ticles had been made on a scale adapted to future rather than actual
requirements. He must have stood in his boots about three feet eight
inches, and he could not have been more than twelve years of age; but
he had already learned to look upon life as a serious business, wore a
commanding air, and knitted his innocent little brows as if the cares of
an empire weighed on his diminutive shoulders. Though he was to act
as yamstchik he had to leave the putting in of the horses to larger
specimens of the human species, but he took care that all was done
properly. Putting one of his big boots a little in advance, and drawing
himself up to his full shortness, he watched the operation attentively,
as if the smallness of his stature had nothing to do with his
inactivity. When all was ready, he climbed up to his seat, and at a
signal from the station-keeper, who watched with paternal pride all the
movements of the little prodigy, we dashed off at a pace rarely
attained by post-horses. He had the faculty of emitting a peculiar
sound--something between a whirr and a whistle--that appeared to have
a magical effect on the team and every few minutes he employed this
incentive. The road was rough, and at every jolt he was shot upwards
into the air, but he always fell back into his proper position, and
never lost for a moment his self-possession or his balance. At the end
of the journey I found we had made nearly fourteen miles within the
hour.

Unfortunately this energetic, enterprising spirit sometimes takes
an illegitimate direction. Not only whole villages, but even whole
districts, have in this way acquired a bad reputation for robbery, the
manufacture of paper-money, and similar offences against the criminal
law. In popular parlance, these localities are said to contain "people
who play pranks" (narod shalit). I must, however, remark that, if I may
judge by my own experience, these so-called "playful" tendencies are
greatly exaggerated. Though I have travelled hundreds of miles at
night on lonely roads, I was never robbed or in any way molested. Once,
indeed, when travelling at night in a tarantass, I discovered on awaking
that my driver was bending over me, and had introduced his hand into one
of my pockets; but the incident ended without serious consequences.
When I caught the delinquent hand, and demanded an explanation from the
owner, he replied, in an apologetic, caressing tone, that the night was
cold, and he wished to warm