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Show 56 THE DARK FOREST THE SCHOOL-HOUSE edge. There were also the regular sanitars, some thirty or forty. men who were often by profession sehoolmasters or small merchants, of a better class for the most part than the ordinary soldier. excellent worker 1" It is not. of course, my intention to describe with any detail the individuals of this company. 1 have chosen already those of us who are especially concerned with my polled to return to l'etrograd what reliet' we all felt! One would say to another: 57 "Sister K-, what an "Yes. How she works!" "Splendid! Splendid!"7 \thn owing to the illness of her old mother she was eonr How gay was our supper the night of her departure! There was present history, but these others made a continually fluctuatin;r and variable lmckground. at first confusing and, to a something very childish at the ham: of all of us. stranger, almost terrifying. "hen the army doctors and Sisters dined with us we numbered from thirty to forty only three. The family name of one was lvanotl', but he, was always known to the Otriad as (toga, a pet diminutive, of George. He was perhaps the youngest person whom I have ever known. He must have been eighteen years ot' age: he looked about eleven, with a. round red face and persons: sometimes also the officers of the Staff of the Sixty-Fifth came to our table. There were other occasions when every one was engaged on one business or another and only three or four of 11s were left at the central station or "Punkt," as it was called. And, of all these persons, who now stands out? wide-open eyes that expressed eternal astonishment. Like Mr. Toots", his mind was continually occupied with his tailor and he told me on several occasions that he hoped l I can remember 3 Sister, short, plain, with red hair, who felt that she was treated with insuflicient dignity, whose voice rising in complaint is with me now; I can see her small red- rnnmed eyes watching for some insult and then the curl of her lip as she snatched her opportunity. . . . Or there was the jolly, fat Sister who had travelled with us, an admirable worker, but a woman, apparently, with no personal life at all, no excitements, dreads, angers, dejeetions. Upon her the war made no impression at all. She spoke sometim es to us of her husband and her children. Of the young gentlemen from 'l'etro‘grad i remember She was not greedy; nor patriotic, neither vain nor humble, neither eeoistic nor unselfish. She was simply reliable. i ()r there was the tall gaunt Sister, intensely religious and serious. She was regarded by all of 11s as an excellen t woman, but of course we did not like her. should visit him in Petrograd because there in the house of his mother he had many splendid suits, shirts, ties. that it would give him pleasure to show me. in spite of this little weakness, he showed a most energetic charactm', willinu‘ to do anything for anybody, eager to please. the whole world. I can hear his voice now: "Tc/1 Boy/21.! Ivan Andreievitch! . . . Imagine my posi tion! There was General l'olinotl' and the whole Stall. What to do? Only three versts from the position too and already six o'clock. '7 01' there was another serious ucntlenmn. whose mind was continually occupied with l'lussia: "It, may he ditlicult for you, lvan Andreievitch. to see with our eyes, but for those of us who have Russia in our hearts . . . what rest or [H‘ilt‘t‘ can there be? l 1111 assure you. . . ." He wore pinee-nez and with his long." peanslmpetl llt':ltl, |