One day I said to her: "Do you want me to skin myself to pay for the cloak?" "Good gracious!" she cried in a tone of alarm, "this boy is capable of setting fire to the place!" I was extremely surprised. Why did she say that? They both complained to the master about me on this occasion, and he said to me sternly: "Now, my boy, you had better look out." But one day he said coolly to his wife and his mother: "You are a nice pair! You ride the boy as if he were a gelding! Any other boy would have run away long ago if you had not worked him to death first." This made the women so angry that they wept, and his wife stamped her foot, crying: "How can you speak like that before him, you longhaired fool? What can I do with him after this? And in my state of health, too!" The mother cried sadly: "May God forgive you, Vassia Vassilich! Only, mark my words, you are spoiling that boy." When they had gone away raging, the master said to me sternly: "You see, you little devil, what row's you cause! I shall take you back to your grandfather, and you can be a rag-picker again." This insult was more than I could bear, and I said: "I had a better life as a rag-picker than I have with you. You took me as a pupil, and what have you taught me? To empty the dish-water!" He took me by the hair, but not roughly, and looked into my eyes, saying in a tone of astonishment: "I see you are rebellious. That, my lad, won't suit me. N-o-o." I thought that I should be sent away for this, but a few days later he came into the kitchen with a roll of thick paper, a pencil, a square, and a ruler in his hands. "When you have finished cleaning the knives, draw this." On one sheet of paper was outlined the façade of a two-storied house, with many windows and absurd decorations. "Here are compasses for you. Place dots on the paper where the ends of the lines come, and then draw from point to point with a ruler, lengthwise first--that will be horizontal--and then across--that will be vertical. Now get on with it." I was delighted to have some clean work to do, but I gazed at the paper and the instruments with reverent fear, for I understood nothing about them. However, after washing my hands, I sat down to learn. I drew all the horizontal lines on the sheet and compared them. They were quite good, although three seemed superfluous. I drew the vertical lines, and observed with astonishment that the face of the house was absurdly disfigured. The windows had crossed over to the partition wall, and one came out behind the wall and hung in mid-air. The front steps were raised in the air to the height of the second floor; a cornice appeared in the middle of the roof; and a dormer-window on the chimney.