Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/183

 176 an, a fruit-vender, who had stopped before the window. Her basket of fruit was still unsold. On her back she had a bag filled with chips, which she had apparently collected from some new building in course of erection. Feeling tired from the weight of her double burden, she had stopped to change their position. She had placed the bag on the ground near the door, while she rested her basket against a pillar.

She began to arrange the chips in the bag, and while so engaged a poorly-dressed boy appeared on the scene and stole an apple from the basket. The boy thought he would get away safely with his booty, but just as he was about to start the old woman suddenly turned around and discovered her loss, when she grabbed the thief by the arm.

He was a little fellow, and tried hard to free himself, but the woman dropped everything else and held him with both her hands. She snatched his hat from his head and threw it into the street and then began to pull his hair. The boy began