the girls are already up! Look out of the window. See, she's going
for water and you're still sleeping!'

Olenin awoke and jumped up, feeling fresh and lighthearted at the sight
of the old man and at the sound of his voice.

'Quick, Vanyusha, quick!' he cried.

'Is that the way you go hunting?' said the old man. 'Others are having
their breakfast and you are asleep! Lyam! Here!' he called to his dog.
'Is your gun ready?' he shouted, as loud as if a whole crowd were in
the hut.

'Well, it's true I'm guilty, but it can't be helped! The powder,
Vanyusha, and the wads!' said Olenin.

'A fine!' shouted the old man.

'Du tay voulay vou?' asked Vanyusha, grinning.

'You're not one of us--your gabble is not like our speech, you devil!'
the old man shouted at Vanyusha, showing the stumps of his teeth.

'A first offence must be forgiven,' said Olenin playfully, drawing on
his high boots.

'The first offence shall be forgiven,' answered Eroshka, 'but if you
oversleep another time you'll be fined a pail of chikhir. When it gets
warmer you won't find the deer.'

'And even if we do find him he is wiser than we are,' said Olenin,
repeating the words spoken by the old man the evening before, 'and you
can't deceive him!'

'Yes, laugh away! You kill one first, and then you may talk. Now then,
hurry up! Look, there's the master himself coming to see you,' added
Eroshka, looking out of the window. 'Just see how he's got himself up.
He's put on a new coat so that you should see that he's an officer. Ah,
these people, these people!'

Sure enough Vanyusha came in and announced that the master of the house
wished to see Olenin.

'L'arjan!' he remarked profoundly, to forewarn his master of the
meaning of this visitation. Following him, the master of the house in a
new Circassian coat with an officer's stripes on the shoulders and with
polished boots (quite exceptional among Cossacks) entered the room,
swaying from side to side, and congratulated his lodger on his safe
arrival.

The cornet, Elias Vasilich, was an educated Cossack. He had been to
Russia proper, was a regimental schoolteacher, and above all he was
noble. He wished to appear noble, but one could not help feeling
beneath his grotesque pretence of polish, his affectation, his
self-confidence, and his absurd way of speaking, he was just the same
as Daddy Eroshka. This could also be clearly seen by his sunburnt face
and his hands and his red nose. Olenin asked him to