CHAPTER XXII.A WOLF-MAIDEN.
Happy as she had been before, Nancy was now in the seventh heaven ofcontent. There was no more dulness and waiting for her now, when Borishad set forth for a full day's hunting in the forest and left her tolook after household matters at home. That little baby was companionand occupation and amusement to her, all in one tiny person, and thedays passed right joyously at Karapselka.
When spring came, and the frost and snow had disappeared from thewoods, Nancy loved to take her little companion in the tiny hand-cartand pass a pleasant hour or two wandering beneath the waving pinetrees, enjoying the fine air, and listening to the thousand and onesounds of awakening forest life. The little birds populating thetree-tops were noisy at this time of year, and there were the crooningof the amorous blackcock to listen for, and the tok-tok of the gluhar,or capercailzie, while in the distance might always be heard thescreaming of cranes in some damp corner of the woods, as they kept uptheir constant sentry-cry. There was plenty both to see and hear inthese glorious woods--there always is for those who have eyes and ears,and know how to employ them to advantage--and Nancy was never weary ofstrolling with her baby asleep in her cart into the delightful gladeswhich lay within easy reach of her home.
Since her adventure with the bear, Boris had insisted that she shouldgo armed, and had presented her with a neat hunting-knife, withoutwhich she was never, he said, to stir from home, were it but for ahundred paces into the forest and back again. So Nancy went armed,though she declared she would be far too frightened to use her daggerif she were to encounter a second bear anything like the first. ButBoris explained carefully how the knife should be used in emergency,and how not to use it, of which there appeared to be a great many ways.
One day, while out strolling as usual in the forest, Nancy suddenlycaught sight of two small animals whose aspect was quite unfamiliar toher, which was odd, for she was as well acquainted with the life of theforest by this time as any Russian peasant-woman who had lived in itfrom childhood. The little creatures were somewhat like puppies, witha suggestion of fox, and when Nancy ran after them they scuttled awaywith comical little barks.
Nancy mentioned this matter to Boris on his return from hunting.
"What colour were they?" Boris asked.
Nancy said they were of a yellowish gray.
"They were young wolves, then," said Boris; "and if you see them again,catch one for me if you can--I long to possess a tame wolf-cub; buthave your knife handy in case of the mother interfering."
It so fell out that a few days after this conversation Nancy did seethese same little creatures again, four of them together; whereupon,mindful of her husband's great wish to possess one, she left thebaby asleep in its hand-cart and gave chase. The wolflings scamperedbravely, and led her up and down and about in every direction, untilNancy bethought herself that she was getting winded, and besides thatshe might easily get confused, if she went further, as to the positionin which she had left her precious little Katie. So she gave up thehunt, and returned towards the place whence she started.
Then she realized how just had been her fears, for it was withdifficulty that she succeeded at last in retracing her steps to theplace where the hand-cart had been left. To her surprise and alarm shesaw that the cart lay over upon its side; and hastening towards it sheperceived, to her unspeakable consternation and horror, that it wasempty.
Poor Nancy was not the person to sit down and do nothing in anemergency; but the horror of the discovery she had just made bereft herfor some few moments of the power of action as well as of thought. Hermind instantly flew back to the words of Boris telling her to bewareof the mother-wolf, and for several minutes these words danced inher brain. The mother-wolf, it was the mother-wolf! it had taken herdarling child in order to feed those detestable little gray scuttlingthings which she had chased through the trees! While she had beensenselessly hunting the cubs, the mother-wolf--some lean-looking, gray,skulking brute--had crept secretly up and carried away her Katie, herdarling baby.
In another moment Nancy had drawn her sharp little dagger, and withshriek upon shriek had rushed wildly into the forest and disappearedamong the pines, whither she knew not, but full of a wild determinationto find that gray thief and force her to deliver up to her thepriceless thing she had stolen.
When Boris returned home late in the afternoon he was somewhatsurprised to find that Nancy was not at home. She and the baby had gonefor a stroll in the woods, the old servant explained, and had not beenhome to dinner.
