Petya had a great longing to laugh, but he saw that all the others re trained from laughing. He kept looking rapidly from Tihon’s face to thf
ice of the esaul and Denisov, not knowing what to make of it all. ‘Don’t play the fool/ said Denisov, coughing angrily. ‘Why didn’t vu bring the first man?’
Tihon began scratching his back with one hand and his head with te other, and all at once his countenance expanded into a beaming, iolish grin, showing the loss of a tooth that had given him his name, htcherbatov ( i.e . lacking a tooth). Denisov smiled, and Petya went (f into a merry peal of laughter, in which Tihon himself joined.
‘Why, he was no good at all/ said Tihon. ‘He was so badly dressed, ]>w could I bring him? And a coarse fellow, your honour. Why, says he,
‘’m a general’s son,” says he, “I’m not going.” ’
‘Ugh, you brute!’ said Denisov. ‘I wanted to question him . . .’
‘Oh, I did question him/ said Tihon. ‘He said he didn’t know much. There are a lot of our men,” says he, “but they are all poor creatures; at’s all you can say for them. Give a good shout,” says he, “and you nn take them all,” ’ Tihon concluded, with a merry and determined ok at Denisov.
‘Mind, I’ll give you a good hundred lashes that will teach you to play ie fool/ said Denisov sternly.
‘Why be angry/ said Tihon, ‘because I haven’t seen your sort of renchmen? As soon as it gets dark, I’ll catch whatever kind you like, iree of them I’ll bring.’
‘Well, come along/ said Denisov, and all the way to the forester’s jt he was silent, frowning angrily.
Tihon was walking behind, and Petya heard the Cossacks laughing ith him and at him about a pair of boots that he had thrown into the ushes.
When the laughter roused by Tihon’s words and smile had passed, ad Petya understood for a moment that Tihon had killed the man, he ad an uneasy feeling. He looked round at the boy prisoner, and there as a sudden pang in his heart. But that uneasiness only lasted a mo- ient. He felt it incumbent on him to hold his head high, and with a old and important air to question the esaul about the next day’s exedition, that he might not be unworthy of the company in which he >und himself.
The officer Denisov had sent to Dolohov met him on the way with ie news that everything was going well with Dolohov, and that he was oming himself immediately.
Denisov at once became more cheerful, and beckoned Petya to him. ‘Come, tell me about yourself/ he said.
VII
)n leaving Moscow, Petya had parted from his parents to join his regi- lent, and shortly afterwards had been appointed an orderly in attend- nce on a general who was in command of a large detachment. From the
9S4 WAR AND PEACE
time of securing his commission, and even more since joining a regime in active service, and taking part in the battle of Vyazma, Petya hi been in a continual state of happy excitement at being grown-up, ai of intense anxiety not to miss any opportunity of real heroism. He w highly delighted with all he had seen and experienced in the army, bi at the same time, he was'always fancying that wherever he was nc ' there the most real and heroic exploits were at that very moment beii performed. And he was in constant haste to be where he was not.
On the 21 st of October, when his general expressed a desire to ser some one to Denisov’s company, Petya had so piteously besought hi to send him, that the general could not refuse. But, as he was sendir him off, the general' recollected Petya’s foolhardy behaviour at tl battle of Vyazma, when, instead of riding by way of the road to tal a message, Petya had galloped across the lines under the fire of tl French, and had there fired a couple of pistol-shots. Recalling the prank, the general explicitly forbade Petya’s taking part in any entei prise whatever that Denisov might be planning. This was why Pety had blushed and been disconcerted when Denisov asked him if he migl stay. From the moment he set off till he reached the edge of the wooc Petya had fully intended to do his duty steadily, and to return at onci But when he saw the French, and saw Tihon, and learned that the attac would certainly take place that night, with the rapid transition fror one view to another, characteristic of young people, he made up hi! mind that his general, for whom he had till that moment had the greates respect, was a poor stick, and only a German, that Denisov was a here' and the esaul a hero, and Tihon a hero, and that it would be shamefu to leave them at a moment of difficulty.
