The Scarlet Flower

CONTENTS Four Days The Coward The Meeting Artists Attalea Princeps The Reminiscences of Private Ivanov The Scarlet Flower The Tale of the Toad and the Rose Nadezhda Nikolayevna The Signal The Travelling Frog FOUR DAYS I remember running through the woods, forcing our way through the hawthorn bushes, while the bullets whizzed around us, snapping off branches. <...> Sidorov, a young soldier of Company One ("What is he doing in our skirmish line?" I found myself wondering), suddenly slumped down on the ground and looked back at me in silence with great frightened eyes. <...> I also remember how, in the dense undergrowth, within almost a stone's throw from the edge of the wood, I first saw him. . . . <...> He could have gone round it, but in his fear he did not know what he was doing and flung himself upon the prickly branches. <...> I struck out, and knocked the rifle out of his hands, then struck again and felt my bayonet sinking into something soft. <...> I remember firing several shots after I had come out of the woods into a clearing. <...> I should have said "our men" instead of "we," because I was left behind. <...> I heard nothing, and saw only a patch of blue; it must have been the sky. <...> I have never been in such a queer position before. <...> I am lying, I believe, on my stomach, and see nothing in front of me but a small patch of earth. <...> And I see it with only one eye, as the other one is pressed hard up against something--no doubt the branch on which my head is resting. <...> I am terribly uncomfortable, and want to shift my position, and simply can't understand why I am not able to do so. <...> I hear the chirr of grasshoppers, the hum of bees. <...> At last, with an effort, I disengage my right arm from under my body, and pushing away from the ground with both hands, I make an effort to get up on my knees. <...> Why do I see the stars shining so brightly <...>