Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/133

You Christians are forever asking questions, and then you either get no answer at all, or you get several answers to the same question—which is worse. We have war—well—and we are soldiers—and so of course we die. What's there extraordinary about that?

Yes—but we die because of this confounded Macedonia—this damned desert-where nothing grows—

Well, captain, even a desert will grow wheat if you give it enough manure—and just look about you; look at yourself and at me—smell our dead comrades. Oh, there'll be enough manure, enough stinking dung for a good, rich crop. (Laughs.) Everything for which one dies is good. And then, there are so many human beings in this world. What do we count, you and I? Just think how many millions will come after us.

I have no children. And what possible good is it to Bulgaria if I die here? The priests will babble as before, the tschinovniks will steal as before—and the comrades who return home will brag about their heroic deeds and their decorations. Nobody will think of me. My parents are dead—and Lisaveta will kill herself—

Yes, yes, she'll kill herself. But, captain, now's your time to think of your former life, to think of all life meant to you, of all you've accomplished—