with his serfs. He had possessed several
estates of considerable extent lying widely
separate from this part of the country, where
he had never been but once: in fact, he knew
very little of the White Village except that it
was his, and that the steward sent or brought
him plenty of excuses for non-payment, but
little money. It did not trouble him much,
therefore, when the people on the estate passed
to the General Obrassoff at cards or dice: he
merely remarked (Madame Obrassoff is herself
my authority here) that if the general made no
more of the pigs than he had made of them, they
would not be of much use to him. The general
determined, however, to make the estate valuable.
It was in the same country as his other
property, and would form a large addition to
his income if well handled. But soon after
he had sent off a new steward with the
discharge of the old steward in his pocket, and
with orders to repair the house, buy stock, and
raise the obrok from ten roubles to thirty, he
died. Thus madame, good tender-hearted
compassionate Madame Obrassoff ruled in his stead
until her child's majority.

On the morning after she had taken possession,
and installed herself comfortably in her
large wooden house, before she had quite got
out of bed the large plot of grass (which served
for a lawn in front) was filled with a mass of
human beings clad in the most filthy rags,
waiting to pay their respects to their new
owner: the old "starost" heading the
ragamuffins with evident pride and pleasure.
English rags are bad, Scotch are worse, and Irish are
worse, but Russian rags are beyond all conception.
When the lady appeared on the lawn among
her "souls" she was perfectly shocked by their
wretched appearance; and the starost having
marked with cunning satisfaction her aspect of
sympathy, advanced first with a "welcome present,"
a lean goose, and laid it at her feet. He
then kissed her feet and the feet of her daughter,
and wished that all imaginable blessings might be
poured down on their "high-born" heads. He
then said that the present he had brought, was not
fit to give to a stanavoy's clerk, far less to such
a high-born generalshe, but it was all now left him
to give, he was so poor! The rest of the ragged
host advanced and followed suit, no one coming
empty-handed. Some gave one egg, others
a few berries or a bit of black bread, some a
jug of kvass or an old paralytic hen; this one
brought a starved rabbit, that one a small paper
of salt or a few carrots. The speeches delivered
on this great occasion by some of the elder
peasants were similar to that of the old starost.
"High-born lady, we are your humble slaves.
Forgive us for having nothing better to offer
you. We are poor. Look at us with the golden
eye, and have pity. God give you health and
long life to live among us. We are poor, but
obedient. We will all die for you. It is God's
truth, lady, we are poor." Many of them shed
tears profusely. The kind-hearted woman wept
in sympathy, and pitied the degraded beings from
the bottom of her heart. How could she exact
thirty roubles a year from such people? How
could she put a hard steward over them, to grind
more out of them? Had this not been already
carried too far?

"Starost," she said, "hear me. My husband
gave orders before he died, that each man should
pay thirty roubles obrok. Has the steward told
you so, and are you willing to pay it?"

"High-born lady, it is truth. We have been
told, but God knows we cannot pay it. All we
have, is not worth thirty roubles each. You
have beautiful eyes to look with. See these
people. Is it possible that we can pay all this
large sum. Ah, lady! have compassion and be
an angel, and make the obrok ten roubles as it
was before."

"Steward," said the lady, "give me your
opinion."

"My lady, honoured and obeyed, it is my
opinion that all this is a farce got up to deceive
you. Don't believe them. They seem poor,
but I suspect them to be the reverse. I
cannot prove it yet, but I soon will. Follow,
madame, your illustrious husband's design, and
I shall pledge myself to find the obrok. I have
done."

Here the whole body of the peasants, about
fifteen hundred, at a secret sign from the
starost, surrounded the lady and fell on their
knees, howling and crying.

"My children," she said, "I pity you. It is
sad to look on you, with those rags. I will not
ask you to pay what you cannot pay, but I must
have some obrok, and shall be content with ten
roubles each, if it is paid without trouble to
me. I wish to be kind, and to live amongst you
happily."

The starost crossed himself, and so did the
multitude; the starost thanked the lady, and
with many bendings and bowings vowed that
this sum should be paid by the people, if he
made them sell everything they had. They then
parted: the lady rejoicing in having done a deed
of mercy: the starost chuckling at the success
of his trick: the new steward, finding his
occupation gone, gave notice to quit, and so
anticipated his dismissal.

Next day, while the generalshe was giving
orders in her new house, and the French
governess, the daughter, and Lucy Murray, were
at their first lessons, the cunning old starost and
twenty other peasants, clad in good comfortable
garments, and looking healthy and well to do,
unearthed some thirty or forty very fine young
horses of their own breeding and rearing,
from a secret spot in which they had been
hidden, and were soon on their way to the
large fair in the government town, to sell them
for from one thousand to fifteen hundred
roubles: the greater part of which money, after
being divided, was destined for their secret
hoards, as soon as it could be turned into hard
cash. (Paper has no chance against bullion
among the peasants.) The people of this
village were to a man, dealers, breeders, and
rearers of horses, who attended all the fairs for
many hundred versts round, and only used their