"Why should anything come of it?"
"Yet it's a good remedy?"
"Yes, it's a good remedy."
"I'll try it. Thanks!"
"To your good health!" said Promtov perfectly seriously.
There was a long silence amidst the crunching of the water-melons and the whispering of the children.
"Hark ye," began the owner of the hut, "maybe you have heard all about it at Moscow—I mean about Siberia—is it possible to settle there or not? Our district magistrate said—but no doubt he lies—that it is quite impossible!"
"Impossible!" observed Promtov with an air of astonishment.
The khokhli glanced at each other, and the master of the house murmured in his beard: "May a toad crawl into his stomach!"
"Impossible!" repeated Promtov, and suddenly his face glowed with enthusiasm; "it is impossible, but why go to Siberia at all when there is so much land everywhere—as much as you please?"