“What ring? Out of what hollow tree?”
“The one that Maria Kirilovna ... the ring....” Sasha stammered and became confused. Kirila Petrovitch frowned and said, shaking his head:
“Ah! Maria Kirilovna is mixed up in this. Confess everything, or I will give you such a birching as you have never had in your life.”
“As true as heaven, papa, I ... papa ... Maria Kirilovna never told me to do anything, papa.”
“Stepan, go and cut me some fine, fresh birch twigs.”
“Stop, papa, I will tell you all. I was running about the courtyard to-day, when sister Maria Kirilovna opened the window. I ran towards her, and she accidentally dropped a ring, and I went and hid it in the hollow tree, and ... and this red-headed fellow wanted to steal the ring.”
“She did not drop it accidentally,—you wanted to hide it ... Stepan, go and get the birch twigs.”
“Papa, wait, I will tell you everything. Sister Maria Kirilovna told me to run to the oak tree and put the ring in the hollow; I ran and did so, but this nasty fellow——”
Kirila Petrovitch turned to the “nasty fellow” and said to him sternly:
“To whom do you belong?”