He had made a sort of religion of suppressing the fact that he was a prince; the holy of holies of this cult was the fact that he was a prince who sought to do good to his neighbor--a prince in whom one might repose trust.
This was not the first time by any number that he had gone down into his own village insisting in a rough-and-ready way on cleanliness and purity.
"The Moscow doctor"-- the peasants would say in the kabak over their vodka and their tea--"the Moscow doctor comes in and kicks our beds out of the door.

He comes in and throws our furniture into the street But afterward he gives us new beds and new furniture." It was a joke that always obtained in the kabak.

It flavored the vodka, and with that fiery poison served to raise a laugh.
The Moscow doctor was looked upon in Osterno and in many neighboring villages as second only to God.

In fact, many of the peasants placed him before their Creator.

They were stupid, vodka-soddened, hapless men.