"The Stationmaster" is a short story that tells the tragic tale of a remotely located stationmaster and his beautiful young daughter. The pair seems to have a relatively peaceful life, until one day, when the girl goes off with a hussar that had been passing through the territory. Overwhelmed with grief, the stationmaster is unable to fully reconcile himself to being alone and dies a lonely and broken man.

Stationmasters have long been the object of scorn amongst weary and frustrated travelers. Indeed, at their very core, stationmasters are no different from any of the countless travelers that pass through their post looking for a fresh team of horses, yet, on a daily basis, they must endure the insults, demands and whims of the civilians and government officials that pass through their stations. As it is their job to satisfy the demands of those passing...