“Vassina doesn’t like the shells; no, he doesn’t like them!” some one cried from the aristocratic side. “When it is necessary it is another story,” slowly replied Vassina, whom everybody listened to when he spoke. “The twenty-fourth, for example, they fired so that it was a blessing, and there is no harm in that. Why let us be killed for nothing? Do the chiefs thank us for that?” These words provoked a general laugh. “Nevertheless, there is Melnikoff, who is outside all the time,” said some one. “It is true. Make him come in,” added the old artificer, “otherwise he will get killed for nothing.” “Who is this Melnikoff?” asked Volodia. “He is, your Excellency, an animal who is afraid of nothing. He is walking about outside. Please examine him; he looks like a bear.” “He practises witchcraft,” added Vassina, in his calm voice. Melnikoff, a very corpulent soldier (a rare thing), with red hair, a tremendously bulging forehead, and light blue projecting eyes, came in just at this moment. “Are you afraid of bomb-shells?” Volodia asked him. “Why should I be afraid of them?” repeated Melnikoff, scratching his neck. “No bomb-shell will kill me, I know.” “Do you like to live here?” “To be sure I do; it is very entertaining,” and he burst out laughing. “Then you must be sent out in a sortie. Would you like to? I will speak to the general,” said Volodia, although he knew no general. “Why not like to? I should like to very much!” and Melnikoff disappeared behind his comrades. “Come, children, let’s play ‘beggar my neighbor!’ Who has cards?” asked an impatient voice, and the game immediately began in the farthest corner. The calling of the tricks could be heard, the sound of taps on the nose and the bursts of laughter. Volodia in the mean time drank tea prepared by the drummer, offering some to the artificers, joking and chatting with them, desirous of making himself popular, and very well satisfied with the respect they showed him. The soldiers having noticed that the “barine” was a good fellow, became animated, and one of them announced that the siege was soon going to come to an end, for a sailor had told him for a certainty that Constantine, the Czar’s brother, was coming to deliver them with the ‘merican’[H] fleet; that there would soon be an armistice of two weeks to rest, and that seventy-five kopeks would have to be paid for every shot that was fired during the truce.