clothes, in this way; I stood still, and I sat
down. They gave me my orders,—' Say so
and so, and so and so.'—It was all one to me.
I spoke what they told me. One day I
represented a blind man, sir, and——"

"And afterwards; what were you next?"

"Next? Ah! next I was a cook again."

"But why turn cook again?"

"One of my brothers ran away, and I had
to take his place."

"Good; and what were you in the
establishment of your first mistress's father?"

"With her father? With her father; look
you, I have been all sorts of things. At first
I was a little kazac; I had to remain standing
behind a door, ready to fetch and cany
messages. Then I was a postillion. We drove
only four horses; I used to ride, on a high
saddle, on the left hand horse of the front
pair. But they made me turn huntsman,
and ——"

"Huntsman—mounted—with dogs?"

"Yes; mounted, and with dogs. But I
had a fall and lamed myself, and the horse
likewise. The old Bârine was very severe;
he had me well beaten, and I was sent
to Moscow to be apprenticed to a
bootmaker."

"Apprenticed! What are you talking
about? You were a child when they
made you a huntsman and a whipper-in."

"I was something like twenty years of age.
But that had nothing to do with it. The
thing must be done, because the master
ordered it; but, as he died shortly afterwards,
they made me go back to the village
again."

"And when did you serve your apprenticeship
as cook?"

"There is no need of any apprenticeship
to that. You make the women cook a few
things, you taste of them, and that's quite
sufficient," said Soutchok raising his thin
and yellow face, on which a smile struggled
to break forth in vain.

"Come, come," I continued; "you have
played a good many parts in the course of
your life; but now that you are a fisherman,
what do you do, as there is no fish in the
pond?"

' Oh! I make no complaint. I thank God,
as they say, that they have made me a fisherman.
But there is another old man, André
Poutyr, whom Madame sent to work in the
paper manufactory. But they didn't make
any paper. Poutyr said to himself that it
was a sin to eat bread that he had not earned;
at the same time, he looked out for a change
for the better. He had a nephew who was a
clerk in the Bârynia's counting-house; and
he promised to speak to Madame, to obtain
for him something, I don't know what. He
fulfilled his promise; he spoke to her! and
Uncle Poutyr fell at his nephew's feet. I
was there."

"Enough. Have you any family? Are
you married?"

"No, Sir; that was impossible. Tatiana
Vacilievna,—God open the skies to her! I
hope so—our late mistress, did not allow any
one here to get married. She sometimes said,
even before the priest, ' Heaven defend me
from suffering that! I am single, and it does
not kill me; I lead a maiden life. What
would they have, I should like to know? I
have spoiled them. What will they want
next? '"

"How do you live? Do you receive any
wages, any fixed payment?"

"Wages! Why, Bârine, they give us
victuals to eat; that is all we require. Gracious
Goodness! Heaven grant long life to our
lady!"

Ermolaï informed me, in a cross tone ot
voice, that the boat was caulked and put in
order, and sent off Soutchok to fetch his
punting-pole. Ermolaï, a serf himself,
dismissed the brave fellow with a smile of the
utmost contempt.

"What an idiot! " he said, as the other
went away; "a real brute, a clumsy moujik,
not a bit better. You cannot call that animal
a servant. And yet he presumes to boast. Is
it likely he could ever perform a part in a
play? Answer me that question, sir? You
have done him too much honour by talking
to him."

In a quarter of an hour, we were all three
seated on the edge of the flat-bottomed boat.
We shot away at a great rate; Ermolaï
continuously victorious, I, as usual, very
indifferently. Soutchok watched us with the look
of a man who has been in a state of servitude
from childhood upwards. From time to time
he shouted, ''There! there! another duck!''
Then, abashed at the sound of his own
voice, he scratched his back, not with his
hands, but by a particular movement of
his shoulders. By noontime our boat was
overladen with victims piled in pyramids.
Instead of remarking that our vessel leaked
faster and faster, we neglected to bale the
water out. Just as we were about to leave
off shooting, clouds of ducks, teal, and pintails,
rose so thick and frequent, as if to bid us
good bye effectually, that we had not time to
reload between the flights. We so completely
lost sight of the state of our skiff, that Ermolaï,
by a sudden grasp at an expiring mallard,
made the boat lean too far on one side. It
filled, was swamped, and majestically
descended to the muddy bottom.

"Gently! " we all shouted at once; but
it was too late. In two minutes we were
up to our chins in water, "Dry Chips"
included.

Ermolaï was the first to break silence.

"Pouah! " he vociferated, spitting on the
water. " What an abominable ducking! It
is your fault, old devil," he said angrily to
Soutchok, "with your pretended boat—
Pouah!"

"I beg your pardon," muttered the poor
old man.