s away from this.'

"The girls looked at each other.

"`Yes, you are right,' said one. `It was a maiden who had gone away
from this when a child, and thought herself free, but she was mistaken;
and the Barin, our lord, is fond of keeping all his people about him, so
when he found it out, he had her brought back. Poor thing, she was very
unhappy, for she was taken from all her friends; but she will be better
by and by. She will marry one of our young men, and then she will make
new friends, and be reconciled to her fate.'

"`Ah, let any one beware who marries her,' exclaimed Minetta, promptly.
`I have read his destiny in the stars. He will speedily die. Let him
beware, I say.'

"The girls looked at each other with horror, resolved to warn all the
young men in the village of the fate they might expect if they wished to
marry the new-comer.

"`Then she has not yet been sent out into the fields to labour?' she
continued. `I thought not.'

"`Oh, no, she is still in the overseer's house,' answered one of the
girls; `she has plenty of work there, for he is a hard man, and not
likely to excuse her because she is weak or ill. For my part, I would
rather be in the fields, where at least we have freedom to talk, and
laugh, and sing as much and as loud as we please, at least as long as
the land-steward keeps away from us. When he comes all are dumb and
grave. If we talk, he thinks we are plotting mischief; if we laugh, he
fancies we are laughing at him. He is miserable himself, and he wants
to make everybody miserable also.'

"`Why is that?' asked Minetta. `He is well-to-do in the world--a good
house, and plenty to eat and drink.'

"`Ah, but he is always in terror of his life,' answered the girl.
`Before he came here he was steward of an estate owned by a Barin and
his wife, who were the most grinding couple in all the country round.
They starved their house serfs, and ground every moment of work out of
the peasants that the law would allow. No other man but Gavrillo, our
land-steward, would have lived with such people, I verily believe. The
mujicks bore it for many years, not without complaining and grumbling,
but without trying to right themselves. At last they could bear it no
longer. A bad season came, and they were starving, and when they
complained, they were only ground more and more; so they rose up with
arms in their hands, and attacked the Barin's house one morning, just
before daylight, and the B