Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/30



wife had got through with her household duties early in the day. She had chopped the wood, brought in the water, and fed the children and herself. Matreona was now lost in thought, for she was meditating as to whether she would prepare the bread that day or the next. She had yet left one good-sized loaf, and thought to herself: "If Simeon shall have had his dinner, and will not eat much supper, we will have enough for to-morrow." Matreona examined the loaf and continued her reverie: "I guess I need not prepare fresh bread to-day. There is left sufficient flour for only one more batch of bread, and we can manage till Friday with what we have."

Putting aside the loaf, she seated herself at the table to mend her husband's shirt. While