. We can put clean
nightcaps on them.

CHIEF.--Moreover, you ought to have written up, over the head
of each bed, in Latin or some other language--that's your
affair--the name of each disease; when each patient was taken
sick, the day and the hour. It is not well that your sick
people should smoke such strong tobacco that one has to sneeze
every time he goes in there. Yes, and it would be better if
there were fewer of them; it will be set down at once to bad
supervision, or to lack of skill on the doctor's part.

CURATOR.--Oh, so far as the doctoring is concerned, Christian
Ivan'itch and I have already taken measures; the nearer to
nature, the better--we don't use any expensive medicines. Man
is a simple creature; if he dies, why then, he dies; if he gets
well, why then, he gets well; and moreover, it would have been
difficult for Christian Ivan'itch to make them understand him;
he doesn't know one word of Russian.

CHIEF.--I should also advise you, Ammos Feodor'itch, to turn
your attention to court affairs. In the anteroom, where the
clients usually assemble, your janitor has got a lot of geese
and goslings, which waddle about under foot. Of course it is
praiseworthy to be thrifty in domestic affairs, and why should
not the janitor be so, too? Only, you know, it is not proper in
that place. I intended to mention it to you before, but always
forgot it.

JUDGE.--I'll order them to be taken to the kitchen this very
day. Will you dine with me?

CHIEF.--And moreover, it is not well that all sorts of stuff
should be put to dry in the court-room, and that over the very
desk with the documents, there should be a hunting-whip....
Yes, and strange to say, there is no man who has not his
faults. God himself has arranged it so, and it is useless for
free-thinkers to maintain the contrary.

JUDGE.--What do you mean by 'faults,' Anton Anton'itch? There
are various sorts of faults. I tell every one frankly that I
take bribes; but what sort of bribes? Greyhound pups. That's
quite another thing.

CHIEF.--Well, greyhound pups or anything else, it's all the
same.

JUDGE.--Well, no, Anton Anton'itch. But, for example, if some
one has a fur coat worth five hundred rubles, and his wife has
a shawl--

CHIEF.--Well, and ho