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- 428 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Stand him, that is? To begin with, he is still a child and not
exactly a coward, but something by way of an artist. Really,
don't laugh at my describing him so. He is innocent and re-
sponsive toinfluence. He has a heart, and is a fantastic fellow.
He sings and dances, he tells stories, they say, so that people
come from other villages to hear him. He attends school too, and
laughs till he cries if you hold up a finger to him; he will drink
himself senseless — not as a regular vice, but at times, when
people treat him, like a child. And he stole, too, then, without
knowing it himself, for 'How can it be stealing, if one picks it
up?' And do you know he is an Old Believer, or rather a dis-
senter? There have been Wanderers * in his family, and he was
for two years in his village under the spiritual guidance of a
certain elder. I learnt all this from Nikolay and from his fellow
villagers. And what's more, he wanted to run into the wilder-
ness! He was full of fervour, prayed at night, read the old books,
'the true' ones, and read himself crazy.
"Petersburg had a great effect upon him, especially the
women and the wine. He responds to everything and he forgot
the elder and all that. I learnt that an artist here took a fancy to
him, and used to go and see him, and now this business came
upon him.
"Well, he was frightened, he tried to hang himself! He ran
away! How can one get over the idea the people have of Russian
legal proceedings! The very word 'trial' frightens some of them.
Whose fault is it? We shall see what the new juries will do. God
grant they do good! Well, in prison, it seems, he remembered
the venerable elder, the Bible, too, made its appearance again.
Do you know, Rodion Romanovitch, the force of the word
'suffering' among some of these people! It's not a question of
suffering for some one's benefit, but simply, 'one must suffer.' If
they suffer at the hands of the authorities, so much the better.
In my time there was a very meek and mild prisoner who si>ent
a whole year in prison always reading his Bible on the stove
at night and he read himself crazy, and so crazy, do you know,
that one day, apropos of nothing, he seized a brick and flung it
at the governor, though he had done him no harm. And the way
he threw it too: aimed it a yard on one side on purpose, for fear
of hurting him. Well, we know what happens to a prisoner
* A religious sect. — Translator's note.
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