CHAPTER XLII.

In the morning after our departure from Krasnoyarsk we reached a third station, and experienced no delay in changing horses.  The road greatly improved, but we made slow progress.  When we were about two versts from the station one of our horses left the sleigh and bolted homeward.  The yemshick went in pursuit, but did not overtake the runaway till he reached the station.  During his absence we sat patiently, or rather impatiently, in our furs, and I improved the opportunity to go to sleep.

When we wore properly reconstructed we moved forward, with my equipage in the rear.  The mammoth sleigh went at a disreputably low speed.  I endeavored to persuade our yemshick to take the lead, but he refused, on the ground that the smotretal would not permit it.  Added to this, he stopped frequently to make pretended arrangements of the harness, where he imagined it out of order.  To finish my irritation at his manoeuvres, he proposed to change with a yemshick he met about half way on his route.  This would bring each to his own station at the end of the drive, and save a return trip.  The man had been so dilatory and obstinate that I concluded to take my opportunity, and stubbornly refused permission for the change.  This so enraged him that he drove very creditably for the rest of the way.

“Both of them Jews,” he said to the attendants at the station when we arrived.  His theory as to our character was something like this.  Of the male travelers in Siberia there are practically but two classes—­officers and merchants.  We could not be officers, as we wore no uniform; therefore we were merchants.  The trading class in Siberia comprises Russians of pure blood and Jews, the former speaking only their own language and never using any other.  As the yemshick did not understand our conversation, he at once set us down as Israelites in whom there was any quantity of guile.

We breakfasted on pilmania, bread, and tea while the horses were being changed, and I managed to increase our bill of fare with some boiled eggs.  The continual jolting and the excessive cold gave me a good appetite and excellent digestion.  Our food was plain and not served as at Delmonico’s, but I always found it palatable.  We stopped twice a day for meals, and the long interval between dinner time and breakfast generally made me ravenously hungry by morning.  The village where the obstinate yemshick left us, had a bad reputation on the scale of honesty, but we suffered no loss there.  At another village said to contain thieves, we did not leave the sleigh.