ference of
old and new calendars.

"How many times I had taught students that the Russians still counted
their time by the 'old style,' but had never learned it myself! And so I
was obliged to teach myself new lessons in science. The earth turns on
its axis just the same in Russia as in Boston, but you don't get out of
the sunlight at the Boston sunset hour.

"When the thermometer stands at 32 in St. Petersburg, it does not freeze
as it does in Boston. On the contrary, it is very warm in St.
Petersburg, for it means what 104 does in Boston. And if you leave
London on the 22d of July, and are five days on the way to St.
Petersburg, a week after you get there it is still the 22d of July! And
we complain that the day is too short!

"Another peculiarity. We strolled over the city all day; we came back to
our hotel tired; we took our tea; we talked over the day; we wrote to
our friends; we planned for the next day; we were ready to retire. We
walked to the window--the sun was striking on all the chimney tops. It
doesn't seem to be right even for the lark to go to sleep while the sun
shines. We looked at our watches; but the watches said nine o'clock, and
we went off to our beds in daytime; and we awoke after the first nap to
perceive that the sun still shone into the room.

"Like all careful aunts, I was unwilling that my nephew should be out
alone at night. He was desirous of doing the right thing, but urged that
at home, as a little boy, he was always allowed to be out until dark,
and he asked if he could stay out until dark! Alas for the poor lad!
There was no dark at all! I could not consent for him to be out all
night, and the twilight was not over. You may read and read that the
summer day at St. Petersburg is twenty hours long, but until you see
that the sun scarcely sets, you cannot take it in.

"I wondered whether the laboring man worked eight or ten hours under my
window; it seemed to me that he was sawing wood the whole twenty-four!

"W. came in one night after a stroll, and described a beautiful square
which he had come upon accidentally. I listened with great interest, and
said, 'I must go there in the morning; what is the name of it?'--'I
don't know,' he replied.--'Why didn't you read the sign?' I asked.--'I
can't read,' was the reply.--'Oh, no; but why didn't you ask some
one?'--'I can't speak,' he answered. Neither reading nor speaking, we
had to learn St. Petersburg by our observation, and it is the be