tail in the air.  Now she jumps on the bed—­heavily but softly—­turns round and sits without purring, looking at me with her yellow eyes as grave as a judge.  “Puss! puss!” I whisper hardly above my breath, and leaning over her and over my aunt, I take hold of the watch.  Suddenly my aunt raises herself, and opens her eyes wide.  Heavens! what is going to happen now?  But the lids quiver and close, and with a gentle murmur her head sinks back on the cushion.  Another moment and I am back in my own room, in bed, with the watch in my hand.  I come back lighter than a feather.  I am a man; I am a thief; I am a hero.  I am breathless with joy; I glow with pride; I am happy, and I will wake up David and tell him all about it; and then, strange to say, I fall asleep and sleep like the dead.  At last I open my eyes; it is light in my room; the sun has already risen.  Fortunately, no one is yet awake.  I spring up as if I were shot:  I wake David and confide the whole story to him.  He listens and smiles.

“Do you know what we’ll do?” he said at last:  “we’ll bury this stupid watch in the ground, so that there shall be nothing left of it.”

I consider this an admirable plan, and in a few minutes we dress ourselves, run into the orchard behind the house, and when we have dug a deep hole in the soft earth with David’s knife, we bury beneath an old apple tree my godfather’s hated present, which now will never fall into the hands of the disagreeable Trankwillitatin.  We throw back the earth, sprinkle rubbish over the spot, and, proud and happy, without being seen, we return to the house, go back to bed, and enjoy for another hour a light, happy sleep.

X.

You can imagine what a row there was the next morning when my aunt woke up and missed the watch.  To this day her piercing cry resounds in my ears.  “Help! robbers!” she shrieked, and alarmed the whole house.  But David and I only smiled quietly to ourselves, and our smiles were sweet.  “Every one must be punished,” screamed my aunt.  “The watch has been taken from beneath my head—­from beneath my pillow!” We were prepared for everything, for the worst, but, contrary to our expectations, it all blew over.

At first my father was very angry:  he even spoke of the police, but the trial of the day before must have tired him a good deal, and suddenly, to my aunt’s indescribable astonishment, he vented his wrath on her instead of us.  “You have given me enough trouble already about the watch, Pulcheria Petrovna,” he cried:  “I don’t want to hear anything more about it.  It did not take itself off by magic, and what do I care if it did?  They stole it from you?  That was your lookout.  ‘What will Nastasa say?’ Confound Nastasa!  He does nothing but cheat and practice dirty tricks.  Don’t dare to bother me any more with this:  do you hear?”