peasant pupils indisposed to learn he
dismissed the school, went home, and occupied himself in his own
affairs. After an interval, more or less long, a scuffling of feet and a
rapping would become audible at the door, and small voices would plead:
"Please, Lyeff Nikola'itch, we want to study. Please, come and teach
us." He went, and they made rapid progress because all was purely
voluntary.

One of the whitened stone wings of the old manor house stands unchanged.
It is occupied in summer by the countess's sister and her family. She is
a handsome and clever woman, who translates, and who has written some
strong short stories. The wing used by the count has been enlarged to
meet the requirements of the large family, and yet it is not a great or
imposing house. At one end a stone addition, like the original building,
contains, on the ground floor, the count's two rooms, which open on an
uncovered stone terrace facing the hedge-inclosed lawn, with beds of
bright flowers bordering it, and the stately lindens of the grand
avenues waving their crests beyond in the direction of the ponds. Over
these rooms and the vestibule is the hall, indispensable as a
dining-room and a play-room for the small children in wet weather and in
winter. A wooden addition at the other end furnishes half a dozen rooms
for members of the family, the tutor and the maids. Near by stand
several log cottages,--the bakehouse, the servants' dining-room, and
other necessary offices.

The count's study is very plain. The walls are in part lined with
bookcases; in part they are covered with portraits of relatives and of
distinguished persons whom he admires. There are more bookcases in the
vestibule, for people are constantly sending him books of every
conceivable sort. I imagine that the first copies of every book,
pamphlet, and journal on any hobby or "ism," especially from America,
find their way to the address of Count Tolstoy. He showed me some very
wild products of the human brain. The hall upstairs has a polished wood
floor, as is usual with such rooms, and a set of very simple wicker
furniture. Portraits of ancestors, some of whom figure in "War and
Peace," hang upon the walls. A piano, on which the count sometimes
plays, and a large table complete the furniture. Everything in the house
is severely simple. If I take the liberty of going into these details,
it is in the interest of justice. The house has been described in print
--from imagination, it