’Tis a simple matter, to all appearance, but just try to do it!” And the soldier winked craftily and tapped his brow with his finger: “Understanding is needed here.”
Kuzma shrugged his shoulders and made no reply. And as he passed Odnodvorka’s cottage he found out from her boy Senka what the soldier’s name was. It turned out to be Parmen.
“And what’s your task for tomorrow?” added Kuzma, gazing with curiosity at Senka’s fiery red mop of hair, his lively green eyes, his pockmarked face, his rickety little body, and his hands and feet all cracked with mud and chaps.
“The tasks are verses,” said Senka, grasping his uplifted foot in his right hand and hopping up and down on one spot.
“What sort of tasks?”
“Counting the geese. A flock of geese has flown past—”
“Ah, I know,” said Kuzma. “And what else?”
“Also mice—”
“They are to be counted too?”
“Yes. Six mice were walking along carrying six copper coins,” mumbled Senka rapidly, casting a sidelong glance at Kuzma’s silver watch chain. “One mouse, which was bigger, carried two coins. How many does that make in all—?”
“Splendid. And what are the verses?”
Senka released his foot.
“The verses are ‘Who is he?’ ”