Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 15, 2025
Matryona was putting iron pots in the oven; the children were running along the benches and looking out of the window; Simon was sewing at one window, and Michael was fastening on a heel at the other. One of the boys ran along the bench to Michael, leant on his shoulder, and looked out of the window. "Look, Uncle Michael! There is a lady with little girls! She seems to be coming here.
When she remembered that he had eaten their last piece of bread and that there was none for tomorrow, and thought of the shirt and trousers she had given away, she felt grieved; but when she remembered how he had smiled, her heart was glad. Long did Matryona lie awake, and she noticed that Simon also was awake he drew the coat towards him. "Simon!" "Well?"
Matryona got still more angry; he had bought no sheep-skins, but had put his only coat on some naked fellow and had even brought him to their house. She snatched up the note from the table, took it to put away in safety, and said: "I have no supper for you. We can't feed all the naked drunkards in the world." "There now, Matryona, hold your tongue a bit. First hear what a man has to say-"
She weighed the piece of bread in her hand again and again, and thought: "I won't make any more today. We have only enough flour left to bake one batch; We can manage to make this last out till Friday." So Matryona put away the bread, and sat down at the table to patch her husband's shirt. While she worked she thought how her husband was buying skins for a winter coat.
"He has drunk the money," thought she, "and has been on the spree with some good-for-nothing fellow whom he has brought home with him." Matryona let them pass into the hut, followed them in, and saw that the stranger was a young, slight man, wearing her husband's coat. There was no shirt to be seen under it, and he had no hat.
But he forgot to stoop, and struck his head against the lintel. He swore and rubbed his head. Then he took his seat in the carriage and drove away. When he had gone, Simon said: "There's a figure of a man for you! You could not kill him with a mallet. He almost knocked out the lintel, but little harm it did him." And Matryona said: "Living as he does, how should he not grow strong?
Having entered, he stood, neither moving, nor raising his eyes, and Matryona thought: "He must be a bad man he's afraid." Matryona frowned, and stood beside the oven looking to see what they would do. Simon took off his cap and sat down on the bench as if things were all right. "Come, Matryona; if supper is ready, let us have some."
The turner, stupefied with amazement, borrowed a horse from a neighbor, and now was taking his old woman to the hospital in the hope that, by means of powders and ointments, Pavel Ivanitch would bring back his old woman's habitual expression. "I say, Matryona,..." the turner muttered, "if Pavel Ivanitch asks you whether I beat you, say, 'Never! and I never will beat you again. I swear it.
"Don't cry, Matryona,..." he muttered. "Have a little patience. Please God we shall reach the hospital, and in a trice it will be the right thing for you.... Pavel Ivanitch will give you some little drops, or tell them to bleed you; or maybe his honor will be pleased to rub you with some sort of spirit it'll... draw it out of your side. Pavel Ivanitch will do his best.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking