“Very well. There was quite a fair choir. My brother sang tenor; Ivàn Alexèyich (at the present moment a teacher of patrology and hermeneutics) bass; then there were a few more volunteers. We got perfect in ‘Kol Slàven,’[25] and two sort of ... a ... choral part-songs, ‘Vzỳde’ and’ Polozhìl yesi.’ The steward was quite surprised at us; he was a critic in musical matters; and he wrote a letter to Moscow, to the prince, about a salary for the choir-master. Meanwhile we began to practice: ‘Kto Bog?’ and ‘Kheruvìmskaya Razòrennaya’[26].... All of a sudden the prince wrote back, ‘I don’t want a choir; I am going away for my health.’... “So after that I got appointed at the village school at Bezzùbov. The people there are very poor; many of the peasants used to sleep in their ovens in winter-time. One day the priest came into a cottage to bless the household; he looked round, and there was no one there, so he began to sing the _tropar_.[27] Suddenly the people crawled out from the oven and came up to kiss the crucifix.... A good many of my pupils went about begging. For all that, though, a great gentleman from St. Petersburg passed through our village, and he said the people were not averse to education—really.” “Do you mean that ironically?” asked the master of the house. “Oh dear no!” “Of course, even a poor man may desire education; just take the case of Lomonòsov: he was a peasant and became an academician.” “Exactly so.” “Well, what else did the great gentleman from St. Petersburg remark?” “He said that it would be a good thing for our administration to introduce a uniform for the scholars.” “A capital idea!” exclaimed the master of the house; “there ought to be discipline in a school. Without discipline no institution can exist. H’m.... What subjects were taught in your school?” “We used the New Testament in the Russian and Slavonic tongues, a hundred and four selections from the Old and New Testaments, the ‘Elements of Christian Doctrine,’ ‘Examples of Piety,’ and the Breviary, for the children to learn by heart; the first hour’s division[28] of the Thirty-third Psalm, and the Book of Six Psalms, with ‘All that has breath.’”... “Is that all?” “No, we had a library, containing the following books: “Selected Passages from Schreck’s ‘Universal History.’” “The Programme for Acceptance into the Military Service.” “Food for the Mind and Heart.” The Psalter, without red lettering. The Breviary, with red lettering. A work of Glinka, entitled, “Hurrah.” “The Life of St. Prokopius the Natural.” “Reader for the People.” “Domestic Conversations.” “The Clever Reader.” And a few others.” “The books are good,” remarked the gentleman; “I’ll order ‘Domestic Conversation’ and the ‘Clever Reader’ myself. How long did you retain your post?”