IV + 

The next evening, before tea, Volodya again thought of his shadows, and gave himself up to them. One shadow insisted on turning out badly, no matter how hard he stretched and bent his fingers. + 

Volodya was so absorbed in this that he did not hear his mother coming. At the creaking of the door he quickly put the leaflet into his pocket and turned away, confused, from the wall. But his mother was already looking at his hands, and a tremor of fear lit up her eyes. + 

“What are you doing, Volodya? What have you hidden?” + 

“Nothing, really,” muttered Volodya, flushing and changing colour rapidly. + 

It flashed upon her that Volodya wished to smoke, and that he had hidden a cigarette. + 

“Volodya, show me at once what you are hiding,” she said in a frightened voice. + 

“Really, mamma.⁠ ⁠…” + 

She caught Volodya by the elbow. + 

“Must I feel in your pocket myself?” + 

Volodya grew even redder, and pulled the little book out of his pocket. + 

“Here it is,” he said, giving it to his mother. + 

“Well, what is it?” + 

“Well, here,” he explained, “on this side are the drawings, and here, as you see, are the shadows. I was trying to throw them on the wall, and I haven’t succeeded very well.” + 

“What is there to hide here!” said his mother, becoming more tranquil. “Now show me what they look like.” + 

Volodya, taken aback, began obediently to show his mother the shadows. + 

“Now this is the profile of a bald-headed man. And this is the head of a hare.” + 

“And so this is how you are studying your lessons!” + 

“Only for a little, mother.” + 

“For a little! Why are you blushing then, my dear? Well, I shan’t say anything more. I think I can depend on you to do what is right.” + 

His mother moved her hand over his short, bristling hair, whereupon Volodya laughed and hid his flushing face under his mother’s elbow. + 

Then his mother left him, and for a long time Volodya felt awkward and ashamed. His mother had caught him doing something that he himself would have ridiculed had he caught any of his companions doing it. + 

Volodya knew that he was a clever lad, and he deemed himself serious; and this was, after all, a game fit only for little girls when they got together. + 

He pushed the little book with the shadows deeper into the table-drawer, and did not take it out again for more than a week; indeed, he thought little about the shadows that week. Only in the evening sometimes, in changing from one lesson to another, he would smile at the recollection of the girl in the hat⁠—there were, indeed, moments when he put his hand in the drawer to get the little book, but he always quickly remembered the shame he experienced when his mother first found him out, and this made him resume his work at once. + 