After this conversation we went to the mowing, and there he, in
the hope of finding more sympathy for his ideas among the masses,
asked me to translate to the peasant Prokófi, an old, sickly man,
with an enormous rupture, who none the less stuck to his work,
and was my companion in the mowing, his plan of attacking the
Germans, which was to squeeze the Germans, who were between the
French and the Russians, from both sides. The Frenchman gave an
ocular demonstration of this to Prokófi, by touching from two sides
Prokófi's sweaty hempen shirt with his white fingers. I recall
Prokófi's good-naturedly scornful surprise, when I explained to him
the Frenchman's words and gestures. The proposition to squeeze the
Germans from both sides was apparently taken by Prokófi as a joke,
for he would not admit the idea that a grown man and a scholar
should calmly and when he was sober talk of the desirability of war.
"Well, if we squeeze the German from both sides," he replied
jestingly to what he thought was a joke, "he will have no place to
go to. We must give him room."