There was a time, I remembered, when they caressed me and fondled me unceasingly, without growing tired; for a single kind smile they used to do for me anything I pleased.

I recalled all this and began to cry! I felt sorry for my youth, for I am now thirty years old, the last days for a woman! Eh, Foma Ignatyevich!" she exclaimed, lifting her voice louder, and reiterating the rhythm of her harmonious speech, whose accents rose and fell in unison with the melodious murmuring of the water.
"Listen to me--preserve your youth! There is nothing in the world better than that.

There is nothing more precious than youth.

With youth, as with gold, you can accomplish anything you please.

Live so that you shall have in old age something to remind you of your youth.