Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART SIX CHAPTER 11
One of the boys ran up to Levin.
“Uncle, there were ducks here yesterday!” he shouted to him, and he walked a
little way off behind him.
And Levin was doubly pleased, in sight of the boy, who expressed his approval,
at killing three snipe, one after another, straight off.
Chapter 13
The sportsman’s saying, that if the first beast or the first bird is not missed, the day
will be lucky, turned out correct.
At ten o’clock Levin, weary, hungry, and happy after a tramp of twenty miles,
returned to his night’s lodging with nineteen head of fine game and one duck, which
he tied to his belt, as it would not go into the game bag. His companions had long
been awake, and had had time to get hungry and have breakfast.
“Wait a bit, wait a bit, I know there are nineteen,” said Levin, counting a second
time over the grouse and snipe, that looked so much less important now, bent and
dry and bloodstained, with heads crooked aside, than they did when they were flying.
The number was verified, and Stepan Arkadyevitch’s envy pleased Levin. He was
pleased too on returning to find the man sent by Kitty with a note was already there.
“I am perfectly well and happy. If you were uneasy about me, you can feel easier
than ever. I’ve a new bodyguard, Marya Vlasyevna,”–this was the midwife, a new
and important personage in Levin’s domestic life. “She has come to have a look at
me. She found me perfectly well, and we have kept her till you are back. All are
happy and well, and please, don’t be in a hurry to come back, but, if the sport is
good, stay another day.”
These two pleasures, his lucky shooting and the letter from his wife, were so great
that two slightly disagreeable incidents passed lightly over Levin. One was that the
chestnut trace horse, who had been unmistakably overworked on the previous day,
was off his feed and out of sorts. The coachman said he was “Overdriven yesterday,
Konstantin Dmitrievitch. Yes, indeed! driven ten miles with no sense!”
The other unpleasant incident, which for the first minute destroyed his good humor,
though later he laughed at it a great deal, was to find that of all the provisions
Kitty had provided in such abundance that one would have thought there was
enough for a week, nothing was left. On his way back, tired and hungry from shooting,
Levin had so distinct a vision of meat-pies that as he approached the hut he
seemed to smell and taste them, as Laska had smelt the game, and he immediately
told Philip to give him some. It appeared that there were no pies left, nor even any
chicken.
“Well, this fellow’s appetite!” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing and pointing
at Vassenka Veslovsky. “I never suffer from loss of appetite, but he’s really marvelous!...”
“Well, it can’t be helped,” said Levin, looking gloomily at Veslovsky. “Well, Philip,
give me some beef, then.”
“The beef’s been eaten, and the bones given to the dogs,” answered Philip.
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