Krilof and His Fables/The Whisk
The Whisk.
Great honours were suddenly conferred upon a dirty Whisk.[1] It will not now any longer sweep the floors of kitchens; for the master's caftans are handed over to it, the servants having, probably, got drunk. Well, our Whisk set to work vigorously. It was never tired of belabouring the master's clothes, and it thrashed the caftans like so much rye. Undoubtedly its industry was great; only the misfortune was, that it was itself so dirty. Of what use, then, was all its toil? The more it tried to clean anything, the dirtier did it make it.
Just as much harm is done when a fool interferes in what is out of his own line, and undertakes to correct the work of a man of learning.
- ↑ In Russian, a Golik. This is a provincial word, a native of the Province of Smolensk. The Golik is a bunch of bare twigs—goly meaning bare—greatly resembling our scholastic birch. The Russians make great use of it in their baths (see Dal's "Explanatory Lexicon of the living Great Russian Language," a work of the greatest value to every one who wishes to become really well acquainted with Russian literature)