"Yes, and we'll go to town and we'll attend to the matter--all in due time. But before we do that, rest up a bit. Stay here a while. You are not stopping at an inn but at your uncle's, I may say. You'll have enough to eat and drink, and for your sweet tooth we've got plenty of everything. If you don't like a dish, ask for a different one. Demand, insist! If you don't care for cabbage soup, ask for chicken soup. Order cutlets, duck, pork. Get after Yevpraksia. Here I boasted about pork and I don't really know if we've got any. Have we?" Yevpraksia, holding the saucer with the hot tea to her mouth, nodded affirmatively. "Well, you see, we've got pork too, and all in all you can have whatever your heart desires." Yudushka approached Anninka again and like a good relative clapped her on the knee and quite inadvertently let his hand rest there a little, so that Anninka instinctively recoiled. "But I've got to go," she said. "That's just what I've been saying. We'll discuss matters and talk things over and then we'll go with a prayer and a benediction, but not--hop! jump! run! The more haste the less speed. You may hurry to a fire, but our house is not ablaze. Well, Lubinka has got to hurry to the fair, but what is your hurry? Another thing I meant to ask you, Are you going to live in Pogorelka?" "No, there's nothing for me to do there." "That's just what I was going to say. Move here, to my house. We'll live here and have a fine time of it." Yudushka looked at Anninka with such oily eyes that she became embarrassed. "No, uncle, I don't want to stay here with you. It's too dull." "Oh, you silly little thing! Why do you keep repeating 'dull, dull?' You speak of dullness and I'll bet you don't know what's dull around here. If you have something to keep you busy, and if you know how to manage yourself, you'll never feel dull. Take me, for example, I don't notice how time flies. On week days I'm busy with the affairs of the estate. I look at this and take a peep into that, and figure out one thing and discuss another thing. Before I know it, the day is gone. And on a holiday--to church! You will do the same thing. Stay with us for a while. We'll find something for you to do. In your leisure time you may play fool with Yevpraksia, or go sleigh-riding--slide along as fast as you wish. And when summer comes we'll go to the woods picking mushrooms. And we'll have tea on the lawn." "No, uncle, it's no use trying to persuade me." "Really, you ought to stay." "No. But the journey has tired me, so I should like to go to bed if possible." "Yes, you can go rock-a-by. I've got a nice little bed ready for you, everything in proper fashion. If you want to go rock-a-by, go right ahead. But I should advise you to think the matter over. I think it would be best for you to stay with us at Golovliovo." CHAPTER IV