Page:Oblomov (1915 English translation).djvu/97

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OBLOMOV
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sleep. Only in the distance a rye-field was glowing with flame, and the river sparkling and flashing in the rays of the sun until actually it hurt the eyes to look at it.

"Why is it so dark in one place and bright in another?" asked the child. "Will it soon be bright everywhere? "

"Yes. That is because the sun has come out to meet the moon, and at times keeps frowning because he cannot catch sight of her. By and by he will catch sight of her. Then he will send out his light once more."

The child pondered, and gazed at the scene around him. Before him he could see Antip driving the watercart, with another Antip, ten times as large as the real one, accompanying him, and the barrel of the cart looking as large as a house, and the horse's shadow covering the whole of the pond. Then the shadows seemed to take two strides across the pond, and then to move behind the hill, though the figure of Antip had not yet left the courtyard. In his turn the child took a couple of strides, and then a third, to see if he too would end by disappearing behind the hill, which he had a great longing to ascend, for the purpose of ascertaining what had become of the horse. Consequently he set off towards