four
o'clock in the morning
I galloped to the town and brought Masha books , newspapers , sweets , flowers ; with Stepan I caught fish , wading for hours up to my neck in the cold water in the rain to catch eel-pout to vary our fare ; I demeaned myself to beg the peasants not to make a noise ; I plied them with vodka , bought them off , made all sorts of promises . And how many other foolish things I did ! At last the rain ceased , the earth dried . One would get up at four o'clock in the morning ; one would go out into the garden -- where there was dew sparkling on the flowers , the twitter of birds , the hum of insects , not one cloud in the sky ; and the garden , the meadows , and the river were so lovely , yet there were memories of the peasants , of their carts , of the engineer . Masha and I drove out together in the racing droshky to the fields to look at the oats . She used to drive , I sat behind ; her shoulders were raised and the wind played with her hair . `` Keep to the right ! ''