Page 16. That in each line should be heard: I know what I am writing and I am not writing in vain. 1. _The First Pages._—(1) The tone, (2) ideas to be artistically and concisely fitted in. THE FIRST N.B.—_The Tone_ (the story is a _life_—_i.e._ although from the author, it must be concise, without being meagre in explanations, but also representing by means of scenes. In this harmony is needed). The concision of the story is at times that of Gil Blas. As though no importance is attached (by the author) to dramatic and scenic passages. But the dominating idea of the Life should be seen,—_i.e._ although the whole dominating idea is not explained and is always left vague, the reader should always realize that the idea is religious, that the Life is of such importance that it is worth while to begin even from the years of extreme childhood—also, in the selection of that in which the _story_ consists, of all facts, there is continuously displayed (_something_) and the man to be is constantly exhibited and set on a pedestal. _Chief Nota Bene_: He began saving money from a vague idea, but that idea was all the time becoming solid, and showing itself to him in the further development of the affair. But the chief impulse was his coming to live at Alfonsky’s. (1) Caught a mouse. The lame girl. The old couple. │The nurse, bathing, the badge, │ and retirement. │Anna and Vasilissa ran away. │The last communion (the │ Italian, money from pocket)— When I shall be grown up.│The first idea. │The teacher (drunk). │The first confession, what has │ he got there in the little │ boxes, and in the cup? Is │ there a God? │To convert the Devil. The beating of the lame girl. The corpse by the hedge. Kilyan. Vasilissa was sold— Interest on money and conversations with the guest. Readings. On Suvorov. Arabian tales. Dreams.—Umnov and Gogol—(the lame girl laughs). —The old couple grow weaker and weaker.