A collection of selected short stories, written by a famous Ukrainian woman writer Marko Vovchok in the late 19 century. She wrote about serfs and Cossacks, murders, traveling Ukrainian merchants - chumaks, unrequited love, separated lovers, hardships of serfdom. The stories are told by common people, the main characters or the witnesses, in common Ukrainian language, which was very daring back then, when even the use of Ukrainian language was forbidden. Translator's preface.

"After the wedding the old man blessed the newlyweds, saw them off to their new home... Old Maxym felt sad on his own in the house; then he glanced at the Dnieper, recollected his eldest daughter, and tears rolled down to his grey moustache."
"Where do you go, girl?" asked Ostap. "Run away with me!" "I was going to save you - here's a knife, a saw, here's the money, here is a necklace - run away, run away quickly!"And she gave him everything, the knife, and the saw, and the money, and the necklace from her own neck."Let's run together," said Ostap."No, no," said the Cossack girl, "no! The girl will bind your hands and feet - run away! Run away! And come back to set me free! Run away!""Girl, let's go!" said Ostap, "in my own arms I will carry you back to Ukraine!""No, no!" replied the girl. "I'll be waiting - come back and save me! Waiting! Waiting!"
Stories included: "Horpyna", "Chumak","Father Andrew", "Not a Good Match", "Mother-in-Law", "Danylo Hurch", "Cossack Woman", "Maxym Hrymach", "Enslaved", "Buying freedom."