I went back in a very bad humour to my lodging. At the door stood the Cossack, who, coming towards me with rather a scared look, said inquiringly:-- "Bad news?" "Yes," I answered. "Heaven knows when we shall get away from here." At these words the anxiety of the soldier seemed to increase. He came close to me, and murmured, in a low voice:-- "This is not a place to stop at. I met just now a Black Sea Cossack of my acquaintance--we were serving in the same detachment last year. When I told him where we had put up: 'Bad place,' he said; 'bad people.' And what do you think of that blind boy? Did anyone ever before see a blind person running about from one place to another; going to the bazaar, bringing in bread and water? Here they seem to think nothing of it." "Has the mistress of the place come in?" "This morning, while you were out, an old woman came with her daughter." "What daughter? Her daughter is away." "I don't know who it is, then. But look, there is the old woman sitting down in the cabin." I went in. A good fire was shining in the stove, and a breakfast was being prepared, which, for such poor people, seemed to me rather a luxurious one. When I spoke to the old woman, she told me that she was stone deaf. It was impossible, then, to talk with her. I turned to the blind boy, and, taking him by the ear, said:-- "I say, you little wizard, where were you going last night with that parcel under your arm?" He at once began to moan and cry, and then sobbed out: "Where was I going last night? I went nowhere. And with a parcel! What parcel?" The old woman now proved that her ears, when she so desired it, were by no means closed. "It is not true," she cried. "Why do you tease an unfortunate boy? What do you take him for? What harm has he done you?" I could stand the noise no longer. So I went out, determined somehow or other to find the solution of this riddle. Wrapped up in my overcoat, I sat down on a bench before the door. Before me broke the waves of the sea, still agitated by the tempest of the night. Their monotonous noise seemed to resemble the confused murmurs of a town. As I listened I thought of bygone years--of the years I had passed in the north, of our bright, fresh capital; and little by little I became absorbed in my recollections. [Illustration: "ON THE ROOF OF THE CABIN I SAW A YOUNG GIRL."] About an hour passed, perhaps more. Suddenly the cadences of a singing voice struck my ear. I listened, and heard a strange melody, now slow and sad, now rapid and lively. The sounds seemed to fall from the sky. I looked up, and on the roof of the cabin I saw a young girl, in a straight dress, with dishevelled hair, like a naiad. With one hand placed before her eyes to keep off the rays of the sun, she looked towards the distant horizon and still continued her song.