Getting into the boat, they uncorked several bottles of beer and proceeded to drink.
“Shocking intemperance!” cried Lialia, pelting them with tufts of grass.
“First-rate stuff!” said Ivanoff, smacking his lips.
Sanine laughed.
“I have often wondered why people are so dead against alcohol,” he said jestingly. “In my opinion only a drunken man lives his life as it ought to be lived.”
“That is, like a brute!” replied Novikoff from the bank.
“Very likely,” said Sanine, “but at any rate a drunken man only does just that which he wants to do. If he has a mind to sing, he sings; if he wants to dance, he dances; and is not ashamed to be merry and jolly.”
“And he fights too, sometimes,” remarked Riasantzeff.
“Yes, so he does. That is, when men don’t understand how to drink.”
“And do you like fighting when you are drunk?” asked Novikoff.