The house itself is a plain white rectangular two-storied building of stuccoed brick, and it would be hard to imagine a simpler and less pretentious place than the home in which Tolstoy has spent the greater part of his life. It boasts neither piazzas nor towers; indeed, no architectural ornaments of any kind, nor are vines or other creepers trained upon the flat walls to relieve their striking whiteness or soften their rectangular outlines. The house was not completed all at once, but was enlarged in proportion to the needs of the family. On one side, devoid of windows, there is a low porch, near which stands an old elm tree, called “The Tree of the Poor.” Close to its trunk is a bench on which the peasants sit to await the coming of Count Tolstoy. Here he listens with unwearying patience to many stories of distress and difficulty, and gives in return, not only sympathy and advice, but such material assistance as may lie at his command. It was during the period following upon his University career that Tolstoy threw all his energies into the task of raising both the economical and moral standard of peasant life, and suffered much disappointment at the hands of the peasants, who refused to allow him to pull down their dilapidated hovels even that he might erect new and convenient ones at his own cost. The result was that Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana for St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1847, resolved to prosecute his studies with the intention of taking a degree in law. With this choice of a career, however, he was dissatisfied, and returned again to his estate in 1848. [Sidenote: =Tolstoy as an Officer= _see page_ 1] For a few years he lived the ordinary life of the Russian nobleman, enlisting at the age of 23 as cadet in a regiment of artillery in which his elder brother Nicholas was captain. Discontented with the idle life he was leading and out of harmony with his gay surroundings, he decided to jot down his recollections of the homeland he loved so well, and it was at this time that he commenced writing “Childhood and Youth” (which, however, was not published in its complete form until six years later) and “The Cossacks.” Subsequently Tolstoy was appointed to a post on Prince Gortchakoff’s staff in Turkey, and was present at Sevastopol in 1855, having attained the rank of divisional commander. His experiences during the war are pictured in his three sketches, “Sevastopol in December 1854,” “In May 1855,” and “In August 1855.” These were published the following year and at once made his literary reputation. At the end of the campaign he left the army and visited Western Europe, in order to study various school systems, and upon his return to Yasnaya Polyana he established several schools of his own. [Sidenote: =Count Tolstoy and his wife= _see page_ 8]