Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/128

122 affair; but he is good who does not weary even of inaction, who endures everything, and, no matter what you do to him, turns it to account." But hot youth cannot agree with age: the two have different natures, and they look at the same thing with different eyes.

But, in the meantime, Taras's regiment, led by Tovkach, arrived; with him were, also, two Yesaúls, the Scribe, and other regimental officers: the kazáks numbered over four thousand in all. There were among them many volunteers, who had risen of their own free will, without any summons, as soon as they heard what the matter was. The Yesaúls brought to Taras's sons the blessing of their aged mother, and to each a holy image of cypress-wood, from the Mezhigorsk monastery in Kiev. The two brothers hung the holy ikóni round their necks, and involuntarily grew pensive, as they recalled their old mother. What did this blessing prophesy, what did it say to them? Was it a blessing for their victory over the enemy, and then a joyful return to their home with booty and glory, to be everlastingly commemorated in the songs of the bandura-players, or was it…?

But the future is not to be known, and stands before a man like autumnal fogs rising from the swamps: birds fly to and fro in it, with flapping