The doctor goes away, the candle goes out, and again there is the
sound of "boo--boo--boo." Half an hour later someone drives up to
the hut. A cart has been sent to take Yefim to the hospital. He
gets ready and goes. . . .

But now it is a clear bright morning. Pelageya is not at home; she
has gone to the hospital to find what is being done to Yefim.
Somewhere there is a baby crying, and Varka hears someone singing
with her own voice:

"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee, I will sing a song to thee."

Pelageya comes back; she crosses herself and whispers:

"They put him to rights in the night, but towards morning he gave
up his soul to God. . . . The Kingdom of Heaven be his and peace
everlasting. . . . They say he was taken too late. . . . He ought
to have gone sooner. . . ."

Varka goes out into the road and cries there, but all at once someone
hits her on the back of her head so hard that her forehead knocks
against a birch tree. She raises her eyes, and sees facing her, her
master, the shoemaker.

"What are you about, you scabby slut?" he says. "The child is crying,
and you are asleep!"

He gives her a sharp slap behind the ear, and she shakes her head,
rocks the cradle, and murmurs her song. The green patch and the