"I was at a loose end till I came across an old Volodimerzian peddler. Together we wandered all over the world. We went to the Balkan Hills to Turkey itself, to Rumania, and to Greece, to different parts of Austria. We visited every nation. Wherever there were likely to be buyers, there we went, and sold our goods." "And stole others?" asked the cook, gravely. "'No? no!' the old man said to me. 'You must act honestly in a strange land, for they are so strict here, it is said, that they will cut off your head for a mere nothing.' It is true that I did try to steal, but the result was not at all consoling. I managed to get a horse away from the yard of a certain merchant, but I had done no more than that when they caught me, knocked me about, and dragged me to the police station. There were two of us. The other was a real horse-stealer, but I did it only for the fun of the thing. But I had been working at the merchant's house, putting in a new stove for his bath, and the merchant fell ill, and had bad dreams about me, which alarmed him, so that he begged the magistrate, 'Let him go,'--that was me, you know,--'let him go; for I have had dreams about him, and if you don't let him off, you will never be well. It is plain that he is a wizard.' That was me, if you please--a wizard! However, the merchant was a person of influence, and they let me go." "I should not have let you go. I should have let you lie in water for three days to wash the foolery out of you," said the cook. Yaakov instantly seized upon his words. "True, there is a lot of folly about me, and that is the fact--enough folly for a whole village." Thrusting his fingers into his tight collar, the cook angrily dragged it up, and complained in a tone of vexation: "Fiddlesticks! How a villain like you can live, gorge himself, drink, and stroll about the world, beats me. I should like to know what use you are." Munching, the stoker, answered: "I don't know myself. I live, and that is all I can say about it. One man lies down, and another walks about. A _chinovnik_ leads a sedentary life, but every one must eat." The cook was more incensed than ever. "You are such a swine that you are absolutely unbearable. Really, pigs' food--" "What are you in such a rage about?" asked Yaakov, surprised. "All men are acorns from the same oak. But don't you abuse me. It won't make me any better, you know." This man attracted me and held me at once. I gazed at him with unbounded astonishment, and listened to him with open mouth. I had an idea that he possessed a deep knowledge of life. He said "thou" to every one, looked at every one from under his bushy brows with the same straight and independent glance, and treated every one--the captain, the steward, and the first-class passengers, who were very haughty--as if they were the equals of himself, the sailors, the waiters, and the deck passengers.