Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/46

40 Turks, and beat the Tatars; and when the Poles undertake any expedition against our Faith, then may you give the Poles a drubbing also. Now, hold out your glasses,—well, and is the brandy good? What's brandy in Latin? Somehow, my lad, the Latins were stupid: they didn't know there was such a thing in the world as corn-brandy. What the deuce was the name of the man who used to write Latin rhymes? I'm not very strong on reading and writing, so I don't quite remember. Was it Horace?"

"Did any one ever see such a dad!" thought the elder son, Ostap. "The old dog knows everything, but he's always shamming."

"I don't believe the Archimandrite allowed you so much as a smell of brandy," Taras went on. "Come, confess, my lads, they beat you with fresh birch-switches on your backs and everything else that a kazák owns; and perhaps when you grew conceited with what you knew, they flogged you with whips. And not on Saturday only, I fancy, but of a Wednesday and a Thursday, as well."

"There's no good in recalling the past. Dad," replied Ostap; "that's all over and done with."

" Just let 'em try it now!" said Andríi. "Just