DESIRE STRONGER THAN
NECESSITY[1]
WE were on a bear hunt. My comrade had succeeded in shooting a bear; he had wounded him in some tender spot. There was a little blood on the snow, but the bear had escaped.
We went into the forest and began to plan what to do,—whether we should make a search then and there for the bear, or wait two or three days until he showed himself.
We began to ask the peasant bear-drivers whether it were possible now to get on the track of this bear. An old bear-driver said:—
"It is impossible! you must give the bear a chance to recover: in five days you can get round him; but now if you follow him it will only frighten him, and he won't go to his lair."
But a young bear-driver disagreed with the old peasant, and said that now was the time to get round the bear.
"In such deep snow as this the bear can't go a great distance—he is a fat bear. He won't go into his lair to-day. And if he does not go into his lair, I can track him on my snow-shoes."
My comrade also was disinclined to track the bear, and advised waiting till another time.
But said I:—
"What is the use of discussing it? You do as you
- ↑ Okhota pushche nyevoli: Russian proverb; but literally it might also mean, "Hunting more (or worse) than slavery."
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