Today it's "Eroshka licks the jug", but then Eroshka was famous in the whole regiment.

Whose was the finest horse?
Who had a Gurda sword?
To whom should one go to get a drink?
With whom go on the spree?
Who should be sent to the mountains to kill Ahmet Khan?
Why, always Eroshka! Whom did the girls love?
Always Eroshka had to answer for it.

Because I was a real brave: a drinker, a thief (I used to seize herds of horses in the mountains), a singer; I was a master of every art! There are no Cossacks like that nowadays.

It's disgusting to look at them.

When they're that high [Eroshka held his hand three feet from the ground] they put on idiotic boots and keep looking at them--that's all the pleasure they know.