re exposed. The idea of
reckoning on the exports of a country in which the khans are in a state
of revolt from Khiva to the Chinese frontier!"

"Well," replied the Persian, "if the carpets do not arrive, the drafts
will not arrive either, I suppose."

"And the profits, Father Abraham!" exclaimed the little Jew, "do you
reckon them as nothing?"

"You are right," said another; "goods from Central Asia run a great risk
in the market, and it will be the same with the tallow and shawls from
the East."

"Why, look out, little father," said a Russian traveler, in a bantering
tone; "you'll grease your shawls terribly if you mix them up with your
tallow."

"That amuses you," sharply answered the merchant, who had little relish
for that sort of joke.

"Well, if you tear your hair, or if you throw ashes on your head,"
replied the traveler, "will that change the course of events? No; no
more than the course of the Exchange."

"One can easily see that you are not a merchant," observed the little
Jew.

"Faith, no, worthy son of Abraham! I sell neither hops, nor eider-down,
nor honey, nor wax, nor hemp-seed, nor salt meat, nor caviare, nor wood,
nor wool, nor ribbons, nor, hemp, nor flax, nor morocco, nor furs."

"But do you buy them?" asked the Persian, interrupting the traveler's
list.

"As little as I can, and only for my own private use," answered the
other, with a wink.

"He's a wag," said the Jew to the Persian.

"Or a spy," replied the other, lowering his voice. "We had better
take care, and not speak more than necessary. The police are not
over-particular in these times, and you never can know with whom you are
traveling."

In another corner of the compartment they were speaking less of
mercantile affairs, and more of the Tartar invasion and its annoying
consequences.

"All the horses in Siberia will be requisitioned," said a traveler,
"and communication between the different provinces of Central Asia will
become very difficult."

"Is it true," asked his neighbor, "that the Kirghiz of the middle horde
have joined the Tartars?"

"So it is said," answered the traveler, lowering his voice; "but who can
flatter themselves that they know anything really of what is going on in
this country?"

"I have heard speak of a concentration of troops on the frontier. The
Don Cossacks have already gathered along the course of the Volga, and
they are to be opposed to the rebel Kirghiz."

"If the Kirghiz descend the Ir