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Let me hunt for my name in the chronicles of the Pale. In the village of Yuchovitch, about sixty versts above Polotzk, the oldest inhabitant still remembered my father's great-grandfather when my father was a boy. Lebe the Innkeeper he was called, and no reproach was coupled with the name.
Then Drushnevna answered: "No doubt it is some one whom Marcobrun has sent in pursuit of us, and he must be the stout knight Polkan, who can leave behind him seven versts at a bound: he will soon overtake us." Bova took his battle sword, mounted his steed, and rode forth. Polkan met him, and cried aloud with a terrible voice: "Ha, rascal! you shall not escape out of my hands!"
Here, as in the Siberian rivers, the custom prevails of carrying freight in barges, which are towed by tugs. All the steamers I saw were side-wheelers. We changed horses on the south bank of the Volga, only twelve versts from Kazan. The right bank of the river presents an unbroken line of hills or bluffs, while the opposite one is generally low.
Semyonov had wisely directed our little procession away from the main road to O which was filled now with the carts and wagons of our Sixty-Fifth Division. We were to spend the night at the small village of T , twenty versts distant; then, to-morrow morning, to arrive at O . The carts were waiting in a long line down the road, the soldiers, hot and dusty, carried bags and sacks and bundles.
At nightfall of the 15th of August, the convoy reached the little village of Zabediero, thirty versts from Tomsk. The prisoners' first movement would have been to rush into the river, but they were not allowed to leave the ranks until the halt had been organized.
The constant shelling coupled with attacks and counter attacks for months over the same ground had razed the village to the ground, leaving nothing but a shell-torn field and a few blackened ruins. It was useless to hold the place longer and consequently that night it was decided to abandon the position here and withdraw to a new line about three versts in advance of Kitsa.
Every one of the toilers, both male and female, knows this; even the children know that this is an important matter, and that it is necessary to strain every nerve to carry the jug of kvas to their father in the meadow at his mowing, and, shifting the heavy pitcher from hand to hand, to run barefooted as rapidly as possible, two versts from the village, in order to get there in season for dinner, and so that their fathers may not scold them.
This is the first time that any one in this parish has ever been frozen to death. Stojka demurred and scratched his head, but he took up the reins and lashed the horses; after all, it was only a few versts, and one need not look much at the passengers.
The poor goats were all lost, or frozen to death the first day, in which we ran at least fifty or sixty versts, leaving a track of dead sheep behind us. In the evening the poor beasts were less wild, being exhausted by hunger and fatigue.
After seven versts through the snow we reached the village of Bolsheozerki. On our arrival we were met by a great many Bolsheviks who occupied the villages in tremendous numbers. Some tried to beat us with sticks and cursed and spat on us as we were shoved along to the Bolshevik commander. "One of the camp loiterer's scowling eyes caught sight of the sergeant's gold teeth.
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