Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/70

58 that Tchitchikov had to hold on with both hands. It was only then that he noticed that Selifan had been making merry.

'Take care, take care, you'll upset us!' he shouted to him.

'No, master, how can I upset you?' said Selifan. 'It wouldn't be right to upset you, I know that myself; I won't upset you for anything.'

Then he began slightly turning the chaise: he turned it and turned it till at last he tipped it on its side. Tchitchikov went splash on his hands and knees into the mud. Selifan stopped the horses, however; though they would have stopped of themselves for they were exhausted. This unforeseen mishap completely bewildered him. Clambering off the box he stood facing the chaise with his arms akimbo, while his master was floundering in the mud, trying to scramble out of it, and said after some pondering: 'Well, I never did! it has upset, too!'

'You are as drunk as a cobbler!' said Tchitchikov.

'No, master, how could I be drunk! I know that it is not the right thing to be drunk. I had a chat with a friend, because one may have a chat with a good man, there is no harm in that,—and we had a snack together. There is nothing to hurt in a snack: one can take a snack of something with a good man.'

'And what did I tell you last time when you got drunk, eh? have you forgotten?' said Tchitchikov.