She laughs. It seems strange to her that she has failed to grasp
such a simple thing before. The green patch, the shadows, and the
cricket seem to laugh and wonder too.

The hallucination takes possession of Varka. She gets up from her
stool, and with a broad smile on her face and wide unblinking eyes,
she walks up and down the room. She feels pleased and tickled at
the thought that she will be rid directly of the baby that binds
her hand and foot. . . . Kill the baby and then sleep, sleep,
sleep. . . .

Laughing and winking and shaking her fingers at the green patch,
Varka steals up to the cradle and bends over the baby. When she has
strangled him, she quickly lies down on the floor, laughs with
delight that she can sleep, and in a minute is sleeping as sound
as the dead.


CHILDREN

PAPA and mamma and Aunt Nadya are not at home. They have gone to a
christening party at the house of that old officer who rides on a
little grey horse. While waiting for them to come home, Grisha,
Anya, Alyosha, Sonya, and the cook's son, Andrey, are sitting at
the table in the dining-room, playing at loto. To tell the truth,
it is bedtime, but how can one go to sleep without hearing from
mamma what the baby was like at the christening, and what they had
for supper? The table, lighted by a hanging lamp, is dotted with
numbers, nutshells, scraps of paper, and little bits of glass. Two
cards lie in front of each player, and a heap of bits of glass for