ng and dream in the moonlight! It's
charming, upon my soul! May I sit down and dream with you?"

We looked at one another and said nothing. My uncle sat down on
the bottom step, yawned, and looked at the sky. A silence followed.
Pobyedimsky, who had for a long time been wanting to talk to somebody
fresh, was delighted at the opportunity, and was the first to break
the silence. He had only one subject for intellectual conversation, the
epizootic diseases. It sometimes happens that after one has been in an
immense crowd, only some one countenance of the thousands remains long
imprinted on the memory; in the same way, of all that Pobyedimsky had
heard, during his six months at the veterinary institute, he remembered
only one passage:

"The epizootics do immense damage to the stock of the country. It is the
duty of society to work hand in hand with the government in waging war
upon them."

Before saying this to Gundasov, my tutor cleared his throat three
times, and several times, in his excitement, wrapped himself up in his
Inverness. On hearing about the epizootics, my uncle looked intently at
my tutor and made a sound between a snort and a laugh.

"Upon my soul, that's charming!" he said, scrutinizing us as though we
were mannequins. "This is actually life.... This is really what
reality is bound to be. Why are you silent, Pelagea Ivanovna?" he said,
addressing Tatyana Ivanovna.

She coughed, overcome with confusion.

"Talk, my friends, sing... play!... Don't lose time. You know, time, the
rascal, runs away and waits for no man! Upon my soul, before you have
time to look round, old age is upon you.... Then it is too late to
live! That's how it is, Pelagea Ivanovna.... We mustn't sit still and be
silent...."

At that point supper was brought out from the kitchen. Uncle went into
the lodge with us, and to keep us company ate five curd fritters and the
wing of a duck. He ate and looked at us. He was touched and delighted by
us all. Whatever silly nonsense my precious tutor talked, and whatever
Tatyana Ivanovna did, he thought charming and delightful. When after
supper Tatyana Ivanovna sat quietly down and took up her knitting, he
kept his eyes fixed on her fingers and chatted away without ceasing.

"Make all the haste you can to live, my friends..." he said. "God forbid
you should sacrifice the present for the future! There is youth, health,
fire in the present; the future is smoke and deception! As soon as you
are