Cleanliness
was not exactly its characteristic, nevertheless we all passed a very
comfortable hour, and received a warm welcome from the lonely old fellow
who passed his life so far beyond European civilization, and whose
house, he told us, was often snowed up and cut off from all the world
for three or four months at a time.
After we had finished our meal, I asked the sturdy old fellow for a
pencil, but the nearest thing he possessed was a stick of thick
charcoal, and with that it was surely difficult to communicate with our
fair companion. Therefore she rose, gave me her hand, bowed smilingly,
and then passed into the inner room and closed the door.
The old wood-cutter gave us some coarse tobacco, and after smoking and
chatting for an hour we threw ourselves wearily upon the wooden benches
and slept soundly.
Suddenly, however, at early dawn, we were startled by a loud banging at
the door, the clattering of hoofs, and authoritative shouts in Russian.
The old wood-cutter sprang up, and looking through a chink in the heavy
shutters turned to us with blanched face, whispering breathlessly--
"The police! What can they want of me?"
"Open!" shouted the horsemen outside.
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