At times, also, the wood-cutters sang; and at singing, Repa too was the first man. One should have heard how he thundered forth with the wood-cutters a song which he had taught them himself,-- "Something shouted in the woods, B-u-u-u-u! And struck terribly, B-u-u-u-u! That's a mosquito that fell from the oak, B-u-u-u-u! And he broke a bone in his shoulder, B-u-u-u-u! That was an honest mosquito, B-u-u-u-u! He is flying barely alive, B-u-u-u-u! And they asked the mosquito, B-u-u-u-u! Oi, is a doctor not needed? B-u-u-u! Or any druggist? B-u-u-u! Only a spade and a pickaxe, B-u-u-u-u!" In the dramshop, too, Repa was first in everything: he loved sivuha; and he was quick at fighting when he had drunk anything. Once he made such a hole in the head of the house-servant, Damaz, that Yozvova, the housekeeper, swore that his soul could be seen through it. Another time, but that was when he was barely seventeen years of age, he fought in the dramshop with soldiers on furlough. Pan Skorabevski, who was mayor at the time, took him to the chancery, and gave him a couple of blows on the head; but for appearance' sake only, then, being satisfied, he inquired,-- "Repa, have the fear of God! How didst thou manage them? There were seven against thee." "Well, serene heir," answered Repa, "their legs were worn out with marching, and the moment I touched one he fell to the floor." Pan Skorabevski quashed the affair. For a long time he had been very friendly to Repa. The peasant women even whispered into one another's ears that Repa was his son. "That can be seen at once," said they; "he has the courage of a noble, the dog blood!" But this was not true; though everybody knew Repa's mother, no one knew his father. Repa himself paid rent for a cottage and three morgs of land, which became his own afterward. He cultivated his land; and, being a good worker, his affairs went on well. He married, and met such a wife that a better could not be found with a candle; and surely he would have been prosperous, had it not been that he liked vodka a little too well. But what could be done? If any one mentioned the matter, he answered right off,-- "I drink from my own money, and what's that to you?" He feared no one in the village; before the secretary alone had he manners. When he saw from a distance the green cap, the stuck-up nose and goatee walking in high boots along the road slowly, he caught at his cap. The secretary knew also some things against Repa. During the insurrection certain papers were given Repa to carry, and he carried them.