And Gerasim is living still, a lonely man in his lonely hut; he is
strong and healthy as before, and does the work of four men as before,
and as before is serious and steady. But his neighbors have observed
that ever since his return from Moscow he has quite given up the society
of women; he will not even look at them, and does not keep even a single
dog.

"It's his good luck, though," the peasants reason, "that he can get on
without female folk; and as for a dog--what need has he of a dog? you
wouldn't get a thief to go into his yard for any money!" Such is the
fame of the dumb man's Titanic strength.






THE SHOT

BY

ALEXANDER POUSHKIN

From "Poushkin's Prose Tales." Translated by T. Keane.




CHAPTER I.