He had not even heard his companion’s answer. He pointed with his finger to the distance, where a troop of peasants were marching in file across the virgin snow. All the convicts turned negligently towards this side, and began from mere idleness to laugh at the peasants as they approached them. One of them, the last of the line, walked very comically with his arms apart, and his head on one side. He wore a tall pointed cap. His shadow threw itself in clear lines on the white snow. “Look how our brother Petrovitch is dressed,” said one of my companions, imitating the pronunciation of the peasants of the locality. One amusing thing--the convicts looked down on peasants, although they were for the most part peasants by origin. “The last one, too, above all, looks as if he were planting radishes.” “He is an important personage, he has lots of money,” said a third. They all began to laugh without, however, seeming genuinely amused. During this time a woman selling cakes came up. She was a brisk, lively person, and it was with her that the five kopecks given by the townsman were spent. The young fellow who sold white bread in the convict prison took two dozen of her cakes, and had a long discussion with the woman in order to get a reduction in price. She would not, however, agree to his terms. At last the non-commissioned officer appointed to superintend the work came up with a cane in his hand. “What are you sitting down for? Begin at once.” “Give us our tasks, Ivan Matveitch,” said one of the “foremen” among us, as he slowly got up. “What more do you want? Take out the barque, that is your task.” Then ultimately the convicts got up and went to the river, but very slowly. Different “directors” appeared, “directors,” at least, in words. The barque was not to be broken up anyhow. The latitudinal and longitudinal beams were to be preserved, and this was not an easy thing to manage. “Draw this beam out, that is the first thing to do,” cried a convict who was neither a director nor a foreman, but a simple workman. This man, very quiet and a little stupid, had not previously spoken. He now bent down, took hold of a heavy beam with both hands, and waited for some one to help him. No one, however, seemed inclined to do so. “Not you, indeed, you will never manage it; not even your grandfather, the bear, could do it,” muttered some one between his teeth. “Well, my friend, are we to begin? As for me, I can do nothing alone,” said, with a morose air, the man who had put himself forward, and who now, quitting the beam, held himself upright. “Unless you are going to do all the work by yourself, what are you in such a hurry about?” “I was only speaking,” said the poor fellow, excusing himself for his forwardness. “Must you have blankets to keep yourselves warm, or are you to be heated for the winter?” cried a non-commissioned officer to the twenty men who seemed to loathe to begin work. “Go on at once.”