The defender

Turgen, whose name means “fleet-of-foot” in the Lamut tongue, was a lonely man. It had not always been so. When he was younger he had had a wife and a son whom he loved. But bot...

Gossip, starting like a small fire, got bigger and bigger. One occasion especially helped this evil rumor. On a holiday, years before, the people of the valley had gathered to e...

“Words that speak evil, though they have no teeth, can tear the heart,” was an old proverb. It hurt Turgen that the Yakuts turned from him, avoided his questions and all contact...

A person who is alone spends a great deal of time in thought. It was so with Turgen. And though his thoughts repeated themselves day after day, still he found pleasure in them....

Night comes quickly in the north, so Turgen walked briskly. His heart was troubled as he thought of the children. Only extreme want could have forced Marfa to leave them alone....

From Marfa, Turgen learned what his neighbors thought of him and said of him. Although he cared, he was a proud man and did not think it necessary to justify his actions to anyo...

The mountain rams had become a part of Turgen’s life almost by accident. It all began so long ago that he never gave thought to it until one day Marfa out of curiosity asked him...

By stepping on to a ledge outside his door, Turgen on a clear day had a wonderful view of the valley below and the mountains above him. When he tired of watching the tiny figure...

“A good man greets each new day as if it were a holiday.” Turgen thought of this proverb upon waking every morning now, because it described exactly the way he felt. By becoming...

Just then the leader sounded a sharp warning upon which the rams vanished. Turgen looked to see what had frightened them, but could discover nothing amiss. He listened, and hear...

That night Turgen could sleep little, but tossed and turned in anxiety lest his charges desert him. For they had become necessary to him, perhaps more necessary than he to them....

At home he could not get the incident out of his mind. These wild mountaineers had become like his own flesh and blood--what happened to them was his experience also.

For a moment he was grievously disappointed at having lost his dream, but soon a great happiness overtook him. Surely this was no ordinary dream, he told himself. The Great Spir...

September came, bringing its customary changeable weather. One damp and windy day when all the furies seemed loose, Turgen went as usual to take food to his charges and stand wa...

Turgen’s heart turned in him as he watched the small body hurtle down the crevasse. Then, peering over, he saw the lamb lying motionless on the mountain slope. Quickly, he made...

Man is a changeable creature--despairing one moment, filled with joy and confidence the next. “The sun shines differently every day,” was the way Turgen’s father had put it, and...

The first few days were difficult. Although Lad was not as fearful and suspicious as before, he was restive and tried by every trick to free himself of the bandages. At the firs...

It was several days before Turgen found time to return to the feeding ground with hay for the rams. It troubled him that he had neglected them, but in honesty he had to admit th...

Reasoning that a child can tell you when he is in pain and where the pain is, but an animal can not, Turgen watched intently to make sure that Lad ate and drank as he should and...

“Such silly tattle can do me no harm,” he reasoned, “but what if someone takes it into his stupid head to sneak up the hill and shoot Lad? So long as he stays with me there will...

Resolutely Turgen set off for the feeding ground with a bundle of hay slung over his shoulder and the lamb skipping along by his side. They might have been out for one of their...

Turgen had known Marfa as a friend for many years, but it had never entered his head to suggest that she and her children share his life. Now here he was on his way to her, his...

That was a day of gayety and laughter for all of them. When Turgen left toward evening, Aksa who was more talkative and more inquisitive than her brother asked her mother,

Anything new has a special wonder. Tim and Aksa had never been in a yurta like Turgen’s before and they had to explore every nook and corner. The mountains hovering over it were...

Turgen was wakened next morning by the cold rushing in through the chimney of the now dead komelek. He jumped out of bed, revived the fire, put water to boil for tea and then st...

Wings of happiness lifted Turgen’s spirit in the days immediately following his understanding with Marfa, until it seemed that the world was a new and more beautiful place. He l...

Early Saturday morning Kamov was due to call with provisions. Turgen knew that he had a credit with the merchant amounting to more than three hundred roubles. Add to this the va...

The next two weeks sped by. There were visits to Marfa and the children, plans to be made and discussed. And several times Kamov called to report cheerfully that everything he h...

From early morning a large crowd of men, women, and children gathered near the chapel. At the hour set for the ceremony a sigh of approval went up as ten sleighs appeared drawn...

Since that day many years have passed. Turgen and Marfa saw the children grow up, and as the children grew their own well-being increased. Wealth was never theirs, but they had...