The Lion and the Puppy: And Other Stories for Children

The Lion and the Puppy: And Other Stories for Children — page 5
CLEAR GLADES Country House of Count L N Tolstoy That was plain enough The children knew they had to keep out How surprised and not a little afraid they were when one day they heard that the Count had summoned them to his mansion The word soon spread through the village What did he want them for Rumor had it that he wanted to teach them to read and write What a strange idea In those days there were few enough schools in the towns fewer still in the countryside Very very rarely could a villager read or write If a letter needed to be written people went to the deacon and had to pay a tidy sum for it There were no books in the village no newspapers no schools Yet now it seemed that the Count had a mind to open a school for poor children And to teach them himself The children were shy But on the appointed day they put on their Sunday best a clean shirt and fresh birch bark shoes smoothed down their unkempt hair with yellow sunflower oil or brown rye juice and set off in a crowd for the Big House The year was 1849 The gold and russet trees of autumn had laid a crisp carpet of leaves along the drive as the children made their way to the house Once past the dark still waters of the lake a big house suddenly came into view set back behind the trees The tall two story building seemed like a palace to boys and girls who had grown up in squat smoke begrimed huts under straw thatched roofs Nervously the knots of village children stood before the house waiting for the Count to appear Finally he appeared on the veranda a tall broad shouldered figure with long straggly hair a large fleshy nose and a bushy black beard As he fixed them with his fierce stare from under the most enormous vili