Vasyl Stefanyk NEWS ("Novyna," 1899, Synya knyzhechka)

The news spread through the village: Hryts' Letyuchy has drowned his younger daughter! He'd wanted to drown the elder, too. But she begged her way out of it. From the time Hryts's wife died he has suffered . . . Couldn't handle the kids without his wife. No one would marry himhe had kids, he was poor. Hryts' suffered two long years with his children. No one knew anything about himhow he lived, what he did, except possibly his closest neighbors. They used to tell stories about how he didn't heat his house all winter, but would spend the nights with his daughters on top of the stove. And the whole village started to talk about him. One day he came home and found the girls on the stove. "Daddy, we want to eat!" said the older, Handzunya. "Go ahead! Eat my arm! What else can I give you? . . . Here. Here's a piece of bread. Stuff yourselves!" And he gave them a chunk of bread. The girls grabbed it and gnawed: starved dogs on a meatless bone. "She made you! Then she left you on my hands! May the earth cough her up! Dammit, somewhere there's a plaguebut it won't come and get you . . . Even the plagues are afraid of this house!" The girls didn't listen to the old man's prattle. The same thing went on every day, every hour. They were used to it. They ate the bread on the stove. They were a pitiful, frightening sight. God alone knows how those brittle bones held together. Only their four black eyesonly these were alivehad weight. The eyes were lead-weighted, and but for the eyes, the rest of their limbs would have blown off like feathers in the wind. And now, as they ate dry bread, it seemed as if their jaws would snap. Hryts' watched them from his bench. He thought, "corpses." And he broke out in a cold sweat of fright. He felt strange: something had put an enormous stone on his chest. The girls slobbered down their bread loudly. Hryts' fell to the ground and prayed. But something drew his eyes toward his daughters and he thought again, "corpses." After a few days Hryts' was afraid to stay at home. He wandered among his neighbors, and they said with stupid concern: "He's worried." He grew pale. His eyes deepened in their sockets. They no longer looked at the world. They stared only at the stone pressing upon his chest. One evening Hryts' came home and cooked some potatoes, salted them, and tossed them to the girls on the stove. When they had eaten, he said, "Get off the stove. We're going for a visit." The girls climbed down. Hryts' wrapped them in rags, picked up the younger girl, Dotska, and took Handzya by the hand and walked out with them. He led them for a long time through the meadows. When they reached the hill he stopped. In the valley, the river stretched off in the moonlight like a snake of living silver. Hryts' shuddered. The sight of the river froze him and the stone on his chest grew heavier. He gasped and could barely carry the tiny Dotska. They went down to the river. Hryts' ground his teeth so hard that he felt the sound reverberating across the fields, and a hot pain scalded his chest and burned his heart. Drawing near the river, he broke into a run and left Handzya behind. She ran after him. Hryts' raised Dotska over his head and with all his strength hurled her into the water. He felt better. He spoke quickly: "I'll tell the gentlemen there was no way out. There was nothing to eat, no fuel for the house, couldn't wash clothes or wash their heads. Couldn't. Nothing. I'll take the punishment. Because I'm guilty. Then to the gallows." Handzya stood next to him. She was speaking fast: "Daddy, don't drown me! Don't drown me . . . Don't!" "Well, you are begging, so I won't . . . But it'll be better for you. For me it's all the sameone or two. You'll suffer as a child. And then you'll hire yourself to a Jew and you'll suffer some more. But, as you wish . . ." "Don't drown me! Don't!" "No. No, I won't. But Dotska is better off than you now. Go back to the village. I'm going to give myself up . . . Take that path there, all the way up to the hill, and when you get to the first house, go inside and say 'My father wanted to drown me, but I begged myself out of it, and I want you to put me up for the night.' And tomorrow see if they'll take you as a house-girl. Go on. It's dark." And Handzya went. He called after her, "Handzya, Handzya: here. Here's a stick. If a dog spots you on the way he'll rip you to pieces. You'll be safer with a stick." Handzya took the stick and went away across the meadows. Hryts' rolled up his pants to cross the river, for that way lay the path to the town. He went into the water up to his ankles and stopped dead.

"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. Our Father who art in heaven and on earth . . ." He climbed out of the water and went to the bridge.