1 The Brothers Karamazovsame suffering smile, but the person most delighted with
the dog’s performance was ‘mamma.’ She laughed at the
dog and began snapping her fingers and calling it, ‘Perez-
von, Perezvon!’
‘Nothing will make him get up, nothing!’ Kolya cried tri-
umphantly, proud of his success. ‘He won’t move for all the
shouting in the world, but if I call to him, he’ll jump up in a
minute. Ici, Perezvon!’ The dog leapt up and bounded about,
whining with delight. The captain ran back with a piece of
cooked beef.
‘Is it hot?’ Kolya inquired hurriedly, with a business-
like air, taking the meat. ‘Dogs don’t like hot things. No,
it’s all right. Look, everybody, look, Ilusha, look, old man;
why aren’t you looking? He does not look at him, now I’ve
brought him.’
The new trick consisted in making the dog stand mo-
tionless with his nose out and putting a tempting morsel of
meat just on his nose. The luckless dog had to stand with-
out moving, with the meat on his nose, as long as his master
chose to keep him, without a movement, perhaps for half an
hour. But he kept Perezvon only for a brief moment.
‘Paid for!’ cried Kolya, and the meat passed in a flash
from the dog’s nose to his mouth. The audience, of course,
expressed enthusiasm and surprise.
‘Can you really have put off coming all this time simply
to train the dog?’ exclaimed Alyosha, with an involuntary
note of reproach in his voice.
‘Simply for that!’ answered Kolya, with perfect simplicity.
‘I wanted to show him in all his glory.’