n went to the neighbors' house, where she was met by an old
woman, who said: "What do you want, young woman?"

Ivan's daughter-in-law replied: "You see, babushka [grandmother], my hen
flew into your yard this morning. Did she not lay an egg there?"

"We did not see any," the old woman replied; "we have our own hens--God
be praised!--and they have been laying for this long time. We hunt
only for the eggs our own hens lay, and have no use for the eggs other
people's hens lay. Another thing I want to tell you, young woman: we do
not go into other people's yards to look for eggs."

Now this speech greatly angered the young woman, and she replied in the
same spirit in which she had been spoken to, only using much stronger
language and speaking at greater length.

The neighbor replied in the same angry manner, and finally the women
began to abuse each other and call vile names. It happened that old
Ivan's wife, on her way to the well for water, heard the dispute, and
joined the others, taking her daughter-in-law's part.

Gavryl's housekeeper, hearing the noise, could not resist the temptation
to join the rest and to make her voice heard. As soon as she appeared on
the scene, she, too, began to abuse her neighbor, reminding her of many
disagreeable things which had happened (and many which had not happened)
between them. She became so infuriated during her denunciations that she
lost all control of herself, and ran around like some mad creature.

Then all the women began to shout at the same time, each trying to
say two words to another's one, and using the vilest language in the
quarreller's vocabulary.

"You are such and such," shouted one of the women. "You are a thief, a
schlukha [a mean, dirty, low creature]; your father-in-law is even now
starving, and you have no shame. You beggar, you borrowed my sieve and
broke it. You made a large hole in it, and did not buy me another."

"You have our scale-beam," cried another woman, "and must give it back
to me;" whereupon she seized the scale-beam and tried to remove it from
the shoulders of Ivan's wife.

In the melee which followed they upset the pails of water. They tore the
covering from each other's head, and a general fight ensued.

Gavryl's wife had by this time joined in the fracas, and he, crossing
the field and seeing the trouble, came to her rescue.

Ivan and his son, seeing that their womenfolk were being badly used,
jumped into the midst of the fray, and a