raised in North
Russia is comparatively small. The writer well recalls that peasants
seldom failed to promptly sign their names to receipts. Around our
bulletin boards men in Russian camp constantly stood reading. One of the
requests from the White Guards was for Archangel newspapers. One of the
pleasantest winter evenings spent in North Russia was at the time of a
teachers' association meeting in the Pinega Valley. And one of the
cleanest and busiest school-rooms ever visited was one of those little
village schools. To be sure the people were limited in their education
and way behind the times in their schools but they were eager to get on.

Also, in every small center of population there is a Russian State
Church. In America we have been accustomed to call these Greek Catholic
Churches, but they are not. The ritual and creed are admittedly rather
similar, but the church government, the architecture, the sacred
pictures and symbols, and the cross, are all thoroughly Russian. Until
the revolution, the Czar was the State head of the Church, and the
Ecclesiastical head was appointed by him. In the North at present
whatever aid was extended in times past from the government to the
churches--and to the schools as well--is looked for from the Provisional
Government at Archangel; and under the circumstances is very meagre if
not lacking altogether for long periods. The villagers do not close the
churches or schools for such a minor reason as that, however. They feed
and clothe the teacher and heat the church and the school. The priest
works his small farm like the rest of them--that is, if he is a "good"
priest. If he is not a "good" priest he charges heavily for special
services, christenings, weddings or funerals, and begs or demands more
for himself than the villagers think they can afford (and they afford a
great deal, for the villagers are very devout and by training very
long suffering), and the next year finds himself politely kicked upstairs
to another charge in a larger community which the villagers quite
logically believe will better be able to support his demands. Such an
affair is managed with the utmost finesse.

Within the family all share in the work--and the play. The grown men do
the hunting, fishing, felling of timber, building, hauling, and part of
the planting and harvesting. The women, boys and girls do a great deal
toward caring for the live-stock, and much of the work in the field.
They also do some of