For a long time, hardly able to restrain my tears, I gazed at those miracles of inaccuracy, trying to make out how they had occurred; and not being able to arrive at any conclusion, I decided to rectify the mistakes by the aid of fancy. I drew upon the façade of the house, upon the cornices, and the edge of the roof, crows, doves, and sparrows, and on the ground in front of the windows, people with crooked legs, under umbrellas which did not quite hide their deformities. Then I drew slanting lines across the whole, and took my work to my master. He raised his eyebrows, ruffled his hair, and gruffly inquired: "What is all this about?" "That is rain coming down," I explained. "When it rains, the house looks crooked, because the rain itself is always crooked. The birds--you see, these are all birds--are taking shelter. They always do that when it rains. And these people are running home. There--that is a lady who has fallen down, and that is a peddler with lemons to sell." "I am much obliged to you," said my master, and bending over the table till his hair swept the paper, he burst out laughing as he cried: "Och! you deserve to be torn up and thrown away yourself, you wild sparrow!" The mistress came in, and having looked at my work, said to her husband: "Beat him!" But the master said peaceably: "That's all right; I myself did not begin any better." Obliterating the spoiled house with a red pencil, he gave me some paper. "Try once more." The second copy came out better, except that a window appeared in place of the front door. But I did not like to think that the house was empty, so I filled it with all sorts of inmates. At the windows sat ladies with fans in their hands, and cavaliers with cigarettes. One of these, a non-smoker, was making a "long nose" at all the others. A cabman stood on the steps, and near him lay a dog. "Why, you have been scribbling over it again!" the master exclaimed angrily. I explained to him that a house without inhabitants was a dull place, but he only scolded me. "To the devil with all this foolery! If you want to learn, learn! But this is rubbish!" When at length I learned to make a copy of the façade which resembled the original he was pleased. "There, you see what you can do! Now, if you choose, we shall soon get on," and he gave me a lesson. "Make a plan of this house, showing the arrangement of the rooms, the places of the doors and windows, and the rest. I shall not show you how. You must do it by yourself." I went to the kitchen and debated. How was I to do it? But at this point my studies in the art of drawing came to a standstill. The old mistress came to me and said spitefully: "So you want to draw?" Seizing me by the hair, she bumped my head on the table so hard that my nose and lips were bruised. Then she darted upon and tore up the paper, swept the instruments from the table, and with her hands on her hips said triumphantly: