feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Brothers Karamazov/section_66_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Brothers Karamazov.book 10.chapter 5
feat_summary_id: book 10, chapter 5
feat_summary: {"name": "Book 10, Chapter 5", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201023112808/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/brothers-karamazov/summary/book-10-chapter-5", "summary": "Ilyusha's room is crowded with kids, along with the rest of his family. Captain Snegiryov has accepted Katerina's charity, and she has even paid for a famous doctor to come in to diagnose Ilyusha that day. Alyosha is also present. When Kolya comes in, Ilyusha is thrilled. He's petting a mastiff puppy that his father brought him, but he's still in mourning over Zhuchka. Kolya tells Ilyusha that he's brought him an even better dog. But when the dog, Perezvon, finally enters, Ilyusha instantly recognizes it as the ever-suffering Zhuchka. It seems that over the past several weeks, Kolya has found Zhuchka and trained it all kinds of tricks. Thrilled by Ilyusha's reaction, Kolya brings out his toy cannon again but hands it over to Ilyusha's mother to play with at Ilyusha's request. Kolya entertains Ilyusha with the story of his recent brush with the law. Walking through the square, he had tricked a peasant into rolling over a goose with a cart. He was taken to court but got off with just a stern lecture. Another child, Kartashov, tries to show up Kolya on his knowledge of history - specifically the founders of Troy - but Kolya is able to silence the child with a few clever questions. The antics are drawn to a close, however, when the famous doctor makes his appearance in the room. Everybody else clears out.", "analysis": ""}
text: Chapter V. By Ilusha's Bedside
  
  
  The room inhabited by the family of the retired captain Snegiryov is
  already familiar to the reader. It was close and crowded at that moment
  with a number of visitors. Several boys were sitting with Ilusha, and
  though all of them, like Smurov, were prepared to deny that it was Alyosha
  who had brought them and reconciled them with Ilusha, it was really the
  fact. All the art he had used had been to take them, one by one, to
  Ilusha, without "sheepish sentimentality," appearing to do so casually and
  without design. It was a great consolation to Ilusha in his suffering. He
  was greatly touched by seeing the almost tender affection and sympathy
  shown him by these boys, who had been his enemies. Krassotkin was the only
  one missing and his absence was a heavy load on Ilusha's heart. Perhaps
  the bitterest of all his bitter memories was his stabbing Krassotkin, who
  had been his one friend and protector. Clever little Smurov, who was the
  first to make it up with Ilusha, thought it was so. But when Smurov hinted
  to Krassotkin that Alyosha wanted to come and see him about something, the
  latter cut him short, bidding Smurov tell "Karamazov" at once that he knew
  best what to do, that he wanted no one's advice, and that, if he went to
  see Ilusha, he would choose his own time for he had "his own reasons."
  
  That was a fortnight before this Sunday. That was why Alyosha had not been
  to see him, as he had meant to. But though he waited, he sent Smurov to
  him twice again. Both times Krassotkin met him with a curt, impatient
  refusal, sending Alyosha a message not to bother him any more, that if he
  came himself, he, Krassotkin, would not go to Ilusha at all. Up to the
  very last day, Smurov did not know that Kolya meant to go to Ilusha that
  morning, and only the evening before, as he parted from Smurov, Kolya
  abruptly told him to wait at home for him next morning, for he would go
  with him to the Snegiryovs', but warned him on no account to say he was
  coming, as he wanted to drop in casually. Smurov obeyed. Smurov's fancy
  that Kolya would bring back the lost dog was based on the words Kolya had
  dropped that "they must be asses not to find the dog, if it was alive."
  When Smurov, waiting for an opportunity, timidly hinted at his guess about
  the dog, Krassotkin flew into a violent rage. "I'm not such an ass as to
  go hunting about the town for other people's dogs when I've got a dog of
  my own! And how can you imagine a dog could be alive after swallowing a
  pin? Sheepish sentimentality, that's what it is!"
  
  For the last fortnight Ilusha had not left his little bed under the ikons
  in the corner. He had not been to school since the day he met Alyosha and
  bit his finger. He was taken ill the same day, though for a month
  afterwards he was sometimes able to get up and walk about the room and
  passage. But latterly he had become so weak that he could not move without
  help from his father. His father was terribly concerned about him. He even
  gave up drinking and was almost crazy with terror that his boy would die.
  And often, especially after leading him round the room on his arm and
  putting him back to bed, he would run to a dark corner in the passage and,
  leaning his head against the wall, he would break into paroxysms of
  violent weeping, stifling his sobs that they might not be heard by Ilusha.
  
