RUSSIA 



411 



display an enterprising, independent, and self-reliant spirit, which proves that they are by no 

 means the submissive automata they have been frequently held to be. 



Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace, K.C.I.E., relates that he was once waiting at a post- 

 station for the horses to be changed, when a boy appeared, dressed in a sheep-skin wrap, 

 with a fur cap and gigantic double-soled boots. All these articles had been made on a 

 scale adapted rather to future requirements than to present needs. He must have stood in 

 his boots about 3 feet 8 inches, and could not have been more than twelve years of age; but 

 his appearance showed that he had already learned to look on life as a serious business. The 

 boy wore an important air, and his little brows were as anxiously knit as if the cares of an 

 empire weighed upon his young shoulders. He filled the responsible office of driver of the 

 post-car, but found it necessary to leave the putting in of the horses to larger and older 

 specimens of humanity. He watched closely, however, to see that everything was done 

 properly. When all was ready, he climbed up to his seat, and at a signal from the station- 

 keeper shook the reins, artistically flourished the whip, and dashed off at a pace rarely attained 



A GROUP OF RUSSIAN WOMEN. 



