n used
to live at Matvyeev Barrow who sold talismans. Ilya bought a talisman,
took two other fellows with him, and went to Taganrog. Only when he got
to the place in the fortress, brother, there was a soldier with a gun,
standing at the very spot...."

A sound suddenly broke on the still air, and floated in all directions
over the steppe. Something in the distance gave a menacing bang, crashed
against stone, and raced over the steppe, uttering, "Tah! tah! tah!
tah!" When the sound had died away the old man looked inquiringly at
Panteley, who stood motionless and unconcerned.

"It's a bucket broken away at the pits," said the young shepherd after a
moment's thought.

It was by now getting light. The Milky Way had turned pale and gradually
melted like snow, losing its outlines; the sky was becoming dull and
dingy so that you could not make out whether it was clear or covered
thickly with clouds, and only from the bright leaden streak in the east
and from the stars that lingered here and there could one tell what was
coming.

The first noiseless breeze of morning, cautiously stirring the spurges
and the brown stalks of last year's grass, fluttered along the road.

The overseer roused himself from his thoughts and tossed his head. With
both hands he shook the saddle, touched the girth and, as though he
could not make up his mind to mount the horse, stood still again,
hesitating.

"Yes," he said, "your elbow is near, but you can't bite it. There is
fortune, but there is not the wit to find it."

And he turned facing the shepherds. His stern face looked sad and
mocking, as though he were a disappointed man.

"Yes, so one dies without knowing what happiness is like..." he said
emphatically, lifting his left leg into the stirrup. "A younger man may
live to see it, but it is time for us to lay aside all thought of it."

Stroking his long moustaches covered with dew, he seated himself heavily
on the horse and screwed up his eyes, looking into the distance, as
though he had forgotten something or left something unsaid. In the
bluish distance where the furthest visible hillock melted into the mist
nothing was stirring; the ancient barrows, once watch-mounds and tombs,
which rose here and there above the horizon and the boundless steppe had
a sullen and death-like look; there was a feeling of endless time and
utter indifference to man in their immobility and silence; another
thousand years would pass, myriads of men would