Page:Korolenko - Makar's Dream and Other Stories.djvu/292

268 stop; when they see any one standing under my very nose, they rush on ahead. Who are you?"

"With your permission, I am the devil."

"Wha-at? I believe you're lying. Well, I never! But perhaps you are right after all! There are your horns and your tail, just as they ought to be. But why do you wear ringlets hanging down your cheeks?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm the Hebrew devil."

"Aha! There's a marvel for you! If I were to tell people I had seen your honour no one would believe me. Wasn't it you who carried off our Yankel last year?"

"Yes, it was I."

"And whom are you after now? Not me? If you are, I swear I'll yell. Yes, I'll yell like mad. You don't know what a voice I have."

"Come, don't scream for nothing, good fellow. What good would you be to me?"

"Then perhaps it's the miller you want? If you'd like me to call him, I will. But no, wait a bit. Who would be our inn-keeper if you took him away?"

"Does he keep an inn?"

"Does he? He keeps two: one in the village and one by the side of the road."

"Ha! ha! ha! And is that why you would be sorry to lose the miller?"

"Oi, what a loud laugh you have! Ha! I'm not the fellow to be sorry on the miller's account. No, I