  Returning to the room, he would usually begin doing something to amuse and
  comfort his precious boy; he would tell him stories, funny anecdotes, or
  would mimic comic people he had happened to meet, even imitate the howls
  and cries of animals. But Ilusha could not bear to see his father fooling
  and playing the buffoon. Though the boy tried not to show how he disliked
  it, he saw with an aching heart that his father was an object of contempt,
  and he was continually haunted by the memory of the "wisp of tow" and that
  "terrible day."
  
  Nina, Ilusha's gentle, crippled sister, did not like her father's
  buffoonery either (Varvara had been gone for some time past to Petersburg
  to study at the university). But the half-imbecile mother was greatly
  diverted and laughed heartily when her husband began capering about or
  performing something. It was the only way she could be amused; all the
  rest of the time she was grumbling and complaining that now every one had
  forgotten her, that no one treated her with respect, that she was
  slighted, and so on. But during the last few days she had completely
  changed. She began looking constantly at Ilusha's bed in the corner and
  seemed lost in thought. She was more silent, quieter, and, if she cried,
  she cried quietly so as not to be heard. The captain noticed the change in
  her with mournful perplexity. The boys' visits at first only angered her,
  but later on their merry shouts and stories began to divert her, and at
  last she liked them so much that, if the boys had given up coming, she
  would have felt dreary without them. When the children told some story or
  played a game, she laughed and clapped her hands. She called some of them
  to her and kissed them. She was particularly fond of Smurov.
  
  As for the captain, the presence in his room of the children, who came to
  cheer up Ilusha, filled his heart from the first with ecstatic joy. He
  even hoped that Ilusha would now get over his depression, and that that
  would hasten his recovery. In spite of his alarm about Ilusha, he had not,
  till lately, felt one minute's doubt of his boy's ultimate recovery.
  
  He met his little visitors with homage, waited upon them hand and foot; he
  was ready to be their horse and even began letting them ride on his back,
  but Ilusha did not like the game and it was given up. He began buying
  little things for them, gingerbread and nuts, gave them tea and cut them
  sandwiches. It must be noted that all this time he had plenty of money. He
  had taken the two hundred roubles from Katerina Ivanovna just as Alyosha
  had predicted he would. And afterwards Katerina Ivanovna, learning more
  about their circumstances and Ilusha's illness, visited them herself, made
  the acquaintance of the family, and succeeded in fascinating the half-
  imbecile mother. Since then she had been lavish in helping them, and the
  captain, terror-stricken at the thought that his boy might be dying,
  forgot his pride and humbly accepted her assistance.
  
  All this time Doctor Herzenstube, who was called in by Katerina Ivanovna,
  came punctually every other day, but little was gained by his visits and
  he dosed the invalid mercilessly. But on that Sunday morning a new doctor
  was expected, who had come from Moscow, where he had a great reputation.
  Katerina Ivanovna had sent for him from Moscow at great expense, not
  expressly for Ilusha, but for another object of which more will be said in
  its place hereafter. But, as he had come, she had asked him to see Ilusha
  as well, and the captain had been told to expect him. He hadn't the
  slightest idea that Kolya Krassotkin was coming, though he had long wished
  for a visit from the boy for whom Ilusha was fretting.
  
  At the moment when Krassotkin opened the door and came into the room, the
  captain and all the boys were round Ilusha's bed, looking at a tiny
  mastiff pup, which had only been born the day before, though the captain
  had bespoken it a week ago to comfort and amuse Ilusha, who was still
  fretting over the lost and probably dead Zhutchka. Ilusha, who had heard
  three days before that he was to be presented with a puppy, not an
  ordinary puppy, but a pedigree mastiff (a very important point, of
  course), tried from delicacy of feeling to pretend that he was pleased.
  But his father and the boys could not help seeing that the puppy only
  served to recall to his little heart the thought of the unhappy dog he had
  killed. The puppy lay beside him feebly moving and he, smiling sadly,
  stroked it with his thin, pale, wasted hand. Clearly he liked the puppy,
  but ... it wasn't Zhutchka; if he could have had Zhutchka and the puppy,
  too, then he would have been completely happy.
  
  "Krassotkin!" cried one of the boys suddenly. He was the first to see him
  come in.
  
  Krassotkin's entrance made a general sensation; the boys moved away and
  stood on each side of the bed, so that he could get a full view of Ilusha.
  The captain ran eagerly to meet Kolya.
  
  "Please come in ... you are welcome!" he said hurriedly. "Ilusha, Mr.
  Krassotkin has come to see you!"
  
  But Krassotkin, shaking hands with him hurriedly, instantly showed his
  complete knowledge of the manners of good society. He turned first to the
  captain's wife sitting in her arm-chair, who was very ill-humored at the
  moment, and was grumbling that the boys stood between her and Ilusha's bed
  and did not let her see the new puppy. With the greatest courtesy he made
  her a bow, scraping his foot, and turning to Nina, he made her, as the
  only other lady present, a similar bow. This polite behavior made an
  extremely favorable impression on the deranged lady.
  
