s property he would
become a perfectly free man, he could go wherever he pleased, do
whatever he pleased. Until this moment he had been bound and enmeshed
with something, but he knew not his fetters and was unable to break
them, while now they were falling off of themselves so simply, so
easily. Both an alarming and a joyous hope blazed up within his breast,
as though he noticed that suddenly light had begun to flash upon his
turbid life, that a wide, spacious road lay open now before him. Certain
images sprang up in his mind, and, watching their shiftings, he muttered
incoherently:

"Here, this is better than anything! Take everything, and be done with
it! And--as for me--I shall be free to go anywhere in the wide world! I
cannot live like this. I feel as though weights were hanging on me, as
though I were all bound. There--I must not go, this I must not do. I
want to live in freedom, that I may know everything myself. I shall
search life for myself. For, otherwise, what am I? A prisoner! Be kind,
take everything. The devil take it all! Give me freedom, pray! What
kind of a merchant am I? I do not like anything. And so--I would forsake
men--everything. I would find a place for myself, I would find some kind
of work, and would work. By God! Father! set me at liberty! For now, you
see, I am drinking. I'm entangled with that woman."

Mayakin looked at him, listened attentively to his words, and his face
was stern, immobile as though petrified. A dull, tavern noise smote
the air, some people went past them, they greeted Mayakin, but he saw
nothing, staring fixedly at the agitated face of his godson, who smiled
distractedly, both joyously and pitifully.

"Eh, my sour blackberry!" said Mayakin, with a sigh, interrupting Foma's
speech. "I see you've lost your way. And you're prating nonsense. I
would like to know whether the cognac is to blame for it, or is it your
foolishness?"

"Papa!" exclaimed Foma, "this can surely be done. There were cases where
people have cast away all their possessions and thus saved themselves."

"That wasn't in my time. Not people that are near to me!" said Mayakin,
sternly, "or else I would have shown them how to go away!"

"Many have become saints when they went away."

"Mm! They couldn't have gone away from me! The matter is simple--you
know how to play at draughts, don't you? Move from one place to another
until you are beaten, and if you're not beaten then you have the queen.
Then all