ke away this disease from them, cure them, and they are
rendered most unfortunate, because they thus lose their sole means of
living, they then become empty. Sometimes a man's life is so poor
that he is involuntarily compelled to prize his defect and live by
it. It may frankly be said that people are often depraved out of
mere weariness. The soldier felt insulted, and besetting our baker,
roared:

"Tell me--who is it?"

"Shall I tell you?" the baker suddenly turned to him.

"Well?"

"Do you know Tanya?"

"Well?"

"Well, try." . . .

"I?"

"You!"

"Her? That's easy enough!"

"We'll see!"

"You'll see! Ha, ha!"

"She'll. . . ."

"A month's time!"

"What a boaster you are, soldier!"

"Two weeks! I'll show you! Who is it? Tanya! Tfoo!" . . .

"Get away, I say."

"Get away, . . . you're bragging!"

"Two weeks, that's all!"

Suddenly our baker became enraged, and he raised the shovel against
the soldier. The soldier stepped back, surprised, kept silent for
awhile, and, saying ominously, in a low voice: "Very well, then!" he
left us.

During the dispute we were all silent, interested in the result. But
when the soldier went out, a loud, animated talk and noise was
started among us.

Some one cried to the baker:

"You contrived a bad thing, Pavel!"

"Work!" replied the baker, enraged.

We felt that the soldier was touched to the quick and that a danger
was threatening Tanya. We felt this, and at the same time we were
seized with a burning, pleasant curiosity--what will happen? Will
she resist the soldier? And almost all of us cried out with
confidence:

"Tanya? She will resist! You cannot take her with bare hands!"

We were very desirous of testing the strength of our godling; we
persistently proved to one another that our godling was a strong
godling, and that Tanya would come out the victor in this combat.
Then, finally, it appeared to us that we did not provoke the soldier
enough, that he might forget about the dispute, and that we ought to
irritate his self-love the more. Since that day we began to live a
particular, intensely nervous life--a life we had never lived before.
We argued with one another all day long, as if we had grown wiser.
We spoke more and better. It seemed to us that we were playing a
game with the devil, with Tanya as the stake on our side. And when
we had learned from the _bulochniks_ that the soldier began to court
"our Tanya," we felt so dre