outside, or went out in the yard to slide down the big ice hill.

They had dinner at noon, "in Russian style," as Mayakin said. At
first a big bowl of fat, sour cabbage soup was served with rye
biscuits in, but without meat, then the same soup was eaten with
meat cut into small pieces; then they ate roast meat--pork,
goose, veal or rennet, with gruel--then again a bowl of soup with
vermicelli, and all this was usually followed by dessert. They
drank kvass made of red bilberries, juniper-berries, or of bread--
Antonina Ivanovna always carried a stock of different kinds of
kvass. They ate in silence, only now and then uttering a sigh of
fatigue; the children each ate out of a separate bowl, the adults
eating out of one bowl. Stupefied by such a dinner, they went to
sleep; and for two or three hours Mayakin's house was filled with
snoring and with drowsy sighs.

Awaking from sleep, they drank tea and talked about local news,
the choristers, the deacons, weddings, or the dishonourable
conduct of this or that merchant. After tea Mayakin used to say
to his wife:

"Well, mother, hand me the Bible."

Yakov Tarasovich used to read the Book of Job more often than
anything else. Putting his heavy, silver-framed spectacles on his
big, ravenous nose, he looked around at his listeners to see
whether all were in their places.

They were all seated where he was accustomed to see them and on
their faces was a familiar, dull and timid expression of piety.