was going on, tumbled into the hut one after the other,
both tipsy.

'Bring us another half-pail,' shouted Lukashka to his mother, by way of
reply to their greeting.

'Now then, tell us where did you steal them, you devil?' shouted
Eroshka. 'Fine fellow, I'm fond of you!'

'Fond indeed...' answered Lukashka laughing, 'carrying sweets from
cadets to lasses! Eh, you old...'

'That's not true, not true! ... Oh, Mark,' and the old man burst out
laughing. 'And how that devil begged me. "Go," he said, "and arrange
it." He offered me a gun! But no. I'd have managed it, but I feel for
you. Now tell us where have you been?' And the old man began speaking
in Tartar.

Lukashka answered him promptly.

Ergushov, who did not know much Tartar, only occasionally put in a word
in Russian: 'What I say is he's driven away the horses. I know it for a
fact,' he chimed in.

'Girey and I went together.' (His speaking of Girey Khan as 'Girey'
was, to the Cossack mind, evidence of his boldness.) 'Just beyond the
river he kept bragging that he knew the whole of the steppe and would
lead the way straight, but we rode on and the night was dark, and my
Girey lost his way and began wandering in a circle without getting
anywhere: couldn't find the village, and there we were. We must have
gone too much to the right. I believe we wandered about well--nigh till
midnight. Then, thank goodness, we heard dogs howling.'

'Fools!' said Daddy Eroshka. 'There now, we too used to lose our way in
the steppe. (Who the devil can follow it?) But I used to ride up a
hillock and start howling like the wolves, like this!' He placed his
hands before his mouth, and howled like a pack of wolves, all on one
note. 'The dogs would answer at once ... Well, go on--so you found
them?'

'We soon led them away! Nazarka was nearly caught by some Nogay women,
he was!'

'Caught indeed,' Nazarka, who had just come back, said in an injured
tone.

'We rode off again, and again Girey lost his way and almost landed us
among the sand-drifts. We thought we were just getting to the Terek but
we were riding away from it all the time!'

'You should have steered by the stars,' said Daddy Eroshka.

'That's what I say,' interjected Ergushov,

'Yes, steer when all is black; I tried and tried all about... and at
last I put the bridle on one of the mares and let my own horse go
free--thinking he'll lead us out, and what do you think! he just gave a
snort or two with his nose t