d his failure to chance. He
carefully cared for his crop in the hopes of a better season.

Alas, his wife died of sorrow, and autumn brought him nothing but
straw. Ostrovsky, without weeping, dug a grave in the frozen ground
and buried his wife. Then he asked permission to go to the mines,
and borrowed some money for the trip from his neighbors. The latter
gladly loaned it to him, thinking thus to get rid of him and to get
the profit of his house and goods. But Ostrovsky fooled them in
their naive simplicity; he heaped up all of his possessions in his
little cottage and then set fire to it. He no longer thought of
justice; he was nothing but a despairing man.

The patriarch of the village in which he had taken refuge tried to
recall to him the faith for which he had been exiled:

"Do you remember," answered Ostrovsky, "the first visit I paid you
to ask for advice? Ah, so you have forgotten that and you speak of
God.... You are nothing but a crafty dog! All of you are dogs! There
is nothing here but woods and rocks, and you are all just as
insensible as the very rocks that surround you.... And your cursed
land, and your sky, and your stars...." "He wanted to say something
more, but he did not dare blaspheme, and there was silence again in
the little cottage...."

This Ostrovsky is among the very best of Korolenko's heroes. The
sight of this despairing and lonely man, who wanders about in the
Siberian forests with his little daughter, calls louder for justice
than all the speeches in the world.

* * * * *

Through the wealth of his talent and knowledge, Korolenko is of
tremendous social value in three fields of work,--practical affairs,
journalism, and art.

Among the many services which he has rendered to humanity, let us
first mention his brilliant defence of the half-savage Votiaks,
accused of ritual murder in the famous Malmige case. Although he had
just suffered great grief himself--he had lost two children--he
traveled to a distant town in order to be at the trial. He took his
seat on the bench of the defenders. He used all of his knowledge,
and all the love in his heart to defend the unhappy Votiaks, whose
acquittal he succeeded in securing.

As a publicist, he has written some very valuable articles. Among
them are observations on the famine year (he spent two months in one
of the worst districts). In other articles he has analyzed a moral
malady peculiar to our state of s