s were built of timber and mud, and looked substantial and well
suited to stand the cold and winds of North Mongolia. We were given a
hearty welcome and taken at once into a large whitewashed room, kitchen,
living-room, and bedroom in one. Everything was spotlessly clean; even
under the bed there was no dust. I can testify to that, for I pursued
Jack there. The mistress of the house was a very good-looking,
dark-browed woman in a neat red gown with a red kerchief tied over her
head. She promptly served us with delicious tea from the invariable
samovar, and the freshest of eggs and good black bread, while a chicken,
for me to take away, was set roasting on a spit before the fire. Two
little tow-headed boys, put out of the way on the bed, stared stolidly
at us as they munched raw parsnips, and a baby cradled in a basket
suspended by a rope from the ceiling was kept swinging by a touch from
the mother as she went to and fro. The people seemed to be on friendly
terms with their Mongol neighbours, two or three of whom came in while I
was there, but it must be a lonely life, a day's ride away from the
nearest Russian family. When I asked Nicolai what the children did for
school, he laughed scornfully. "Why should they learn to read? Their
father and mother cannot."

Such homes as these are Russia's advance posts in Mongolia, but given a
fair field and she would stand no chance, for the Chinese colonists must
outnumber the others a hundred to one. From this time on we saw more and
more signs of cultivation, the pasture land was broken by great fields
of rye and barley, and the yurts of the Mongol were often replaced by
Chinese houses, looking on the outside much like the one just described,
save that the window openings were filled with paper instead of glass.

Board signs, not unlike "Keep off the grass" ones of the West, were set
up here and there, showing a Chinese holding. With or without government
aid the Chinese are coming in. They get land from the Mongols very much,
I imagine, as did the first English settlers in America, buying for a
song what the owner does not know he is selling. And once established
they are not easily dislodged, for they are good farmers, thrifty and
untiring. In the end they will oust the Mongol from the best lands as
sure as fate, unless Russia first ousts them, as apparently she is
doing. I am sorry for the Mongol; he is a happy-go-lucky, likeable
fellow, but it is all nonsense for the Russian