"I am a soldier's wife. It is now seven months since they sent my
husband away off, and no tidings. I lived out as cook; the baby was
born; no one cared to keep me with a child. This is the third month that
I have been struggling along without a place. I ate up all I had. I
wanted to engage as a wet-nurse--no one would take me--I am too thin,
they say. I have just been to the merchant's wife, where lives a young
woman I know, and so they promised to take us in. I thought that was the
end of it. But she told me to come next week. And she lives a long way
off. I got tired out; and it tired him, too, my heart's darling.
Fortunately, our landlady takes pity on us for the sake of Christ, and
gives us a room, else I don't know how I should manage to get along."
Avdyeitch sighed, and said:
"Haven't you any warm clothes?"
"Now is the time, friend, to wear warm clothes; but yesterday I pawned
my last shawl for a twenty-kopek piece."(10)
(10) _Dvagrivennui_, silver, worth sixteen cents.
The woman came to the bed, and took the child; and Avdyeitch rose, went
to the partition, rummaged round, and succeeded in finding an old coat.
"Na!" says he; "It is a poor thing, yet you may turn it to some use."
The woman looked at the coat and looked at the old man; she took the
coat, and burst into tears; and Avdyeitch turned away his head; crawling
under the bed, he pushed out a little trunk, rummaged in it, and sat
down again opposite the woman.