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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sachii" data-source="post: 9058498" data-attributes="member: 126652">page 3never suspected and rivers we knew nothing about, glimmering silver threadsin the distance. And clinging to our branches we would wonder: is that the endof the earth, or is there a sky like ours, are there clouds, steppes and rivers likeours beyond that too? We would listen to the haunting music of the winds, andthe leaves all whispering together would speak of the enchantment of thosemysterious lands hidden behind the bluish haze.I would listen to the swish of the leaves, my heart hammering from fear andexcitement as I tried to picture those distant lands. I remember now that it neveroccurred to me to wonder who planted those poplars. What did that unknownperson dream about, what did he say when he placed the roots of the youngtrees into the soil, with what hopes did he tend them and watch them grow?For some unknown reason, our villagers have always called the hill where thepoplars stand “Duishen's school.” I remember hearing a man who was lookingfor his horse asks a passer-by: “I say, you haven't seen my bay hereabouts, haveyou?” And the answer: There were some horses grazing up there near Duishen'sschool last night. Maybe your bay's there too.” We kids also called the hillDuishen's school, giving the name no thought, simply imitating the grown-ups.“Come on, let's go to Duishen's school and give the sparrows a good scare,”someone would say.Once upon a time there was a school on this hill, people said. No trace of it wasleft that I ever saw. As a child I went looking for some signs of the building, butthough I searched and searched I never found anything. Later, it did strike meas strange that a bare hill should be called “Duishen's school”, and one day Iasked our old men who Duishen had been. One of them answered with acareless shrug: “Duishen? Why, he lives here now, he's Duishen of the LimpingSheep clan. It was all a long time ago; Duishen was a Komsomol member then.There was a tumbledown shed on that hill, and Duishen started a school in it.He taught children, he did. Some school that was, it was not worth the name!Ah yes, those were queer times! In those days it was catch a horse by the maneand put your foot in the stirrup, and then you were your own boss. That's whatDuishen did. He had a crazy idea and carried it through. And now there's not abroken stone left of that school shed, but the name stuck, and that's all the goodit has done us.”I hardly knew Duishen at all, I remember him as an elderly man, tall andangular, with beetling brews. His house was on the other side of the river. He</blockquote>

Verification: Hath warak paha keeyada? (hatha wadikireema paha)

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