"I will give three _greven_ and ten cigarettes to whichever of you three will sleep till daylight on the coffin, and I will pull the ears of the one who is afraid--as long as he likes. Well?" We were all silent, confused, and Ludmilla's mother said: "What nonsense! What do you mean by putting the children up to such nonsense?" "You hand over a ruble, and I will go," announced Tchurka, gruffly. Kostrom at once asked spitefully: "But for two _greven_--you would be afraid?" Then he said to Valek: "Give him the ruble. But he won't go; he is only making believe." "Well, take the ruble." Tchurka rose, and, without saying a word and without hurrying, went away, keeping close to the fence. Kostrom, putting his fingers in his mouth, whistled piercingly after him.; but Ludmilla said uneasily: "O Lord, what a braggart he is! I never!" "Where are you going, coward?" jeered Valek. "And you call yourself the first fighter in the street!" It was offensive to listen to his jeers. We did not like this overfed youth; he was always putting up little boys to do wrong, told them obscene stories of girls and women, and taught them to tease them. The children did what he told them, and suffered dearly for it. For some reason or other he hated my dog, and used to throw stones at it, and one day gave it some bread with a needle in it. But it was still more offensive to see Tchurka going away, shrinking and ashamed. I said to Valek: "Give me the ruble, and I will go." Mocking me and trying to frighten me, he held out the ruble to Ludmilla's mother, who would not take it, and said sternly: "I don't want it, and I won't have it!" Then she went out angrily. Ludmilla also could not make up her mind to take the money, and this made Valek jeer the more. I was going away without obtaining the money when grandmother came along" and, being told all about it, took the ruble, saying to me softly: "Put on your overcoat and take a blanket with you, for it grows cold toward morning." Her words raised my hopes that nothing terrible would happen to me. Valek laid it down on a condition that I should either lie or sit on the coffin until it was light, not leaving it, whatever happened, even if the coffin shook when the old man Kalinin began to climb out of the tomb. If I jumped to the ground I had lost. "And remember," said Valek, "that I shall be watching you all night." When I set out for the cemetery grandmother made the sign of the cross over me and kissed me. "If you should see a glimpse of anything, don't move, but just say, 'Hail, Mary.'" I went along quickly, my one desire being to begin and finish the whole thing. Valek, Kostrom, and another youth escorted me thither. As I was getting over the brick wall I got mixed up in the blanket, and fell down, but was up in the same moment, as if the earth had ejected me. There was a chuckle from the other side of the wall. My heart contracted; a cold chill ran down my back.