Warum tummeln sie sich alle so geschäftig und bemühen sich, in meiner Gegenwart ihren Eifer zu zeigen? Warum müht sich diese alte Matrona, meine gute Bekannte, so ab?
Why do they all make such efforts and try to show me their zeal? Why is my old friend Matrena toiling so (I doctored her after the fire, when she was struck by a girder)?' he thought, looking at a thin peasant woman who pushed the grain along with a rake, her dark sunburnt bare feet stepping with effort on the hard uneven barn floor.