rything was hauled in the same
way. But now, because all the best horses were at the front, one often
saw great oxen drawing sledges through the once gay and fashionable
city.

The Countess Sergius had retained only a single pair of horses for her
own use and that of her big household, nevertheless, she now and then
loaned her sleigh for an afternoon to her two American girl guests.

Sight-seeing was the only amusement which kept Nona and Barbara from a
morbid dwelling on their worries. Barbara had written to Judge and Mrs.
Thornton in the way that Mildred had directed. But she could not feel
that either of Mildred's parents would feel any the less wretched and
uneasy because their daughter believed that she was only "doing her
duty." Since the original letter Barbara had never been able to write
them again. What could she say, except that no word of any kind had
since been received from Mildred? There would be small consolation in
this news, and of course Barbara wrote Dick every few days.

One afternoon Barbara and Nona left the Countess' house at about three
o'clock and drove down the entire length of the Nevski Prospect toward
the Winter Palace of the Czar.

There were scudding gray clouds overhead and a light snow falling.

No one could have failed to be interested. The Russian streets are
ordinarily paved with sharp-edged stones, but the ice made them smooth
as glass. Over the windows of the shops the girls could see painted
pictures of what the shopkeepers had to sell inside. This is common in
Russia, since so many of her poorer people are unable to read.

Most of the buildings in Petrograd are of stucco, and indeed, except for
her churches and a few other buildings, the Russian capital resembles a
poor imitation of Paris. Peter the Great, who constructed the city upon
the swamp lands surrounding the river Neva, was determined to force
Russia into the western world instead of the east. For this reason he
brought all his artists from France and Italy, so that he might model
his new city upon their older ones.

The Winter Palace itself the girls discovered to be a Renaissance
building, with one side facing the river and the other a broad square.
Their sleigh stopped by the tall monolith column commemorating Alexander
the First, which stands almost directly in front of the Palace. Leading
from the Palace to the Hermitage, once the palace of the great
Catherine, is a covered archway.

The Hermitage is one of