Good.
She put a handful of needles in his fritters.
He took a bite, and rushed away from the table out of doors.
Then he fell down, and soon gave up the ghost.
The Germans finished off the woman on the spot.
The muzhiks went for their axes.... I can't bear to think of what the Germans did then.... Now you can't find the place where Osipovka used to be. That's what comes of acting on your own, without any plan, One, two, three, and it's all over!
See?"
Matryona tossed and sighed in her bed.
Day was beginning to break, the cocks were crowing.
There was dew on the sill of the open window.
A mosquito buzzed.
The cat on the hearth woke up, leaped lightly down, and went to sniff at some rubbish in the corner of the room.
The brothers were sitting at the table talking under their breath. Semyon's chin was propped on his fists, and Alexei, leaning towards him was looking into his face.
"I can't, Semyon, old boy.
Matryona would never be able to manage by herself.
We've been working and saving for years — how can we leave it all?
Everything will go.
There'd be nothing but the bare ground to come back to."
"You say you couldn't leave it, but what does it matter if you lose it?
If we win we'll build a house of brick." (He laughed.) "We need guerrilla warfare, and you keep on about your farm."
"Who's going to feed you? Tell me that!"
"It's not us you feed, anyhow. You feed the Germans, the hetman, and all those swine.... You're a slave...."
"Wait a minute!
Didn't I fight for the revolution in 1917?
Wasn't I elected to the soldiers' committee?
Didn't I undermine the imperialist front?
Aha! Don't be in such a hurry to cry shame on me, Semyon. And even now — if the Red Army came I'd be the first to take up my rifle.
But what's the good of my going into the woods to some ataman?"
"Just now even atamans may be of use."
"Well — perhaps they may."
"My accursed wound has been holding me down."
Semyon extended his arms over the table.
"That's my misfortune.... Many of our Black Sea lads have joined these detachments.
Only give us time and we'll set the Ukraine on fire from end to end."
"Have you seen Kozhin again?"
"I have."
"What does he say?"
"We've decided to light up your village soon."
Alexei glanced at his brother, turned pale, bent his head.
"That's as it should be. That accursed mansion is an eyesore.... So long as Grigori Karlovich is alive he won't give us any peace...."
Matryona leaped out of bed and approached them with nothing over her chemise but the rose-patterned shawl. She rapped on the table with her knuckles several times.
"They're taking what's mine, I won't stand it!
We women will deal with those devils before you do!"
Semyon looked at her with surprised gaiety.
"Well, how are you women going to fight?
Tell us!"
"We'll fight like women.
When they sit down to eat— arsenic. We'll get some.
I'll lure one into the hayloft or the bathhouse—haven't I got a knitting needle?
I'll stick it into him, you know where—he won't make a sound.