noon
Daws and magpies crowded round the roofs , picking the seeds and fluttering from one place to another . The fruits of the year 's labour were being merrily gathered in , and this year the fruit was unusually fine and plentiful . In the shady green vineyards amid a sea of vines , laughter , songs , merriment , and the voices of women were to be heard on all sides , and glimpses of their bright-coloured garments could be seen . Just at noon Maryanka was sitting in their vineyard in the shade of a peach-tree , getting out the family dinner from under an unharnessed cart . Opposite her , on a spread-out horse-cloth , sat the cornet -LRB- who had returned from the school -RRB- washing his hands by pouring water on them from a little jug . Her little brother , who had just come straight out of the pond , stood wiping his face with his wide sleeves , and gazed anxiously at his sister and his mother and breathed deeply , awaiting his dinner . The old mother , with her sleeves rolled up over her strong sunburnt arms , was arranging grapes , dried fish , and clotted cream on a little low , circular Tartar table .