So many presents did she receive that she had enough for a long, long time. And one evening, at dusk, Yasyek Topsy-turvy brought her his dog Kruchek, which he tied up close to her hut, and then took to his heels, as if in fear of some harm that might come. They laughed heartily, as they told Nastka about this; but she curled a disdainful lip. “At the noonday rest, Nastka, he had been gathering berries for you; and his mother took them away from him!” CHAPTER VII Yagustynka went to the Borynas’. She had gathered some wild strawberries, and brought them for Yuzka. Hanka was then milking the cows outside the hut: so she sat down under the eaves and told her of all the presents Nastka had got. “But,” she concluded, “they all do this to spite Dominikova.” “And,” Hanka corrected, “to help Nastka also.—By the by, I too ought to take her something or other.” “If ye have aught that I can take now, I’ll do it willingly,” Yagustynka told her. And then from inside the cabin was heard a faint voice of entreaty—Yuzka’s. “O Hanka, give her my young sow! I know I am going to die, and then Nastka will say a prayer for my soul!” The idea struck Hanka as good; she directly told Vitek to drive the little sow over to Nastka’s, for she did not feel inclined to go herself. “Vitek,” Yuzka cried, “tell her the sow is from me. And she must come quick to see me: I cannot move now.” The poor girl was very plaintive and querulous. She had been in bed for a week, sick of a fever, all her body covered with crusts and scales. At first they had let her lie under the orchard trees, for she had begged them very hard. But she had grown so much worse that Yagustynka had forbidden this. “You must lie in the dark,” she said; “the sunlight drives all the ill humours inside.” So, moaning and groaning and complaining feebly that no children nor any friends of hers were allowed to come in, she lay alone in the darkened room. And Yagustynka, now constituted her guardian, drove away any that tried to come in, even taking a stick to them! Having spoken thus with Hanka, she gave the strawberries to the sick child, and prepared an ointment for her, made up of pure buckwheat meal, mixed with much fresh unsalted butter, and many egg-yolks. With that, she smeared Yuzka’s face and neck, laying it on very thick, and covering all with wet cloths. The child submitted passively to the treatment, only asking with some apprehension: “Will not the sores leave pock-marks on my face?” “Only do not scratch at them, and they will leave none.—As it was for Nastka.” “But they sting me so, O Lord!... Then pray bind my hands fast, else I shall not be able to bear the pain!” And as she begged very earnestly, and could scarce refrain from tearing at her cheeks, the old woman, muttering an incantation over her, fumigated her with the smoke of dried houseleek, bound her arms to her sides, and went off to work.