Uncle Toross turned to his son and said:  “Oh, you dog of a son!  Shall I sit here and feast?  Did not Moesramelik come and take our children away?  Abamelik’s children in trouble, and I sitting at a banquet?  Oh, what a shame it is!  Bread and wine, God be praised!  Truly, I will drink no wine till I have fetched the little ones.”  And Uncle Toross went out of Sassun and came to Moesr.  He greeted Moesramelik, and they sat down together.  Said Uncle Toross:  “Now, we are come for God’s judgment.  It is true that you made an agreement with Abamelik, but if a man sells a captive he should first wait on the lord."[15]

[15] This means that if a captive is to be sold his kinsmen have a right before all others to redeem him.

They arose and went to the court,[16] and Uncle Toross was given the children.

[16] Schariat, the name of the Turkish court of justice, stands in the original.

But Moesramelik stood in fear of these children, and he said to Uncle Toross, “Let these children first pass under my sword, and then take them with you.”

Uncle Toross told the lads of this, and Zoeranwegi said, “Let us pass under his sword and escape hence”; and the other two said the same.  But David said otherwise:  “If he wishes us dead he will not kill us to-day, for the people will say he has murdered the children.  Under his sword I will not go.  He does this so that I shall not lift my sword against him when I am a man.”  Uncle Toross got the boys together, that they might pass under the sword of Moesramelik, for he was very anxious.  David was rebellious; he stood still and went not under it.  Uncle Toross seized his collar and pushed him, but David would not go.  He ran past it at one side and kicked with his great toe upon a flint until the sparks flew.  And Moesramelik was frightened and said:  “This child is still so young and yet is terrible.  What will happen when he is a man!  If any evil comes to me it will be through him.”

Uncle Toross took the children and came to Sassun.  Zoeranwegi he established in the castle in his father’s place, but David, who was the youngest, was sent out to herd the calves.

What a boy David was!  If he struck out at the calves with his oaken stick, he would throw them all down, and forty others beside.  Once he drove the calves to the top of the mountain.  He found a herdsman there who was abusing his calves, and said:  “You fellow!  What are you up to?  Wait now, if I catch you, you will get something from my oaken stick that will make you cry Ow! ow!”

The fellow answered David:  “I am ready to give my life for your head if I am not a shepherd from your father’s village.  These calves, here, belong to the peasants.”

David said, “If that is so, watch my calves also.  I know not what time I should drive them home.  When the time comes tell me, that I may drive them in.”

Then David drove in the calves on time that day, and Uncle Toross was pleased and said:  “Always be punctual, my son; go out and come back every day at the right time.”