Read Ebook: Little Paulina: Christmas in Russia by Robinson Anna Adapter Clarke Mary Cowden

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Ebook has 206 lines and 10833 words, and 5 pages

"Oh, I'm not at all tired. I've learned to walk a good long way, now, without wanting to rest. Set me down, please. It will do us both good to be in sharper exercise. Here, let's run! It'll warm us. Come! One, two, three, and away!"

The man hesitated. "I'm not in the humor to run," he said, laughing.

"Nonsense! It'll do you good! You must!" she replied. "The less you feel inclined to stir quickly, the more necessary it is you should exert yourself. It's only the numbing effect of this bleak air. You feel chilled inside, don't you? But, never mind! Nothing like a race to cure you. Now, then! Give me your hand! Let's start for that clump of low bushes, yonder!"

She planned several of these running matches, fixing the starting-posts, appointing the goals, arranging and deciding all the particulars. And when they had been successively achieved, she turned to the man, and said with an air of satisfied triumph: "Well! wasn't I right? You feel warmer now, don't you?"

He returned her nod with another, smiling, and highly entertained. But she, quite gravely, rejoined: "Of course; and yet, if I had not made you take a good run, you'd have kept creep-creep-creeping along, till your blood had become as stagnant as the surface of our Dnieper, when it's frozen into ice a foot thick. Besides, the race has not only made you warm, it has beguiled the way; for here is the good woman's hut close at hand. Now, once more. Give me this much start, and I'll beat you!"

The good peasant woman received her little guest of overnight and her companion with much hearty kindness.

"'Tis a wild place," she said, "and when one of these sudden snow-storms come on, 'tis hard for us--let alone a stranger--to find the way out."

"I've given him a helping hand as far as I can," said the child with her decisive nod. "Now it's for you to do your share, and kindly give him a meal, as you did me last night."

"What I have, he shall be welcome to," said the woman.

"Thanks, mistress," replied the man. "I sha'n't forget you; and one day or other--" he paused; and Paulina finished his sentence for him. "One day or other," she said, "it may be your chance to meet with some poor body even worse off than yourself. Do what you can for them. That will be the best way of returning this good woman's kindness to us."

The child said this while she was bustling about, helping the woman to spread the table, and prepare the meal. She trotted about diligently, seeming to know where everything was kept, and making herself quite at home.

She still kept the poor stranger under her immediate protection, providing for his accommodation and comfort, pointing a seat out for him near to the hearth; relieving him of his outer cloak, and hanging it up on a nail; lifting the fur cap from his head, and beating the snow out of it, before she replaced it; hovering about him, and paying him those little fondling attentions, half-cherishing, half-deferential, which mark the conduct of a child toward an indulgent parent.

Presently she came and sat down beside him on the settle. "What a curious ring you have upon this finger. It's something like one that my father used to wear. But his was an emerald; and this is, of course, a bit of green glass. Still, it's very pretty,--it looks almost as well. Indeed, it's larger; and here are some curious characters engraved upon it. Who gave it you?"

"It was my father's," said the man.

"Then, of course, not in the worst poverty could you part with it," said she. "It is a false stone, isn't it?"

"Having passed from father to son, for many generations, and from my own father's hands into mine, it possesses a value for me beyond the most priceless gem," answered he.

"And it really is pretty in itself," said the child, "and very curious. These characters are like those I have heard my father describe upon the imperial signet; he said his own ring was very like the emperor's, only smaller, and quite plain. Yours is about the size,--and with just such characters. Perhaps it was made in imitation; but, though it's an imitation jewel, it's very bright and pretty. It's just as good as if it were real."

"Just," said the man. "I'm quite satisfied with it. The emperor's own signet-ring couldn't content me better."

"Ah, but it would me," said the child. "If I had that, I'd soon use it to some purpose. I'd affix it to the deed which should repeal my father's sentence."

She turned the ring round and round upon the man's finger, as his hand still lay in hers, sighed thoughtfully, then looked out toward the still falling snow, saying: "But I am dreaming of what I should like to happen, when I ought to be working at what I can do. We stay too long. Come, let us be going."

"The afternoon is set in for a continued fall of snow," said the peasant woman. "Best not to venture into the forest now. Nightfall will overtake you before you can reach the village. Abide another night here, and set out to-morrow early. You will be all the better for the rest."

