A kunak would come to visit me and I'd make him drunk with vodka and make him happy and put him to sleep with me, and when I went to see him I'd take him a present--a dagger! That's the way it is done, and not as you do nowadays: the only amusement lads have now is to crack seeds and spit out the shells!' the old man finished contemptuously, imitating the present-day Cossacks cracking seeds and spitting out the shells.
'Yes, I know,' said Lukashka; 'that's so!' 'If you wish to be a fellow of the right sort, be a brave and not a peasant! Because even a peasant can buy a horse--pay the money and take the horse.' They were silent for a while.
'Well, of course it's dull both in the village and the cordon, Daddy: but there's nowhere one can go for a bit of sport.

All our fellows are so timid.

Take Nazarka.

The other day when we went to the Tartar village, Girey Khan asked us to come to Nogay to take some horses, but no one went, and how was I to go alone ?' 'And what of Daddy?
Do you think I am quite dried up?
...

No, I'm not dried up.