At length he shuddered, and was filled with terror as the thought suddenly occurred to him that she was dying of hunger.

He jumped upon the waggon and seized several large loaves of black bread; but then he thought, "Is this not food, suited to a robust and easily satisfied Zaporozhetz, too coarse and unfit for her delicate frame ?" Then he recollected that the Koschevoi, on the previous evening, had reproved the cooks for having cooked up all the oatmeal into porridge at once, when there was plenty for three times.

Sure that he would find plenty of porridge in the kettles, he drew out his father's travelling kettle and went with it to the cook of their kuren, who was sleeping beside two big cauldrons, holding about ten pailfuls, under which the ashes still glowed.

Glancing into them, he was amazed to find them empty.

It must have required supernatural powers to eat it all; the more so, as their kuren numbered fewer than the others.