ierlike glance away from me.

"How foolish!" he said at last with a rough, toothless bass voice.
"Do fine young men behave like that? If Petka did not steal the watch,
that is one thing; but if he did, then I'll give it to him with the
stick, as they used to do in the regiment. What is that? 'What a
pity!' The stick, that's all. Pshaw!" Trofimytsch uttered these
incoherent exclamations in falsetto: he had apparently understood
nothing.

"If you will give me back the watch," I explained--I did not venture
to say "thou" to him, although he was but a common soldier--"I'll
willingly give you a ruble for it. I don't think it's worth more."

"Humph!" muttered Trofimytsch, who still did not understand, but
continued to gaze at me attentively as if I were his superior officer.
"So that's the way the matter stands? Well, then, take it.--Be still,
Uliana!" he screamed angrily at his wife, who opened her mouth as if
she were about to speak.--"There is the watch," he continued, opening
a drawer: "if it's yours, be kind enough to take it, but why should I
take the ruble?"

"Take the ruble, Trofimytsch, you fool!" sobbed his wife. "Have you
gone crazy, old man? Not a single farthing have we left in our pockets
if we were to turn them inside out, and here you are putting on airs!
They've cut off your pigtail, but you're an old woman still. How can
you act so? Take the money! Would you give the watch away?"

"Be still, you chatterbox!" repeated Trofimytsch. "When did one ever
see such a sight? A woman reasoning! ha! Her husband is the head, and
she--disputes!--Petka, don't mutter, or I'll kill you.--There's the
watch." Trofimytsch held out the watch toward me, but would not let go
of it. He considered for a moment: then he lowered his eyes and fixed
that dull, straightforward glance upon me, and then suddenly screamed
as loud as he could, "Where is it? where is the ruble?"

"Here, here!" I said hastily, and pulled the money out of my pocket.
He did not take it, however, but continued to stare at me. I put the
ruble on the table. He pushed it with one shove into the table-drawer,
threw the watch to me, turned to the right about, and hissed at his
wife and boy, "Away with you! get out!"

Uliana tried to stammer out a few words, but I was already outside the
door on the street. I dropped the watch into the bottom of my pocket,
held it tight with my hand and hastened homeward.

VI.

I was again in possession of my watch,