the Volga, and saddened with the infinite silence of the Siberian plain.  Hence the Russian speech, like the Russian thought, is direct, terse and almost crude in its elemental power.  All this appears in Serge the Superman.  It is the directest, tersest, crudest thing we have ever seen.  We showed the manuscript to a friend of ours, a critic, a man who has a greater Command of the language of criticism than perhaps any two men in New York to-day.  He said at once, “This is big.  It is a big thing, done by a big man, a man with big ideas, writing at his very biggest.  The whole thing has a bigness about it that is—­” and here he paused and thought a moment and added—­“big.”  After this he sat back in his chair and said, “big, big, big,” till we left him.  We next showed the story to an English critic and he said without hesitation, or with very little, “This is really not half bad.”  Last of all we read the story ourselves and we rose after its perusal—­itself not an easy thing to do—­and said, “Wonderful but terrible.”  All through our (free) lunch that day we shuddered.

CHAPTER I

As a child.  Serge lived with his father—­Ivan Ivanovitch —­and his mother—­Katrina Katerinavitch.  In the house, too were Nitska, the serving maid.  Itch, the serving man, and Yump, the cook, his wife.

The house stood on the borders of a Russian town.  It was in the heart of Russia.  All about it was the great plain with the river running between low banks and over it the dull sky.

Across the plain ran the post road, naked and bare.  In the distance one could see a moujik driving a three-horse tarantula, or perhaps Swill, the swine-herd, herding the swine.  Far away the road dipped over the horizon and was lost.

“Where does it go to?” asked Serge.  But no one could tell him.

In the winter there came the great snows and the river was frozen and Serge could walk on it.

On such days Yob, the postman, would come to the door, stamping his feet with the cold as he gave the letters to Itch.

“It is a cold day,” Yob would say.

“It is God’s will,” said Itch.  Then he would fetch a glass of Kwas steaming hot from the great stove, built of wood, that stood in the kitchen.

“Drink, little brother,” he would say to Yob, and Yob would answer, “Little Uncle, I drink your health,” and he would go down the road again, stamping his feet with the cold.

Then later the spring would come and all the plain was bright with flowers and Serge could pick them.  Then the rain came and Serge could catch it in a cup.  Then the summer came and the great heat and the storms, and Serge could watch the lightning.

“What is lightning for?” he would ask of Yump, the cook, as she stood kneading the mush, or dough, to make slab, or pancake, for the morrow.  Yump shook her knob, or head, with a look of perplexity on her big mugg, or face.