8. At the Same Place

“I find them when I look for them,” Tarass answered with dignity.

“I will try also to find some; do you think that I shall succeed?”

“May be. It is not very difficult. It is suitable work for a little girl! If a mole had to be captured, or a hedgehog caught, that would be a very different thing!”

And, walking along the side of the garden, Tarass swung himself with a lofty air, suitable to a catcher of moles and hedgehogs.

“Little girls have no courage, that is my opinion,” he added. “Boys—”

“Ah! Boys are very brave!” said Maroussia, seeing that her little companion was searching for a word which would worthily represent the greater merit of boys.

“That is it!” Tarass answered, touched by the esteem which the little girl entertained for boys; and to himself he said: “She is not as silly as I thought.”

“They know how to ride horses, boys do!” he continued. “It is astonishing how they are able to conquer the wildest horses.” “Truly it is wonderful,” said Maroussia, smiling.

“Some time you will see if I know how to ride our mare! The other day when I went galloping past old Hanna’s cottage, I gave her a great fright; the poor woman thought it was a Tartar’s arrow! You know our old women are very much afraid of the Tartars.”

“Poor old women!” said Maroussia.

“But you mustn’t be afraid, I will defend you,” he said with a burst of generosity.

“Thank you,” replied Maroussia.

“Oh! You can be easy! You must know that I laugh at all danger. A day will come, soon perhaps, when I shall cut in pieces all the enemies of our Ukraine! Will you go in by this little gate? Come this way, the strawberries are on this side. Do you know my plan? You don’t know it?”

“No, tell it to me.”

“Very well, my plan is to fall on a camp of Tartars or of Turks, to kill them and to take their chiefs prisoners. What do you say to that?”

“It would be glorious,” Maroussia answered seriously.