"But even if you are so kind as to let me sleep here again, and share your eldest child's cot, as I did before, how can you manage for our poor friend here?" said the little girl, pointing to the stranger.

"The good man can lie upon this settle, by the side of the hearth. 'Twill be a warm, snug berth for him; and if it be a little rough or hard, he has lain upon many a rougher and harder, I'll warrant," said the woman with a good-humored smile.

"The field of battle is a harder couch. Stretched wounded upon the earth in the open air is rougher lying than upon this good settle," replied the man.

"You are warm now, hands and all," said the child. "I will leave you for a little while, that I may help our kind hostess. While she and I are about it, you can rock the cradle with your foot."

While thus busily engaged, Paulina was struck by a sound in the outer room, as of talking. She listened. She could not distinguish the words, but she felt certain that she heard another man's voice in reply to that of the stranger. The talking was carried on in a low, whispered tone, but talking she assuredly heard.

When she returned to the room, however, the stranger was alone, and sitting in precisely the same attitude as she had left him,--bending over the wood embers, spreading his hands to catch their welcome warmth, and with one foot resting on the rocker of the cradle.

"You see, I am obeying your commands," he said, glancing with a smile toward the cradle.

"I'm glad to see you can profit by good example," she said. "I fancied you were neglecting your duty, and so came to remind you of it. But it's all right. I made a mistake, I see."

The next morning, at daybreak, Paulina was astir, and preparing to set out. She went to rouse the stranger, whom she found still fast asleep on the settle.

"Awake, awake! It is time we were off," she said, as she shook him by the shoulder.

"How now!" exclaimed the man, angrily, as he half-started up, half-opened his eyes, and looked around him in surprise.

"It is a fine morning. The snow has ceased. We ought to be on our way. Come! up with you!" said the child.

"It is too early,--by and by,--another hour's rest," muttered the man, as he let himself fall back upon the settle.

"I can't afford to wait an hour longer," said Paulina. "If you prefer another hour's sleep to my guidance, stay behind. But, take my word; you had much better go with me through the wood. Remember how you lost yourself yesterday. Well, what say you? Decide at once; for I am in a hurry to be off."

"Since you will have it so,--I suppose I must," said the man, yawning, stretching, and rising reluctantly. "But what a terrible tyrant you are, my little protectress."

"It's all for your good," returned she. "I want to set out early, in order that we may reach the village on the other side of the wood before evening."

The man laughed; while she alertly set before him the black bread and the warm milk and water, which the good woman had provided for their breakfast, and brought him his sheepskin cloak, and helped to fasten it under his chin.

The weather had quite cleared up. For a Russian climate, the day was fine; and the two wanderers made their way through the forest with such good speed that it was still early in the afternoon when they reached the village. It was a very small hamlet, consisting of a few wood-cutters' huts. At the door of the most important looking among them, which served as a sort of post-house, there stood a sledge, surrounded by a small retinue of attendants, as if awaiting the master. Paulina lingered a moment to admire the pretty trappings of the vehicle, its soft cushions, its fur and velvet linings, the bright harness, and the elegant shape of the coach itself.

Her companion asked one of the men standing near, whither the sledge was bound.

"We are going to take it for our master to Igorhof," replied the attendant.

"The very place where my daughter is."

"As the sledge is going empty to Igorhof, I wonder whether these people would allow us to ride in it," said the man. "I should dearly love to reach Igorhof on Christmas Day. I'll tell them I'm not so poor as I seem, and that, if they'll trust my word and allow us to ride, I'll pay them for their courtesy when we arrive at Igorhof, where I have friends and money."

"But is that true?" asked the child.

"Perfectly true," answered the man.

"We can but try, then," said Paulina. "It would help us on our way delightfully. But I'm afraid they won't believe such shabbily dressed people as you and I; and perhaps they will object to our riding in the fine coach, lest we should soil it, and they get into disgrace with their master. Still, we can but try. After all, if they refuse, we are but where we were."

"To be sure," said the man. "Besides, I can offer them my ring as a pledge for the money I promise them, until we reach Igorhof."

"But as it's a false stone, they won't care to take it," said the child. "And if they believe it real, and accept it for such, that would be deceiving them."

"Never mind, I can but try," repeated the man.

"Well, you can try if they'll take it, when you have owned it to be false; but tell the truth."

"Never fear; I'll say nothing but the truth--the exact truth," said the man, as he advanced toward one of the attendants.

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