g after another, was leisurely placing nets
among the very thickest brambles to trap pheasants. In spite of his
tall stature and big hands every kind of work, both rough and delicate,
prospered under Lukashka's fingers.

'Hallo, Luke!' came Nazarka's shrill, sharp voice calling him from the
thicket close by. 'The Cossacks have gone in to supper.'

Nazarka, with a live pheasant under his arm, forced his way through the
brambles and emerged on the footpath.

'Oh!' said Lukashka, breaking off in his song, 'where did you get that
cock pheasant? I suppose it was in my trap?'

Nazarka was of the same age as Lukashka and had also only been at the
front since the previous spring.

He was plain, thin and puny, with a shrill voice that rang in one's
ears. They were neighbours and comrades. Lukashka was sitting on the
grass crosslegged like a Tartar, adjusting his nets.

'I don't know whose it was--yours, I expect.'

'Was it beyond the pit by the plane tree? Then it is mine! I set the
nets last night.'

Lukashka rose and examined the captured pheasant. After stroking the
dark burnished head of the bird, which rolled its eyes and stretched
out its neck in terror, Lukashka took the pheasant in his hands.

'We'll have it in a pilau tonight. You go and kill and pluck it.'

'And shall we eat it ourselves or give it to the corporal?'

'He has plenty!'

'I don't like killing them,' said Nazarka.

'Give it here!'

Lukashka drew a little knife from under his dagger and gave it a swift
jerk. The bird fluttered, but before it could spread its wings the
bleeding head bent and quivered.

'That's how one should do it!' said Lukashka, throwing down the
pheasant. 'It will make a fat pilau.'

Nazarka shuddered as he looked at the bird.

'I say, Lukashka, that fiend will be sending us to the ambush again
tonight,' he said, taking up the bird. (He was alluding to the
corporal.) 'He has sent Fomushkin to get wine, and it ought to be his
turn. He always puts it on us.'

Lukashka went whistling along the cordon.

'Take the string with you,' he shouted.

Nazirka obeyed.

'I'll give him a bit of my mind today, I really will,' continued
Nazarka. 'Let's say we won't go; we're tired out and there's an end of
it! No, really, you tell him, he'll listen to you. It's too bad!'

'Get along with you! What a thing to make a fuss about!' said Lukashka,
evidently thinking of something else. 'What bosh! If he made us turn
out of the villa