This made the women so angry that they wept, and his wife stamped her foot, crying:
"How can you speak like that before him, you longhaired fool? What can I do with him after this? And in my state of health, too!"
The mother cried sadly:
"May God forgive you, Vassia Vassilich! Only, mark my words, you are spoiling that boy."
When they had gone away raging, the master said to me sternly:
"You see, you little devil, what row's you cause! I shall take you back to your grandfather, and you can be a rag-picker again."
This insult was more than I could bear, and I said: "I had a better life as a rag-picker than I have with you. You took me as a pupil, and what have you taught me? To empty the dish-water!"
He took me by the hair, but not roughly, and looked into my eyes, saying in a tone of astonishment:
"I see you are rebellious. That, my lad, won't suit me. N-o-o."
I thought that I should be sent away for this, but a few days later he came into the kitchen with a roll of thick paper, a pencil, a square, and a ruler in his hands.