Then, addressing his eldest daughter:⁠—

“Here you! Pull the straw off that chair!”

His daughter did not understand.

He seized the chair, and with one kick he rendered it seatless. His leg passed through it.

As he withdrew his leg, he asked his daughter:⁠—

“Is it cold?”

“Very cold. It is snowing.”

The father turned towards the younger girl who sat on the bed near the window, and shouted to her in a thundering voice:⁠—

“Quick! get off that bed, you lazy thing! will you never do anything? Break a pane of glass!”

The little girl jumped off the bed with a shiver.