"You are a fool!" decided Aristid Kuvalda. "What are you
knocking about here for? You are of absolutely no use to us . .
. Do you drink vodki? . . . No? . . . Well, then, can you
steal?" Again, "No." "Go away, learn, and come back again
when you know something, and are a man . . ."
The youngster smiled.
"No. I shall live with you."
"Why?"
"Just because . . ."
"Oh you . . . Meteor!" said the Captain.
"I will break his teeth for him," said Martyanoff.
"And why?" asked the youngster.
"Just because. . . ."
"And I will take a stone and hit you on the head," the young man
answered respectfully.
Martyanoff would have broken his bones, had not Kuvalda
interrupted with:
"Leave him alone. . . . Is this a home to you or even to us?
You have no sufficient reason to break his teeth for him. You
have no better reason than he for living with us."
"Well, then, Devil take him! . . . We all live in the world
without sufficient reason. . . . We live, and why? Because! He
also because . . . let him alone. . . ."
"But it is better for you, young man, to go away from us," the
teacher advised him, looking him up and down with his sad eyes.
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