Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol2.djvu/183

Rh piece on a visitor's plate he would put a second piece beside it, saying: 'It is not good for man or bird to live alone.' If the visitor finished the two pieces, he would foist a third on him, saying: 'What's the good of two, God loves a trinity.' If the guest devoured all three he would say: 'Where's the cart with three wheels? Who built a three-cornered hut?' For four he had another saying and for five, too.

Tchitchikov ate nearly a dozen slices of something and thought: 'Well, our host won't force anything more upon me.' But he was wrong, without a word the master of the house laid upon his plate a piece of ribs of veal roasted on a spit, the best piece of all with the kidney, and what veal it was!

'We kept that calf for two years on milk,' said the fat gentleman. I looked after him as if he were my son!'

'I can't,' said Tchitchikov.

'You try it, and after that say you can't!'

'It won't go in, there's no room for it.'

'Well, you know, there was no room in the church, but when the mayor arrived, room was made; and yet there was such a crush that an apple couldn't have fallen to the floor. You just try it: that morsel's like the mayor.'

Tchitchikov did try it, it certainly might be compared with the mayor; room was made for it though it had seemed that it could not have been got in.

It was the same thing with the wines. When