The Cossacks by graf Tolstoy Leo (leveled readers .txt) 📖

did not answer. He agreed only too fully that all was

humbug in the world in which he had lived and to which he was now

returning.

 

‘How is Lukashka? You’ve been to see him?’ he asked.

 

‘He just lies as if he were dead. He does not eat nor drink. Vodka

is the only thing his soul accepts. But as long as he drinks vodka

it’s well. I’d be sorry to lose the lad. A fine lad—a brave, like

me. I too lay dying like that once. The old women were already

wailing. My head was burning. They had already laid me out under

the holy icons. So I lay there, and above me on the oven little

drummers, no bigger than this, beat the tattoo. I shout at them

and they drum all the harder.’ (The old man laughed.) ‘The women

brought our church elder. They were getting ready to bury me. They

said, “He defiled himself with worldly unbelievers; he made merry

with women; he ruined people; he did not fast, and he played the

balalayka. Confess,” they said. So I began to confess. “I’ve

sinned!” I said. Whatever the priest said, I always answered “I’ve

sinned.” He began to ask me about the balalayka. “Where is the

accursed thing,” he says. “Show it me and smash it.” But I say,

“I’ve not got it.” I’d hidden it myself in a net in the outhouse.

I knew they could not find it. So they left me. Yet after all I

recovered. When I went for my BALALAYKA—What was I saying?’ he

continued. ‘Listen to me, and keep farther away from the other men

or you’ll get killed foolishly. I feel for you, truly: you are a

drinker—I love you! And fellows like you like riding up the

mounds. There was one who lived here who had come from Russia, he

always would ride up the mounds (he called the mounds so funnily,

“hillocks”). Whenever he saw a mound, off he’d gallop. Once he

galloped off that way and rode to the top quite pleased, but a

Chechen fired at him and killed him! Ah, how well they shoot from

their gun-rests, those Chechens! Some of them shoot even better

than I do. I don’t like it when a fellow gets killed so foolishly!

Sometimes I used to look at your soldiers and wonder at them.

There’s foolishness for you! They go, the poor fellows, all in a

clump, and even sew red collars to their coats! How can they help

being hit! One gets killed, they drag him away and another takes

his place! What foolishness!’ the old man repeated, shaking his

head. ‘Why not scatter, and go one by one? So you just go like

that and they won’t notice you. That’s what you must do.’

 

‘Well, thank you! Good-bye, Daddy. God willing we may meet again,’

said Olenin, getting up and moving towards the passage.

 

The old man, who was sitting on the floor, did not rise.

 

‘Is that the way one says “Good-bye”? Fool, fool!’ he began. ‘Oh

dear, what has come to people? We’ve kept company, kept company

for well-nigh a year, and now “Good-bye!” and off he goes! Why, I

love you, and how I pity you! You are so forlorn, always alone,

always alone. You’re somehow so unsociable. At times I can’t sleep

for thinking about you. I am so sorry for you. As the song has it:

 

“It is very hard, dear brother, In a foreign land to live.”

 

So it is with you.’

 

‘Well, good-bye,’ said Olenin again.

 

The old man rose and held out his hand. Olenin pressed it and

turned to go.

 

‘Give us your mug, your mug!’

 

And the old man took Olenin by the head with both hands and kissed

him three times with wet moustaches and lips, and began to cry.

 

‘I love you, good-bye!’

 

Olenin got into the cart.

 

‘Well, is that how you’re going? You might give me something for a

remembrance. Give me a gun! What do you want two for?’ said the

old man, sobbing quite sincerely.

 

Olenin got out a musket and gave it to him.

 

‘What a lot you’ve given the old fellow,’ murmured Vanyusha,

‘he’ll never have enough! A regular old beggar. They are all such

irregular people,’ he remarked, as he wrapped himself in his

overcoat and took his seat on the box.

 

‘Hold your tongue, swine!’ exclaimed the old man, laughing. ‘What

a stingy fellow!’

 

Maryanka came out of the cowshed, glanced indifferently at the

cart, bowed and went towards the hut.

 

‘LA FILLE!’ said Vanyusha, with a wink, and burst out into a silly

laugh.

 

‘Drive on!’ shouted Olenin, angrily.

 

‘Good-bye, my lad! Good-bye. I won’t forget you!’ shouted Eroshka.

 

Olenin turned round. Daddy Eroshka was talking to Maryanka,

evidently about his own affairs, and neither the old man nor the

girl looked at Olenin.

 

The End

 

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE COSSACKS ***

 

This file should be named cossk10.txt or cossk10.zip

Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, cossk11.txt

VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, cossk10a.txt

 

Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed

editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US

unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not

keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

 

We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance

of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.

Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,

even years after the official publication date.

 

Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til

midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.

The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at

Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A

preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment

and editing by those who wish to do so.

 

Most people start at our Web sites at:

http://gutenberg.net or

http://promo.net/pg

 

These Web sites include award-winning information about Project

Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new

eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).

 

Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement

can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is

also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the

indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an

announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.

 

http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or

ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03

 

Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90

 

Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,

as it appears in our Newsletters.

 

Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)

 

We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The

time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours

to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright

searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our

projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value

per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2

million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text

files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+

We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002

If they reach just 1-2% of the world’s population then the total

will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year’s end.

 

The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!

This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,

which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.

 

Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):

 

eBooks Year Month

 

1 1971 July

10 1991 January

100 1994 January

1000 1997 August

1500 1998 October

2000 1999 December

2500 2000 December

3000 2001 November

4000 2001 October/November

6000 2002 December*

9000 2003 November*

10000 2004 January*

 

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created

to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.

 

We need your donations more than ever!

 

As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people

and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,

Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,

Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,

Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New

Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,

Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South

Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West

Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

 

We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones

that have responded.

 

As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list

will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.

Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.

 

In answer to various questions we have received on this:

 

We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally

request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and

you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,

just ask.

 

While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are

not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting

donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to

donate.

 

International donations are accepted, but we don’t know ANYTHING about

how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made

deductible, and don’t have the staff to handle it even if there are

ways.

 

Donations by check or money order may be sent to:

 

Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

PMB 113

1739 University Ave.

Oxford, MS 38655-4109

 

Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment

method other than by check or money order.

 

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by

the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN

[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are

tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising

requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be

made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.

 

We need your donations more than ever!

 

You can get up to date donation information online at:

 

http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html

***

If you can’t reach Project Gutenberg,

you can always email directly to:

 

Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>

 

Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.

 

We would prefer to send you information by email.

 

**The Legal Small Print**

 

(Three Pages)

 

***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***

Why is this “Small Print!” statement here? You know: lawyers.

They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with

your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from

someone other than us, and even if what’s wrong is not our

fault. So, among other things, this “Small Print!” statement

disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how

you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.

 

BEFORE! YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK

By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm

eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept

this “Small Print!” statement. If you do not, you can receive

a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by

sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person