Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/184

 Rh to cry and the woman to swear. Martin threw his work on the floor, and in his hurry to get to the door he stumbled and dropped his eye-glasses.

When Martin finally reached the street he found the woman still pulling the boy's hair and swearing and threatening to call a policeman. The boy struggled desperately to free himself from the woman, all the while saying: "I did not take the apple. Why do you beat me? You must let me go."

Martin, on reaching the struggling boy and woman, tried to separate them, and taking the poor child by the arm said: "Let him go, babushka [little grandmother], forgive him, for Christ's sake."

"Yes," she replied; "I will forgive him in such a manner that he will not forget it during the remainder of his life. I will take the little imp to the police station!"

But Martin still pleaded with the old woman, saying: