iChina.com

When she had three or four, she'd take them all at once. She had such a clever arrangement, a sort of big cradle--a double one she could put them in one way or the other. It had a handle. So she'd put four of them in, feet to feet and the heads apart, so that they should not knock against each other. And so she took four at once. She'd put some pap in a rag into their mouths to keep 'em silent, the pets." "Well, go on." "Well, she took Katerina's baby in the same way, after keeping it a fortnight, I believe. It was in her house it began to sicken." "And was it a fine baby?" Nekhludoff asked. "Such a baby, that if you wanted a finer you could not find one. Your very image," the old woman added, with a wink. "Why did it sicken? Was the food bad?" "Eh, what food? Only just a pretence of food. Naturally, when it's not one's own child. Only enough to get it there alive. She said she just managed to get it to Moscow, and there it died. She brought a certificate--all in order. She was such a wise woman." That was all Nekhludoff could find out concerning his child. Again striking his head against both doors, Nekhludoff went out into the street, where the pink and the white boys were waiting for him. A few newcomers were standing with them. Among the women, of whom several had babies in their arms, was the thin woman with the baby who had the patchwork cap on its head. She held lightly in her arms the bloodless infant, who kept strangely smiling all over its wizened little face, and continually moving its crooked thumbs.