Great rejoicings took place.  The friends of the three Kolimsk men gave a grand festival, in which the rum, and tobacco, and tea, which had been left at the place for payment for their journey, played a conspicuous part.  Then, as it was necessary to remain here some time, while the ivory was brought from a deposit near the sea, Ivan and Kolina were married.  Neither of them seemed to credit the circumstance, even when fast tied by the Russian church.  It had come so suddenly, so unexpectedly on both, that their heads could not quite make the affair out.  But they were married in right down earnest, and Kolina was a proud and happy woman.  The enormous mass of ivory brought to Kolimsk excited the attention of a distinguished exile, who drew up a statement in Ivan’s name, and prepared it for transmission to the White Czar, as the emperor is called in these parts.

When summer came, the young couple, with Sakalar and a caravan of merchants, started for Yakoutsk, Ivan being by far the richest and most important member of the party.  After a single day’s halt at Mioure, on they went to the town, and made their triumphal entry in September.  Ivan found Maria Vorotinska a wife and mother, and his vanity was not much wounded by the falsehood.  The ci-devant widow was a little astonished at Ivan’s return, and particularly at his treasure of ivory:  but she received his wife with politeness, a little tempered by her sense of her own superiority to a savage, as she designated Kolina to her friends in a whisper.  But Kolina was so gentle, so pretty, so good, so cheerful, so happy, that she found her party at once, and the two ladies became rival leaders of the fashion.

This lasted until the next year, when a messenger from the capital brought a letter to Ivan from the emperor himself, thanking him for his narrative, sending him a rich present, his warm approval, and the office of first civil magistrate in the city of Yakoutsk.  This turned the scales wholly on one side, and Maria bowed low to Kolina.  But Kolina had no feelings of the parvenu, and she was always a general favorite.  Ivan accepted with pride his sovereign’s favor, and by dint of assiduity, soon learned to be a useful magistrate.  He always remained a good husband, a good father, and a good son, for he made the heart of old Sakalar glad.  He never regretted his journey:  he always declared he owed to it wealth and happiness, a high position in society, and an admirable wife.  Great rejoicings took place many years after in Yakoutsk, at the marriage of the son of Maria, united to the daughter of Ivan, and from the first unto the last, none of the parties concerned ever had reason to mourn over the perilous journey in search of the Ivory Mine.

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