  "There, you can see at once he is a young man that has been well brought
  up," she commented aloud, throwing up her hands; "but as for our other
  visitors they come in one on the top of another."
  
  "How do you mean, mamma, one on the top of another, how is that?" muttered
  the captain affectionately, though a little anxious on her account.
  
  "That's how they ride in. They get on each other's shoulders in the
  passage and prance in like that on a respectable family. Strange sort of
  visitors!"
  
  "But who's come in like that, mamma?"
  
  "Why, that boy came in riding on that one's back and this one on that
  one's."
  
  Kolya was already by Ilusha's bedside. The sick boy turned visibly paler.
  He raised himself in the bed and looked intently at Kolya. Kolya had not
  seen his little friend for two months, and he was overwhelmed at the sight
  of him. He had never imagined that he would see such a wasted, yellow
  face, such enormous, feverishly glowing eyes and such thin little hands.
  He saw, with grieved surprise, Ilusha's rapid, hard breathing and dry
  lips. He stepped close to him, held out his hand, and almost overwhelmed,
  he said:
  
  "Well, old man ... how are you?" But his voice failed him, he couldn't
  achieve an appearance of ease; his face suddenly twitched and the corners
  of his mouth quivered. Ilusha smiled a pitiful little smile, still unable
  to utter a word. Something moved Kolya to raise his hand and pass it over
  Ilusha's hair.
  
  "Never mind!" he murmured softly to him to cheer him up, or perhaps not
  knowing why he said it. For a minute they were silent again.
  
  "Hallo, so you've got a new puppy?" Kolya said suddenly, in a most callous
  voice.
  
  "Ye--es," answered Ilusha in a long whisper, gasping for breath.
  
  "A black nose, that means he'll be fierce, a good house-dog," Kolya
  observed gravely and stolidly, as if the only thing he cared about was the
  puppy and its black nose. But in reality he still had to do his utmost to
  control his feelings not to burst out crying like a child, and do what he
  would he could not control it. "When it grows up, you'll have to keep it
  on the chain, I'm sure."
  
  "He'll be a huge dog!" cried one of the boys.
  
  "Of course he will," "a mastiff," "large," "like this," "as big as a
  calf," shouted several voices.
  
  "As big as a calf, as a real calf," chimed in the captain. "I got one like
  that on purpose, one of the fiercest breed, and his parents are huge and
  very fierce, they stand as high as this from the floor.... Sit down here,
  on Ilusha's bed, or here on the bench. You are welcome, we've been hoping
  to see you a long time.... You were so kind as to come with Alexey
  Fyodorovitch?"
  
  Krassotkin sat on the edge of the bed, at Ilusha's feet. Though he had
  perhaps prepared a free-and-easy opening for the conversation on his way,
  now he completely lost the thread of it.
  
  "No ... I came with Perezvon. I've got a dog now, called Perezvon. A
  Slavonic name. He's out there ... if I whistle, he'll run in. I've brought
  a dog, too," he said, addressing Ilusha all at once. "Do you remember
  Zhutchka, old man?" he suddenly fired the question at him.
  
  Ilusha's little face quivered. He looked with an agonized expression at
  Kolya. Alyosha, standing at the door, frowned and signed to Kolya not to
  speak of Zhutchka, but he did not or would not notice.
  
  "Where ... is Zhutchka?" Ilusha asked in a broken voice.
  
  "Oh, well, my boy, your Zhutchka's lost and done for!"
  
  Ilusha did not speak, but he fixed an intent gaze once more on Kolya.
  Alyosha, catching Kolya's eye, signed to him vigorously again, but he
  turned away his eyes pretending not to have noticed.
  
  "It must have run away and died somewhere. It must have died after a meal
  like that," Kolya pronounced pitilessly, though he seemed a little
  breathless. "But I've got a dog, Perezvon ... A Slavonic name.... I've
  brought him to show you."
  
  "I don't want him!" said Ilusha suddenly.
  
  "No, no, you really must see him ... it will amuse you. I brought him on
  purpose.... He's the same sort of shaggy dog.... You allow me to call in
  my dog, madam?" He suddenly addressed Madame Snegiryov, with inexplicable
  excitement in his manner.
  
  "I don't want him, I don't want him!" cried Ilusha, with a mournful break
  in his voice. There was a reproachful light in his eyes.
  
  "You'd better," the captain started up from the chest by the wall on which
  he had just sat down, "you'd better ... another time," he muttered, but
  Kolya could not be restrained. He hurriedly shouted to Smurov, "Open the
  door," and as soon as it was open, he blew his whistle. Perezvon dashed
  headlong into the room.
  
