Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/130



(enter). Well, will you go in, or not? I am tired waiting for you. Peter, oh, Peter!

(walks away and beckons with her finger to Anisya). Well?

(walks down from the porch, to Matréna). Nothing.

. Have you looked everywhere? Under the floor?

. Nothing there, either. Maybe in the loft. He was climbing there yesterday.

. Look for it, look for it more carefully than ever, as though licking it clean with your tongue. I see he will die to-day anyway: his nails are blue, and his face is ashen gray. Is the samovár ready?

. It will boil in a minute.

(to his mother). Good day, mother! Are you all well at home?

. Thank God we are alive and have something to eat.

. Well, how is the master?

. Softly,—he is sitting there. (Points to the porch.)

. Well, let him sit! What do I care?

(opening his eyes). Nikíta, oh, Nikíta, come here! (Nikíta walks over to him. Anísya whispers to Matréna.)

. Why did you come back so soon?

. I have done the ploughing.

. Have you ploughed up the strip back of the bridge?