: The widow peasant woman has only one son and worker dying. The lady who came to sympathize with her sees that the widow is eating salted cabbage soup, and considers it callous, not understanding how salt is expensive for peasants.

The only widow of the peasant widow of Tatyana, Vasya, a strong twenty-year-old boy, “the first worker in the village”. The lady, the owner of the village in which Tatyana lived, appeared to express her sympathy.

Entering the house, the lady saw that the widow was standing in front of the table and swallowing empty (without meat) cabbage soup from a smoked pot. Tatyana’s face “became haggard and darkened, her eyes turned red and swollen”, her left hand hung with a whip, but she stood straight, like in a church. Eating cabbage soup, the widow seemed to celebrate a feast on her dead son.

The lady was surprised that Tatyana was eating, as if nothing had happened.

“Lord! - thought the lady, - She can eat at such a minute ... What, however, they all have rude feelings! ”

Having lost a nine-month-old daughter a few months ago, the lady was in such grief that she refused to rent a summer house near St. Petersburg and lived all summer in the city, reveling in her victim.

Tatyana, meanwhile, continued to slurp cabbage soup. Unable to bear it, the lady indignantly asked why the widow’s grief had not lost her appetite — hadn’t she really loved her son.Tatyana replied that with Vasya’s death, her life ended, as if her head was removed from her, but cabbage soup cannot be poured out - they are salted.

The lady shrugged and left. She did not know how expensive salt was for the peasants. For her, salt was cheap.