Old Peters Russian Tales | Page 2

as they galloped over the snow. She sat closer to Vanya, her brother,
and they were both as near as they could get to the door of the stove,
where they could see the red fire burning busily, keeping the whole hut
warm. The stove filled a quarter of the hut, but that was because it was
a bed as well. There were blankets on it, and in those blankets Vanya
and Maroosia rolled up and went to sleep at night, as warm as little
baking cakes.
The hut was made of pine logs cut from the forest. You could see the
marks of the axe. Old Peter was the grandfather of Maroosia and Vanya.
He lived alone with them in the hut in the forest, because their father
and mother were both dead. Maroosia and Vanya could hardly
remember them, and they were very happy with old Peter, who was
very kind to them and did all he could to keep them warm and well fed.
He let them help him in everything, even in stuffing the windows with
moss to keep the cold out when winter began. The moss kept the light
out too, but that did not matter. It would be all the jollier in the spring
when the sun came pouring in.
Besides old Peter and Maroosia and Vanya there were Vladimir and
Bayan. Vladimir was a cat, a big black cat, as stately as an emperor,

and just now he was lying in Vanya's arms fast asleep. Bayan was a
dog, a tall gray wolf-dog. He could jump over the table with a single
bound. When he was in the hut he usually lay underneath the table,
because that was the only place where he could lie without being in the
way. And, of course at meal times he was in the way even there. Just
now he was out with old Peter.
"I wonder what story it will be to-night?" said Maroosia.
"So do I," said Vanya. "I wish they'd be quick and come back."
Vladimir stirred suddenly in Vanya's lap, and a minute later they heard
the scrunch of boots in the snow, and the stamping of old Peter's feet
trying to get the snow off his boots. Then the door opened, and Bayan
pushed his way in and shook himself, and licked Maroosia and Vanya
and startled Vladimir, and lay down under the table and came out again,
because he was so pleased to be home. And old Peter came in after him,
with his gun on his back and a hare in his hand. He shook himself just
like Bayan, and the snow flew off like spray. He hung up his gun, flung
the hare into a corner of the hut, and laughed.
"You are snug in here, little pigeons," he said.
Vanya and Maroosia had jumped up to welcome him, and when he
opened his big sheepskin coat, they tumbled into it together and clung
to his belt. Then he closed the big woolly coat over the top of them and
they squealed; and he opened it a little way and looked down at them
over his beard, and then closed it again for a moment before letting
them out. He did this every night, and Bayan always barked when they
were shut up inside.
Then old Peter took his big coat off and lifted down the samovar from
the shelf. The samovar is like a big tea-urn, with a red-hot fire in the
middle of it keeping the water boiling. It hums like a bee on the
tea-table, and the steam rises in a little jet from a tiny hole in the top.
The boiling water comes out of a tap at the bottom. Old Peter threw in
the lighted sticks and charcoal, and made a draught to draw the heat,
and then set the samovar on the table with the little fire crackling in its

inside. Then he cut some big lumps of black bread. Then he took a
great saucepan full of soup, that was simmering on the stove, and
emptied it into a big wooden bowl. Then he went to the wall where, on
three nails, hung three wooden spoons, deep like ladles. There were one
big spoon, for old Peter; and two little spoons, one for Vanya and one
for Maroosia.
And all the time that old Peter was getting supper ready he was
answering questions and making jokes--old ones, of course, that he
made every day--about how plump the children were, and how fat was
better to eat than butter, and what the Man in the Moon said when he
fell out, and what the wolf said who caught his own tail and ate himself
up before he found out his mistake.
And Vanya and Maroosia