Chapter 60: The Cheerful Atmosphere

"What's going on?" Ochumelov pushed through the crowd and asked, "What are you doing here? Why are you holding up your finger? Who is making all that noise?"

"I was walking along just fine, not bothering anyone, Officer," Khryukin said, coughing into his empty fist, "I was discussing firewood with Mitri Mitrich when suddenly this beast bit my finger for no reason... Forgive me, I am a working man... and I do delicate work.

I am injured now; I cannot use this hand for work for at least a week, so I request compensation... Respectable Officer, perhaps the law has no clause for this, but must a man suffer in silence when harmed by a beast?... If everyone must be bitten by dogs, there is no point in living on this earth..."

Although Krayevsky had approached with a critical mindset, upon reading the passage that followed, he could not help but smile.

From this, one could roughly see that the novel written by this young man was slightly different from his previous works; this one was more like the humorous sketches commonly found in general newspapers, meant simply to amuse people.

If one were to insist, Krayevsky felt that most of Gogol's works were also of this humorous and satirical nature, like his play "The Government Inspector"; at first glance, it was simply a spoiled young man mistakenly taken for "The Government Inspector," leading to a series of absurd jokes. Even the Tsar himself read it and laughed until he nearly died.

But the targets he chose were truly too extreme; how could he so easily offend those respectable gentlemen by satirizing so many bureaucrats?

Writing about such a small patrolman, however, Krayevsky felt was relatively appropriate.

At least it would not directly offend those noble lords.

Returning to the novel, since the incident had occurred, this officer began to assert his authority:

"Hmph! That's right," Ochumelov coughed, raising his eyebrows and speaking sternly, "That's right. Whose dog is this? I cannot let such a thing go unpunished. I must teach those who let their dogs run loose and cause trouble a lesson! It is also time to deal with those lords who refuse to follow the rules! Once they are fined, this rascal will know what happens when they let such livestock out! I must teach him a lesson..."

But the problem was:

"It seems to be General Shigalov's!" someone in the crowd said.

So this officer immediately:

"General Shigalov's? Oh!... Yerdilin, help me take off my coat... It's too hot! It must be going to rain... There is something I don't understand, how could it have bitten you?" Ochumelov turned to Khryukin and continued,

"It couldn't have reached your finger; it is just a small dog, and you are such a tall fellow! You must have cut your finger with a nail and then framed this little dog, foolishly hoping the owner would pay you compensation. We all know... your tricks! You despicable man!"

Just as this officer was preparing to severely reprimand the bitten man, his colleague suddenly said:

"No, this is not the General's dog," the policeman stated firmly, "The General's family does not have such a dog; most of his dogs are Setters."

"Are you sure?"

"I am sure, Officer."

Hearing this, the officer immediately relaxed again:

"I know too; the General's dogs are all famous purebreds, but this one... who knows what it is! The coat is poor, the appearance is ugly... a lowly creature."

But who the owner of this dog was indeed shrouded in mystery, and soon someone else said:

"But it could be the General's dog..." the policeman thought for a moment and said loudly, "It doesn't have its owner's name written on its face... I saw a dog like this in his yard a few days ago."

"It is the General's dog, for sure!" someone in the crowd said.

Upon hearing this, the officer, disregarding everything, immediately changed his attitude:

"Hmph! Yerdilin, help me put my coat back on... The wind has picked up... It's strangely cold... Take this dog to the General's house and ask. Tell them I found it and sent you."

Just as the matter seemed about to conclude, the General's cook arrived, a person who certainly knew the truth, so someone immediately asked him about it, and his answer was: "Nonsense! We have never raised such a dog!"

"Then there is no need to waste any more time," Ochumelov said, "This is a stray dog! Stop talking nonsense... Since he says it is not his, then it is a stray dog... Just kill it."

But before this officer had even finished changing his expression, the cook, who could not finish a sentence in one breath, added:

"It is the General's brother's dog; he arrived here a few days ago. The General does not like this kind of dog, but his brother does..."

"Could it be that His Excellency's brother, Vladimir Ivanovich, has arrived?" Ochumelov asked with a face full of smiles, "Oh, heavens! This is terrible; I didn't know! He will be staying here for a while, right?"

"Yes."

"Oh, heavens!... He must not leave... I didn't know he was coming! So this is His Excellency's dog? I am glad to hear this... Take it back. It is very nice... a lively and cute little dog... It bit this fellow's finger! Hahaha!"

After the dog was led away, this officer seemed to have instantly forgotten the entire incident, and instead looked once more at the bitten man:

"I will deal with you sooner or later!" Ochumelov threatened him, then wrapped his coat tightly and walked straight through the market square.

Seeing the ending, although he had initially approached with a critical mindset, Krayevsky indeed found it difficult to suppress his smile, so he let out a few low chuckles.

But just as he was laughing, Krayevsky suddenly thought of Belinsky and his group's view of him, and also of the relationship between the author of this novel and them; the smile on Krayevsky's face immediately began to fade slowly.

With a slightly unpleasant mood, he quickly formulated his reasons for criticism:

Facing a General, the protagonist's attitude is indeed understandable!

It is too exaggerated; where can one find such a hypocritical and sycophantic person?

As Krayevsky wrote his opinion, on the other side, at Panayev's house, after Mikhail vividly finished reading the novel titled "The Chameleon," the people present had already burst into laughter; some were laughing while saying:

"I heard Mr. Krayevsky is going to personally review this novel? I believe he will like it!"

"Oh my, you simply don't know how many people I immediately thought of!"

"Our Russian literature is about to have another classic literary character! I have a premonition that this character will never go out of style!"

Seeing that this gathering was filled with a cheerful atmosphere, even the usually gloomy ones showed smiles; although Belinsky felt that this seemingly humorous sketch had many places worth exploring, given this current atmosphere, Belinsky did not say anything too serious, but simply summarized with a smile:

"Gentlemen! I know, none of us are bad; everyone carries selfish desires to some degree; no one is noble, everyone has flaws. But we are human! We must have our self-respect! How can a man let himself become like this?

Although sometimes, for a better life, we must be a little hypocritical and smooth, but if a man truly becomes like this, how can it be acceptable?"

(End of Chapter)