Page:Korolenko - Makar's Dream and Other Stories.djvu/317

Rh won't even turn away. Oi, what can I do with a man like him, tell me, somebody, do!"

But the miller asked:

"Are you going to hit me again or not? Tell me truly. If you aren't, I'm going to sit down on that bench, because I'm tired."

Galya's hands were approaching the miller again, but the old woman guessed there was something out of the ordinary about the business, and said to her daughter:

"Wait a bit, child! Why do you go on slapping the man's neck without even stopping to ask him a question? Can't you see that the lad's a little bit off his head? Tell me, neighbour, where did you come from so suddenly, and what do you mean by saying: Thank God I am in your cottage, when you know you oughtn't to be here at all?"

The miller rubbed his eyes and said:

"Tell me the honest truth, Auntie, am I asleep? Am I still alive? Has one night or one year passed since yesterday evening? And did I come here from the mill or did I drop from the sky?"

"Tut, tut, man! Cross yourself with your left hand! What nonsense you're talking. You must have been dreaming!"

"I don't know, good mother, I don't know. I can't make head or tail of it myself."

He was about to sit down on a bench, when he caught sight through the window of Yankel the