been outraged. Better if the elder had carried off
the table, all the benches, all the pots--it would not have seemed so
empty. Granny screamed, Marya cried, and the little girls, looking at
her, cried, too. The old father, feeling guilty, sat in the corner with
bowed head and said nothing. And Nikolay, too, was silent. Granny loved
him and was sorry for him, but now, forgetting her pity, she fell upon
him with abuse, with reproaches, shaking her fist right in his face. She
shouted that it was all his fault; why had he sent them so little when
he boasted in his letters that he was getting fifty roubles a month at
the Slavyansky Bazaar? Why had he come, and with his family, too? If he
died, where was the money to come from for his funeral...? And it was
pitiful to look at Nikolay, Olga, and Sasha.

The old father cleared his throat, took his cap, and went off to the
village elder. Antip was soldering something by the stove, puffing out
his cheeks; there was a smell of burning. His children, emaciated and
unwashed, no better than the Tchikildyeevs, were scrambling about the
floor; his wife, an ugly, freckled woman with a prominent stomach, was
winding silk. They were a poor, unlucky family, and Antip was the
only one who looked vigorous and handsome. On a bench there were five
samovars standing in a row. The old man said his prayer to Battenburg
and said:

"Antip, show the Divine mercy. Give me back the samovar, for Christ's
sake!"

"Bring three roubles, then you shall have it.

"I can't do it!"

Antip puffed out his cheeks, the fire roared and hissed, and the glow
was reflected in the samovar. The old man crumpled up his cap and said
after a moment's thought:

"You give it me back."

The swarthy elder looked quite black, and was like a magician; he turned
round to Osip and said sternly and rapidly:

"It all depends on the rural captain. On the twenty-sixth instant you
can state the grounds for your dissatisfaction before the administrative
session, verbally or in writing."

Osip did not understand a word, but he was satisfied with that and went
home.

Ten days later the police inspector came again, stayed an hour and went
away. During those days the weather had changed to cold and windy; the
river had been frozen for some time past, but still there was no snow,
and people found it difficult to get about. On the eve of a holiday some
of the neighbours came in to Osip's to sit and have a talk. They did not
li