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Denisov then relieved him from drudgery and began taking him with him when he went out on expeditions and had him enrolled among the Cossacks. Tikhon did not like riding, and always went on foot, never lagging behind the cavalry. Tikhon with equal accuracy would split logs with blows at arm's length, or holding the head of the ax would cut thin little pegs or carve spoons.

The man whom they called Tikhon, having run to the stream, plunged in so that the water splashed in the air, and, having disappeared for an instant, scrambled out on all fours, all black with the wet, and ran on. The French who had been pursuing him stopped. "Smart, that!" said the esaul. "What a beast!" said Denisov with his former look of vexation. "What has he been doing all this time?"

'There are a lot of us, he says, 'but all poor stuff only soldiers in name, he says. 'Shout loud at them, he says, 'and you'll take them all," Tikhon concluded, looking cheerfully and resolutely into Denisov's eyes. "I'll give you a hundwed sharp lashes that'll teach you to play the fool!" said Denisov severely.

Just then a closed carriage and another with a hood drove up to the porch. Prince Andrew got out of the carriage, helped his little wife to alight, and let her pass into the house before him. Old Tikhon, wearing a wig, put his head out of the door of the antechamber, reported in a whisper that the prince was sleeping, and hastily closed the door.

"Who is he?" asked Petya. "He's our plastun. I sent him to capture a 'tongue." "Oh, yes," said Petya, nodding at the first words Denisov uttered as if he understood it all, though he really did not understand anything of it. Tikhon Shcherbaty was one of the most indispensable men in their band. He was a peasant from Pokrovsk, near the river Gzhat.

"I told you it was all lumps and holes!" the little princess repeated. "I should be glad enough to fall asleep, so it's not my fault!" and her voice quivered like that of a child about to cry. The old prince did not sleep either. Tikhon, half asleep, heard him pacing angrily about and snorting. The old prince felt as though he had been insulted through his daughter.

Denisov had Tikhon called and, having praised him for his activity, said a few words in the elder's presence about loyalty to the Tsar and the country and the hatred of the French that all sons of the fatherland should cherish. "We don't do the French any harm," said Tikhon, evidently frightened by Denisov's words. "We only fooled about with the lads for fun, you know!

There was no laughter in the maids' large hall. In the men servants' hall all sat waiting, silently and alert. In the outlying serfs' quarters torches and candles were burning and no one slept. The old prince, stepping on his heels, paced up and down his study and sent Tikhon to ask Mary Bogdanovna what news. "Say only that 'the prince told me to ask, and come and tell me her answer."

He felt inclined to ask Tikhon about Katusha; how she was, what she was doing, was she not going to be married?

Tikhon, who at first did rough work, laying campfires, fetching water, flaying dead horses, and so on, soon showed a great liking and aptitude for partisan warfare. At night he would go out for booty and always brought back French clothing and weapons, and when told to would bring in French captives also.