Chapter 10 chapter Ten

Petya returned to the forester's hut, and met Denisov in the corridor.He was anxiously awaiting Petya's return, and he regretted sending Petya. "Thank God!" he cried. "Oh, thank God!" he repeated, listening to Petya's rapturous story. "You bastard, I can't sleep because of you!" said Denisov. "Ah, thank God, I can lie down now. I can take a nap before dawn." "Well, no," said Petya. "I don't want to sleep. I know myself. Once I fall asleep, I will oversleep. Before the battle, I am used to not sleeping." Petya sat in the room for a while, happily recalling the details of the stakes that went into the camp, and vividly dreaming about the scene of the morrow.When he saw that Shunisov was fast asleep, he got up and walked out into the yard.

It was pitch black outside.The rain had stopped, and the trees were still dripping with water.Beside the forester's hut, dimly visible were the Cossack's huts and the dark shadows of their tied horses.Behind the hut, there were two carts that appeared to be black, with some horses beside them, and a dying fire burning in the hollow.The Cossack hussars were not all asleep, and there were whispers of conversation from all around, accompanied by the dripping of water from the trees and the chewing of some nearby horses. Petya came out of the house, looked around in the darkness, and went to the cart.Someone was snoring under the wagon, and around the wagon several saddled horses were munching oats.In the dark Petya recognized his own horse, which he still called a Karabakh horse, although it was of Ukrainian breed, and he approached it.

-------- ①Karabakh is a region in Azerbaijan, famous for producing famous horses. "Hey, Karabakh, we're off on a mission tomorrow," he said, sniffing the horse's nostrils and kissing them. "Why, sir, are you still asleep?" said a Cossack sitting under the wagon. "No, you, everyone calls you Likhachev? I just came back, and we went to the French." Petya then not only told the Cossacks in detail about his actions, but also why he had done so. to go, and he thought it would be better to risk his own life than to beg God for mercy. "Hey, let's sleep for a while," said the Cossack.

"No, I'm used to it," replied Petya; "you've run out of boulders in your pistol, haven't you? I have it, do you want it?Use it. " The Cossack leaned out from under the wagon in order to have a closer look at Petya. "I have to be prepared for everything," said Petya. "And some people are careless, unprepared, and regret it later. I don't like that." "That's all right," said the Cossack. "By the way, one more thing, friend, can you help me sharpen my saber? (Petya didn't back down.) This knife hasn't opened its mouth yet, can you do it?"

"What's the matter, it's totally fine." Likhachev got up and groped in a bag, and presently Petya heard the rattle of the millstone.He climbed into the cart and sat on the side of the cart. The Cossack was sharpening his saber under the cart. "Well, brothers, are you all asleep?" said Petya. "Some slept, some didn't—like us." "Oh, what about that child?" "Versinney? He's lying in the hall unattended. After the fright, he's asleep. He's happy now!" Then Petya was silent, listening to the sound of the knife being sharpened.There were footsteps in the darkness, and a dark figure appeared.

"Grind what?" the man approached the cart and asked. "Sharpen the saber for this young man." "Good thing," said the man, who Petya thought was a hussar. "Did I forget my teacup with you?" "By the wheels." The hussar took up the cup. "It's almost dawn." He said with a yawn, and then walked aside. Petya had known that he was in the woods, in Denisov's partisan detachment, a mile from the road, and that he was sitting in a wagon captured from the French, with horses tied beside it, Cossack Likhachev was sitting under the cart, helping him to sharpen his knife. The dark shadow on the right was the forester's hut, and the red light on the lower right was the burning fire, and the one who came to get the teacup A hussar who wanted water; but he knew nothing, and he didn't want to know it all.He has found himself in a mythical paradise where all reality is different.The big black shadow must be the forest watcher's hut, or it may be the bottomless abyss.The red one might be a pile of fire, or it might be the eyes of a gigantic monster.Perhaps he is now sitting in a cart, or quite possibly not in a cart, but on the top of a tower so high that it would take a whole day, a whole month, or It keeps falling and never falls to the ground.The one sitting under the wagon may be that Cossack Likhachev, but it may also be the kindest, bravest, strangest, most perfect man in the world, whom no one knows yet.A hussar might have come for water and returned to the hollow, but perhaps he had disappeared, and disappeared forever.He no longer exists.

Whatever Petya saw now, nothing surprised him.He has found himself in a fabulous paradise where anything is possible. He looked up at the sky, and the sky was as magical as the earth. The sky gradually cleared up, and the clouds flew over the treetops, as if the stars were exposed. Sometimes it seemed that a clear black sky appeared, and sometimes he felt that the black holes were dark clouds, and sometimes he felt The sky rose straight overhead, and sometimes it seemed so low that I could touch it with my hands. Petya closed his eyes and shook himself a little. Drops of water dripped from the branches.There were whispers, horses were huddling and neighing, and a man was snoring.

"Huchi, Huchi, Huchi, Huchi..." This was the sound of sharpening a saber.Suddenly Petya heard an unknown, dignified and melodious hymn played by a neat band.Petya, like Natasha, was more musically gifted than Nikolay, but he had never studied music or even thought about it.Because of this, he finds this piece of music that accidentally broke into his mind very novel and moving.The music became clearer and clearer, changing from one instrument to another, and the "fugitive" was played, although Petya did not know what a "fugitive" was.Every instrument is sometimes like a violin, sometimes like a trumpet, yet it sounds better and purer than the violin and the trumpet.Each musical instrument is played separately, and when a piece of music has not been played, another musical instrument is played at the same time, and then it is combined with the third and fourth musical instruments. All the musical instruments are played together, separated, and combined again. Sometimes the solemn church music is played, and sometimes the grand victory march is played.

"Oh, I'm dreaming," said Petya to himself, after a short pause. "It's the sound in my ears. Maybe it's my music. Well, here we go again. Play it, my music! Play it! . . . " He closes his eyes.Voices come from all directions, and seem to be transmitted from afar, gradually synthesizing into harmony.Divided, joined, and reassembled into a melodious, solemn hymn. "Hey, that's wonderful, that's wonderful, wonderful! I can hear anything I want," Petya said to himself.He tried to conduct this huge orchestra. "Okay, softer, quieter, stop." Those voices obeyed his command. "Okay, fuller, more cheerful, and more cheerful." A solemn voice gradually strengthened from a distance. "Hey, vocals!" Petya commanded, and first a male voice, then a female voice, gradually intensified, neither fast nor slow, solemn and steady.Petya was surprised and delighted at the very beautiful voice.

The solemn march of victory, accompanied by a song, the ticking of water drops, the wheezing, wheezing of knives, the huddling of horses, neighing, all these sounds did not disturb the performance, but merged into one. Petya did not know how long this lasted: he admired it, he was always amazed by this enjoyment, and he regretted not having a companion to share it with.Lihaziv's voice woke him up. "Sir, it's done, you can cut the Frenchman in half with it." Petya woke up. "It's daylight, it's daylight!" he cried. The horse, which could not be seen clearly before, could now even see its tail, and a glint of water was revealed from the bare branches.Petya jumped up, shook himself, took out a ruble from his pocket, gave it to Likhachev, waved it a few times, tested it, and slipped it into the scabbard.The Cossacks unfastened their horses and tightened their girths.

"Here comes the Commander," said Lihaziv. Denisov came out of the forest hut, called Petya, and ordered a assembly.