Across the Boundary

“A round-faced boy, carefully whittling a cherry twig, even flinched at the unexpectedness and quickly turned his head.
On the path he usually took—from the river up into the woods—there stood a woman with a basket. The woman was in rough peasant footwear (lapti), in a dress of some indefinite ‘old-lady’ color, and with a white headscarf tied with a blue quail (duck-shaped) brooch.
It was an everyday peasant outfit, but it seemed poorly suited both to the bright face and to the whole slender, nimble, lively figure. The boy even felt shy of his sun-bleached shirt and frayed protective-colored breeches.
‘Is he deaf or something? They’re calling you. Can you see calves here by the shed?’…”