among bad ones--may soon be spoilt, and no one will profit by it.
You are young, that's the trouble. You cannot comprehend my
words. Help him who is firm in misery. He may not ask you for
assistance, but think of it yourself, and assist him without his
request. And if he should happen to be proud and thus feel
offended at your aid, do not allow him to see that you are
lending him a helping hand. That's the way it should be done,
according to common sense! Here, for example, two boards, let us
say, fall into the mud--one of them is a rotten one, the other, a
good sound board. What should you do? What good is there in the
rotten board? You had better drop it, let it stay in the mud and
step on it so as not to soil your feet. As to the sound board,
lift it up and place it in the sun; if it can be of no use to
you, someone else may avail himself of it. That's the way it is,
my son! Listen to me and remember. There is no reason why Yefim
should be pitied. He is a capable fellow, he knows his value. You
cannot knock his soul out with a box on the ear. I'll just watch
him for about a week, and then I'll put him at the helm. And
there, I am quite sure, he'll be a good pilot. And if he should
be promoted to captain, he wouldn't lose courage--he would make a
clever captain! That's the way people grow. I have gone through
this school myself, dear. I, too, received more than one box on
the ear when I was of his age. Life, my son, is not a dear mother
to all of us. It is our exacting mistress."

Ignat talked with his son about two hours, telling him of his own
youth, of his toils, of men; their terrible power, and of their
weakness; of how they live, and sometimes pretend to be
unfortunate in order to live on other people's money; and then he
told him of himself, and of how he rose from a plain working man