Foma saw that his father swung his hand. A loud blow resounded, and the sailor fell heavily on the wood. He arose immediately and worked on in silence. Blood was trickling from his bruised face on to the white bark of the birch wood; he wiped the blood off his face with the sleeve of his shirt, looked at his sleeve and, heaving a sigh, maintained silence, and when he went past Foma with the hand-harrows, two big, turbid tears were trembling on his face, near the bridge of his nose, and Foma noticed them. At dinner Foma was pensive and now and then glanced at his father with fear in his eyes. “Why do you frown?” asked his father, gently. “Frown?” “Are you ill, perhaps? Be careful. If there is anything, tell me.” “You are strong,” said Foma of a sudden musingly. “I? That’s right. God has favoured me with strength.” “How hard you struck him!” exclaimed the boy in a low voice, lowering his head. Ignat was about to put a piece of bread with caviar into his mouth, but his hand stopped, held back by his son’s exclamation; he looked interrogatively at Foma’s drooping head and asked: “You mean Yefim, don’t you?” “Yes, he was bleeding. And how he walked afterward, how he cried,” said the boy in a low voice. “Mm,” roared Ignat, chewing a bite. “Well, are you sorry for him?” “It’s a pity!” said Foma, with tears in his voice. “Yes. So that’s the kind of a fellow you are,” said Ignat. Then, after a moment’s silence, he filled a wineglass with vodka, emptied it, and said sternly, in a slightly reprimanding tone: “There is no reason why you should pity him. He brawled at random, and therefore got what he deserved. I know him: he is a good fellow, industrious, strong and not a bit foolish. But to argue is not his business; I may argue, because I am the master. It isn’t simple to be master. A punch wouldn’t kill him, but will make him wiser. That’s the way. Eh, Foma! You are an infant, and you do not understand these things. I must teach you how to live. It may be that my days on earth are numbered.” Ignat was silent for awhile, drank some more vodka and went on instinctively: