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Sergei went to the dining room, to look outside the window. He could

see the woodshed and the yard. He saw the cook and the beggar in the

yard. They walked to the shed. The cook, Olga stared at the beggar

angrily, pushed him with her elbow and shut the door.

Next he saw the pseudo-teacher seat himself on a log and become lost

in thought with his red cheeks resting on his fists. The woman flung

down an axe at his feet, spat angrily, and, judging from the expression of

her lips, began to scold him. The beggar irresolutely pulled a billet of

wood towards him, set it up between his feet, and tapped it feebly with

the axe. The billet wavered and fell down. The beggar again pulled it to

him, blew on his freezing hands, and tapped it with his axe cautiously, as

if afraid of hitting his overshoe or of cutting off his finger; the stick of

wood again fell to the ground.

Billet: here, a thick piece of wood

Feebly: weakly

The he saw the beggar, who had lied that he had been a teacher, sitting

on a log of wood. He sat with his cheeks resting on his fists. Olga threw

the axe towards him and scolded him. The beggar pulled the piece of

wood towards him, placed it between his feet and hit it weakly with the

axe. The wood shook and feel. He pulled it up again, tried to warm up

his hands by blowing into them and again tapped the wood with the axe.

He was careful, not to hit his shoes or cut his finger. The wood fell once

again.

Sergei‟s anger had vanished and he now began to feel a little sorry and

ashamed of himself for having set a spoiled, drunken, perhaps sick man

to work at menial labour in the cold.

Menial labour: an unskilled, inferior job