The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-12-05
FLYING OSIP
By Ivan Kasatkin

to him. But pushing the kasha aside he sud
denly arose, as if he had all at once recollected
something.
Il have to go to headquarters. Where's head
quarters?"
EAT some kasha first What fellow :"
Il can't! Matter of business" Osip grumbled
in his beard
And one could see that he was hundry While
we were putting the hand-car ON the track to
bring him to headquarters, he greedily swallowed
a few handfuls of kasha scooping it up with his
fingers. h@@
On the platform of the hand-car--we- had
barely started-osip fell asleep, his head lowered
between his knees.
Meanwhile it grew dark. Stars appeared.
June-beetles buzzed like bullets over our camp.
The men stretched themselves out on the meadow
Here and there little, golden CLEANS of cigarettes
fared up.
In the forest bittern was booming as if into
a BARREL
eyes, there are all kinds of men. . sighed
Uralian, Babushkin, who came from SOkOov's
district 'It's year and half now that Osip's
been looking for death. But she won't take
him He dashes from front to front, throws him
self forward, straight into the fire :. she won't
take him Did you notice the marha-the torn
nostril? That was when the Whites caught him
once, right in their headquarters nearly. They
buried him up to his neck in the ground for
whole day. And they stuck a rusty nail in his
nostril, and just like that ripped it out with
the flesh"
"YOu say he's looking for DEATH" interrupted
one of the youngsters "and what the devil does
he want death for? You've got things twisted,
uncle"
Babushkin kept silence for while, gazing at
the crescent that was entangled in the tree-tops
Sometimes even death is sweet" he said after
the pause. "Only, it's hard for some men to find
it. Just for spite, death won't take one who
doesn' fear it. And he Who tries to hide from it,
You turn round and there he is, lying under
bush, his eyes staring upward, poor soul :. :"
"Say, uncle just tell us straight. =. About
Osip! Why is he called 'Flying'?"
'Well, that's what I'm telling you; he flies
from front to 'front.' looking for death, and she
runs from him. -. Understand? That's the
kind of a man he is: he goes plump in the midst
of the enemy, finds out everything shifts out all
their plans And when it comes to battle, he's
the first everywhere, in front of all, like wild
beast. And when resting-you see how it is
we laugh and make merry, but he, Osip, is
blue. He sits somewhere in a corner alone
and you can see that he's sad. And when he's
sad, then he likes most of all to play the guitar
Of course, he don't know how to play-he picks
at the strings. He lowers his head all the way
down and just keeps strummin' quietly. Then
you'd better not bother him. Once / sat next to
him-I look-tears are rolling from his eyes /. +.
Hey, seems to me you're snOringw
"N-n-no only those who are tired :"
"Yon just keep on telling the story, Semakov
Mitka, give me pinch of 'backie. All, he's asleep
the devil" a@@
"And it's really time to Sleep" BabushKin
yawned lazily "And Osip, 1 tell you, is a man Of
gold. smart one. He's teacher one of the
village teachers. When the Whites showed up
around here, he, you must know,-he raised the
whole Ural district against them. And when ours
retreated, the others went wild-uh ! And they
started to slash, you may say,-even the babes.
...,. Workmen persisted by thousands. They
used to put out their eyes, drive nails into their
brains. When they caught any of 'em in the
woods they would hang 'em right there ON the
trees. That was when they found out what kind
of a bird Baev was Osps name is Baev