"Well, I've done my learning too!"
"Why—how?" said Ilya, incredulously.
"I've been pretty quick, eh?"
"Where did you learn?"
"In prison, with the prisoners."
Ilya approached him and asked, looking respectfully into the thin face, "How long were you in? Was it bad?"
"Oh, not so bad—four months I had of it in several prisons and different towns. I got to know some fine people there, my boy, ladies too—real swells! Spoke different languages and knew everything. I always swept out their cells. Very nice people they were, if they were in gaol."
"Were they thieves?"
"No, regular villains," answered Pashka, proudly.
Ilya blinked and his respect for Pashka increased still more.