  "Jump, Perezvon, beg! Beg!" shouted Kolya, jumping up, and the dog stood
  erect on its hind-legs by Ilusha's bedside. What followed was a surprise
  to every one: Ilusha started, lurched violently forward, bent over
  Perezvon and gazed at him, faint with suspense.
  
  "It's ... Zhutchka!" he cried suddenly, in a voice breaking with joy and
  suffering.
  
  "And who did you think it was?" Krassotkin shouted with all his might, in
  a ringing, happy voice, and bending down he seized the dog and lifted him
  up to Ilusha.
  
  "Look, old man, you see, blind of one eye and the left ear is torn, just
  the marks you described to me. It was by that I found him. I found him
  directly. He did not belong to any one!" he explained, turning quickly to
  the captain, to his wife, to Alyosha and then again to Ilusha. "He used to
  live in the Fedotovs' back-yard. Though he made his home there, they did
  not feed him. He was a stray dog that had run away from the village ... I
  found him.... You see, old man, he couldn't have swallowed what you gave
  him. If he had, he must have died, he must have! So he must have spat it
  out, since he is alive. You did not see him do it. But the pin pricked his
  tongue, that is why he squealed. He ran away squealing and you thought
  he'd swallowed it. He might well squeal, because the skin of dogs' mouths
  is so tender ... tenderer than in men, much tenderer!" Kolya cried
  impetuously, his face glowing and radiant with delight. Ilusha could not
  speak. White as a sheet, he gazed open-mouthed at Kolya, with his great
  eyes almost starting out of his head. And if Krassotkin, who had no
  suspicion of it, had known what a disastrous and fatal effect such a
  moment might have on the sick child's health, nothing would have induced
  him to play such a trick on him. But Alyosha was perhaps the only person
  in the room who realized it. As for the captain he behaved like a small
  child.
  
  "Zhutchka! It's Zhutchka!" he cried in a blissful voice, "Ilusha, this is
  Zhutchka, your Zhutchka! Mamma, this is Zhutchka!" He was almost weeping.
  
  "And I never guessed!" cried Smurov regretfully. "Bravo, Krassotkin! I
  said he'd find the dog and here he's found him."
  
  "Here he's found him!" another boy repeated gleefully.
  
  "Krassotkin's a brick!" cried a third voice.
  
  "He's a brick, he's a brick!" cried the other boys, and they began
  clapping.
  
  "Wait, wait," Krassotkin did his utmost to shout above them all. "I'll
  tell you how it happened, that's the whole point. I found him, I took him
  home and hid him at once. I kept him locked up at home and did not show
  him to any one till to-day. Only Smurov has known for the last fortnight,
  but I assured him this dog was called Perezvon and he did not guess. And
  meanwhile I taught the dog all sorts of tricks. You should only see all
  the things he can do! I trained him so as to bring you a well-trained dog,
  in good condition, old man, so as to be able to say to you, 'See, old man,
  what a fine dog your Zhutchka is now!' Haven't you a bit of meat? He'll
  show you a trick that will make you die with laughing. A piece of meat,
  haven't you got any?"
  
  The captain ran across the passage to the landlady, where their cooking
  was done. Not to lose precious time, Kolya, in desperate haste, shouted to
  Perezvon, "Dead!" And the dog immediately turned round and lay on his back
  with its four paws in the air. The boys laughed. Ilusha looked on with the
  same suffering smile, but the person most delighted with the dog's
  performance was "mamma." She laughed at the dog and began snapping her
  fingers and calling it, "Perezvon, Perezvon!"
  
  "Nothing will make him get up, nothing!" Kolya cried triumphantly, proud
  of his success. "He won't move for all the shouting in the world, but if I
  call to him, he'll jump up in a minute. Ici, Perezvon!" The dog leapt up
  and bounded about, whining with delight. The captain ran back with a piece
  of cooked beef.
  
  "Is it hot?" Kolya inquired hurriedly, with a business-like air, taking
  the meat. "Dogs don't like hot things. No, it's all right. Look,
  everybody, look, Ilusha, look, old man; why aren't you looking? He does
  not look at him, now I've brought him."
  
  The new trick consisted in making the dog stand motionless with his nose
  out and putting a tempting morsel of meat just on his nose. The luckless
  dog had to stand without moving, with the meat on his nose, as long as his
  master chose to keep him, without a movement, perhaps for half an hour.
  But he kept Perezvon only for a brief moment.
  
  "Paid for!" cried Kolya, and the meat passed in a flash from the dog's
  nose to his mouth. The audience, of course, expressed enthusiasm and
  surprise.
  
