that in the kitchen. Once she did offer me some meat, and I refused
to touch it. Then she got very angry, flew into a temper, and
decided to complain to the sergeant. But Peter did not let her be
so cruel. "Let him grow up, he will know better," said Peter,
waving his hand at me.

Then Anna made up her mind to force me to eat forbidden meat. But I
was obstinate. And she decided once more to complain to the
sergeant. Just at that time another Cantonist had been found guilty
of some offense. He belonged to the same village; his name was
Jacob. I did not know him at that time. His patron complained that
Jacob had persisted in reciting Hebrew prayers, and that he
abstained from meat. Jacob was condemned to twenty lashes with
rods. An order was issued that all Cantonists should assemble to
witness the flogging of the offender.

In the course of time we got used to such sights; but the first time
we were terribly shocked. Just imagine: a lad of about fifteen is
stripped, put on the ground face downwards; one man sits on his
head, and another on his feet. Two men are put on either side of
him, each with a bundle of birch-rods in his hand. Ten times each
of them has to strike him with the rods, to make up the twenty
lashes. I looked at the face of the culprit; it was as white as
chalk. His lips were moving. I thought he was reciting the prayer:
"And He, the Merciful, will forgive sin, and will not destroy.
. . ." Up went the rods, down they went: a piercing cry . . . .
blood . . . . flaps of loose skin . . . . cries . . . . "one, two,
three" . . . . again cries . . . . sudden silence . . . . more cries
. . . . again silence . . . . "four, five" . . . . "stop!"