Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/185

. Evidently before this day.

. Look! He evidently came to fetch some straw. The rope is still in his hands, just as he fell asleep with it.

(listening). They are still receiving. Evidently they have not pronounced the blessing yet. They say Akulína did not even howl.

. Mamma said that she was marrying against her will. Her stepfather threatened her, or else she would never have married. They have been saying some dreadful things about her!

. Good day, girls!

. Good day, aunty!

. Are you going to the wedding, my dear ones?

. That is over. We just came to take a look.

. Call my old man, Semén of Zúev. You know him, perhaps?

. Why not? I think he is the bride-groom's relative.

. Yes. The bridegroom is my husband's nephew.

. Why don't you go there yourself? You have come to the wedding, then why don't you go?

. I don't feel like it, girl, and I have no time. We must leave. We did not start out for the wedding. We were going to town with oats. We stopped to feed the horses, and they called in my old man.

. Where did you stop? At Fédorych's?

. Yes. So I will wait here, while you, dear one, call my old man. Call him, my dear! Say: "Your wife, Marína, tells you to start. Your companions are hitching up the horses!"