A SPORTSMAN'S SKETCHES
'No; I don't want one. Better give it to her; she is so kind to us at home.'
And Vanya laid his head down again on the ground. Pavel got up and took the empty pot in his hand.
'Where are you going?' Fedya asked him.
'To the river, to get water; I want some water to drink.'
The dogs got up and followed him.
'Take care you don't fall into the river!' Ilyusha cried after him.
'Why should he fall in?' said Fedya. 'He will be careful.'
'Yes, he will be careful. But all kinds of things happen; he will stoop over, perhaps, to draw the water, and the water-spirit will clutch him by the hand, and drag him to him. Then they will say, "The boy fell into the water." . . . Fell in, indeed! . . . There, he has crept in among the reeds," he added, listening.
The reeds certainly 'shished,' as they call it among us, as they were parted.
'But is it true,' asked Kostya, 'that crazy Akulina has been mad ever since she fell into the water?'
'Yes, ever since. . . . How dreadful she is now! But they say she was a beauty before then. The water-spirit bewitched her. I suppose he did not expect they would get her out so soon. So down there at the bottom he bewitched her.'
(I had met this Akulina more than once.
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