CHAPTER XII. 



MEMORIES OF THE NEVA. 



|NE of the new sensations a stranger visiting St. 

 Petersburg for the first time experiences, is a diffi- 

 culty in reckoning time. In chronology, if in 

 nothing else, Western Europe is a fortnight ahead of the 

 great Russian Empire. It thus falls to my lot for the first 

 time to celebrate two New Year's Days within the space 

 of a month. It is New Year's Day in St. Petersburg, and 

 the people are blithe and merry, as is their custom on the 

 occasion. Thirteen days ago although in these strange 

 surroundings it seems as many years I " saw in " the New 

 Year amongst my own English kith and kin, and now I 

 have a second time watched the departure of one year and 

 the advent of another, not under mistletoe and holly, but in 

 a sledge. We literally rang out the Old and rang in the 

 New, but it was with the musical tinkle of sledge bells as we 

 bounded over the snow. 



Three individuals make a very comfortable party for 

 sleighing, that is to say, comfortable, if the three are of the 

 same sex, and there is no necessity to remember that a 



