248 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



as tonic as the spring, and carries no sadness with it. 

 Then, as at all the great seasonal changes, we put our 

 mistakes behind us and turn over a new leaf. This 

 year pheasants will fly higher, and foxes will run 

 straighter, than they ever did before. Therefore I like 

 the autumn weather well, and put it second only to 

 the spring in the mercies that are vouchsafed to us in 

 this good world. 



The sand by the waterside was hard and firm for 

 walking, and we soon outstripped the Siberian girls. 

 By and by we saw three figures following us in the 

 distance. They could, we thought, be no other than 

 the tipsy Simeon Prokopchuk, with Joseph Gerasimvitch 

 and Micha, and we were annoyed to see that the three 

 girls were lingering behind. We felt more or less 

 responsible for the young Antonoff's, and had not much 

 trust in their discretion. We also had a disquieting 

 suspicion that a flask of cognac had been left on the 

 table, and we hurried on quickly to put it out of sight 

 before the master of the house came home. However, 

 our fears were needless ; for when half-way through 

 supper the loiterers appeared, giggling and rather 

 flushed, their escort consisted only of Joseph, Micha, 

 and their cousin Nicolai Prokopchuk, a slender, good- 

 looking boy of about nineteen years of age. 



After supper the girls spread their beds in the 

 inner room, and Miss Curtis and I were expected to 

 do the same ; but the thought of eleven people behind 

 those hermetically closed windows daunted us, and as 

 it was a fine night, we resolved to sleep out on the 

 river bank in our sheepskins. We explained our 



