clearer to me. Marusya told me that according to the gossip of the
village her mother was a converted Jewess. She, Marusya, was not so
sure of it. Her father would call her mother a Jewess once in a
while, but that happened only when he was drunk. So she did not
know whether he merely repeated the village gossip, or had his own
information in the matter. And when she asked her mother, the
latter would fly into a temper.

"Papa himself," said Marusya, "likes Jews; but mother hates them. I
like papa more than mamma; I also like Jews; I often play with
Moshko's girls when mother is not around. I do not understand why
mother dislikes Jews so much."

Then Marusya insisted I should tell her the real truth about the
Jews, as they are at home: were they like myself, or like Jacob, the
wild one? But I stopped listening to her chatter, and began to
think of what she had told me about her mother. For in case it was
true that Anna was a convert, then--why, then Marusya herself was
half a Jewess. I decided to solve the mystery.

Now let me tell you that as a result of our Cantonist training we
were not only as bold as eagles, as courageous as lions, as swift as
the deer in doing the will of our patrons, but also as sly as foxes
in finding a way out of a difficulty. And, by the way, that was
also the opinion of our late commander, Colonel Pavel Akimovich. A
keen-eyed commander and a kind-hearted master was he, may his lot be
in Paradise among the godly men of the Gentile tribes. Yes, if he
was an eagle, we were his chicks; if he was a lion, we were his
whelps! This is what he used to say: "In time of need, you have no
better soldier than the Jew. But then you must know how to use him.