The woman went away.  Avdyeeich ate up the remainder of the cabbage soup, washed up, and again sat down to work.  He worked on and on, but he did not forget the window, and whenever the window was darkened he immediately looked up to see who was passing.  Acquaintances passed, strangers passed, but there was no one in particular.

But now Avdyeeich sees how, right in front of his window, an old woman, a huckster, has taken her stand.  She carries a basket of apples.  Not many now remained; she had evidently sold them nearly all.  Across her shoulder she carried a sack full of shavings.  She must have picked them up near some new building, and was taking them home with her.  It was plain that the sack was straining her shoulder.  She wanted to shift it on to the other shoulder, so she rested the sack on the pavement, placed the apple-basket on a small post, and set about shaking down the shavings in the sack.  Now while she was shaking down the sack, an urchin in a ragged cap suddenly turned up, goodness knows from whence, grabbed at one of the apples in the basket, and would have made off with it, but the wary old woman turned quickly round and gripped the youth by the sleeve.  The lad fought and tried to tear himself loose, but the old woman seized him with both hands, knocked his hat off, and tugged hard at his hair.  The lad howled, and the old woman reviled him.  Avdyeeich did not stop to put away his awl, but pitched it on the floor, rushed into the courtyard, and in his haste stumbled on the steps and dropped his glasses.  Avdyeeich ran out into the street.  The old woman was tugging at the lad’s hair and wanted to drag him off to the police, while the boy fought and kicked.

“I didn’t take it,” said he.  “What are you whacking me for?  Let me go!”

Avdyeeich came up and tried to part them.  He seized the lad by the arm and said:  “Let him go, little mother!  Forgive him for Christ’s sake!”

“I’ll forgive him so that he shan’t forget the taste of fresh birch-rods.  I mean to take the rascal to the police station.”  Avdyeeich began to entreat with the old woman.

“Let him go, little mother; he will not do so any more.  Let him go for Christ’s sake.”

The old woman let him go.  The lad would have bolted, but Avdyeeich held him fast.

“Beg the little mother’s pardon,” said he, “and don’t do such things any more.  I saw thee take them.”

Then the lad began to cry and beg pardon.

“Well, that’s all right!  And now, there’s an apple for thee.”  And Avdyeeich took one out of the basket and gave it to the boy.  “I’ll pay thee for it, little mother,” he said to the old woman.

“Thou wilt ruin them that way, the blackguards,” said the old woman.  “If I had the rewarding of him, he should not be able to sit down for a week.”

“Oh, little mother, little mother!” cried Avdyeeich, “that is our way of looking at things, but it is not God’s way.  If we ought to be whipped so for the sake of one apple, what do we deserve for our sins!”