"Mamma wants the boat immediately," replied Boris. "She is going over to see Marsha's sick child."
Alexis took a handful of sunflower seeds out of his pocket, and began to eat them meditatively, throwing the husks behind him.
"The mistress won't go another day?" he enquired slowly.
Boris shook his head.
"The lake's overflowing, and the dam is none too strong over there by Viletna," continued Alexis; "it would be better for her to wait a little."
"She says she must go to-day," said Boris, "but I will tell her what you say."
Madame Olsheffsky, however, refused to put off her visit; and Elena, Boris, and Daria, looking out from the balcony, saw the boat with the two figures in it start off from the little landing-place, and grow smaller and smaller, until it faded away into a dim speck in the distance.
CHAPTER III.
Late that afternoon the three children were playing with Tulipan in the garden, when they heard Volodia's well-known voice shouting to them—