I was to start taking over the Kuryazh colony in two days, but first there was, something I had to do at the Commanders’ Council, something I had to say to them, to enable the colonists to organize, without my help, the hard task of getting all our property ready for transport to Kuryazh.

Within the colony, fears, hopes, “nerves,” sparkling eyes, horses, carts, a veritable tidal wave of trifles, of objects listed as essential, and nevertheless forgotten, of ropes mislaid, had  all become so inextricably tangled, that I did not believe in the ability of the boys to disentangle them.