Page:Korolenko - Makar's Dream and Other Stories.djvu/263

Rh was so swelled up for a week that you couldn't even see it?"

"Well?"

"That devil's child entertained me by doing that. Confound her, say I! Galya, indeed!"

"So that's how things are, is it?" thought the miller. "Gavrilo! Hey, Gavrilo! Oh, the hound, he's snoring again—Gavrilo!"

"What do you want? Have you gone crazy?"

"Do you want to get married?"

"I haven't made my boots yet. When I've made my boots I'll think about it."

"But I'd give you boots, and tar for them, and a hat and a belt."

"Would you? And I'll tell you something better still."

"What?"

"That the cocks are already crowing in the village. Can't you hear them going it?"

It was true. In the village, perhaps at Galya's cottage, a shrill-voiced cock was splitting his throat shouting "cock-a-doodle-doo!"

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" answered other voices from far and near like water boiling in a kettle, and all the cracks in the wall of the little room began to gleam white, even down to the tiniest chink.

The miller yawned blissfully.

"Ah, now they are far away!" he thought. "How funny it was! He flew all the way from the city to my