threw himself upon them with a shout and loud laughter to effect
their capture. I cannot express my wonder and delight at this valiant
behaviour of my hero. In spite of the severe pain, he had not only
refrained from crying, but had repressed the least symptom of suffering
and kept his eye fixed upon the game! Shortly after this occurrence
another boy, Ilinka Grap, joined our party. We went upstairs, and
Seriosha gave me an opportunity of still further appreciating and taking
delight in his manly bravery and fortitude. This was how it was.

Ilinka was the son of a poor foreigner who had been under certain
obligations to my Grandpapa, and now thought it incumbent upon him to
send his son to us as frequently as possible. Yet if he thought that the
acquaintance would procure his son any advancement or pleasure, he was
entirely mistaken, for not only were we anything but friendly to Ilinka,
but it was seldom that we noticed him at all except to laugh at him. He
was a boy of thirteen, tall and thin, with a pale, birdlike face, and
a quiet, good-tempered expression. Though poorly dressed, he always had
his head so thickly pomaded that we used to declare that on warm days
it melted and ran down his neck. When I think of him now, it seems to
me that he was a very quiet, obliging, and good-tempered boy, but at
the time I thought him a creature so contemptible that he was not worth
either attention or pity.

Upstairs we set ourselves to astonish each other with gymnastic tours de
force. Ilinka watched us with a faint smile of admiration, but refused
an invitation to attempt a similar feat, saying that he had no strength.

Seriosha was extremely captivating. His face and eyes glowed with
laughter as he surprised us with tricks which we had never seen before.
He jumped over three chairs put together, turned somersaults right