s, and
if you want to, you may go with me."

"Oh, Ivan, how would you dare? You know we are not allowed to go alone,
and Marie is at church, and we have no sledges."

"Tut, tut! have I not fifty kopeks [about fifty cents], and can I not
hire an isvochtchik [driver] to take us? and we can be home again before
they come from chapel. Come, Olga, let us have some fun."

Olga's conscience said "no," but the temptation was overpowering, and
after repeated urging from Ivan they both crept down softly to the
little apartment in the large hall where were kept their fur cloaks and
bashlyks, or cloth hoods, which are put over hats and ears. No one saw
them. Every one was at church, and the dvornik, or porter who guarded
the front door, was snoozing soundly, wrapped up in his sheep-skins,
near the heater. They got their fur mittens and tippets and cloaks down
from the pegs where they were hanging in the heated air, and put them on
in silence. In silence, too, they lifted the huge bolts, and slipped out
into the street. It was too cold to speak, for the air would have frozen
on their lips, and they hurried to a corner where usually there were to
be found sledges, whose drivers can endure any amount of cold, and who
even sleep out at night at theatre and opera while waiting for their
masters. Here Ivan found what he wanted, though the man's dull gaze
seemed to question the propriety of taking two children to the
pleasure-garden which Ivan indicated. The kopeks, however, were
forth-coming, and that was all he cared about; so in they jumped, and
tucked the furs about them, and away they went over the broad street,
flying past troiskas, with their three horses, and gay little sledges of
every description. Their route took them away from the Neva, where was
the greatest crowd, and they soon reached the entrance of the
pleasure-garden, climbed the great flight of wooden stairs to the
pavilion on top, where Ivan hired a sled, and paid for a glass of tea
hot from the big brass samovar, which is always boiling and ready for
use. Olga had scarcely time to think what she was about before she was
seated behind Ivan, and away they flew down the side of the frozen
mountain, all as hard as glass. But now it began to snow fast, thick,
and furious, and the people could not keep it off the ice. Ivan was
getting tired, too, and his hands were cold. This fun of going twenty
miles an hour had filled him with glee; but Olga lost her bashlyk, and
he fo