been born there, reared there, had grown old
there, and consequently they understood nothing whatever. They
did not even know any words except, "accept the assurance of my
complete respect and devotion."

The registry was abolished as superfluous, and the Generals
were set at liberty. Being thus on the retired list, they
settled in Petersburg, in Podyatchesky (Pettifoggers) Street,
in separate quarters; each had his own cook, and received a
pension. But all of a sudden, they found themselves on an
uninhabited island, and when they awoke, they saw that they
were lying under one coverlet. Of course, at first they could
not understand it at all, and they began to talk as though
nothing whatever had happened to them.

"'Tis strange, your Excellency, I had a dream to-day," said one
General; "I seemed to be living on a desert island."

No sooner had he said this than he sprang to his feet. The
other General did the same.

"Heavens! What's the meaning of this? Where are we?" cried
both, with one voice.

Then they began to feel each other, to discover whether this
extraordinary thing had happened to them not in a dream, but in
their waking hours. But try as they might to convince
themselves that all this was nothing but a vision of their
sleep, they were forced to the conviction of its sad reality.

On one side of them stretched the sea, on the other side lay a
small plot of land, and beyond it again stretched the same
boundless sea. The Generals began to weep, for the first time
since the registry office had been closed.

They began to gaze at each other, and they then perceived that
they were clad only in their night-shirts, and on the neck of
each hung an order.

"How good a little coffee would taste now!" ejaculated one
General, but then he remembered what unprecedented adventure
had happened to him, and he began to cry again.

"But what are we to do?" he continued, through his tears; "if
we were to write a report, of what use would it be?"

"This is what we must do," replied the other General. "Do you
go to the east, your Excellency, and I will go to the west, and
in the evening we will meet again at this place; perhaps we
shall find something."

So they began their search to find which was the east and which