So in the _News_. “In the village there was the news that Grits Letyuchy had drowned his little girl in the river. He wanted to drown the older one, but she begged off. After his wife Gritishka died, he suffered misfortunes. He could not care for his children without a wife. No one wanted to marry him, for besides the children there were also poverty and need. Grits suffered for two full years with his young children. No one knew about him, how he lived, what he did, although neighbors were very near. They said only that Grits for a whole winter never lighted a fire in the hut and he and his children passed the winter on the stove.” He takes the hungry children to the river and throws the youngest Dotska in. The older one Handzynya begs off, “Daddy don’t drown me, don’t drown me, don’t drown me.” He relents but tells her that Dotska will be better off than she. However she can go to the first hut and ask to spend the night and then try for a position to care for a child. He himself starts to ford the river but changes his mind and goes to the bridge. There is no moral judgment on the action of Grits. The poor man is at the end of his physical and moral powers but Stefanyk does not explain it. He does not condemn him. He merely in plain, unadorned language describes the course of events. No one in the village knows how Grits lives, although the neighbors are very near. The old village spirit has vanished. In the stories of Marko Vovchok, the peasants are ready to help one another. They sympathize with the unfortunate. They are ready to share their last crumb with one another. Here even that spirit is gone. The members of the village are enemies one to another or at best are impartial and neutral observers as is the author of the story. We have travelled far from the days when the chief cause of peasant suffering was the flogging by the arrogant and haughty lord. The peasants are free but they are free to starve and Stefanyk is not interested in those who have carved out a secure place for themselves in the village community.