, and poor Sujok, who was shorter than us, was twice topless and foaming. "Hey, hello, hello!" Yermolay called him sternly, so Sushak struggled vigorously upwards, swayed his feet, jumped up, and finally reached a shallower place, but even in the most urgent At the critical moment, he didn't dare to grab the hem of my coat.Exhausted, muddy, and soaking wet, we finally made it to shore.

After two hours or so we had dried our clothes as best we could and were sitting in a spacious hayloft ready for dinner.Yegudil, the coachman, a very slow, cautious, sleepy man, stood by the gate and warmly asked Su Rock to take a snuff. (I have observed that Russian coachmen are very friendly at first sight.) Su Rock smoked wildly for a while, and he became nauseous. He spit and coughed, obviously feeling very happy.

Vladimir looked tired, tilted his head, and said little.Yermolay was cleaning our guns.The dogs were wagging their tails fast, waiting for the oatmeal; the horses were stomping and neighing under the eaves... the sun was setting, and its last rays would shine everywhere in many broad bands of crimson; Clouds scattered across the sky, thinner and thinner, like washed wool... Singing came from the village.

(End of this chapter)