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'I noticed the track of deer here yesterday. After they had turned into the thicket and gone some three hundred paces they scrambled through into a glade overgrown with reeds and partly under water. Olenin failed to keep up with the old huntsman and presently Daddy Eroshka, some twenty paces in front, stooped down, nodding and beckoning with his arm.
Eroshka, rousing himself, raised his head and began gazing intently at the moths circling round the flickering flame of the candle and burning themselves in it. 'Fool, fool! he said. 'Where are you flying to? Fool, fool! He rose and with his thick fingers began to drive away the moths. 'You'll burn, little fool!
'Du tay voulay vou? asked Vanyusha, grinning. 'You're not one of us your gabble is not like our speech, you devil! the old man shouted at Vanyusha, showing the stumps of his teeth. 'A first offence must be forgiven, said Olenin playfully, drawing on his high boots. 'The first offence shall be forgiven, answered Eroshka, 'but if you oversleep another time you'll be fined a pail of chikhir.
The next day Eroshka sat in his store-room all covered with blood, and distributed pounds of boar-flesh, taking in payment money from some and wine from others. His face clearly expressed, 'God has sent me luck. I have killed a boar, so now I am wanted. Consequently, he naturally began to drink, and had gone on for four days never leaving the village.
Here you, Eroshka!" he added, addressing a poor fellow in a yellow nankeen coat, who considered himself to be a gardener, "what have you to do? Take a stick and sit here, and if anything happens, run to me at once!" Eroshka took a stick, and sat down on the bottom stair.
'Well, lads, his loud bass resounded through the low-roofed room drowning all the other voices, 'I'm going with you. You'll watch for Chechens and I for boars! It was quite dark when Uncle Eroshka and the three Cossacks, in their cloaks and shouldering their guns, left the cordon and went towards the place on the Terek where they were to lie in ambush.
'Women are the devil, said Eroshka pondering. 'But what Cossack was it? 'I couldn't see. 'Well, what sort of a cap had he, a white one? 'Yes. 'And a red coat? About your height? 'No, a bit taller. 'It's he! and Eroshka burst out laughing. 'It's himself, it's Mark. He is Luke, but I call him Mark for a joke. His very self! I love him. I was just such a one myself.
The other Cossacks began laughing. The wag had not seen any vulture at all, but it had long been the custom of the young Cossacks in the cordon to tease and mislead Uncle Eroshka every time he came to them. 'Eh, you fool, always lying! exclaimed Lukashka from the tower to Nazarka. Nazarka was immediately silenced. 'It must be watched.
Mumu ate up half the plateful, and came away from it, licking her lips. Gerasim got up, paid for the soup, and went out, followed by the rather perplexed glances of the waiter. Eroshka, seeing Gerasim, hid round a corner, and letting him get in front, followed him again. Gerasim walked without haste, still holding Mumu by a string.
'Well, and are you going to watch? inquired the corporal, as though he had not heard what the other said. 'I did mean to watch tonight, replied Uncle Eroshka. 'Maybe, with God's help, I shall kill something for the holiday. Then you shall have a share, you shall indeed! 'Uncle! Hallo, Uncle! called out Lukashka sharply from above, attracting everybody's attention.
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