  "Can you really have put off coming all this time simply to train the
  dog?" exclaimed Alyosha, with an involuntary note of reproach in his
  voice.
  
  "Simply for that!" answered Kolya, with perfect simplicity. "I wanted to
  show him in all his glory."
  
  "Perezvon! Perezvon," called Ilusha suddenly, snapping his thin fingers
  and beckoning to the dog.
  
  "What is it? Let him jump up on the bed! _Ici_, Perezvon!" Kolya slapped
  the bed and Perezvon darted up by Ilusha. The boy threw both arms round
  his head and Perezvon instantly licked his cheek. Ilusha crept close to
  him, stretched himself out in bed and hid his face in the dog's shaggy
  coat.
  
  "Dear, dear!" kept exclaiming the captain. Kolya sat down again on the
  edge of the bed.
  
  "Ilusha, I can show you another trick. I've brought you a little cannon.
  You remember, I told you about it before and you said how much you'd like
  to see it. Well, here, I've brought it to you."
  
  And Kolya hurriedly pulled out of his satchel the little bronze cannon. He
  hurried, because he was happy himself. Another time he would have waited
  till the sensation made by Perezvon had passed off, now he hurried on
  regardless of all consideration. "You are all happy now," he felt, "so
  here's something to make you happier!" He was perfectly enchanted himself.
  
  "I've been coveting this thing for a long while; it's for you, old man,
  it's for you. It belonged to Morozov, it was no use to him, he had it from
  his brother. I swopped a book from father's book-case for it, _A Kinsman
  of Mahomet or Salutary Folly_, a scandalous book published in Moscow a
  hundred years ago, before they had any censorship. And Morozov has a taste
  for such things. He was grateful to me, too...."
  
  Kolya held the cannon in his hand so that all could see and admire it.
  Ilusha raised himself, and, with his right arm still round the dog, he
  gazed enchanted at the toy. The sensation was even greater when Kolya
  announced that he had gunpowder too, and that it could be fired off at
  once "if it won't alarm the ladies." "Mamma" immediately asked to look at
  the toy closer and her request was granted. She was much pleased with the
  little bronze cannon on wheels and began rolling it to and fro on her lap.
  She readily gave permission for the cannon to be fired, without any idea
  of what she had been asked. Kolya showed the powder and the shot. The
  captain, as a military man, undertook to load it, putting in a minute
  quantity of powder. He asked that the shot might be put off till another
  time. The cannon was put on the floor, aiming towards an empty part of the
  room, three grains of powder were thrust into the touch-hole and a match
  was put to it. A magnificent explosion followed. Mamma was startled, but
  at once laughed with delight. The boys gazed in speechless triumph. But
  the captain, looking at Ilusha, was more enchanted than any of them. Kolya
  picked up the cannon and immediately presented it to Ilusha, together with
  the powder and the shot.
  
  "I got it for you, for you! I've been keeping it for you a long time," he
  repeated once more in his delight.
  
  "Oh, give it to me! No, give me the cannon!" mamma began begging like a
  little child. Her face showed a piteous fear that she would not get it.
  Kolya was disconcerted. The captain fidgeted uneasily.
  
  "Mamma, mamma," he ran to her, "the cannon's yours, of course, but let
  Ilusha have it, because it's a present to him, but it's just as good as
  yours. Ilusha will always let you play with it; it shall belong to both of
  you, both of you."
  
  "No, I don't want it to belong to both of us, I want it to be mine
  altogether, not Ilusha's," persisted mamma, on the point of tears.
  
  "Take it, mother, here, keep it!" Ilusha cried. "Krassotkin, may I give it
  to my mother?" he turned to Krassotkin with an imploring face, as though
  he were afraid he might be offended at his giving his present to some one
  else.
  
  "Of course you may," Krassotkin assented heartily, and, taking the cannon
  from Ilusha, he handed it himself to mamma with a polite bow. She was so
  touched that she cried.
  
  "Ilusha, darling, he's the one who loves his mamma!" she said tenderly,
  and at once began wheeling the cannon to and fro on her lap again.
  
  "Mamma, let me kiss your hand." The captain darted up to her at once and
  did so.
  
  "And I never saw such a charming fellow as this nice boy," said the
  grateful lady, pointing to Krassotkin.
  
  "And I'll bring you as much powder as you like, Ilusha. We make the powder
  ourselves now. Borovikov found out how it's made--twenty-four parts of
  saltpeter, ten of sulphur and six of birchwood charcoal. It's all pounded
  together, mixed into a paste with water and rubbed through a tammy
  sieve--that's how it's done."
  
  "Smurov told me about your powder, only father says it's not real
  gunpowder," responded Ilusha.
  
