of the stars! From them I could not remove my vision, for they
seemed to exhibit the heavens in a new guise, and to convey to me the
joyful tidings that in the sky there was present also the sun.

Yet though, meanwhile, I tried to ponder on something great, I never
failed to find myself cherishing the absurd, obstinate apprehension
that soon the Birkins would leave their beds, enter the courtyard, and
have Nadezhda betrayed to them by Gubin.

And throughout there kept descending to me from above the latter's
inarticulate, as it were damp-sodden, observations.

"Another rat!" I heard him exclaim. "To think that those two fellows,
men of money, should neglect for two whole years to clean out their
well! Why, what can the brutes have been drinking meanwhile? Look out
below, you!"

And once more, with a creaking of the pulley, the bucket would
descend--bumping and thudding against the lining of the well as it did
so, and bespattering afresh my head and shoulders with its filth.
Rightly speaking, the Birkins ought to have cleared out the well
themselves!

"Let us exchange places," I cried at length.

"What is wrong?" inquired Gubin in response

"Down here it is cold--I can't stand it any longer."

"Gee up!" exclaimed Gubin to the old horse which supplied the leverage
power for the bucket; whereupon I seated myself upon the edge of the
receptacle and went aloft, where everything was looking so bright and
warm as to bear a new and unwontedly pleasing appearance.

So now it was Gubin's turn to stand at the bottom of the well. And
soon, in addition to the odour of decay, and a subdued sound of
splashing, and the rumblings and bumpings of the iron bucket against
its chain, there began to come up from the damp, black cavity a perfect
stream of curses.

"The infernal skinflints!" I heard my companion exclaim.

"Hullo, here is something! A dog or a baby, eh? The damned old
barbarians!"

And the bucket ascended with, among its contents, a sodden and most
ancient hat. With the passage of time Gubin's temper grew worse and
worse.

"If I SHOULD find a baby here," next he exclaimed, "I shall report the
matter to the police, and get those blessed old brothers into trouble."

Each movement of the leathern-hided, wall-eyed steed which did our
bidding was accompanied by a swishing of a sandy tail which had for its
object the brushing away of autumn's harbingers, the bluebottles.
Almost with the tranquil gait of a religious