do it. death!"

HERE'S nothing left for us now except the salt mines! It's a deuced dirty job, too, but I suppose we've got to Otherwise it's starvation and

It was my comrade, Ymelian Pelaye, who spoke. He pulled out his tobacco-pouch, and found it as he had found it a dozen times before⚫still empty.

Then he heaved a sigh, spat on the ground, and, dropping again upon his back, began to whistle as he gazed upward into the red and cloudless sky. We were stretched out upon the sand, about three versts from Odessa, which we had just quitted, having been unable to get work, and were now, in the throes of hunger, discussing plans for our future.

Ymelian lay with his head in the direction of the steppes and his feet towards the sea, the waves rippling sweetly on the bank and gently bathing his dirty, bare feet. Now, with blinking eyes, he stretched himself just as a cat does, then slid a little nearer the water, which laved him nearly to his shoulders. The caress of the wave seemed to please him, but it did not greatly soothe his troubled state of mind.

For my part, I was looking towards the distant city, with its compact mass of shipping, its masts almost hidden from view in eddies of blue smoke. I could hear, across the water, the dull, discordant sound of chain hawsers, the whistling of the locomotives with their heavy loads, and the loud voices of the navvies loading the ships. There was nothing, however, in it all to stir our declining hopes for work. I go up and said to Ymelian:

"Well, then, it's settled. to the mines!"

We go

"Yes; but of course you know what you're in for?"

"We'll find that out-at the proper time."

¶ "Well, then, we'll go." Ymelian spoke without emotion. "It's the only thing to do. The devil take this cursed Odessa! But he won't, of course. Odessa'll stay just where she is. And she calls herself a seaport! Down with her, say I!"

"Bah! If we start now we'll get to the fishing settlement by dinnertime. We can lend them a helping hand in the cooking, and perhaps they'll ask us to stay to dinner."

¶ "Dinner? Of course they'll offer us something. Fishermen are a good

sort. But don't let us count on too much. This is not our lucky week."

By this time Ymelian was pretty well soaked through. He got up, stretched himself, thrust his hands in the pockets of his capacious flour-bag trousers, and rummaged round, only to find nothing! When his hands. came out empty he held them up before his face and drily remarked:

¶ "As usual! This is the fourth day I have turned out my pockets, with the same result. We're jolly rich, aren't we?"

We moved along the bank of the river, chatting as we went. Our feet sank into the sand, on which lay shells, kissed by the sweet and melodious ripple of the waves. We could see the little fishes playing in the water and little bits of curiouslyshaped wood, black and wet. From the sea arose a sharp and refreshing wind, which swept the sand of the steppes into little eddies. Ymelian, who was usually so good-tempered, was evidently losing his spirits, and I tried to turn him from his thoughts.

"Tell me something about yourself, Ymelian-some incident in your life." ¶ "I'd like to, immensely, but it's a case of empty stomach and lazy tongue. The stomach is everything. You can find plenty of deformities in the body, but you never find a man without a stomach. And when the stomach is satisfied the spirit is willing. Everything a man does depends on his stomach. But you know all that, soAnd Ymelian fell into silence.

"If the sea would only toss me a thousand roubles I'd open an inn at once and make you my assistant. I'd have a bed for myself under the counter, and from the beer-barrel I'd have a pipe leading right into my mouth. Whenever I wanted to drink from the well-spring of all joys and pleasures I would say to you, 'Turn on the top, Maxim.' And how it would gurgle

down my throat! Wouldn't it be fine? And if any well-to-do peasant person came along I'd tan his skin for him! I'd flay him alive-turn him inside out! And if he came to me saying, 'Give me a glass on tick,' I'd say, 'Tick? What do you take me for?' Then he'd say, 'Have pity on me, Ymelian Pavlovitch,' and I'd answer, 'I'm willing to take pity on you, but you must do a bit of work and then you'll get it!' Ha! ha! That's the

way I'd treat him."

"But why do you need to be so cruel? Isn't the poor peasant himself always on the verge of starvation?"

