The Forming of a Life
But soon another power of hideous aspect laid its grasp on the childish soul. It was the knowledge of slavery, a grim and horrible thing that was slowly but surely grinding out the lives of his parents, and that would surely, later, reach out for his own.
Yet even the system of serfdom may allow a little happiness to a child, still too young to work.
The little boy had been told that beyond the distant hills were iron pillars holding up the sky. At five years of age he set out to find these pillars. Some teamsters found him wandering on the steppe and brought him back to his home. But this incident marked the character of the boy as an idealist and a dreamer.
Then there was Grandfather John, the brave old man who, half a century before, had fought in the ranks of the Haidemaki who so nearly broke the Polish power. On a Sunday the wondering family would listen to the mighty voice ringing out in the little home—telling of ancient battles for freedom.
When Taras was seven years of age he lost his mother. His father was left with six children, and thought to improve matters by marrying a widow with three. Thereafter the miseries increased for little Taras who was hated by his stepmother.
The father lived a few years longer, and to him Taras owed the knowledge of reading, for though they were serfs and lined in a wretched hovel, the Shevchenko's prided themselves on having retained some elements of culture.
Our little hero, however, had a strange passion for drawing and painting and also for singing, and found some employment among the drunken painters, and church-singers of the village.
Later his master tried to make him work, but found the lad hopeless for anything but his beloved painting. Finally, he reached Petrograd in the suite of his master's son, where he was apprenticed to a decorator.
A famous man came upon a ragged boy sitting on a pail, in the Royal Gardens, in the moonlight, drawing a picture of a statue there. This was the beginning of a period of good fortune. The lad was introduced to some of the great men of the capital. His genius was recognized. A famous painter painted a picture that was raffled off for sufficient money to purchase the boy's freedom, and he was entered as a student in the Academy.