  "Not real?" Kolya flushed. "It burns. I don't know, of course."
  
  "No, I didn't mean that," put in the captain with a guilty face. "I only
  said that real powder is not made like that, but that's nothing, it can be
  made so."
  
  "I don't know, you know best. We lighted some in a pomatum pot, it burned
  splendidly, it all burnt away leaving only a tiny ash. But that was only
  the paste, and if you rub it through ... but of course you know best, I
  don't know.... And Bulkin's father thrashed him on account of our powder,
  did you hear?" he turned to Ilusha.
  
  "Yes," answered Ilusha. He listened to Kolya with immense interest and
  enjoyment.
  
  "We had prepared a whole bottle of it and he used to keep it under his
  bed. His father saw it. He said it might explode, and thrashed him on the
  spot. He was going to make a complaint against me to the masters. He is
  not allowed to go about with me now, no one is allowed to go about with me
  now. Smurov is not allowed to either, I've got a bad name with every one.
  They say I'm a 'desperate character,' " Kolya smiled scornfully. "It all
  began from what happened on the railway."
  
  "Ah, we've heard of that exploit of yours, too," cried the captain. "How
  could you lie still on the line? Is it possible you weren't the least
  afraid, lying there under the train? Weren't you frightened?"
  
  The captain was abject in his flattery of Kolya.
  
  "N--not particularly," answered Kolya carelessly. "What's blasted my
  reputation more than anything here was that cursed goose," he said,
  turning again to Ilusha. But though he assumed an unconcerned air as he
  talked, he still could not control himself and was continually missing the
  note he tried to keep up.
  
  "Ah! I heard about the goose!" Ilusha laughed, beaming all over. "They
  told me, but I didn't understand. Did they really take you to the court?"
  
  "The most stupid, trivial affair, they made a mountain of a molehill as
  they always do," Kolya began carelessly. "I was walking through the
  market-place here one day, just when they'd driven in the geese. I stopped
  and looked at them. All at once a fellow, who is an errand-boy at
  Plotnikov's now, looked at me and said, 'What are you looking at the geese
  for?' I looked at him; he was a stupid, moon-faced fellow of twenty. I am
  always on the side of the peasantry, you know. I like talking to the
  peasants.... We've dropped behind the peasants--that's an axiom. I believe
  you are laughing, Karamazov?"
  
  "No, Heaven forbid, I am listening," said Alyosha with a most good-natured
  air, and the sensitive Kolya was immediately reassured.
  
  "My theory, Karamazov, is clear and simple," he hurried on again, looking
  pleased. "I believe in the people and am always glad to give them their
  due, but I am not for spoiling them, that is a _sine qua non_ ... But I
  was telling you about the goose. So I turned to the fool and answered, 'I
  am wondering what the goose thinks about.' He looked at me quite stupidly,
  'And what does the goose think about?' he asked. 'Do you see that cart
  full of oats?' I said. 'The oats are dropping out of the sack, and the
  goose has put its neck right under the wheel to gobble them up--do you
  see?' 'I see that quite well,' he said. 'Well,' said I, 'if that cart were
  to move on a little, would it break the goose's neck or not?' 'It'd be
  sure to break it,' and he grinned all over his face, highly delighted.
  'Come on, then,' said I, 'let's try.' 'Let's,' he said. And it did not
  take us long to arrange: he stood at the bridle without being noticed, and
  I stood on one side to direct the goose. And the owner wasn't looking, he
  was talking to some one, so I had nothing to do, the goose thrust its head
  in after the oats of itself, under the cart, just under the wheel. I
  winked at the lad, he tugged at the bridle, and crack. The goose's neck
  was broken in half. And, as luck would have it, all the peasants saw us at
  that moment and they kicked up a shindy at once. 'You did that on
  purpose!' 'No, not on purpose.' 'Yes, you did, on purpose!' Well, they
  shouted, 'Take him to the justice of the peace!' They took me, too. 'You
  were there, too,' they said, 'you helped, you're known all over the
  market!' And, for some reason, I really am known all over the market,"
  Kolya added conceitedly. "We all went off to the justice's, they brought
  the goose, too. The fellow was crying in a great funk, simply blubbering
  like a woman. And the farmer kept shouting that you could kill any number
  of geese like that. Well, of course, there were witnesses. The justice of
  the peace settled it in a minute, that the farmer was to be paid a rouble
  for the goose, and the fellow to have the goose. And he was warned not to
  play such pranks again. And the fellow kept blubbering like a woman. 'It
  wasn't me,' he said, 'it was he egged me on,' and he pointed to me. I
  answered with the utmost composure that I hadn't egged him on, that I
  simply stated the general proposition, had spoken hypothetically. The
  justice of the peace smiled and was vexed with himself at once for having
  smiled. 'I'll complain to your masters of you, so that for the future you
  mayn't waste your time on such general propositions, instead of sitting at
  your books and learning your lessons.' He didn't complain to the masters,
  that was a joke, but the matter was noised abroad and came to the ears of
  the masters. Their ears are long, you know! The classical master,
  Kolbasnikov, was particularly shocked about it, but Dardanelov got me off
  again. But Kolbasnikov is savage with every one now like a green ass. Did
  you know, Ilusha, he is just married, got a dowry of a thousand roubles,
  and his bride's a regular fright of the first rank and the last degree.
  The third-class fellows wrote an epigram on it:
  
