.
Then there are the festivities at Christmas and Easter, and occasionally
little incidents of less agreeable kind. It may be that there is a heavy
fall of snow, so that it is necessary to cut roads to the kitchen and
stables; or wolves enter the courtyard at night and have a fight with
the watch-dogs; or the news is brought that a peasant who had been
drinking in a neighbouring village has been found frozen to death on the
road.

Altogether the family live a very isolated life, but they have one bond
of connection with the great outer world. Two of the sons are officers
in the army and both of them write home occasionally to their mother
and sisters. To these two youths is devoted all the little stock of
sentimentality which Maria Petrovna possesses. She can talk of them
by the hour to any one who will listen to her, and has related to the
Popadya a hundred times every trivial incident of their lives. Though
they have never given her much cause for anxiety, and they are now men
of middle age, she lives in constant fear that some evil may befall
them. What she most fears is that they may be sent on a campaign or may
fall in love with actresses. War and actresses are, in fact, the two
bug-bears of her existence, and whenever she has a disquieting dream she
asks the priest to offer up a moleben for the safety of her absent
ones. Sometimes she ventures to express her anxiety to her husband, and
recommends him to write to them; but he considers writing a letter a
very serious bit of work, and always replies evasively, "Well, well, we
must think about it."

During the Crimean War Ivan Ivan'itch half awoke from his habitual
lethargy, and read occasionally the meagre official reports published by
the Government. He was a little surprised that no great victories were
reported, and that the army did not at once advance on Constantinople.
As to causes he never speculated. Some of his neighbours told him that
the army was disorganised, and the whole system of Nicholas had been
proved to be utterly worthless. That might all be very true, but he did
not understand military and political matters. No doubt it would all
come right in the end. All did come right, after a fashion, and he again
gave up reading newspapers; but ere long he was startled by reports much
more alarming than any rumours of war. People began to talk about
the peasant question, and to say openly that the serfs must soon be
emancipated. For once in his life Ivan