At first the peasants only slandered one another; but afterwards they began in real earnest to snatch anything that lay handy, and the children followed their example. Life became harder and harder for them. Iván Stcherbakóf and Limping Gabriel kept suing one another at the Village Assembly, and at the District Court, and before the Justice of the Peace until all the judges were tired of them. Now Gabriel got Iván fined or imprisoned; then Iván did as much to Gabriel; and the more they spited each other the angrier they grew⁠—like dogs that attack one another and get more and more furious the longer they fight. You strike one dog from behind, and it thinks it’s the other dog biting him, and gets still fiercer. So these peasants: they went to law, and one or other of them was fined or locked up, but that only made them more and more angry with each other. “Wait a bit,” they said, “and I’ll make you pay for it.” And so it went on for six years. Only the old man lying on the top of the oven kept telling them again and again: “Children, what are you doing? Stop all this paying back; keep to your work, and don’t bear malice⁠—it will be better for you. The more you bear malice, the worse it will be.”