Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/187

 180 "But we older ones should teach them," replied Martin.

"That's just what I have said," remarked the old woman. "I myself have had seven children, and only one daughter is left."

The woman then began to relate where and how she and her daughter lived, and the number of grandchildren she had.

"As you see, I am only a feeble old woman," she continued, "and yet I am obliged to work. I have the greatest pity for my grandchildren, and they in return are very good and kind to me. They always run to meet me with a welcome which I receive nowhere else. Aksiutka will come to no one but myself. 'Babushka, my darling little grandmother—dear one,' she often cries."

At these tender recollections the old woman became so deeply affected that she burst into tears. "Well," she said, finally recovering her composure, "it is, after all, only a childish trick. God bless him," and she pointed to the boy.