Mother ?' she asked.
'He's always teaching the youngsters.Mother.But he writes that he'll come home for the holidays,' said the cornet's wife.
'Yes, he's a clever man, one sees; it all comes useful.' 'Of course it does.' 'And my Lukashka is at the cordon; they won't let him come home,' said the visitor, though the cornet's wife had known all this long ago.

She wanted to talk about her Lukashka whom she had lately fitted out for service in the Cossack regiment, and whom she wished to marry to the cornet's daughter, Maryanka.
'So he's at the cordon ?' 'He is.Mother.

He's not been home since last holidays.

The other day I sent him some shirts by Fomushkin.

He says he's all right, and that his superiors are satisfied.