Incomplete question. The remaining part of the excerpt reads;
"The women made all the clothing for the family, besides helping in the fields, and the men tilled the land. They always grain enough of their own to last over beyond the next harvest and sold enough oats to pay the taxes and meet their other needs. So I and his children might have lived quite comfortably had it not been for a feud between him and his next-door neighbor, Limping Gabriel son of Gordéy Ivánof.
As long as old Gordéy was alive and Iván's father was still able to manage the household, the peasants lived as neighbors should. If the women of either house happened to want a sieve or a tub, or the men required a sack, or if a cart-wheel got broken and could not be met once they used to send to the other house, and helped each other in a neighborly fashion. When a calf strayed into the neighbor's thrashing-ground, they would just drive it out, and only say, "Don't let it get in again: our grain is lying there." And such things as locking the barns and outhouses, hiding things from one another, or backbiting were never thought of in those days.
That was in the fathers' time. When the sons came to be at the head of the families, everything changed."
Answer:
<u>"So I and his children might have lived quite comfortably had it not been for a feud between him and his next-door neighbor, Limping Gabriel son of Gordéy Ivánof..."</u>
<u>Explanation:</u>
The theme of harmonious living is made evident by the above statement made by Iván. We need to remember that to live hamoniously involves having a life free of disagreements.
However, as stated by Ivan achieving that kind of harmonious life (free of disagreemennts) was'nt possible because of "a feud between him and his next-door neighbor."
