midday
The old father cleared his throat , and bustled about to find something to give his grand-daughter , but , finding nothing , gave it up with a wave of his hand . And when the reading was over the neighbours dispersed to their homes , feeling touched and very much pleased with Olga and Sasha . As it was a holiday , the family spent the whole day at home . The old woman , whom her husband , her daughters-in-law , her grandchildren all alike called Granny , tried to do everything herself ; she heated the stove and set the samovar with her own hands , even waited at the midday meal , and then complained that she was worn out with work . And all the time she was uneasy for fear someone should eat a piece too much , or that her husband and daughters-in-law would sit idle . At one time she would hear the tavern-keeper 's geese going at the back of the huts to her kitchen-garden , and she would run out of the hut with a long stick and spend half an hour screaming shrilly by her cabbages , which were as gaunt and scraggy as herself ; at another time she fancied that a crow had designs on her chickens , and she rushed to attack it wi th loud words of abuse . She was cross and grumbling from morning till night .