something friendly
and compassionate to him.

He pressed close to Olga, as though seeking protection, and said to her
softly in a quavering voice:

"Olya darling, I can't stay here longer. It's more than I can bear. For
God's sake, for Christ's sake, write to your sister Klavdia Abramovna.
Let her sell and pawn everything she has; let her send us the money. We
will go away from here. Oh, Lord," he went on miserably, "to have one
peep at Moscow! If I could see it in my dreams, the dear place!"

And when the evening came on, and it was dark in the hut, it was so
dismal that it was hard to utter a word. Granny, very ill-tempered,
soaked some crusts of rye bread in a cup, and was a long time, a whole
hour, sucking at them. Marya, after milking the cow, brought in a pail
of milk and set it on a bench; then Granny poured it from the pail into
a jug just as slowly and deliberately, evidently pleased that it was now
the Fast of the Assumption, so that no one would drink milk and it would
be left untouched. And she only poured out a very little in a saucer
for Fyokla's baby. When Marya and she carried the jug down to the cellar
Motka suddenly stirred, clambered down from the stove, and going to the
bench where stood the wooden cup full of crusts, sprinkled into it some
milk from the saucer.

Granny, coming back into the hut, sat down to her soaked crusts again,
while Sasha and Motka, sitting on the stove, gazed at her, and they were
glad that she had broken her fast and now would go to hell. They were
comforted and lay down to sleep, and Sasha as she dozed off to sleep
imagined the Day of Judgment: a huge fire was burning, somewhat like a
potter's kiln, and the Evil One, with horns like a cow's, and black all
over, was driving Granny into the fire with a long stick, just as Granny
herself had been driving the geese.

V

On the day of the Feast of the Assumption, between ten and eleven in the
evening, the girls and lads who were merrymaking in the meadow suddenly
raised a clamour and outcry, and ran in the direction of the village;
and those who were above on the edge of the ravine could not for the
first moment make out what was the matter.

"Fire! Fire!" they heard desperate shouts from below. "The village is on
fire!"

Those who were sitting above looked round, and a terrible and
extraordinary spectacle met their eyes. On the thatched roof of one of
the end cottages stood a column of flame, seven feet high, which