ter them with a pail in
his hands; he had tucked his shirt right up under his armpits, and
was holding it up by the hem with his teeth. After every successful
catch he lifted up some fish, and letting it shine in the sun,
shouted:

"Look at this perch! We've five like that!"

Every time Dymov, Kiruha and Styopka pulled out the net they could
be seen fumbling about in the mud in it, putting some things into
the pail and throwing other things away; sometimes they passed
something that was in the net from hand to hand, examined it
inquisitively, then threw that, too, away.

"What is it?" they shouted to them from the bank.

Styopka made some answer, but it was hard to make out his words.
Then he climbed out of the water and, holding the pail in both
hands, forgetting to let his shirt drop, ran to the waggons.

"It's full!" he shouted, breathing hard. "Give us another!"

Yegorushka looked into the pail: it was full. A young pike poked
its ugly nose out of the water, and there were swarms of crayfish
and little fish round about it. Yegorushka put his hand down to the
bottom and stirred up the water; the pike vanished under the crayfish
and a perch and a tench swam to the surface instead of it. Vassya,
too, looked into the pail. His eyes grew moist and his face looked
as caressing as before when he saw the fox. He took something out
of the pail, put it to his mouth and began chewing it.

"Mates," said Styopka in amazement, "Vassya is eating a live gudgeon!
Phoo!"

"It's not a gudgeon, but a minnow," Vassya answered calmly, still
munching.

He took a fish's tail out of his mouth, looked at it caressingly,
and put it back again. While he was chewing and crunching with his
teeth it seemed to Yegorushka that he saw before him something not
human. Vassya's swollen chin, his lustreless eyes, his extraordinary
sharp sight, the fish's tail in his mouth, and the caressing
friendliness with which he crunched the gudgeon made him like an
animal.

Yegorushka felt dreary beside him. And the fishing was over, too.
He walked about beside the waggons, thought a little, and, feeling
bored, strolled off to the village.

Not long afterwards he was standing in the church, and with his
forehead leaning on somebody's back, listened to the singing of the
choir. The service was drawing to a close. Yegorushka did not
understand church singing and did not care for it. He listened a
little, yawned, and began looking at the backs and hea