THE STEEL FLEA
that this shod nymfozoria should immediately be packed up and sent back to England, in the guise of a gift, so that they might understand there that this was in no way astonishing to us. And the Emperor ordered that a special Courier should carry the flea, a man learned in all tongues, and that the left-handed man should go with him, and that he himself should exhibit his handiwork to the Englishmen, and show what workmen we have in Tula.
Platoff made the sign of the cross over him: "May a blessing rest upon thee!" said he; "and I will send thee my own Caucasian vodka,—my kizlyarki—for the journey. Drink not a little, drink not much, but drink moderately."
And so he did—he sent it.
And Count Kiselvrode ordered that the left-handed man should be washed in the Tulyakoff public bath, that his
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