gingerbread flavoured with peppermint, horse-collars, and kerosene. And incessantly there rang out in the dram-shop:
“U‑ukh! Your vodka is strong, Petrovna! It has knocked me in the head, devil take it!”
“ ’Twill make your mouth water, my dear man!”
“Is there snuff in your vodka?”
“Well, now, you fool yourself!”
In the shop the crowd was even more dense.
“Ilitch, weigh me out a pound of ham.”
“This year, brother, I’m so well stocked with ham—so well stocked, thank God!”
“What’s the price?”
“ ’Tis cheap!”
“Hey, proprietor, have you good tar?”
“Better tar than your grandfather had at his wedding, my good man!”
“What’s the price?”
And it seemed as if, at the Krasoffs’, there were never any other conversation than that about the prices of things: What’s the price of ham, what’s the price of boards, what’s the price of groats, what’s the price of tar?