; and she was an old
friend, and might have loved Ivan; but the man of Yakoutsk was blind,
and told her of his passion for a selfish widow, and the Yakouta
maiden never thought of Ivan but as a brother!"

"What means Ivan?" asked Kolina, trembling with emotion.

"Ivan has long meant, when he came to the yourte of Sakalar, to lay
his wealth at his feet, and beg of his old friend to give him his
child: but Ivan now fears that he may die, and wishes to know what
would have been the answer of Kolina?"

"But Maria Vorotinska?" urged the girl, who seemed dreaming.

"Has long been forgotten. How could I not love my old playmate and
friend! Kolina--Kolina, listen to Ivan! Forget his love for the widow
of Yakoutsk, and Ivan will stay in the plain of Vchivaya and die."

"Kolina is very proud," whispered the girl, sitting down on a log near
the fire, and speaking in a low tone; "and Kolina thinks yet that the
friend of her father has forgotten himself. But if he be not wild, if
the sufferings of the journey have not made him say that which is not,
Kolina would be very happy."

"Be plain, girl of Mioure--maiden of the Yakouta tribe! and play not
with the heart of a man. Can Kolina take Ivan as her husband?"

A frank and happy reply gave the Yakoutsk merchant all the
satisfaction he could wish; and then followed several hours of those
sweet and delightful explanations which never end between young lovers
when first they have acknowledged their mutual affection. They had
hitherto concealed so much, that there was much to tell; and Ivan
and Kolina, who for nearly three years had lived together, with a bar
between their deep but concealed affection, seemed to have no end of
words. Ivan had begun to find his feelings change from the very hour
Sakalar's daughter volunteered to accompany him, but it was only in
the cave of New Siberia that his heart had been completely won.

So short, and quiet, and sweet were the hours, that the time of rest
passed by without the thought of sleep. Suddenly, however, they were
roused to a sense of their situation, and leaving their wearied and
exhausted companions still asleep, they moved with doubt and dread to
the water's side. Life was now doubly dear to both, and their fancy
painted the coming forth of an empty net as the termination of all
hope. But the net came heavily and slowly to land. It was full of
fish. They were on the well-stocked Vchivaya. More than three hundred
fish, small and gr