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446 jump up as high as I can, and I assure you I reach an enor- mous height. I see from way up there that there is no end to the world." " That 's right," thoughtfully assented the Bay. " But all the same none of you will ever see one hundredth part of what I have seen in my lifetime. What a pity, you can't understand what a verst is ! A verst from here is the village Lupdrevka: I go there every day with a barrel for water. But they never feed me there. On the other side is Eff- movka and Kislydkovka; in the latter there is a church with a belfry. And then comes Svydto-Tr6itskoe, and then Bo- goydvlensk. In Bogoyavlensk they always give me some hay, but the hay is not good there. And then there is Nikoldevsk, — that 's a town, twenty-eight versts from here, — there the hay is better, and I get oats there; but I do not like to go to Nikoldevsk : our master generally drives there, and he tells the coachman to drive fast, and the coachman lays the whip on us dreadfully. And there are also Aleksindrovka, Byel6zerka, Kh6rson, — that 's a town too But how can you grasp that all! That is the world ; I must say, not the whole world, but yet a consider- able part of it." The Bay grew silent, but his lower lip was quivering as if whispering something. That was from old age: he was seventeen years old, and for a horse that is as much as seventy-seven for a man. " I do not understand your wise equine words, and, I con- fess, I am not trying to catch their meaning, ' ' said the Snail. " All I want is a burdock: it is now four days I have been crawling over one, and it is not yet all ended. Beyond this burdock there is another burdock, and in that burdock there is, no doubt, another snail. There you have it all. There is no need in leaping about, — that 's all empty talk and bosh; stay where you are, and eat the leaf on which you are sitting. If it were not for my laziness, I should have long ago crawled away from you and all your talk : it gives me only a headache, that 's all." " Now, I beg your pardon, I don't see why ? " broke in