aling, and are often entrusted with
the guarding or transporting of enormous sums; but the banker has no
cause for anxiety, because he knows that if any defalcations occur
they will be made good to him by the artel. Such accidents very rarely
happen, and the fact is by no means so extraordinary as many people
suppose. The artel, being responsible for the individuals of which it
is composed, is very careful in admitting new members, and a man when
admitted is closely watched, not only by the regularly constituted
office-bearers, but also by all his fellow-members who have an
opportunity of observing him. If he begins to spend money too freely or
to neglect his duties, though his employer may know nothing of the
fact, suspicions are at once aroused among his fellow-members, and an
investigation ensues--ending in summary expulsion if the suspicions
prove to have been well founded. Mutual responsibility, in short,
creates a very effective system of mutual supervision.

Of Ivan's sons, the one who was a carpenter visited his family only
occasionally, and at irregular intervals; the bricklayer, on the
contrary, as building is impossible in Russia during the cold weather,
spent the greater part of the winter at home. Both of them paid a large
part of their earnings into the family treasury, over which their father
exercised uncontrolled authority. If he wished to make any considerable
outlay, he consulted his sons on the subject; but as he was a prudent,
intelligent man, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of the family,
he never met with any strong opposition. All the field work was
performed by him with the assistance of his daughters-in-law; only at
harvest time he hired one or two labourers to help him.

Ivan's household was a good specimen of the Russian peasant family
of the old type. Previous to the Emancipation in 1861 there were
many households of this kind, containing the representatives of
three generations. All the members, young and old, lived together in
patriarchal fashion under the direction and authority of the Head of the
House, called usually the Khozain--that is to say, the Administrator;
or, in some districts, the Bolshak, which means literally "the Big
One." Generally speaking, this important position was occupied by the
grandfather, or, if he was dead, by the eldest brother, but the rule
was not very strictly observed. If, for instance, the grandfather became
infirm, or if the eldest brother was inca