"I say, Uncle Gerasim, if we could take that raven horse now, to cart the corn, that 'ud be quick work!" "Look-ee! Is that a woman in breeches?" said one of them, pointing to Vassenka Veslovsky sitting in a side saddle.

"Nay, a man! See how smartly he's going it!" "Eh, lads! seems we're not going to sleep, then?" "What chance of sleep today!" said the old man, with a sidelong look at the sun.

" Midday's past, look-ee! Get your hooks, and come along!" Anna looked at Dolly's thin, care-worn face, with its wrinkles filled with dust from the road, and she was on the point of saying what she was thinking, that is, that Dolly had got thinner.

But, conscious that she herself had grown handsomer, and that Dolly's eyes were telling her so, she sighed and began to speak about herself.

"You are looking at me," she said, "and wondering how I can be happy in my position? Well! it's shameful to confess, but I... I'm inexcusably happy.