When life was hard for them under the domination of the czars, they would incite the common people against the ruler; and when the people arose and wrested the power from him, these little creatures got it into their own hands by deceit, and drove the people off to their holes; and if the people remonstrated, they killed them by the hundreds and thousands.
Once she summoned up courage and told him of the picture she had formed of life from his tales, and asked him: "Is it so, Yegor Ivanovich ?" He burst into a guffaw, turned up his eyes, gasped for breath, and rubbed his chest.
"Exactly, granny! You caught the idea to a dot! Yes, yes! You've placed some ornaments on the canvas of history, you've added some flourishes, but that does not interfere with the correctness of the whole.

It's these very little, pot-bellied creatures who are the chief sinners and deceivers and the most poisonous insects that harass the human race.

The Frenchmen call them 'bourgeois.' Remember that word, dear granny--bourgeois! Brr! How they chew us and grind us and suck the life out of us!" "The rich, you mean ?" "Yes, the rich.

And that's their misfortune.

You see, if you keep adding copper bit by bit to a child's food, you prevent the growth of its bones, and he'll be a dwarf; and if from his youth up you poison a man with gold, you deaden his soul." Once, speaking about Yegor, Pavel said: "Do you know, Andrey, the people whose hearts are always aching are the ones who joke most ?" The Little Russian was silent a while, and then answered, blinking his eyes: "No, that's not true.