flask...."

And so Mísha had to sit for five hours at the bottom of the ravine; and
when they dragged him out, it appeared that he had a dislocated
shoulder. But this did not daunt him in the least. On the following day
a blacksmith bone-setter set his shoulder, and he used it as though
nothing were the matter.

Altogether, his health was remarkable, unprecedented. I have already
told you that until his death he preserved an almost childish freshness
of complexion. He did not know what it was to be ill, in spite of all
his excesses; the vigour of his constitution was not affected in a
single instance. Where any other man would have fallen dangerously ill,
or even have died, he merely shook himself like a duck in the water, and
became more blooming than ever. Once--that also was in the Caucasus....
This legend is improbable, it is true, but from it one can judge what
Mísha was regarded as capable of doing.... So then, once, in the
Caucasus, when in a state of intoxication, he fell into a small stream
that covered the lower part of his body; his head and arms remained
exposed on the bank. The affair took place in winter; a rigorous frost
set in; and when he was found on the following morning, his legs and
body were visible beneath a stout crust of ice which had frozen over in
the course of the night--and he never even had a cold in the head in
consequence! On another occasion (this happened in Russia, near
Orél,[10] and also during a severe frost), he chanced to go to a
suburban eating-house in company with seven young theological students.
These theological students were celebrating their graduation
examination, and had invited Mísha, as a charming fellow, "a man with a
sigh," as it was called then. They drank a great deal; and when, at
last, the merry crew were preparing to depart, Mísha, dead drunk, was