other; he established in Bondavara a savings-bank and a hospital.

His own colliery was a model. The miners and himself were the joint
owners, and shared the profit. Whoever was taken on in this colliery
should pass an examination and work one year on trial. This rule
applied to women and men alike. This trial year was not easy,
particularly for the girls.

Nowhere was a girl so looked after; not in her mother's house or in a
convent or state institution was there more particularity as to
manners and morals than in Ivan Behrend's colliery. Every word, every
act was watched. If any one failed to be up to the mark during his
year of probation, no one taunted him, nor was he despised. He was
simply told to go and work in the company's colliery, where there was
better pay; and the workman or workwoman imagined this was an advance,
not a degradation. In the company's colliery there was certainly more
freedom, the rules being less strict.

If, however, at the end of the trial year the applicant had fulfilled
all requirements, he or she was received into the colony and became a
shareholder, so far as the profit was in question. Besides this, a
prize for virtue was given once a year, on the anniversary of the
great pit-burning, to the most modest, well-conducted girl in the
colony.

Ivan spent on this prize fifty ducats, and the miners on their side
promised the winner a handsome wedding present.

It was, of course, an understood thing that no one went in for the
prize. No one knew who was likely to get it. The elders took notes; it
was their secret.

The giving of this prize was not to be attended with any ceremonial.
It would take place on an ordinary working day, when all the miners
would have picks and shovels in their hands, so that every one could
see that the reward was not for a pretty face, but for a good heart
and industrious fingers. It was to be a day of general rejoicing.

This was how Ivan mourned.

CHAPTER XLII

EVILA

It was the anniversary of the great pit fire. Old Paul had gone to
look for Ivan at his house in the principal colony, but Ivan had
already started for the smaller colliery. He saw Paul on the road,
and, stopping his carriage, took the miner up.

"This day last year was a memorable day," said Paul.

"I recollect it well," returned Ivan; "but to-day we have to give the
prize for virtue. Have the jury settled to whom it is to be given?"

"They are agreed. A girl who has been