Bathe in the river of Ion Creangă

And, in short, where there were three, I was the fourth. But when I heard about rocking the baby
I didn't take kindly to the idea at all, though the misfortune of being the eldest had fallen to my
lot. But what could you do when it was your mother asking you? That day, however, when she'd
asked me, the sky was so blue and it was so warm and lovely out, that you felt like bathing in the
dust, like the hens. Seeing such weather I bolted to the pool, though I knew it meant leaving my
mother in the lurch, my own dear mother, worried as she was. I must tell the truth, for God above
sees all! After a while, thinking I was somewhere in the orchard, mother came out and began to
shout herself hoarse: "Ion! Ion! Ion!" but there was no trace of Ion. Not getting any answer, she
left her work undone and followed in my tracks to the waterside where she knew I was in the
habit of going; and there I was lying naked in the sand, as big a lout as ever was. Then I stood up
holding a sun-baked stone with silver spots in it to each ear and I hopped now on one leg, now
on the other, bending my head first to the right, then to the left.

I don't think there ever was a lovelier sight! All this was watching their poor mother, looking
down with her hands beneath her, like the troubled man, from a deep sleep, near me. But I didn't
see her, because I was busy. Half an hour must have gone by with mother standing there, three or
four more half-hours since I'd left the house and I was beginning to feel the sun right inside my
stomach, as they say, for it was past midday. Yet in that state, beguiled by happiness, I was well
lost to life and the world Mother, though a long-suffering woman, finally lost patience and came
gently on tiptoe from behind, as I was contemplating those girls that I've been telling you about;
she quietly picked up all my clothes from the bank and left me naked in the water, saying
bitterly: "You'll come home, you tramp, when hunger gets the better of you and then you'll dance
to another tune." And away she went.

"Well, well! What are you to do now, Ion!" The girls who were busy bleaching their linen and
who had observed this scene, nudged each other in the ribs and giggled at my plight so that the
place resounded with laughter. I wished the earth would swallow me and my shame up, and I
very nearly drowned myself, I was that upset; and the worship of a while ago had now changed
to a desire to strangle them, neither more nor less. But as the saying goes: You can't stop wind or
water, and people will talk!