heard the answer--"it is I."

Near the door, crouching against the wall, stood Fyokla, absolutely
naked. She was shivering with cold, her teeth were chattering, and in
the bright moonlight she looked very pale, strange, and beautiful. The
shadows on her, and the bright moonlight on her skin, stood out vividly,
and her dark eyebrows and firm, youthful bosom were defined with
peculiar distinctness.

"The ruffians over there undressed me and turned me out like this," she
said. "I've come home without my clothes... naked as my mother bore me.
Bring me something to put on."

"But go inside!" Olga said softly, beginning to shiver, too.

"I don't want the old folks to see." Granny was, in fact, already
stirring and muttering, and the old father asked: "Who is there?" Olga
brought her own smock and skirt, dressed Fyokla, and then both went
softly into the inner room, trying not to make a noise with the door.

"Is that you, you sleek one?" Granny grumbled angrily, guessing who it
was. "Fie upon you, nightwalker!... Bad luck to you!"

"It's all right, it's all right," whispered Olga, wrapping Fyokla up;
"it's all right, dearie."

All was stillness again. They always slept badly; everyone was kept
awake by something worrying and persistent: the old man by the pain in
his back, Granny by anxiety and anger, Marya by terror, the children by
itch and hunger. Now, too, their sleep was troubled; they kept turning
over from one side to the other, talking in their sleep, getting up for
a drink.

Fyokla suddenly broke into a loud, coarse howl, but immediately checked
herself, and only uttered sobs from time to time, growing softer and on
a lower note, until she relapsed into silence. From time to time from
the other side of the river there floated the sound of the beating of
the hours; but the time seemed somehow strange--five was struck and then
three.

"Oh Lord!" sighed the cook.

Looking at the windows, it was difficult to tell whether it was still
moonlight or whether the dawn had begun. Marya got up and went out, and
she could be heard milking the cows and saying, "Stea-dy!" Granny went
out, too. It was still dark in the hut, but all the objects in it could
be discerned.

Nikolay, who had not slept all night, got down from the stove. He took
his dress-coat out of a green box, put it on, and going to the window,
stroked the sleeves and took hold of the coat-tails--and smiled. Then he
carefully took off the coat, put it a