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covered with rime. The rest of the roof and the upper walls,
that retained some warmth from the day just gone, were wet,
and streams trickled from them in several places. On the oven
lay a heap of rags and old clothes. From it came a noise,
something between groaning and snoring. A hollow sound
reached me from another quarter, but just where I could not
tell. I could see no one on the bench.
The girl returned and lit the lamp.
“Where is your mother?” I asked her.
“In the oven, and father is on top.”
She opened the oven and put her head inside, calling,
“Mother, come out, barin (the gentleman) is here.”
I had known this family for some time. The girl was not
their own, but the illegitimate child of a soldier’s wife, and
granddaughter of the old woman whom she called “Mother,”
because she had grown up under her care. The old woman
“was dying,” that is, was ill. Her husband had been so for a
long time, and no one now troubled about him. When he
heard our voices he rose up, groaned out something, and lay
down again. The day before they had used manure as fuel, and
had not yet recovered from the exposure to the fumes and
smoke from it.
Soon after my entrance a young woman came in. She was a
daughter of the old woman, and lived with her family at the
other end of the village. Now she had come to visit her mother.
At sight of me she burst out crying, and lamented her
wretchedness. Her family, also, was suffering from lack of fuel.
“I came to move them to my place; they cannot live here.
But what a life is in store for us! God help us! I have seven
children of my own. Our cottage is smaller than this, but it is
built of wood; with snow all round it is warmer, but here it
is unbearable.”
I approved her plan, and promised to help them with fuel. It
was one of those families that were eating up their last
resources, of which we have so many. This obliges us to adopt
the method of crowding two or three families into one hut, and
giving fuel for the one place, otherwise we should not have
enough for all. But we have not ourselves the courage to tell
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