, as it were, in the palm of one's
hand. True, by no manner of means could such lowly farm cots provide me
with a job, but at least should I, for that evening, be able to enjoy
the luxury of a chat with the cots' kindly inhabitants. Hence, with, in
my mind, a base and mischievous inclination to retail to those
inhabitants tales of the marvellous kind of which I knew them to stand
wellnigh as much in need as of bread, I resumed my way, and approached
the bridge.

As I did so, there arose from the ground-level an animated clod of
earth in the shape of a sturdy individual. Unwashed and unshaven, he
had hanging on his frame an open canvas shirt, grey with dust, and
baggy blue breeches.

"Good evening," I said to the fellow.

"I wish you the same," he replied. "Whither are you bound?"

"First of all, what is the name of this river?"

"What is its name? Why, it is the Sagaidak, of course."

On the man's large, round head there was a shock of bristling, grizzled
curls, while pendent to the moustache below it were ends like those of
the moustache of a Chinaman. Also, as his small eyes scanned me with an
air of impudent distrust, I could detect that they were engaged in
counting the holes and dams in my raiment. Only after a long interval
did he draw a deep breath as from his pocket he produced a clay pipe
with a cane mouthpiece, and, knitting his brows attentively, fell to
peering into the pipe's black bowl. Then he said:

"Have you matches?"

I replied in the affirmative.

"And some tobacco?"

For awhile he continued to contemplate the sun where that luminary hung
suspended above a cloud-bank before finally declining. Then he remarked:

"Give me a pinch of the tobacco. As for matches, I have some."

So both of us lit up; after which he rested his elbows upon the
balustrade of the bridge, leant back against the central stanchions,
and for some time continued merely to emit and inhale blue coils of
smoke. Then his nose wrinkled, and he expectorated.

"Muscovite tobacco is it?" he inquired.

"No--Roman, Italian."

"Oh!" And as the wrinkles of his nose straightened themselves again he
added: "Then of course it is good tobacco."

To enter a dwelling in advance of one's host is a breach of decorum;
wherefore, I found myself forced to remain standing where I was until
my interlocutor's tale of questions as to my precise identity, my exact
place of origin, my true destination, and my real reasons for
travelling sh