wood, and one of them, the young, curly-haired and gay Yefim,
passing the deck of the ship with hand-barrows, said loudly and
angrily:

"No, he has no conscience whatever! There was no agreement that I
should carry wood. A sailor--well, one's business is clear--but
to carry wood into the bargain--thank you! That means for me to
take off the skin I have not sold. He is without conscience! He
thinks it is clever to sap the life out of us."

The boy heard this grumbling and knew that it was concerning his
father. He also noticed that although Yefim was grumbling, he
carried more wood on his stretcher than the others, and walked
faster than the others. None of the sailors replied to Yefim's
grumbling, and even the one who worked with him was silent, only
now and then protesting against the earnestness with which Yefim
piled up the wood on the stretchers.

"Enough!" he would say, morosely, "you are not loading a horse,
are you?"

"And you had better keep quiet. You were put to the cart--cart it
and don't kick--and should your blood be sucked--keep quiet
again. What can you say?"

Suddenly Ignat appeared, walked up to the sailor and, stopping in
front of him, asked sternly:

"What were you talking about?"