“That’s strange,” said Grisha with astonishment. “My mother and I have one family name; we are called the Igumnovs.”
“That’s because,” explained Mishka with animation, “your grandfather was an igumen.”[3]
“No,” said Grisha, “my grandfather was a colonel.”
“All the same it’s likely that his father, or some one else was an igumen, and so you have all become the Igumnovs.”
Grisha did not know who his great-grandfather was, so he said nothing, Mishka kept on eyeing his mittens.
“You have handsome mittens,” he said.
“New ones,” Grisha explained, with a joyous smile. “It’s the first time I’ve put them on; d’you see, here is a little string drawn through!”
“Well, you’re a lucky one! And are they quite warm?”
“Rather!”
“I have also mittens at home, but I haven’t put them on because I don’t like them. They are yellow, and I don’t like yellow ones. Let me put yours on, and I’ll run along and show them to my babushka, and ask her to get me a pair like them.”