nose and in her eyes as well. Akulka saw the spot on her frock,
got angry at Malasha, stormed, ran after her, and wanted to
beat her. Malasha was frightened when she saw the mischief she
had done, leaped out of the puddle, and ran home. Akulka's
mother came along, espied the splashed frock and spattered
chemise on her daughter. "Where didst thou soil thyself, thou
hussy?" "Malasha splashed me on purpose." Akalka's mother
seized Malasha, and struck her on the nape of the neck. Malasha
shrieked so that the whole street heard her. Malasha's mother
came out. "What art thou beating my child for?" The neighbor
began to rail. One word led to another, the women scolded each
other. The peasant men ran forth, a big crowd assembled in the
street. Everybody shouted, nobody listened to anybody else.
They scolded and scolded. One gave another a punch, and a
regular fight was imminent, when an old woman, Akulka's
grandmother, interposed. She advanced into the midst of the
peasants, and began to argue with them. "What are you about, my
good men? Is this the season for such things? We ought to be
joyful, but you have brought about a great sin." They paid no
heed to the old woman, and almost knocked one another down, and
the old woman would not have been able to dissuade them had it
not been for Akulka and Malasha. While the women were
wrangling, Akulka wiped off her frock, and went out again to
the puddle in the space between the cottages. She picked up a
small stone and began to dig the earth out at the edge of the
puddle, so as to let the water out into the street. While she
was digging away, Malasha came up also, and began to help her
by drawing the water down the ditch with a chip. The peasant
men had just come to blows, when the little girls had got the
water along the ditch to the street, directly at the spot where
the old woman was parting the men.

The little girls came running up, one on one side, the other on
the other side of the rivulet. "Hold on, Malasha, hold on!"
cried Akulka. Malasha also tried to say something, but could
not speak for laughing.

The little girls ran thus, laughing at the chip, as it floated
down the stream. And they ran straight into the midst of the
peasant men. The old woman perceived them, and said to the men,