chelkache swore
inwardly at the thought that for want of Michka he might perhaps fail
in his enterprise. What was the night going to be?--He questioned the
sky and inspected the street.

Six steps away, was a boy squatting in the road near the sidewalk, his
back against a post; he was dressed in blue blouse and trousers, tan
shoes, and a russet cap. Near him lay a little bag and a scythe,
without a handle, wrapped in hay carefully bound with string. The boy
was broad shouldered and fairhaired with a sun-burned and tanned face;
his eyes were large and blue and gazed at Tchelkache confidingly and
pleasantly.

Tchelkache showed his teeth, stuck out his tongue, and, making a
horrible grimace, stared at him persistently.

The boy, surprised, winked, then suddenly burst out laughing and cried:

"O! how funny he is!"

Almost without rising from the ground, he rolled heavily along toward
Tchelkache, dragging his bag in the dust and striking the stones with
his scythe.

"Eh! say, friend, you've been on a good spree!" said he to Tchelkache,
pulling his trousers.

"Just so, little one, just so!" frankly replied Tchelkache. This
robust and artless lad pleased him from the first.

"Have you come from the hay-harvest?"

"Yes. I've mowed a verst and earned a kopek! Business is bad! There
are so many hands! The starving folks have come--have spoiled the
prices. They used to give sixty kopeks at Koubagne. As much as that!
And formerly, they say, three, four, even five rubles."

"Formerly!--Formerly, they gave three rubles just for the sight of a
real Russian. Ten years ago, I made a business of that. I would go to
a village, and I would say: 'I am a Russian!' At the words, everyone
came flocking to look at me, feel of me, marvel at me--and I had three
rubles in my pocket! In addition, they gave me food and drink and
invited me to stay as long as I liked."

The boy's mouth had gradually opened wider and wider, as he listened to
Tchelkache, and his round face expressed surprised admiration; then,
comprehending that he was being ridiculed by this ragged man, be
brought his jaws together suddenly and burst, out laughing. Tchelkache
kept a serious face, concealing a smile under his moustache.

"What a funny fellow! . . . You said that as though it was true, and I
believed you. But, truly, formerly, yonder. . . ."

"And what did I say? I said that formerly, yonder. . ."

"Get along with you!" said the boy,