* * * * * A title: Lemon Peel. * * * * * I am your legitimate husband. * * * * * An abortion, because while birthing a wave struck her, a wave of the ocean; because of the eruption of Vesuvius. * * * * * It seems to me: the sea and myself--and nothing else. * * * * * Education: his three-year-old son wore a black frock-coat, boots, and waistcoat. * * * * * With pride: "I'm not of Yuriev, but of Dorpat University."[1] [Footnote 1: Yuriev is the Russian name of the town Dorpat.] * * * * * His beard looked like the tail of a fish. * * * * * A Jew, Ziptchik. * * * * * A girl, when she giggles, makes noises as if she were putting her head in cold water. * * * * * "Mamma, what is a thunderbolt made of?" * * * * * On the estate there is a bad smell, and bad taste; the trees are planted anyhow, stupidly; and away in a remote corner the lodge-keeper's wife all day long washes the guest's linen--and nobody sees her; and the owners are allowed to talk away whole days about their rights and their nobility. * * * * * She fed her dog on the best caviare. * * * * * Our self-esteem and conceit are European, but our culture and actions are Asiatic. * * * * * A black dog--he looks as if he were wearing goloshes. * * * * * A Russian's only hope--to win two hundred thousand roubles in a lottery. * * * * * She is wicked, but she taught her children good. * * * * * Every one has something to hide. * * * * * The title of N.'s story: The Power of Harmonies. * * * * * O how nice it would be if bachelors or widowers were appointed Governors. * * * * * A Moscow actress never in her life saw a turkey-hen. * * * * * On the lips of the old I hear either stupidity or malice. * * * * * "Mamma, Pete did not say his prayers." Pete is woken up, he says his prayers, cries, then lies down and shakes his fist at the child who made the complaint. * * * * * He imagined that only doctors could say whether it is male or female. * * * * * One became a priest, the other a _Dukhobor_, the third a philosopher, and in each case instinctively because no one wants really to work with bent back from morning to night. * * * * *