24 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG, 



meet him outside the capital. He was to be promoted 

 and receive an order and a pension. 



Paishkoff was expected to pass through Tchudovo 

 that evening. The street was gay with colors, in which 

 the red shirts of the moujiks predominated. A red 

 calico shirt, black velvet trousers, and knee-boots, con- 

 stitute the moujik's ideal costume. The whole popu- 

 lation of the village was streaming leisurely in one 

 direction. Fifty or more small boys were marshaled 

 in a troop and, under the direction of the school-master, 

 marched in very good step, singing lustily as they 

 tramped, after the manner of Russian soldiers. 



A deputation of old men came up where we were 

 sitting and proposed to the starosta that, for the honor 

 of the mir, he should proceed along the road at the 

 head of the people to meet and welcome Paishkoff. 



" Nay, nay, brothers," demurred the starosta, " when 

 the Cossack comes I will have the samovar ready with 

 tea ; but from Novgorod is a long ride, and perhaps he 

 will not arrive before morning." 



The starosta was right in his surmises. The Cossack 

 rider didn't appear that evening. We passed the night 

 in the moujik's house, and early next morning hired our 

 host to drive us out on the Novgorod road to meet 

 him. 



We met the popular hero a few miles out, and, turn- 

 ing, kept pace with him back to Tchudovo. With him 

 were the escort from the Czarevitch's regiment, an 

 infantry officer from Vladimir, a rural mounted police- 

 man, and a couple of Russian newspaper correspond- 

 ents. 



Paishkoff turned out to be a small, wiry man, twenty- 



