When you hear the geese you know it is not yet midnight.

And I know all about it! Or when a gun is fired somewhere far away, thoughts come to me.

One thinks, who is that firing?
Is it another Cossack like myself who has been watching for some animal?
And has he killed it?
Or only wounded it so that now the poor thing goes through the reeds smearing them with its blood all for nothing?
I don't like that! Oh, how I dislike it! Why injure a beast?
You fool, you fool! Or one thinks, "Maybe an abrek has killed some silly little Cossack." All this passes through one's mind.

And once as I sat watching by the river I saw a cradle floating down.

It was sound except for one corner which was broken off.