quite young, fine and tinged with something akin to mockery. His white,
sharp teeth glimmered as his eyes penetrated everything they rested
upon. I noticed the locks of grey in his shaggy head. Lines of
bitterness circled his mouth. They showed his life had been very stormy
and full of danger. He took a seat beside his rifle and laid his ax on
the floor below.

"What? Is it your wife?" asked one of the drunken soldiers, pointing to
the ax.

The tall peasant looked calmly at him from the quiet eyes under their
heavy brows and as calmly answered:

"One meets a different folk these days and with an ax it is much safer."

He began to drink tea very greedily, while his eyes looked at me many
times with sharp inquiry in them and ran often round the whole cabin in
search of the answer to his doubts. Very slowly and with a guarded drawl
he answered all the questions of the soldiers between gulps of the
hot tea, then he turned his glass upside down as evidence of having
finished, placed on the top of it the small lump of sugar left and
remarked to the soldiers:

"I am going out to look after my horse and will unsaddle your horses for
you also."

"All right," exclaimed the half-sleeping young soldier, "bring in our
rifles as well."

The soldiers were lying on the benches and thus left for us only the