lmness clad in cotton shirts, or freeze to death on
sentry duty without a murmur. They were probably on their way to find
work during the harvest and earn a few kopeks, and very likely would
return to their struggling families as poor as they went. As we watched
this imperturbable crowd, we became infected with their spirit of
unconcern, and entered into sympathy with the national _saytchas_--a
case of atmospheric influence.

At last the steamer arrived, none the worse for its encounter with the
bar. Usually, the mail steamers halt three hours--half-merchandise
steamers four hours--at Kazan and other important towns on the Volga,
affording hasty travelers an opportunity to make a swift survey in a
drosky; but on this occasion one hour was made to suffice, and at last
we were really off on our way to the estate down the river where we were
to pay our long-promised visit.

We were still at a reach of the river where the big steamer might sit
down on another reef, and the men were kept on guard at the bow, with
hardly an intermission, gauging the depth of the water with their
striped poles, to guide the helmsman by their monotonous calls:
"_Vosim!_" "_Schest-s-polovino-o-o-iu!_" "_Sim!_" (Eight! Six and a
half! Seven!) They had a little peculiarity of pronunciation which was
very pleasing. And we soon discovered that into shallower water than
five and a half quarters we might not venture.

The river was extremely animated above the mouth of the Kama, the great
waterway from the mines and forests of the Ural and Siberia. Now and
then, the men on a float heavily laden with iron bars, which was being
towed to the Fair at Nizhni Novgorod, would shout a request that we
would slacken speed, lest they be swamped with our swell. Huge rafts of
fine timber were abundant, many with small chapel-like structures on
them, which were not chapels, however. Cattle steamers passed, the
unconfined beasts staring placidly over the low guards of the three
decks, and uttering no sound. We had already learned that the animals
are as quiet as the people, in Russia, the Great Silent Land. Very brief
were our halts at the small landings. The villagers, who had come down
with baskets of fresh rolls and berries and bottles of cream, to supply
hungry passengers whose means or inclination prevented their eating the
steamer food, had but scant opportunity to dispose of their perishable
wares.

As the evening breeze freshened, the perfume of the hayf