them and glasses trimmed with gold—gifts or the plunder of war.Below them hang costly muskets, sabers, harquebuses, lances.Willingly or unwillingly they were passed on from Tartars, Turks, and Polacks; and so they are not a little nicked.Looking at them, Master Danilo recalled his battles as if by banners.Along the wall, smoothly hewn oak benches.Next to them, before the stove seat, 4 a cradle hangs on ropes put through a ring screwed into the ceiling.The floor of the room is beaten smooth and covered with clay.On the benches Master Danilo sleeps with his wife.On the stove seat sleeps the old serving woman.In the cradle the little baby sports and is lulled to sleep.On the floor the youths lie side by side.But it is better for a Cossack to sleep on the level ground under the open sky; he needs no down or feather beds; he puts fresh hay under his head and sprawls freely on the grass.It delights him to wake up in the middle of the night, to gaze at the tall, star-strewn sky and shiver from the cool of the night that refreshes his Cossack bones.Stretching and murmuring in his sleep, he lights his pipe and wraps himself tighter in his warm sheepskin.
It was not early that Burulbash woke up after the previous day’s merrymaking, and when he did wake up, he sat in the corner onthe bench and began to sharpen a new Turkish saber he had taken in trade; and Mistress Katerina started to embroider a silken towel with gold.Suddenly Katerina’s father came in, angry, scowling, with an outlandish pipe in his teeth, approached his daughter, and began to question her sternly: What was the reason for her coming home so late?
“About such things, father-in-law, you should ask me, not her!The husband is answerable, not the wife.That’s how it is with us, meaning no offense to you!” said Danilo, without quitting his occupation.“Maybe there, in infidel lands, it’s different—I wouldn’t know.”
Color came to the father-in-law’s stern face, and his eyes glinted savagely.
“Who, if not a father, is to look after his daughter!” he muttered to himself.“I ask you, then: Where were you dragging about till late in the night?”
“Now you’re talking, dear father-in-law!To that I will tell you that I’m long past the age of being swaddled by women.I can seat a horse.I can wield a sharp saber with my hand.I can do a thing or two besides … I can answer to no one for what I do.”
“I see, Danilo, I know, you want a quarrel!Whoever hides himself must have evil things on his mind.”
“Think what you like,” said Danilo, “and I’ll think, too.Thank God, I’ve never yet been part of any dishonorable thing; I’ve always stood for the Orthodox faith and the fatherland—not like some vagabonds who drag about God knows where while Orthodox people are fighting to the death, and then come down to reap where they haven’t sown.They’re not even like the Uniates 5 : they never peek inside a church of God.It’s they who should be questioned properly about where they drag about.”
“Eh, Cossack!you know … I’m a bad shot: from a mere two hundred yards my bullet pierces the heart.I’m an unenviable swordsman: what I leave of a man is smaller than the grains they cook for porridge.”
“I’m ready,” said Master Danilo, briskly passing his saber through the air, as though he knew what he had been sharpening it for.
“Danilo!” Katerina cried loudly, seizing his arm and clinging to it.“Bethink yourself, madman!Look who you are raising your hand against!Father, your hair is white as snow, yet you flare up like a senseless boy!”
“Wife!” Master Danilo cried menacingly, “you know I don’t like that.Mind your woman’s business!”
The sabers clanged terribly; iron cut against iron, and sparks poured down like dust over the Cossacks.Weeping, Katerina went to her own room, threw herself down on the bed, and stopped her ears so as not to hear the saber blows.But the Cossacks did not fight so poorly that
It was not early that Burulbash woke up after the previous day’s merrymaking, and when he did wake up, he sat in the corner onthe bench and began to sharpen a new Turkish saber he had taken in trade; and Mistress Katerina started to embroider a silken towel with gold.Suddenly Katerina’s father came in, angry, scowling, with an outlandish pipe in his teeth, approached his daughter, and began to question her sternly: What was the reason for her coming home so late?
“About such things, father-in-law, you should ask me, not her!The husband is answerable, not the wife.That’s how it is with us, meaning no offense to you!” said Danilo, without quitting his occupation.“Maybe there, in infidel lands, it’s different—I wouldn’t know.”
Color came to the father-in-law’s stern face, and his eyes glinted savagely.
“Who, if not a father, is to look after his daughter!” he muttered to himself.“I ask you, then: Where were you dragging about till late in the night?”
“Now you’re talking, dear father-in-law!To that I will tell you that I’m long past the age of being swaddled by women.I can seat a horse.I can wield a sharp saber with my hand.I can do a thing or two besides … I can answer to no one for what I do.”
“I see, Danilo, I know, you want a quarrel!Whoever hides himself must have evil things on his mind.”
“Think what you like,” said Danilo, “and I’ll think, too.Thank God, I’ve never yet been part of any dishonorable thing; I’ve always stood for the Orthodox faith and the fatherland—not like some vagabonds who drag about God knows where while Orthodox people are fighting to the death, and then come down to reap where they haven’t sown.They’re not even like the Uniates 5 : they never peek inside a church of God.It’s they who should be questioned properly about where they drag about.”
“Eh, Cossack!you know … I’m a bad shot: from a mere two hundred yards my bullet pierces the heart.I’m an unenviable swordsman: what I leave of a man is smaller than the grains they cook for porridge.”
“I’m ready,” said Master Danilo, briskly passing his saber through the air, as though he knew what he had been sharpening it for.
“Danilo!” Katerina cried loudly, seizing his arm and clinging to it.“Bethink yourself, madman!Look who you are raising your hand against!Father, your hair is white as snow, yet you flare up like a senseless boy!”
“Wife!” Master Danilo cried menacingly, “you know I don’t like that.Mind your woman’s business!”
The sabers clanged terribly; iron cut against iron, and sparks poured down like dust over the Cossacks.Weeping, Katerina went to her own room, threw herself down on the bed, and stopped her ears so as not to hear the saber blows.But the Cossacks did not fight so poorly that
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