23

“Well, quietly, quietly, why are you like a wild animal ...” the man grumbled, handing out vicious cuffs to the children pushing on a blanket that was spread over the frozen trunk of a fallen tree. “Look, you’ll start snatching bowls from each other. Well, calm down everyone!

This commanding cry made the seven children quiet down. Even the smaller ones stopped making offended noises.

They sat down, folding their cold hands in shabby mittens on their sharp knees. Worn beggarly skins, red noses and eyes shining with hunger and anticipation. Seven pairs of eyes. And everyone, without stopping, is watching how an emaciated woman with an exorbitantly large belly pours hot steaming out into old bowls ... Food!

- Take it. Yes, don’t choke, don’t choke, that’s enough here, - and the woman with a sad smile looked at how the little boy of two springs greedily dipped her face into a spacious bowl.

The man sat down on a hummock sticking out of a snowdrift.

“Diven…” the woman began, but the p