or long."

"No, but long enough to make us miss the festival," grumbled Sashok.

Upon this the smooth, beardless face of the youthful Morduine, a face
dark and angular like the skin of an unpeeled potato, assumed a
resentful frown, and, blinking his eyes, he muttered:

"Yes, here we may have to sit--here where there's neither food nor
money! Other folk will be enjoying themselves, but we shall have to
remain hugging our hungry stomachs like a pack of dogs!"

Meanwhile Ossip's eyes had remained fixed upon the river, for evidently
his thoughts were far away, and it was in absentminded fashion that he
replied:

"Hunger cannot be considered where necessity impels. By the way, what
use are our damned icebreakers? For the protection of barges and such?
Why, the ice hasn't the sense to care. It just goes sliding over a
barge, and farewell is the word to THAT bit of property!"

"Damn it, but none of us have a barge for property, have we?

"You had better go and talk to a fool."

"The truth is that the icebreaker ought to have been taken in hand
sooner."

Finally, the old soldier made a queer grimace, and ejaculated:

"Blockhead!"

From a barge a knot of sailors shouted something, and at the same
moment the river sent forth a sort of whiff of cruel chilliness and
brooding calm. The disposition of the pine boughs now had changed. Nay,
everything in sight was beginning to assume a different air, as though
everything were charged with tense expectancy.

One of the younger men asked diffidently, beneath his breath:

"Mate Ossip, what are we going to do?"

"What do you say?" Ossip queried absent-mindedly.

"I say, what are we going to do? Just to sit here?"

To this Boev responded, with loud, nasal derision in his tone:

"Yes, my lad, for the Lord has seen fit to prevent you from
participating in His most holy festival."

And the old soldier, in support of his mate, extended his pipe towards
the river, and muttered with a grin:

"You want to cross to the town, do you? Well, be off with you, and
though the ice may give way beneath your feet and drown you, at least
you'll be taken to the police station, and so get to your festival. For
that's what you want, I suppose?"

"True enough," Mokei re-echoed.

Then the sun went in, and the river grew darker, while the town stood
out more clearly. Ceaselessly, the younger men gazed towards the town
with wistful, gloomy eyes, though silently they remained where they
we