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“Good-day, Nikifor Anisimitch!”

And she would rush at him and kiss him. Then she woul
d walk away to the door, bow again, and say:

‘Good-day, Nikifor Anisimitch!

And he kicked up his little red legs, and his crying was mixed with laughter like the carpenter Elizarov’s.

At last the day of the trial was fixed. Tsybukin went away five days before. Then they heard that the peasants called as witnesses had been fetched; their old workman who had received a notice to appear went too.

The trial was on a Thursday. But Sunday had passed, and Tsybukin was still not back, and there was no news. Towards the evening on Tuesday Varvara was sitting at the open window, listening for her husband to come. In the next room Lipa was playing with her baby. She was tossing him up in her arms and saying enthusiastically:

“You will grow up ever so big, ever so big. You will be a peasant, we shall go out to work together! We shall go out to work together!”

“Come, come,” said Varvara, offended.”Go out to work, what an idea, you silly girl! He will be a merchant … !”

Lipa sang softly, but a minute later she forgot and again:

“You will grow ever so big, ever so big. You will be a peasant, we’ll go out to work together.”

“There she is at it again!”

Lipa, with Nikifor in her arms, stood still in the doorway and asked:

“Why do I love him so much, mamma? Why do I feel so sorry for him?” she went on in a quivering voice, and her eyes glistened with tears.”Who is he? What is he like? As light as a little feather, as a little crumb, but I love him; I love him like a real person. Here he can do nothing, he can’t talk, and yet I know what he wants with his little eyes.”

Varvara was listening; the sound of the evening train coming in to the station reached her. Had her husband come? She did not hear and she did not heed what Lipa was saying, she had no idea how the time passed, but only trembled all over — not from dread, but intense curiosity. She saw a cart full of peasants roll quickly by with a rattle. It was the witnesses coming back from the station. When the cart passed the shop the old workman jumped out and walked into the yard. She could hear him being greeted in the yard and being asked some questions….

“Deprivation of rights and all his property,” he said loudly, “and six years’ penal servitude in Siberia.”

She could see Aksinya come out of the shop by the back way; she had just been selling kerosene, and in one hand held a bottle and in the other a can, and in her mouth she had some silver coins.

“Where is father?” she asked, lisping.

“At the station,” answered the labourer.” ‘When it gets a little darker,’ he said, ‘then I shall come.’ “

And when it became known all through the household that Anisim was sentenced to penal servitude, the cook in the kitchen suddenly broke into a wail as though at a funeral, imagining that this was demanded by the proprieties:

“There is no one to care for us now you have gone, Anisim Grigoritch, our bright falcon….”

The dogs began barking in alarm. Varvara ran to the window, and rushing about in distress, shouted to the cook with all her might, straining her voice:

“Sto-op, Stepanida, sto-op! Don’t harrow us, for Christ’s sake!”

They forgot to set the samovar, they could think of nothing. Only Lipa could not make out what it was all about and went on playing with her baby.