I've

"Yes; but I'm starving, too. been hungry since the day I was born, and it's not in accordance with the law of things. Why should I shudder so? Is it caused by bad harvests? I'm not sure of it! Bad crops have their beginning in empty-headed ignorance, and then come forth in the fields. Why don't the people of other countries have bad harvests? Because their heads are made for the purpose of thinking, not simply as ornaments for their necks! What do we do to make the conditions of agriculture better? Nothing, my dear fellow! But enough of this. If I really possessed a million roubles and a tavern it would be jolly pleasant."

Again he put his hand into his pocket, pulled out his pouch, looked at it for a moment, and then, with a ferocious spit, hurled it into the sea. The water caught it up, bore it from. the shore, and then, having looked at it, tossed it upon the shore again.

"You don't want it, don't you? Then you've got to have it!" And seizing the wet pouch Ymelian weighted it with a stone and then threw it with all his strength far into the sea.

I started laughing.

"Why do you show your teeth like that? What a man you are! You read books and even carry them about

with you, and yet you aren't able to understand a fellow-being. You're a four-eyed fool!"

This was meant for me. When Ymelian called me a four-eyed fool,' referring to the spectacles which I wore, I always knew he was angry. It was only in moments when he was sorely troubled that he allowed himself to make fun of my spectacles. More often these ornaments gave to me such importance and weight in his eyes that he always spoke to me in tones of respect, even in the days when we had loaded charcoal on a Roumanian steamer, and I went about in rags, as black and scarred as Satan.

I tried to quiet him, and began to tell him what I knew about the foreign countries which he had just mentioned, trying to show him that their domination over the clouds and sun belonged to the domain of myths.

"Ah!" he replied. "Just so!" I began to feel that his interest in foreign lands and their modes of life was not so strong as before, and, in fact, that he was hardly listening to me. His eyes were fixed on the far-off distance.

"Perhaps you're right, my dear fellow," he continued, moving his hands nervously. "But what I want to know is this. If we did run up against a man with money-with a lot of money," he interposed, casting a sidewise glance under my spectacles, "would you annihilate him, so speak, simply in order to satisfy your own pressing needs?"

I felt myself shudder. "Certainly not" I said; "no one has the right to buy his own happiness at the price of another's life "

"Indeed! But it is so written in the books-as a salve to conscience, however. Take it from me that if the person who supplied you with the arguments you have just used were in the same predicament, no doubt he would be the first, on a favorable occasion, to kill someone else to save

his own life. Rights, you say! Well, here's your rights for you!" and Ymelian thurst his sinewy fists in front of my very nose. "Every man is a law unto himself," he added, with a frown, and his eyes were lost again to sight under his shaggy eyebrows. I kept my peace, knowing well enough that it was useless to contradict him when he was in anger.

He picked up a bit of wood at his feet and tossed it into the sea.

Evening came. In the distance, above the water, were falling the shadows of night, covering the lowlying land with a fine soft veil of blue. A mass of clouds, lilac, yellow, bordered with rosy gold, seemed to arise. Ymelian got up.

"Yes, I was bent like this and all ready for action. One blow and the money would be mine. You think, perhaps, that a man is a free agent? You're wrong, my friend. Tell me what you are going to do tomorrow. You can't possibly do it. How can you tell whether you are going to walk to the right or the left? So it happened here. I waited for one thing to happen and something very different turned up.

"I looked; it was someone coming from the city-he seems to be drunk

he staggers, and has a stick in his hand; he mumbles something; he cries and murmurs incoherently; I hear him distinctly; he sobs; now he comes nearer, and I behold-a woman! Curse her, I thought, won't I make it hot for you when you get here? She comes straight towards the bridge, and suddenly begins to cry out, 'Dear, dear!' It was a terrible cry, my friend. I trembled. 'What a fix this is,' I said to myself. She marches straight up to me. I was lying on the ground without making a sound, but my whole body was trembling.

"My anger had disappeared. She

comes nearer,

and stubs her foot against my body. She stops suddenly She stops suddenly and cries, Why, oh why!' and falls in a heap on the ground, almost on my body. She sobbed, old fellow, she sobbed so loud that I did not know what to do and I felt pretty nervous. But I kept quiet and didn't breathe a word.

