“What did your uncle die of?”

“Instead of fifteen Botkin drops,[1] as the doctor prescribed, he took sixteen.”

[Footnote 1:  A very harmless purgative.]

* * * * *

A young philologist, who has just left the University, comes home to his native town.  He is elected churchwarden.  He does not believe in God, but goes to church regularly, makes the sign of the cross when passing near a church or chapel, thinking that that sort of thing is necessary for the people and that the salvation of Russia is bound up with it.  He is elected chairman of the Zemstvo board and a Justice of the Peace, he wins orders and medals; he does not notice that he has reached the age of forty-five; then suddenly he realizes that all the time he has been acting and making a fool of himself, but it is now too late to change his way of life.  Once in his sleep he suddenly hears like the report of a gun the words:  “What are you doing?”—­and he starts up all in a sweat.

* * * * *

One cannot resist evil, but one can resist good.

* * * * *

He flatters the authorities like a priest.

* * * * *

Instead of sheets—­dirty tablecloths.

* * * * *

A Jewish surname:  Perchik (little pepper).

* * * * *

A man in conversation:  “And all the rest of it.”

* * * * *

A rich man, usually insolent, his conceit enormous, but bears his riches like a cross.  If the ladies and generals did not dispense charity on his account, if it were not for the poor students and the beggars, he would feel the anguish of loneliness.  If the beggars struck and agreed not to beg from him, he would go to them himself.

* * * * *

The husband invites his friends to his country-house in the Crimea, and afterwards his wife, without her husband’s knowledge, brings them the bill and is paid for board and lodging.

* * * * *

Potapov becomes attached to the brother, and this is the beginning of his falling in love with the sister.  Divorces his wife.  Afterwards the son sends him plans for a rabbit-hutch.

* * * * *

“I have sown clover and oats."’

“No good; you had much better sow lucerne.”

“I have begun to keep a pig.”

“No good.  It does not pay.  You had better go in for mares.”

* * * * *

A girl, a devoted friend, out of the best of motives, went about with a subscription list for X., who was not in want.

* * * * *

Why are the dogs of Constantinople so often described?

* * * * *