"Then I'll eat it. May I?"

"You have a fine appetite, Seryozha."

Instead of answering, Sergey, his mouth full, began to sing in a dull
voice, out of tune:

"Hostile whirlwinds are blowing over us ..."

After the arrest he at first grew sad; the work had not been done
well, they had failed; but then he thought: "There is something else
now that must be done well-and that is, to die," and he cheered up
again. And however strange it may seem, beginning with the second
morning in the fortress, he commenced devoting himself to gymnastics
according to the unusually rational system of a certain German named
Mueller, which absorbed his interest. He undressed himself completely
and, to the alarm and astonishment of the guard who watched him, he
carefully went through all the prescribed eighteen exercises. The fact
that the guard watched him and was apparently astonished, pleased him
as a propagandist of the Mueller system; and although he knew that he
would get no answer he nevertheless spoke to the eye staring in the
little window:

"It's a good system, my friend, it braces you up. It should be
introduced in your regiment," he shouted convincingly and kindly, so
as not to frighten the soldier, not suspecting that the guard
considered him a harmless lunatic.

The fear of death came over him gradually. It was as if somebody were
striking his heart a powerful blow with the fist from below. This