"I thought she'd never stop crying. It was terrible, and I wanted to get away from it. Then the moon came from behind a cloud, beautiful and clear. I got up on my elbow and took a look at the woman.

"Bang went my plans to the devil. I looked at her and my courage broke down. It was a girl-a mere baby, a white little chit, with curls hanging down her cheeks, and big eyes. Her body was shaking and the tears were running in great streams down her cheeks.

"Pity conquered me. I began to cough to attract her attention. 'Who's there?' she cried out in fright. Then I got up and simply said, 'It's I.' 'And who are you?' she asked with growing alarm. She shivered like a bit of jelly. Who are you?' she repeated. ¶ Ymelian smiled as the thought came back to him.

"Don't be scared, madam,' I said; 'I won't do you any harm. I am only a common tramp-just like the others.' Yes, I told her that, and I lied. How could I tell her I was waiting there to kill an old man? But she merely said, 'It doesn't make any difference to me. I came here to drown myself.' She said it so piteously that I shivered. What could I do?"

Ymelian was overcome by his admission, then his sad face relaxed into a smile.

"Then for some reason or other I broke into conversation with her. What I said I can't recall now; but I remember that I spoke easily and rather surprised myself. The main point I made was that she was young and pretty-and, take my word for it, she

was.

Her name was Lisa. I said a

great deal to her, and it was my heart that spoke. She looked at me seriously kept looking at me-and thensmiled. Yes, smiled at me!"

Ymelian's voice broke, his eyes filled. with tears, and his fists were clenched in agony.

"When I saw her smile," he continued, "an indescribable peace went through me. through me. 'Little girl,' I said—and that was all. She took my face in her hands, looked into my eyes, and smiled as if in a picture. She wanted to say something, but her lips would not give it voice. She could hardly control herself. Then she overcome her emotion and said, 'You, too, are in trouble, aren't you? Tell me about it.'

"Yes, my boy, that's what happened, and something more. She gave me a kiss on the forehead-here! Do you see it? As God is my judge, that kiss is still there!

"In all the forty-seven years of my life this was the happiest moment I ever spent. Think how I happened. to be there! That's life for you the surprise of life."

Ymelian's head sank upon his hands. His singular narrative had stirred me deeply. Then he went on:

"She got up and said, 'Come with me to my house.' And we started off side by side, as happy as larks. As we walked along she told me her sad story. It turned out that her father and mother were well-to-do and were very fond of her. Then she fell in love with a student-teacher-with the usual result. He went away and never came back, but wrote a letter saying simply. You're not good enough for me.' This cut her terribly, and she decided to do away with herself.

"And so she went on, and it soon came time to part. 'Tomorrow I shall go away,' she said, 'so good-bye, and God bless you! Do you need any money? Tell me, dear, if you do.' 'No,' I answered, 'I haven't any need of

money, thank you.' But she only persisted in offering me her purse. What need did I have for money? My thoughts were on something far different. Then, when I had refused, she said, 'I shall never forget you. You are a stranger to me, but-'

"Well, she left me. I threw myself down on a bench near the door in despair. The watchman came up and said, 'What are you doing here?' just as if he thought I was planning a burglary. The question upset me. I gave him a crack on the head, there was a cry, a whistle, and they had me in charge. On our way to station I gave him another, and they locked me up for the night. In the morning they released me. I went back to Petroff's.

"Where have you been, you vagabond?' he asked me. I looked at him. He was certainly the same man I had seen the day before, and yet he seemed changed. I told him the whole story. He listened to me seriously, and said: You are a drunkard and a fool, Ymelian Pelaye. Get out of my sight at once!"

C" And I got out. Perhaps he was right. At any rate, that's my story, brother."

Ymelian relapsed into silence, and, with his arms folded behind his head, again lay on the ground, looking intothe vault of heaven. Everything was silent, except the sound of the sea, which still fell upon our ears like a song, lulling us to sleep.