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134 A Day in a Famine-Stricken Village.
from lier somewhat mixed description. At last I am clearly at
the lane spoken of. The hut must he there, as I think, but
beyond the fence I see only a snowdrift, darkened a little under
the warmth of the spring sun; further out on the steppe are
some outhouses and heaps of " kisjack "; it is evidently not
here. " I must have taken the wrong lane," I say to myself,
and go back to the main street to get information. At the
corner a mushik is sitting at his door, and I apply to him.
" Where do the Koroljoffs live ? " " Koroljoffs ? " " Yes."
" Aali," he drawls out, and points down the lane from which
I had just come. Without hope of further information from
that quarter I turn back down the lane.
Out of the gate of the first izba a little girl is running, but,
seeing me, she hides behind it. I go into the yard after her j
she looks at me with a shy glance, but does not hide again. I
see that timidity has changed to curiosity.
"Do you know where the Koroljoffs live? " I ask.
The little girl looks at me attentively for a moment, and
then says " Come," beckoning and running down the street in
the direction of the snowdrift, where I had been already. I
follow her. She turns round the drift and disappears, as if
swallowed up by the earth. I also turn, and to my great
surprise find an opening in the drift, at the end of which is the
door.
Down the opening I go, and find that the drift is really the
clay hut buried in snow; in this the family Koroljoff lives,
eight persons. Stooping down, I creep through the low door,
and enter the hut. A damp and suffocating air, polluted with
the stench from the excreta of a sick person, not yet removed,
meet me, so that I am near fainting. A few rays of light
struggle with difficulty through a small window, for which an
opening has been dug in the snow. The dim light prevents my
seeing things inside the hut, but by an effort I get gradually
used to the darkness.
The woman who had come to me is at the oven, busy with a
stone jar in her hand. Behind her two little children, covered
with rags, pale and dirty, are sitting on a bench, sucking a
hard crust. In another corner something is lying on a bench,.
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