dventures that I recall. First,
there was sleighing. We never kept horses of our own, but the horses
of our customer-guests were always at our disposal, and many a jolly
ride they gave us, with the dvornik at the reins, while their owners
haggled with my mother in the store about the price of soap. We had no
luxurious sleigh, with cushions and fur robes, no silver bells on our
harness. Ours was a bare sledge used for hauling wood, with a padding
of straw and burlap, and the reins, as likely as not, were a knotted
rope. But the horses did fly, over the river and up the opposite bank
if we chose; and whether we had bells or not, the merry, foolish heart
of Yakub would sing, and the whip would crack, and we children would
laugh; and the sport was as good as when, occasionally, we did ride in
a more splendid sleigh, loaned us by one of our prouder guests. We
were wholesome as apples to look at when we returned for bread and tea
in the dusk; at least I remember my sister, with cheeks as red as a
painted doll's under her close-clipped curls; and my little brother,
rosy, too, and aristocratic-looking enough, in his little greatcoat
tied with a red sash, and little fur cap with earlaps. For myself, I
suppose my nose was purple and my cheeks pinched, just as they are now
in the cold weather; but I had a good time.

At certain--I mean uncertain--intervals we were bundled up and marched
to the public baths. This was so great an undertaking, consuming half
a day or so, and involving, in winter, such risk of catching cold,
that it is no wonder the ceremony was not practised oftener.

The public baths were situated on the river bank. I always stopped
awhile outside, to visit the poor patient horse in the treadmill, by
means of which the water was pumped into the baths. I was not
sentimental about animals then. I had not read of "Black Beauty" or
any other personified monsters; I had not heard of any societies for
the prevention of cruelty to anything. But my pity stirred of its own
accord at the sight of that miserable brute in the treadmill. I was
used to seeing horses hard-worked and abused. This horse had no load
to make him sweat, and I never saw him whipped. Yet I pitied this
creature. Round and round his little circle he trod, with head hanging
and eyes void of expectation; round and round all day, unthrilled by
any touch of rein or bridle, interpreters of a living will; round and
round, all solitary, never driven, never check