The Chameleon

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The Chameleon Story Text

The Chameleon
Anton Chekhov

A chameleon is a small animal which changes its colour to suit its

surrounding. In this way it avoids danger and is hardly noticed.
But Chekhov’s chameleon was a person.

1
The police superintendent Ochumyelof, wearing his
new cloak and with a parcel under his arm, is walking
across the market-place. He is followed by a red-haired
1 The two policmen
policeman carrying some confiscated fruit in his hands. just take things away
Silence reigns all around. Not a soul in the market-place. from the stalls ! Do
policemen in Hong
The open doors and windows of the shops and taverns Kong do that now?
looked out desolately like wide open hungry mouths. There
was not even a beggar near them.

2
All of a sudden Ochumyelof heard someone shouting.
‘So you bite, you damned beast! Nowadays dogs are not
allowed to bite. Stop it! Oh, oh!’ 2 Does it mean that dog
owners in the past could
easily get away if their
3
The yelping of a dog was heard. Ochumyelof looked in dogs had bitten
someone?
the direction of the sound and saw a dog, limping on three
legs, run out of the timber-yard. A man in an unbuttoned
white shirt was chasing him. The man was close at the dog’s
heel. Suddenly he stumbled but when he fell, he sprang 3 Can you see
and hear in your
forward and seized the dog by the hind leg. Again the dog’s mind what’s
yelping was heard and again the shout. Sleepy faces happening when
you read this
appeared at the windows of the shops, and in no time a paragraph?
crowd gathered around the timber-yard as if it has sprung
out of the ground.

4
‘It looks like a fight, sir,’ said the policeman.

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5
Ochumyelof turned and strode towards the crowd.
4 What do you
Near the gate of the timber-yard he saw the man in the think this man
unbuttoned white shirt holding up his right hand and had been doing
right before this
showing the crowd a bleeding finger. On his half-drunken incident?
face there was an expression as though he was saying, ‘Wait.
I will make you pay for this, you rogue!’ Ochumyelof
recognised the man. He was Khriukin, the goldsmith. In the
centre of the crowd, with its forelegs spread out and
trembling from head to foot, lay the culprit of the whole 5 What has the dog
done to be described
trouble — a white puppy with a pointed nose and a yellow as the culprit? Read
spot on his back. In its tearful eyes there was an expression Chekhov’s description
of the dog and decide
of misery and terror. if the dog is really a
culprit.
6
‘What’s it all about?’ asked Ochumyelof, shouldering
his way through the crowd. ‘What are you here for? What’s
the matter with your finger? Who has been screaming?’

7
‘I was just walking along, sir, as quiet as a lamb,’ said
Khriukin, ‘I wasn’t touching anybody or anything, when
suddenly this accursed beast bit my finger. Excuse me, sir.
I’m a working man; I have very delicate work to do, and
somebody will have to pay me, for I won’t be able to use
this finger maybe for a week! There is nothing in the law,
sir, about having to put up with dogs that bite. If they are
allowed to bit, life is not worth living.’

8
‘H’m. Very good,’ said Ochumyelof sternly, moving his
6 What do you think
eyebrows up and down. ‘Now, whose dog is this? I won’t let of Ochumyelof as a
the matter rest. I will teach you people not to let your dogs policeman? Do you
think he is handling
run about loose! It’s time that something was done about the situation
properly?
people who don’t obey regulations. I will punish the owner.
I will show him who I am! Yeldyrin,’ turning to the
policeman, ‘find out whose dog it is and draw up a report.
The dog will be killed without delay. He is probably a mad
dog, in any case. Whose dog is it?’

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9
‘He looks like the General’s dog,’ said someone in the
crowd.
7 Do you think it
is really so hot
‘The General? Hm! Yeldyrin, take off my cloak. It’s that Ochumyelof
10 has to take off his
terribly hot! It is probably going to rain. …‘ Turning to the
cloak?
goldsmith, he continuted, ‘There is one thing that I do not
understand, Khriukin --- how could that dog bite you? He
does not come up to your fingers. He is such a little dog and
you are such a big man. You have probably hurt your finger
8 Note the change
on a nail, and then the idea of the dog occurred to you and in OAchumyelof’s
you are trying to get some money. I know you people. You attitude towards
Khriukin.
cheating scoundrel!’

11
‘He poked a cigarette into the dog’s face; that’s why the
dog snapped and bit him, sir.’

9 Read carefully to
12
‘That’s a lie! You did not see me do it, so why lie? His see how Khriukin
defends himself. Does
Honour is a wise gentleman. He knows who’s telling the he really believe that
truth and who’s lying. If I am lying, let the court decide. everybody is equal?
The law says that nowadays we are all equal. I have a
brother in the police. Let me tell you —’

13
‘Stop arguing!’

14
‘No, that’s not the General’s dog,’ said the policeman
thoughtfully. ‘The general does not have dogs like that. His
dogs are different.’

15
‘Are you sure of that?’

16
‘Yes, sir, quite sure.’
10 Do you think
that Ochumyelof
17
‘I know it myself too. The General has expensive breed- knows that?

dogs, but this dog! He has neither hair nor shape. Why do
people keep dogs like that? If such a dog turns up in
Petersburg or Moscow, do you know what will happen?
Nobody will worry about the law and the dog will be

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strangled right away! Khriukin, you are a victim and you’ve 11 Note how
Ochumyelof talks to
suffered. I will not let this matter rest. I must teach the Khriukin now.
owner a lesson!’

18
‘But perhaps it is the General’s dog after all,’ the
policeman was thinking aloud. ‘The other day I saw a dog
like that in the general’s yard.’

19
‘Of course it belongs to the General,’ said a voice in the 12 Why does
Ochumyelof put his
crowd. cloak on and off
frequently? Is it
really because of the
20
‘Yeldyrin, help me put on my coat. It is cold. The wind weather?
is getting up. I’m shivering. Take the dog to the General’s
and find out there. Say that I found it and sent it. And tell
them not to let the dog out in the street. It is probably an
expensive dog, and if every swine goes poking him with a
cigarette, he will soon be ruined. A dog is a delicate
13 Who are
creature. And you, stupid fellow, put down your hand! ‘them’ and who is
Don’t show me that silly finger of yours again. It is your this stupid
fellow?
own fault.’

21
‘Here comes the General’s chef. Let us ask him. Hi
there, Prokhor, come here a minute! Look, is that dog
yours?’

22
‘What dog? … We never had such a dog in our lives!’

23
‘There’s no need wasting time asking around,’ said
Ochumyelof. ‘It’s a tramp dog. There is nothing more to be
said. If I say he is a tramp dog, he is a tramp dog! He will be
killed!’

24
‘It’s not our dog,’ continued Prokhor, ‘but it belongs to
the General’s brother, who arrived from Moscow the other
day. My master doesn’t like this kind of dog, but his brother
does.’

25
‘So his brother has arrived?’ asked Ochumyelof, and a

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delighted smile spread over his face. ‘Fancy that! And I did
not know it! Is he here on a visit again?’

26
‘Yes, sir, on a visit.’

27
‘Well, well, well. I never knew … So it is his dog, you
say? Very good, I’m very glad. Take him! A lively little dog.
A quick little dog, snapping at this fellow’s finger! Ha-ha-ha.
Why are you trembling, dear little thing? Rrr … Rrrr … That
man is a villain.’

28
Prokhor called the dog and walked away with it. The
crowd laughed at Khriukin.
29
‘I will catch you some day!’ Ochumyelof threatened
him, and wrapping himself in his cloak, he continued on his
way across the market-place.

The End

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