Page 922 - the-brothers-karamazov

‘Ah! I heard about the goose!’ Ilusha laughed, beaming
all over. ‘They told me, but I didn’t understand. Did they re-
ally take you to the court?’
‘The most stupid, trivial affair, they made a mountain of
a mole-hill as they always do,’ Kolya began carelessly. ‘I was
walking through the market-place here one day, just when
they’d driven in the geese. I stopped and looked at them. All
at once a fellow, who is an errand-boy at Plotnikov’s now,
looked at me and said, ‘What are you looking at the geese
for?’ I looked at him; he was a stupid, moon-faced fellow of
twenty. I am always on the side of the peasantry, you know.
I like talking to the peasants.... We’ve dropped behind the
peasants that’s an axiom. I believe you are laughing, Karam-
azov?’
‘No, Heaven forbid, I am listening,’ said Alyosha with a
most good-natured air, and the sensitive Kolya was imme-
diately reassured.’
‘My theory, Karamazov, is clear and simple,’ he hurried
on again, looking pleased. ‘I believe in the people and am
always glad to give them their due, but I am not for spoil-
ing them, that is a sine qua non... But I was telling you about
the goose. So I turned to the fool and answered, ‘I am won-
dering what the goose thinks about.’ He looked at me quite
stupidly, ‘And what does the goose think about?’ he asked.
‘Do you see that cart full of oats?’I said. ‘The oats are drop-
ping out of the sack, and the goose has put its neck right
under the wheel to gobble them up — do you see?’ ‘I see
that quite well,’ he said. ‘Well,’ said I, ‘if that cart were to
move on a little, would it break the goose’s neck or not?’

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