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234
THE TSAR'S WINDOW.

or I another pillow, until George has arranged it all, when he looks up with surprise, and says, "Why did n't you ask me?" and immediately offers to do a dozen things which we do not want. George did not bore us with too much conversation, either. In short, he was everything one could desire, and nothing which we did not desire.

Arrived in this city, we took possession of two sleighs, and started for the Slaviansky Bazar. There was a damp snow falling, and it is still storming fitfully. Never, in such a short space of time, have I suffered as much as in that drive.

"Alice," I cried, while my hat was jolted over one ear, as I grasped the seat tenaciously, "is there any pavement?"

"I don't think it is worse than the one in Petersburg," said my sister calmly.

"It reminds me of nothing so much as the waves of the sea," I continued; but Tom interrupted me:—

"The waves let you down easy; but these 'thank-you-ma'ams' don't let you down at all,—they throw you."

I thanked Providence inwardly when, in a very battered condition, we reached the hotel. A porter in Russian costume rushed forward to assist us out of the sledge.

"I don't think," remarked Judith, "that there is much of me left to get out."

"We must have breakfast at once," Tom insisted; and in less than an hour it was placed before us.

That business disposed of, we strolled out in a body