n him to-morrow, if
not to-day, might somehow pass him by as storm-clouds in time of drought
pass over the village without yielding one drop of rain. And so many
sins were heaped up in the past, so many sins, all getting away from
them or setting them right was so beyond hope that it seemed incongruous
even to ask forgiveness. But he did ask forgiveness, and even gave a
loud sob, but no one took any notice of that, since they all supposed he
had had a drop too much.

There was a sound of a fretful childish wail:

"Take me away, mamma darling!"

"Quiet there!" cried the priest.

When they returned from the church people ran after them; there were
crowds, too, round the shop, round the gates, and in the yard under the
windows. The peasant women came in to sing songs of congratulation
to them. The young couple had scarcely crossed the threshold when the
singers, who were already standing in the outer room with their music
books, broke into a loud chant at the top of their voices; a band
ordered expressly from the town began playing. Foaming Don wine was
brought in tall wine-glasses, and Elizarov, a carpenter who did jobs
by contract, a tall, gaunt old man with eyebrows so bushy that his eyes
could scarcely be seen, said, addressing the happy pair:

"Anisim and you, my child, love one another, live in God's way, little
children, and the Heavenly Mother will not abandon you."

He leaned his face on the old father's shoulder and gave a sob.

"Grigory Petrovitch, let us weep, let us weep with joy!" he said in a
thin voice, and then at once burst out laughing in a loud bass guffaw.
"Ho-ho-ho! This is a fine daughter-in-law for you too! Everything is in
its place in her; all runs smoothly, no creaking, the mechanism works
well, lots of screws in it."

He was a native of the Yegoryevsky district, but had worked in the
factories in Ukleevo and the neighborhood from his youth up, and had
made it his home. He had been a familiar figure for years as old and
gaunt and lanky as now, and for years he had been nicknamed "Crutch."
Perhaps because he had been for forty years occupied in repairing the
factory machinery he judged everybody and everything by its soundness
or its need of repair. And before sitting down to the table he tried
several chairs to see whether they were solid, and he touched the smoked
fish also.

After the Don wine, they all sat down to the table. The visitors talked,
moving their chairs. The singers we