第422页 / 共2288页

In the morning the sun rose brilliant and quickly wore away the

thin layer of ice that covered the water, and all the warm air

was quivering with the steam that rose up from the quickened

earth. The old grass looked greener, and the young grass thrust

up its tiny blades; the buds of the guelder-rose and of the

currant and the sticky birch-buds were swollen with sap, and an

exploring bee was humming about the golden blossoms that studded

the willow. Larks trilled unseen above the velvety green fields

and the ice-covered stubble-land; peewits wailed over the low

lands and marshes flooded by the pools; cranes and wild geese

flew high across the sky uttering their spring calls. The cattle,

bald in patches where the new hair had not grown yet, lowed in

the pastures; the bowlegged lambs frisked round their bleating

mothers. Nimble children ran about the drying paths, covered with

the prints of bare feet.