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RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD 79
most cultivated, were Poles. It appeared that mauy
of them were more or less seriously compromised.
The estates of some of them were confiscated. Nearly
all of them were subjected to fines. Many voluntarily
abandoned their farms and went abroad. In the
years which followed the Polish insurrection, no
young people at all were to be seen in our parts; for
some reason or other they had all flitted away
somewhere. No one was left but children, old people,
—inoffensive, frightened creatures, afraid of their own
shadows,—and divers new-comers in the shape of
officials, merchants, and petty gentry.
Of course, under such conditions, life in the country
was not especially gay for a young girl. Moreover
all Aniuta’s previous education had been of such a
sort that no taste for the country could develop in her.
She did not like to walk, or to gather mushrooms, or
to row. Added to this, the leader in all such pleasures
was always the English governess, and the antagonism
which existed between her and Aniuta was so great
that as soon as one of them made any proposition the
other immediately opposed it. One summer, it is true,
Aniuta had a passion for riding on horseback, but this
was, apparently, chiefly an imitation of the heroine in
some romance which interested her at the time. As
no suitable companion could be found, she soon
wearied of these solitary rides in the company of a
tiresome coachman; and her saddle-horse, which she
had christened by the romantic name of " Frida," soon
passed to more humble duties, to carrying the
overseer through the fields, and again became known by
its former name of " Little Pigeon."
There could be no question of my sister occupying
herself with the housekeeping; such a suggestion
would have struck her and all around her as in the
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