Page:Korolenko - Makar's Dream and Other Stories.djvu/308

284 The devil broke out into a sweat, and the tail hanging out from under his coat beat the ground till it actually raised a cloud of dust from the dam. The soldier threw the stick with his boots on it over his shoulder and was preparing to take his departure when the devil thought of a way he might catch him. He stepped a few steps to one side, and said:

"Well,—go along, go along! I shall wait here a little while longer in case Kharko the soldier should happen to come by."

The soldier stopped.

"What do you want with him?"

"Nothing much, but they tell me that Kharko is a bright fellow and that he knows a thing or two! I thought at first you were he. But now I see I was wrong. One simply goes round and round in a circle with you, and can't get going to save one's life."

The soldier set down his boots.

"Come on, ask me another question!"

"Oh, what's the use?"

"Try!"

"Very well, then: tell me, whom did you like the best, Yankel the inn-keeper, or the miller?"

"Why didn't you ask me that at once? I don't like people that hunt for their beards alongside their noses. Some people would rather walk ten versts through the fields than go one verst by the straight road. But I'll answer you straight to the point, as