The Return of Zhutchka — The Brothers Karamazov

The room where the retired captain Snegiryov lives with his family is close and crowded. Several boys are sitting with Ilusha. All of them, like Smurov, are prepared to deny that Alyosha brought them and reconciled them with Ilusha. It was really the fact. All the art he used was to take them one by one. The captain plays the buffoon, and Ilusha cannot bear to see his father fooling, though he tries not to show how he dislikes it. He sees it with an aching heart. Nina watches from her invalid chair. They are talking up a pup. He will be a huge dog, a mastiff, as big as a calf, as big as a real calf. The captain got one of the fiercest breed on purpose. It is not Zhutchka. The child frets for the dog he thinks is dead, and the room answers him with a calf.

Kolya comes in his own time. He has a dog outside. If he whistles, it will run in. He has brought a dog, too. Do you remember Zhutchka, old man? He fires the question at Ilusha. Perezvon is the name, and he wants the dog seen in all his glory. He whistles. The dog runs in. Ilusha cries that it is Zhutchka. The captain's hope and the child's grief come apart in the same moment. The dog he thought was dead is alive. Ilusha calls him, snaps his thin fingers, and beckons. Perezvon, Perezvon. What is it? Let him jump.

The boys take the dog up. There are tricks, and there is the bronze cannon, and the powder that startles the mother. Ilusha is in the middle of the noise he has wanted. Kolya talks. He tells them about a goose. There were witnesses. The farmer kept shouting that you could kill any number of geese like that. The justice of the peace settled it in a minute. The farmer was to be paid a rouble. Someone names the founders of Troy. Kolya will not let the answer stand. Alyosha's faint disagreement flushes his cheeks. He had come to be first in the room, and the dog was the proof.

He is first in Latin, Ilusha echoes, pleased. What of it? Kolya thinks fit to defend himself, though the praise is sweet. He is fagging away at Latin because he has to, because he promised his mother to pass his examination, Whatever you do, it is worth doing it well. In his soul he has a profound contempt for the classics, and he calls them a fraud. He will not go away. He will not go away. Nina, who has been silent, cries that the doctor has come. A carriage belonging to Madame Hohlakov drives up to the gate. The captain, who has been expecting the doctor all the morning, rushes headlong out to meet him. The mother pulls herself together and assumes a dignified air. Alyosha sets the pillows straight. The boys hurriedly take leave. Some of them promise to come again in the evening. Kolya calls Perezvon, and the dog jumps off the bed. The examination is about to begin, and the boy who brought the dog is still in the room.