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To while away the time he was exchanging shots with the ABREKS, who were behind another sand-heap. A bullet came whistling from their side. The cornet was pale and grew confused. Lukashka dismounted from his horse, threw the reins to one of the other Cossacks, and went up to Gurka. Olenin also dismounted and, bending down, followed Lukashka.
What things Grandad has given me! And yours they say is the richest of the Russians. His orderly says they have serfs of their own. Maryanka raised herself, and after thinking a moment, smiled. 'Do you know what he once told me: the lodger I mean? she said, biting a bit of grass. 'He said, "I'd like to be Lukashka the Cossack, or your brother Lazutka ." What do you think he meant?
In this way I caught Vanyusha, Daddy Eroshka, Lukashka, and Maryanka. As Olenin was finishing this sentence Daddy Eroshka entered the room. Eroshka was in the happiest frame of mind. A few evenings before this, Olenin had gone to see him and had found him with a proud and happy face deftly skinning the carcass of a boar with a small knife in the yard.
'Well, Lukashka, had enough holiday-making? asked his mother softly. 'Where did you spend the night? 'I was in the village, replied her son reluctantly, reaching for his musket, which he drew from its cover and examined carefully. His mother swayed her head.
You'd have to search through the whole place to find such another! The cornet's wife knows what Lukashka's mother is after, but though she believes him to be a good Cossack she hangs back: first because she is a cornet's wife and rich, while Lukashka is the son of a simple Cossack and fatherless, secondly because she does not want to part with her daughter yet, but chiefly because propriety demands it.
Olenin rode home. In the evening he was told that Lukashka was at death's door, but that a Tartar from beyond the river had undertaken to cure him with herbs. The bodies were brought to the village office. The women and the little boys hastened to look at them. It was growing dark when Olenin returned, and he could not collect himself after what he had seen.
Nazarka who was lying below immediately lifted his head and remarked: 'They must be going for water. 'Supposing one scared them with a gun? said Lukashka, laughing, 'Wouldn't they be frightened? 'It wouldn't reach. 'What! Mine would carry beyond.
Just wait a bit, and when their feast comes round I'll go and visit Girey Khan and drink buza there, said Lukashka, angrily swishing away the mosquitoes which attached themselves to him. A rustling in the thicket drew the Cossack's attention. A pied mongrel half-setter, searching for a scent and violently wagging its scantily furred tail, came running to the cordon.
'No, Daddy, money can do nothing if she does not love me. You'd better not talk like that! 'We are not loved, you and I. We are forlorn, said Daddy Eroshka suddenly, and again he began to cry. Listening to the old man's talk Olenin had drunk more than usual. 'So now my Lukashka is happy, thought he; yet he felt sad.
'A man kills another and is happy and satisfied with himself as if he had done something excellent. Can it be that nothing tells him that it is not a reason for any rejoicing, and that happiness lies not in killing, but in sacrificing oneself? 'Well, you had better not meet him again now, mate! said one of the Cossacks who had seen the skiff off, addressing Lukashka.
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