“ TWENTY drops” AND CHERRY-STEMMED PIPES. 457 
our own masters. Tlicii we cut streets through the snow 
from liouse to house, and begin to he sociable. But 
come; let us wuilk a little more: then we shall w'ant 
‘twenty drops.’ ” 
So we walked on, turning now up the valley toward 
the small but neat-looking Greek church, whose red 
steeple and pendent bell looked more like home and 
civilization than any thing w'C had seen for a long, long 
time. "We walked on and on, until the pale Xorthern 
moon shone upon our evening path, and then turned and 
(for want of another road) retraced our steps to the two- 
stox'y house, where “twenty drops” were poured out, as a 
matter of course, cherry-stemmed pipes loaded with good 
Turkish tobacco, and family-looking old rocking-chairs 
filled by wearied limbs. One, two, thi'ee liours in these 
sleepy old rockers, the yawning “good-night,” a chilly 
pull in an open boat, the hoarse hail of “boat ahoy!” 
from the watchful old quartermaster, the flash of a side- 
lantern in our eyes, a steep climb up the rolling side, and 
we were again upon the deck of our wandering home. 
I went to bed, and dreamed that the entire English nation 
were condemned to an eternal game of billiards ; and I 
hope sincerely that this book may reach England, if it be 
onl}' to let them see how some of the officers of II. B. M. 
frigate Sibyl requited the high-bred and considerate cour- 
tesy of the Russian Governor of Ayan during the summer 
of 1855. 
We were so much pleased with, “old Frybark’s” 
Turkish pipes and tobacco, as Avell as with his “twenty 
drops” and ofl-hand hospitality of the previous evening, 
that, 'when he came on board the next morning and told 
