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For once he did not have his usual painful dream. For several hours his sleep was deep and uninterrupted, then a sticky mixture of fantasy and reality began to whirl and spin in his muddled mind.
At twenty-five youth is flying away, many of the simple human joys cannot be recaptured or experienced if they were not tasted at a younger age. In this respect people probably deserve a slightly better hand than the one dealt to Ivan Tsyareshka by fate. Of course Ivan rarely reflected on this—at home he had to think about finding some way to survive, feed his family, and get a start in life as early as possible. Later, during the war, a far greater burden occupied his mind. He had not loved yet or known a woman. Even so, like many other young people, he was already skeptical about certain re
