Page:The Kobzar of the Ukraine.pdf/38



The little Taras was born a serf. His first memories are of a mother's love, of the kindness of an elder sister, and like a musical undertone to all his life—the consciousness of the wonderful beauty of Nature.

But soon another power of hideous aspect laid its grasp on the childish soul. It was the knowledge of slavery, a grim and horrible thing that was slowly but surely grinding out the lives of his parents, and that would surely, later, reach out for his own.

Yet even the system of serfdom may allow a little happiness to a child, still too young to work.

The little boy had been told that beyond the distant hills were iron pillars holding up the sky. At five years of age he set out to find these pillars. Some teamsters found him wandering on the steppe and brought him back to his home. But this incident marked the character of the boy as an idealist and a dreamer.