3. Little Maroussia

“In the best fields you will find some tares,” quickly replied Danilo; “is the wheat less good for that?”

“Certainly not,” £aid Vorochilo; “still there is something to be considered.”

“Tell us what it is,” said the traveler.

“It is this: One doesn’t always know the good grain from the bad. He who wears a black cowl isn’t always a monk.”

“The good shepherd will know his sheep, even under the wolfs skin,” said the stranger.

There was silence; they looked at each other once more. They understood each other; words became useless.’

“Brothers, greeting!” said the traveler. “The people of Setch present to you their respect and friendship. I am their Envoy. I am going to Tchigurine.”

“We are at your command, we are your friends,” said the three Ukrainians.

“What have you to tell me? What do you know? What is going on about you?” asked the Envoy of the Setch.

“Nothing good,” answered Danilo; “one party has allied itself to the Russians, the other, after having invited the Turks to come to their aid, is perhaps at this very moment in negotiation with Poland.”

“That is only too true,” said Danilo’s two friends, and their manly faces showed deep grief.

“The more reason that I should go to Tchigurine,” answered the Envoy of the Setch, “and without losing time.”

“All the roads are closed,” said Vorochilo. “The road to Gonna?”

“Occupied and put in a state of defense by the Russians.”

The Envoy was thinking, not of the difficulties, but of the means of reaching his destination.

“We Cossacks of the Setch,” he said at last, “are neither for the Russians nor for the Poles. We are for the Ukrainians. You see, indeed, that I must reach Tchigurine. Of your two chiefs, one has sold himself, they say, but the other?”

“The other, the Ataman Petro Dorochenko,” said Krouk, “is an honest man.”

“I know it,” said the Envoy. “But, proud, passionate, and impulsive as he is, it is to be feared that in trying to save Ukraine, he will ruin her. In his anger against the Russians, he forgets that we have other enemies. He is on the point of committing a mistake and of adding fuel to the fire. My mission is to prevent this; but to succeed, I must see him. If I delay—”

Here the Envoy ceased and looked all around him. The mistress of the house was still absent, two little boys were sleeping quietly on a long bench. He was on the point of continuing, when suddenly, at the extremity of the room, he perceived two sparkling eyes fixed upon him, which seemed to drink in his words. He was about to rise and go toward this disturbing vision, when, to his great surprise, he discovered that these ardent eyes were those of a simple and graceful child, hidden in a dark corner of the room, and looking at him like a charmed bird.