ide the miserable book, and often whole months would pass without a
sight of it. But, in revenge whenever he did happen to find it, he would
sit for hours with the book before his eyes.

Well, my father was reading the _Court Almanac_, frequently shrugging
his shoulders, and murmuring: "'General!' Umph, he was a sergeant in
my company. 'Knight of the Orders of Russia.' Can it be so long since
we--?"

Finally he flung the _Almanac_ away on the sofa and plunged into deep
thought; a proceeding that never presaged anything good.

"Avoditia," said he, brusquely, to my mother, "how old is Peter?"

"His seventeenth precious year has just begun," said my mother. "Peter
was born the year Aunt Anastasia lost her eye, and that was--"

"Well, well," said my father, "it is time he should join the army. It is
high time he should give up his nurse, leap-frog and pigeon training."

The thought of a separation so affected my poor mother that she let the
spoon fall into the preserving pan, and tears rained from her eyes.

As for me, it is difficult to express my joy. The idea of army service
was mingled in my head with that of liberty, and the pleasures offered
by a great city like Saint Petersburg. I saw myself an officer in the
Guards, which, in my opinion was the height of felicity.

As my father neither liked to change his plans, nor delay their
execution, the day of my departure was instantly fixed. That evening,
saying that he would give me a letter to my future chief, he called for
writing materials.

"Do not forget, Andrew," said my mother, "to salute for me Prince B.
Tell him that I depend upon his favor for my darling Peter."

"What nonsense," said my father, frowning, "why should I write to Prince
B.?"

"You have just said that you would write to Peter's future chief."

"Well, what then?"

"Prince B. is his chief. You know very well that Peter is enrolled in
the Semenofski regiment."

"Enrolled! what's that to me? Enrolled or not enrolled, he shall not go
to Saint Petersburg. What would he learn there? Extravagance and folly.
No! let him serve in the army, let him smell powder, let him be a
soldier and not a do-nothing in the Guards; let him wear the straps of
his knapsack out. Where is the certificate of his birth and baptism?"

My mother brought the certificate, which she kept in a little box with
my baptismal robe, and handed it to my father. He read it, placed it
before him on the table, and commenced his