94 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



Anastasia were both excellent people in their way, and 

 devoted to their master and mistress, but they did not 

 pull well in double harness. Perhaps Anastasia was a 

 little inclined to be over strict with Kill's peccadilloes. 

 At any rate there was sometimes a tiff in the kitchen, 

 and Madame AntonofF had to make the peace. 



Otherwise the little wooden house was the most 

 cheerful in the world. To be sure, we only saw it in 

 the summer-time, but even in winter, when, for days 

 together, the inhabitants could not go outside, it was 

 impossible to imagine it as otherwise than happy. In 

 the kitchen Anastasia would look up from her baking 

 to nod and smile " Good-day." The two pretty girls 

 would greet us shyly, and hurry off to call their sister, 

 who, however busy she might be, would always give us 

 a welcome. Or else Michael Petrovitch himself, with 

 his bluff, hearty manner, would come in. Outside, Nill 

 whistled as he chopped firewood, and the lazy dogs 

 crowded round the caller and flogged his legs with their 

 bushy tails. Everybody in that house seemed cheerful 

 and contented. 



The house of Prokopchuk, on the other hand, was of 

 a different type. It stood on the mainland on the left 

 bank of the Golchika River, about a verst from that of 

 Antonoff. In many respects it had a more favourable 

 position, for the natives, when they came to trade, 

 were able to walk straight in, instead of waiting for a 

 ferry to the island, a fact of which old Prokopchuk — 

 Gerasim Androvitch — took full advantage. We had 

 lived for some time at Golchika before we understood 

 the relations of the Prokopchuk household. Prokop- 



