Page:Dead Souls - A Poem by Nikolay Gogol - vol1.djvu/242

bosom of his family, and looked after the shops and bazaar as though they were his own storeroom. Altogether, he was, as the saying is, the right man in the right place, and understood his duties to perfection. It was hard, indeed, to say whether it was he who was created for his job or his job for him. His duties were so ably performed, that his income was double that of any of his predecessors, and at the same time he had won the love of the whole town. The merchants particularly loved him, just because he was not proud, and indeed he stood godfather to their children, and was friendly and convivial with them, though he did at times fleece them dreadfully, but he did it extremely cleverly. He would slap a man on the shoulder and laugh, treat him to tea, promise to come and play draughts, inquire about everything, how business was doing, and why and wherefore; if he heard that a child was ailing, he would advise a medicine. In short, he was a jolly fellow! He drove in his racing sledge and gave orders, and at the same time would drop a word here and there: 'I say, Mihyeitch, you and I ought to finish our rubber one of these days.' 'Yes, Alexey Ivanovitch,' the man would answer, taking off his hat, 'we ought to.' 'Hey, Ilya Paramonitch, old man, come round and have a look at my trotting horse, he'll beat yours in a race, and you must put yours in a racing droshky: we'll try him.' The merchant, who was mad on trotting horses, would smile at this with peculiar