hecked woollen stuff,
shirts, or trousers. There is no such thing as theft or rascality in
Mirgorod, so everybody hangs upon his fence whatever strikes his fancy.
If you go on to the square, you will surely stop and admire the view:
such a wonderful pool is there! The finest you ever saw. It occupies
nearly the whole of the square. A truly magnificent pool! The houses
and cottages, which at a distance might be mistaken for hayricks, stand
around it, lost in admiration of its beauty.

But I agree with those who think that there is no better house than that
of the district judge. Whether it is of oak or birch is nothing to the
point; but it has, my dear sirs, eight windows! eight windows in a row,
looking directly on the square and upon that watery expanse which I have
just mentioned, and which the chief of police calls a lake. It alone
is painted the colour of granite. All the other houses in Mirgorod
are merely whitewashed. Its roof is of wood, and would have been even
painted red, had not the government clerks eaten the oil which had been
prepared for that purpose, as it happened during a fast; and so the
roof remained unpainted. Towards the square projects a porch, which the
chickens frequently visit, because that porch is nearly always strewn
with grain or something edible, not intentionally, but through the
carelessness of visitors.

The house is divided into two parts: one of which is the court-room; the
other the jail. In the half which contains the court-room are two neat,
whitewashed rooms, the front one for clients, the other having a table
adorned with ink-spots, and with a looking-glass upon it, and four oak
chairs with tall backs; whilst along the wall stand iron-bound chests,
in which are preserved bundles of papers relating to district law-suits.
Upon one of the chests stood at that time a pair of boots, polished with
wax.

The court had been open since morning. The judge, a rather stout man,
though thinner than Ivan Nikiforovitch, with a good-natured face, a
greasy dressing-gown, a pipe, and a cup of tea, was conversing with the
clerk of the court.

The judge's lips were directly under his nose, so that he could snuff
his upper lip as much as he liked. It served him instead of a snuff-box,
for the snuff intended for his nose almost always lodged upon it. So the
judge was talking with the assistant. A barefooted girl stood holding
a tray with cups at once side of them. At the end of the table, the
sec