to hard labour in Siberia. The kind, merry, ever-smiling
Theodosia had a place next Maslova’s on the
shelf bed, and had grown so fond of her that she took
it upon herself as a duty to attend and wait on her.
Two other women were sitting without any work at the
other end of the shelf bedstead. One was a woman
of about 40, with a pale, thin face, who once probably
had been very handsome. She sat with her baby
at her thin, white breast. The crime she had committed
was that when a recruit was, according to the peasants’
view, unlawfully taken from their village, and the
people stopped the police officer and took the recruit
away from him, she (an aunt of the lad unlawfully
taken) was the first to catch hold of the bridle of
the horse on which he was being carried off. The
other, who sat doing nothing, was a kindly, grey-haired
old woman, hunchbacked and with a flat bosom.
She sat behind the stove on the bedshelf, and pretended
to catch a fat four-year-old boy, who ran backwards
and forwards in front of her, laughing gaily.
This boy had only a little shirt on and his hair was
cut short. As he ran past the old woman he kept
repeating, “There, haven’t caught me!”
This old woman and her son were accused of incendiarism.
She bore her imprisonment with perfect cheerfulness,
but was concerned about her son, and chiefly about
her “old man,” who she feared would get
into a terrible state with no one to wash for him.
Besides these seven women, there were four standing
at one of the open windows, holding on to the iron
bars. They were making signs and shouting to
the convicts whom Maslova had met when returning to
prison, and who were now passing through the yard.
One of these women was big and heavy, with a flabby
body, red hair, and freckled on her pale yellow face,
her hands, and her fat neck. She shouted something
in a loud, raucous voice, and laughed hoarsely.
This woman was serving her term for theft. Beside
her stood an awkward, dark little woman, no bigger
than a child of ten, with a long waist and very short
legs, a red, blotchy face, thick lips which did not
hide her long teeth, and eyes too far apart.
She broke by fits and starts into screeching laughter
at what was going on in the yard. She was to be
tried for stealing and incendiarism. They called
her Khoroshavka. Behind her, in a very dirty
grey chemise, stood a thin, miserable-looking pregnant
woman, who was to be tried for concealment of theft.
This woman stood silent, but kept smiling with pleasure
and approval at what was going on below. With
these stood a peasant woman of medium height, the
mother of the boy who was playing with the old woman
and of a seven-year-old girl. These were in prison
with her because she had no one to leave them with.
She was serving her term of imprisonment for illicit
sale of spirits. She stood a little further from
the window knitting a stocking, and though she listened
to the other prisoners’ words she shook her
head disapprovingly, frowned, and closed her eyes.