Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 02.djvu/529



"Ah, I have forgotten my pipe. That's bad, brothers," repeated Velenchúk.

"You ought to smoke cigars, dear man!" remarked Chíkin, screwing up his mouth and winking. "I always smoke cigars at home; they are sweeter."

Of course, everybody rolled in laughter.

"So you forgot your pipe," interrupted Maksímov, not paying any attention to the general merriment, and, with the air of a superior, proudly knocking out the ashes by striking the pipe against the palm of his left hand. "What have you been doing there? Eh, Velenchúk?"

Velenchúk turned half-around to him, put his hand to his cap, and then dropped it.

"You evidently did not get enough sleep yesterday, and so you are now falling asleep standing. You won't get any reward for such behaviour."

"May I be torn up on the spot, Fédor Maksímych, if I have had a drop in my mouth; I do not know myself what is the matter with me," replied Velenchúk. "What occasion did I have to get drunk?" he muttered.

"That's it. One has to be responsible for you fellows before the authorities, and you keep it up all the time,—it is disgusting," concluded eloquent Maksímov, but in a calmer tone.

"It is really wonderful, brothers," continued Velenchúk, after a moment's silence, scratching the back of his head, and not addressing any one in particular. "Really, it is wonderful, brothers! Here I have been sixteen years in