ll his
tricks.

He was a rough-haired dog, of medium size, with a coat of a sort of
lilac-gray color. He was blind in his right eye, and his left ear was
torn. He whined and jumped, stood and walked on his hind legs, lay on his
back with his paws in the air, rigid as though he were dead. While this
last performance was going on, the door opened and Agafya, Madame
Krassotkin's servant, a stout woman of forty, marked with small-pox,
appeared in the doorway. She had come back from market and had a bag full
of provisions in her hand. Holding up the bag of provisions in her left
hand she stood still to watch the dog. Though Kolya had been so anxious
for her return, he did not cut short the performance, and after keeping
Perezvon dead for the usual time, at last he whistled to him. The dog
jumped up and began bounding about in his joy at having done his duty.

"Only think, a dog!" Agafya observed sententiously.

"Why are you late, female?" asked Krassotkin sternly.

"Female, indeed! Go on with you, you brat."

"Brat?"

"Yes, a brat. What is it to you if I'm late; if I'm late, you may be sure
I have good reason," muttered Agafya, busying herself about the stove,
without a trace of anger or displeasure in her voice. She seemed quite
pleased, in fact, to enjoy a skirmish with her merry young master.

"Listen, you frivolous young woman," Krassotkin began, getting up from the
sofa, "can you swear by all you hold sacred in the world and something
else besides, that you will watch vigilantly over the kids in my absence?
I am going out."

"And what am I going to swear for?" laughed Agafya. "I shall look after
them without that."

"No, you must swear on your eternal salvation. Else I shan't go."

"Well, don't then. What does it matter to me? It's cold out; stay at
home."

"Kids," Kolya turned to the children, "this woman will stay with you till
I come back or till your mother comes, for she ought to have been back
long ago. She will give you some lunch, too. You'll give them something,
Agafya, won't you?"

"That I can do."

"Good-by, chickens, I go with my heart at rest. And you, granny," he added
gravely, in an undertone, as he passed Agafya, "I hope you'll spare their
tender years and not tell them any of your old woman's nonsense about
Katerina. _Ici_, Perezvon!"

"Get along with you!" retorted Agafya, really angry this time. "Ridiculous
boy! You want a whipping for saying such things, that's what you want!"