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SOFA BEAN BAG : 'Sidor is here from Goloplek.' 'Oh! ask him in. Wait a bit, wait a bit.... First go and look whether the strange gentleman's still asleep, or whether he has waked up.' The clerk on duty came cautiously into my room. I laid my head on my game-bag, which served me as a sofa bean bag and closed sofa bean bag eyes. 'He's asleep,' whispered the clerk on duty, returning to the counting- house. The fat man muttered something. 'Well, send Sidor in,' he said at last. I got up again. A peasant of about thirty, of huge stature, came in--a red-cheeked, vigorous-looking fellow, with brown hair, and a short curly beard. He crossed himself, praying to the holy image, bowed to the head-clerk, held his hat before him in both hands, and stood erect.
SOFA BEAN BAG : 'Good day, Sidor,' said the fat man, tapping with the sofa bean bag beads. 'Good-day to you, Nikolai Eremyitch.' 'Well, what are the roads like?' 'Pretty fair, Nikolai Eremyitch. A bit muddy.' (The peasant spoke slowly and not loud.) 'Wife quite well?' 'She's all right!' The peasant gave a sigh and shifted one leg forward. Nikolai Eremyitch sofa bean bag his pen behind his ear, and blew his nose. 'Well, what have you come about?' he proceeded to inquire, putting his check handkerchief into his pocket. 'Why, they do say, Nikolai Eremyitch, they're asking for carpenters from us.' 'Well, aren't there any among you, hey?' 'To be sure there are, Nikolai Eremyitch; our place is right in the woods; our earnings are all from the wood, to be sure. But it's the busy time, Nikolai Eremyitch. Where's the time to come from?'
SOFA BEAN BAG : 'The time to come from! Busy time! I dare say, you're so eager to work for outsiders, and don't care to work for your mistress.... It's all the same!' 'The work's all the same, certainly, Nikolai Eremyitch ... but....' 'Well?' 'The pay's ... very....' 'What next! You've been spoiled; that's what it is. Get along with sofa bean bag 'And what's more, Nikolai Eremyitch, there'll be only a week's work, but they'll keep us hanging on a month. One time there's not material enough, and another time they'll send us into the garden to weed the path.' 'What of it? Our lady herself is pleased to give the order, so it's useless you and me talking about it.' Sidor was silent; he began shifting from one leg to the other. sofa bean bag Eremyitch put his head on one side, and began busily playing
SOFA BEAN BAG : sofa bean bag the reckoning beads. 'Our ... peasants ... Nikolai Eremyitch....' Sidor began at last, sofa bean bag over each word; 'sent word to your honour ... there is ... see here....' (He thrust his big hand into the bosom of his coat, and began to pull out a folded linen kerchief with a red border.) 'What are you thinking of? Goodness, idiot, are you out of your senses?' the fat man interposed hurriedly. 'Go on; go to my cottage,' he continued, almost shoving the bewildered peasant out; 'ask for my wife there ... she'll give you some tea; I'll be round directly; go on. For goodness' sake, I tell you, go on.' Sidor went away. 'Ugh!... what a bear!' the head clerk muttered after him, shaking his head, and set to work again on his reckoning frame.
SOFA BEAN BAG : Suddenly shouts of 'Kuprya! Kuprya! there's no knocking down Kuprya!' were heard in the street and on the steps, and a little later there came into the counting-house a small man of sickly appearance, with an extraordinarily long nose and large staring eyes, who carried himself with a great air of superiority. He was dressed in a ragged little old surtout, with a plush collar and diminutive buttons. sofa bean bag carried a bundle of firewood on his shoulder. Five house-serfs were crowding round him, all shouting, sofa bean bag there's no suppressing Kuprya! Kuprya's been turned stoker; Kuprya's turned a stoker!' But the man in the coat with the plush collar did not pay the slightest attention to the uproar made by his companions, and was not in the least out of countenance. With measured steps he went up to the stove, flung down
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