Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/65

Rh knowledge to any practical use whatsoever. The most learned men of those days were even more ignorant than the rest, because they were entirely removed from all experience. Moreover, the republican constitution of the academy, the appalling multitude of young, stalwart, healthy fellows,—all these factors combined, were bound to arouse in them an activity quite outside the limits of their studies. Sometimes the poor fare, sometimes the frequent punishments of fasting, sometimes the numerous requirements which arise in fresh, strong, healthy young men, combined to arouse in them that spirit of enterprise which afterwards received further development in Zaporozhe. The hungry bursary ran about the streets of Kiev, and forced every one to be on his guard. The huckstresses who sat in the bazaar always covered their patties, their greasy cracknels, and their squash-seeds with their hands, like eagles protecting their young, if they but caught a glimpse of a passing student. The monitor who was bound by his official duty to control his comrades who were intrusted to his care, had such