have been an accident, or maybe she could
not endure the affront of seeing the master prefer another servant....
Perhaps she put it in on purpose, God knows! I was young then, and
did not understand it all... now I remember that our master had taken
another mistress and mamma was greatly disturbed. Our trial lasted
nearly two years.... Mamma was condemned to penal servitude for twenty
years, and I, on account of my youth, only to seven."

"And why were you sentenced?"

"As an accomplice. I handed the glass to the master. That was always the
custom. Mamma prepared the soda and I handed it to him. Only I tell you
all this as a Christian, brothers, as I would say it before God. Don't
you tell anybody...."

"Oh, nobody's going to ask us," said Ptaha. "So you've run away from
prison, have you?"

"I have, dear friend. Fourteen of us ran away. Some folks, God
bless them! ran away and took me with them. Now you tell me, on your
conscience, good man, what reason have I to disclose my name? They will
send me back to penal servitude, you know! And I am not fit for penal
servitude! I am a refined man in delicate health. I like to sleep and
eat in cleanliness. When I pray to God I like to light a little lamp
or a candle, and not to have a noise around me. When I bow down to the
ground I like the floor not to be dirty or spat upon. And I bow down
forty times every morning and evening, praying for mamma."

The tramp took off his cap and crossed himself.

"And let them send me to Eastern Siberia," he said; "I am not afraid of
that."

"Surely that's no better?"

"It is quite a different thing. In penal servitude you are like a crab
in a basket: crowding, crushing, jostling, there's no room to breathe;
it's downright hell--such hell, may the Queen of Heaven keep us from
it! You are a robber and treated like a robber--worse than any dog. You
can't sleep, you can't eat or even say your prayers. But it's not like
that in a settlement. In a settlement I shall be a member of a commune
like other people. The authorities are bound by law to give me my
share... ye-es! They say the land costs nothing, no more than snow; you
can take what you like! They will give me corn land and building land
and garden.... I shall plough my fields like other people, sow seed. I
shall have cattle and stock of all sorts, bees, sheep, and dogs.... A
Siberian cat, that rats and mice may not devour my goods.... I will put
up a house, I shall buy ikons.... P