  
      Astounding news has reached the class,
      Kolbasnikov has been an ass.
  
  
  And so on, awfully funny, I'll bring it to you later on. I say nothing
  against Dardanelov, he is a learned man, there's no doubt about it. I
  respect men like that and it's not because he stood up for me."
  
  "But you took him down about the founders of Troy!" Smurov put in
  suddenly, unmistakably proud of Krassotkin at such a moment. He was
  particularly pleased with the story of the goose.
  
  "Did you really take him down?" the captain inquired, in a flattering way.
  "On the question who founded Troy? We heard of it, Ilusha told me about it
  at the time."
  
  "He knows everything, father, he knows more than any of us!" put in
  Ilusha; "he only pretends to be like that, but really he is top in every
  subject...."
  
  Ilusha looked at Kolya with infinite happiness.
  
  "Oh, that's all nonsense about Troy, a trivial matter. I consider this an
  unimportant question," said Kolya with haughty humility. He had by now
  completely recovered his dignity, though he was still a little uneasy. He
  felt that he was greatly excited and that he had talked about the goose,
  for instance, with too little reserve, while Alyosha had looked serious
  and had not said a word all the time. And the vain boy began by degrees to
  have a rankling fear that Alyosha was silent because he despised him, and
  thought he was showing off before him. If he dared to think anything like
  that Kolya would--
  
  "I regard the question as quite a trivial one," he rapped out again,
  proudly.
  
  "And I know who founded Troy," a boy, who had not spoken before, said
  suddenly, to the surprise of every one. He was silent and seemed to be
  shy. He was a pretty boy of about eleven, called Kartashov. He was sitting
  near the door. Kolya looked at him with dignified amazement.
  
  The fact was that the identity of the founders of Troy had become a secret
  for the whole school, a secret which could only be discovered by reading
  Smaragdov, and no one had Smaragdov but Kolya. One day, when Kolya's back
  was turned, Kartashov hastily opened Smaragdov, which lay among Kolya's
  books, and immediately lighted on the passage relating to the foundation
  of Troy. This was a good time ago, but he felt uneasy and could not bring
  himself to announce publicly that he too knew who had founded Troy, afraid
  of what might happen and of Krassotkin's somehow putting him to shame over
  it. But now he couldn't resist saying it. For weeks he had been longing
  to.
  
  "Well, who did found it?" asked Kolya, turning to him with haughty
  superciliousness. He saw from his face that he really did know and at once
  made up his mind how to take it. There was, so to speak, a discordant note
  in the general harmony.
  
  "Troy was founded by Teucer, Dardanus, Ilius and Tros," the boy rapped out
  at once, and in the same instant he blushed, blushed so, that it was
  painful to look at him. But the boys stared at him, stared at him for a
  whole minute, and then all the staring eyes turned at once and were
  fastened upon Kolya, who was still scanning the audacious boy with
  disdainful composure.
  
  "In what sense did they found it?" he deigned to comment at last. "And
  what is meant by founding a city or a state? What do they do? Did they go
  and each lay a brick, do you suppose?"
  
  There was laughter. The offending boy turned from pink to crimson. He was
  silent and on the point of tears. Kolya held him so for a minute.
  
  "Before you talk of a historical event like the foundation of a
  nationality, you must first understand what you mean by it," he admonished
  him in stern, incisive tones. "But I attach no consequence to these old
  wives' tales and I don't think much of universal history in general," he
  added carelessly, addressing the company generally.
  
  "Universal history?" the captain inquired, looking almost scared.
  
  "Yes, universal history! It's the study of the successive follies of
  mankind and nothing more. The only subjects I respect are mathematics and
  natural science," said Kolya. He was showing off and he stole a glance at
  Alyosha; his was the only opinion he was afraid of there. But Alyosha was
  still silent and still serious as before. If Alyosha had said a word it
  would have stopped him, but Alyosha was silent and "it might be the
  silence of contempt," and that finally irritated Kolya.
  
  "The classical languages, too ... they are simply madness, nothing more.
  You seem to disagree with me again, Karamazov?"
  
