CHAPTER II.
'I'm fond of them, very fond! ...

First-rate fellows! ...

Fine!' he kept repeating, and felt ready to cry.

But why he wanted to cry, who were the first-rate fellows he was so fond of--was more than he quite knew.

Now and then he looked round at some house and wondered why it was so curiously built; sometimes he began wondering why the post-boy and Vanyusha, who were so different from himself, sat so near, and together with him were being jerked about and swayed by the tugs the side-horses gave at the frozen traces, and again he repeated: 'First rate ...