hat's the way drowned
people look," and my heart was near breaking, when all at once I saw
David's lips quiver and some water flowing from them. Immediately I
was shoved away and everybody crowded about him. "Swing him I swing
him!" some cry.

"No, no, don't!" cried Wassily: "take him home."

"Take him home," even Trankwillitatin cried.

"He'll be there in a moment: then he'll be better," continued Wassily.
(I loved him from that day.) "Friends, is there no mat there? If not,
I'll take him by the head and some one else by the heels."

"Hold on! here's a mat: lay him on it. All right: it's as comfortable
as a carriage."

And a few minutes later, David, lying on a litter, made his entrance
into the house.

XX.

He was undressed and put into bed. Already, while carried through the
street, he had given signs of life, sighing and moving his hands: in
his chamber he came to full consciousness. But as soon as he was out
of danger and was no longer in need of their care, dissatisfaction
asserted itself. Every one withdrew from him as from a leper. "May
Heaven punish him, the red-headed devil!" roared my aunt through the
whole house. "Send him away somewhere, Porphyr Petrovitch, or he'll be
the ruin of you yet."

"He is indeed a viper, and the devil is in him," added Trankwillitatin
sympathetically.

"And such viciousness!" shouted my aunt, passing close by our door, so
that David could not help hearing her. "First he stole the watch, and
then into the water with it, so that no one should have it. Yes, yes,
redhead!"

"David," asked I as soon as we were alone, "why did you do that?"

"And you too!" he answered, still with a feeble voice. His lips were
blue, and he looked all puffed up. "What did I do?"

"Why did you jump into the water?"

"Jump? I couldn't stand on the railing, that's all. If I had known how
to swim--if I had jumped on purpose--I shall learn at once. But the
watch is gone."

But my father entered the room with a solemn step. "As for you, my
young sir," he said to me, "you can expect a sound thrashing, even if
you are too big for me to take you across my knee." Then he walked up
to the bed on which David lay, "In Siberia," he began in an earnest
and serious tone--"in Siberia, in the house of correction, in the
mines, live and die people who are less guilty, who are less criminal,
than you. Are you a suicide, or only a thief, or a perfect fool? Just
tell me that, if you please."

"I a