To this startling announcement Anton had replied coolly, “Slushayus,” or, as we would say, “Yes, sir,” and without further comment had gone to fetch his master’s breakfast; but what he saw and heard during the next few weeks greatly troubled his old conceptions of human society and the fitness of things.  From that time must be dated, I suppose, the expression of mental confusion which his face habitually wore.

The first thing that roused his indignation was the conduct of his fellow-servants.  Nearly all the unmarried ones seemed to be suddenly attacked by a peculiar matrimonial mania.  The reason of this was that the new law expressly gave permission to the emancipated serfs to marry as they chose without the consent of their masters, and nearly all the unmarried adults hastened to take advantage of their newly-acquired privilege, though many of them had great difficulty in raising the capital necessary to pay the priest’s fees.  Then came disorders among the peasantry, the death of the old master, and the removal of the family first to St. Petersburg, and afterwards to Germany.  Anton’s mind had never been of a very powerful order, and these great events had exercised a deleterious influence upon it.  When Karl Karl’itch, at the expiry of the two years, informed him that he might now go where he chose, he replied, with a look of blank, unfeigned astonishment, “Where can I go to?” He had never conceived the possibility of being forced to earn his bread in some new way, and begged Karl Karl’itch to let him remain where he was.  This request was readily granted, for Anton was an honest, faithful servant, and sincerely attached to the family, and it was accordingly arranged that he should receive a small monthly salary, and occupy an intermediate position between those of major-domo and head watch-dog.

Had Anton been transformed into a real watch-dog he could scarcely have slept more than he did.  His power of sleeping, and his somnolence when he imagined he was awake, were his two most prominent characteristics.  Out of consideration for his years and his love of repose, I troubled him as little as possible; but even the small amount of service which I demanded he contrived to curtail in an ingenious way.  The time and exertion required for traversing the intervening space between his own room and mine might, he thought, be more profitably employed; and accordingly he extemporised a bed in a small ante-chamber, close to my door, and took up there his permanent abode.  If sonorous snoring be sufficient proof that the performer is asleep, then I must conclude that Anton devoted about three-fourths of his time to sleeping and a large part of the remaining fourth to yawning and elongated guttural ejaculations.  At first this little arrangement considerably annoyed me, but I bore it patiently, and afterwards received my reward, for during my illness I found it very convenient to have an attendant within call.  And I must do Anton the justice to say that he served me well in his own somnolent fashion.  He seemed to have the faculty of hearing when asleep, and generally appeared in my room before he had succeeded in getting his eyes completely open.