6
The Visit to The Gerns
The next morning the battalion’s quartermaster-sergeant brought Shevchenko the full set of a soldier’s outfit.
Putting on the uniform, Shevchenko seemed to awaken for the first time since his short rest among kind people. The thought that he would be wearing this uniform through his twenty-five-year stint in the army beaded his forehead with cold sweat.
Of the three uniforms he was offered none fit him. Marking with a piece of chalk the places that had to be expanded on the largest of the uniforms, the quartermaster-sergeant grumbled angrily:
“My, what a paunch to grow, God forgive me for saying so! What’s good for you in height doesn’t come together at the belly. Never mind, our drill will get the fat out of you in no time.”
For some reason Shevchenko belie