"God grant the _lieshui_ [wood-spirits] have not got hold of them, ordone them some injury!" the old fellow concluded, sighing deeply. "Theforest is a terrible place, and for my part I have always warned thebarina."
Boris did not stay to exchange words with his faithful old serf, buttaking a horse from the stable galloped off as fast as he could intothe forest, shouting Nancy's name in every direction. Up and down,and through and through every glade and pathway, wherever there wasroom for the horse to pass, Boris rode; and ever as he rode he shoutedNancy's name, until his voice grew hoarse, and the cob waxed weary, andthe light began to wane, and still he neither found trace nor heardsound of his lost wife and child.
Still he rode on and on, and would have ridden all night rather thanreturn home to misery and uncertainty; but when he was upwards oftwelve miles from the house, and his heart was despairing and hisspirit mad within him, he heard at length a faint reply to his calling.Lashing up his tired horse he dashed on, and presently, to his infinitejoy and relief, he came upon Nancy sitting worn and utterly fagged outbeneath a tree, crying bitterly, and nursing in her arms a portion ofher baby's frock which she had picked up in the forest.
For many minutes poor Nancy could do no more than cling to herhusband's broad breast, and sob and weep as though her very heart weremelted within her for sorrow. At last she held up the tiny torn dress,and murmured, "The mother-wolf," and then betook herself once more toher bitter crying.
Boris realized at once what had happened--realized also that he hadarrived far too late to do any good; for the wolf, even if it hadnot at once eaten the poor baby but carried it away to feast upon atleisure, must now be far away beyond the reach of pursuit. In hisgreat joy and thankfulness to have found Nancy safe, Boris did notfeel in all its poignancy, in these first moments, that grief for thechild which he was destined to suffer acutely afterwards. His chiefthought was for Nancy; she must be got home and at once, that was themost important duty of the moment. As for the baby, it was gone beyondrecall, and would assuredly never be seen again by mortal eye.
"Come, Nancy," he said, when he had comforted and petted his poorstricken wife, "let me get you home, and then I will scour the foreston a fresh horse. You need food and rest. If our Katie is alive, Ishall not cease searching till she is found; if not, I shall not restuntil I have killed every wolf within fifty miles of the house!"
But Nancy would not hear of it. "Oh no, no," she cried, "I shall nevergo home till we have found our darling. She is alive, I am sure of it.See, there is no blood on the frock; the wolf has not hurt her. Itstole her away because I was wicked to chase her little ones. It iswrong to catch the wild animals of God's forest and enslave them. Weought to have known it, Boris."
The frock had no stain of blood, that was true enough; and thecircumstance gave Boris some slight hope that it might be as thestricken mother had suggested, though the chances were much againstit. Boris had heard often enough stories of how wolves had taken andbefriended babies, allowing them to grow up with the cubs. His ownexperience of the ferocity and greed of these animals, however, hadalways led him to laugh at such tales as old women's yarns, unworthy ofa moment's serious consideration. Nancy had heard of them too, that wasevident, and was now leaning upon the hope that in poor little Katie'sdisappearance was living evidence of their truth.
No persuasions would induce the sorrowing mother, therefore, to give upthe search. All night long Boris walked beside the horse, supportinghis weary little wife, who c
ould scarcely sit in the saddle forweakness and fatigue; and not until the horse was unable to go furtherwould she consent to pause in the work of quartering the ground inevery direction, and riding through every clump of cover, in case thebeloved object of her search should have been concealed in it.
