h square caps, and a simple
string for a girdle, some of whom, hold in their hands all the traffic
of Central Asia; and, lastly, Tartars, wearing boots, ornamented with
many-colored braid, and the breast a mass of embroidery. All these
merchants had been obliged to pile up their numerous bales and chests in
the hold and on the deck; and the transport of their baggage would cost
them dear, for, according to the regulations, each person had only a
right to twenty pounds' weight.

In the bows of the Caucasus were more numerous groups of passengers, not
only foreigners, but also Russians, who were not forbidden by the order
to go back to their towns in the province. There were mujiks with caps
on their heads, and wearing checked shirts under their wide pelisses;
peasants of the Volga, with blue trousers stuffed into their boots,
rose-colored cotton shirts, drawn in by a cord, felt caps; a few women,
habited in flowery-patterned cotton dresses, gay-colored aprons, and
bright handkerchiefs on their heads. These were principally third-class
passengers, who were, happily, not troubled by the prospect of a long
return voyage. The Caucasus passed numerous boats being towed up the
stream, carrying all sorts of merchandise to Nijni-Novgorod. Then passed
rafts of wood interminably long, and barges loaded to the gunwale, and
nearly sinking under water. A bootless voyage they were making, since
the fair had been abruptly broken up at its outset.

The waves caused by the steamer splashed on the banks, covered with
flocks of wild duck, who flew away uttering deafening cries. A little
farther, on the dry fields, bordered with willows, and aspens, were
scattered a few cows, sheep, and herds of pigs. Fields, sown with thin
buckwheat and rye, stretched away to a background of half-cultivated
hills, offering no remarkable prospect. The pencil of an artist in
quest of the picturesque would have found nothing to reproduce in this
monotonous landscape.

The Caucasus had been steaming on for almost two hours, when the
young Livonian, addressing herself to Michael, said, "Are you going to
Irkutsk, brother?"

"Yes, sister," answered the young man. "We are going the same way.
Consequently, where I go, you shall go."

"To-morrow, brother, you shall know why I left the shores of the Baltic
to go beyond the Ural Mountains."

"I ask you nothing, sister."

"You shall know all," replied the girl, with a faint smile. "A sister
should hide nothing