232 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



had built their house. Before he had been tied up 

 five minutes, one of the wasps, regarding Texas as an 

 intruder, sallied out and stung him on the nose ; and 

 the commotion that followed brought the entire swarm 

 about his ears. Texas started across the yard with 

 the sleigh in no ceremonious fashion, and would prob- 

 ably have injured himself seriously had the sleigh been 

 equal to the knocking about. Luckily it was rotten, 

 however, and breaking away from it, he, after consid- 

 erable rolling and kicking, came running to me. 



A day's rest was indulged in at Berislav, where the 

 Dneiper was crossed on a pontoon bridge. Berislav 

 is a dead-and-alive town with one roughly paved street 

 that the people use for a promenade in the evening. 

 The whole town apparently went to sleep about ten 

 o'clock in the morning, and woke up again at four in 

 the afternoon for the purpose of drinking tea. Busi- 

 ness must have been transacted, I suppose, if there 

 was any to transact, before ten and after four. The 

 symptoms of the afternoon awakening were boys com- 

 ing from every shop in town, to the apology for a hotel 

 at which I was staying, with blue enameled kettles for 

 hot water to make tea. The hotel-keeper did a roar- 

 ing trade in hot water at two kopecks a kettle, but he 

 was not overburdened with guests. The only patrons 

 that haunted his establishment whilst I was there were 

 moujiks from the country, who provided their own food, 

 tea, and sugar, as well as feed for their horses. The 

 amount one of these customers would contribute to 

 the income of the establishment would be about twenty 

 kopecks during the day, paid for hot water, and the priv- 

 ilege of yard-room for his team and wagon. 



