'If you don't give the gun you will get no reward.' 'But they say.

Daddy, it's little reward a fellow gets when he is not yet a mounted Cossack; and the gun is a fine one, a Crimean, worth eighty rubles.' 'Eh, let it go! I had a dispute like that with an officer, he wanted my horse.

"Give it me and you'll be made a cornet," says he.

I wouldn't, and I got nothing!' 'Yes, Daddy, but you see I have to buy a horse; and they say you can't get one the other side of the river under fifty rubles, and mother has not yet sold our wine.' 'Eh, we didn't bother,' said the old man; 'when Daddy Eroshka was your age he already stole herds of horses from the Nogay folk and drove them across the Terek.

Sometimes we'd give a fine horse for a quart of vodka or a cloak.' 'Why so cheap ?' asked Lukashka.
'You're a fool, a fool, Mark,' said the old man contemptuously.