orror at the red sheep and the
pink doves flying in the smoke, kept running down the hill and up again.
It seemed to her that the ringing went to her heart with a sharp stab,
that the fire would never be over, that Sasha was lost.... And when the
ceiling of the hut fell in with a crash, the thought that now the whole
village would be burnt made her weak and faint, and she could not go on
fetching water, but sat down on the ravine, setting the pail down near
her; beside her and below her, the peasant women sat wailing as though
at a funeral.

Then the stewards and watchmen from the estate the other side of the
river arrived in two carts, bringing with them a fire-engine. A very
young student in an unbuttoned white tunic rode up on horseback. There
was the thud of axes. They put a ladder to the burning framework of
the house, and five men ran up it at once. Foremost of them all was the
student, who was red in the face and shouting in a harsh hoarse voice,
and in a tone as though putting out fires was a thing he was used to.
They pulled the house to pieces, a beam at a time; they dragged away the
corn, the hurdles, and the stacks that were near.

"Don't let them break it up!" cried stern voices in the crowd. "Don't
let them."

Kiryak made his way up to the hut with a resolute air, as though he
meant to prevent the newcomers from breaking up the hut, but one of the
workmen turned him back with a blow in his neck. There was the sound
of laughter, the workman dealt him another blow, Kiryak fell down, and
crawled back into the crowd on his hands and knees.

Two handsome girls in hats, probably the student's sisters, came from
the other side of the river. They stood a little way off, looking at the
fire. The beams that had been dragged apart were no longer burning, but
were smoking vigorously; the student, who was working the hose, turned
the water, first on the beams, then on the peasants, then on the women
who were bringing the water.

"George!" the girls called to him reproachfully in anxiety, "George!"

The fire was over. And only when they began to disperse they noticed
that the day was breaking, that everyone was pale and rather dark in the
face, as it always seems in the early morning when the last stars are
going out. As they separated, the peasants laughed and made jokes about
General Zhukov's cook and his cap which had been burnt; they already
wanted to turn the fire into a joke, and even seemed sorry that it ha