could not get sufficient bricks together to build a hen-house,"
plaintively said Mokei Anisimoff, a man who hawked kalaches (a
sort of white bread) which were baked by his wife.

"Where can you get broken bricks and lime rubbish? Take bags
with you, and go and remove them from the Corporation buildings.
They are so old that they are of no use to anyone, and you will
thus be doing two good deeds; firstly, by repairing the main
street; and secondly, by adorning the city with a new Corporation
building."

"If you want horses get them from the Lord Mayor, and take his
three daughters, who seem quite fit for harness. Then destroy the
house of Judas Petunikoff and pave the street with its timbers.
By the way, Mokei, I know out of what your wife baked to-day's
kalaches; out of the frames of the third window and the two steps
from the roof of Judas' house."

When those present had laughed and joked sufficiently over the
Captain's proposal, the sober market gardener, Pavlyugus asked:

"But seriously, what are we to do, your honour? . . . Eh? What
do you think?"

"I? I shall neither move hand nor foot. If they wish to clean
the street let them do it."

"Some of the houses are almost coming down. . . ."

"Let them fall; don't interfere; and when they fall ask help from