The Created Legend | Page 6

name somewhere in town--perhaps a tale in connexion with it,
she could not remember exactly what. For some reason she did not
mention this to Nadezhda. Perhaps it was a tragic history.
This fear of talking about the past occasionally came upon Elisaveta.
Who knows what sorrow is hid behind a bright smile, and from what
darkness has sprung the blossoming which gives sudden joy to a glance,
elusively beautiful and born of unhappy worldly experience?
"Did you find your way in easily?" asked the golden-haired Nadezhda
with a friendly but subtle smile. "It's usually not a simple matter," she
explained.
Elisaveta replied:
"A white boy opened the gate for us. He ran off so quickly that we had
not even the time to thank him."
Nadezhda suddenly ceased smiling.
"Oh yes--he isn't one of us," she said falteringly. "They live over there
with Trirodov. There are several of them. Wouldn't you like to have

lunch with us?" she asked, cutting short her previous remarks.
Elisaveta suspected that Nadezhda wanted to change the subject.
"We live here all day long, we eat here, we learn here, and we play
here--do everything here," said Nadezhda. "People have built cities to
escape the wild beast, but they themselves have become like wild
beasts, like savages."
A bitter note crept into her voice--was it the echo of her past life or was
it a thing foreign to her and grafted upon her sensitive nature? She
continued:
"We have come from the town into the woods. From the wild beast,
from the savages of the town. The beast must be killed. The wolf and
the fox and the hawk--all those who prey upon others--they must be
killed."
Elisaveta asked:
"How is one to kill a beast who has grown iron and steel nails, and who
has built his lair in the town? It is he who does the killing, and there's
no end in sight to his ferocity."
Nadezhda knitted her eyebrows, pressed her hands, and stubbornly
repeated:
"We shall kill him, we shall kill him."
CHAPTER II
The sisters stayed to lunch.
They remained over an hour chattering cheerfully with the children and
their instructresses. The children were sweet and confiding. The
instructresses, no less simple and charming, seemed cheerful, care-free,
and restful. Yet they were always busy, and nothing escaped them.
Besides many of the children did certain things without being urged,

this being evidently a part of a system, of which the sisters had as yet
barely an inkling.
Instruction was mixed up with play. One of the instructresses invited
the sisters to listen to what she called her lesson. The sisters listened
with enjoyment to an interesting discourse concerning the objects the
children had observed that day in the wood. There were other
instructresses who had just returned from the depths of the wood--some
children were going into the wood, others were coming out, quite
different ones.
The instructress to whom the sisters were listening ended her discourse
and suddenly scampered off somewhere. Through the dark foliage of
the trees could be seen the glimmer of red caps and of sunburnt arms
and legs. The sisters were again left alone. No one paid especial
attention to them any longer; evidently there was no one they either
embarrassed or hindered.
"It's time to go," said Elena.
Elisaveta made a move.
"Yes, let's go," she agreed. "It's very interesting and delightful here, but
we can't stay for ever."
The departure of the sisters had been noticed. A few of the children ran
up to them. The children cried gaily:
"We will show you the way, or you'll get lost."
When the sisters paused at the gate, Elisaveta thought that some one
was looking at her, out of a hiding-place, with a gaze of astonishment.
In perplexity, strange and distressing, she looked around her. Behind
the hedge in the bushes a small boy and a small girl were hiding. They
were like the others she had seen here, except that they were very white,
as though the kisses of the stern Dragon floating in the hot sky had left
no traces upon their tender skin. Both the little boy and the little girl
were staring with a motionless but attentive gaze. Their chaste look

seemed to penetrate into the very depth of one's soul; this rather
disconcerted Elisaveta. She whispered to Elena:
"Look, what strange beings!"
Elena looked in the direction of Elisaveta's glance and said
indifferently:
"Monsters!"
Elisaveta was astonished at her sister's observation--the faces of these
hiding children seemed to her like the faces of praying angels.
By this time the children who had escorted the sisters ran back, jostling
each other and laughing. Only one boy remained with them. He opened
the gate and waited for the sisters to go out so that