When morning came, and the sun rose warm and bright over the aspenbushes, Boris found a place where the horse could obtain a meal ofcoarse grass, and where Nancy, upon a soft couch of heather, could liedown and take the rest she so greatly required. He was lucky enoughto find and kill a hare, and with the help of a fire of sticks, whichno man in Russia was better able to kindle than he, an excellentimprovised breakfast was soon prepared. Afterwards, Nancy slept forseveral hours while Boris watched, listening intently the while inthe hope of hearing the sound of a wolf-howl, which might possiblyindicate the whereabouts of the thief. But the hours passed, and therewas nothing to guide him to take one direction more than another, andpoor Boris knew well enough that he had set himself a hopeless task;nevertheless, for Nancy's sake, he agreed to continue the search forthe rest of that day, and the forest was hunted as it had never beenhunted before, until his feet ached with walking, and Nancy was buthalf-conscious for sheer weariness. Then Boris took the law into hisown hands and directed the horse for home, and the weary trio reachedKarapselka as the shadows of night fell upon the forest behind them.
The next morning a peasant came early and inquired for the barin.Boris, who was about to set out once more upon his hopeless search,received the man unwillingly, as one who is in a hurry and cannot stopto discuss trifles.
"Well?" he said; "quick, what is it?"
The man scratched his head for inspiration, then he cleared his throatand began the business upon which he had come. He had been in theforest yesterday, he said, collecting firewood. The winters were cold,he proceeded, and the poor peasants must spend a good deal of theirtime during summer in laying up a store of fuel for the winter. But itwas God's will that the peasants should be always poor.
"Get to the point," said Boris impatiently, "or I must go withouthearing it."
That would be a pity, the man continued, for he believed that when thebarin heard what he had to tell, the barin would give him a _nachaiok_(tea-money) for the news. He had been in the forest collecting wood,he repeated, when suddenly he saw a sight which filled him withfear--nothing less than a great she-wolf with a whole litter of youngones following at her heels. The man had at once thought to himself,"Here now is a chance of a nachaiok from Boris Ivanitch, who is agreat hunter, and will love to hear of a family of wolves close athand." But the moment after, said the peasant, he saw something whichquite altered the aspect of the affair. When the wolf saw him, shehad stopped and picked up from the ground where it lay close to hera small creature something like a human child, and which cried likeone, but which was of course one of the lieshui, or wood-spirits, whichoften enough take the form of babe or old man. The she-wolf took up thecreature in its mouth and trotted away with it into the forest. "Oho,"the man had thought, "still more shall I earn a nachaiok from BorisIvanitch; for now I must warn him that if he meets with this particularshe-wolf and her brats he must give them a wide berth and be sure notto shoot or injure them, for this wolf is the handmaid of the lieshui,and woe to him who interferes with the favoured creatures of thosetouchy and tricksy spirits, for they would assuredly lure him to hisdestruction when next he ventured deep into the heart of the forest."
Boris hastily bade the man follow him and point out the exact spotwhere he had seen this wonderful sight. The peasant showed a placewithin a short distance of the house, and added that the wolf familyhad passed at sunset on the previous evening.
Here then was joyous news for Nancy; her babe had been alive and wellsome thirty-six hours after its disappearance, and had actually beenseen within call of its own home, while its distracted parents hadscoured the woods for a score of miles in every direction, littledreaming that the child was left far behind.
Nancy received the news calmly, but with the intensest joy andgratitude. "I was sure our darling was alive," she said; "but oh,Boris, if only it were winter and we could track the thief down! Whatare we to do, and how are we to find the child before the she-wolfcarries her far away, or changes her mind and devours her?" And Nancywailed aloud in her helplessness and misery.
There was nothing to be done but to search the forest daily, takingcare to do nothing and permit nothing to be done in the village tofrighten the wolves, and scare them away far into the depths of theforest, where there would be no hope of ever finding them again.Accordingly no day went by but was spent by Boris and his ever-hopefulbut distracted wife in quartering the woods far and near, the pairgoing softly and speaking seldom, and that in whispers, for fear ofscaring the wolves away.
But the days passed, and the weeks also, and a month came, and slowlythere crept over their souls the certainty that their labour wouldbe in vain, and that they had seen the last of their beloved child.Still, they would never entirely lose hope, and day by day theycontinued their wearisome tramping, sometimes going afoot, sometimesriding when their feet grew sore with the constant walking. Anotherfortnight went by, and it was now high summer, and still they werechildless.
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