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Sweet Darusya
cold, and emptiness; only the
pigs were scurrying in the
pen, flapping their ears, and
snorting with their hungry
snouts.
The neighbors, awakened
from their sleep, shrugged
their shoulders. Matronka
stood bent over in the garden
all day; then she went to
Maria to sharpen her hoe
and said she was going to
herd in the livestock from the
meadows, but she was a little
late because of the hoeing.
And then it was looking like
rain, my poor head, and, you
see, Maria, I’m still here, and
you’ve already tucked the
child into bed, and milked
the cow, and went with that
to her own house, and from
then on Maria didn’t see her,
because she dragged herself
to the house ahead of time….
The neighbors went with
Tanasiy
to
search
for
Matronka in the meadows.
They wandered about till the
middle of the night. They
found the sheep huddled
together by the dam, but
didn’t find the woman or her
cow.
What were they to do? They
closed up the house. Maria
took the child and put her
in the cradle next to her
boy. And then the village fell
asleep as it did before this.
In the morning they told
Mykhailo in the mountain
valley.
That is how the misfortune
began.
…Mykhailo ran from the
mountain before midday.
For some reason he took
the child swollen from
crying from Maria – and
went to the Primar. Yilashko
was a good caretaker in
Cheremoshne – he hadn’t