Chapter 10

On the third day after the events above described, two companies
of a Caucasian infantry regiment arrived at the Cossack village of
Novomlinsk. The horses had been unharnessed and the companies'
wagons were standing in the square. The cooks had dug a pit, and
with logs gathered from various yards (where they had not been
sufficiently securely stored) were now cooking the food; the pay-
sergeants were settling accounts with the soldiers. The Service
Corps men were driving piles in the ground to which to tie the
horses, and the quartermasters were going about the streets just
as if they were at home, showing officers and men to their
quarters. Here were green ammunition boxes in a line, the
company's carts, horses, and cauldrons in which buckwheat porridge
was being cooked. Here were the captain and the lieutenant and the
sergeant-major, Onisim Mikhaylovich, and all this was in the
Cossack village where it was reported that the companies were
ordered to take up their quarters: therefore they were at home
here. But why they were stationed there, who the Cossacks were,
and whether they wanted the troops to be there, and whether they
were Old Believers or not--was all quite immaterial. Having
received their pay and been dismissed, tired out and covered with
dust, the soldiers noisily and in disorder, like a swarm of bees
about to settle, spread over the squares and streets; quite
regardless of the Cossacks' ill will, chattering merrily and with
their muskets clinking, by twos and threes they entered the huts
and hung up their accoutrements, unpacked their bags, and bantered
the women. At their favourite spot, round the porridge-cauldrons,
a large group of soldiers assembled and with little pipes between
their teeth they gazed, now at the smoke which rose into the hot
sky, becoming visible when it thickened into white clouds as it
rose, and now at the camp fires which were quivering in the pure
air like molten glass, and bantered and made fun of the Cossack
men and women because they do not live at all like Russians. In
all the yards one could see soldiers and hear their laughter and
the exasperated and shrill cries of Cossack women defending their
houses and refusing to give the soldiers water or cooking
utensils. Little boys and girls, clinging to their mothers and to
each other, followed all the movements of the troopers (never
before seen by them) with frightened curiosity, or ran after them
at a respectful distance. The old Cossacks came out silently and
dismally and sat on the earthen embankments of their huts, and
watched the soldiers' activity with an air of leaving it all to
the will of God without understanding what would come of it.

Olenin, who had joined the Caucasian Army as a cadet