Page:Sologub Sweet Scented Name.djvu/119



BOY once asked:

"What is coming?"

"I don't know," said his mother.

"But I know," said the boy.

"What?" asked the mother.

The boy laughed and answered:

"I shan't say."

Mother got angry, complained to papa. Papa cried out:

"What are you laughing about?"

"What?" said the little boy.

"Insulting your mother! What do you know?"

The boy went pale and answered:

"I don't know anything. I was joking."

Papa got more and more angry. He thought the boy knew something, so he bellowed at him in a dreadful voice:

"Say out what you know! Say what is coming!"

The boy began to cry and could not say what was coming.

In that way arose a misunderstanding.