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By this time a large crowd of peasants had collected, and it was with
the greatest difficulty that they persuaded the two families to stop
quarrelling.
This was the beginning.
Gavryl took the portion of his beard which Ivan had torn out, and,
wrapping it in a paper, went to the volostnoye (moujiks' court) and
entered a complaint against Ivan.
Holding up the hair, he said, "I did not grow this for that bear Ivan to
tear out!"
Gavryl's wife went round among the neighbors, telling them that they
must not repeat what she told them, but that she and her husband were
going to get the best of Ivan, and that he was to be sent to Siberia.
And so the quarrelling went on.
The poor old grandfather, sick with asthma and lying on the brick oven
all the time, tried from the first to dissuade them from quarrelling,
and begged of them to live in peace; but they would not listen to his
good advice. He said to them: "You children are making a great fuss and
much trouble about nothing. I beg of you to stop and think of what a
little thing has caused all this trouble. It has arisen from only one
egg. If our neighbors' children picked it up, it is all right. God bless
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