Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/42

36 has had a long journey, he is tired." (The child was over twenty, and about seven feet tall.) "He ought to rest and eat something; and he sets him to fighting!"

"Oho, I see that you've been raised a pet!" said Bulba. "Don't listen to your mother, my son; she's a woman, she doesn't know anything. What do you want with petting? Your petting is a clear field and a good horse,—that's what it is! And do you see this sword? that's your mother! All the rest of the things with which they stuff your head is rubbish; the academy, books, primers, philosophy, and all that, the devil only knows what, I spit upon it all!" And here Bulba added a word which is not used in print. "But here, now, this is the best of all: I'll take you to Zaporozhe next week. There's where you'll find the sort of science that's the real thing. That's the school for you: only there will you acquire sense."

"And are they to stay at home only one week?" said the thin, old mother piteously, with tears in her eyes. "The poor boys will have no chance to go about, no chance to get acquainted with the home where they were born; I shall not have a chance to feast my eyes upon them to the full."

"Stop that, stop your howling, old woman! A