THE SHADOWS FALL 505
leave home/ But where will you go to ? Who of your own
""people wants you? You've got no father, your house is
burnt down, your own mother is glad to Christ to live in
someone else's hut. And yet you're going off to her, and drag
my grandchildren with you ? No, my dear, that won't do f
^Ve'll see what to do with Grishka when he comes back ;
but now you're not even to talk to me about it. I won't
have it, and I don't want to hear another word about it! "
All the pain that had been accumulating for so long in
Natalia's heart suddenly broke out in a convulsive fit of
sobbing. With a groan she tore the kerchief from her head,
fell face downward on the dry, ungracious earth and,
pressing her breast to the ground, sobbed on and on without
cease.
Ilinichna—wise and brave old woman—did not even stir
from where she was sitting. After a while she carefully
wrapped the ewer with the rest of the milk in it in the
""^Jacket, laid it aside in a cool spot, then poured water into
the cup, and sat down beside Natalia. She knew
that words were of no help in such sorrow ; she knew, too,
that tears were better than dry eyes and firmly pressed lips.
She let Natalia weep till she could weep no more, then laid
her work-worn hand on her daughter-in-law's head. Stroking
the black, lustrous hair, she said harshly :
" Well, that's enough ! Don't use up all your tears, leave
some for another time. Here, take a drink of water."
Natalia quietened down. Her shoulders still heaved
occasionally and a fine trembling possessed her body.
JQnexpectedly she jumped up, pushed Ilinichna aside and,
turning her face eastward, putting her tear-stained palms
together in prayer, hurriedly, sobbingly screamed:
" Lord ! He's tortured my soul to death * I haven't the
strength to go on living like this. Lord, punish him, curse
him ! Strike him dead * May he live no longer, torture me
no longer ! "
A black, rolling cloud crawled onward from the east,
Thunder rumbled hollowly. Piercing the precipitous cloudy
masses, a burning white lightning writhed and slipped over
-the sky. The wind bent the murmuring grass westward,
sent a pungent dust flying up from the track, bowed the
sunflower caps with their burden of seeds almost to the
It tousled Natalia's dishevelled hair, dried her wet
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