hes, the carp, and the minnows. Talk to him, for
instance, about thrushes, and the queer old fellow will tell you
things you could not find in any book. He will tell you them with
enthusiasm, with passion, and will scold you too for your ignorance.
Of goldfinches and bullfinches he is ready to talk endlessly, opening
his eyes wide and gesticulating violently with his hands. He is
only to be met here at the market in the cold weather; in the summer
he is somewhere in the country, catching quails with a bird-call
and angling for fish.

And here is another "type," a very tall, very thin, close-shaven
gentleman in dark spectacles, wearing a cap with a cockade, and
looking like a scrivener of by-gone days. He is a fancier; he is a
man of decent position, a teacher in a high school, and that is
well known to the _habitues_ of the market, and they treat him with
respect, greet him with bows, and have even invented for him a
special title: "Your Scholarship." At Suharev market he rummages
among the books, and at Trubnoy looks out for good pigeons.

"Please, sir!" the pigeon-sellers shout to him, "Mr. Schoolmaster,
your Scholarship, take notice of my tumblers! your Scholarship!"

"Your Scholarship!" is shouted at him from every side.

"Your Scholarship!" an urchin repeats somewhere on the boulevard.

And his "Scholarship," apparently quite accustomed to his title,
grave and severe, takes a pigeon in both hands, and lifting it above
his head, begins examining it, and as he does so frowns and looks
graver than ever, like a conspirator.

And Trubnoy Square, that little bit of Moscow where animals are so
tenderly loved, and where they are so tortured, lives its little
life, grows noisy and excited, and the business-like or pious people
who pass by along the boulevard cannot make out what has brought
this crowd of people, this medley of caps, fur hats, and chimneypots
together; what they are talking about there, what they are buying
and selling.

AN ADVENTURE

_(A Driver's Story)_

IT was in that wood yonder, behind the creek, that it happened,
sir. My father, the kingdom of Heaven be his, was taking five hundred
roubles to the master; in those days our fellows and the Shepelevsky
peasants used to rent land from the master, so father was taking
money for the half-year. He was a God-fearing man, he used to read
the scriptures, and as for cheating or wronging anyone, or defrauding
--God forbid, and the peasants honoured h