“Oh, you will bring them, will you? Who are you? Do you know to whom you are speaking?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“I have often thrashed you, though I don’t boast of it. Do not give yourself airs then.”
“You have thrashed me? The man who will thrash me is not yet born; and the man who did thrash me is six feet beneath the ground.”
“Plague-stricken rascal of Bender?”
“May the Siberian leprosy devour you with ulcers!”
“May a chopper cleave your dog of a head.”
Insults were falling about like rain.
“Come, now, they are going to fight. When men have not been able to conduct themselves properly they should keep silent. They are too glad to come and eat the Government bread, the rascals!”
They were soon separated. Let them fight with the tongue as much as they wish. That is permitted. It is a diversion at the service of every one; but no blows. It is, indeed, only in extraordinary cases that blows were exchanged. If a fight took place, information was given to the Major, who ordered an inquiry or directed one himself; and then woe to the convicts. Accordingly they set their faces against anything like a serious quarrel; besides, they insulted one another chiefly to pass the time, as an oratorical exercise. They get excited; the quarrel takes a furious, ferocious character; they seem about to slaughter one another. Nothing of the kind takes place. As soon as their anger has reached a certain pitch they separate.