The Brothers Karamazovless of his mother’s constantly reiterated entreaties that
he would always put on goloshes in such cold weather, he
looked at them contemptuously as he crossed the hall and
went out with only his boots on. Perezvon, seeing him in his
outdoor clothes, began tapping nervously, yet vigorously,
on the floor with his tail. Twitching all over, he even uttered
a plaintive whine. But Kolya, seeing his dog’s passionate
excitement, decided that it was a breach of discipline, kept
him for another minute under the bench, and only when
he had opened the door into the passage, whistled for him.
The dog leapt up like a mad creature and rushed bounding
before him rapturously.
Kolya opened the door to peep at ‘the kids.’ They were
both sitting as before at the table, not reading but warmly
disputing about something. The children often argued to-
gether about various exciting problems of life, and Nastya,
being the elder, always got the best of it. If Kostya did not
agree with her, he almost always appealed to Kolya Kras-
sotkin, and his verdict was regarded as infallible by both
of them. This time the ‘kids‘ discussion rather interested
Krassotkin, and he stood still in the passage to listen. The
children saw he was listening and that made them dispute
with even greater energy.
‘I shall never, never believe,’ Nastya prattled, ‘that the old
women find babies among the cabbages in the kitchen gar-
den. It’s winter now and there are no cabbages, and so the
old woman couldn’t have taken Katerina a daughter.’
Kolya whistled to himself.
‘Or perhaps they do bring babies from somewhere, but