"Oh, Matrena, hold your tongue. First hear what I have to say--"

"Much sense shall I hear from a drunken fool. With good reason did I object to marrying you, a drunkard. My mother gave me some linen, and you spent it on drinks; you went to buy a fur coat, and spent that, too."

s.e.m.e.n wanted to explain to his wife that he had spent twenty kopeks only, and wanted to tell her that he had found the man; but Matrena began to break in with anything she could think of, and to speak two words at once. Even what had happened ten years before, she brought up to him now.

Matrena talked and talked, and jumped at s.e.m.e.n, and grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Give me my jacket. That is all I have left, and you have taken it from me and put it on yourself. Give it to me, you freckled dog,--may the apoplexy strike you!"

s.e.m.e.n began to take off the bodice; as he turned back his arm, his wife gave the bodice a jerk, and it ripped at the seam. Matrena grabbed the jacket, threw it over her head, and made for the door. She wanted to go out, but stopped: her heart was doubled, for she wanted to have her revenge, and also to find out what kind of a man he was.

IV.

Matrena stopped and said:

"If he were a good man, he would not be naked; but, as it is, he has not even a shirt on him. If he meant anything good, you would tell me where you found that dandy."

"I am telling you: as I was walking along, I saw him sitting at the chapel, without any clothes, and almost frozen. It is not summer, and he was all naked. G.o.d sent me to him, or he would have perished. Well, what had I to do? All kinds of things happen! I picked him up and dressed him, and brought him here. Calm yourself! It is a sin, Matrena. We shall all die."

Matrena wanted to go on scolding, but she looked at the stranger and kept silence. The stranger sat without moving, just as he had seated himself on the edge of the bench. His hands were folded on his knees, his head drooped on his breast, his eyes were not opened, and he frowned as though something were choking him. Matrena grew silent. And s.e.m.e.n said:

"Matrena, have you no G.o.d?"

When Matrena heard these words, she glanced at the stranger, and suddenly her heart became softened. She went away from the door, walked over to the oven corner, and got the supper ready. She placed a bowl on the table, filled it with kvas, and put down the last slice of bread.

She handed them a knife and spoons.

"Eat, if you please," she said.

s.e.m.e.n touched the stranger.

"Creep through here, good fellow!" he said.

s.e.m.e.n cut up the bread and crumbled it into the kvas, and they began to eat. And Matrena sat down at the corner of the table, and leaned on her arm, and kept looking at the stranger.

And Matrena pitied the stranger, and took a liking for him. And suddenly the stranger grew merry, stopped frowning, raised his eyes on Matrena, and smiled.

They got through with their supper. The woman cleared the table, and began to ask the stranger:

"Who are you?"

"I am a stranger."

"How did you get on the road?"

"I cannot tell."

"Has somebody robbed you?"

"G.o.d has punished me."

"And you were lying there naked?"

"Yes, I was lying naked, and freezing. s.e.m.e.n saw me, took pity on me, pulled off his caftan, put it on me, and told me to come here. And you have given me to eat and to drink, and have pitied me. The Lord will save you!"

Matrena got up, took from the window s.e.m.e.n's old shirt, the same that she had been patching, and gave it to the stranger; and she found a pair of trousers, and gave them to him.

"Here, take it! I see that you have no shirt. Put it on, and lie down wherever it pleases you,--on the hanging bed or on the oven."

The stranger took off the caftan, put on the shirt, and lay down on the hanging bed. Matrena put out the light, took the caftan, and climbed to where her husband was.

Matrena covered herself with the corner of the caftan, and she lay and could not sleep: the stranger would not leave her mind.

As she thought how he had eaten the last slice of bread and how there would be no bread for the morrow; as she thought how she had given him a shirt and a pair of trousers, she felt pretty bad; but when she thought of how he smiled, her heart was gladdened.

Matrena could not sleep for a long time, and she heard that s.e.m.e.n, too, was not sleeping; he kept pulling the caftan on himself.

"s.e.m.e.n!"

"What is it?"

"We have eaten up the last bread, and I have not set any. I do not know what to do for to-morrow. Maybe I had better ask Gossip Malanya for some."

"If we are alive we shall find something to eat."

The woman lay awhile and kept silence.

"He must be a good man. But why does he not tell about himself?"

"I suppose he cannot."

"s.e.m.e.n!"

"What?"

"We give, but why does n.o.body give to us?"

s.e.m.e.n did not know what to say. He only said, "Stop talking!" and turned over, and fell asleep.

V.

In the morning s.e.m.e.n awoke. The children were asleep; his wife had gone to the neighbours to borrow some bread. The stranger of last night, in the old trousers and shirt, was alone, sitting on the bench and looking upward. And his face was brighter than on the day before.

And s.e.m.e.n said:

"Well, dear man, the belly begs for bread, and the naked body for clothes. We must earn our living. Can you work?"