tel than the one to which we had driven
through torrents of rain. We were to make our real start at ten o'clock
that night! The cold was piercing. We wrapped ourselves up in our wadded
cloaks and in a big down quilt which we had with us, and tried to sleep,
amid the deliberate bang-bang-bang of loading. When the cargo was in we
slept. When we woke in the morning we began to exchange remarks, being
still in that half comatose condition which follows heavy slumber.

"What a delightfully easy boat!" "Who would have expected such
smoothness of motion from such an inferior-looking old craft?" "It must
be very swift to have no motion at all perceptible. Whereabouts are we,
and how much have we missed?"

I rose and raised the blind. The low shore opposite and far away, the
sandy islet near at hand, the river,--all looked suspiciously like
what our eyes had rested upon when we went to bed the night before. We
would not believe it at first, but it was true, that we had not moved a
foot, but were still tied up at the Siberian Landing. Thence we returned
to the town wharf, no apologies or explanations being forthcoming or to
be extracted, whence we made a final start at about nine o'clock, only
fifteen hours late! And the company professed to be "American"!

Progress up the river was slow. The cold rain and wind prevented our
availing ourselves of the tiny deck. The little saloon had no outlook,
being placed in the middle of the boat. The shores and villages were not
of striking interest, after our acquaintance with the lower Volga. For
hours all the other passengers (chiefly second-class) were abed,
apparently. I returned to my cabin to kill time with reading, and
presently found the divan and even the floor and partition walls
becoming intolerably hot, and exhaling a disagreeable smell of charred
wood. I set out on a tour of investigation. In the next compartment to
us, which had the outward appearance of a stateroom, but was inclosed on
the outside only by a lattice-work, was the smoke-pipe. The whistle was
just over our heads, and the pipe almost touched the partition wall of
our cabin. That partly explained the deadly chill of the night before,
and the present suffocating heat. I descended to the lower deck. There
stood the engine, almost as rudimentary as a parlor stove, in full sight
and directly under our cabin; also close to the woodwork. It burned
wood, and at every station the men brought a supply on board; the
sticks