een
children, but she only had six living, all girls, not one boy, and the
eldest was eight. Motka in a long smock was standing barefooted in the
full sunshine; the sun was blazing down right on her head, but she
did not notice that, and seemed as though turned to stone. Sasha stood
beside her and said, looking at the church:

"God lives in the church. Men have lamps and candles, but God has little
green and red and blue lamps like little eyes. At night God walks about
the church, and with Him the Holy Mother of God and Saint Nikolay,
thud, thud, thud!... And the watchman is terrified, terrified! Aye, aye,
dearie," she added, imitating her mother. "And when the end of the world
comes all the churches will be carried up to heaven."

"With the-ir be-ells?" Motka asked in her deep voice, drawling every
syllable.

"With their bells. And when the end of the world comes the good will go
to Paradise, but the angry will burn in fire eternal and unquenchable,
dearie. To my mother as well as to Marya God will say: 'You never
offended anyone, and for that go to the right to Paradise'; but to
Kiryak and Granny He will say: 'You go to the left into the fire.' And
anyone who has eaten meat in Lent will go into the fire, too."

She looked upwards at the sky, opening wide her eyes, and said:

"Look at the sky without winking, you will see angels."

Motka began looking at the sky, too, and a minute passed in silence.

"Do you see them?" asked Sasha.

"I don't," said Motka in her deep voice.

"But I do. Little angels are flying about the sky and flap, flap with
their little wings as though they were gnats."

Motka thought for a little, with her eyes on the ground, and asked:

"Will Granny burn?"

"She will, dearie."

From the stone an even gentle slope ran down to the bottom, covered with
soft green grass, which one longed to lie down on or to touch with one's
hands... Sasha lay down and rolled to the bottom. Motka with a grave,
severe face, taking a deep breath, lay down, too, and rolled to the
bottom, and in doing so tore her smock from the hem to the shoulder.

"What fun it is!" said Sasha, delighted.

They walked up to the top to roll down again, but at that moment
they heard a shrill, familiar voice. Oh, how awful it was! Granny, a
toothless, bony, hunchbacked figure, with short grey hair which was
fluttering in the wind, was driving the geese out of the kitchen-garden
with a long stick, shouting.

"They have tra