Semyon, addressing himself first to one person and then to another, kept describing how the fire had started.
" That old man, the one with the bundle, a house- serf of General Zhukov's. . . . He was cook at our general's, God rest his soul! He came over this evening: ' Let me stay the night,' says he. . . . Well, we had a glass, to be sure. . . . The wife got the samovar — she was going to give the old fellow a cup of tea, and in an unlucky hour she set the samovar in the entrance. The sparks from the chimney must have blown straight up to the thatch; that's how it was. We were almost burnt ourselves.
And the old fellow's cap has been burnt; what a shame! "
And the sheet of iron was struck indefatigably, and the bells kept ringing in the church the other side of the river. In the glow of the fire Olga, breath- less, looking with horror 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, set- ting 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 stu- dent in an unbuttoned white tunic rode up on horse- back. 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 shout- ing 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.
11 Don't let them break it up! " cried stern voices in the rrowd. 11 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 an- other 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 I 11
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 had so soon been put out.
" How well you extinguished the fire, sir I " said Olga to the student. " You ought to come to us in Moscow: there we have a fire every day."
" Why, do you come from Moscow? " asked one of the young ladies.
" Yes, miss. My husband was a waiter at the
Slavyansky Bazaar. And this is my daughter," she said, indicating Sasha, who was cold and huddling up to her. " She is a Moscow girl, too."
The two young ladies said something in French to the student, and he gave Sasha a twenty-kopeck piece.
Old Father Osip saw this, and there was a gleam of hope in his face.
" We must thank God, your honour, there was no wind," he said, addressing the student, " or else we should have been all burnt up together. Your honour, kind gentlefolks," he added in embarrass- ment in a lower tone, " the morning's chilly . . . something to warm one . . . half a bottle to your honour's health."
Nothing was given him, and clearing his throat he slouched home. Olga stood afterwards at the end of the street and watched the two carts crossing the river by the ford and the gentlefolks walking across the meadow; a carriage was waiting for them the other side of the river. Going into the hut, she de- scribed to her husband with enthusiasm:
" Such good people I And so beautiful! The young ladies were like cherubim."
" Plague take them I " Fyokla, sleepy, said spite- fully.
VI
Marya thought herself unhappy, and said that she would be very glad to die; Fyokla, on the other hand, found all this life to her taste: the poverty, the uncleanliness, and the incessant quarrelling.
She ate what was given her without discrimination; slept anywhere, on whatever came to. hand. She would empty the slops just at the porch, would splash them out from the doorway, and then walk barefoot through the puddle. And from the very first day she took a dislike to Olga and Nikolay just because they did not like this life.
" We shall see what you'il find to eat here, you Moscow gentry I " she said malignantly. " We shall see! "
One morning, it was at the beginning of Septem- ber, Fyokla, vigorous, good-looking, and rosy from the cold, brought up two pails of water; Marya and Olga were sitting meanwhile at the table drinking tea.
" Tea and sugar," said Fyokla sarcastically. " The fine ladies! " she added, setting down the pails. " You have taken to the fashion of tea every day. You better look out that you don't burst with your tea-drinking," she went on, looking with hatred at Olga. " That's how you have come by your fat mug, having a good time in Moscow, you lump of flesh! " She swung the yoke and hit Olga such a blow on the shoulder that the two sisters-in-law could only clasp their hands and say :
" Oh, holy Saints I "
Then Fyokla went down to the river to wash the clothes, swearing all the time so loudly that she could be heard in the hut.
The day passed and was followed by the long autumn evening. They wound silk in the hut; every- one did it except Fyokla; she had gone over the river. They got the silk from a factory close by, and the whole family working together earned next to nothing, twenty kopecks a week.
" Things were better in the old days under the gentry," said the old father as he wound silk. " You worked and ate and slept, everything in its turn. At dinner you had cabbage-soup and boiled grain, and at supper the same again. Cucumbers and cabbage in plenty: you could eat to your heart's content, as much as you wanted. And there was more strictness. Everyone minded what he was about."