'Have you come for long?' asked a woman, breaking the silence.

'Till to-morrow morning,' quietly replied Lukashka.

'Well, God grant you get something good,' said the Cossack; 'I'm
glad of it, as I've just been saying.'

'And I say so too,' put in the tipsy Ergushov, laughing. 'What a
lot of visitors have come,' he added, pointing to a soldier who
was passing by. 'The soldiers' vodka is good--I like it.'

'They've sent three of the devils to us,' said one of the women.
'Grandad went to the village Elders, but they say nothing can be
done.'

'Ah, ha! Have you met with trouble?' said Ergushov.

'I expect they have smoked you out with their tobacco?' asked
another woman. 'Smoke as much as you like in the yard, I say, but
we won't allow it inside the hut. Not if the Elder himself comes,
I won't allow it. Besides, they may rob you. He's not quartered
any of them on himself, no fear, that devil's son of an Elder.'

'You don't like it?' Ergushov began again.

'And I've also heard say that the girls will have to make the
soldiers' beds and offer them chikhir and honey,' said Nazarka,
putting one foot forward and tilting his cap like Lukashka.

Ergushov burst into a roar of laughter, and seizing the girl