All three horsemen rode in silence.Old Taras's thoughts were far away: before him passed his youth, his years--the swift-flying years, over which the Cossack always weeps, wishing that his life might be all youth.He wondered whom of his former comrades he should meet at the Setch.He reckoned up how many had already died, how many were still alive.Tears formed slowly in his eyes, and his grey head bent sadly.
His sons were occupied with other thoughts.But we must speak further of his sons.They had been sent, when twelve years old, to the academy at Kief, because all leaders of that day considered it indispensable to give their children an education, although it was afterwards utterly forgotten.Like all who entered the academy, they were wild, having been brought up in unrestrained freedom; and whilst there they had acquired some polish, and pursued some common branches of knowledge which gave them a certain resemblance to each other.
The elder, Ostap, began his scholastic career by running away in the course of the first year.They brought him back, whipped him well, and set him down to his books.Four times did he bury his primer in the earth; and four times, after giving him a sound thrashing, did they buy him a new one.But he would no doubt have repeated this feat for the fifth time, had not his father given him a solemn assurance that he would keep him at monastic work for twenty years, and sworn in advance that he should never behold Zaporozhe all his life long, unless he learned all the sciences taught in the academy.It was odd that the man who said this was that very Taras Bulba who condemned all learning, and counselled his children, as we have seen, not to trouble themselves at all about it.From that moment, Ostap began to pore over his tiresome books with exemplary diligence, and quickly stood on a level with the best.The style of education in that age differed widely from the manner of life.The scholastic, grammatical, rhetorical, and logical subtle ties in vogue were decidedly out of consonance with the times, never having any connection with, and never being encountered in, actual life.Those who studied them, even the least scholastic, could not apply their knowledge to anything whatever.The learned men of those days were even more incapable than the rest, because farther removed from all experience.Moreover, the republican constitution of the academy, the fearful multitude of young, healthy, strong fellows, inspired the students with an activity quite outside the limits of their learning.Poor fare, or frequent punishments of fasting, with the numerous requirements arising in fresh, strong, healthy youth, combined to arouse in them that spirit of enterprise which was afterwards further developed among the Zaporozhians.The hungry student running about the streets of Kief forced every one to be on his guard.Dealers sitting in the bazaar covered their pies, their cakes, and their pumpkin-rolls with their hands, like eagles protecting their young, if they but caught sight of a passing student.The consul or monitor, who was bound by his duty to look after the comrades entrusted to his care, had such frightfully wide pockets to his trousers that he could stow away the whole contents of the gaping dealer's stall in them.These students constituted an entirely separate world, for they were not admitted to the higher circles, composed of Polish and Russian nobles.Even the Waiwode, Adam Kisel, in spite of the patronage he bestowed upon the academy, did not seek to introduce them into society, and ordered them to be kept more strictly in supervision.This command was quite superfluous, for neither the rector nor the monkish professors spared rod or whip; and the lictors sometimes, by their orders, lashed their consuls so severely that the latter rubbed their trousers for weeks afterwards.This was to many of them a trifle, only a little more stinging than good vodka with pepper: others at length grew tired of such constant blisters, and ran away to Zaporozhe if they could find the road and were not caught on the way.Ostap Bulba, although he began to study logic, and even theology, with much zeal, did not escape the merciless rod.Naturally, all this tended to harden his character, and give him that firmness which distinguishes the Cossacks.He always held himself aloof from his comrades.
He rarely led others into such hazardous enterprises as robbing a strange garden or orchard; but, on the other hand, he was always among the first to join the standard of an adventurous student.And never, under any circumstances, did he betray his comrades; neither imprisonment nor beatings could make him do so.He was unassailable by any temptations save those of war and revelry; at least, he scarcely ever dreamt of others.He was upright with his equals.He was kind-hearted, after the only fashion that kind-heartedness could exist in such a character and at such a time.He was touched to his very heart by his poor mother's tears; but this only vexed him, and caused him to hang his head in thought.
