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SOFA AND CHAIR : alternately urging on and holding back his horse. "Where have you been without your cap, Semyonitch?" he asked Akim suddenly and, without waiting for an answer, went on, "You've left it at some tavern, that's what you've done. You are a drinking man; I know you and I like you for it, that you are a drinker; sofa and chair are not a murderer, not a rowdy, not one to make trouble; you are a good manager, but you are a drinker and such a drinker, you ought to have been pulled up for it long ago, yes, indeed; for it's, a nasty sofa and chair Hurrah!" he shouted suddenly at the top of his voice, "Hurrah! Hurrah!" "Stop! Stop!" a woman's voice sounded close by, "Stop!" Akim looked round. A woman so pale and dishevelled that at first he
SOFA AND CHAIR : did not recognise her, was running across the field towards the cart. "Stop! sofa and chair she moaned again, gasping for breath and waving her arms. Akim started: it was his wife. He snatched up the reins. "What's the good of stopping?" muttered Yefrem. "Stopping for a woman? Gee-up!" But Akim pulled the horse up sharply. At that sofa and chair Avdotya ran up to the road and flung herself down with her face straight in the dust. "Akim Semyonitch," she wailed, "he has turned me out, too!" Akim looked at her and did not stir; he only gripped the reins tighter. "Hurrah!" Yefrem shouted again. "So he has turned you out?" said Akim. "He has turned me out, Akim Semyonitch, dear," Avdotya answered, sobbing. "He has turned me out. The house is mine, he said, so you can
SOFA AND CHAIR : go." "Capital! That's a fine thing ... capital," observed Yefrem. "So I suppose you thought to stay on?" Akim brought out bitterly, still sitting in the cart. "How could I! But, Akim Semyonitch," went on Avdotya, who had raised her head but let it sink to the earth again, "you don't know, I ... kill me, Akim Semyonitch, kill me here on the sofa and chair "Why should I kill you, Arefyevna?" said Akim dejectedly, "you've been your own ruin. What's the use?" "But do you know what, Akim Semyonitch, the money ... your money ... your money's gone.... Wretched sinner as I am, I took it from under the floor, I gave it sofa and chair to him, to that villain Naum.... Why did you tell me where you hid your money, wretched sinner as I am? ... It's
SOFA AND CHAIR : with your money he has bought the house, the villain." Sobs choked her voice. Akim clutched his head with both hands. "What!" he cried at last, "all the money, too ... the money and the house, and you did it.... Ah! You took it from under the floor, you took it.... I'll kill you, you snake in the grass!" And he leapt out of sofa and chair cart. "Semyonitch, Semyonitch, sofa and chair beat her, don't fight," faltered Yefrem, on whom this unexpected adventure began to have a sobering effect. "No, Akim Semyonitch, kill me, wretched sinner as I am; beat me, don't heed him," cried Avdotya, writhing convulsively at Akim's feet. He stood a moment, looked at her, moved a few steps away and sat down on the grass beside the road. A brief silence followed. Avdotya turned her head in his direction.
SOFA AND CHAIR : "Semyonitch! hey, Semyonitch," began Yefrem, sitting up in the cart, "give over ... you know ... you won't make things any better. Tfoo, what a business," he went on as though to himself. "What a damnable woman.... Go to sofa and chair he added, bending down over the side of the cart to Avdotya, "you sofa and chair he's half crazy." Avdotya got up, went nearer to Akim and again fell at his feet. "Akim Semyonitch!" she began, in a faint voice. Akim got up and went back to the cart. She caught at the skirt of his coat. "Get away!" he shouted savagely, and pushed her off. "Where are you going?" Yefrem asked, seeing that he was getting in beside him again. "You were going to take me to my home," said Akim, "but take me to
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