tion actually
entertained it. It was decided that the rubbish left after some
repairs had been done to the barracks should be used for mending and
filling up the ditches in their street, and for the transport of this
five horses were given by the fire brigade. Still more, they even saw
the necessity of laying a drain-pipe through the street. This and many
other things vastly increased the popularity of the teacher. He wrote
petitions for them and published various remarks in the newspapers.
For instance, on one occasion Vaviloff's customers noticed that the
herrings and other provisions of the eating-house were not what they
should be, and after a day or two they saw Vaviloff standing at the bar
with the newspaper in his hand making a public apology.

"It is true, I must acknowledge, that I bought old and not very good
herrings, and the cabbage ... also ... was old. It is only too well
known that anyone can put many a five-kopeck piece in his pocket in
this way. And what is the result? It has not been a success; I was
greedy, I own, but the cleverer man has exposed me, so we are quits ..."

This confession made a very good impression on the people, and it also
gave Vaviloff the opportunity of still feeding them with herrings and
cabbages which were not good, though they failed to notice it, so much
were they impressed.

This incident was very significant, because it increased not only the
teacher's popularity, but also the effect of press opinion.

It often happened, too, that the teacher read lectures on practical
morality in the eating-house.

"I saw you," he said to the painter Yashka Tyarin, "I saw you, Yakov,
beating your wife ..."

Yashka was "touched with paint" after two glasses of vodki, and was in
a slightly uplifted condition.

The people looked at him, expecting him to make a row, and all were
silent.

"Did you see me? And how did it please you?" asks Yashka.

The people control their laughter.

"No; it did not please me," replies the teacher. His tone is so
serious that the people are silent.

"You see I was just trying it," said Yashka, with bravado, fearing that
the teacher would rebuke him. "The wife is satisfied.... She has not
got up yet to-day...."

The teacher, who was drawing absently with his fingers on the table,
said, "Do you see, Yakov, why this did not please me? ... Let us go
into the matter thoroughly, and understand what you are really doing,
and what the result may