goose. And the porter has taken it away, 'you are in debt to me,' he
said.'
'Taken the goose?' asked David.
'No, not the goose. He says it is an old one; it is no good for
anything; he says that is why our peasant brought it us, but he is
taking the wood.'
'But he has no right to,' exclaimed David.
'He has no right to, but he has taken it. I went up to the garret,
there we have got a very, very old trunk. I began rummaging in it and
what do you think I found? Look!'
She took from under her kerchief a rather large field glass in a
copper setting, covered with morocco, yellow with age. David, as a
connoisseur of all sorts of instruments, seized upon it at once.
'It's English,' he pronounced, putting it first to one eye and then to
the other. 'A marine glass.'
'And the glasses are perfect,' Raissa went on. 'I showed it to father;
he said, 'Take it and pawn it to the diamond-merchant'! What do you
think, would they give us anything for it? What do we want a telescope
for? To look at ourselves in the looking-glass and see what beauties
we are? But we haven't a looking-glass, unluckily.'
And Raissa suddenly laughed aloud. Her sister, of course, could not
hear her. But most likely she felt the shaking of her body: she clung
to Raissa's hand and her little face worked with a look of terror as
she raised her big eyes to her sister and burst into tears.
'That's how she always is,' said Raissa, 'she
doesn't like one to laugh.
'Come, I won't, Lyubotchka, I won't,' she added, nimbly squatting
on her heels beside the child and passing her fingers through her hair.
The laughter vanished from Raissa's face and her lips, the corners of
which twisted upwards in a particularly charming way, became motionless
again. The child was pacified. Raissa got up.
'So you will do what you can, about the glass I mean, Davidushka.
But I do regret the wood, and the goose, too, however old it may be.'
'They would certainly give you ten roubles,' said David, turning the
telescope in all directions. 'I will buy it of you, what could be
better? And here, meanwhile, are fifteen kopecks for the chemist's....
Is that enough?'
'I'll borrow that from you,' whispered Raissa, taking the fifteen
kopecks from him.
'What next? Perhaps you would like to pay interest? But you see I
have a pledge here, a very fine thing.... First-rate people, the English.'
'They say we are going to war with them.'
'No,' answered David, 'we are fighting the French now.'
'Well, you know best. Take care of it, then. Good-bye, friends.'
XIV
Here is another conversation that took place beside the same fence.
Raissa seemed more worried than usual.
'Five kopecks for a cabbage, and a tiny little one, too,' she said,
propping her chin on her hand. 'Isn't it dear? And I haven't had the
money for my sewing yet.'
'Who owes it you?' asked David.
'Why, the merchant's wife who lives beyond the rampart.'
'The fat woman who goes about in a green blouse?'
'Yes, yes.'
'I say, she is fat! She can hardly breathe for fat. She positively
steams in church, and doesn't pay her debts!'
'She will pay, only when? And do you know, Davidushka, I have fresh
troubles. Father has taken it into his head to tell me his dreams--you
know he cannot say what he means: if he wants to say one word, it
comes out another. About food or any everyday thing we have got used
to it and understand; but it is not easy to understand the dreams even
of healthy people, and with him, it's awful! 'I am very happy,' he
says; 'I was walking about all among white birds to-day; and the Lord