  "I don't agree," said Alyosha, with a faint smile.
  
  "The study of the classics, if you ask my opinion, is simply a police
  measure, that's simply why it has been introduced into our schools." By
  degrees Kolya began to get breathless again. "Latin and Greek were
  introduced because they are a bore and because they stupefy the intellect.
  It was dull before, so what could they do to make things duller? It was
  senseless enough before, so what could they do to make it more senseless?
  So they thought of Greek and Latin. That's my opinion, I hope I shall
  never change it," Kolya finished abruptly. His cheeks were flushed.
  
  "That's true," assented Smurov suddenly, in a ringing tone of conviction.
  He had listened attentively.
  
  "And yet he is first in Latin himself," cried one of the group of boys
  suddenly.
  
  "Yes, father, he says that and yet he is first in Latin," echoed Ilusha.
  
  "What of it?" Kolya thought fit to defend himself, though the praise was
  very sweet to him. "I am fagging away at Latin because I have to, because
  I promised my mother to pass my examination, and I think that whatever you
  do, it's worth doing it well. But in my soul I have a profound contempt
  for the classics and all that fraud.... You don't agree, Karamazov?"
  
  "Why 'fraud'?" Alyosha smiled again.
  
  "Well, all the classical authors have been translated into all languages,
  so it was not for the sake of studying the classics they introduced Latin,
  but solely as a police measure, to stupefy the intelligence. So what can
  one call it but a fraud?"
  
  "Why, who taught you all this?" cried Alyosha, surprised at last.
  
  "In the first place I am capable of thinking for myself without being
  taught. Besides, what I said just now about the classics being translated
  our teacher Kolbasnikov has said to the whole of the third class."
  
  "The doctor has come!" cried Nina, who had been silent till then.
  
  A carriage belonging to Madame Hohlakov drove up to the gate. The captain,
  who had been expecting the doctor all the morning, rushed headlong out to
  meet him. "Mamma" pulled herself together and assumed a dignified air.
  Alyosha went up to Ilusha and began setting his pillows straight. Nina,
  from her invalid chair, anxiously watched him putting the bed tidy. The
  boys hurriedly took leave. Some of them promised to come again in the
  evening. Kolya called Perezvon and the dog jumped off the bed.
  
  "I won't go away, I won't go away," Kolya said hastily to Ilusha. "I'll
  wait in the passage and come back when the doctor's gone, I'll come back
  with Perezvon."
  
  But by now the doctor had entered, an important-looking person with long,
  dark whiskers and a shiny, shaven chin, wearing a bearskin coat. As he
  crossed the threshold he stopped, taken aback; he probably fancied he had
  come to the wrong place. "How is this? Where am I?" he muttered, not
  removing his coat nor his peaked sealskin cap. The crowd, the poverty of
  the room, the washing hanging on a line in the corner, puzzled him. The
  captain, bent double, was bowing low before him.
  
  "It's here, sir, here, sir," he muttered cringingly; "it's here, you've
  come right, you were coming to us..."
  
  "Sne-gi-ryov?" the doctor said loudly and pompously. "Mr. Snegiryov--is
  that you?"
  
  "That's me, sir!"
  
  "Ah!"
  
  The doctor looked round the room with a squeamish air once more and threw
  off his coat, displaying to all eyes the grand decoration at his neck. The
  captain caught the fur coat in the air, and the doctor took off his cap.
  
  "Where is the patient?" he asked emphatically.
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Book 10, Chapter 5
target: Ilyusha's room is crowded with kids, along with the rest of his family. Captain Snegiryov has accepted Katerina's charity, and she has even paid for a famous doctor to come in to diagnose Ilyusha that day. Alyosha is also present. When Kolya comes in, Ilyusha is thrilled. He's petting a mastiff puppy that his father brought him, but he's still in mourning over Zhuchka. Kolya tells Ilyusha that he's brought him an even better dog. But when the dog, Perezvon, finally enters, Ilyusha instantly recognizes it as the ever-suffering Zhuchka. It seems that over the past several weeks, Kolya has found Zhuchka and trained it all kinds of tricks. Thrilled by Ilyusha's reaction, Kolya brings out his toy cannon again but hands it over to Ilyusha's mother to play with at Ilyusha's request. Kolya entertains Ilyusha with the story of his recent brush with the law. Walking through the square, he had tricked a peasant into rolling over a goose with a cart. He was taken to court but got off with just a stern lecture. Another child, Kartashov, tries to show up Kolya on his knowledge of history - specifically the founders of Troy - but Kolya is able to silence the child with a few clever questions. The antics are drawn to a close, however, when the famous doctor makes his appearance in the room. Everybody else clears out.